Scroll down to read this post.
Readers!
The time has come for my annual short Thanksgiving/Christmas fund drive for Behind The Black. I must do this every year in order to make sure I have earned enough money to pay my bills.
For this two-week campaign, I am offering a special deal to encourage donations. Donations of $200 will get a free autographed copy of the new paperback edition of Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, while donations of $250 will get a free autographed copy of the new hardback edition. If you desire a copy, make sure you provide me your address with your donation.
As I noted in July, the support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Just great!
Can remember this blasting out over the speakers at pool parties my senior year at my fraternity
I never knew the title to that song. Can’t quote a lyric other than “lets get it on”. Yet I knew it instantly when it started.
Steve, Memory is playing tricks. These are the lyrics
Saturday night, I was downtown
Working for the FBI
Sitting in a nest of bad men
Whiskey bottles piling high
Bootlegging boozer on the west side
Full of people who are doing wrong
Just about to call up the DA man
When I heard this woman singin’ a song
A pair of 45s made me open my eyes
My temperature started to rise
She was a long cool woman in a black dress
‘Bout a 5’9″, beautiful, tall
With just one look I was a bad mess
‘Cause that long cool woman had it all
Whoo!
I saw her heading to the table
Well, a tall walking big black cat
When Charlie said, “I hope that you’re able, boy
Well, I’m telling you she knows where it’s at”
Well, suddenly we hear the sirens
And everybody started to run
A-jumping under doors and tables
Well, I heard somebody shootin’ a gun
Well, the DA was pumpin’ my left hand
And a-she was a-holding my right
Well, I told her, “Don’t get scared ’cause you’re gonna be spared”
I’ve gotta be forgiven if I wanna spend my livin’
With a long cool woman in a black dress
Just a 5’9″, beautiful, tall
Well, with just one look I was a bad mess
‘Cause that long cool woman had it all
Had it all, had it all
Had it all, had it all
Had it all, mmm
Had it all
Ah, she had it all
Yeah, she had it al
She was probably Jessica Rabbit in a different dress
https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&hs=GjF&sca_esv=7085e96b5b715798&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ADLYWII7DDkacyX-NhHlxPREUbVcSjr5Cg:1724346035702&q=Jessica+Rabbit&udm=2&fbs=AEQNm0A-5VTqs5rweptgTqb6m-Eb3TvVcv4l7eCyod9RtZW9874wvsYjTfpwMQKGHqKPG-IB7j9flyfH28tJSLVuVdcT1tesPpIhTR_8sOQ3FQrQWiVTfWhoIplDgGh5JzUv9F4u3riMB636EHR41DrkNY_uSRk347tLZsVeJqqyuWPTyXrtg-EYkFQYZqw6rWM1khGHS26HrYFGhj2QeE1uCS-2MrLbBw&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi48LXHiYmIAxXmk4kEHXaZHpcQtKgLegQIEBAB&biw=1170&bih=574&dpr=1.56
Bob, I’d like to recommend Chi Coltrane’s 1972 “Thunder and Lightning” which blew me away the first time I heard it and still sends tingles down my spine. https://youtu.be/0IefcDO2s9Q
I love this song. One of the first lead licks I learned on my Guild T-100 back in the 70’s. But the original release had Allan Clarke on lead vocals and lead guitar who also co-wrote this with Roger Cook. This version has Terry Sylvester (I believe) on vocals and someone else on lead guitar. Allan Clarke had left the band just before his song started moving its way up the charts to the #2 slot (destined to be the band’s only platinum release). Clarke returned for a year or two and then departed again to start his “solo career”. Allan Clarke’s vocals and guitar are clearly the reason this version lacks that edge.