Tales of the Road Warriors Hal Aaron Cohen, musician, singer songwriter and podcaster

Michael Winslow Show Notes

Talking Points:
Twitter handle  @Noizey_Man
Grew up on several Air Force bases
Moved around a lot as a kid.
Killed the boredom  by imitating the sounds of machinery around the military bases.
Including typewriters. Take this video for example…
32 Typewriters
32 Typewriters??? I couldn’t tell the difference between a Remington Noiseless Portable or a IBM Executive Model 42 or a Smith Corona Word processor
Books:
Whack to the Side of the Head
Kick to the Seat of the Pants
Lesson learned - there’s more than one right answer
Tik Tok
Jimi Hendrix
Comics stealing jokes.
Robin Williams
Multiple languages
Cheech and Chong no longer PC?
But what makes your impressions so unique are the facial expressions. You seem to be listening to the headphones, where i imagine someone is feeding you the recording for reference
The afterwards, you look at the two mics as if you’re trying to decide which one to eat first.
Did your parents ever try to discourage you/ I mean, making all those sounds around the house s a little kid, didn’t yell, Hey Mikey, cut it out, I’m trying to watch Star Trek here, and you’d be making laser gun sounds.  At what point did your mom or dad say, Hey now — THERE’S a career! Looks like you won’t be needing college, son.
List of noises:
’Scuse me while I kiss this guy - attribution. Michael was the first that I know of to use that line.
Matre D’ at the Great American and Poppy’s Star (along with Alan "Walk This Way" Feinman as Groucho, and Billy Scudder as Charlie Chaplain)
Dupars after Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie
Sky Trails Open Mic
My Sharona
Just What I Needed by the Cars
Michael Winslow and folk pop-musician Odd Nordstoga performed Whole Lotta Love on the Norwegian talkshow Senkveld - with Thomas og Harald
The Russia Story
Slight incident while filming Police Academy: Mission to Moscow in Russia
  Killing Hasselhoff
Completely unexpected. It was a total delight seeing you pop up in a cameo! My rating went up a star.
Mention on THE GOLDBERGS…
Dana: I don't get it. This is part 5. Shouldn't they have graduated the Academy after the first one?
Adam: I think the problem is you're focusing on logic, not the lovable cast of characters.
Dana: Okay, in what world would an officer of the law stop a jewel thief by making weird mouth noises?
Adam: That's Michael Winslow. He's a national treasure.
Dana: They're LAPD. They wouldn't have any jurisdiction in Miami.
Referenced on other shows: Ellen, Family Guy, Robot Chicken (Police Academy: X-Men)
You’ve done sound fx for many tv and movies. What are some of the things where we are actually hearing your voices? Do you have any favorites?
The very best of the 60s. 80s
Voice insured by Lloyd’s of London with Mary Hart’s legs
Eddie Van Halen and Michael jamming too loud at the Namm Show
Recently Live on Twitch
Sound Effects in Video games
Phasmaphoria
Among Us
Links
Michael Winslow Media
Michael Winslow Youtube Channel
Michael Winslow on Facebook
Michael Winslow on Instagram
Nico Is - Brazilian Rapper - Agua
Tales of the Road Warriors Website

Today my guest is Robert Smokey Miles...    

He knows Bob Dylan personally and even used to be his house sitter as a teenager
Around 1987 he began hosting open mics and acoustic music showcases at the Breakaway Gardens in Venice, CA, much like I did in the San Fernando Valley several years later. Although I had been to the Breakaway,  on many occasions before I left Venice, I don’t recall having ever met Smokey, although in retrospect, I must have. While editing this episode, I determined it would have been almost impossible for me not to have crossed paths wit this guy!
As Count Smokula, a quirky vampire sporting a fez and playing accordion,  he was a male counterpart to Elvira, MIstress of the Dark. Although Elvira had a more massive following, Smokula has a pretty fair cult following of his own. He continues to perform in the Annual Pasadena Doo Dah Parade with The Radioactive Chicken Heads.
He’s worked in some bizarre cult films such as “Magics”, about a very unique magician who entertains sick and injured Palestinian and Jewish kids thoughout Israel's pediatric hospitals. Original music performed by bob as Count Smokula on his accordion
Appears in several Troma Films from Troma Entertainment which is an independent film company that produces low-budget independent films. Mostly flicks that pay homage to the 1950’s horror films - lots of farcical parodies with gratuitous fake blood, guts and gore.
These include: Trasharella with Rena Riffel; and he even did a couple of songs with Ron Jeremy, the porn star for TromaDance Festival one year.
For links to my Smokey’s website and Youtube videos, go to www.talesoftheroadwarriors.com/smokey-miles where you’ll find them right under the show notes!
So yeah, Smokey’s done his fair share of hosting music showcases, playing his guitar and the accordion, doing sketch comedy in the persona of the immortal Count Smokula, and cameo appearances in movies and music videos with the likes of Bob Dylan, himself. So, ‘nuff said… Here he is to talk about it - Robert “Smokey” Miles!
Links to some of Smokey’s stuff (right under the Show Notes, where  I said they’d be):
Smokey Miles Official Website
The Social Distance Dance
Bob Dylan’s "Must Be Santa" Official Video
Smokey plays a smoking’ accordion solo in this vid!

ESSRA MOHAWK Pt. 1 Show Notes
Essra Mohawk has had a very long and storied career. To describe her music as eclectic is a gross understatement. Her songs run the gamut from pop to avant garden, and in between she covers a lot of bases including rock, folk, folk rock, motown, jazz, tv jingles, rhythm and blues, and beautiful, heartfelt ballads about love and lust.
Born Sandra Elayne Hurvitz, her earlier influences were her parents, Anne and Henry.  Through them she grew up listening to an eclectic list of artists such as Judy Garland, Nina Simone, The Coasters, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Little Anthony & the Imperials, Thelonius Monk, Erik Satie, Billy Holiday, Otis Redding, The Beatles, The Stones, Ravi Shankar among others/
In 1964 she released a single as Jamie Carter titled “The Boy With the Way” which I personally think is a really cool song. It pronbably could have been a hit hat it received proper publicity and marketing. Essra sounded a little peeved  talking about it. I don’t blame her, and it would turn  out not to be the first time here career hit a snag or detour.
Essra was also the first female member of the Mothers of Invention. In fact, she spent about a year in a relationship with Frank Zappa who thanks to band member Ray Collins suggestion  for a rock star name, dubbed her, Uncle Meat.  When I first met Uncle Meat, she was in Philly on hiatus, and I had no idea who Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention were at the time. I would shortly discover them through Philadelphia DJ Michael Tearson, and eventually make the connection. But, I was happy to finally talk to her again so I could tell her the story of my first Essra Mohawk encounter. At this point, I should probably apologize for hijacking the conversation, for which I was duly busted by Essra.
As I mentioned, her career is multifaceted, so the Show Notes page at talesoftheroadwarriors-slash-Essra-Mohawk includes some Essra Mohawk Career Highlights, discography ands links to some of the songs we talked about in this conversation. In my conversation, BTW, I barely scratched the surface of her career, so this is really just a little slice of life in which I hopefully captured some of her essence and got a couple pretty good stories from her.
Due to technical  difficulties, I just couldn’t get good enough audio, so I’ll just tell you some things that were to garbled to include in the podcast.
I did manage to capture a little about her “crazy courage” as a Philly girl, and her propensity to stick up for others against bullies - and her mom.
The main story I was hoping to have her retell was how she was scheduled to be one of the performers  at Woodstock, but her manager missed the turn, causing Essra to miss her debut  on the most well known world stage of all time.
LINKS:
Essra’s Facebook Page
ESSRA MOHAWK MUSIC VIDEOS
Essra Mohawk as Jamie Carter “The Boy With The Way"
Raindance
I Am The Breeze (from Primordial Lovers album)
19th Amendment School House Rock
 
From Hemifran MusicWebsite:
DISCOGRAPHY
Though you can stream most of Essra's Music on Spotify, iTunes, PAndora, etc., it is important to support your favorite artists as often as you can - by purchasing their albums. Purchase Essra Mohawk albums directly from her using this PDF.
You can also order some from the Tales of the Road Warriors website by clicking on one of my affiliate links. Buying through these links will help keep the site AND Essra healthy!
•1968 Sandy’s Album is Here at Last (as Sandy Hurvitz) produced by Frank Zappa
•1970 Primordial Lovers
•1974 Essra Mohawk
•1976 Essra
•1982 Burnin’ Shinin’ (released without knowledge of the artist)
•1985 E-Turn
•1995 Raindance
•1999 Essie Mae Hawk Meets the KillerGrooveBand  (My personal favorite. Killer band and killer grooves. This album was appropriately named!)
•2003 You’re Not Alone
•2006 Love is Still The Answer
•2007 Revelations of

Ben Vaughn Part 2 - Show Notes
Hey, howzit going everybody? Had enough of this lockdown yet? I know, I know, there’s nothing funny about it and you’re running out of ideas. Well, at least you have me to keep you entertained for a little while. I’m Hal in Philly and this is my podcast. Welcome to it. In case you forgot , it’s called… TALES OF THE ROAD WARRIORS!
If you listened to the last episode, my conversation with Ben Vaughn - Part 1 then you know I ended it wth a kind of a cliff hanger. Ben was telling me that his father would not allow him to have a guitar i the house if he couldn’t get his grades up in school. Well, Ben had a hard time getting better grades, Instead choosing to be a juvenile delinquent. A rebel with an axe to grind, but he couldn’t bring his axe home with him. So, in part two, Ben goes on to tell us how he got around the Vaughn house rules…
Talking Points
No guitar allowed…
E.J. Korvettes
Silvertone guitars
The Relay Shack
The Rambler Revisited
My Essra Mohawk story
The Hippie scene in Philly, 20th and Sansom Street, The Plain Dealer - free underground newspaper
Sugar Cane Harvest in Cuba
Venceremos Brigade
Songs we thought we had only imagined
Underground Radio, The Marconi Experiment with Dave Herman
John Sebastian was a bad influence on me
Ben and I preach against smoking (Sorry, smokers)
Norristown and the Zep
The Delaware Valley
More on The Geeter
The Mojave Desert
Santa Monica, Rent control, Ocean Park
The Blue Lagune Saloon
Kenn Kweder live shows on Facebook
Music scene in Philly - Past and present, the next generation
Charlie Gracie
World Cafe Live
Coronavirus effect on gigs
____________________________
TIP JAR
 
 
 

Ben Vaughn, rock and roll star and DJ.. known throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware Tri-state area and parts of New York.  A fixture around these parts for a very long time. Listeners of NPR radio stations across the country can listen to his show, The Many Moods of Ben Vaughn”
Musical influences include Kenn Kweder and Jerry Blavat aka The Geeter with the Heater, the Big Boss with the Hot Sauce.

Hal in Philly talks with truck driver and podcaster, Dave Kanyan, host of Dumbing it Down With Dave, about driving a truck, podcasting at 85 mph, milk, comedy and some music.
Episode Links and Resources Dave's Podcast
Dumbing it Down With Dave
Stream or Download - I'm Going For A Drive
Tales of the Road Warriors Coffee Mug
I'm Goin' For A Drive Travel Mug