“Untamed World”: Top TV Theme

Posted on July 26, 2018 by Zeroto180

Unless you were a nature nerd in the late 1960s to mid-1970s, chances are you have never heard Mort Garson‘s mysterious and exotic instrumental theme for the CTV television series, Untamed World.

“Untamed World Theme” Mort Garson 196?

Uncanny emulation of steel drums that is/are undergirded by a percolating, undulating rhythm track — but what about those flute sounds, are those electronic, too? Ditto with the reverberating drum you hear in the final seconds of the opening theme.

I am hardly the only one, as it turns out, to have been entranced by this 60-second composition, as the comments attached to this YouTube video clip attest:

“Growing up in the late 60’s, this was one of my favourite TV shows of all time. After all these decades, I still remember the tune nearly note-perfect. Thanks so much for posting, and bringing back such wonderful memories!”
“That song has been ruling my world for 35 years!”
“thank you for posting. been wanting to hear it a long time big childhood memories. maybe a little creepy sounding but great to hear it again after 40 yrs or so”
“thx so much for posting this. Haven’t heard this for years…gave me goosebumps!!! what a simple wonderful thing from childhood. thx for the memories”
“Ok raise your hand if you & your brother used to do weird jungle dances to this song.”
“I feel like crying. Huge memories of my childhood!”
“One of the best music intros for a tv show of all time”
“Genius indeed, but that opening, especially when one was a little kid, was 1000% SCARY!!!!! :O”
“Sensational musical theme!”
“THANK YOU! I remembered everything about this intro but could not for the life of me remember the name of the show! I remember my mom and dad watching this in the mid-1980s…I think either on Saturday or Sunday nights. I guess it must have been in re-runs by that time.”
“yeh something eerie about it for sure…..”
“Yes, it’s been exactly the same for me. So great to hear this again.”
“This song always makes me want to run naked through the forest.”
“Fantastic, trippy ’70s graphics and a great “tribal”-sounding theme that makes you wanna dance wildly around the living room. So glad to hear and see this again after many, many years – thank you!”
“Oh, those were the days. Life was simple then, watching an old B&W Zenith TV with 2 channels, and the other choice was usually some religious show. Being 6 yo I chose the animals.”
“Love the awesome wipes!” [technical term]
“one of those songs that sticks to your brain after all those years….up there with Rocket Robin Hood and Ultraman…”
“I always thought this was traditional African music It is computer generated”

YouTube contributor, Warren Jay, rightfully chides the program’s producers:

“Just look at those untamed Africans and Balinese.”

One Canadian contributor to IMDB’s jazz impressions as a lad:

“Sundays at 5:00 on CTV were a time of wonder and discovery. The fields with their chaff-like growths blowing in the wind signaled the start of a highly informative and haunting half-hour documentary. The thin straight lines speeding in a single direction, albeit staggered, brought us the silhouettes of images (offset by pink, orange, red, and teal backgrounds) that would have been lost in time if not for a YouTube account. And then the announcer, one Alan Small, would finish off almost every episode with “the Untamed World.” I remember being scared half out of my wits by, yet strangely drawn to, these simple images (all of which repeated in the outro accompanied by five others) and Mort Garson’s haunting theme, but now that fear seems just silly and ridiculous.”

Produced by Canadian Television (CTV), Untamed World was shown regularly between January and August 1969, according to IMDB, and then went into syndication – broadcast in the US through the mid-1970s and beyond, perhaps.

Fifty years or so ago, Billboard would report in its December 28, 1968 edition, under the banner TV Doings:

Mort Garson scoring 26 half-hour Untamed World shows for Metromedia, utilizing an electronic synthesizer.

Behold Untamed World‘s equally intoxicating outro theme:

Untamed World Outro Theme Mort Garson 1967?

Mort Garson’s Mother Earth’s Plantasia vs.Stevie Wonder’s Secret Life of Plants

“Full, warm, beautiful mood music especially composed to aid in the growing of your plants,” Garson’s conceptual and all-electronic Mother Earth’s Plantasia from 1976 would predate Stevie Wonder’s Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants by three years. Mother Earth’s Plantasia sells for an easy three figures at auction.

John Hartford’s Pop 45 + Strings

Posted on June 25, 2018 by Zeroto180

John Hartford‘s strings version of Dylan’s “One Too Many Mornings,” which kicks off the Jud soundtrack LP: Is it true, as the person who posted this YouTube video states, that this 45 was “never released”?

“One Too Many Mornings” John Hartford 1971

As the one commenter on this YouTube clip insists: Please correct “To” to “Too”

John Hartford backed by Mason Proffit:

John Hartford: Vocals
Terry Talbot: Acoustic Guitar & Backing Vocals
John Michael Talbot: Guitar
Al Perkins: Pedal Steel
Tim Ayers: Bass
Art Nash: Drums

[Al Perkins, not to be confused with Muscle Shoals guitarist, Wayne Perkins, who was enlisted by the Chris Blackwell Organisation to help “sweeten up” three of the tracks on the 1973 debut album by Jamaica’s top vocal trio, the original Wailers (recently profiled) backed by the Barrett brothers, et al.].

As it turns out, Hartford “doesn’t seem to play a lick, actually” on “One Too Many Mornings,” cheekily observes YouTube contributor been there.

Billboard, in its May 29, 1971 edition, would praise this “folk rhythm ballad” as part of its “Special Merit Spotlight” that features “new singles deserving special attention of programmers and dealers” (opposite a full-page promotional ad for Karen Dalton’s album, In My Own Time):

From the soundtrack of the film ‘Jud,’ Hartford has a strong commercial reading of the Bob Dylan folk rhythm ballad with much chart potential.

The following week’s June 5, 1971 edition would likewise find the Jud soundtrack album included in Billboard‘s “Special Merit Picks“.

Promo/DJ 45

Ampex did issue a promotional/DJ 45, but alas, there appears to have been no single release for the Hartford-sung/Phillips-arranged “One Too Many Mornings” in the US … However, further probing of Discogs reveals that Ampex apparently green-lighted a single release in Canada!

Canadian single release

Reading Between the Grooves points out this unintended bit of hilarity about the (non) single’s flip side:

The single featuring Hartford didn’t even list an artist for its flip of “Solitary Sanctuary,” which was actually performed by Alan Brackett, John Merrill, and Barbara Robinson. Another version of the same song was the last cut on the LP and was performed by the American Breed.

Whether you try to obtain this recording via the movie soundtrack or either of the Ampex 45s: not an easy row to hoe. But wait, good news: “One Too Many Mornings” would end up, fittingly, as a final “bonus” track on 2003’s pairing of two Hartford albums — 1970’s Iron Mountain Depot and 1971’s previously unreleased Radio John — on one compact disc (that also comes with a DVD of a live studio performance of John Hartford and Iron Mountain Depot on February 24, 1970).

The Dead: In the Twilight Zone

Posted on July 7, 2016 by Zeroto180

For those keeping count, today’s piece is (gulp) the 666th posted since Zero to 180 began December 12, 2012. What better way to face down this (meaningless) milestone by paying tribute to a classic television series – and also a musical ensemble – that bravely broke the bounds of conformist thought, intrepid travelers who dared to confront “the fifth dimension.” No, the band in question is not The 5th Dimension (although, good guess) but in actual fact The Grateful Dead, who (not everyone seems to be aware) recorded the theme music to the revitalized TV series in 1985:

Opening & Closing Theme – “Twilight Zone” The Grateful Dead 1985

As Blair Jackson would note in Garcia: An American Life — “The band and [Merl] Saunders worked out a new main theme, which was a short dissonant burst of ‘space‘ ending in a variation of the original Twilight Zone theme by Marius Constant.”

Merl Saunders (courtesy DISCOGS)

Dennis McNally would document some of the historical particulars of the Twilight Zone experience in 2002’s A Long Strange Trip:

“Few shows could possibly have been more appealing to the Dead and Garcia, who remarked, ‘Man, I live in the Twilight Zone.’ They leaped at the chance to record their own version of the signature three-note motif that identified the show. They didn’t stop there. [Producer Rick] DeGuere and his music director, Merl Saunders, came to a board meeting to discuss the band’s doing all of the music for the show, the ‘stings’ and ‘bumpers’ that set the atmospheric soundscape. Garcia left the meeting early, announcing that he voted yes. Lesh was ‘adamantly opposed,’ recalled DeGuere, and the decision was made to proceed without him.

They set to work, and while their music was appropriate and effective, the deal’s business aspects were badly handled, dooming the project to continuous friction among all parties involved. [Grateful Dead legal counsel] Hal Kant had delegated the negotiation of the arrangement with CBS to an associate, who didn’t know the Dead very well and produced a fairly standard contract. The head of the music department at CBS [Robert Drasnin, presumably] didn’t like the deal, since he now had no control, which put Merl in the middle of both an unhappy CBS and the Dead. Very quickly, Mickey Hart took the lead for the Dead in the studio, and proved to have a gift for sound design. Just as they began, he went into the hospital for back surgery, and ordered that all the necessary equipment be set up in his room. At first [road manager] Ram Rod vetoed this seeming insanity, but Mickey pleaded, ‘When I wake up, I want to go to work.’ The Demerol he’d gotten for his surgery proved to be aesthetically stimulating, and he produced music for the first four episodes from bed.”

The loss of Phil Lesh, the band member most closely linked to the musical avant-garde, is a notable one.

Composer, Robert Drasnin, as Variety noted in its obituary posted on May 15, 2105, would have a central role to play:

“While head of CBS’ music department in the 1980s, he worked with the Grateful Dead on music for the revived Twilight Zone series, along with scoring several episodes himself.”

Robert Hunter would later recall in his online journal entry for February 4, 2005:

“I’m still grateful that a steady salary for the two seasons The Zone ran
helped make the house payments and put food on the table for our family
of five back when the GD was staggering financially and I was set
running around the country doing low paying solo gigs to support us.
‘Touch of Grey’ was soon to solve that problem.”

Is it merely a coincidence that, just last month, a 1985 Twilight Zone contract between CBS Entertainment and The Grateful Dead — signed by all members of the band — would sell on Ebay for $29,470.70?It is curious the extent to which The Twilight Zone ‘reboot’ is under-remembered, given the caliber of talent that went into not only the music but the writing and acting, as well — as pointed out in arts blog Delusions of Grandeur:

“Writers such as Harlan Ellison, George R. R. Martin, Rockne S. O’Bannon, Jeremy Bertrand Finch, and Paul Chitlik wrote screenplays for the show. It was directed by many different talents including Wes Craven and William Friedkin. Many different mainstream stars made their appearance in the series including Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, Season Hubley, Morgan Freeman, Martin Landau, Jonathan Frakes, and Fred Savage. The theme music was composed by Jerry Garcia and performed by The Grateful Dead.”

How funny to see the inclusion of a Grateful Dead track – “The New Twilight Zone” – on TV theme compilation Television’s Greatest Hits, Volume 6 from 1996.

Hooterollin Around music blog (an “appendix to Lost Live Dead“) writes a fascinating piece that draws many musical connections between Jerry Garcia and stalwart session guitarist, Howard Roberts, a musician who is best remembered for having played the original haunting Twilight Zone guitar riff.

Zero to 180 cannot close this piece without reminding everyone of that uncanny musical ‘Twilight Zone’ moment: last July’s discovery of Germany’s The Dead-Heads, who released their debut single in 1966 — just one year after the The Grateful Dead’s official formation!

Zero to 180’s Gallery of Grateful Dead 45 Picture Sleeves

Given the band’s famous disregard towards commerce, I thought it would be great ironic fun to pull together all of The Grateful Dead’s 7-inch picture sleeves from around the world. Interesting to see domestic marketing efforts lag behind Warner Brothers’ international arm overseas, as the Dead would not see comparable investments on single releases, curiously enough, until the band’s tenure with Clive Davis’s Arista label, especially after the unexpected success with “Touch of Grey”:

Germany

Japan

United States

UK (1977)

France

Netherlands

Rear sleeve of German 45 “One More Saturday Night”: Mini fold-up coffin!45 above references “neu” Jerry garcia solo 45 “Sugaree” / “Deal” (below)

honorable mention: Colombian EP from 1967

This audio playback format was once considered state of the art

While the rare “Good Lovin'” US picture sleeve illustrated above can fetch $75 at auction, you might be surprised by the number of picture sleeves that go for three (and even four) figures.

Twilight Zone reference in this brilliant TV Guide/MTV spoof by Blair Jackson

Randy Newman: Once a Rocker

Posted on July 2, 2015 by Zeroto180

Randy Newman once rocked quite convincingly on “Gone Dead Train,” a song that was included in the soundtrack to 1970’s notorious art film, Performance, and was – oddly enough – one that he himself did not write:

“Gone Dead Train” Randy Newman 1969
– Conceptual train video by Nicos —

“Gone Dead Train” would also be released as the A-side of a Warner Brothers UK single; however, this version (reports Discogs.com contributor, “touwell“) is “completely different from the version that appeared on the Performance album – faster and more rocking.”

Written by Jack Nitzsche & Russ Titelman — Arranged & Produced by Jack Nitzsche
“Conducted” by Randy Newman

Ben Fong-Torres sheds light on Russ Titelman’s role via Willin’: The Story of Little Feat:

“Through [Phil] Spector, Titelman met the composer and arranger Jack Nitzsche, of “Lonely Surfer” fame, and worked with him on various film scores and recordings. When Nitzsche began scoring Performance, Mick Jagger’s first acting vehicle, in 1969, he called Titelman to help out. Together the two wound up writing ‘Gone Dead Train,’ which would include Ry Cooder on slide guitar and Randy Newman on vocals.”

Musician credits also include Jerry Scheff, Elvis Presley’s bassist, with organ work by the aforementioned Randy Newman.

There’s also this interview snippet from Timothy White’s The Russ Titelman Story courtesy of SpectoPop:

Q: In 1969, you found yourself playing guitar on ‘Memo From Turner’, for Jack Nitzsche’s soundtrack to the Mick Jagger film, Performance.

A: Actually, the core of the studio band on that record was Randy Newman, Ry Cooder and myself, and it was recorded in Los Angeles at Western Studios. But Jagger wasn’t there during our sessions. The band Traffic had done a recording of ‘Memo From Turner’, but Jagger and Nitzsche didn’t like it. So we replaced their track, playing along to Jagger’s existing vocal and a click track. I played the Keith Richards-sounding “jing-a-jing” on rhythm guitar, and Ry Cooder did the slide guitar parts.

And then Jack and I wrote ‘Gone Dead Train’, and Randy Newman sang it, and we cut it live. They needed a song for the credits and Jack said he wanted to lyrically use all this voodoo and blues terminology for this story of this faded rock star, a burnt-out character who can’t get it up anymore. I saw the track part as Chuck Berry-like in feel but more raucous.

Covered by Crazy Horse on their 1971 Reprise album.

“Gone Dead Train” thankfully would merit inclusion in Rock Song Index: The 7500 Most Important Songs for the Rock and Roll Era.

Pop the Cork: This is the 23rd piece in Zero to 180 tagged as Film & TV Soundtracks.

The Shadows: World’s Tiniest Rockers

Posted on April 29, 2015 by Zeroto180

Vintage Guitar Magazine’s well-researched history of the Vox musical equipment company contains a particularly delightful side story about “wee” instruments that were designed and manufactured strictly for marionettes! Peter Stuart Kohman has the scoop:

“One of the most oddball Vox orders was for a set of miniature equipment for singing puppets, specifically, a set of toy-sized Phantom guitars and AC30 amps. These were supplied for ‘The Beakles’ from The Pinky and Perky Show, a popular children’s program starring marionettes. The Beakles’ gear was built to look like the real thing by prototype designer Mick Bennett and showed JMI [i.e., Vox]’s commitment to having beat groups on TV – even fictional ones – properly equipped.”

Unfortunately, the only good image of The Beakles that can be found online shows the avian instrumentalists merely playing acoustic guitars – definitely not the modernist, asymmetrical Vox Phantom:

The (unnamed) Beakles depicted on 45 picture sleeve for Pinky & Perky EP

Kohman also points out that UK’s preeminent instrumental band, The Shadows, would be the recipients of similarly exquisite custom miniature gear in conjunction with their first full-length motion picture: “The Shadows also appeared in marionette form in the 1966 film Thunderbirds Are Go with miniature AC30s but ‘playing’ their signature Burns guitars.”

The (mini) Shadows can be seen backing Cliff Richard in this charming performance of “Shooting Star” from their big-screen debut:

“Shooting Star” Cliff Richard & The Shadows 1966

According to Thunderbirds Wiki, “The real-life Hank Marvin loved his puppet so much, he tried so hard to buy it, but it was later reused for another character.”

Hey, Wikipedia tells me that that sound you hear at the beginning of “Thunderbirds Theme” is Hank Marvin himself (not bassist, Jet Harris) playing a Fender VI six-string bass!

Jeremy Wakefield: SpongeBob’s Stellar Steel Support

Posted on April 24, 2015 by Zeroto180

Biller & Wakefield sound like a modern-day Speedy West & Jimmy Bryant on 1999 album, The Hot Guitars.of Biller & Wakefield:

“Martian Guts” Biller & Wakefield 1999

Coincidentally or not, 1999 would also be the year SpongeBob Squarepants would make its television debut. And just as Los Straitjackets would spearhead a movement to revitalize the instrumental, Jeremy Wakefield – virtuoso musician – would similarly use Nickelodeon’s broad commercial platform to reintroduce the gloriously warm sound of the (pre-pedal) steel guitar to the millennial generation and beyond. Wakefield, along with the other musicians and SpongeBob Music Director, Andy Paley, have done an outstanding job of incorporating western swing, hillbilly boogie, surf & spy guitar, Hawaiian steel music, and Hot Club-era gypsy jazz into the show’s soundtrack in all manner of ways.

1999 would also find Jeremy Wakefield and Dave Biller playing their respective guitars on Wayne Hancock’s Wild, Free & Reckless album, while Wakefield would peel off that same year to play steel guitar with Smith’s Ranch Boys on More Barnyard Favorites. The year prior, Wakefield would also play his Bigsby steel guitar on (future Los Straitjackets collaborator) Deke Dickerson & the Ecco-Fonics’ Number One Hit Record!

Wakefield’s musical contributions to the SpongeBob television show have earned him a reputation for upholding an older analog “vintage” sound, thus it is especially intriguing to learn that some of Wakefield’s earliest album credits would include digital keyboard sequencing for The Style Council, of all people, on 1985’s “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” EP. Wakefield would continue to work with The Style Council over the next 20 years or so.

other Albums on which Jeremy Wakefield plays steel guitar

Wayne Hancock A-Town Blues 2001
The Lucky Stars Stay Out with The Lucky Stars 2005
The Bonebrake Syncopators That Da Da Strain 2008

Tracks on which Jeremy Wakefield plays steel guitar

“Feathered Friends” from Hot Charity Rocket from the Crypt 1995
“Sweet Jennie Lee!” from Swingin’ Stampede The Hot Club of Cowtown 1998
“Took Hold of a Gypsy” from In the Land of Dreams Stanley Smith 2002

“Hawaiian Blues” music used in 2 episodes “Jellyfish Jam” & “SB-129”

Link to incidental SpongeBob steel guitar music clip posted on YouTube.

The Boss Guitars’ Cinemusica

Posted on April 13, 2015 by Zeroto180

Kapp had big plans for The Boss Guitars. This US indie label had an impressive global distribution network, and 1965 would see the release of recordings by the guitar duo in the US, UK, Spain, and Germany (possibly even Hong Kong and Brazil). The group’s debut album, The Boss Guitars Play the Winners, would even find release in the UK as Tocan Las Triunfadoras – with all titles in Spanish!

Kapp would include follow-up album, Makin’ Out at the Movies, in a full-page ad in Billboard’s September 4, 1965 edition for its latest “product line” that described the album in these alluring sales & marketing terms: .

“Great guitar pop-rock sounds playing the best of the new movie themes – an unbeatable combination. Guitar music and guitars themselves are proven consistent sales making items. A wide-open market.”

The Boss Guitars would give Henry Mancini’s “The Sweetheart Tree” (from The Great Race) a refreshing makeover on the duo’s cinematic-themed second album:

The Boss Guitars “The Sweatheart Tree” 1965

Despite the rosy sales forecasts, Makin’ Out at the Movies would prove to be The Boss Guitars’ swansong. Kapp would, however, make one final push the following year with an EP, Cinemusica, that contains four selections from Makin’ Out at the Movies. In a curious postscript, these same four tracks would also be included – 22 years later – on a vinyl compilation released by Spain’s Alligator Records that would also include songs by three other artists: Nero & the Gladiators, Los Telstar, and Los Flash.

“Clean Up Your Own Back Yard”: Elvis, Like Dion, Gardens From Within

Posted on October 17, 2014 by Zeroto180

The synchronicity is startling: Elvis and Dion would release single-only tracks that share the title “Your Own Back Yard” within 12 months of each other. Spooky, isn’t it?

“Clean Up Your Own Back Yard” Elvis Presley 1969

Elvis’s “Clean Up Your Own Back Yard” was, as the 45 picture sleeve tells us, the radio-ready track plucked from the MGM motion picture, The Trouble With Girls. Embodying the “new social awareness” that was trending strongly at the time, this song was composed by the rabbit looper himself, Mac Davis, along with veteran west coast session guitarist, Billy Strange.

Back porch preacher preaching at me
Acting like he wrote The Golden Rule
Shaking his fist and speeching at me
Shouting from his soap box like a fool
Come Sunday morning he’s lying in bed
with his eyes all red from the wine in his head
wishing he was dead
when he ought to be heading for Sunday school —
Clean up your own back yard.

“Clean Up Your Own Back Yard” – which hit #35 on the pop chart – would also be included on the Australian EP for “Suspicious Minds” – Elvis’s last great single.

Elvis’s “back yard” hit was released in June, 1969 – Dion’s “back yard” 45 in June, 1970.

“Don’t Fake It”: Prophecy of a Black Presidency

Posted on October 15, 2014 by Zeroto180

As Martha Ross writes in the Contra Costa Times, cartoonist Morris “Morrie” Turner broke racial barriers in the 1960s when he became the first African-American to have a syndicated comic strip – Wee Pals – that still runs daily, despite Turner’s death this past January at the age of 90. As Ross writes, Turner “admired Charles Schulz’s ‘Peanuts’ and mulled creating a black Charlie Brown after turning to cartooning full-time in 1964. At one point, Turner asked Schulz, who was then a friend, why he didn’t have any black kids in his comic strip, and Schulz told Turner to create his own.”

Ross adds that “even though the Civil Rights movement was gaining momentum in the mid-1960s, few papers would run Wee Pals. That changed with the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The tragic event helped Wee Pals gain nationwide acceptance. The strip began appearing in more than 100 newspapers across the United States.” Among the characters are “several African-American kids, a neighborhood bigot, some ‘Girls Libbers’ and, of course, Nipper, a boy, modeled on Turner himself, who typically wears a Civil War cap and has a dog named General Lee.”

As Greg Ehrbar writes on the website, Cartoon Research —

“Wee Pals had been in newspapers for seven years before Rankin/Bass and ABC adapted it as Kid Power for Saturday morning TV, the same season that Filmation and CBS introduced Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.

Rankin/Bass also cast young voice actors according to the ethnicity of the characters, including Donald Fullilove, who also voiced Michael Jackson for the animated R/B series, Jackson 5ive and played Goldie Wilson onscreen in the Back to the Future films. Jay Silverheels, Jr., son of the actor who played ‘Tonto’ in The Lone Ranger films and TV shows, voiced Rocky, a Native American. Also in the cast as Connie was a preteen April Winchell, now one of Hollywood’s top voice actors (as well as a writer and satirist) whose oeuvre includes Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Despicable Me 2.

Like Fat Albert, Kid Power featured songs with messages in every episode. With mainstay musical director Maury Laws on other R/B projects, Oscar-nominated composer/arranger Perry Botkin, Jr. handled the Kid Power songs and background music, partnering with Jules Bass on the tunes created for the show.”

I recently picked up a copy of the original soundtrack album at a local pawnshop, of all places. How fascinating to hear the following track, “Don’t Fake It,” 42 years after its original release and know that the “radical” premise in the song’s spoken word intro — that of an African-American elected as our nation’s chief executive and top military commander — had, indeed, come to fruition in my lifetime:

[Pssst: Click the triangle above to play “Don’t Fake It” by The Curbstones.]

“Available Space”: Theme Song for ‘Bay Area Backroads’

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Zeroto180

About Ry Cooder 1970 promo single — “Available Space” b/w “Brownsville” — Ed Ward once wrote in The Rolling Stone Record Review:

“Ry Cooder is the finest slide guitarist and mandolinist in rock today, as his work with Taj Mahal and the Stones has amply demonstrated. ‘Available Space’ is a funky, happy instrumental. Short, to the point, it is a fine spacefiller in between records on an FM rock station. ‘Brownsville’ is a traditional blues, played on mandolin, with a vocal. Both of these cuts are light and snappy and a great change of pace from the turgid heaviness so much in evidence on the airwaves.”

“Available Space” Ry Cooder 1970

Says the YouTube contributor who uploaded the audio recording:

“Jack Nicholson, and quite a supporting cast, as it turns out, starred in the hit 1978 comedy-western Goin’ South, which featured a track over the closing credits that would also become a beloved theme song for a San Francisco TV series titled ‘Bay Area Backroads.’

‘Available Space’ was recorded by a well-regarded slide-guitarist named Ryland “Ry” Cooder and was released on his self-titled debut LP in 1970 for Reprise Records.
Starting in the mid-1960s, Cooder worked with the likes of Taj Mahal, Captain Beefheart, and Van Morrison. In the 1980s, aside from his session work, Cooder scored several soundtracks, notably Brewster’s Millions, Southern Comfort and The Long Riders. Most of these soundtracks showcased Cooder’s love for ‘roots’ and blues-rock music. Pure Americana.

‘Available Space’ gained a new life when used as the theme song for San Francisco TV station KRON’s ‘Bay Area Backroads’ from 1985 to 1993. The series in that era was hosted by folksy Jerry Graham, former General Manager of rock station KSAN. In 1993, Graham retired and was replaced as ‘Backroads’ host by Doug McConnell. At that time, a similar-sounding instrumental replaced ‘Available Space’ as the show’s theme. ‘Backroads’ ended its incredible run in 2008.