What the blazes? Something bit me!

October 29, 2015 9:26 PM

Back in 1972, there was no internet, no Marvel Cinematic Universe. But there was vinyl. The Amazing Spider-Man - A Rockomic - From Beyond The Grave is an example of early media for kids with a turntable. René Auberjonois leads a cast of amazing actors for this Spidey adventure.
posted by valkane (12 comments total)

Doctor Strange makes a cameo. You had no idea.
posted by valkane at 9:31 PM on October 29, 2015

Yes, I owned this album in my senior year in high school... tried unsuccessfully to get my high school band to get an arrangement of this version of the Spider-Man theme ("Amazing... Amazing... When will he ever win?") - they were still waiting for the '60s cartoon theme ("Does whatever a spider can..."). I still get occasional earworms ("Goin' crosstown, gonna rock tonight, gonna kick a tail or two"). And I'm still waiting for a Spider-Man movie to reach this level of coolness.

* suffering from a bad case of Penicillin-Resistant Nostalgia) *
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:43 PM on October 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

an example of early media for kids with a turntable.

I do not understand this line. Nineteen-seventy two is "early" for what?
 
posted by Herodios at 4:08 AM on October 30, 2015

Sorry Herodios, should probably read "multi-media" as in a mash-up of comics, music and audio drama. I mean, it's just an LP for kids, but it's an early example of Marvel moving from one media (comics) into another (audio). That's what I meant by that line.
posted by valkane at 4:30 AM on October 30, 2015

Ah, i see, early for Marvel.

Tho' they did have animated teevy, bubblegum cards, 'humourous' stickers, etc. before this.

Sgonnasay, I had tons of phonograph record tie-ins from Disney and Hanna Barbera 'product' in the 1960s.

Snagglepuss, Snagglepuss
He's known from coast to coast
Something something
Something something
Snaggle in "The Most" . . .

Meanwhile, back to Spider-man:

Hmm . . . Buddha Records . . . Ron Dante . . . Yep. The Webspinners are The Archies.
 
posted by Herodios at 4:52 AM on October 30, 2015

Oh wow. Nice find!
posted by zarq at 5:58 AM on October 30, 2015

René Auberjonois! What a diverse career he's had. It was only reading Wikipedia this morning that I learned he played Father Mulcahy on MASH. Crazy. And of course Clayton on Benson and Odo on Star Trek.
posted by Nelson at 9:16 AM on October 30, 2015

*Star Trek: DS9
posted by 90s_username04 at 9:41 AM on October 30, 2015

Here's what it looked like. I'm sure my parents still have mine somewhere, I'll have to ask them to dig it out.
posted by The Hamms Bear at 9:47 AM on October 30, 2015

I see this record mentioned occasionally on the 'net so I'm writing this as a reminder to myself: You found this at a garage sale and you listened to it once and it was horrible so after holding onto it for a couple of years you sold it. It's ok.
posted by sleepy pete at 11:50 AM on October 30, 2015

Nelson: ... I learned he played Father Mulcahy on MASH

No, kind of. Rene Auberjonois played Father Mulcahy in the original movie version of M*A*S*H. On the TV series, that role was taken on by William Christopher.

Only two actors played the same character in the movie and on the TV series - Gary Burghoff, who played "Radar" O'Reilly, and G. Wood, who portrayed Brigadier General Hammond in the movie and 3 episodes of S01 of the TV series.
posted by hanov3r at 12:55 PM on October 30, 2015 [1 favorite]

Power Records (a division of Peter Pan Records) The Action "comes alive" as you read!!
The Avengers’ Age Of Analog: The Power Records Story

In the 1970s, the children’s label Peter Pan Records started the Power Records imprint for a “Book and Record” line . . . Power Records adapted not only DC and Marvel characters, but TV and movie properties like Star Trek, The Six Million Dollar Man, Planet of the Apes, and Kojak.
-- Mark McDermott, see below

Web-Spinning Heroics: Critical Essays on the History and Meaning of Spider-Man
edited by Robert Moses Peaslee, Robert G. Weine

Here's an excerpt of Mark McDermott, "Finding the Milieu of the Spider-Man Music LPs" (from Part VII, "Under-Examined Spider-Texts")

From Beyond the Grave is the product of a company at a stylistic crossroads: Ron Dante brought a well-honed sensibility for bubble-gum to his production work, abetted by popular comedy and voice talent, while some of the songs involved R&B and funk leanings that would serve the label in the disco era. . . . [Rene] Auberjonois . . . went for a natural delivery that did not attempt to conceal his 32 years, and helped to expand the appeal of the album beyond the confines of the Children’s Records section. The Buddah Records project as a whole played like a modern radio drama.
[. . . ]
It seems that [the records were] made with minimal involvement from Marvel Comics . . . there was no mention in Marvel’s “Bullpen Bulletins” pages. . . .

No matter Marvel’s involvement . . . the album seemed to be an attempt to create a new reader experience, albeit one based on juvenile “read-along records” . . .

From Beyond the Grave [on Buddah Records] showed off its bubble-gum pop heritage . . . [yet] succeeded in creating a dramatic narrative in the style of an old radio drama . . . Its narrative still succeeds as a drama played out in the mind’s eye.

From a the perspective of the comics fan, [From Beyond the Grave] does not add much to the “Spider-verse” . . . spends much of its time rehashing Spidey’s origin story . . . the effect of trying to follow the album’s action along in the gatefold seems . . . like sitting through a filmstrip of the Easter story in Catechism, missing only the “beep” from the accompanying album to remind the presenter to advance the strip. Since the dialogue-less gatefold adds little to the story that isn’t already told in the grooves, the album works out better as a musical performance than a new hybrid of music and comics.

posted by Herodios at 2:56 PM on October 30, 2015