IT’S JUNE 27TH and WE WANT TO KNOW ABOUT AWSoP – ASAP!

I just discovered that today happens to be the birthday of two members of Procol Harum, the band best remembered for their Summer of Love smash hit,

“A Whiter Shade of Pale”

(AWSoP). In honor of that, I’m going to offer some of the trivia I found, concerning the interpretation of the song, and of the band’s name. I won’t go into the in-depth merits of each one, or we’ll be here for months. Let’s just have some fun and see what there is to see about this classic oldie. Hang onto something to keep you well grounded, and let’s take a look.

At one time or other it had been claimed, verified, suggested, proven, disproven, and/or rumored about AWHoP that…

1) the melody was lifted from or inspired by J.S. Bach’s
"Air on a G-String” (Oh pull-leez, you just had to snicker didn’t you? You know perfectly well what that means!)

2) the melody was lifted or inspired by J.S. Bach’s
"Sleepers, Awake” (Well, both Bach pieces have some AWSoP moments, you decide)

3) the melody resembles (or at least has the same chord progression as) “When A Man Loves A Woman” by Percy Sledge. WAMLAW actually was recorded one year ahead of AWSoP, so perhaps the inspiration goes the other way ‘round.

4) the lyrics refer are a boy/girl breakup theme revolving around nautical imagery.

5) the lyrics are about a boy/girl breakup theme involving drugs.

6) the lyrics contain the elusive “answer” to what Billie Joe McAllister threw off the Tallahatchie Bridge in Bobbie Gentry’s hit song, “Ode to Billie Joe.” This one particularly interested me, since I love OTBJ (does anyone else find these abbreviations as annoying as I do?) and wrote about it at length in my book, but, the answer? I think someone is pulling someone's leg.

7) the lyrics contain references to a) Roman/Greek mythology - Vestal Virgins, Neptune in the extra verse b) Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” – The Miller’s Tale c) Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, “If music be the food of love…” and d) Milton’s L’Allegro, “light fantastic” which may have morphed into “light fandango.” I’ll add an e) to the list – I think that “playing cards” and “looking glass” could be an oblique reference to Lewis Carroll’s Alice books (also see June 10/08 post).

8) the band’s name was borrowed from a pedigree cat.

9) the band’s name, Procol Harum, is “dog-Latin” (not to be confused with pig-Latin), which is kind of another way of saying bad Latin, and it might mean, more or less, any of the following: beyond those things, beyond these things, beyond that which is, far out.

Ah, the late ‘60s – AGTWHBA! (a good time was had by all)

Image of Bach, Vestal Virgin from Wikimedia Commons.

FEATURE ARTIST: LEON RUSSELL, with a sidebar on Willie Nelson, and Life

I was talking recently with a long-time friend (the one I call my sister from another mother and father) about what we’d both been listening to lately. We’re both really into music, but our tastes are somewhat different – while she’s at the mall watching Tristan and Isolde broadcast live from the Met in HD, I’m hunched over my computer searching for rare and obscure doo-wop. She likes Dave Brubeck, and I like Dave Crosby. But we overlap on a few things, like Philip Glass and Laurie Anderson. And, I just found out, we both like Leon Russell. How could you know someone for decades and not know they like Leon Russell; that’s so basic! We were both surprised. Well, anyway, after that, I grabbed a Leon Russell CD as I was heading out the door, and drove off down the road to the familiar strains of “Roll Away the Stone,” smiling.

Leon Russell (b. 1941) is having a long and illustrious career, starting with his early days in L.A. as an arranger, producer, and a highly respected session musician for Phil Spector. He’s contributed to and worked with the widest spectrum of talent you can imagine; everybody from Gary Lewis and the Playboys to the Byrds to Herb Alpert. My introduction to Leon came through the rock and soul extravaganza, Mad Dogs and Englishmen. From there it was just a hop skip and a jump to Derek and the Dominos, Delaney and Bonnie, Rita Coolidge etc. I really could have a Leon Russell wing in my CD collection. In January of this year, Leon released In Your Dreams, his…wait, let me go to Wikipedia and count…I make it his 39^th album! And he’s still looking as fierce and Rasputin-y as ever.

Well, almost “as ever.” Leon didn’t always have his signature long hair and beard. Oh no. Like his friend and fellow artist, Willie Nelson (their duet of Heartbreak Hotel went to #1 on the Billboard Country chart in 1979), Leon is one of those guys whose looks, as well as talent, span several critical decades. Let me put it this way – if you see an early picture of David Crosby – or Dave Brubeck for that matter – they pretty much look the same over time. Don’t panic, what I simply mean is, if you put a photo of Crosby from today beside one of him from the 60s, you wouldn’t have much trouble figuring out they're the same person. But Leon, and Willie…I’m thinkin’ maybe you might have trouble.

Now, I’m not bringing this up to poke fun at anyone; we all have pictures of our younger selves we're glad aren't on our driver license permanently. But it’s a Law of Life – you live long enough, and you’re bound to leave a trail of photographic documentation of your questionable fashion statements behind…(see the 2 photos in the left hand margin of me, your most humble blogger, with 1965 helmet hair, and more recently). Well... enough philosophy already, let's hear some music.

Happily, someone on YouTube has posted a vid of Leon Russell doing “Roll Away the Stone.” It says it’s a 1964 clip, and judging by his getting-longer hair and still-bare chin, it’s “transitional.’

Another great YouTube find! “Roll Over Beethoven” No matter what style, what decade, Leon’s hair is impressive. What a pomp! And what's even more impressive is all that rockin' talent in one so young.

GEORGE CARLIN

1937 - 2008

I'll bet just about every baby boomer (or those from any other generation, for that matter) can remember the first time they ever heard George Carlin's "Seven Dirty Words You Can't Say on Television." (How times have changed!) The world is a funnier place, and the English language is richer for his contribution. George, you hilarious $#@%*%, you will truly be missed! Here's my personal fave.

WILL ANYBODY EVER WRITE A SONG ABOUT ICE CHIPS or BACTERIA?

For eons, we evolving humans looked at the stars and wondered, “What the heck are those twinkly little dots up there?” Then later, when we knew a bit more, we wondered, “Are we alone, or might there be somebody up there?” Blessed (or cursed) as we are with fertile imaginations, we then began to speculate on what such fellow occupants of the Universe might be like. Then we began to record our musings in story, movie, and song, and we have to admit that, for the most part, our supposed visiting interplanetary neighbors (that sounds like Weird Al spoofing Alanis Morissette!) haven’t been depicted as all that attractive, or friendly.

In popular music, nearly everyone has had a shot a singing about aliens, from Ella Fitagerald’s “Two Little Men in a Flying Saucer” (1951) right up to the present, with Outkast and Blink 182. The only one who doesn’t seem to think much of the topic is former Eagle Don Henley – “They’re Not Here, They’re Not Coming.” And he doesn’t exactly say he doesn’t believe, he’s just asking why would they bother coming here! Of course, if they don’t want to come here, we make house calls. In fact, we’re up there on Mars right now, looking for LGMs (industry term – Little Green Men). But so far, the only color up there seems to be that endless rusty red. Oh, and a bit of white, which is caused by some little square-ish tidbits of ice, which upon being unearthed (unMarsed?) by the module, promptly sublimated (go directly to Gas, do not pass Liquid, do not collect $200). So, suddenly… it’s gone! All we can hope to find now is maybe a few amino acids, or maybe some bacteria. Personally, if that’s the case, I’m glad we don’t get the module back…I just watched the remake of Andromeda Strain on TV the other night. Critters from other planets can be unattractive, unfriendly and very unhealthy. Anyway, my point is, I think we may have seen…or heard…the best of the alien songs. Once we rolled the ice dice, the romance of it all kinda went out the window. So let’s pause for a moment and remember the good old days, when aliens were little and green, and big and purple.

Sheb Wooley “Purple People Eater” 1958. This is terrific old footage, even if the SFX are a little old-fashioned!

The Byrds “Mr. Spacemen” 1968. Special effects are coming along nicely now, must be the acid.

I looked for the Don Henley song on YouTube. Unfortunately, it’s not there, is it coming?

UPDATE 23 JUN - After the commenter below clued me in about the Weird Al song "Germs", I found this little animation among several at YouTube. With LGM in it, I think you'll agree it's the perfect choice for this topic. And if you're up for it, there's another one on YT which I won't post here that's set to a compilation of scenes from the old X-Files series. Mind you, I was a huge X-phile, but somehow when all the "icky" scenes are strung closely together instead of spread out over dozens of episodes, well, it's a bit much before breakfast...

BREAKING NEWS: HULA HOOP TURNS 50 TODAY

The hula hoop craze of the late 50s swept the Baby Boomer generation with a force previously unequaled. No one these days would line up in tents for days to buy one, they simply aren't high tech enough for our sophisticated selves. I don't have a Blackberry, or a picture phone, and I don't really want them, but I wouldn't mind if I still had my cool old royal blue hula hoop. What a collector's item that would be!

The hula hoop was introduced to the world by two marketing geniuses, Richard Knerr and Arthur "Spud" Melin, who eventually formed the Wham-O toy company (who also gave us the Frisbee). Hula hoops sold for $1.98 (that much, really?!) and Wham-O sold over 100 million. I don't do math, but even so, I can guess they made some significant bucks. In fact, they were so popular, they were banned in Russia, as a symbol of the "emptiness of American culture." That sounds pretty funny today, doesn't it. Anyway, these hoops made it into more than one song. There is the Christmas Song by Alvin and the Chipmunks. And this one by Georgia Gibbs, appropriately titled "The Hula Hoop Song."

“The Hula Hoop Song.”

IN MY NEXT LIFE I’M GOING TO BE AN IKETTE

Back in the 1960s, we Boomers all listened to a little gem of an R&B group known as the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. Ah, the Ikettes – you couldn’t have asked for better “backup” for Tina. Under Ike’s production, the Ikettes also recorded some singles of their own. It wasn’t always easy working for Ike (try to act surprised). At times he even had one set of Ikettes recording and touring their hit, and a different set performing with the Revue. Apparently he didn’t pay very well either, and the girls never received royalties. Because of all that messiness, it's understandable that there were frequent changes to the Ikettes roster. I counted at least 23 names on the list of Ikettes over the years. Not all their singles were hugely successful, but two in particular, “I’m Blue (The Gong-Gong Song)” from 1961, and “Peaches and Cream” from 1965 did quite well. Those songs are two of the best vintage R&B hits one could ever hope to hear. While Tina Turner deservedly gets a huge amount of attention for her amazing voice and delivery, it was really the complete and total package deal to see and hear all of them together. Whenever I play “I’m Blue” and “Peaches and Cream” in my van I crank it up and sing along like I’m the “fourth Ikette.” Fortunately it’s loud enough so I can’t really hear myself and spoil the illusion. And then I kind of drift off into fantasy, wondering…what must it be like to open your mouth and hear something like “the fortune teller told me my love with you was through” come out like that? Well, too bad I’ll never know. Not in this lifetime anyway.

Man, can they ever chew up those lyrics! This one will blow you away.
“I’m Blue (The Gong Gong Song)”

Honestly, wouldn't you rather dance to this at your wedding than "Wind Beneath My Wings"?
“Peaches and Cream”

SEXIEST SONG SURVEY: GOOD THING OR EXERCISE IN FUTILITY?

As some of you may already know, I’m big on making lists. There’s the on-going (as in never-ending) Things To Do list, plus weekly shopping lists. Then there’s lists of movies to watch, books to read, CDs to check out, blog posts to write about… Really, I should own stock in Post-It Notes. And let's not forget the list of my personal Top 10 vintage oldies over on the left-hand margin of this blog. Lists galore! But it’s all good, right? I mean, my lists are, with the exception of the blog one, not for public viewing. Nobody gets hurt.

But recently in my travels online I came across a list that claimed to be the results of a survey on The Sexiest Songs of All Time. I can’t tell you much more, because no one had signed their name to the entries, still, it was a real eye opener as to what different people actually think is sexy in a song. I found myself alternately nodding my head (Unchained Melody, The Righteous Brothers) and furrowing my brow (Bang-A-Gong, T. Rex) as I read the list. And then, I decided to look into the matter a little further. First I Googled “sexiest songs of all time.” I found more of the same wildly diverse mixture of titles on most sites: “Wicked Game” Chris Isaak, “Love to Love You Baby” Donna Summer, “Possibly Maybe” Bjork, “Tupelo Honey” Van Morrison, and the Titanic one by Celine Dion. One survey site was totally rap and hip hop, with titles I would blush to type out for you (but, yes, they did each refer to sex in, ahem, one way or another). Next I decided to go right to the horse’s mouth, and clicked to see what Rolling Stone mag had to say on the topic. Here’s their list of the Top 5 Sexiest Songs of All Time:

1) “Let’s Get It On” Marvin Gaye
2) “Closer” Nine Inch Nails
3) “Darling Niki” Prince
4) “Like A Virgin” Madonna
5) “Sex Machine” James Brown

I have to say, none of those would be on my list, and two of them (2, 3) I’ve never even heard. So, is there any point to even trying to pick the sexiest song/s ever? I’m pretty sure a lot of peoples’ top pick might change over time, anyway. Still, we are driven to try. So, I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.

Deb’s Pick for Sexiest Song of All Time – “Every Breath I Take” Gene Pitney. It’s got it all – Lyrics, melody, drums, strings, Gene’s terrific voice. Oh, and did I mention the drums?

And, BTW, the photo at the top is my pick for the Sexiest Eye Chart of all time.