Love it or hate it, the 'Batman' television show was a ground-breaker in many ways. Airing on ABC in prime time, the series consisted of twice-a-week, half-hour installments instead of the traditional one-hour format, the first episode leaving the Dynamic Duo in some sort of predicament sure to get you to tune in for part two. Sort of like a miniature version of the old adventure movie serials. The show was also heavily influenced by Pop Art, the most public art movement of the Twentieth Century, and since it aired in the mid-sixties, right at the height of Pop Art popularity, 'Batman' became a sort of parody of itself. A goofy, illogical, extremely colorful romp through the pages of DC Comics' second most popular comic book, complete with flying sound effects brushed right across the screen.
More comedy than adventure, the show still worked on a lot of levels. The villains came to life thanks to wicked portrayals by some of the great character actors of all time... Eartha Kitt as Catwoman, Burgess Meredith as The Penguin, Frank Gorshin as The Riddler and Cesar Romero as The Joker. Oh, and one of my earliest crushes was on the curvy and succulent Yvonne Craig, who added some sex appeal for the good guys with her perky portrayal of Batgirl. Let's not forget the stars - Adam West and Burt Ward, who were unfortunately typecast as Batman and Robin for the rest of their careers. West continues to bank on his 'Batman' appeal as a recurring character on the FOX series 'Family Guy' and also appeared as himself on an episode of the underrated but extremely funny 'King Of Queens' television show.
And then there was the music. Neal Hefti's catchy score for the series included what may be the most recognizable television theme song ever. You even know the words I bet. Let's all sing!
“Da-da da-da da-da da-da da-da da-da da-da da-da BATMAAAN!”
Today's featured LP isn't exactly what it looks like though. A quick perusal would lead you to believe that it's pretty cut and dried, cheaply recorded kid's stuff, pressed to take advantage of the popularity of the show. A knock-off. The only credits on the cover are for the Sensational Guitars of Dan and Dale (not to be confused with the Sleepwalk Guitars of Dan & Dale, also from the sixties). The music here is actually recorded by a work-for-hire band made up of members of The Blues Project and Sun Ra's Cosmic Arkestra, including Danny Kalb and Steve Katz on guitars and the great Sun Ra himself on the Hammond B-3! And it rocks, in a twisted, sixties, surf/garage sort of way. But, aside from the Batman theme, little else here resembles anything Hefti ever penned, the majority of it sounding like a psychedelic jam session that the cats made up on the spot. There's even one song, 'Batmobile Wheels', that is simply a thinly-disguised instrumental rework of the Lennon and McCartney hit 'She Loves You'. My research didn't turn up a name for the female vocalist who appears sporadically amidst the instrumental madness, but she ably adds some serious soul to the rocking 'Robin's Theme' which opens side two.
The great Sun Ra is a story unto himself and richly deserves his own Five Star, but briefly...
Born Herman Poole Blount in Birmingham, Alabama, Ra played the role of jazz prophet, living an enigmatic life while fronting his 'Arkestra' for decades, pressing and selling his records himself and often contributing artwork for the covers. A bi-polar Renaissance man, Ra composed most of the music, booked the band's dates and was a virtuoso keyboard player as well. The mythology of Ra tells of his abduction by aliens when he was a young man, how the aliens whisked him off to Saturn and deeply changed his outlook on life. It was after that, in a frenzy of twisted logic that Ra renamed himself after the Egyptian god of the sun. Somewhere in this mess I call home I have a copy of Ra's biography, 'Space Is The Place: The Lives And Times Of Sun Ra' by John F. Szwed. It follows Ra's kooky life (including a brief account of the 'Batman' session) in great detail and I recommend it highly.
Back to the LP... This baby's available on CD now, too. Wouldn't you know it? It was just too cool not to be, I guess. I turned up my playable copy for a single buck about a month ago and it hasn't been off my turntable since. I had been looking for a clean copy of this album since my buddy Greg played it for me in a drunken frenzy one evening, and the LP is pretty tough to come by. I'm sure you can find it on Ebay, but go out and get the CD if you have to. Just get it, get it?
2 comments:
1966
The network premier of the Batman series. I was 8 (almost 9)years old and it was an epiphani on the level of my first actual meat in a muffin sexual experience ( still 9 years off in stroke it yourself years)
It was the very first time I realized the adult world was aware of the DC universe within the pulpy pages of my mountainous stacks of comics under bed and in my closet. ( it was years later after a tissuepaper flower-fest homecoming-float party that I also accepted the Marvel universe as a viable heroe reality because of a new found friendship introducing me to the likes of the Avengers (Cap America & crew not Emma Peel)Spider- man, The Hulk & Fantastic 4.
Anyway, I remember waiting the premier of Batman with reverential awe and when it finally came,I would have also-- except there was no cream in my coffee as yet at that time but I'm sure it was the closest I had been to that climactic experience in my young life.
Watching reruns of the show in later years it is hard to recapture the precise experience as that of the coming of the Magi ( which I recall it as such) when it is so obvious to me now that it was done to be 'camp' or tongue in cheek.
But still I hold the memory of Batman the TV series, in it's time and in my juvenile heart, fondly, as a lifeshaping experience and at least a childhood memory that will always bolster & never leave me wanting.
Mark Kay
Mark,
All I can say is: I'm with you on that one, buddy!
That's providing of course that I'm correctly understanding all those polysyllabic hyperboles, parenthetic asides and circuitous sentences.
You dug the show, right?
Even though I was more of a Marvel fan than a DC dork, I was in the same boat as you were way back then, just happy that anything on TV appealed to that part of me that read comic books.
And you are absolutely right: watching it now doesn't come close to capturing that same feeling. Nothing does.
On second thought, I might be able to get that feeling back by banging Beyonce.
Hey, Beyonce! If you're out there can you please help an old man get some wonder and awe back into his humdrum life?
Pleeeeeeze?!
I promise I'd treat you like a Queen!
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