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Pat Walsh
Pat's Peeps Podcast
Ep. 274 Today's Peep Enjoys a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood as Darlyne "With a Y" Drops By, Also, "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly," Radio Roots, A Radio Stalker Story, Spaghetti Western Soundtracks, My First Album
The sweet sounds of a passing train and an unexpected visitor bearing gifts set the tone for this laid-back episode from my back deck. As the June sun warms the afternoon, I reflect on the journey that brought me here – a path that began with a childhood fascination with tape recorders and mixtapes.
My radio career started unexpectedly when a sticky note reading "radio station needs a DJ" caught my attention during my college days at Chico State. That chance encounter led to a call with station owner Ron Woodward, who shocked me by offering not just weekend shifts but a full-time position hosting six-to-midnight Monday through Friday, plus Saturdays. Though I couldn't play my preferred music selections, it was the perfect training ground for a student who could do homework between songs.
The irony of radio success? Despite achieving number one ratings on both AM and FM stations, my Chico career ended abruptly when I complained about management removing the break room coffee pot. This small moment of frustration cost me my job but ultimately pushed me toward Sacramento and KFBK, where I've now spent over three decades.
Radio brings people into your life in unexpected ways – sometimes worryingly so. I share one of my most disturbing stalker stories involving a postal worker whose initially friendly calls gradually turned threatening, culminating in him showing up at the station armed after learning I'd spoken to postal authorities about his concerning behavior. Years later, his stepson called my show after recognizing the story, confirming the accuracy of my recollection.
The episode wraps with a musical journey exploring both Ennio Morricone's original theme from "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" and Hugo Montenegro's cover version – the latter being my very first record album, purchased by my mother after I fell in love with the music while watching the film at a drive-in theater as a child. These musical memories, like the broadcasting stories themselves, represent the soundtrack of a life spent loving radio.
welcome. Welcome back to the the Pat's Peeps podcast. How are you? It's a Tuesday, happy Tuesday to you. Third day of June already Unbelievable. Hope you're doing well on this Tuesday, on this lovely Tuesday. The Pat's Peeps podcast number 274.
Speaker 1:And today we are back on the back deck. It is the it's back deck week here on the Pat Walsh well, not the Pat. Well, I'm Pat Walsh. I do the Pat Walsh show as heard on KFPK radio 93.1 FM and 1530 AM in Sacramento, but of course, the Pats Peeps where we are at 274. So we just keep on going and going. It is a lovely day, a slight breeze, it is not as hot as it has been the last few days. So that has been delightful. So that has been delightful and as I sit out here on the back deck today, I am just enjoying the day so very, very, very much and I'm glad that you can hang out with us for a little bit.
Speaker 1:I want to get into a bunch of stuff. You know people ask me all the time how did I get into radio? I thought about maybe talking about that. You know, I'm having such a nice day. I don't know if I I don't know how deep I wanted to get into things like I had all this stuff I wanted. And then you know, as you're doing, as you're planning a show, sometimes your mood might change, not very often in terms of the show, but sometimes mid producing, like, your mood changes. You know, we may even have like like I was gonna talk about stalkers, but then my mood changed. I'm thinking, geez, and I'm gonna go down this whole thing of the uh about the good, the bad and the ugly, and then my mood shifted a little bit. But you know what, I'm gonna stay the course here on bats peeps to 274, because I believe these are good plans. Oh is, am I gonna hear a train go by? It's one of the things I love sitting about, sitting on my deck here. It seems like we may have a train coming by. Well, I'll be, I'll shut up if indeed we do have a train that uh comes by by, because I love the sound of the train, love the sound of the train and it's far off enough where it's not. You know, it's not annoying, it's lovely.
Speaker 1:So today on the show, as I stay course on Pat's Peeps 274. Yeah, tell you how I got into radio, how long I've been in radio. People want to know that. What got me interested in radio? I have stalker stories here on Pat's Peeps 274. And also I'm going to let you know. Oh, wait a second, wait a minute. Someone is apparently at my door Now that never happens here on the as I'm doing my Pat's Peeps, which is interesting. What. Who's out here? Hold on a second. Well, look who stopped by the neighborhood. It's Darlene with a Y, darlene with a Y, bringing me some stones for my plants. Hello, darlene with a Y.
Speaker 2:Hello.
Speaker 1:What kind of stones did you bring me?
Speaker 2:for it's a beautiful day, isn't it? It's a lovely day, isn't it, in the neighborhood.
Speaker 1:Today it's a beautiful day, isn't it?
Speaker 2:it's a lovely day, isn't it in the neighborhood? Today it's a beautiful day. Can you say it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood?
Speaker 1:thank you, it's beautiful. You sing very well. How long have you been singing darling with a why? You don't want to know audience would like to know how long you've been singing, probably 50 years, 50 years. You're no more than 60 years old, so that's pretty impressive. Yeah, I thought so. It's a beautiful day. What did you bring us today?
Speaker 2:I brought you some clay.
Speaker 1:Look at this one can you say smooth, smooth on the bottom, smooth on the bottom, yeah. Now which one are we going to use here for the beautiful plant?
Speaker 2:that you're doing. That's what I was wondering what kind of a plant?
Speaker 1:what are we doing here today? Tell us what we're doing. We're's what I was wondering what kind of a plant? What are we doing here today? Tell us what we're doing. We're gardening on a beautiful day, well, no.
Speaker 2:We're making a dry arrangement in a barrel. However, I wasn't sure if you were going to keep that or get another pot for that, so I brought both.
Speaker 1:Now the bottom is out of the barrel. Yeah, Bottom of the barrel blues.
Speaker 3:I think the stone one.
Speaker 1:So we'll have to set it on the stone. On the stone, I think the stone is the preferable. I think it's preferable for the plant. So what have we put into the? So it's an old barrel. So what have we put into the? So it's an old barrel. So what have we put into the plant so far? What kind of plants are these?
Speaker 2:well, these look like pussy bubbles excuse me these look like pussy.
Speaker 1:Well can you say pussy sure honey, you could, I like that word you know, did you know? I like that word Sure, sure you did.
Speaker 3:I tried it please.
Speaker 1:There you go. So it's like a dried arrangement with pussy willows and dry straw, which is, by the way, could be the worst name for a band ever the Pussy Willows. Ladies and gentlemen, the Pussy Willows.
Speaker 3:That would be crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what do you call that? It's a.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a planter, uh-huh. Terracotta stone plate.
Speaker 1:Now I don't know how I'm going to pick up this barrel without Want me to try?
Speaker 1:No, because you've got to be able to pick it up with the bottom not falling out. Yeah, don't want you to have to hurt yourself there. You're my friend. Can you say, friend, we moved the barrel. The barrel's looking beautiful, by the way, somewhat emasculating when the lady asks you, would you like me to do it Because you say you don't want to? I just said I didn like me to do it because, because you say you don't want to, I just said I didn't want to do it. I know. I just said I uh didn't want the you know, the bottom to fall out of the barrel.
Speaker 1:Ladies and gentlemen, how pleasant is it when your friend stops by to say hi and surprise you. Darlene with a y, what a nice person. She's, like the president of the Pat Walsh Show fan club online. I do appreciate her. Thank you so much, darlene with a Y, for being such a great friend and for my lovely planter, my little arrangement that you're creating in my little garden, that you're creating in my little garden and that would be part of, you know, today, on this Tuesday, that would be part of our theme of good, as we present a Tuesday the good, the bad and the ugly.
Speaker 1:Pat's Peeps. 274. It's Pat's Peeps, the. It's Pats Peeps, the good, the bad and the ugly. So that was part of the good. To have Darlene with a Y stop by like that, very, very nice. Do I have any other good? Well, the sunshine, that was all good. 274 Pats Peeps, that's all good. This is good. Now, again, depends on who you are. Far as I'm concerned, it's big. It's big, it's beautiful. It's going to be the biggest and the most beautiful bill ever. It's the big, beautiful bill. I'm calling it the big beautiful bill. It'll be huge, absolutely huge. Caroline Leavitt explaining the lovely big. It's a beautiful, big, beautiful bill.
Speaker 3:The one big, beautiful bill also provides critical protections of Medicaid which will strengthen and preserve the program for decades to come. Through common sense efforts to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse, Medicaid will no longer be used to pay for barbaric gender mutilation procedures on minor children.
Speaker 1:You know, part of the good is pointing out part of the bad. She's pointing out, in the equation of the good, the bad and the ugly. In that particular equation, she's pointing out some of the bad.
Speaker 3:Thank you for doing this, caroline, and the 1.4 million illegal aliens who are currently improperly receiving Medicaid benefits will be kicked off the program to preserve it for hardworking American citizens who need it. President Trump and Republicans are protecting Medicaid benefits for pregnant women, children, disabled individuals, low-income seniors and families and the most vulnerable Americans in our society, and that's what Democrats are so angry about. Basic Medicaid protections that will stop the funding of transgender insanity and illegal aliens from ripping off American taxpayers.
Speaker 1:My gosh, really. No Medicare for people who are here illegally, no transgender funding for surgeries for kids and for illegals. Oh my gosh, listen to me, part of the good in the equation, the good, the bad and the ugly. But when you have the good and then the bad which she pointed out, a lot of it, like I said, and there was a lot of it in there again my opinion but when you have that equation, then you have to have the ugly right. How does that pop in? How does that come into play? Well, that's when Rosie O'Donnell shows up.
Speaker 2:My friends, so many marginalized people in our nation millions of people are going to go hungry. Millions of people are going to die early for not getting their medication. Millions of people are going to suffer as a result of the big, beautiful bill.
Speaker 1:Are people suffering and dying right now because they can't get health insurance and they can't go to the doctor because they don't have health insurance. Well, illegals have health insurance on the backs of the taxpayers. Rosie, I'm sorry to interrupt your rant. I would like to volunteer to take this old bird out of her misery.
Speaker 2:So, for God's sakes, call your senators right now and tell them we should do that. She's right there.
Speaker 1:We call your senators right now and tell them we should do that. She's right there. We should call our senators.
Speaker 2:Talk to some Republicans, get the ones you've known for years and take them out to lunch and go Listen. Dude, do you get this?
Speaker 1:No, we're too stupid, rosie. Please fill us in, do you?
Speaker 2:have a grandmother.
Speaker 1:No, my grandmother never existed, by the way. Rosie, what's my grandmother have to do with transgender kids? Kids getting transgender surgery? What does this have to do with my great, oh God, I love my grandmother and my grandmothers. What does this have to do with Medicare for illegals? Rosie, Can you tie this?
Speaker 2:together. Do you know what this is going to do to all the elderly in this country?
Speaker 1:What's it going to do?
Speaker 2:Do you have any understanding?
Speaker 1:of what's at stake.
Speaker 2:Uh-uh no, Like you know, this is the most blatantly corrupt thing.
Speaker 1:Really so you can't really give us reasons, you can just rant.
Speaker 2:There's no reasoning here that mango Mussolini has ever come up with.
Speaker 1:Mango Mussolini Hold on. Where's my buttons here? Hold on, wait a second, mango Mussolini. I never get to use these buttons. Mango Mussolini, hold on. Oh, I don't care, whatever. Oh, sometimes I realize these buttons come in andy. Let me try that again, with the benefit of this.
Speaker 2:Let's try this again like you know, this is the most blatantly corrupt thing that mango mussolini has ever come up with where's that?
Speaker 1:wah, wah, wah.
Speaker 2:Honestly Very infuriating it really is.
Speaker 1:I'm infuriated right now. People ask me all the time Pat, pat, pat on Pat's Peeps 274. Pat, how did you get in radio? How did you ever get in radio? You know, when I was. I'll just tell you how I got in radio was I used to practice when I was a kid. I loved it.
Speaker 1:I had two favorite things in terms of toys. One was my baseball glove, the other was when I discovered a like a tape recorder. These are these tape recorders, like a cassette recorder. I remember someone even. I mean this is going back to the prehistoric days, uh, where they had someone, had a mini reel-to-reel. I think that might have been the first thing anyone ever showed me. It was outdated when they showed me as a kid, but but nonetheless it worked and I was completely fascinated that you could talk and the thing would play it back, or that I could record something off of music or off of the radio or off of television and I could listen back. I could spy on my brothers and sisters with it, hide it in the room, blackmail them. If you don't do that, give me your allowance. I'm telling mom you said this, you know, I mean, we were little kids, any, I didn't really do that that much, just maybe a couple times, but I was fascinated nonetheless. Marconi's birthday yesterday. I forgot to talk about that on my show last night, but I do want to talk about that tonight.
Speaker 1:So I I was really fascinated with radio and I stayed fascinated. I made mixtapes. I would be so intricate in my mixtape ability, I'd put on headphones and this would be a vinyl before CDs, and I'd put the needle down on the record and I would listen for little pops or perhaps a little static, and I would listen very intently for little patterns. I might have a little pattern on the static, maybe a little pop and maybe a couple of pops, whatever, wherever, whatever it was, and I would know I would have my cassette tape on record, play, pause, and I would have my finger on the pause button and when I heard that pattern, that click, and I knew you know that the song was going to start, I would hit that pause button and bam, I'd have the tightest editing. So I'd have my cassettes. I had my CDs, I would. Then I learned with CDs. I learned I could crossfade, use Adobe, edit and all this stuff. So I've always loved. It's sort of in my blood and I thought, geez, you know, I'd love to be in radio.
Speaker 1:So I'm working at the Olive Plant. I've told the story a million times, working at the Olive Plant, I won't even get into that part of the story. And then I'm attending Chico State. I'd gone to Butte College. I took media. I highly recommend community college. I transferred then to Chico State, to a university.
Speaker 1:I was doing a work-study program, 20 hours a week, work-study, getting Pell Grant, cal Grant aid, trying to get through life, trying to be able to pay for my expenses. And I'm walking by this office one morning and I see a little tag, you know a little sticky note, on a computer, through the crack of a door and in big letters in sharpie it said radio station needs a dj. Well, I knocked on the door. No one answered the door. But the door was open. It said kpay had a phone number called ron woodward. God bless you, ron woodward. So I grabbed. I grabbed the sticky note.
Speaker 1:I go down to the office that I worked down there into the media department and I made a phone call to this number and I had been practicing my radio on the Chico State campus at KCHO and KCSC radio. These were the college radio stations and I go into particularly KCSC, and I could go into this room they had like the studio, and then they had these production booths and I would go in there and I'd pretend like I was a DJ and I could get very eclectic. I remember playing a lot of stuff off of like a band from Utopia B-A-N-N-E-D by the way, not B-A-N-D, frank Zappa, you know bringing that record in, bringing in the Blasters. There's just certain records that really remind me of a certain era and I would be, you know, I would play deep cuts because I was so aware of them and I wanted to really impress because back then there was still a chance maybe an outside chance even at that point that you could get into radio, music radio, and really do what you wanted to do and play the music that you felt was good to be on the radio that no one was playing. But anyhow, that never came to fruition.
Speaker 1:But I did get a phone call. I called the number and, god bless, ron Woodward calls me, or either that or the station, whatever they said. Well, I think Ron called me and he says can you bring me a tape? Or maybe I can't remember the exact sequence, perhaps I brought the tape already to the radio station, but I get this phone call. Hi, pat, yes, hi, this is Ron Woodward over at and he owned the biggest rock station in town. He was a co-owner of the biggest rock station in town, 93.9 KFM, with Marty Griffin in a little trailer, started in a little trailer in the middle of nowhere, grew into the most popular radio station in Chico at the time. Hi, pat, ron Woodward.
Speaker 1:Now Ron has moved on. He sold his part of the station, whatever I don't know the whole inside story. But now he's the PD over, the program director at K-P-A-Y light 95.1. He says you know, I know you've never had a job doing this before. I said no. He says well, you're still pretty green, but I think you have excellent potential to be in radio. I said really, really, I'm expecting him to say you know, I'm expecting him to say so what we're going to do is we're going to start you up on the weekend. We're going to give you a few hours, see how you do, give you a couple little shifts here and there and if you do well, then we'll see what happens from there. But no, he says we'd like to give you a job, we'd like to make you an offer on a job.
Speaker 1:I said, okay, what's the? I was first of all trying to contain my excitement. Well, he says well, we'd like to give you your own show, full time. What You're kidding me Says you know I'm not kidding. It's six to nine or, excuse me, six to midnight, monday through Friday. I could not believe it. And then Saturday noon to six. I just couldn't believe it. I was so excited yet so very, very nervous on my first day going into radio. And it was the perfect situation, because here I am living my dream that I can work in radio.
Speaker 1:People were listening to me, I was getting experience and getting it in a nice market and there were other benefits, even though I was not able to play freeform radio. I was not able to show my ability to transition from one song to another, my little perfect crossfades and all of the little things, my tight editing, all of the things that I've been practicing for years. I didn't have the ability to do that because in front of you you have a tablet and it's got the songs right there in front of you. Pick it up. You're like, okay, what I gotta play, journey faithfully, open arms.
Speaker 1:I remember there was wilson phillips, it'd be bonnie rate, whatever you know, paul davis, cool night, do do so. It wasn't my kind of music but because of the fact of where I was at in my life, it was actually good because what it allowed me to do is my homework. I kept thinking I wish I could do, because I was kind of even though I like to party and chico, don't get me wrong, I was a little older as a student and I was, excuse me, I was taking it very seriously. You drink a water. Allergies are cooling away, but still a little bit. And anyhow, so I was. I had the ability.
Speaker 1:Hi, this is Wilson Phillips. I'm sorry, maybe you like Wilson Phillips, I could give a rip. I'd sell it like I did. Michael Bolton, light 95 FM KPA. Hi there, chico Powals, light 95 FM KPA. Why, here's all your favorite line hits back-to-back. Here's Michael Bolton. But you know what? I can sit there and do my homework, get done and we do the back sell. That was Michael Bolton in front of that weird Rod Stewart. Then, you know, and he'd do the whole back sell thing. I'm so grateful to KPAY for that. I really, really am.
Speaker 1:That's how I got into radio. How did I leave there? Well, I'll tell you this I got fired after almost four years. I had number one ratings. Now get this. I had number one ratings on AM and FM I was doing. They said, geez, pat, you can really, you really know your sports. How would you like to be our sports reporter, sports anchor? I said, but I'm doing a radio show at night. They said, well, anyhow, it's a long story, I won't get into all the minutiae of that, but I ended up doing my radio show, fm Music, on Light 95 FM, and being the sports anchor on KPAY on the AM channel. So I was all over the radio in Chico thanks to KPAY.
Speaker 1:Well book comes out, the ratings book, one time and I have number one ratings on the AM, thank you, and on the FM, combo, thank you very much. I was very excited about that. I'm like man, I can't believe it. I'd only been in the business for like I don't know three years, doing this for three. But by three years I was pretty seasoned. When I first started, boy was I green. I was green. I've played that on my radio show before. So the first time I was ever on the air. Boy, you can tell. But you know you get experience under your belt. So by three years into this I was doing much better, and so I just could not believe that we were at this point. I was very proud of the fact we had number one ratings on the AM and the FM combo.
Speaker 1:So one morning, with that in mind, I go into the break room and I don't know about you, but I need my coffee. I kind of. You know they have a break room. It's got a refrigerator, it's got just your traditional common break room microwave, refrigerator. You know a couple of vending machines, the coffee pot, the sink. You know the cupboards where you keep your cups, blah, blah, blah. There was a little sign over the sink in this break room and said you know something to the effect of make sure to wash your own dishes and no one's here to wash your dishes or whatever the case may be effective. Make sure to wash your own dishes and no one's here to wash your dishes or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 1:So one morning I go in and there's no coffee pot and there's no microwave and I'm like going, what's going on. So I got this euphoria from being from the ratings and then I go in to get a cup of coffee, because I'm not bringing my own coffee back then and there's no coffee. And I said what, where's the coffee pot? What somebody take the coffee pot. I'm talking to myself in the break room, what the heck you know? Just kind of like standing going. What where's the microwave? That guy went to the microwave. What the heck is going on? And then I turn around, here's a sign on the wall and it says something to the effect of in a Sharpie, in a felt pen. It says due to the fact that we've asked you to do your own dishes, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:Because of that, we have made the decision to remove the coffee pot and the coffee and the microwave. And I can't remember if the refrigerator was even still there. Now I haven't had my coffee. I have number one ratings. All I'm asking for is a cup of this crappy Folgers. You know, whatever it is, whatever kind of cheap coffee they have at this radio station. And I said something to the effect of you know, you've got to be effing, kidding me, without saying effing Like you've got to be kidding me. I mean, we work our butts off. I'm working a split shift here. We get number one ratings. You come in the morning. You can't get good. I'm talking to myself. There's no one in there. I didn't even think there was really anyone in the building. I'm just kind of not. I'm kind of ranting to myself Like I can't believe they did that. They must've done this.
Speaker 1:Last night, when I left after Live at Five so many I was working splits again, but anyhow, apparently the boss was in his office and at the time Gloria, who was in like an 80-year-old woman, was in her office. She'd been there forever at this radio station God bless you, gloria Been a long time she had that beehive hairdo, real sweet lady, though Stayed pretty neutral and everything. But my boss calls me into his office. It's funny because I gave him a piece of my mind after he did this and now, how it all comes around, he and I are now very good friends on Facebook. So, dave, if you ever listen to this, you know who I'm talking about. You're a good dude, you know. We both are very respectful towards one another.
Speaker 1:Calls me in the office. What was that word or what were you saying out there? I said well, you know, I told him the whole story. Like you know, we work hard. I get number one ratings, and I come in the morning just to get a cup of this coffee and I have to pay the price because someone in the afternoon shift or whatever, some sales guy or someone on the radio staff somewhere left a dish in the sink. So, so all of us, we have to. But listen, I'm gonna let you go. What it was, just like that. Yeah, we're gonna let you go. Okay, wow, all right. So, anyhow, that's how happened.
Speaker 1:Kste in Sacramento was starting it with Bob Nathan and with Rick Stewart. Rest in peace. I said I need to go back home to Sacramento, I need to be a part of that. And so here I am. I went from KSTE, which merged with KFBK, and now KFBK. I've been there for over three decades, which is unbelievable, and now I'm here doing this podcast and doing my show at KFBK the Pat Wall Show.
Speaker 1:Maybe that was my long-winded way of telling you that I'm the host of the Pat Wall Show, but I think I already told you that earlier on, early in our conversation. So I'm working there. I'll just tell you I'm just going. I'll just tell you, can I? I'm just going to share a couple of stalker stories. So this is the. So we're doing a good, the bad and the ugly Tuesday here on Pat's Peeps 274. Here comes part of the bad. Stalkers Share a couple of stories with you. Oh, I have one, make sure I don't forget this one. Oh okay, there we go. So in radio sometimes, when people just hear your voice, there can be a stalkerish situation. Here's a couple of examples of them. So these are all Chico. There can be a stalker-ish situation. Here's a couple of examples of MA. So these are all Chico stories.
Speaker 1:Dave is a mailman. He used to call me all the time on my show, on my 6 to midnight show, monday through Friday. Hey, pat, dave, how you doing man? Hey, good, dave, how are you? Dave was a mailman in Chico. Used to tell me about his mail route. Very friendly guy, very outgoing, called me the next night, maybe the next night, whatever. It became more and more frequent over a couple of year period. Let's say, oh God, I just remembered something about this. Oh, my God, I just had a recollection of something, an angle on this story. So I'm telling this story on my radio show I don't know, maybe two years ago, something like that. I'm telling this story that I'm telling you right now.
Speaker 1:Dave's a postman in Chico. He calls me, he's in a good mood, you know. Then, as time goes by, now somehow he figures out the warm line, which is a number that is used if your buddy like, if your buddy calls you know, your personal friend or your wife or your girlfriend, so my wife would call me at the time, she'd call me on the warm line, so it would not be interrupted by the request line. Let's say, or the business line would not be interrupted by the request line. Let's say, or the business line, and it wasn't the hotline, the hotline was you, something was going on, it was your boss calling. That would be the difference. You'd have the request line, which is for the public to make a request, which you never did because eventually it might come up because we had to stick to the playlist. Then you had the warm line for your friends, like I said, they're inside. Then you have the warm line for your friends, like I said, they're inside. Then you have the hotline for the boss and Dave would call, he'd call and he'd call and pretty soon the calls got a little darker and he started to say things like no first, no before that he sends me this painting Now.
Speaker 1:This is very key in the additional story I want to talk about here. He sends me this painting. It's maybe four feet by three feet, three feet tall, maybe four feet long, something like that, and it's a stingray floating in water. Now, keep in mind, I'm telling this story on my radio show, like I said, and this guy, after he sends it to me, okay, it's nice, he's actually did a really nice job on this. Now the phone calls are getting darker and darker and now it's no longer upbeat Dave it's, hey, pat, hey, it's.
Speaker 1:Dave man, right now I'm so mad at the post office and I'm gonna. I'm drinking whiskey, jack Daniels, and I've got a gun, and they're gonna find out how angry I am, and it'd be like that. I'm like Dave, you alright? Hey brother, listen, I don't know what I would say to him. I don't know I was. I am very concerned because of what he told me, that he was going to take it out on them and they were about to find out and wait until they find out. So I decide I call the post office. I want to talk to the postmaster general. They or the post. I went to tell them and they said well, the postmaster general will call you, which he did. So I go in his office and he says all right, patrick, thank you for doing this. This is very, but we really appreciate this and don't worry, we're not going to record any of this. This is just between you and me, all right, this is only between you and I. This will go nowhere. We will keep your name and you know confidential all of this. So I proceeded to tell him yeah, these are really threatening messages that I'm hearing Again. I'm not going into all the detail of what he was saying, but it was darker than that. Next thing, you know, my warm line rings one night after that and I pick it up. He's like I hear this, something to this effect Pat, pat, yes, this is Dave, this is Dave. So, uh, so you went into the post office and you ran it on me. You ran it on me, didn't you? Well, guess what? All that I was telling you about my anger towards the post office is now focused on you. Yeah, remember that. Then he shows up. I'm not there. He shows up early in the day before I got to work and I was told this that he was sitting in the. The sales area was in the front of this radio station. It was in a house out in this road. Anyhow, he's got a gun on his side and one of the people working there, larry, thank you, larry comes out, says can I help you? Anyhow, they ended up calling the sheriff and getting him out of there. That was the end of that.
Speaker 1:But the addition to the stories I'm telling this on my show. I get a phone call and this guy goes hi, pat, he goes. I'm listening to you tell this story and that's my grandfather you're talking about, or no? My dad, stepdad, stepdad. It's my stepdad. He goes as I'm'm listening, and you said Chico, then you said post office, then you said art, then you said alcohol and threatening, but when you said stingray the painting of the stingray I knew who you were talking about. It's my stepdad, who is no longer with us and he is exactly how you just described him.
Speaker 1:Sometimes, when you're sharing these stories on the radio, it's amazing that someone who may or may not be related or knew the person, will call in and go. I have a few of those. I should tell those stories Rocky and oh gosh, I need to write those down. And oh, steve's Burger. Maybe I'll share those, maybe on tomorrow's Burger, maybe I'll share those, Maybe on tomorrow's podcast. Always looking for something to talk about, but anyhow, so yeah.
Speaker 1:So here on the good, the bad and the ugly, that part was ugly. I had other stalker stories. I'll save those. Maybe I'll do stalker stories from the back deck this week, I don't know. Stalker stories from the back deck.
Speaker 1:Here's what I do want to talk about today. Listen to this song. Everyone knows this song. It is the good, the bad and the ugly. Good, the bad and the ugly from the movie the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. I mean this thing still gets used all the time, people clowning around like I've been doing today. So today, on our music portion of the show, I'm going to conclude with the theme we have been using, which is the good, the bad and the ugly. Rather than pulling a record from my collection, which I did, I pulled a good one today, so I'll save that for tomorrow too. So this one Love that guitar.
Speaker 1:This is the theme to the 1966 film of the good, the bad and the ugly, directed by Sergio Leone, included on the film's soundtrack as the good, the bad and the ugly main title, the instrumental composed by Ennio Morricone with Bruno Nicolai conducting the orchestra. Ennio Morricone was an Italian composer who created music for hundreds of films in the 1960s. Sergio Leone was impressed by a musical arrangement of Marcon's and he asked his former schoolmate to compose music for one of his films A Fistful of Dollars, which led to a collaboration between the two on the future Leone films, many of which came to be referred to as spaghetti westerns Spaghetti westerns that are, I mean, part of my growing up watching these few dollars, more fistful of dollars, as I mentioned, the good, the bad and the ugly, which begins with a two-note melody, as we just heard, like the howl of a coyote. You have some additional sounds in there, some symbolizing characters and themes from the movie, and that song plays at the beginning of the film. Marcon commented that his frequent collaborator, guitarist Bruno Battisti Di Amario, was able to conjure up this. I love the sound, that extraordinary sound, with that guitar, very sort of a complex composition. I just love that tone. But it is complex. Features soprano recorder, drums, bass, chimes, electric guitar, trumpets, whistling. You even have the choir singing words like well, they're not even words. Wah, wah, wah, like that they do sing, go, go, hey, you know, like that. But that theme is very memorable. It went to number four on the Billboard 200 album chart. It stayed on the chart for over a year.
Speaker 1:However, it was another version that caught my ear when my parents took me as a very, very young boy tell you how much I'm into music to see this at the drive-in. They took my family, my brothers and sisters to see this at the drive-in the Good, the Bad and the Ugly and the movie was. I didn't really understand the movie that much or what was exactly going on. They had the subtitles or whatever was happening. Something was kind of off, but the music caught me. So the first album that I ever had of my own not the first one that I ever paid my own money for, but the first one that I really owned I told my mother. I said, mom, I love the music in this movie. And she says you do. I said, geez, you know, mom, I love the music in this movie. And she says you do. I said yeah. So she said if you do these chores for me whatever it was, I can't remember now I'll buy you that record. How's that what? Really? Well, she did buy it for me, but it wasn't Enya Morricone's version, it wasn't the original. She bought me instead the Hugo Montenegro version.
Speaker 1:And Hugo Montenegro was an American composer. He was an orchestra leader who started scoring films in the 1960s. He hears the music from the good, the bad and the ugly and then decides you know what? How about let's do a cover version of this, of the theme? Right, let's do it.
Speaker 1:And so musician Tommy Morgan, quoted as saying in Wesley Hyatt's billboard book of one number one adult contemporary hits, saying that Montenegro's version was done in one day. He said I think it was all one Saturday at RCA and then, very similar to Enya Marcon's original composition, hugo Montenegro brings in a few of these session guys, session musicians, and they wanted to recreate this record in a very different style, using their own instrumentation. See, the opening two-note segment was played on the ocarina by Art Smith, and then Morgan plays the sounds that followed on the harmonica, saying I knew it was live, so I had to do this hand thing, this wah-wah-wah sound. And then Montenegro himself grunts something which came out like ruff ruff, ruff, ruff, ruff between the chorus segments. And then you hear people like Elliot Fisher on the electric violin you can hear him on there Manny Klein on the piccolo and trumpet, muzzy Marcelino, whose whistling is heard during the recording. And here's the surprise, much to the surprise of this group of folks and to Hugo Montenegro himself.
Speaker 1:The cover version of the film theme became a hit single during 1968 and went to number two on the Billboard Hot 100 on June 1st of 68. Here we are on June 3rd of 2025. It held off the top spot by another song of 2025. It held off the top spot by another song, simon and Garfunkel's Mrs Robinson, from the 1967 film the Graduate Beat out. Mrs Robinson I mean lost, I should say to Mrs Robinson Spent three weeks atop the Billboard Easy listening chart during the same time frame and then, in 68, this version, montenegro's version, reached the UK singles chart and began a steady climb.
Speaker 1:So let's compare, all right. So, ah, darn it. We're going to compare Ennio Morricone's the good, the bad and the ugly. I just want you to get it. So my mother buys this for me and I sat there and listened to it intently. I had my headphones on. I would sit there and listen to this. So here's Ennio Morricone's original theme for the movie. Wow, perfect for that. All right, that's the Enyo Marukon version, with a couple of gunshots from the movie. Now listen to the difference Hugo Montenegro's version with his pals. They did in one day the version that I had on my record, my first record. Thank you for listening to Pat's Peeps 274. Have a great Tuesday. See you on the radio.
Speaker 3:Radio oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh.
