I post a weekly diary of the historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I featured this past week in "Cheers & Jeers". For example .....
SEPARATED at BIRTH - the recently-arrested Rebekah Brooks - the former News Corp executive ....
......... and Carrot Top the comic.
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
ART NOTES - The first U.S. exhibition since World War II of posters from the Soviet Union's TASS news agency are at the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois through October 23rd.
LAST WEEKEND there was a Northern New England seacoast meet-up of Cheers & Jeers .... with a nice lunch in Portsmouth, New Hampshire (followed-up by some ice cream) with about 12-14 attendees. Bill & Michael are doing well, and we saw some of the Usual Suspects as well as some newer faces.
Bill's famous 'kiddie pool' (non-inflated) was brought, in case anyone hadn't had a chance to autograph it before ... although it would have taken an 18-wheeler to bring his infamous 'Snark Tank' along. Add to that fine weather all day (albeit a tad hot outdoors in direct sunlight, on a cloudless day) .... well, as the 'Wayne's World' guys would say .... "Goooood call!"
MONDAY's CHILDREN are among more than 700 rescue cats that a woman has taken in (from around the world) at her 12-acre California cat sanctuary.
THE RATHER BLUNT conservative mayor of Toronto, Ontario had a rather typical week: which began with Rob Ford offering cryptic responses to allegations that he flipped-off a woman who told him to stop talking on his cellphone while driving. Then after his consultants advised closing library branches to save money - and the iconic Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood sought to rally citizens against the plan - the mayor's brother told her to run for office if she wants to influence policy.
ART NOTES - a selection of Dutch paintings - and most prominently Frans Hals - are at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art through October 10th.
JUST IN CASE he has the urge: the bar where my pal Silvio Berlusconi used to sing love songs (half a century ago) has offered him his job back when he retires as Italy's prime minister next year (and he also sang on cruise ships).
SPORTING NOTES - although perhaps best known as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, Bill 'The Spaceman' Lee finished his career with the Montreal Expos. And he was there recently to scout locations for a movie about his life's journey: with the excellent book Have Glove, Will Travel as the source and film's title. I saw him at a 2005 Vermont book signing (along with Jim Bouton) and during Q&A someone asked them about drug testing. "Ladies and gentlemen, I have tested just about all of them" was how Bill's response began.
TUESDAY's CHILD is Luminus the Cat - a British shelter kitteh who was having difficulties finding a home ...
.... all because she fell into the category of felines nicknamed Kitler - but (mercifully) received numerous offers of adoption after her story became public.
POLITICAL NOTES - today she heads the World Bank, but back in 1974 as an exchange student from France: Christine Lagarde served a valuable function for the freshman congressman Bill Cohen (R-ME, and later Bill Clinton's defense secretary) - answering French-Canadian constituent mail, anguished pro/con over the pending impeachment of President Nixon.
HISTORY NOTES - in 1959, months after he fled to the Dominican Republic when forces led by Fidel Castro overthrew his regime: Cuban General Fulgencio Batista sought asylum in Argentina, Spain ... Ireland: and the US government made formal (and informal) approaches to have him settled there.
SEPARATED at BIRTH - veteran singers Barry Manilow and Rod Stewart.
MY FAVORITE TV SHOW has long been the CBS Sunday Morning program. Last weekend, they re-ran a segment they filmed in 1988, of couples registering and getting married at the City Clerk's office in New York City ... along with, as Charles Osgood put it in this 10-min video - 'a post-script' for 2011.
ART NOTES - photographs of Mexico taken from 1932-34 (as well as in 1966) by Paul Strand are at the El Paso, Texas Museum of Art through September 4th.
FILM NOTES - Entertainment Weekly suggests the "50 Most Vile Movie Villains" of all time.
TRANSPORTATION NOTES - in 2017 the longest tunnel in the world is due to open, known as the Gotthard Base Tunnel - the centerpiece of the planned AlpTransit rail network that will speed cargo under the Alps, improving links between northern and southern Europe and reducing truck traffic on mountain passes - yet a German stretch of railway feeding the tunnel is under financial threat, and may not be finished by the time the tunnel is ready for rail traffic.
WEDNESDAY's CHILD is Shadow the Cat - a Chicagoland hero cat who has donated blood several times for the benefit of other pets.
HISTORY NOTES - an archive of letters purchased by the National Library of Ireland indicates that president Theodore Roosevelt - who had both Dutch and Irish roots - expressed a keen interest in Irish history, literature and Celtic mythology - and was remarkably aware of developments in pre-Independence Ireland.
MOTHER-DAUGHTER? - the Canadian country singer Shania Twain .....
.... and Selena Gomez - the singer and TV star.
THIS PAST MONDAY was the national holiday in Switzerland and, in honor: a new apple species named the Galmac - a cross between the Gala and Jerseymac apples (designed to reduce imports, as it ripens earlier) - debuted as a nod to William Tell's mythical apple-shot which (indirectly) led to Swiss independence.
ART NOTES - books and catalogues by the legendary German design school Bauhaus are at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. to October 28th.
POLITICAL NOTES - the government of Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has made governance a prime issue and has some results to show: progress on vital infrastructure projects, a new constitution is demanding higher standards, politicians are more publicly accountable, people in high places suspected of drug running are under scrutiny ..... and a campaign is under way to shame parliamentarians into paying taxes.
BOOK NOTES - news reports have long claimed that there is an unfinished fourth-novel manuscript by the late, best-selling Swedish author Stieg Larsson - but his long-time lover considers it to be a mere intro, not a manuscript.
THURSDAY's CHILD is Otto the Cat - a 35-lb kitteh who - after a program of less food and more exercise - is now under 30 lbs.
LEGAL NOTES - The Constitutional Court of Chile heard arguments that Article 102 of the Civil Code—the law banning same-sex marriage—should be ruled unconstitutional. And interestingly: conservative President Sebastián Piñera was vocal in his support of civil unions during his presidential campaign, but members of his coalition have (thus far) prevented the president’s bills from passing.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE NOTES - future offenders who have been ordered to perform community service in the Netherlands will have to wear a vest with the text "At work for society" and the logo of the probation and after-care service.
SEPARATED at BIRTH - CNBC’s Squawk Box anchor Becky Quick ......
.... and the Canadian TV star Sarah Chalke ("Scrubs", "How I Met Your Mother").
POLITICAL NOTES - our opponents suggest that enacting carbon taxes are political suicide: yet the government of the Canadian province of British Columbia did. And not only is its economy doing better than some others: the tax is popular and the Liberal premier who introduced it won a provincial election the following year (with subsequent problems leading to resignation not attributed to this tax).
FRIDAY's CHILD is Edward the Cat - an upstate New York kitteh who went missing, causing his family to place numerous posters of him around the neighborhood, including at the local newspaper. Five weeks later it worked: when someone came to the newspaper office to seek a job, he saw the poster and knew it was the cat his family had been feeding for about a week.
......and finally, for a song of the week ............... as a Feb, 2009 editorial which the Guardian newspaper wrote on the 50th anniversary of the plane crash that took the life of Buddy Holly and three others: "It was not really, as the song later claimed, the day the music died. It was not even the end of rock'n'roll … though it was, arguably, the end of the beginning".” For that crash completed a cycle of the first wave of rock stars who either left the music business (or it left them, at least temporarily). Elvis Presley was drafted into the US Army. Little Richard left music to become a minister. Chuck Berry was in jail. Jerry Lee Lewis saw his career collapse when he married his 13 year-old cousin. Carl Perkins saw his career stall after a bad car accident. Bo Diddley was banned from the Ed Sullivan Show and was out of the limelight.
For the five years from that plane crash (Feb, 1959) until the arrival of the Beatles in the US (Feb, 1964) when the music world was transformed – the world of popular and rock music was now in transition. (The ‘interregnum” as I call it). Songs that had difficulty charting before or after suddenly became popular. Not everything changed, of course – and there was some good music that emerged (especially soul music). It’s not possible in this short a space to comprehensively describe it, but an overview of this era wouldn’t be out of place.
The record business was changing – the payola scandal broke in early 1960 (taking down Alan Freed) and the big record labels were determined to wrest control of their music from DJ’s and indie labels. And also tame down rock.
They settled upon a two-pronged approach - for the older teens/college students, the labels emphasized blues or jazz (especially on albums) … and increasingly folk music (with its increasing social conscience). Think Bob Dylan, Dave Van Ronk, Tom Paxton, Carolyn Hester and Peter, Paul & Mary, all of whom are worth a diary in-and-of-itself.
But for younger teens: Teen Idols - with squeaky-clean images (such as Fabian, Frankie Avalon and Bobby Vee) became all the rage – and the film industry pitched in, with films starring these individuals. In addition, this was the heyday of doo-wop music - which still exists today as part of the oldies circuit.
As part of the industry changes, the famous Brill Building in New York (with its professional songwriting teams) as well as key producers such as Phil Spector began to take precedence over individual songwriters. Indeed, especially with the girl groups: individual singers were thought of as ‘replaceable’, especially if someone left to start a family, or wanted too much money.
And then there were the dance crazes – led, of course by American Bandstand - and this was one way to focus on music that avoided the overt sexuality of just a few years prior. I recall cartoons from those days, where someone would drop something on their foot, hop around in agony … and then (at least on these cartoons) a new ‘dance craze’ was pronounced (yuk, yuk).
The All-Music Guide’s Richie Unterberger also notes an new off-shoot of the pop singer: the melodramatic singer. They differed from the teen idols in that they often wrote their own songs, had their own bandmates, were involved in their own productions. Most of all, their songs had much more dramatic storylines, very emotional vocals and elaborate productions. This would include Roy Orbison, Gene Pitney, Del Shannon and two survivors from rock’s first era: Rick Nelson and the Everly Brothers.
Although R&B music continued … it changed into more of a sweeter sound. Singers such as Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis, Sam Cooke and others were featured on songs with less sexuality and grit, but instead with more universal lyrics … and often with full orchestral backing. Those who worked with producers such as Leiber & Stoller used sophisticated melodies and back-up singers, one reason why R&B songs from that era hold up rather well today, compared to other music.
And this time period paved the way for Berry Gordy’s Motown label (which began with Tamla in 1959 and the Motown label itself in 1960). He wasn’t solely seeking African-American listeners: he billed the label as the Sound of Young America – and this was an ideal time to break in, capturing a wide swath of American youth. He built upon the foundation that Leiber & Stoller used, along with ‘coaches’ for his performers: all of which made them much more acceptable to white America than might have been otherwise. It began to look dated by the end of the 1960’s after music changed dramatically: but Berry Gordy was in a good position during the interregnum – one reason why his label was able to survive the British Invasion intact. In fact, Motown saw groups such as the Beatles and Stones as their true competition, not pop singers.
The one major band that could be called ‘rock’ to emerge during this period was the Beach Boys – who also survived the British Invasion (unlike surf’s first major performer Dick Dale, plus Jan and Dean). Surf music has never truly gone out of style, but it has fallen in-and-out of mass appeal.
Meanwhile, early British rock music had not progressed much beyond Lonnie Donegan’s skiffle music; singers such as Cliff Richard and Billy Fury were treading in older style American music. Two exceptions were Johnny Kidd & the Pirates (whose Shaking All Over was covered memorably by The Who on their "Live at Leeds" album) and Dave 'Screaming Lord' Sutch - who was not much of a singer and was more colorful at his later venture into politics. But he had a style (on tunes such as Jack the Ripper from 1963) and he did introduce future stars such as Nicky Hopkins and Ritchie Blackmore). Instead, the blues is what most young British musicians were incubating .... ready to explode upon the scene.
Three other 1959-1963 themes to discuss: instrumental, novelty and foreign language songs.
Instrumental (or nearly so) songs had been an important part of the big band era, which carried into early rock’n’roll – but by the end of the 1950’s, instrumentals were increasingly seen as novelty songs. The interregnum would be their last stand, with tunes such as "Yakety Sax", "Wipe Out", “Alley Cat”,“Rawhide” and “Sleep Walk”. Just to illustrate: the last instrumental song to reach #1 in the Billboard charts was the Theme from Miami Vice by Jan Hammer from 1985.
Novelty songs may not have fared so well during the Elvis/Buddy Holly era, but in this period, the field was wide open for them. “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini”, “Hello Muddah” and "Monster Mash” were some examples of the genre that achieved major chart success.
And during this period, songs from other countries (and especially in other languages) had one brief moment in the sun. Lonnie Donegan had some success in the US charts with “Rock Island Line” as well as “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?” Rolf Harris saw his tune “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport” become the best-selling song in the US by an Australian at the time – and the first British tune ever to reach #1 in the Billboard Hot 100 list was the May, 1962 instrumental “Stranger on the Shore” by the clarinetist Mr. Acker Bilk – for whom a young Ginger Baker played drums a few years earlier. A few months later, the instrumental song Telstar – by the Tornados – duplicated the feat.
Two songs other than in English stand-out during this time as having reached #1 in the Billboard pop charts in 1963: Dominque (in French) by the Singing Nun, Jeanine Deckers (aka Sister Smile) – the only song by a Belgian artist ever to reach #1 – and the song Sukiyaki (in Japanese) by Kyu Sakamoto. Both were in the right place at the right time.
At the beginning of 1964, several changes had already been taking place: as more musicians began writing their own material, the Brill Building began to lose influence as its writers went independent – perhaps not unlike the old film ‘studio system’ when it broke down. But everything changed after the Invasion. Pre-1964, comparatively few British acts could make it into the US Top 100 (with “Stranger on the Shore” and “Telstar” as exceptions). After February 1964 … well, it took until April, 2002 for there to be a single week without a British act in the Top 100.
For my selection this week? Well, given that this was the end of the golden age of rock instrumentals .. it couldn't hurt to have my favorite instrumental from the era featured. And from a band in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as well. But for the murder of drummer Al Jackson in 1975, the classic line-up of Booker T & the M.G.'s would still be alive today.
Green Onions sounds as fresh today as it did then. At this link is the original 1962 version - or (even though it's from 1967) .. below is a live version.