Featuring the top rebel-approved (6.5+) cut from each of the 1969 albums of the year @ TJR: www.thejukeboxrebel.com/album-chart-of-1969 runtime: 5h 32m REJOICE – WE’RE ON THE MOON! Leonard Cohen, Nick Drake, The Velvet Underground and The Stooges might have nudged ahead of them in my album chart of this year, but Silver Apples have the greatest Rock n Roll story to tell in 1969. “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” Just minutes before Neil Armstrong uttered those immortal words at 8:18pm UCT on 20 July 1969, almost a quarter of a million miles away, Silver Apples were whipping up a musical celebration in Central Park, just gone 3:00pm local time. Speaking to Terrascope magazine in 1996, group leader Simeon Coxe recalled an exceptional moment in history: “I think it was early Spring in 1969 when New York's Mayor John Lindsay declared a free day in the park for all New Yorkers to watch the Apollo 11 astronauts land on the moon. He arranged for huge television screens to be mounted in Central Park so everyone could watch the moon landing and a bandstand to be constructed so there could be music leading up to the historic event. He declared Silver Apples to be "the New York sound" and commissioned us to write a piece for the event and perform it plus all of our other songs just before touchdown on the moon. We decided that it was an important enough event that we would stick our heads out of our hiding place to do it. I wrote a piece called 'Mune Toon' and Danny and I rehearsed it for days. The rocket launch went off without a hitch but as the spaceship began its approach to the surface of the moon, it began to rain cats and dogs in New York City. I had distinct memories of the shocking experience at the Café Wha? [during a performance there a couple of years earlier, a high voltage surge went through him via a microphone and he dislocated his shoulder] which Danny witnessed, but we felt this was a significant enough event that we had to go through with it. We were at least under the cover of a band shell, more than I can say for the thousands of people under parkas or umbrellas or newspapers all around the park, but there was a noticeable amount of water trickling onto the stage floor and under my bass switches. We decided to forego the build-up portion of our concert - explaining it to the crowd, who applauded our concern for our safety - but when Neil Armstrong began his descent to the moon's surface Danny and I struck up the band, caught up in the emotion of it all, and performed 'Mune Toon'. I was receiving electrical shocks every time I touched the instrument but there was nothing that seemed like it was life-threatening so we kept going. I knew that to touch the microphone was zap city, that was my mistake at the Café Wha?, but there was definitely a connection being made between the bass platform and the top oscillators. I just kept my hands on the oscillators because I found that when I let go and then tried to re-touch them, that was when I got zapped. So all during 'Mune Toon' there was this tingling, sexy, frightening, scary thing coursing through my body and I was singing my heart out and Armstrong was stepping onto the moon and human beings were entering a new era and thousands of people were crying with happiness and soaking wet and singing and hugging each other. Well, just when he thought the most political-mileage-moment was upon him Mayor Lindsay grabbed the microphone to say something profound and I swear I saw his ears light up. He was baptized into the world of electronic music. His hair looked like the bride of Frankenstein. Rolling Stone magazine did a piece on the event and called me the "¼ leading exponent of hippy technology." I have always liked that, but have never figured out how to use it at parties.” It's a wonderful tale, completely under the radar. How typical of Silver Apples. For one glorious day, the world could forget about its troubles and rejoice - singing and dancing in the rain! The Jukebox Rebel 07-Feb-2016