Nursery Rhymes with the Teen Dance Beat of Today!

Great cover--dig the Mod Moppets.  And too bad about the masking tape.  (I didn't do it!)  Year-wise, we know this Happy Time gem has got to be circa 1964-1967, but we're without any specific clues in terms of song titles.  (Alley Cat was a hit in 1962, but those white go-go boots look post-1962).  Myself, I go with 1965 or 1966, because of the dance types listed--frug, swim, jerk, etc.  However, I don't know.  There is, believe it or not, a Happy Time discography on line, but, being a work in progress, it contains no release years (yet).  Pickwick was responsible for this label.


Incredibly fun tracks, all under-rehearsed but played with just the right light spirit.  I originally featured this in 2006--this is a new rip.  Back then, I assigned the album a year of 1966, but I don't remember how I came up with that.  Consequently, I must stick with a guess of 1964-1967.  But rest assured that scores of serious, dedicated Mod Moppets historians are working night and day on this vital issue.  Stay tuned.


Again, highly enjoyable stuff, but even if it wasn't, you'd want to hear it just because of that superbly campy cover and the ingenious album concept.  I've always wanted to type "superbly campy."

To the Moppets:  Kiddie Au Go-Go

Alley Cat Dance
The Frug (Old MacDonald)
The Swim (Row, Row, Row Your Boat)
The Jerk (Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star)
Hokey Pokey
The Shake (Farmer in the Dell)
The Monkey (On Top of Old Smokey)
Mexican Hat Dance
Watusi (A Tisket, A Tasket)
Cha Cha (Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be)


Kiddie Au Go-Go--The Mod Moppets (Happy Time 1037)


Lee

Lohan, Liz, Council for Secular Humanism

So, I go to the Winstream home page and behold this headline: "Lohan Looks Just Like Liz."  Um, yeah, I guess.  If you're on heavy enough drugs.

In fact, the bone-skinny starlets of today do not in any way, shape (especially shape), or form look like starlets of the past, because in the past women were allowed to eat.  The starved look had yet to debut in movies and on TV.  Lohan looks like Liz as much as I look like Bob Denver (Gilligan).

Aren't you glad I cleared that up?

Meanwhile, a study featured in Free Inquiry, the journal of the Council for Secular Humanism (sounds official, don't it?), asserts that churches, on average, don't meet the requirements for nonprofit status and ought to be taxed as "for-profit corporations providing entertainment."  Even congregations are to be taxed at corporate rates, they suggest.  Wow.  I knew the Supreme Court considered corporations people, but I had no idea anyone considered people to be corporations.  Strange planet we reside upon.

I suspect, though, that the authors will insist they're merely raising questions (and/or merely providing data on which to base questions), as opposed to making claims of their own, but the "We're just collecting data" excuse got old ages ago.  If you wish, you can read my sensible, compelling, and rational critique here:  Hey, Guys, Do Some Research.  Fans of FI are welcome to take offense!




Lee

Sunday morning gospel--Weatherford Quaret--Come on, Let's Sing (1967)

Let me explain.  This album is part of a set of Weatherford Quartet LPs reissued (from various labels) on Artist's Records, a Cincinnati, Ohio label.  (If you're a punctuation cop like me, you know that it should be "Artists' Records.")  The scan you see above has been been spliced and diced from the back cover--hence, the "Volume V" (which I forgot to clone out) and the dorky "Sunday Morning Gospel Presents..." text at the top, which I just had to type in.  By the way, I can't believe it's Sunday morning already.  Even though it's actually Saturday, a.m., as I type this.  (It's like some kind of time paradox.)

I ripped this on the evening of our hottest day so far this summer (Thursday), and I couldn't get into the music at all.  This may have nothing to do with the quality of the tracks and everything to do with my zonked-out state from the heat.  We'll never know until I listen to it again in saner weather.  But it does seem a little, I don't know, mild by Weatherford standards.  It doesn't have that Weatherford edge.  But that's just my useless opinion--you may love every minute.  I should note that this is the first Weatherford LP I've heard to date that didn't blow me away with its quality.  But it's ultimately up to you, dear listener.  (Don't call you "dear"?  Sorry!)

I can't tell, at the moment, whether or not this essay makes sense....

(Hmm....  This is weird.  I haven't put up the link yet, but there are already three downloads???? Da-Da-DUNNNNNN!!)


Weatherford Quartet--Come on, Let's Sing (1967)

See track list above.


Lee