Peanut Butter and Jelly, thunder and lightning, Lucy and Desi…and racing and music, things that just GO together! (Kibbles and Bits could not be reached for comment). Racing and Rock is truly a marriage made in Heaven, so this month lets kick around some great moments where the two united. Now, for us hard-core racing aficionados, you could say the courtship began in 1950 with the recording of HOT ROD RACE, by Arkie Shibley and The Mountain Dew Boys. (I’ll admit that I had to look that up. A smart man, we’ll call him ‘Bret’, sound maneuver as that’s his actual name said ‘google is your friend’) But the movement gained true mainstream momentum with the inclusion (in 1955) of Bill Haleys ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK, originally written in 1954, in the classic film BLACKBOARD JUNGLE. It is reported that some theaters even refused to play the opening credits to the film. (the song both opened AND closed the film) fearing violence from the teenage viewers. APPARENTLY, post-show violence was acceptable back then in the ‘Ward-Cleaver’ Fifties.

And with that, the damn burst, check-that, it was blown UP, and Hollywood began cranking out movies with kids, music and cars as fast as they could, much like (cue up the crappy-trumpet-fanfare for my usual SHAMELESS self-promotion) THIS gem, with which my days at DRO began with, THE GHOST OF DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW, where “TV” Tommy Ivo gave a truly Oscar-worthy performance, capturing the spirit of the character he portrayed, that being…TOMMY IVO!! And, as a sidebar, Ivo has an un-credited role in ‘Jungle’, I believe he’s listed as “fourth guy from the left, reacting to Sgt. Saunders acting like a badass”…

There is a LOT of ground to cover here, which we could fight with conventional weapons, but that would take years, and cost millions of lives, so we will now shift to a format that was stolen, err…BORROWED from none other than Jeff Burk, which was used in what some could be referred to as the “pilot-episode” of THE NITRO JOINT. And as such, lets unleash some random chunks of rock and racing, shall we? I learned of the concept of ‘subliminal-advertising’ from an episode of COLUMBO, and with that in mind, a show-of-hands, how many people hear the Booker T & The MGs classic ‘Green Onions’, and immediately get a mental picture of the big showdown between Milner and Falfa out on Paradise Road from American Graffiti? OR, when you hear ‘Turn Turn Turn’ by the Byrds, and you’re thinking of that scene in Heart Like A Wheel, where the stage is being set that Connie and Shirley are going to become a couple? (sidebar: just recently I learned that another actor had been cast as ‘Connie’, and was dumped early in production. I liked “Jeffs little brothers” spin as The Bounty Hunter, to this day, when I lose an argument with management (which is often), I’ll lash out with that they “wanna turn us into GOLF”!

Can I CONFIRM that the ratings for ‘The Munsters’ improved once they began showcasing their George Barris Hot Rods and switched the opening music to a “Dick-Dale-esque” guitar riff extravaganza?? No, but on my street, that’s when all the kids at school first began TALKING about the show, THAT I can confirm!  SPEAKING of Dick Dale, don’t you just love that his stylings are quite often the “go-to/sound” whenever film makers are doing something with cars? And that car-commercial Mister Dale was in a while back, that was GREAT!! Granted, it wasn’t selling racing, or a race CAR, but it was…SELLING! Punch it into youtube, a bunch of kids, they are all excited, heading off to the beach to surf, the announcer is beating the drum that this awesome ride will save you SO much money, and does the set-up, “and what will YOU do with all the money you’ve saved?” and CUT to Dick Dale on the beach, riffing away! That, race fans, is even better than Jeff Spicoli hiring Van Halen to play his Birthday party!

You know that at some point in time, you’ve requested a particular sandwich, consisting of a ground-beef patty, between puffy bread-adjacent articles, topped with a dairy product usually associated with the State of Wisconsin but you KNOW you called out, “Somebody give me a CHEESEBURGER!”, as a tip of the hat to a top-40 hit song by the Pride of Milwaukee, none other than Steve Miller. SPEAKING of Steve, here’s one I’ve been ‘beating my head against a dead-horse’ for a couple decades. Alice Cooper once admitted to writing a song, in the hopes it would be used in an upcoming James Bond movie. (the song was titled after the movie MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, of 1974 and sorry, Coop, Hollywood wasn’t interested) BUT, on Millers 1981 album CIRCLE OF LOVE he included a song called HEART LIKE A WHEEL. The Shirley Muldowney biopic would have been in pre-production by then, was young Mister Miller hoping to be on the soundtrack? Said song even has a re-occurring riff that, much like BAD MOTOR SCOOTER and Motleys best song ever, KICK START MY HEART, invokes a car going through the gears…..Wow, are these tin-foil-hats ITCHY, or what?

This one has been a head-scratcher for quite some time. The Led Zeppelin movie, ‘The Song Remains The Same’ has a sequence, where drummer John Bohnam “drives Clive Skiltons dragster”. Admittedly, Bonzo was a gearhead but does one REALLY just ‘plop-down’ behind the butterfly steering wheel of a Top Fuel dragster and pull this off? With a perfect fire burnout to boot! I once saw an episode of ABCs Wide World Of Sports open with venerable Bill Fleming, welcoming everyone to Islip Speedway in New York from behind the wheel of a car, which “he” then does a perfect rollover. THEN, climbs out to a cheering crowd. BUT, because there is always a ‘but’, ABC showed they had a sense of humor, showing the ACTUAL footage, where they let Bill do the drop-in, get out, and let the stuntman do his job, then let Bill re-enter the wreck so he could wave to the crowd. (really, it’s how I would have shot it, DUH) I tried to ‘fact-check’ this, but Bonzos not taking many calls, for a couple decades now. (a gallon of screwdrivers in one day will do that for you) so, uh I guess we’ll try…”Clive Skilton, white-courtesy-phone please”…. 

SO, it’s Rock, It’s RACING! Just like carbon…Fiber!  Airplane,…Food! Uma. OPRAH!! Sorry gang, been a brutal month, more on that on a later date. Thanks for hanging out, next month I’ll be regaling you with the shocking and true story of non other than The Burkster (Jeff Burk) and myself taking Route 66 Raceway by storm, with ‘Swords And Tequila’ (RIOT, 1981) in one hand, and torches, CHAINSAWS, and FILM cameras in the other! I know, you’re saying that is a LOT of stuff to hold, but much like Donald J Trump, we have ‘Big Hands’, so worry not. Crank that rock up to ELEVEN, in the mean time, I AM Chicago Jon, time to say…CCC-YYyaaa!!!! 

(Originally printed in 2016 – Drag Racing Online)