Hippies, Gorns, and Water Towers

Mitch Miller died the other day. I was sad to hear that, and it brought back many memories.

I know what you're thinking: "Terry, you're far too young and handsome to remember Mitch Miller -- that was, like, totally decades ago, man." But it's true...I once "sang along" with Mitch.

He moved his arms like Mike Mercury, and his minions had a bit of a creepy-pervert uncle vibe, but he was influential, and brought the joy of shameless group karaoke to hundreds of people. And since his albums were among the few my parents possessed, I spent many an hour listening to his male chorus pop standards until I could afford to replace them with more sophisticated music, like BTO and the Osmonds.

Along with Maynard G. Krebs, Mitch was also one of the most influential proponents of the goatee. For some reason, though, the trend never developed much staying power, and was replaced by the Tom Selleck mustache a few short years later. Unlike Gilligan, though, Mitch stuck with the look until the very end, and always wore it well.

So, as a tribute to Mr. Miller and his marching-band approach to vocal harmony, I'll spend the next few blog entries discussing the turbulent times that took us from Mitch's clean-cut, suit-and-tie wearing icons of pop culture...through the bizarrely interesting times of sitars and psychedelia, and ultimately to the dark and depraved ages where Satan almost triumphed by creating Jimmy Carter and the BeeGees.

For the moment, though, I'll just leave you with a list of topics we'll discuss, and how they influenced me. They are (in no particular order):

Ed Sullivan
The Smothers Brothers
Petticoat Junction
Batman
The Monkees
And of course, Star Trek

Stay tuned my friends. And have a great day!