There I was, in post-lunch early-Sunday-afternoon lotusland, when I saw it:
[“Goodbye, Alice, Hello,” The Brady Bunch, November 24, 1972. Click for a larger view. Watch the episode here.]
That’s the Canned Heat album Future Blues (released August 3, 1970). Canned Heat on The Brady Bunch !
What’s going on here: Marcia has left the record player running all night. Carol is tidying up when she hears the noise of the needle in the run-out groove. The prop people must have had a copy of Future Blues and decided to have some fun. See what they’ve done to the cover? The Best of Marching Bands. The only other explanation I can devise is that Marcia Brady was a secret Canned Heat fan, forced to hide her taste for boogie music from her hopelessly square family. You decide what’s more plausible.
Future Blues is a great Canned Heat album, rivaled only by Hooker ’n Heat, the band’s 1970 collaboration with John Lee Hooker. The inverted flag is a distress signal. Here it signals ecological catastrophe, a source of deep woe for Alan Wilson, the Heat’s resident genius.
I’ve been a Canned Heat fan forever. I got my Future Blues signed in 2010.
*
June 15, 2015: I’ve corrected the spelling of Marcia’s name.
A related post
Canned Heat in Illinois
[That’s Bob “The Bear” Hite in the orange suit. I wonder if The Bear knew that Carol Brady’s hand was all over his yas-yas-yas. That album on the chair? The Rolling Stones, Exile on Main Street. ]
Monday, March 3, 2014
Canned Heat and the Brady Bunch
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comments: 8
I suspect Alice. She always seemed to have a hidden wild streak. Speaking of shows from that era, this weekend I saw an episode of Gilligan's Island in which Mr. Howell told a Medicare joke. Of course, the plutocrat was disdainful of the program.
That reminds me of people like Bob Hope joking about “lady drivers.”
If it is Alice’s album, things get very complicated. Alice tells Carol that Marsha left the record player running, and Marsha gets angry at Alice, as do the other kids, agreeing that Alice has become a snitch. And feeling hated, Alice quits, which means that the kids’ willingness to keep her music tastes a secret ends up driving her away anyway.
Oops. Alice tells Carol that Marcia left the record player running, and Marcia gets angry at Alice. Marcia, Marcia, Marcia.
But what record is Alice holding in her hand? It seems to be a yellow label with black trees at the bottom? Is this the Canned Heat Lp?
My previous comment said Alice was holding the yellow label record, but it was Carol. So again my question was this the Canned Heat LP she was holding or a different LP?
It must be a different LP. If you do an image search for future blues lp, you can see the record in eBay listings.
Thanks Michael.
You're welcome. And don’t forget to boogie. :)
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