THE MYSTERY OF "MAKE ME OVER AGAIN" BY THE ROGUE SHOW. SOLVED 37 YEARS LATER.

Back when I was a lil' brat we had a local store just three or four blocks away from my childhood home called the Melrose Drug Center. It was sort of a proto-Walgreens for the area, which sold, besides drugs, candy and the usual fare, kinda weird knickknacks and novelties and closeout books with the front cover torn off (I scored a copy of Patti Smith's Babel there as a young burgeoning punker kid) and really cheap records and tapes.

One day, at the age of 10, I had a slightly fat pocket (for 1972 dollars at least, and for being a kid back then) from birthday money and blew a whole dollar on a "mystery box" of sixteen 45 RPM singles. This was an interesting collection. There was a single from Welcome Back Kotter's Marcia Strassman (who played Mrs. Kotter) of a tune called "The Flower Children", a Roy Orbison number, "Breaking Up Is Breaking My Heart", and a sorta creepy sounding release from 1969 by a now-obscure act called Coventry, the sides of which were entitled "Let Me Off At The Next Town" and "Around The Corner There's A Man (He's My Friend)"(mmmm...okayyy).

The one single that truly kept my interest, however, was a sorta mysterious looking record by a band called The Rogue Show. It was a song titled "Make Me Over Again", released on the Paula Records label, with a label that looked like it was typeset with a retail kit from Woolworth's (and influenced the cover design of my 1990 Think album). The song was a pretty catchy lil' garagey number, and apparently it was a promo copy, as "Make Me Over Again" was on both sides, totally identical to each other.

I played the shit out of this single through my pre-and early teen years, but it ended up in one of my "lost" vinyl collections. Still, I had always wondered about who the Hell the Rogue Show was, and their history. As recently as a few years ago, there was absolutely nothing that I could find about these guys.

Of course, this is now 2009, and as we all know nowadays, you can find just about everything online if you search for it long enough (and know how to use Google). Finally, after 37 years, the mystery is solved, at least somewhat.

So here, for your viewing and listening pleasure, is the Rogue Show from 1971 with "Make Me Over Again". (And as an added bonus, after viewing, check out this blog where a collector posts a pic of the label and the Rogue Show's drummer posts some memories and facts about the group. It's actually pretty interesting stuff. Click Here, Pilgrim

(Update - 6/20/09) I received this link to yet another site in which someone had posted the news that Rogue Show drummer Ellis Starkey, whom I had mentioned earlier, had died on June 1, just a few weeks after I posted this. Strange timing, and sad to hear nonetheless. Well, my condolences to the friends and family of Mr. Starkey, and here are some more extensive memories of the Rogue Show (and his band previous to them, the Back Alley) which he had submitted for garagehangover.com. Click Here, Pilgrim

(Yet One More Update - 6/20/09) Further adding to the weird coincidence surrounding this record: apparently, the day after I posted about the Rogue Show, somebody put the exact same record on Ebay. Here's a chance to reclaim a relic of my childhood. But, ninety nine bucks? I'll settle for the memories for now. If I could, I'd offer to trade up two copies of Think, but alas, I don't have that record anymore either.