Hi Ledge, Tony, Miss Diana, etc.
Just received my Legendary Stardust Cowboy Fan pack that I got on ebay, and I have to say it was great to hear some of my favorite tunes again! I thought I would share some little-known information about the Ledge and the US Space Program, since he writes and sings about space a lot.
This goes back to his early days, and my previous career in Mission Control in Houston. We always woke the astronauts with a song played over the air-to-ground in the mornings. It has been a tradition since the beginning of the manned space programs. Since most of the space missions were 7 to 10 days long, it was never a problem coming up with songs to play. However, in 1972 or so, the Skylab program was flying, and we were working insane hours on console for about a year and on shift work. It was really wearing everyone out, and people were getting a little crazy. So to let off a little steam, things got a little looser in Mission Control.
Late one night, a future shuttle astronaut and CapCom (Bob) was trying to come up with a song to play in the morning. I told him I had a song that was guaranteed to wake the dead. Since he & I had a good relationship, I got my copy of Paralyzed and we sent it downstairs to the communications center in the bowels of the building. They cued it up on one of the comm loops,and the next thing I see is Bob looking like a deer frozen in car headlights, then he starts screaming Yes! Yes!, then turning purple because he is laughing so hard he can't breathe. Of course, he and I are the only people in Mission Control that are able to hear Ledge on our headsets, and everyone in the normally silent room is wondering what the hell is going on!
Then Bob has the comm center cue it up again for the Flight Director. Don is totally stopped in his tracks for several minutes. By then, everyone in the main room and the support engineers in the back rooms figure something strange is going on, because the both the Flight Director loop and the CapCom loop have been totally silent for far too long. Don then asks the comm center to cue it up again and play it over the building PA system, and announces to our whole team that they are going to get to hear the music selection for the morning wake-up.
As you can well expect, everyone was stunned, amazed, hysterical, etc. I am sure it was played several times that night before we got to wake up the crew, and it was a good stimulus to keep us all awake during the midnight shift.
We played it that morning for the crew. One of my responsibilities was the attitude control system of Skylab (which kept the vehicle pointed in the desired directions and stable), and whenever the crew moved around, it would show up in our data. Normally we would see small fluctuations in the data, which indicated that the crew was moving. Well, when Paralyzed hit the airwaves, the Skylab vehicle really jumped! The crew made a few comments that day about our choice of wakeup music, and unfortunately, they had a bad day, having some difficulties with their assigned task plans.
Because of the reduction in crew performance that day, NASA Headquarters decided that Paralyzed would never again be allowed to be played as wakeup music for a NASA mission. THis is the only song that I know of that was ever banned by NASA HQ. However, our team adopted the song as our theme song, and whenever we took over in Mission Control, the ceiling speakers would crackle, a few strums of a guitar would be heard, and then the Ledge would let forth with what I consider to be his trademark song. We also played it at our team parties, but the wives & girlfriends just did not understand.
Several years later, most of the same team was working onthe Apollo-Soyuz joint US-Soviet mission, and we had some Russian engineers and managers in Mission Control with us. Don was again the Flight Director, and he invited the Russians into Mission Control to hear our theme song. They all took a very serious stance, expecting to hear some sort of national anthem type song, and then the opening guitar strums emanated from the ceiling. At first they didn't know what to do, then they realized that this was not a solemn moment, and we all had agood laugh!
So, that is the story of how the Ledge was a unique part of America's space program.
Now, maybe you can do me a favor. What the hell are all the lyrics to Paralyzed and Who's Knockin' At My Door??? We have been trying to decipher these songs for years, and we had to improvise when we sang one of them at one of the old gang's wedding reception, and again at Donovan's Copper Bar (long since gone) in old Vail Village! Quite embarrassing! All I can make out is black Cadillac and a few other words here and there. Can the Ledge return the favor for making him a legend in Mission Control? Many thanks!
Sincerely,
Terry Watson
PS I seem to remember at the end of Paralyzed on the 45 that someone remarked Great! on the end of the track. This has been omitted from the CD. Is this an oversight, or was it done intentionally? It was such an appropriate ending comment!
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