How Otherworld Cottage Industries Released Two "50th Anniversary" Items In Its First Year Of Publishing

August 27, 2014 - Of course, it can't be Otherworld Cottage Industries' 50th anniversary, but the company did release the "Demo Derby 50th Anniversary Edition" DVD of James A. Pike's 28 minute theatrical short film that played on more than 6,000 screens across the country with the Beatles "Hard Day's Night" in 1964, and they then published Harvey Kubernik's 2014 book, "It Was 50 Years Ago Today THE BEATLES Invade America and Hollywood," because both fit easily into Otherworld Cottage's publishing paradigm.

When James A. Pike made Demo Derby in 1963, his son, Travis, founder of Otherworld Cottage Industries, wrote the title song, later arranged by Arthur Korb and performed by the Rondels. That tremendously successful little movie has become a visual time capsule of what America was like when today's grandpas and grandmas were young.

That notion of a time capsule is the underlying theme of "Travis Edward Pike's Odd Tales and Wonders, 1964 – 1974 A Decade of Performance," a collection of Pike's short narrative rhymes, song lyrics, and a memoir of his career as a singer-songwriter during that turbulent decade.

The book, featuring a Foreword by music historian Harvey Kubernik, is the platform from which Pike introduces the "Demo Derby" and "Feelin' Good" movies, and his CD albums "Odd Tales and Wonders Stories in Song," and "Odd Tales and Wonders Stories in Rhyme."

Since then, Otherworld Cottage has released Pike's "Reconstructed Coffeehouse Blues," and "Tea Party Snack Platter" albums. The earliest versions of the songs were composed between 1964 -1974, but the updated recordings are new, all produced within the new publishing company's first year.

And Pike just keeps rockin' on. His newest album, "Feelin' Better" features songs he originally composed for his 1964 European rock band "The Five Beats." Several of the songs, first heard in the 1966 movie, "Feelin' Good," are in the "Feelin' Better" CD, which includes saxophone parts in some of the songsmore like the original compositions than those used in the movie. The "Feelin' Better" CD will be released next month.

Moving right along, while writing the forward to Pike's book, Kubernik told Pike about his plan for a book about the 50th anniversary of the Beatles coming to America, with the result that the second 50th Anniversary item in the Otherworld Cottage catalog is Kubernik's "It Was 50 Years Ago Today THE BEATLES Invade America and Hollywood."

A recent review by John Firehammer in his Pop Culture Safari blog concludes that Kubernik's Beatles book "… takes in some fascinating territory. Nostalgic fans will get a kick out of it, and Beatles-heads will read a few stories they haven't read before."

And Kubernik hasn't slowed down since its publication, either. In addition to his new 336 page hardcover, "Turn Up the Radio!: Rock, Pop, and Roll in Los Angeles 1956–1972, published by Santa Monica Press (April 15, 2014), he will have a 4,000 word cover story article in Record Collector News Magazine on the Beatles and the September 2014 retail release of The Beatles in Mono, a catalog album collection. The article will include an interview with Beatles recording engineer, Ken Scott, and may be read online after September 2nd at www.recordcollectornews.com.

And this just in! Part One of a Harvey Kubernik Q&A interview by Allan Showalter about his new book, "Leonard Cohen Everybody Knows" opens "Harvey Kubernik is to music journalism what Shane Battier was to Duke basketball. Harvey is also one of the few individuals likely to read this post who will understand that analogy without an explanation: Harvey and Shane have achieved distinction in their respective fields because of their hard work, energy, enthusiasm, dedication, perseverance, and commitment. They are both hustlers." Click HERE to read the fascinatingShowalter/Kubernik interview.

WATCH THE DEMO DERBY TRAILER HERE

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