Boogie-woogie with MY(P)WHAE!

Yes, put on your boogie-woogie shoes, because it's time to boogie woogie at MY(P)WHAE, where the music is usually, but not always, hopping.

I have no idea what I just typed. No matter. On to the boogie....


Chopin's Polonaise in Boogie, Frankie Carle, 1946.

Honky Tonk Train Blues (Meade Lux Lewis), Bob Crosby and His Orch., feature Bob Zurke on piano, 1938.

Fiddle Rock, Florian Zabach, 1956. From Mercury LP.

Plantation Boogie (Dee), Lenny Dee, organ. 1955, from the Decca LP Dee-lightful!.

Let's Hang Out Tonight (Preston), Jimmy Preston and His Prestonians, 1949?

Fast blues, weak-beat riffs, and four-to-the-bar pulses--it's boogie time at MY(P)WHAE!













Marco can't wait for the next boogie-woogie post at MY(P)WHAE.


Lee

The Moppets are back, Modder than ever!

As promised, here's the entire 1966 Kiddie Au Go-Go album by the one and only Mod Moppets. Nursery Rhymes with the Teen Dance Beat of Today! it says, and that about sums it up.

I posted a couple of these before, but I've replaced those with freshly-edited files that probably sound a little bit better. Anyway, I love this album, and I received some Mod Moppets fan mail from others who love it, and so how could I not post this mod-sterpiece? (Though, when was the cha-cha ever mod? Or the Hokey-Pokey? That's what I want to know!)

From 1966, some of the funnest stuff ever recorded:

Alley Cat Dance, The Mod Moppets, 1966.

Old MacDonald (The Frug), The Mod Moppets, 1966.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat (The Swim), The Mod Moppets, 1966.

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (The Jerk), The Mod Moppets, 1966.

The Hokey Pokey, The Mod Moppets, 1966.

The Farmer in the Dell (The Shake), The Mod Moppets, 1966.

On Top of Old Smokey (The Monkey), The Mod Moppets, 1966.

Mexican Hat Dance, The Mod Moppets, 1966.

A Tisket, A Tasket (The Watusi), The Mod Moppets, 1966.

Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be, The Mod Moppets, 1966.

Enjoy! (And I'll be testing these tracks to make sure they all download correctly.)


Lee

Winter, they call it

Last winter, we were coping with snow and ice, below-zero chill factors, and a week's worth of no electricity. Here's what our drive looked like after the ice brought down our maple tree:













Though we had no trouble ducking under it, our car and van were SOL (strictly out of luck). So we had to depend on the charity of neighbors to get to a nearby town, where there was--to quote the famous gospel song--"power, power, wonder-working power."

I only mention this because, as I type, we're about to have our second day of temperatures in the upper 50s. I wore a coat to feed the birds this morning, but I could probably have gone without it. It's like, Where's the winter? Not that we miss it, or anything.

So, my sinuses are reacting like it's spring, the Japanese lady bugs are thriving, rain is popping up in every other forecast, and this is just plain weird. But good weird. The best kind of weird.

Except for my sinuses, but they're never happy. And except for the lady bugs. And the rain. But the warm--that's reason for rejoicing. And too bad I don't have the Shaw-Bacharach song Warm, as sung by Johnny Mathis, ready to post. Darn the timing.

That would have been perfect.

Before too long, however, I'll be posting the entire Kiddie Au-Go-Go LP by the Mod Moppets. This will mark the first time I've presented a full LP in its complete wholeness. Meanwhile, I'm finally clearing out XMas tracks from my file-storage site, and it looks like it will take me the rest of my life. But at least I won't die idle. Good grief--I don't know how I managed to get so many files uploaded, but I did, and I wish the process of de-loading them weren't so tedious. Problem is, every time I delete a track, box.net takes me back to the first page of the file menu. At which point, I have to use the Back function to get back to where I was. Duh! you say? Yes, but after 30 or 40 times, that extra step gets pretty tedious. Keystroke City, U.S.A.

In fact, why can't I just gaze at the screen in Bela Lugosi fashion and say "File, begone!" and have the file be gone? If computer technology were really all that modern, wouldn't we be able to do things like that? Similarly, I could bring up a file, or page, or whatever, by saying "Come herrrrrrrrrre!!" Computer technology meets Dracula.

In other news, my Spam mail is getting more... personal. Can't think of any other word. Subject lines are coming up like, "groped my way, blindly, through these difficulties." On the other hand, I'm still getting scrambled stuff like "bladder downwind Nevsa." Someone should make T-shirts out of Spam headings.

"'Bladder downwind Nevsa'??"--Person reading T-shirt. "What, you thought it was upwind?"--Me.

Meanwhile, I made a resolution to not read Beware of the Blog, but the resolution isn't working. I did, however, resist the urge to leave comments at their latest Christian-themed entry. It seems that early Christians were regarded as an undesirable cult by the Romans! Did you know that? Wow. That would explain why all those Christians were tossed to the lions. I thought the Romans killed Christians because they liked them. In the same post, the author expresses surprise that The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, written in the late 18th century, was critical of the religion of its day (though the quote he provides is a little unclear in that regard). He expected the text to be more conformistic or something. Well, sure. A famous text from the Age of Enlightenment is bound to be one that sucks up to the established beliefs of its day, especially the religious ones. And the writer doubts than anyone nowadays considers Spiritualism a religion. He may be right, but, just to make sure, I plan to make the hour's drive to a nearby Spiritualist church to ask the members if they know anyone who regards Spiritualism as a religion.

"You guys know anyone who regards Spiritualism as a religion?"--Me "Nope."--Spiritualist congregation. "No, nobody believes that stuff."--Minister. "O.K. Just checking."--Me. "Come back anytime."--Ghostly voice.

Maybe I can save on gas by calling them.

The Mod Moppets will be here to make sense out of all of this.


Lee

The parody of positive thinking

Yes, Eddie Lawrence's 1956 hit The Old Philosopher is the parody of the positive-thinking myth (think positively, and positive things will happen). And, so, it's one of my favorite records. Nothing against positive thinking, but I can't believe that people, generation after generation, fall for the magical, utterly unproven notion that, as a rule, good things follow good thoughts. Show me the scientific data that supports the notion of mind over matter, and maybe I'll become less skeptical.

And people will defend this notion even while conceding it's not literally true. It's the modern "No, it's not true, but it's true" argument--an argument that makes as much sense as sending my country's First Lady, Laura Bush, to attend Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's (the first woman president in African history) inauguration. Said Laura to reporters, "The question we must answer now is how do we nurture the development of the next generation of women leaders in Africa and worldwide." Hey, I've got an idea. How about our electing a woman president? Or a woman vice-president? That would set a good example. (Oh, wait. Other countries have already done that....)

I guess the irony of the situation doesn't dawn on some folks. Oh, and Laura says that education is the answer to female political empowerment. I see. I guess we have too few educated women in our country? (Just trying to figure out what Mrs. Bush is getting at....)

Oh, well. Solutions come with positive thinking. All we have to do is think positive (to use local grammar), and we can pull through, or out of, anything. Eddie Lawrence is here to provide the details:

The Old Philosopher (Lawrence), Eddie Lawrence, 1956. From Coral 45.

Musical notes: the organ plays Beautiful Dreamer (during first verse), Love's Old Sweet Song (during second), and then Beautiful Dreamer (third). The band plays a Sousa march, the name of which escapes me.

I play this record every time I feel discouraged. I hope that it has provided inspiration for you, too.


Lee

The roots of Bert Kaempfert?

We're about to hear Lawrence Welk's 1956 version of Cyril Stapleton's 1954 composition The Elephants Tango. (Love that title, but it needs an apostrophe, no?) The sound is highly Bert Kaempfertesque--light, crisp, and with the flutes front and center a couple/three times. Not having heard Stapelton's recording, I have no idea how closely Welk's version does (or doesn't) follow it. But I do know that Welk made plenty of interesting and forward-looking sides at Coral and Dot, so I sort of expect interesting stuff like this from the man. I know; Welk's should have been the last orchestra in the world to produce innovative sounds, but I'll let you in on a secret--some of the most amazing stuff in pop is to be found where it shouldn't be. That's where you look. (Oops. Just gave away my trade secret.)

The Elephants Tango (Cyril Stapleton), Lawrence Welk and His Champagne Orchestra, 1956.

It's possible, Leethinks, that the no-frills but virtuoso sound of the Welk orchestra, combined with Coral's superbly-detailed engineering, is what lends a 1960s feel to this side. And a number of other Coral titles.

You may think I'm crazy, but I prefer to think of myself as bonkers. I like the sound of that word better.


Lee

The Lone Ranger on his way this time

The Lone Ranger Theme/Hi Yo Silver! MP3 should be downloadable now: http://box.net/public/lee/files/2080658.html Thanks, Charles, for letting me know it wasn't working. In the event, God forbid, it still isn't working, give me a holler. But it downloaded to my software just fine.

I'm not sure whether the trouble was caused by / or ? (I keep forgetting how weird box.net is about punctuation.) It was one or the other.

I'm proud of the invisible edits I made at 0:13 and 0:19. A jump in the vinyl ruined the first four bars of the theme, so I subbed bars 5-9 for 1-4. I was expecting some slight break in the sound, but instead it sounds like I did nothing. Which, of course, is the goal of an audio surgeon, to never leave audio scars....

Hi Yo Silver!! (Rap version: Yo Silver!)

Lee

The cavalry's coming!!

For a fun time, put "James Frey lawsuit" in Google News and press Enter. Poor guy. Then again, he's put up with prison, police persecution, and nonstop tragedy in general, and he's done it with swagger to spare. And he kicked a serious addiction without the aid of the Twelve Steps. So, this current ordeal is probably a piece of cake. I take it back--I don't feel bad for him at all. Go, James!

Yup, the cavalry is coming. You know, if I ever decide to write a "memoir" constructed from made-up details, I'll do the smart thing and not base those falsehoods on real people and places. That was definitely a bad move on James' part. What he did, in effect, was leave an easy trail for his debunkers to follow--a sign reading "This way to lies" (arrow pointing to Granville, Ohio, and other locales).

That is, if you're going to make stuff up, make it up utterly. That way, your debunkers can't be sure where, or in the company of whom, you had your "experiences." Which means they can't absolutely disprove anything you say, and all you have to do is be evasive when questioned--"Well, I thought I should change the name of the town to protect everyone involved, and I'd therefore rather not say what town it was, but I assure you there was a town, and... oops, look at the time. Bedtime, folks. See ya later. (Hang up)."

Example: "I was arrested in a small Ohio town." That's the kind of claim you want to make. Ohio, contrary to myth, is a big place, and "a small Ohio town" would give investigators zero to go on. Believe me. It would be an 80-year investigation.

Meanwhile, the Arthur Norman Singers give us The Lone Ranger Theme coupled with Hi Yo Silver! Bet you didn't know the Lone Ranger's horse had his own song. Neither did Rossini. Anyway, they're coming for you, Mr. Frey:

The Lone Ranger Theme/Hi Yo Silver!--The Arthur Norman Singers, late 1950s. From Golden Record LP.

Q: Where does the Lone Ranger take his trash? A: To the local landfill.

(You thought I was going to say "To the dump, to the dump, to the dump, dump, dump"?)


Lee

True words about rock and roll history; MLK Day confusion

First of all, check out The Clovers at Spread the Good Word. Not to worry, I registered a mock-complaint about the absence of Your Cash Ain't Nothing But Trash. And, please, follow the reverend's link to The Clovers--One of a Kind.

Doesn't this sound like me, just a little? "The reluctance of so called retro-historians of the music find that these artists (The Clovers and Bill Haley) do not fill the popular mythology of someone like Elvis, the downtrodden outsider, the rebel, or the tweaker of the established order. The vision of an older more mature performer, one more mainstream in their outlook, does not fit the common perception of the founders of this music, and so replacement heroes are offered up instead. Bill Haley as the pioneer who made the first rock & roll record ? The Clovers as the standard unit of the 1950s ? No, these quasi-historians need someone more in tune with the romantic notions of the history of the music. "

My conclusion, absolutely. The early history of rock and roll--as it actually happened, that is--fails to align itself with the inane mythology barfed up by Peter Guralnick, et al. To put it in my usual reserved fashion.

Anyway, the R&B vocal group sound preceded even The Clovers. I was astonished to discover that the Mills Brothers were producing the same sound as early as 1944. Granted, this is too smooth to be rock and roll, performance-wise, but the arrangement and the tune itself are straight out of 1954 "doo wop." Only ten years earlier. (Let's see... 1954 minus ten, um... yeah. Ten years. Just checking.) And dig the triplet backing harmonies in the last bridge. And from 1944!!

Till Then (1944), The Mills Brothers (who refuse to cooperate with conventional history. How dare they.)

If I had the tracks handy (i.e., if I knew where they were), I'd post some late-1940s Robins-with-Johnny-Otis sides. Memory tells me that The Robins became The Coasters, but don't hold me to that. I hate to go by pure memory, since my memory tends not to be so pure (i.e., accurate. I don't have impure thoughts. Usually.)

So, apparently, lots of people at this point in history have spaced out the fact that MLK was a religious person. They have to be reminded. Granted, there aren't many historical clues to that effect, save for the title "Reverend," the fact that the original Martin Luther was the father of the Protestant Reformation, three instances of "God's children" in MLK's famous "I Have a Dream" speech, and the fact that Dr. King's favorite song was "I Want to Be Like Jesus." Otherwise, yeah, I can see how people might forget. It's not like the reverend's ties to religion were the least bit obvious. (Drums: Ca-chunk!)

So... long after I said I'd do it, XMas files will begin disappearing from box.net. Starting tonight.

Gotta make room for new files.

Meanwhile, please don't be shy about telling me how much you enjoyed my brilliant, written-in-20-minutes miniature, Friday the 13th.

Lee

Songs and hymns for Martin Luther King Day

MY(P)WHAE is hoping that the Net's Christian-bashers take the day off. This is, after all, the day that we honor one of the 20th century's greatest Christians, Martin Luther King, Jr.

So, please, guys--take the day off. Thanks. Meanwhile, we'll pay respect to MLK with performances of some of his favorite hymns and gospel songs. The man certainly had good musical taste:

We Shall Overcome (adapted by many from Charles Tindley's 1900 hymn I'll Overcome Some Day), Mahalia Jackson, 1968.

Take My Hand, Precious Lord (Thomas A. Dorsey), Jimmy Dean, 1964. (Yes, the sausage guy. Who has a fine set of pipes.)

I Want to Be Like Jesus, Tukegee Quartet, 1927. (More than one source cites this as MLK's favorite gospel song. An inspired choice.)

Just a Closer Walk with Thee (Words and music of unknown origin), Anita Bryant. (Yes, everyone's favorite beauty queen. However, whatever her views on sexuality, this is one terrific version of a classic gospel number.)

His Eye Is on the Sparrow (Civilla Martin--Charles Gabriel, 1905), Mahalia Jackson, 1958. (Actually, I don't know if this was one of the reverend's favorite gospel songs, but this 1905 classic inspired many during the Civil Rights Movement. The wonderful words were written by Civilla Durfee Martin, a minister's wife born in Canada in 1866. The music, by Charles H. Gabriel, is my candidate for the best gospel tune of all time.)

Sorry about the Anita Bryant track, but the woman is one heck of a vocalist, and that version is too darn good to not get its day in the blog. Good music is good music. And, when I've got the time, I'll have to catch up on the entire story behind We Shall Overcome, the credits for which go to four people, including Pete Seeger. What about Charles Tindley, the black gospel songwriter whose I'll Overcome Some Day served as the basis for the Civil Rights anthem?

Mahalia Jackson, on Reverend King: "Honest, he was just wonderful and I often thought of him--man, he got the weight of the world almost like Jesus on him and he still smiled and laughed at somebody else's joke and everything else." We Christians refer to that as being like Jesus.


Lee

The Raymond Scott legend takes another hit

I'd be lying if I pretended this wasn't fun. And somebody's gotta do it. May as well be me.

In earlier posts, I've critiqued the various claims made by what I call The Church of Raymond Scott--such as the claim that Scott's music was avant garde for its day, that his "Dadaist" titles were out of the norm (Alec Wilder's Neurotic Goldfish might disagree), that no one was producing anything remotely like his compositions (in fact, we heard similar efforts from the '20s and early '30s), and so on. The usual media-style hype, and easily proven to be as much. When I decided to take on The Church of Scott, I knew I'd have little trouble finding Scott-esque examples, and lots of them, but I didn't anticipate that his stuff would turn out, upon investigation, to be so utterly mainstream. Which raises the fascinating question of how music so typical of its time could possibly be reconstructed by a few journalists into daring, cutting-edge art music? Not to mention the equally interesting question of why so many people have fallen for that idea. Maybe it has something to do with the famous folks who, via quotes, have helped promote the Scott myth, including Leonard Maltin, Dick Hyman, the late Robert Moog, and John Flansburgh of the embarrassing ensemble, They Might Be Giants.

The point is, I'm not here to disagree with anyone, famous or otherwise. I'm here to report the truth as my ears hear it. And today's legend-sinking recording arrives courtesy of 1938 and bandleader/arranger Larry Clinton. The piece is called Strictly for the Persians, and it's a Clinton composition. Such jokey titles are typical of the era, and the Scott-esque touches you're about to hear in the scoring, rhythms, and performance are typical of that little-known American popular music style called big band. I can only conclude that big band is little-known. Why else would its history be disregarded for the sake of promoting one person and his music?

Strictly for the Persians (Clinton), Larry Clinton and His Orchestra, Feb. 11, 1938.

Clinton had much skill as a writer, even if he lacked Scott's uncanny ability to put the listener to sleep in the space of a single 10" 78-rpm side. Not everyone can be everything.


Lee

Early Burt Special, Part 5

I didn't skip Part 4 this time! I'm so proud of myself!

That was one of my New Year's resolutions--to not skip #4 in a series. Lookin' good, so far.

Today, some 1958-1962 Burthistory samples, including a performance by Marlene Dietrich, with whom Burt toured as arranger, conductor, and accompanist--and, according to the Lenin Imports website, "lover." (I don't make these things up; I just report 'em.) Lenin Imports quotes Marlene: "'When he became famous he could no longer accompany me on tour round the world...From that fateful day on, I have worked like a robot, trying to recapture the wonderful woman he helped make out of me...I thought of him, always longed for him, always looked for him in the wings, and always fought against self-pity...When he left me, I felt like giving everything up...I was wounded. Our separation broke my heart." Wow.

On the back jacket of Burt Bacharach Plays His Hits (Kapp KS-3577), Dietrich says of Burt: "No matter how many curtains open and close between me and the audience--his approval is what I'm seeking. What happiness to sing to his melodies and orchestrations which carry me like a magic carpet to the theatres of the world." Her words are followed by praiseful quotes from Anthony Newley, Dusty Springfield, Gene Pitney, Jack Jones, and Dionne Warwick.

Burt did a great job as Marlene's musical director, if the following track, from 1961, is any indication:

Ich weiss nicht, zu wem ich gehore (Friedrich Hollander), Marlene Dietrich, with Burt Bacharach and His Orchestra, 1961. (From Wiedersehen mit Marlene, Capitol T10282)

Dietrich is always described as a limited singer, which may have been true, range-wise, but not at all true, art-wise. An amazing performer.

So, what else was Burt doing in 1961, the year Ich weiss nicht was released? Answer: scoring hits with Please Stay, Tower of Strength, Baby It's You, and I Wake Up Crying. Here are two other Burt songs from that important year, both of them near-classics. Pitch-sensitive ears, beware the sharp singing of Connie Stevens, who otherwise does quite well with the first title:

And This Is Mine (David--Bacharach), Connie Stevens with Neal Hefti and His Orch., 1961.

Mexican Divorce (Hilliard--Bacharach), The Drifters, 1961. Produced by Leiber and Stoller. From Atlantic 45 (reissue).

In 1962, Bob Hilliard and Burt scored this Top-40 hit courtesy of the superb pipes of Andy Williams. Does this sound like Countrypolitan, or what?

Don't You Believe It (B. Hilliard--B. F. Bacharach), Andy Williams, 1962. Arranged and conducted by Robert Mersey. From Columbia 45.

I'm not even going to talk about the hassle of de-clicking that one, which was only slightly easier than fixing the distorted spots on the Connie Stevens side. The behind-the-sound stories aren't very glamorous, sometimes--sound restoration is not a task for sissies. By contrast, the Marlene and Drifters sides required a couple edits apiece. I like those kinds of tracks....

This was another easy edit. From the motion picture Another Time, Another Place (says the label), this is the tune of the same name. (And, unlike Patti Page's single of Keep Me in Mind, this 45 carries the correct songwriting credits.) Another slow number, but Patti Page is terrific, so that's O.K. Nice song, too:

Another Time, Another Place (B. F. Bacharach--Hal David), Patti Page with Vic Schoen and His Orch., 1958. From Mercury 45.

My ears identify a modulation to the key of VI. Very nice effect, that. Burt, showing off, I suppose....

More Early Burt to arrive!

Lee