"Desperate Rock'n'Roll" Vol. 19

Along about 1957, Barris started hearing from the Detroit auto manufacturers...
... "One day," he said, " I was working in the shop - we were over in Lynwood then - and Chuck Jordan from Cadillac walked in. I thought he meant the local agency. We had done this Cadillac for Liberace, the interior had his songs, all the notes, done in black and white Moroccan leather, and I thought he wanted to see something about that. But he said he was from the Cadillac styling center in Detroit and they were interested in our colors. Chuck - he's up there pretty good at Cadillac now. I think - said he had read some articles about our colors, so I mixed up some samples for him. I had developed a translucent paint, using six different ingredients, and it had a lot of brilliance and depth. That was what interested them. In this paint you look through a clear surface into the color, which is very brilliant. Anyway this was the first time we had any idea they even knew who we were."
Since then Barris has made a lot of trips to Detroit. The auto companies, mainly GM and Ford, pump him for ideas about what the kids are going for. He tells them what's wrong with their cars, mainly that they aren't streamlined and sexy enough.
"But, as they told me, they have to design a car they can sell to the farmers in Kansas as well as the hot dog in Hollywood." For that reason - the inevitable compromise - the customizers do not dream of working as stylists for the Detroit companies, although they deal with them more and more.
- Excerpt from "the candy kolored tangerine flake streamline baby" by Tom Wolfe
traxfromwax:
1. Why Not - Grover Cleveland 2. Shake Loose - Doug Bowles 3. River Of Love - Jerry Dion 4. Oh Babe - Lester Robertson 5. The Crowd From 23rd Avenue - Don Bishop 6. Wait & See - Clay Fulton And The Cindells 7. Stayed Away To Long - Harvey Hurt 8. The Ghost Song - Salty Holmes 9. Nightmare - Don Bishop 10. What A Line - Carl Story 11. Bulldog Bop - Junior Declovet 12. Crazy Bait - Ronnie Goode 13. Sea Goin' Man - Tex Neighbours 14. Indian Giver - Skip Graves 15. Gone, Gone, Gone - Flaming Embers 16. Wild Boy - Rocky Holman / Mort Wise And The Wise Men
ripped from vinyl in glorious monoloudarama!