Beaker Street Comment posted on Amazon

1967 was the summer of love, and I was a naive 13 year old nerd from small town Kansas. At that time, the few FM stations that did exist played only classical music. AM radio was full of crackle and full of life. I discovered that on a clear summer night, an old tube-powered bakelite AM radio was a window to the world. Top 40 radio stations from all over the country faded in and out through the night: WLS in Chicago, KOMA in Oklahoma City, WOAI in San Antonio, and KAAY in Little Rock. I made a list of my favorite songs and the bands who sang them.

Then one Saturday night I stayed up late, past midnight, and KAAY was transformed into..... Beaker Street. Slowly, a door into a whole new world of music opened. Clyde Clifford was the DJ, but he wasn't your typical fast-talking Top 40 DJ. Clyde spoke slowly and softly over a background of eerie, spacey music that played in the background. And the music he played was definitely not Top 40, it was "Underground Music" by bands with strange names like Pink Floyd, Savoy Brown, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Quicksilver Messenger Service. Clyde broke all the rules of AM radio, especially the three-minute limit. I learned that "Light my Fire" was not a 3 minute pop song, but a 7:05 guitar and organ opus. I was hooked, throughout that summer and for the rest of my adolescence I lived for Beaker Street.


My Beaker Street favorites
Pink Floyd "Astronomy Domine" The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Quicksilver Messenger Service "Pride of Man" Quicksilver Messenger Service
Savoy Brown "Hellbound Train" Hellbound Train


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My Beaker Street firsts
Big Brother and the Holding Company "Piece of My Heart" from Cheap Thrills
Black Oak Arkansas "Lord Have Mercy on my Soul" from Black Oak Arkansas
Bloodrock "D.O.A." from Bloodrock 2
Captain Beyond "Dancing Madly Backwards" from Captain Beyond
Cream "Tales Of Brave Ulysses" from Disraeli Gears
Creedence Clearwater Revival "Susie Q(unedited)" from Creedence Clearwater Revival
Deep Purple "Child in Time" from Deep Purple in Rock
The Doors "Light my Fire" from The Doors
Frijid Pink "House of the Rising Sun" from Frijid Pink
Grand Funk Railroad "Closer to Home(unedited)" from Closer to Home
Iron Butterfly "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" from In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
It's a Beautiful Day "White Bird" from It's a Beautiful Day
Jaime Brockett "Legend of the USS Titanic" (from the album "Remember the Wind and Rain" -- CD now available from Collector's Choice Music @ www.ccmusic.com)
Jefferson Airplane "Plastic Fantastic Lover" from Bless Its Pointed Little Head
Jethro Tull "Nothing Is Easy" from Stand Up
Jimi Hendrix "Third Stone From The Sun" from Are You Experienced
King Crimson "21st Century Schizoid Man" from In The Court Of The Crimson King: 30th Anniversary Edition
Led Zeppelin "Moby Dick" from Led Zeppelin II
Mason Proffit "Two Hangmen" from Come & Gone
Neil Young "Cinnamon Girl(unedited)" from Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Rare Earth "Get Ready(unedited)" from 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Rare Earth
Santana "Singing Winds, Crying Beasts / Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen" from Abraxas
Spirit "Prelude - Nothin' To Hide" from Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus
The Who "The Acid Queen" from Tommy (1969 Original Concept Album)
Traffic "40,000 Headmen" from Welcome to the Canteen
War "Spill the Wine(unedited)" from Eric Burdon Declares "War"



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Beaker Street Lives
Clyde Clifford is still going strong! These days, it airs every Sunday night from 7PM until midnight Central Time, on Magic 105.1FM KMJX in Central Arkansas. And it is also streamed live via the internet (using Windows Media Player), from the homepage:
http://beakerstreet.com

According to an interview posted on the web site, the original background music for the show was from the dream sequence in the movie Charade by Henry Mancini! Believe it or not!