Created By: Jonathan Dysart (DJJD)
Original Creation Year: 2008
Year of Re-master: 2010
Song Listing
Side A
Side B
Side C
Side D
Origin of the Album
After making a set of very imaginative albums
through a creative high from DJJD Volume 27 to DJJD
Volume 29, I start to lose steam in creating albums. I planned to
just end the collection at 30 volumes. Obviously I re-started the projects later on, but I definitely needed a break.
I originally thought of creating a dystopian album, which I eventually did in DJJD
Volume 32, but changed my mind and decided to end this collection on a
positive note. Three ideas came to mind. 
First, how about ending the collection stylistically similar that to the Beatles with Let It Be? The Beatles combined both live and studio performances as their swan album. Second,
this will tend to be a bit boastful, so I apologize for this. I
thought that end this collection with a DJ (Disc Jockey) theme, since I think
of myself as a DJ with DJJD. Third, this ties with the first one. I remember as a kid that Dad would
end a Saturday night by powering up the radio and playing Golden Hits – the old
AM hits. As a teenager I would listen to the WYMG 100.5 on Sunday nights, which play live performances of classic rock bands.
I combined these three ideas to create a swan song album of primarily live
performances and some studio recordings, including a DJ element.
Concept and Theme of the Album
The first song I bought from the iTunes Music Store was “Clap for the Wolfman”,
which is basically a tribute song for one of the most popular DJ’s in modern
music history – Wolfman Jack. From there I added a lot of Golden Age rock
songs from the late 1950’s through early 1960’s, as well as studio and live
tracks from the 1970’s and 1980’s. I wanted to construct the album like I
was listening to a Golden Age radio station (like our local Cool 101.9 FM
WQQL), except for more live tracks. Just like I did with DJJD
Volume 26, I wanted to cross-fade the live tracks by removing the typical
track gaps and make it more radio savvy. To close out the album, I added
a 40’s style instrumental from Paul McCartney’s “Goodnight Princess”, giving it
a feeling that the radio broadcast is about to end for the night.
When ready to remaster this album, I decided to remove some of these Golden Age
rock songs and add more live tracks, to add more excitement to the album.
I removed the tracks “Lil’ Red Riding Hood” by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs,
“Barbara Ann” by the Beach Boys, and “Laughing in the Rain” by Neil
Sedaka. I replaced them with “Fire” by Bruce Springsteen, “Bohemian
Rhapsody / Radio Ga Ga” by Queen, “Ain’t That a Shame” by Cheap Trick and
“Daytripper” by the Electric Light Orchestra.
Concept and the Album Cover
The
original album cover was supposed to have a 1950’s Golden Age feel to it,
including a bright and colorful background. It would also include an vinyl
album cover, various musical notes, and a picture of an actual Disc Jockey
radio studio - to emphasize the DJ motif.
When trying to remaster the album, I tried my best to remaster this album
cover, but was not able to do so in a high quality that I wanted to be.
Therefore, I decided to find another album cover on the internet, that contains
similar motifs but less busy than the original one. I eventually found
this beautiful and high-quality picture, which I had to do little if not any adjustments
on it. All I did was add an old fashion radio “ON AIR” sign – those
signs that would be usually used in the old fashion radio shows – and the album
title.
For the back-album cover, I found a picture of a drum set and electric guitar
set up on a concert stage, representing the live tracks on this album. I
tinted the album to a dark blue, similar that to the front album cover, and
added the various song listings as well as the album title.
Wolfman Jack
Robert
Weston Smith,
known as Wolfman Jack (January 21, 1938 – July 1, 1995) was a
gravelly-voiced American disc jockey, famous in the 1960s and 1970s.
Early Career
Smith was born
in Brooklyn on January 21, 1938, the younger of two children of Anson
Weston Smith, an Episcopal Sunday school teacher, writer, editor, and executive
vice president of the Financial World; and Rosamond Small. His
parents divorced while he was young. To help keep him out of trouble, his
father bought him a large transoceanic radio, and Smith became an
avid fan of R&B music and the disc jockeys who played it, such
as "Jocko" Henderson of Philadelphia, New York's "Dr.
Jive" (Tommy Smalls), the "Moon Dog" Alan Freed, and
Nashville's "John R." Richbourg, who later became his mentor. After
selling encyclopedias and Fuller brushes door-to-door, Smith attended the
National Academy of Broadcasting in Washington, DC. Upon graduation (1960), he
began working as "Daddy Jules" at WYOU-AM in Newport
News, Virginia. When the station format changed to "beautiful music,"
Smith became known as "Roger Gordon and Music in Good Taste." In
1962, he moved to country music station KCIJ-AM 1050 in Shreveport,
Louisianato be the station manager as well as the morning disc jockey,
"Big Smith with the Records." He married Lucy "Lou" Lamb in
1961, and they had two children.
Disc jockey Alan Freed had played a role in the transformation of
black rhythm and blues into rock and roll music, and
originally called himself the "Moon Dog" after New York
City street musician Moondog. Freed both adopted this name and used a
recorded howl to give his early broadcasts a unique character. Smith's
adaptation of the Moondog theme was to call himself Wolfman Jack and add his
own sound effects. The character was based in part on the manner and style
of bluesman Howlin' Wolf. It was at KCIJ that he first began to
develop his famous alter ego Wolfman Jack. According to author Philip A.
Lieberman, Smith's "Wolfman" persona "derived from Smith's love
of horror flicks and his shenanigans as a 'wolfman' with his two young nephews.
The 'Jack' was added as a part of the 'hipster' lingo of the 1950s, as in 'take
a page from my book, Jack,' or the more popular, 'hit the road, Jack.'”
In 1963, Smith took his act to the border when the Inter-American Radio
Advertising's Ramon Bosquez hired him and sent him to the studio and
transmitter site of XERF-AM at Ciudad Acuña in Mexico, a
station whose high-powered border blaster signal could be picked up
across much of the United States. In an interview with writer Tom Miller,
Smith described the reach of the XERF signal: "We had the most powerful
signal in North America. Birds dropped dead when they flew too close to the
tower. A car driving from New York to L.A. would never lose the station.”
Most of the border stations broadcast at 250,000 watts, five times the U.S.
limit, meaning that their signals were picked up all over North America, and at
night as far away as Europe and the Soviet Union. It was at XERF that Smith
developed his signature style (with phrases like "Who's this on the
Wolfman telephone?") and widespread fame. The border stations made money
by renting time to Pentecostal preachers and psychics, and by taking 50 percent
of the profit from anything sold by mail order. The Wolfman did pitches for dog
food, weight-loss pills, weight-gain pills, rose bushes, and baby chicks. There
was even a pill called Florex, which was supposed to enhance one's sex drive.
"Some zing for your ling nuts," the Wolfman would say.
XERB was the original call sign for the border blaster station
in Rosarito Beach Mexico, which was branded as The Mighty 1090
in Hollywood, California. The station boasted "50,000 watts of
Boss Soul Power." That station continues to broadcast today with the call
sign XERB. XERB also had an office in the rear of a small strip
mall on Third Avenue in Chula Vista, California. It was not
unlike the small broadcast studio depicted in the film American
Graffiti (which was filmed at KRE-AM in Berkeley). It
was located only 10 minutes from the Tijuana-San Diego border
crossing. It was rumored that the Wolfman actually broadcast from this location
during the early-to-mid-1960s. Smith left Mexico after eight months and moved
to Minneapolis, Minnesota to run station KUXL. Even though Smith
was managing a Minneapolis radio station, he was still broadcasting as Wolfman
Jack on XERF via taped shows that he sent to the station. Missing the
excitement, however, he returned to border radio to run XERB, and opened an
office on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles area in January
1966. The Wolfman would record his shows in Los Angeles and ship his tapes
across the border into Mexico, where they would then be beamed across the U.S.
It was during his time broadcasting on XERB that Smith met Don Kelley who would
become his personal manager and business partner over a period of over twenty
years. It was Kelley who saw the potential for Wolfman Jack to become more than
a radio personality. Kelley started to work on a strategy to transform Smith
from a cult figure to a mainstream entertainer in film, recordings, and
television. He promoted Smith to the major media and formed enduring
relationships with key journalists.
In 1971, the Mexican government decided that its overwhelmingly Roman Catholic
citizens should not be subjected to proselytizing and banned the Pentecostal
preachers from the radio, taking away 80 percent of XERB's revenue. He then
moved to station KDAY 1580 in Los Angeles, which could only pay him a
fraction of his former XERB income. However, Smith capitalized on his fame by
editing his old XERB tapes and selling them to radio stations everywhere,
inventing rock and roll radio syndication. He also appeared on Armed Forces
Radio from 1970-1986. At his peak, Wolfman Jack was heard on more than 2,000
radio stations in fifty-three countries. He was heard as far off as the
Wild Coast, Transkei, on a station based there, Capital Radio 604. In a
deal promoted by Don Kelley, The Wolfman was paid handsomely to join WNBC in
New York in August 1973, the same month that American Graffiti premiered, and
the station did a huge advertising campaign in local newspapers that the
Wolfman would propel their ratings over that of their main
competitor, WABC, which had "Cousin Brucie" (Bruce Morrow). The
ads would proclaim, "Cousin Brucie's Days Are Numbered," and they
issued thousands of small tombstone-shaped paperweights which said,
"Cousin Brucie is going to be buried by Wolfman Jack.” After less than a
year, WNBC hired Cousin Brucie, and Wolfman Jack went back to California to
concentrate on his syndicated radio show. He moved to Belvidere, North
Carolina, in 1989, to be closer to his extended family.
Film, Television, and Music Career
In the early days, Wolfman Jack
made sporadic public appearances, usually as a Master of
Ceremonies (an "MC") for rock bands at local Los Angeles clubs.
At each appearance he looked a little different because Smith hadn't decided on
what the Wolfman should look like. Early pictures show him with a goatee;
however, sometimes he combed his straight hair forward and added dark makeup to
look somewhat "ethnic". Other times he had a big afro wig
and large sunglasses. The ambiguity of his race contributed to the controversy
of his program. It wasn't until he appeared in the 1969 film, A Session
with the Committee (a montage of skits by the seminal comedy
troupe The Committee), that mainstream America got a good look at Wolfman
Jack.
Wolfman Jack released two albums on the Wooden Nickel label: Wolfman
Jack (1972) and Through the Ages (1973). His
1972 single "I Ain't Never Seen a White Man" hit #106 on the
Billboard Singles Charts. In 1973, he appeared in director George Lucas'
second feature film, American Graffiti, as himself. His broadcasts
tie the film together, and Richard Dreyfuss's character catches a glimpse
of the mysterious Wolfman in a pivotal scene. In gratitude for Wolfman Jack's
participation, Lucas gave him a fraction of a "point" — the division
of the profits from a film — and the extreme financial success of American
Graffiti provided him with a regular income for life. He also appeared
in the film's 1979 sequel, More American Graffiti, though only
through voice-overs.
Subsequently, Smith
appeared in several television shows as Wolfman Jack. They included the
following:
The Odd Couple
What's Happening!!
Vega$
Wonder Woman
Hollywood Squares
Married... with Children
Emergency
Galactica 1980 (most notoriously)
He was the regular announcer and occasional host for The Midnight
Special on NBC from 1973 to 1981. He was also the host of
his self-titled variety series, The Wolfman Jack Show, which was
produced in Canada by CBC Television in 1976, and
syndicated to stations in the US.
He promoted Clearasil and Olympia beer in radio and TV
commercials in the 1970s. In the 1980s he promoted the "Rebel" Honda
motorcycle in television commercials.
Listening to Wolfman Jack's broadcasting influenced Jim Morrison's lyrics
for The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat) song. He is also
mentioned in the Grateful Dead song, "Ramble On Rose":
"Just like Crazy Otto/Just like Wolfman Jack/Sittin' plush with a royal
flush/Aces back to back.”
He also furnished his voice in The Guess Who's 1974 tribute, the top
40 hit single, "Clap for the Wolfman". A few years
earlier, Todd Rundgren recorded a similar tribute, "Wolfman Jack",
on the album Something/Anything?. (The single version of the track
includes a shouted talk-over intro by the Wolfman but on the album version
Rundgren performs that part himself.) Canadian band The Stampeders also
released a cover of "Hit the Road Jack" in 1975 featuring Wolfman
Jack; the storyline of the song involved a man named "Cornelius"
calling Jack on the phone, telling him the story of how his girlfriend had
thrown him out of the house, and trying to persuade Jack to let him come and
stay with him (at this point, Jack ended the call). His voice is also featured
in the songs, "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You"
by Sugarloaf (Billboard HOT 100 peak #9 in March 1975) and "Did
You Boogie (With Your Baby)" by Flash Cadillac & the Continental
Kids (Billboard HOT 100 peak #29 in October 1976). Also in September 1975,
Wolfman Jack appeared on stage with the Stampeders (singing "Hit the Road
Jack") as a warm-up act for the Beach Boys at the Canadian National
Exhibition in Toronto, Canada.
A clip of a 1970's radio advertisement featuring Wolfman Jack urging
registration with the United States Selective Service (aka "the
draft") is incorporated into the Depeche Mode cover of the song
"Route 66". Those radio advertisements were extracted from half-hour
radio programs that were distributed to radio stations across the country. His
syndicated music radio series was sponsored by the United States Air Force,
designed as a weekly program-length public
service infomercial to promote the benefits of joining the Air Force.
The series ran from 1971 until 1977.
In July 1974
Wolfman Jack was the MC for the Ozark Music Festival at
the Missouri State Fair grounds, a huge three-day rock
festival with an estimated attendance of 350,000 people, making it one of
the largest music events in history.
In 1984 Wolfman Jack voiced a cartoon version of himself for the
short-lived DIC Entertainment cartoon Wolf Rock TV (aka Wolf
Rock Power Hour) airing Saturday mornings on ABC.
In 1985, Wolfman Jack's voice is heard several times in the ABC made for TV
Halloween movie, The Midnight Hour. Jack recorded several bits for
the movie and is seen at the beginning of the movie as an extra. The song
"Clap for the Wolfman" is heard during the movie as well.
In 1986, Wolfman Jack appeared as the "High Rama Lama" in
the CBS animated special Garfield in Paradise
In 1989, he provided the narration for the US version of the arcade
game DJ Boy. His voice was not used in the home version of the game,
due to memory limitations.
Wolfman Jack played
himself in an episode of Married... with Children ("Ship
Happens, part 1") that first aired in February 1995.
Radio Caroline
When the one surviving ship in
what had originally been a pirate radio network of Radio
Caroline North and Radio Caroline South sank in 1980, a search
began to find a replacement. Due to the laws passed in the UK in 1967, it
became necessary for the sales operation to be situated in the US. For a time
Don Kelley, Wolfman Jack's business partner and personal manager, acted as the
West Coast agent for the planned new Radio Caroline, but the deal
eventually fell apart.
As a part of this process Wolfman Jack was set to deliver the morning shows on
the new station. To that end, Wolfman Jack recorded a number of programs that
never aired, due to the failure of the station to come on air according to
schedule. (It eventually returned from a new ship in 1983 which remained at sea
until 1990.) Today those tapes are traded among collectors of his work.
Death
Wolfman Jack had finished broadcasting his last live radio program, a weekly
program nationally syndicated from Planet Hollywood in
downtown Washington, D.C. Wolfman Jack said that night, "I can't
wait to get home and give Lou a hug, I haven't missed her this much in
years." Wolfman had been on the road, promoting his new
autobiography Have Mercy!: Confessions of the Original Rock 'N' Roll
Animal, about his early career and parties with celebrities.
"He walked up the driveway, went in to hug his wife and then just fell
over," said Lonnie Napier, vice president of Wolfman Jack
Entertainment. Wolfman Jack died of a heart attack in Belvidere, North
Carolina, on July 1, 1995.
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