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SPECTROPOP - Spectacular! Retro! Pop!
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There are 4 messages in this issue.
Topics in this digest:
1. Re: Storey Sisters "Bad Motorcycle"
From: Phil Chapman
2. Re: The Chantays
From: Kurt Benbenek
3. Re: Lenny Bruce/Tim Hardin/Kitty Bruce/Nico
From: Phil X Milstein
4. Re: Larry Welk
From: Mike Rashkow
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Message: 1
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2005 17:45:40 -0000
From: Phil Chapman
Subject: Re: Storey Sisters "Bad Motorcycle"
Javed:
> I was listening to WKBW from Buffalo, NY and heard them play a
> song called "Bad Motorcycle" by a group called the Storey Sisters.
> A really rocking late 50's tune. An example of female rockabilly.
"Bad Motorcycle" is my favourite track from a 1962 Ascot LP "All
Girl Million Sellers" (possibly the first ever girlgroup compilation?).
The liner notes proclaim "The New ASCOT collection, ALL GIRL MILLION
SELLERS, showcases a dozen top platters that have reached this coveted
mark and indicates most vividly that the so-called 'weaker sex' need
never campaign for equal rights in the wax field since they have had
these rights all along....."
According to the internet, The Storey Sisters were Philadelphia rock
& roll duo Ann and Lillian Storey. This was their one and only hit,
reaching #45 in the spring of 1958. Just after recording "Breakaway"
with Tracey Ullman, I played "Bad Motorcycle" to her. She liked it
and recorded it, just like that.
I'm sure this track has found its way to CD at some time or other,
as I have acquired an mp3 of it, but this version has an edited
intro which omits a saxophone glitch, and brings the vocals in sooner.
The original full-length intro is in musica... "vroom, vroom, vroom"!
If you fancy the Spector equivalent, check out the Crystals underrated
original issue of "All Grown Up".
PC
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Message: 2
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2005 16:58:50 -0000
From: Kurt Benbenek
Subject: Re: The Chantays
"Pipeline" was first released on Bill Wenzel's Downey Records
label. In 1988, the original session tape for "Pipeline" was
released on Dunhill's incredible CD compilation Surf Legends
(and Rumors). According to the liner notes "...every version
of Pipeline released until now has been made from an inferior
sounding (but less 'hissy') dub copy"
The Surf Legends version of "Pipeline" is a wonder to behold
and never fails to rumble my windows in a pleasant way. From
what I understand, the Surf Legends version of "Pipeline" had
to be withdrawn for legal reasons. A second CD compilation of
Downey Records surf music called 'More Surf Legends (and Rumors)'
was issued in 1997.
About a year and a half ago, there was a full discussion here
at Spectropop about Wenzel's Music Town record store and their
backroom studio - where the Downey 'surf sound' flourished in
the early 60s. Wenzel's closed shop four years ago after 40
years in business - and Music Town is now a 99 Cent bargain store.
cowabunga,
Kurt Benbenek
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Message: 3
Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2005 18:07:00 -0500
From: Phil X Milstein
Subject: Re: Lenny Bruce/Tim Hardin/Kitty Bruce/Nico
Norm D. Plume wrote:
> There is a concert version by Tim Hardin on "T.H. 3"; he never
> did a studio version. It is stunning and may be the one on the
> Lenny Bruce tribute album. Tim H. did live at Lenny Bruce's for
> a while.
Lacking access to musica, I have played two-and-a-half related
tracks to my own site, Probe (URL below). At "batch 2" there you
will find Kitty Bruce's touching version of "Yesterday," recorded
by her father, Lenny Bruce, in the last week of his life, as well
as two edits of the same version of "Lenny's Tune" (aka "Eulogy To
Lenny Bruce") by Tim Hardin. Both tracks are taken from a Capitol
LP titled "Why Did Lenny Bruce Die?," which was itself based on a
syndicated radio program of the same name. The album version (and
most likely the radio version as well, although I haven't heard
that directly) includes a longish, sentimental text over the intro
to the Hardin recording (which, to contradict Norm's information,
certainly does sound like a studio take, with Hardin singing over
stark piano). However, seeing space for a clean edit after the end
of the VO, I have also posted a version of the file in which the
intro has been edited out.
"Why Did Lenny Bruce Die?" was a production of Lawrence Schiller,
most recently heard from as editor of the O.J. Simpson jailhouse
defense "I Want To Tell You." Schiller himself plays guitar on the
Kitty Bruce track, although one wonders if it wasn't dubbed in
after the fact.
Norm again:
> And didn't Nico die in a rather bizarre way, by falling off her
> bicycle? She was living in the UK at the time and had, apparently,
> cleaned up, so I guess heroin was not directly or immediately involved.
> Tragic all the same. And to bring the circle back to Lenny Bruce -
> he told the story, on one of his records, about actor Bela Lugosi,
> who was a junkie for years, "he cleans up, then drops dead".
With the official death report inconclusive, it is believed Nico was
thrown from her bike (while riding near her island retreat in Ibiza)
due to a stroke or heart attack. It has seemed to most observers that
her death was an example of the "Lugosi syndrome" Norm cites: she had
indeed recently detoxed from heroin, but the long decades of virtually
an all-skag diet had apparently left her system too weak to fight.
--Phil M.
http://www.aspma.com/probe
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Message: 4
Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2005 11:32:35 EST
From: Mike Rashkow
Subject: Re: Larry Welk
Phil M:
> Believe it or not, Welk was born and entirely raised in the U.S.
> However, he grew up in an isolated enclave of German immigrants
> in, I believe, Nebraska, thus accounting for his accent.
Actually, his accent was contrived to give him stage cred with
polka fans in the Milwaukee area. Welk was born and raised in GA
and his natural accent was very much like Jimmy Carter's.
Di la,
Rashkovksy
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