Pure Magic - the Shady Dell Attic: 100+ Years of History and Mystery!

          Having one of those days? Dampened spirits need a lift? You've come to the right place.

                          Spend a little time here at Shady's Place and feel better fast!

Sunday, March 9, 2025

 The AI-Team, Vol 1 

"I pity the fool who don't like these songs!"


 Old School's the Rule 


 In the Battle Against 
 The Anime From Within! 


No, dear friend. That isn't a typographical error
in the title of my post at the top of the page.


 Today's post does not focus on The A-Team.


 It focuses on The AI-Team... delightful characters emerging
from the breakthrough territory of Artificial Intelligence art.


These creations are out of this world. World? I mean universe!


As you can see, the sky's the limit in this
rapidly expanding cutting-edge technology.


Above, for example, incredibly detailed and lifelike but totally unreal,
is the "charming and mischievous space adventurer" Nova Stardust.


Yessum, we're in the middle of an AI boom...


and today's post offers a mix of past and present...


...20th century boomer songs combined with


dazzling... mind-blowing...


21st century AI art renderings.

  

Shady's going Old School - playing ten of his favorite songs
that have the word "school" in the title or make reference to


School days, school days,
dear old golden rule days,
Readin' and 'ritin' and 'rithmetic
Taught to the tune of a hick'ry stick


To illustrate the theme of the post, the songs are accompanied


 by modern AI generated images of teachers...


college women...


bookworms in the school library...


 and studious schoolgirls doing homework.


 How many of these old school songs do you know or remember?


Okay, here we go with the first of our school related songs.


When we were at school, our games were simple
I played a janitor, you played a monitor


So sang the English pop rock band The Hollies in 1967. 

CLICK TO START THE VIDEO NOW!

 Here they are on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour doing
a song that was a top 3 hit in the UK and made the top 10
in the U.S. The Hollies sing-- "Carrie Anne!"


"Carrie-Anne" - The Hollies
(July/Aug. 1967, highest chart pos. #9 Hot 100/#10 Cash Box,
#9 Canada/#3 UK, live perf. on Dec. 10, 1967, ep. of
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour)


I used to carry her satchels
She used to walk by my side


But when we got to her doorstep
Her dad wouldn't let me inside
CLICK TO START THE VIDEO NOW!

The following year, The Hollies changed their tune
and their schoolgirl's name and gained a top 40
hit in the U.S. with-- "Jennifer Eccles!"


"Jennifer Eccles" - The Hollies
(July/Aug. 1968, highest chart pos. #40 Hot 100,
#54 Cash Box/#19 Canada/#7 UK)


The chicks are jealous of the new girl in school
They put her down and they treat her so cruel
But the guys are goin' out of their minds
'Cause she's the finest girl you'll ever find

Jan And Dean scored a double-sided hit single thanks to this school-
girl song on the B side of their top 10-charting "Dead Man's Curve."
From the early spring of 1964, here's "The New Girl In School!"


"The New Girl In School" - Jan And Dean
(Mar./Apr. 1964, highest chart pos. #26 Cash Box,
#37 Hot 100, B side of "Dead Man's Curve")


So kids, stay in school,
don't be no drag
Take a fool's advice and
stay out of that bag


Tell me one more time people,
looka here, what he said
Without an education
You might as well be dead

In the fall of 1966, Soul Brother #1 James Brown was riding
high on the charts with a musical public service announcement.

CLICK TO START THE VIDEO NOW!

The single reached the top 5 on the R&B chart and is ranked
high at #27 on my list of The Greatest Hits of the Shady Dell.
Brown's message to the kids of America: "Don't Be A Drop-Out!"


"Don't Be A Drop-Out!" - James Brown
And The Famous Flames (Oct./Nov. 1966,
highest chart pos. #4 R&B/#39 Cash Box,
#50 Hot 100/#35 Canada)


Up in the mornin' and out to school
The teacher is teachin' the golden rule


American history and practical math
You're studyin' hard and hopin' to pass


Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll, it's the merry mister Chuck Berry
with his chart-topping hit from the spring of '57--
"School Day (Ring! Ring! Goes The Bell)."


"School Day (Ring! Ring! Goes The Bell)" - Chuck Berry
(Apr./May 1957, highest chart pos. #1 R&B,
#3 Cash Box/#5 Hot 100/#24 UK)


After school we have to rendezvous
Gonna plan all the things that we're gonna do


Trade bookin' for cookin' and I'll quit my lookin'
When our days at the school are through


In the spring of 1960, Bobby Rydell, one of the most
popular teen idols of the pre-Beatles era, scored a top 5
hit with a song about a school that's most definitely cool. 


Enjoy this rare colorized clip as Bobby does-- "Swingin' School!"


"Swingin' School" - Bobby Rydell
(May/June 1960, highest chart pos. #5 Hot 100/#6 Cash Box)



Don't know much about history
Don't know much biology


Don't know much about science books
Don't know much about the French I took

Three music giants co-wrote this next school-related ditty:
Lou Adler, Herb Alpert and Sam Cooke. Sam was first to
wax the song, resulting in a top 10 hit in the spring of 1960.


 Fast-forward to the summer of '65 when England's Herman's Hermits
cracked the U.S. top 5 and topped the Canadian chart with their cover.

CLICK TO START THE VIDEO NOW!

Here's kid tested - mother approved Peter Noone
and his Hermits' doing-- "Wonderful World!"


"Wonderful World" - Sam Cooke cover by Herman's Hermits
(June/July 1965, highest chart position #4 Hot 100,
#5 Cash Box/#1 Canada)


I used to get mad at my school
(Now, I can't complain)
The teachers who taught me weren't cool
(Now, I can't complain)
You're holding me down (Ah-ah),
turning me 'round (Ah-oh)
Filling me up with your rules
(Fool, you fool)


Released by The Beatles in 1967 on their album Sgt. Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band, this song features Paul on double-
tracked lead vocals and John and George on backing vocals.

McCartney sings:
It's "Getting Better" all the time
Lennon sings:
Can't get no worse!


"Getting Better" - The Beatles (from May 1967
album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band)



Everybody screamed
When I kissed the teacher


And they must have thought they dreamed
When I kissed the teacher

Now, here's the opening song on the Swedish
pop group ABBA's 1976 album Arrival.

CLICK TO START THE VIDEO NOW!

This rare clip captures ABBA in a live performance that fall
on Polish TV, performing-- "When I Kissed The Teacher!"


"When I Kissed the Teacher" - ABBA
(Oct. 1976 live perf. on Polish TV in Warsaw)


When the ivy walls
Are far behind


No matter where our paths may wind
We'll remember always
Graduation day
To conclude my musical essay on old school songs that are
old school cool, let's go way back to June, 1956, and listen
to the best known hit by The Four Freshmen, a male vocal
quartet from Indianapolis. The nostalgia song was a major
early influence on The Beach Boys who went on to make
it a regular part of their concert lineup. This special Y/T
hybrid took the original Four Freshmen studio recording
and remixed it to sound more like The Beach Boys.
We'll remember always-- "Graduation Day!"


"Graduation Day" - The Four Freshmen
(May/June 1956, highest chart pos. #12 Cash Box,
#27 Hot 100, remixed in the style of The Beach Boys)


I hope you learned your lesson today.


Meet more enchanting members of

 The AI-Team 

next time, and remember... 


 Old School's the Rule 



 In the Battle Against 
 The Anime From Within! 


  See you soon!  

Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

13 comments:

  1. Mary KirklandMarch 9, 2025 at 11:20 AM

    In October and December of last year I posted a few AI created characters that I made too. It was fun to see what I could come up with. All of your pictures are cute and really fun.

    I didn't know any of the songs though. I did recognize some of the bands like ABBA but not that song. Before my time I think.

    Falcor and I are good, thanks for asking. It's been pretty nice temperature wise here so he is loving going for walks. When it got windy for a couple of days he was chasing and hopping in the air trying to catch the flying paper and bags. He had fun. lol I hope you have a good rest of the month and I'll see you when you come back again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shady Del KnightMarch 9, 2025 at 12:16 PM

      Hi, Mary!

      By golly, you made a cross country trip all the way from the Pacific Time Zone to become this month's Early Bird! That's a very unusual feat, dear friend, and I thank you.

      Yessum, you are too young for these songs, most of which were popular when I was just a kiddo. Thanks for letting me know that you are also fascinated by the AI phenomenon and liked these images.

      Yessum, I noticed that the temperatures this past week were in the comfortable range there in Vegas, and I am also delighted that your neighborhood is settling down and becoming more peaceful than it was in previous years. I hope the trend continues but, as someone said in their comment on your blog, if things go too well around the complex and you never have any commotion to report, you might need to drop that weekly feature from your blog. :) If you do, I insist that you bring back the Rock Song of the Week! :) I can picture my buddy Falcor jumping at flying bags and candy wrappers on windy days. Thanks for sharing that with me.

      Thank you again for racing over to take first place, dear friend Mary. Take care of yourself and look for my next post at the start of next month. See you then!

      Delete
  2. Alex J. CavanaughMarch 9, 2025 at 2:38 PM

    One thing you'll notice about AI rendered people as they tend to look Oriental. I wonder why that is?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shady Del KnightMarch 9, 2025 at 3:29 PM

      Hi, Alex!

      The silver's yours, good buddy, and thanks for coming over on your weekend!

      Regarding your question about AI generated images of humans, many people have shared this same observation and discussed it at length on sites like Reddit. One person wrote: "AI image generation has a strong asian bias." Another wrote: "My guess is that it's an Asian programmed image generator front end and therefore their default, in the absence of specifying prompts, is Asian people, just like a Western or European+programmed image generator would be most likely to default to Caucasian people." Yet another had this to say: "My theory is it’s trained on a wider base of asians in photographs than of other ethnicities just because (i’m pretty sure) the vast majority of the world’s population are some variant of asian. so, there are just more photographs of them to train on!" If you look at the pics of women and girls in my right sidebar, you;ll note that quite a few are Asian, but some reflect an overriding of the bias using specific prompt language to achieve Western women (like Debbie the Dellette).

      Thanks again for hustling over, good buddy Alex. I hope to see you again at the start of next month when I return with my next offering.

      Delete
  3. JanetMarch 9, 2025 at 4:40 PM

    Happy Sunday to you friend Shady! I love the pictures in this post. The one with the violet eyes is striking. A few remind me of the Big Eyes pictures by Margaret Keane (which also reminds me that I want to see the movie, "Big Eyes.") I knew a couple of the songs but honestly didn't remember many of them. I will be posting in the next day or two about my A to Z theme this year. Hopefully I can get it together. Hope you and the Mrs. are doing well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shady Del KnightMarch 9, 2025 at 7:43 PM

      Hi, Janet & Benny!

      I'm excited to see you, dear friend! Thanks for setting aside time on your Sunday to visit Shady's Place and experience Vol. 1 of my new series The AI-Team. Every post in the series will feature an array of mindblowing AI-generated art images combined with oldies but goodies that follow a particular theme. This first edition presented songs related to the school days of our youth.

      The battle against "The Anime From Within" (See what I did there? :) will present several different types of AI art characters, ranging from Anime heroines that have names, reputations and their own published adventures, to random art figures rendered in cartoon style and 3-D. Yessum, "Big Eyes" is a popular subgenre in the AI art community. As an Amy Adams fan and "completist," I have seen her film Big Eyes and recommend it.

      I can't wait to find out your theme for this year's A to Z Challenge and I'll be looking for your "Theme Reveal" post. Thank you again for getting here in time to claim the Bronze Medal in the race to Shady's Place. I hope you and my buddy Benny have been well and in good spirits since we last connected. Look for my next post to coincide with the start of this year's A to Z on April 1. Take care until we meet again, dear friend Janet!

      Delete
  4. KirkMarch 9, 2025 at 10:14 PM

    Of the songs I've heard before, my favorite is Chuck Berry's "School Days", I just love the rhythm.

    I never heard James Brown's "Don't Be a Dropout" before and thought it was an odd subject for him as I knew he had dropped out of school. But I looked it up and saw while that's true, extreme poverty growing up was the reason for him doing so, and that the song was an early example of him moving toward more socially conscious subject matter as the 1960s wore on.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shady Del KnightMarch 10, 2025 at 3:00 AM

      Hi, Kirk!

      Thanks for stayin' up late to communicate, good buddy! I'm happy to have you by my side in the battle against the greatest threat facing the human race: "The Anime From Within." (T-shirts available at my Etsy shop :)

      I was thrilled to find that beautifully remastered studio recording of Chuck Berry's "School Day," a hit single for Chuck in the spring of 1957. I came to know and love the song in my early 20s when I purchased the Cruisin' vinyl album series. "School Day" was in the lineup of the Cruisin' 1957 volume hosted by Philadelphia radio legend Joe Niagara of WIBG.

      James Brown's 1966 hit single "Don't Be A Drop-Out!" was a biggie at the Shady Dell. The musical PSA is ranked #27 on my list of the Dell's 200 Greatest Hits. As you mentioned, "Drop-Out" was Soul Bro #1's first socially conscious release. The song's lyrics include the autobiographical confession and plea:

      So kids, stay in school
      Don't be no drag
      Take a fool's advice
      And stay out of that bag

      Brown's hit record led to an invite and meeting with Vice President Hubert Humphrey who was championing a stay-in-school program at the time. Whenever I hear the record, it reminds me of a particular night in the fall of '66 - the night I "closed the Dell." I was having a blast listening to the jukebox and I stayed so late that, after a while, I realized I was alone in the "Barn" - the "last rat standing" on the dance floor. To finish the night with a bang, I played both sides of this JB platter - "Drop-Out" followed by the frantic flip "Tell Me That You Love Me." Whatta night that was!

      Thanks again for joining the fun, good buddy Kirk. I'll be back with my next post at the beginning of April. Take care until we meet again!

      Delete
  5. KellyMarch 10, 2025 at 12:18 PM

    Hi Shady! I bet you tried to comment on my blog and weren't able to! Another person is still having trouble, too. It's just a couple of you, though, so I don't have a solution. Anyway..... I hadn't heard from you in awhile, so I decided to check and look what I found!

    I knew Carrie Ann right off the bat, but was then starting to think it was the only one. No fear, I ended up several near the end (Beatles, Four Freshmen) and while I knew the Sam Cook song, I didn't know that cover of it!

    Pat says hello and we'll try to be better about checking in here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KellyMarch 10, 2025 at 12:18 PM

      Oh..... I knew the Beach Boys song, too.

      Delete
    2. Shady Del KnightMarch 10, 2025 at 3:30 PM

      Hi, Kelly & Pat!

      I'm delighted to see you, dear friend, and no... I did not try to comment on your current post, nor have I forgotten about you. If it's all the same to you, I intend to keep my eyes peeled for your very next post and visit you then, the rationale being that commenting on your book reviews usually takes me out of my depth, while things like your Instagram photo essays, music posts, jigsaw puzzles and certain other themes you present give me more to express (in an effort to seem intelligent). Regardless of the topic, I promise I'll be there for your next post, and I thank you for being here as I launch yet another series, The AI-Team.

      It seems like you know more of these school-related boomer oldies than anyone else. I was excited to find that upscaled video of The Hollies doing "Carrie-Anne" on The Smothers Brothers show. The audio and video quality are outstanding. Same with the other songs you mentioned. "Getting Better" never sounded as good as it does now in its remastered form, and the glorious harmonies on that Beach Boys style remix of The Four Freshmen hit make me swoon. Yessum, Sam Cooke had a sizeable hit with his 1960 version of "Wonderful World," but Herman's Hermits achieved an even bigger hit five years later with their bouncy cover.

      Hello to your little rascal... my good buddy Pat! Please don't apologize for arriving here a little later than usual. I am the one guilty of being AWOL this month, and I promise to visit you when your next post appears in my reader list. On a program note, I will be back with my next post at the start of the month, and look forward to entertaining you again at that time. Until then, take good care of yourself and your canine clan, dear friend Kelly!

      Delete
  6. BirgitMarch 10, 2025 at 12:31 PM

    Oh my! I am Here!! I am off the week and was busy on the weekend. I l9ve all of these and know all but the one where the Beach Boys were influenced by. The one lead singer must have liked Dean Martin because his style reminded me if him. The songs you chose for school are perfecto! I especially, love the ABBA song ( big surprise). Jan and Dean remind me of a time more innocent, or seemed more innocent. I love the Beatles and The Hollies.
    The Anime are perfect a d so typical for the aasian artists to make the girls innocent looking with killer bods and short skirts. I don't think I ever saw a teacher that looked like her. Once the gals age, their eyes are drawn smaller, at least, that's what I read. Have a wonderful week and month even though you have Resident Rump

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shady Del KnightMarch 10, 2025 at 3:50 PM

      Hi, Birgit!

      Thank you for making time to drop by, dear friend! Wow, BB... you scored 9 out of 10 in this make-believe game of Name That Tune. That's impressive! Yessum, I know you are a big ABBA fan, and I was happy to find this live version of the group performing "When I Smooched The Teacher." I had never seen it before. Glad to hear that you give favorable nods to Jan And Dean, The Beatles and The Hollies. "Jennifer Eccles" is a fun Hollies song that, in my experience, is seldom played on oldies radio in the 21st century.

      I'm pleased that you enjoyed examining the AI-rendered images of women and girls that helped illustrate the school days theme for Vol. 1 of my new series The AI-Team. Yessum, I need all the support I can get in my ongoing battle against the dreaded "Anime From Within!" :) On a related note, let me be the first to congratulate you and your fellow Canadians for expressing such joy and enthusiasm over the prospect of becoming our 51st state! The USA is one big happy family, so come on down and welcome aboard! :)

      Thank you again for your kind visit and comment, dear friend BB. Please take good care of yourself, my buddy Harley and your precious kitties and look for my next post on the first of April. See you then!

      Delete

I wanna know
What you're thinking
There are some things you can't hide
I wanna know
What you're feeling
Tell me what's on your mind

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)