Thursday, September 19, 2013
King of the Jungle Jive OK
Soon, long about 1961 or 1962, new 45s began appearing in the house. "Endless Sleep" (1958) and "Alley Oop". Just my putting those two titles together in the same sentence should give you a hint as to who was in the area. (eeew .... "Ichabod".) My sister would sneer just thinking of him, just seeing a record he had anything to do with ... instant Fehring response. Though we'd laugh like hell at the spoken fade-out because that reminded us of .... (you know who). But the flip side of "Alley Oop" (1960), to my way of thinking, "Sho Know A Lot About Love", showed promise ("don't know much about Russians .... )
Though the name of the record label "Lute" made me sneer a bit, as that reminded me of the guy whose National Fan Club I was running. And he was Hollywood, kind of, too, a weird kind of Hollywood, where his friends in the biz were lights like "Kim Charney", the singing son of a rich architect who lived in a $250,000 home (which was a lot for 1960, you see), once a child actor and now hopeful teen heart throb ... and I would be dragged to those shows, too. And hear songs like this .... (Largee was a subsidiary of Dot, you see). Frank would laugh and laugh when we listened to some of those free records I brought home.
I was humiliated and discomforted in Hollywood by Hollywood types and Pop Music Teen Idols almost wherever I went. Bobby Vee accused me of stealing an album cover from his car! That's just one example .... (and that was Liberty LRP-3181/LST-7181) [1961] just in case you still want to file a police report, Bobby) so of course I liked my real friends better.
As I listened to "Explosive Generation" (West Coast 1960) next to Johnny Tillotson's "Poetry in Motion" (1960 East Coast), side by side, I noticed something ... the enuniciation was quite similar, nearly indistinguishable one from the other. And I grew alarmed. "It's like they went to the same school! They've studied diction exactly the way it is taught everywhere from Coast to Coast! They're BRAINWASHING US!!! Teaching us how to speak and sing songs and speak in public, all the lessons given by the same voice coach! Oh my God! Like "Sit and say 'Arf!')
¶ 9/19/2013 10:12:00 AM
Though the name of the record label "Lute" made me sneer a bit, as that reminded me of the guy whose National Fan Club I was running. And he was Hollywood, kind of, too, a weird kind of Hollywood, where his friends in the biz were lights like "Kim Charney", the singing son of a rich architect who lived in a $250,000 home (which was a lot for 1960, you see), once a child actor and now hopeful teen heart throb ... and I would be dragged to those shows, too. And hear songs like this .... (Largee was a subsidiary of Dot, you see). Frank would laugh and laugh when we listened to some of those free records I brought home.
I was humiliated and discomforted in Hollywood by Hollywood types and Pop Music Teen Idols almost wherever I went. Bobby Vee accused me of stealing an album cover from his car! That's just one example .... (and that was Liberty LRP-3181/LST-7181) [1961] just in case you still want to file a police report, Bobby) so of course I liked my real friends better.
As I listened to "Explosive Generation" (West Coast 1960) next to Johnny Tillotson's "Poetry in Motion" (1960 East Coast), side by side, I noticed something ... the enuniciation was quite similar, nearly indistinguishable one from the other. And I grew alarmed. "It's like they went to the same school! They've studied diction exactly the way it is taught everywhere from Coast to Coast! They're BRAINWASHING US!!! Teaching us how to speak and sing songs and speak in public, all the lessons given by the same voice coach! Oh my God! Like "Sit and say 'Arf!')
¶ 9/19/2013 10:12:00 AM
