Category: Music

Birds of a Feather

“Frank is a singer who comes along once in a lifetime, but why did he have to come in mine?” — Bing Crosby

Rudy Vallee could have just as well said the same thing about Bing. Both of their careers were made possible by the innovation of electrical recording technology, singing into microphones rather than yelling into acoustic horns.

The rivalry between Bing and Frank, which was really more of a mutual admiration society, was parodied a couple of times in Warner Brothers cartoons. First in Frank Tashlin’s memorably zany Swooner Crooner. The complete cartoon isn’t available on YouTube, but here’s a bit of it.

Catch As Cats Can was directed by a lesser known Warner name, Art Davis, who was Bob Clampett’s successor at the studio. I like the ending of this one.

https://youtu.be/nYDt5QmNGsk

No Longer Neutral?

Switzerland, with its infamously secretive banks, has agreed to impose sanctions against Russia, while maintaining it isn’t compromising political neutrality. Hillbilly Moon Explosion is from Switzerland, and Arielle Dombasle joined them for this catchy little number.

I hope the Russian sanctions don’t include the fabulous Messer Chups! Here’s their latest music video.

Green Day

What do I have that’s green for St. Patrick’s Day? I have bananas! Bananas that have been green for two weeks.

green bananas

I’ve been told they will eventually ripen, and that putting them in a paper bag will help to hasten the process.

paper bag

How long will it take for these bananas to ripen? Stay tuned to find out!

Something by Green Day. Will the situation with Russia get bad enough that Selective Service returns to having the Draft?

The Music… and the Voices… in his Head

I watched the new Brian Wilson documentary, Long Promised Road.

Brian certainly deserves all of the credit and good will he receives, but it’s doubtful that he has ever truly been back — and that’s assuming he was ever completely okay.

“Exciting and happy. Groovy feeling. Haven’t seen it since 1966.” — Brian Wilson in Long Promised Road

The two bad guys in Brian’s life story — his father Murry and his longtime therapist Eugene Landy — are given the right amount of attention. There isn’t a lot of new information in the movie, but I didn’t know that Brian’s 34th birthday, in 1976, was celebrated with Paul McCartney, who was born two days before Brian. Which means they will both turn 80 in June.

Later on that year, John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd set up this SNL skit, featuring the first appearance of the car that I assume inspired the duo to come up with the Bluesmobile. The generic use of “Highway Patrol” was probably a nod to the 1950’s TV series with Broderick Crawford.

When they were at the beach, Annie Leibovitz took this photo of Brian for a Rolling Stone cover.

brian wilson

The record Linda McCartney showed to the camera was 15 Big Ones. In the documentary Brian asks a couple of times to hear this song from the album.

brian wilson memoir
Wouldn’t It Be Nice: My Own Story, 1991

Shouted-Outed

Thanks, Jim Dawson, for the humorous acknowledgement.

Jim has taken up the radio reins on Luxuria Music that he shared for many years with the late Ian Whitcomb.

Ian’s stroke caused a marked change in his voice, as heard in this clip from a few years ago, during a pledge drive. Go to 32:00 minutes to hear my request for my sister Liz, who was delighted to hear this recording.

Looking Back on the Bag

A few posts ago, “Little Green Bag” is in stereo. My copy of the recording, on a CD, is in mono, like the original single.

That very nifty record player looks like a Voice of Music A1272, from 1972. I had one, very briefly. Voice of Music record changers were everywhere on house brand stereos, but five years after the A1272 the company went out of business.

record player

This video has a good view of the complete unit. Not an audiophile quality turntable, but good enough for all practical purposes.