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SPECTROPOP - Spectacular! Retro! Pop!
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There are 2 messages in this issue.
Topics in this digest:
1. Re: Gary Lewis / John West
From: steveo
2. Thoughts on rarity; Buttless Chaps; more spine-shivers; and more notes
From: Country Paul
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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 21:03:52 -0800 (PST)
From: steveo
Subject: Re: Gary Lewis / John West
Bibi La Red:
> 3) COMMENT: Wouldn't you know it! GARY LEWIS & THE PLAYBOYS WERE
> ALWAYS MY FAVE 60'S AMERICAN GROUP. KNEW EVERYTHING ABOUT THEM ...
> OR so I thought ... I never knew the second wave of the PLAYBOYS
> included a guitarist who would have as a daughter my fave (and
> prettiest) actress ... (Tripplehorn) ... Silly me...
Bibi, On Gary Lewis..I;ve always wondered about that "cordovox"
accordion/organ played by the mysterious John West. John has
totally dropped out of the limelite and now lives in Oklahoma,
perhaps playing in a country band at times, as does Tommy
Tripplehorn who lives in Tulsa. All attempts at contacting John
have failed. I'm wondering about the involvement of John West on
the recordings. I hear that it was studio musicians that played
on the records, not the group.
Steveo
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Message: 2
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 00:51:19 -0500
From: Country Paul
Subject: Thoughts on rarity; Buttless Chaps; more spine-shivers; and more notes
Have I properly said "welcome" to Eddie Rambeau? Thanks to Mike Edwards, I
got to meet and hang out with Eddie and his partner Bud Rehak at the Old
Time Radio Convention in Newark, NJ, earlier this year. A true pair of
gentlemen. Eddie, thanks for the great day - and the autograph! Glad you
came aboard with S'pop.
DJ Jimmy B:
> The desire for rarity comes more I think from overexposure
> to the everyday than a desire for rarity for its own sake,
> although a bit of that pathology creeps into my searches on
> occasion. Rarity implies to me unheard and unknown and when
> it comes to picking up oldies, since I've heard so much during
> my 55 years, I need something 'new' and at this stage of the
> game that means rare practically by definition.
Amen, JB - you crystalized my feelings exactly. Particularly, I was on the
radio and so was already burned out on stuff other people were just
discovering. (No one listens to a DJ's show the way s/he does.) My desire
for "rarity" was also fueled by the fact that, as a Music Director, I pretty
much got to hear *everything*, the great, the gawdawful, the stuff that I
knew was worthy of attention if not a mass smash hit, and in particular the
cool stuff that should have been a smash that we tried to break anyway.
While the "top 40" stations I worked for may not have been the biggest in
town, we usually played the biggest playlists and were the most interesting.
When freeform progressive radio came along, I tried to integrate the most
interesting pop music that worked with the album rock. That's how I know a
lot of this material - bubblegum was, of course, out, but we were mixing in
things like Sandy Salisbury's "Come Softly" with our spacier sets, for just
one example; or segueing Tommy Roe's "It's Now Winter's Day" with the Moody
Blues "Nights In White Satin" (before it became all beat up as an overplayed
hit). Despite being into progressive "album rock," most long jams were
really quite tedious to me as a listener, and probably more fun for the
musicians playing them. I'd rather have been hearing a well-written-
produced and -performed song that meant something besides a sonic ego trip -
or even a record with some commanding element(s) good enough to "forgive"
whatever was lacking in the rest of it (the "inept element" discussion we've
been having). There were exceptions re: the jams, of course; I'll avoid
examples lest I not include, or worse, dump on someone's favorites. Perhaps
my "musical order" evolves from starting out with classical, coming into rock
through singles - primarily doowop and pop - then coming to album rock later.
However I came to where I am, I'll still listening to anything interesting in
any genre, but I'm finding I have less and less tolerance to stuff I'm already
tired of.
Having said that, it's great to find "new oldies" I haven't heard before
(S'pop's forte), and to hear things I know with new ears thanks to
information from expert students of the field and especially from our first
person participants (S'pop's other forte). I enjoy our participants'
opinions, but the facts that emerge here are priceless; that they're usually
accurate makes detailed and consistant reading and participation so
rewarding. As Mike in NZ quoted Hugh of St. Victor, "Learn everything, a
narrow education displeases."
This didn't start out to be a major "think piece"; hope I haven't bored
anyone. On a related topic, Larry Lapka wrote, re: collectors:
> I think most men try not to give up their childhood
> passions, and I still have my comic book collection
> as well as my record collection....Women also have a
> disease called throwawayitis. If it isn't properly
> in place, it is in the garbage.
I had a box full of original TV Guides, 1956-58, almost complete. My mother,
a wonderful person otherwise, took it upon herself to toss them when I went
away to college. Unlike Larry's comic books, those TV Guides stayed gone.
How cool it would be to have them now - plus they'd be worth a major
fortune!
Re: completists - I think I have almost everything non-bootleg by the Teddy
Bears.
Late flash: Out of our era, but of possible interest: a Canadian Band, The
Buttless Chaps (someone called them "Canada's best-named band") and the
title track of their latest CD, "Love This Time." (There's a female vocal
that comes in partway through.) The magic is in this track; you can hear it,
full length, at
http://www.newmusiccanada.com/genres/artist.cfm?Band_Id=6037. Another
Irwin-of-WFMU revelation (credit where due).
Add these to the list of my recently discovered knockout instant faves: Nino
& April's "Wings of Love" (sweet and lovely from beginning to end); Carol
Connors' "My Baby Looks (But He Don't Touch)" (a find); and Judee Sill's
magical "Lady-O" (shivers down the spine when the double tracked section
kicks in - it's simply just beautiful until then).
And Steveo mentions Don Costa - on the 45, "Theme from 'The Misfits,'"
there's a honkin' tenor sax riff just before the big coda that is a chunk of
raw soul amidst the lush minor orchestral theme. It hits like a lightning
bolt. Worth hearing if you haven't. It's always a spine-shiverer for me -
and why I bought the record.
Peter Kearns, re: Jon Brion:
> Check him out: http://www.jonbrion.com
Very McCartney-esque. The Cheap Trick cover ("Voices") is particularly nice.
Dave Beard, re: Jeff Lynne:
> Lynne does his best work when he works within a concept
> and usually when its someone else's music.
Let's not forget The Traveling Wilburys, two of our more-played older albums
when my wife's home. (I like them too - Orbison's "You're Not Alone" in
particular. Another spine-chiller.)
Changes to hits: The Clovers' "Love Potion #9" originally sang the whole
song about "#9," but a re-recording has the last verse saying, "It felt so
good I'm going back again / I wonder what'll happen with Love Potion #10.)
Cute, I guess, but not the original.
Phil Milstein, re: Chuck Berry:
> this song makes me so proud to be American -- the
> land of cheeseburgers and jukeboxes! (Alas, no more
> drive-ins).
I forget its name, but at the corner of routes 206 and 15 in Lafayette, NJ,
there's an authentic repro drive in, complete with car cruise-in's during
the summer. No waitresses on roller skates, however, but there is a (minor
league) baseball park across the road. Also, not a drive-in but an
"authentic" 50's diner: the 5 & Diner on North 16th Street in Phoenix,
Arizona. Trouble is, the menu is printed in 2004 prices! :-) Or come to New
Jersey, and find a real diner every coupla miles.
Typo Gremlin attacks! I'd written on 1/15/04:
> Paul Bryant quotes allegedly good and bad lines from "Magic
> Moments", originally by Perry Como and later sure (very credible
> version, I might add).
Oops - "sure" was Erasure. "Era" got erased. Someone probably caught this
already. I'd hope! Maybe I've even taken flak for my strange taste! :-)
That's it for this one ("Oh no - I've said enough" --Michael Stipe),
Country Paul
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