Here Comes the Judge - Pigmeat Markham

Here Comes the Judge is 55% rural soul hoedown and 45% TV tie-in comedy disc. I've drawn up a representational pie-chart. It has Joe Tex on one side and Richard Pryor on the other.

Dewey 'Pigmeat' Markham was one of black America's most popular comedy entertainers in the 1960s when his Judge character was featured in 'Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In'...

Laugh-In was like an American version of Russ Abbot's Saturday Madhouse, only with more Richard Nixon jokes and Goldie Hawn instead of Bella Emberg... but with an equal number of sketches involving Judges.

I've drawn up a scatter chart showing the decline in the portrayal of judges in sketch comedy since the 60s. There's a 70% drop since the 'Freddie Starr Showcase' in 1983.

In 12% of sketches the judge is covered in dust and has an ear trumpet.

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This Could be the Night - Modern Folk Quartet

A superb Harry Nillson composition produced by Phil Spector (Kids, that means it sounds like it was recorded by 22 people in a very small cupboard).

Various members of the Modern Folk Quartet joined the Turtles, the Lovin' Spoonful, Gene Clark's band... though, frankly no one gives a toss.

Hidden behind the Wall of Sound and relentless percussion, This Could be the Night is a 'come up and see my etchings and collection of rare birds eggs' tale of some fella trying to get lucky on his third or fourth date.

'I feel like I'm-a-sittin' on dynamite, so this could be the night..' sing the band before wiping the sweat off their upper lips and casually mentioning that they have Cinema Paradiso on dvd, a full jar of Dowe Egberts Continental Gold and a French Press coffee maker and they think their flatmate 'might be working nights'.

> Download this (2.5 MB)

Manifesto & Book News

If it's ever been on K-Tel or Ronco, it's in. If it features hand claps, cow bells, syrupy orchestration, walls of sound, wrecking crews, sha-la-las, toothy teen idols, candy-based metaphors for carnal acts or lyrics about hugging, squeezing and rocking all night long, it's in.

'Still trying to find himself'



> Martin Lampen (latest book news, contact details and other stuff)

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