Tag: Margo Guryan

Margo Guryan, pretty in pink

Margo Guryan’s highly prized and praised 1968 album, “Take a Picture”, is pretty in pink! Sundazed Music has issued a limited, 100-disc, pressing of the original LP on gorgeous, translucent pink vinyl.

http://www.sundazed.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=1838

Here’s a video of me putting needle to groove on virgin vinyl, side 1, track 1, playing the first minute of Margo’s “Sunday Morning”. The disc was taken from the original analog 2-track master tape, and the sound quality is, like Margo herself, stunning.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2010/NOV/MargoVinyl.flv 320 240]

Margo spent the summer of ’59 at the Lenox School of Jazz, here in good, ol’ Massachusetts, with an illustrious group of instructors, including Bill Evans, John Lewis, Milt Jackson, Jim Hall, Max Roach, and Gunther Schuller. Here are a few photos from that magical summer. Click to enlarge, as usual.

(Note to Morris: Recognize some of the people with Margo?)

I cut off the video above at exactly the point where the song really kicks in for me. I love the way Margo sings, “Come hold me in your arms…” Here’s the whole track.

Many cover versions of “Sunday Morning” have been recorded. Margo has no particular favorite, but one that I know she likes is by Glen Campbell and Bobbie Gentry.

OHHH… ALRIGHT… $42 million, and that’s my final offer

Yesterday, Christie’s auctioned a Roy Lichtenstein painting for $42,642,500. The painting is “OHHH… ALRIGHT…”, from 1964. I had to smile (maybe it was more of a smirk) when I read this in the catalog listing.

The seamless surface of Ohhh…Alright… may look as if it was rolled off a printing press in a matter of seconds, but it is actually the product of a long, painstaking procedure. Lichtenstein chose the original illustration from the DC comic book Secret Hearts, which Lichtenstein has made his own by subtly manipulating its content.

Attributing the source material that Lichtenstein used is undoubtedly thanks to the diligent research of David Barsalou, whose Deconstructing Lichtenstein project reveals what’s really behind Roy’s “monumental iconography.”

“Barsalou is boring to us,” comments Jack Cowart, executive director of the Lichtenstein Foundation. He contests the notion that Lichtenstein was a mere copyist: “Roy’s work was a wonderment of the graphic formulae and the codification of sentiment that had been worked out by others. Barsalou’s thesis notwithstanding, the panels were changed in scale, color, treatment, and in their implications. There is no exact copy.”

OH... ALRIGHT !... DECONSTRUCTING ROY LICHTENSTEIN © 2000 DAVID BARSALOU

Nonsense. I don’t deny that Lichtenstein had his own style, but “OH… ALRIGHT…” was copied from a panel in a DC romance comic-book that was drawn by Bernard Sachs, and Barsalou is the only reason why Christie’s acknowledges that. If Art is supposed to be about Truth, Deconstructing Lichtenstein is an essential resource.

The best, and most evocative, use of Lichtenstein’s work I have seen in another medium is by our own Miss Lia Pamina, featuring Margo Guryan’s sublime “Love Songs”.

“I Love” the Lennon Sisters singing Margo Guryan

When the Beatles appeared in America, I was puzzled. My big sister had a book with the Lennon Sisters in an imaginary adventure, like Nancy Drew would have. Was John Lennon related to the Lennon Sisters, who were regulars on the Lawrence Welk Show?

Well, other than the fact that the Lennon Sisters were singers, they had no connection at all to John Lennon, of course. By the mid-sixties their lovely, ultra-sanitized harmonies were considered out of date, but as the decade moved swiftly to the psychedelic era, they did what they could to keep up with the times. In 1967 the Lennon Sisters released “On the Groovy Side,” produced by Snuff Garrett, who had helped Gary Lewis have a string of hits. They look like they’re wearing matching paisley maternity dresses!

D.F. Rogers spotted a copy of this LP in a record bin, and he noticed that one of the songs is “I Love,” written by Lia Pamina’s favorite singer-songwriter, Margo Guryan. Good catch, Denro!

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2010/JAN/ILove.mp3]

Lía Pamina

Lovely Lía Pamina

Now that I’m in contact with Prudence Bury, I’d like to take a moment to once again say thanks to 60’s retro comment writer Janis, otherwise known as Lía Pamina. Months ago, Lía, who lives in Spain, provided Prue’s maiden name and its correct spelling, and that made all the difference in my search for one of the quintessential women of the Sixties.

Lía is a big fan of singer-songwriter Margo Guryan, who wrote the song “Sunday Morning” by Spanky and Our Gang (not to be confused with “Sunday Will Never Be the Same”).

Lía has made a couple of videos featuring Guryan songs. She’s cleverly animated “Love Songs”, with some illustrations by Roy Lichtenstein, and she performs “Timothy’s Gone”. Great job on both, Lía! You can hear Guryan’s original recording of “Timothy’s Gone” on her MySpace page at the link above.