ROCKIN' across the burnin' desert with alt-rockers Panic At The Disco and a borrowed 23-window

(above) Panic At The Disco, aboard their borrowed 23-window "split-type,"

the classic "original" VW bus type built between 1950 and 1967.

(above and below) between Los Angeles and Panic's roots in Las Vegas,

across the Mojave Desert, via Barstow and Nipton, CA

(above) a trick shot

(above and below) the critical crossroads at Nipton

(above) somewhere in the middle of the burnin' desert

(above and below) "omigod we have a breakdown . . ." (maybe)

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Those of you who follow this blog may or may not watch MTV frequently, but currently running is a sort of song-cycle set to a 7-set visual travelogue, as produced by MTV, Atlantic Records, starring a relatively new band with aspirations towards Radiohead's success . . . Panic At The Disco.

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Honestly, I'm not familiar with their music, so I can't quite say which of their songs actually fuel this expedition across the Mojave Desert (possibly en route to L.A., possibly returning to their hometown of Las Vegas, but definitely referencing Barstow, Nipton, and points in between). As the band's second album, PRETTY. ODD was released on March 25, 2008, and the album's first single, "Nine in the Afternoon," preceded the album, likely that's the focus of the promotion.

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Kinda nifty, actually. Great camera work. And the bus itself is cherry, as well as the snippets of the music. The bandmembers, seems to me, would seem awfully appealing to teenage girls in the way all the great pop bands do.

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Panic At The Disco (previously known as Panic! At The Disco, and often shortened to merely Panic! or Panic, or PATD) is an alt-rock band that originated near Las Vegas (in a suburb, Summerlin, NV, specifically). As Wikipedia notes, "their sound incorporates elements of pop, electronica, dance, and rock, along with many other genres."

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Panic was formed in 2004. The current bandmembers include Brendon Urie, Ryan Ross, Jon Walker (who replaced Brent Wilson), and Spencer Smith. Ross (guitarist) and Smith (drummer) are the two who founded the group. Wikipedia also notes, "Panic [has been] known for old-style circus shows, where they bring an entourage of contortionists and dancers on stage with them as they perform." However a new variety of "backgrounding" themes apparently has emerged, one possibly involving this VW bus odyssey.

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The bus itself was loaned for the 7-cycle videoshoot by a person posing as "lasvegas13window" on http://www.thesamba.com/, which I believe is a site specific to VW devotees. Here's some of the dialogue I saw on-site (warning: these are not teenage girls dialoguing here):

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LASVEGAS13WINDOW: "[These] are some clips of my 23-window [split-type] bus, with the band "Panic at the Disco." They've started playing these clips on primetime to promote [MTV and the band]. Tell me what you guys think!!! I'm so excited with the coverage they have of my bus!!

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JHUNG1977: "Very nice 23-window you have there! Love the color, and the band is actually very good!"

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///MINK: "Cool. Did I sell you the driver's seat in that bus?"

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LASVEGAS13 WINDOW: "Yes, Mink, I think you did sell me that seat! I don't remember if I got it from you or from a guy in New Zealand!?! Either way, pretty cool videos, huh? Make sure you check out all seven of the clips, because my bus is in more than one clip!"

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STANAGON: "Tell us what it was like to let the "talent" drive your bus. Hopefully they were upfront about this from the beginning and paid you well to use and drive such a nice bus."

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MYSAMBA: "Love the bus shots, not so keen on the band though . . ."

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DSTEFUN: "The band sucks, but the bus is cool. Or in the words of my wife, 'Too much band, not enough bus.'"

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LASVEGAS13WINDOW: "I guess there aren't very many Panic At The Disco fans in these forums. Unless there are a bunch of 12-16-year-old girls who are restoring and driving VW buses these days. At least the band didn't try to use a "Bay-type" bus in their video . . . . haha!"

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PYROMAN: "Kool score on the much air time your bus got!"

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SUEBUG: "Ummmm, excuse me. I like Panic At The Disco and I'm old enough to be their mother. This video was just their acoustic version. You were brave to let 19-23-year-olds play with your bus. Now you'll be followed in Vegas by groupies. Nice reward! And sweet bus!"

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'64CALLOOKDUB: "I've been seeing that bus on MTV a lot, and knew it couldn't have belonged to any of those guys."

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LASVEGAS13WINDOW: "I actually was on the [traveling] set the whole time and I supervised all the bus stuff. I've been trying to catch as much of the MTV coverage that I can, and they show the clips either the first 30 or the last 30 seconds of the commercial break. You can see the entire video they put together at http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?vid=223365.

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FYI, for those of you unlikely to visit Nipton, CA anytime soon, it's an unincorporated town two miles across the stateline from Searchlight, NV in eastern San Bernardino County. It's effectively the gateway to the Mojave Desert National Preserve. Nipton was established as Nippeno Camp in 1905 with the advent of the San Pedro/LosAngeles/and Salt Lake Railroad, as a place for gold miners and itinerant ranchhands to reside. For many years, Nipton had the most lottery ticket sales in the state for the California State Lottery (as many Las Vegas residents made the relatively short trip down to get their tickets). Cuttently there's a small (5 room) hotel, originally constructed in 1910, and an even smaller general store. Of course, you could also visit http://www.nipton.com/aboutnipton2.html to tuck in and learn more.

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In my next blog, I'll explore the VW "split" and "bay" types relative to Dead Heads, hippies, and Woodstock attendees, all covered in a marvelous new book TRAVELING WITH THE VW BUS & CAMPER (Abbeville Press, NY, 2007), that I just received from the publisher.

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special thanks to MTV, Atlantic Records, and Panic At The Disco, for the use of these (low-res) stills, and to www.thesamba.com for the dialogue.

a real ROCKIN' ROCKET 88 driver, Hershel McGriff

(above and two below) an exact replica of the Olds Rocket 88 driven by Hershel McGriff

to victory at the inaugural 1950 Mexican Road Race

(above) Hershel McGriff in the early 1950s

(above) McGriff (front, in an Olds) racing Johnny Soares at the Oakland Speedway in 1952

(above) McGriff with Sara Christian, an early NASCAR driver

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The Oldsmobile Rocket 88, as readers of this blog know well, not only inspired the #1 R&B hit "Rocket 88" in 1951 (on the Chess label, by Ike Turner but credited to Jackie Brenston) but was as well a renowned racing car and one of the first sedans which could be termed an American 'muscle car.' In the last blog I told you about NASCAR's first champion driver, Red Byron, of Rocket 88 fame; here, let's celebrate some of driver Hershel McGriff's Rocket 88 background, relative to the very first Mexican Road Race, and 1950s NASCAR as well. McGriff is shown to left.

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McGriff, of Portland, OR, then 22 years of age, won the 1950 Mexican Road Race in a basically stock Rocket 88. The race was a driving marathon through Mexico, North to South [that year; as the course was reversed in 1951 - 1954], from the Texas border to Guatemala. The event was sponsored by the Mexican government in celebration of the completion of the Pan-American Highway.

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All major-class entries in the 2,178-mile race were required to be unmodified 5-passenger sedans. Of 132 entries (some reports say 126), only 52 (or, possibly, 47) cars completed the race. McGriff's speed over the often treacherous terrain averaged 78.421 mph, although another source says it was an average of 79.2 mph, not to split hairs. McGriff and assistant driver Ray Elliott took home a purse of $17,000 after successfully negotiating the route in 27 hours, 34 minutes, 25 seconds.

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La Carrera PanAmericana, as noted in http://www.jalopyjournal.com/?p=531, "was the toughest race in the world." The article continued, "LeMans doesn't hold a candle. The Mille Miglia doesn't come close. Terrible maps, horrible roads, drivers with evil intentions, and government employees with empty pockets and children to feed. After the race, there were no real winners or losers--just dusty survivors. They were real road warriors.

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"Mexico wanted to celebrate the completion of their Panamerican Highway. They were either already drunk or out of Tequila, because this race was never a good idea. Proof is in the history lesson, as this deal only ran from 1950 till 1954. Too many accidents, too many deaths, too many laws ignored. Still, heroes garnered their status in those four short years. Carroll Shelby, Phil Hill, Juan Manuel Fangio, and Mickey Thompson all made it through with some success. Ak Miller showed his freakishly subborn ways in driving the Hot Rod Magazine-sponsored "El Caballo" roadster through the Mexican landscape and into the realm of legends.

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"Most surving veterans point to the first race in 1950 as the one to remember. Many drivers exited mid-race after some sort of violence . . . three died. Hershel McGriff won the race with the [so-called] "Mexican Blackbird," piloting his Olds Rocket 88 past Ferraris and Porsches to take the win.

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"McGriff later said, 'We were living on nerves. I lost 20 pounds in five days. We had no support truck, just a couple of wrenches and bumper jacks. I won because I knew how to drive on poor roads. I was simply used to driving big [Northwest lumber] trucks on gravel, and we had 6-ply tires on the race car.'

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"And then there were the Mexican nationals," the Jalopy Journal continued. "Some saw the event as a chance to get free performance parts after hours. Others saw it as a sporting event for themselves. As the hot rods roared through their tiny little barrios at over 100 mph, some would make an effort to actually reach out and touch the cars. No records were kept on how many civilians were killed in this manner."

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McGriff was born December 14, 1927 in Bridal Veil, OR. He launched his stock car racing career in September, 1945 at the dirt Portland Speedway, finishing 13th in his family's sedan. The same year he won the the Mexican Road Race (1950), he also made his NASCAR debut, campaigning his #52 "City of Roses" Oldsmobile in the inaugural Southern 500 at Darlington, SC where he finished 9th. In 1951 McGriff made three starts in NASCAR's new Grand National division, driving his own Olds Rocket 88. He placed 11th at Detroit and 4th in the Southern 500 that year. In 1952, he drove Beryl Jackson's #3 Olds in two Grand Nationals, and in 1953 entered his own #5 Olds in two events. Overall, only announcing his retirement from racing in 2002, he competed in 85 NASCAR Winston Cup starts, earning five poles, four wins, seventeen top-5s and thirty-one top-10s. He was one of the most honored drivers ever to come out of the Pacific Northwest.

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In the photos shown here, there's one with McGriff seated atop a racing car with Sara Christian. She competed in the first NASCAR Strictly Stock race at the three-quarter-mile Charlotte, NC Speedway on June 19, 1949. The '49 Oldsmobile she drove was prepared by her husband Frank; she drove in six of the eight Strictly Stock races that year, finishing 13th in the point standings. Her best finish was fifth in the October Heidelberg, PA race, and it remains the only top-five finish in history for a woman in stock car racing's premier circuit. With an additional pair of top-10 finishes, she was named Woman Driver of the Year by the United States Drivers' Association, and that same year she and husband Frank became the only husband and wife to compete separately but as a team in a NASCAR event (at Daytona's beach-road course, Frank finished sixth while Sara came in 18th).

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One further note on Red Byron. Another account I read subsequently to my first blog indicates he was a tail gunner on 57 missions in a B-24 during WWII, and was shot down over Kitka Island in the Aleutian Islands during his 58th mission. Ironically, he flew that mission for a friend whose wife was expecting their first child momentarily.

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Fans of ZZ Top certainly will recall the "Mexican Blackbird" song, relative to McGriff's car of the same name (shown above, recreated by Roy Asbahr of Gresham, OR, years after it was scrapped in 1958). Only thing is, the Billy F Gibbons-penned tune refers to a . . . Chrysler:

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"If you're down in Acuna and you ain't up to being alone

Don't spend all your money on just any honey that's grown.

Go find the Mexican blackbird

And send all your troubles back home.

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"Oh, let's drive that old Chrysler down to Mexico, boy.

Said, keep your hands on the wheel there,

Oh, it sure is fine, aint' it?

Now, ya got it!

Hand me another one of them brews from back there.

Oh, this is gonna be so good."

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You can read more about the Mexican Road Race at http://www.classics.com/panam50.html

and at http://blogs.motortrend.com/6204458/editorial/the-legends-of-the-great-road-races-seminar/index.html. There's also more about Hershel McGriff at http://www.legendsofnascar.com/Hershel_McGriff.htm, and still more about the racing and engineering history of the Olds Rocket 88 at http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z2060/Oldsmobile_88.aspx.

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Red Byron, NASCAR's first truly ROCKIN' driver (1948-1950), of ROCKET 88 fame

(above) the 1949 Oldsmobile ROCKET 88, of early NASCAR fame.

(and, two years later, the focal point of the Ike Turner-penned #1 R&B hit song)

(above) Robert N. "Red" Byron, who piloted his ROCKET 88 to the

NASCAR Strictly Stock late-model tour championship in 1949

(above) "Red Byron, galloping out of Daytona's south turn during his

runner-up effort in the opening event of the 1950 NASCAR Grand National season."

(above) "Red Byron's courage and grit earned him a place in NASCAR lore."
(above) the #22 car, with Red Byron aboard, posing on Daytona's beach
(above) war hero returned home, as NASCAR's first champ, Red Byron

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"You may have heard of jalopies

You heard the noise they make

Let me introduce you to my Rocket 88

Yes, it's great, just won't wait

Everybody likes my Rocket 88."

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Music and lyrics by Ike Turner, who wrote this #1 R&B 1951 hit, although ironically Chess Records credited "Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats." (Brenston wasTurner's cousin, and the sax player in Turner's Kings of Rhythm band).

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In ROCKIN' DOWN THE HIGHWAY (pages 26 - 27), I go into great detail about this song, the musicians who played on this first rock-sounding record, the Oldsmobile Rocket 88 which inspired it, and the Charles Kettering-created engine which was at its core. I also noted that the Rocket 88 won 6 of 9 NASCAR races in 1949, 10 of 19 in 1950, and 20 of 41 in 1952 (before being eclipsed by the Hudson Hornet).

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What I didn't mention is that NASCAR's principal Oldsmobile driver during those years was a war hero returned home, Robert N. "Red" Byron."

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This from http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/red-byron.htm (actually created by the Auto Editors of Consumer Guide):

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"Robert N. "Red" Byron's name is prominently etched in NASCAR's record books, having won the inaugural championship in 1948 and the first NASCAR Strictly Stock title (now known as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series) in 1949. Known for his courage throughout his life, he refined the art of slinging dirt.

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"Byron, from Anniston, AL, claimed he first drove an automobile at age five and owned a car when he was 10. "It was a Model T Ford and that was in 1926," Byron later said.

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"Young Red stripped the Ford down, slashed off the fenders, stiffened the suspension, and doctored the engine. He accepted the challenges of older kids to participate in unorganized races around a homemade track carved out of a local cow pasture. It was there he won his first race.

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"Byron's professional racing career began when he was only 16. In the 1930s, he was interested in any form of speed on four wheels, be it open wheelers, chopped-up roadsters, powerful Midgets, or stock cars. During his early adulthood, Byron rose through the ranks of "educational" (small-time) racing and developed into a consistent winner.

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"With the outbreak of World War II, Byron's racing career was put on hold. He enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces and served as a flight engineer on a B-24 bomber. He completed 57 missions in Europe, but was shot down on his 58th, over the Aleutian Islands. Critically wounded, Byron spent more than two years in Army hospitals.

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"He left the hospital in 1945, able to walk on his own only with the aid of a cane. Byron had authored countless feats of courage and resilience in the war, and he laid plans to return to auto racing.

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"In February, 1946, Byron made a triumphant return to racing in a Modified event in Orlando, FL. He nosed out Roy Hall and Bill France (NASCAR's founder) in a three-car finish. When he parked in the make-do confines of a roped-off victory lane, Byron had to be helped from the car. His left leg, so badly damaged in the war, had been placed in a steel stirrup that was bolted to the clutch. When he unbuckled the chin strap of his Cromwell helmet, he looked like a man twice his age of 30.

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"Despite his game leg and his frail appearance, Red Byron could dazzle and bewilder the best stock jockeys in the business. He developed patience and savvy to compliment his undiminished aggression, and it paid off with back-to-back NASCAR championships (1948 and 1949).

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"Declining helath forced him to hand up his goggles in 1951, but he remained active in racing. He worked closely with Briggs Cunningham, who was trying to develop an American sports car that could win Grand Prix races. When Byron died of a heart attack on November 7, 1960, he was managing a team in Sports Cart Club of America competition."

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The 1948 NASCAR season was the first official year for NASCAR-sanctioned racing. It also featured three female drivers: Sara Christian, Louise Smith, and Ethel Flock. The cars were pre-war coupes, known as "Modifieds."

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Red Byron won the first NASCAR-labeled race, on February 15, 1948, at Daytona Beach, with an average speed of 75.47 mph. That year, out of 52 races, he would also win at North Wilkesboro (twice), Lexington, Wadesborough, Richmond, Greensboro, Charlotte (twice), and Macon. He beat out Fonty Flock by 37.75 points.

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In 1949, Byron won his second straight NASCAR title, and became the first champion of the new Strictly Stock late-model tour on the strength of a pair of wins during the abbreviated eight-race campaign. Byron, who drove Oldsmobiles for owner Raymond Parks, finished 117.5 points in front of runner-up Lee Petty, who won once. Byron only finished out of the top 10 in two of his six starts.

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The 1949 NASCAR Strictly Stock season came about when Bill France recalled the idea of a circuit for late-model American cars. Prior to the war, nearly every stock car race was entirely composed of late-model sedans. But after the war, a shortage of new, postwar automobiles had delayed any thought of racing late models. The first Strictly Stock race was held on June 19, 1949, open to the fastest 33 cars in qualifications.

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Byron was again competitive in 1950, and was among the leaders in the points standings, when all of his points were stripped by NASCAR when he was found to have driven in independent "outlaw" races. NASCAR from the beginning had a strick policy that licensed drivers must stay within the sanctioning boundaries or accept the loss of all championship points.

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FYI, in 1951, the year of Ike Turner's song, the championship was won by Herb Thomas, ahead of Fonty Flock, Tim Flock, and Lee Petty (father of Richard Petty).

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There is a wonderful account of Oldsmobile's racing cars at http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040501/news_lz1d1history.html

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In part, the piece, by Jerry Garrett, notes:

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"Within GM, Olds was known as the technology division. The 1949 Rocket 88 V8 engine would create a sensation in the auto industry. Bill France's NASCAR racing association would be dominated by Oldsmobiles in its first three seasons.

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""The combination of the Olds chassis and the Rocket V8 was unbeatable in the hands of the right driver," France said years later. France knew firsthand. He and famed driver Curtis Turner, in a Lincoln, would be beaten in the first Mexican Road Race, in 1950, by a Portland lumberjack, Herschel McGriff, driving a showroom-stock Olds 88. Oldsmobile would hire McGriff to crisscross the country in the Rocket 88, making promotional appearances and racing the car.

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"After finishing ninth in the inaugural Southern 500 in 1950, McGriff would drive the Olds back from South Carolina to Portland--arriving with 15,000 miles on the odometer. "Those were all hard miles," McGriff (then 74, when interviewed), remembered. "That was one tough little coupe." The prize money McGriff won in five years of racing Rocket 88's set him up for life in the lumber business.

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"Oldsmobiles helped put racing's famed Petty family on the road to riches too. Lee Petty drove one to victory in the first Daytona 500. His son Richard would make his debut there in a convertible model."

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More excellent information on the Rocket 88 car can be found at http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/autos/columnists.nsf/oldcarcolumn/story/72C8CADC3B8D402986257305004EAD70?OpenDocument.

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And, at http://musclecars.howstuffworks.com/muscle-car-information/how-muscle-cars-work1.htm

and at http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/bv/rocket88.htm

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this month's ROCKIN' automotive-themed rock concert posters, both U.S. and worldwide

(above) NADA SURF, by Daniel Danger
(above) DIRTBOMBS, by Mike Martin / Enginehouse13 Studio
(above) DEMANDER, by Bootsy Rizzak

(above) DIRTBOMBS, by Bootsy Rizzak

(above) TRICLOPS, by Firehouse Studios

(above) JETBOY, by Wendy Wright

(above) FU MANCHU, by Atzgerei (Austria)

(above) DIRTBOMBS, by Willem Kolvoort (Netherlands, for Club Vera)

(above) SOLEDAD BROTHERS, by Johnny Crap (Canada)

(above) QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, by Ken Taylor (Australia)

(above) Fu Manchu, by Martin Cimek

(above) SPOON, by Jeremy Wilson
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It's that time again . . . to check out the automotive-themed rock concert posters which I noticed, discovered, tripped over, and thoroughly enjoyed in the ROCKIN' month of March. Nice to see so many excellent pieces from other parts of the world. As always, big imagination at work here.

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Special thanks to artist Wendy Wright for following the blog. Special kudos to artist Daniel Danger for his impeccable use of perspective from within.

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You can see more work by each of these artists at www.gigposters.com, where you'll also find links to their individual websites.

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ROCKIN' with Richard and Karen Carpenter

(above) The Carpenters' NOW & THEN (1973), their fifth album.

Richard (driving) and Karen in Richard's 1973 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona.
(above) the full album tri-fold. The Carpenters lived at this house in Downey, CA.

(above) photographer Jim McCrary scouting the location just before moving the cars.

(above) Richard and Karen, who lived at home with their parents, Harold and Agnes

(above) the car on the cover: a Ferrari 365 GTB/4, unofficially the Ferrari Daytona

(above) inside

(above) the celebrated V-12 / 4OHC

(above) Richard, more recently, with his 2004 Ferrari 575M

(above and below) some of Richard's personal car collection, housed in a building

he named after the Carpenters' hit single off the album,"Yesterday Once More."

Here's the story, written by Bob Pool, first published 2-16-08 in the Los Angeles Times (and then widely syndicated), that prompted this blog.

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"Fans love Carpenters, not carpenters"

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"We've only just begun . . . to learn what is happening to the Downey family home that was made world-famous by the pop duo the Carpenters. The five-bedroom tract house and a smaller next-door dwelling that was connected to it by an enclosed walkway was where Richard and Karen Carpenter fine-tuned their greatest hits in the 1970s.

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"The pair lived in the main house with their parents. The adjoining house was something of an annex, where there was an office, rehearsal studio, and recreation room. The Newville Avenue compound became a magnet for fans around the world when it was pictured on the Carpenters' tri-fold cover for their 1973 hit album NOW & THEN. It's also where an anorexic Karen Carpenter collapsed in 1983 before dying.

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"The pair's parents remained in the residence until Harold Carpenter's death in 1988 and Agnes Carpenter's in 1996. Richard Carpenter sold the place in mid-1977. Tiring of a nonstop parade of fans paying homage to Karen Carpenter and her and her brother's music, the compound's current owners have torn down the annex and begun construction on a larger house. They've also submitted plans to Downey city officials for the replacement of the 39-year-old main house.

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"Fans are outraged. "This house is our version of Graceland," said Carpenters aficionado Jon Konjoyan, a 57-year-old Toluca Lake music writer and promoter who is leading a campaign to save the remaining original house from destruction. Konjoyan was a young man in 1974 when he and his brother first made a pilgrimage to the Newville Avenue home. From 1981 to 1990 he worked for the Carpenters' label, A & M Records.

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""When they photographed the 'NOW & THEN' cover here in 1973, the house was instantly immortalized," Konjoyan said. "Actually, when the photographer (Jim McCrary) had come to the house to shoot the cover, they didn't know what to do. McCrary said, 'Why not get in the car and drive by?' So they did. "They used Richard's red Ferrari. People probably thought it was a Pinto," Konjoyan said.""

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NOW & THEN was the Carpenters' fifth album, released on May 9, 1973. Side "B" featured an oldies medley. The LP rose to #2 on Billboard's album charts and was ranked by Cashbox as the year's 20th most successful album.

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Richard, a car collector for many years (see photos above), apparently spontaneously elected to use his new Ferrari 365 GTB/4, known as the Ferrari Daytona, for the album photoshoot.

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Richard's collection has included: a 1956 Chrysler 300-B; a 1957 Chevrolet Corvette; a 1957 Ford Thunderbird; a 1959 Chrysler 300-E; a 1959 DeSoto Adventurer; a 1959 Plymouth Sport Fury; a 1960 Chrysler 300-F; a 1960 Dodge Polara; a 1962 Thunderbird Factory-Sports roadster; a 1962 Plymouth Sport Fury; a 1963 Pontiac Grand Prix; a 1963 Studebaker Avanti R2; a 1964 Thunderbird; a 1965 Plymouth Satellite; a 1966 Corvette Sting Ray; a 1967 Pontiac GTO; a 1965 Buick Riviera; a 1968 Dodge Charger R/T; a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda 'Cuda; a 1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III; a 1971 Plymouth Roadrunner; a 1972 MGB; the 1973 Ferrari 365 GTB/4, and a 2000 Plymouth Prowler.

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Here're Richard's thoughts on the making of NOW & THEN.

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"As the time approached for recording our fifth album, Karen and I once again were not left with enough time to produce it in as relaxed an atmosphere as possible, given all that was going on in our lives. I, especially, was not happy, as it was my job to audition, select and/or compose, as well as arrange, the music for our recordings. I always believed that the Carpenters were first and foremost a record act; all of the success stemmed from the popularity of the records, so management should have placed the utmost importance on the recording process, not on excessive touring.

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"At any rate, as the limited time we had to record the album approached, it was clear to me that we had only enough [new] material to complete one side of an LP, and even that was by completing a track we had recorded in 1972, Hank Williams' "Jambalaya." Fortunately, we had an ace up our collective sleeve, resulting in a damn good album which became a worldwide best-seller. Karen and I had introduced an oldies medley into our concert show starting in the summer of 1972, and it met with such an enthusiastic response I decided to feature a version of it on side two. It was around this time that certain radio stations were changing their formats to all oldies. I thought my songwriting partner and I should write a song that would reflect this fact, which would also set-up the medley. "Yesterday Once More" was the result, and it became our biggest worldwide hit. Tony Peluso guests as a DJ, and the medley was constructed as a Top 40 radio program."

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The Ferrari Daytona is a Gran Turismo automobile produced from 1968 to 1973. It was first introduced to the public at the Paris Auto Salon in 1968 and replaced the 275 GTB/4. Although it was also a Pininfarina design (by Leonardo Fioravanti), the Daytona was radically different. For one, its sharp-edged styling resembled a Lamborghini more than a traditional Pininfarina Ferrari. The "Daytona" nickname conjured up Ferrari's 1-2-3 success in the February, 1967 24 Hours of Daytona race with its 330P4 racecar.

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Unlike Lamborghini's new [allegedly 170-mph] Miura, released at that same time, the Daytona was a traditional, front-engined, rear-drive car. It was replaced by the mid-engined 365 GT4 Berlinetta Boxer in 1973. Today, critics say, "the Daytona represents the last of the great front-engine Ferrari GT's before this layout was revived in the 1990s."

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In 1971, the Daytona gained notoriety when a Sunoco Blue-color example was driven by racing legend Dan Gurney and former Car and Driver editor Brock Yates from New York to Los Angeles in 35 hours, 54 minutes (2,876 miles at an average speed of 80.1 mph) to win the inaugural Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash. The two drivers claim to have driven the car to 180 mph on the backroads of Arizona, en route. "Both reported [the Daytona] to be rock solid the entire trip, even at that elevated speed." In 2004, the Daytona was voted "top sports car of the 1970s" by Sports Car International magazine. Similarly, Motor Trend Classic named the 365 GTB/4 as number two in their list of the ten "Greatest Ferraris of all time." The Daytona also gained new notoriety in the 1980s when it appeared [as a replica built on a Corvette chassis] in the first two seasons of NBC's hit television series, Miami Vice. "Officially," the Daytona carried a top speed of 174 mph, and could go 0-62 mph in 5.5 seconds.
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