Final Posting...

"Good or bad… It never lasts forever." (Pat McNally, Sondrestrom Fjord, Greenland, 1969... Pontificated while tripping on LSD... True story… I was there)…
This is blog number 22… The final curtain, so to speak…Funny… Number 22… Reminds me of Catch 22… I kind of feel like Yossarian, jumping out of the hospital window, Nately’s whore’s sister’s knife just missing me as I take off… 

Catch-22

1. (E == (I & R)) (Premise: If a person is excused from flying (E), that must be because he is both insane (I), and requests an evaluation (R));


2.(E == (I & !R)) (Premise: If a person is insane (I), he should not realize that he is, and would have no reason to request an evaluation)


3.(E == (!I ||!R)) 2, Definition of implication: since an insane person would not request an evaluation, it follows that all people must either not be insane, or not request an evaluation)


4.(E == ((I !& R)) 3, De Morgan: since all people must either not be insane, or not request an evaluation, it follows that no person (P) is both insane and requests an evaluation)


5.(!E ==(I & R)) (4, 1) Modus Tollens: since a person may be excused from flying only if he is both insane and requests an evaluation, but no person can be both insane and request an evaluation, it follows that no person can be excused from flying)

It Makes sense to me!!

Joseph Heller's Catch-22 first published in 1961...Funny... So did Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land... Both books started becoming cult hits in about '67-'68...
Both are are classics... Kinda like this blog... 


Dylan was right... The times were a changin'..


Poppy

'Twas the the blog before last blog...

‘Twas the blog before last blog,

And as I started to write,

I pondered the subject I’d wax on tonight.

Elvis, the Beatles, Domino Fats?

Or maybe some jazz…

The pot smoking cats.

I haven’t as yet played the Everly Brothers,

Or Dickie and Tom,

The two brothers Smothers.

‘Twould be easy to cheat, and just mail it in,

Sit at my ‘puter and guzzle some gin,

Maybe just copy and paste something fast,

Then sit back, relax, and get drunk on my ass.

Relax, I’m just kidding,

I wouldn’t go there,

It wouldn’t be right,

And it wouldn’t be fair!

A Christmas tune special,

With just the right ring,

Not Sinatra or Dino or Tony or Bing,

But two beards and a blonde,

Yea… that’s the right thing.

So enjoy as you listen,

And remember the time,

When songwriters act’chilly wrote lyrics that rhyme,

When voices joined in harmony true,

Think kind peaceful thoughts,

And…

Merry Christmas to you!!!

When Girls Wore Skirts

 I suppose one could say that “Feminism” began when Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique in 1962, and co- founded National Organization for Women in 1966, but in reality, didn’t it start in the late 1950’s?... That’s when Girl Groups began to emerge on the music scene…  Ah, the girl groups… Young female singers who could harmonize, teaming up with behind-the-scenes songwriters and music producers to create hit singles… The Chantels released the song Maybe, arguably the first true glimmering of the “Girl Group-Sound", in 1958…. It reached #15, and ka-ching… Songwriters and producers quickly recognized the potential of this new genre, and started recruiting existing acts or, in some cases, creating them from Jump Street… Phil Spector recruited/created The Crystals, The Blossoms, and The Ronettes… Soon The Motown label was also masterminding popular girl groups… The Marvelettes first… And later Martha and the Vandellas and The Supremes… Often featuring copious production values, top shelf studio musicians, and fueled by Brill Building and 1650 Broadway song writers like Spector, Gerry Goffin and Carole King, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, and Paul Simon as Jerry Landis the girl groups of the 60’s supplied listeners a seemingly ends stream of rich sounds… The high-production, harmony-heavy sound of girl groups was so popular, that many individual singers adopted the “Girl Group-Sound." Lesley Gore, Little Eva and Mary Wells were solo artists, but are considered by many part of the girl group genre. Other groups, such as Ruby and the Romantics and The Essex, had the “Girl Group-Sound,” even though they were not composed entirely of females. Let’s tune in WIBG, I bet there’s a girl group playing…

The Age of Technology

During the late1950s the Soviet Union and the United States were engaged in a race for space, and the U.S. was clearly getting its butt kicked. On May 25, 1961, because he believed that achievements in space played a crucial role in the competitive connection between Communism and Democracy, President John F. Kennedy went before Congress, and called upon the United States to commit “To achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon, and returning him safely to the Earth." Considering that the U.S. was still another year away from even putting a human being into orbit, this was indeed, a formidable challenge.

Early in the planning stages of the lunar venture, NASA scientists ascertained that a successful moon mission would require an onboard computer that had capabilities superseding those of most of the computers in existence, and that there was a problem; computers at that time, filled entire rooms. Undaunted, armed with 46 million mid 1960’s-era dollars, and using a central processing unit, and integrated circuits created by Robert Noyce, a physicist and inventor at

Fairchild Semiconductor, the 

MIT Instrumentation Laboratory designed, and Raytheon Company fabricated,

 the Apollo Guidance Computer, and accompanying software. Although only approximately the size of a shoe box, the AGC in many ways, could out perform any other computer of the 1960’s; it was the first computer to incorporate integrated circuits; it could multi-task, it had random access memory, and it is considered to be the first modern information processing system. And so began life in the Noyes Law Era, and the Age of Technology*...

*blogger is apparently still using that computer for its formatting

The Ghost of Christmas Past...

The Ghost of Christmas Past... Let's see... His Christmas shopping  was a little different...First off no bank cards...Nope... BankAmerica Card and MasterCharge didn't arrive until the mid sixties... He might have an account at Sears Roebuck, or Lit Brothers, or J.C. Penny.... Maybe an Esso or Cities Service card for gas and oil... But no universal plastic... The  Ghost of Christmas Past socked his Christmas shopping dollars away at the bank.... Week by week... In a Christmas club... What a thrill it was when that Christmas club would hit it's last week!... And Mom and Dad didn't have to start a new one for at least two weeks... The Ghost of Christmas Past comes complete with a real tree... Aluminum Christmas trees didn't hit until '58... And mercifully didn't last far beyond the mid 60's... Remember that color wheel... Whew...They were supposed to represent the glitter of the space age... Huh??... Oh well.. At least the bulk of them were manufactured Wisconsin... Today's artificial trees are harvested in China... On Chinese plastic farms...It's kind of cool that A Charlie Brown Christmas is widely credited with bringing about the demise of the aluminum Christmas tree...

The Ghost of Christmas Past had some good sounds too... The AM radio would rock...Sure, the old standards, Nat King Cole, Perry, Deano, Sinatra and the boys were still getting their air time... But old standards got a Rock 'N Roll twist... And there were new songs too... Come on... Let's tune in WIBG and see what's playin'.. 

Talent and Opportunity

There sure wasn’t a dearth of talent back in “our’ time… Holy Moley… It seems as those all you had to do was shake a tree, and gaggles of talented people would fall out… And cover the ground… Doo Wop groups… “Classic Sound” groups… Gals with great pipes… Guys who could really sing… But there was also opportunity!!!... Independent record labels gave artists, who would have been merely faces in the big record company crowd, the chance to record and be heard… Maybe catch the gold ring… Not to mention, that although it was probably morally wrong… Payola undoubtedly was responsible for some brand new and unheard of artists getting some air play… And there were tours… Headlined of course, by stars… But filled with lesser known acts, thrilled to be getting the venues needed to have their sound heard… The tours visited cities and locations big and small, and were affordable for most teenagers… The thing is… They were shows, and more about getting exposure and creating excitement, rather than making a million $$$$... There was no American Idol on TV… Can you imagine if there were???...Fats Domino versus Buddy Holly versus The Platters versus Dion and the Belmonts versus… The phones would have rung off the hooks…

Let’s listen to a sure winner… From Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania… I apologize for the lack of consistency in the formating from post to post... BlogSpot just does what the hell it wants to from time to time... 

You can get anything you want... Excepting Alice

If change is the essence of existence, then holidays surely do exist.... Case in point... Thanksgiving....  Back in the "Good old days", if you forgot to buy cranberry sauce, you either substituted grape jelly, or you did without... I mean... I mean.. I mean... Retailers weren't open on Thanksgiving.... Woolworth's Five and Dime wasn't open.... Nor Lit Brothers... Nor Gimble's... Those stores are all in one big open early close late box called Walmart  now...  Employees were home with friends and family... People didn't line up at malls at 6:00 AM to buy this year's trendy in thingy... Mainly because there were NO malls... I saw a sign at the Dollar Store last week that said "Open Thanksgiving"... Where do people who go shopping on Thanksgiving eat any way???... Does McDonald's have turkey burgers?... And no Christmas decorations were out yet....Not until Black Friday... Football...The Bears played the Lions, in what was always a great game... And the only game...

Man oh man..Let's go back to '66 and enjoy an Arlo Guthrie masterpiece.... If you've never heard this... You're in for a real treat.... Take 15-16 minutes out and enjoy... Kick back... Relax.... And have a wonderful Thanksgiving.... And please pass the grape jelly....

Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a spot...

“…we observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom—symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning—signifying renewal, as well as change.” So began, on the steps of the Capitol, in a heavy snow fall, on January 20, 1961, the inaugural address of President John F. Kennedy. I will neither refudiate, nor tackle, history’s revisionists. I was there. I remember being in 8^th grade, and watching that speech in the auditorium at Alice Costello Public School; these are my memories.

I remember JFK, sans topcoat and hat, electrifying both the crowd in attendance, and the TV viewing public, with a short (about 1400 words) dynamic speech.

“Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage.”

Even my Dad, a staunch Nixon man, had to admit that maybe the right guy had gotten elected after all. It had been a hell of a campaign; the first really, where TV had played a major role. It pre-dated negative ads. Both candidates endeavored to sell themselves, rather than degrade the other. We choose sides, and debated it in social studies class. My parents (Mom was a Kennedy gal) debated it the dinner table, and we kids were invited join in the discussion.

JFK challenged all us, “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.” I remember my freshman class taking, on our own, a fifty mile hike, because the President had challenged us to become more physical fit. There was hope; and there was promise.

The Kennedy presidency was dubbed “Camelot”, and a fitting moniker it was. The play was a White House favorite, and the soundtrack was played regularly by Jack and Jackie. Those (roughly) one thousand days in the early 60’s were, for that that one brief shining moment, like living in, and being a part of Camelot. But then suddenly, just like that, on November 22, 1963, Camelot vanished, and the American dream got turned upside down; it is a condition from which we have arguably yet to recover.

Charts, Cross-Overs, and Old Pros

Back in the day... There were tons and gobs and gaggles of new songs being released every week... So what was a hit???... And what was not???... Easy... Just check the charts... Except...Now we run into a bit of a conundrum... Which chart??? There were tons and gobs and gaggles of charts... Billboard' Top 100 was (and still is) far above the national icon... But that was subdivided into Pop... Rock... Country... R & B... And who knows what else... Not to mention that Billboard was further divided by sales and airplay... Bandstand had a Top 10... And all the radio stations had their own... WIBG (99.9 on your dial, but number 1 in your heart) had its own top 99... And then there was this very important chart... The jukebox chart... That was the one that determined what you listened to when you were doing what you did most... Hanging out at the sweet shop or DINER... Ah...The DINER...

  

  Our number one was the South Grove... It was built on what would be called "wet lands" now... Your basic Jersey swamp.. They just filled it in and moved in a diner...With a twist... The front facade was that of a ship... We called it (lovingly) The Boat.... As the story goes... Because it was on this swamp... It started to list... Yep.. The Boat started to sink... But it was a great place... Most nights they would refill your quarter cup of coffee countless times as long you kept feeding the jukebox... And made sure you played a request or two for the waitress.. And she knew you were good for a decent tip... But I digress...Sometimes a song would cross-over... Be on two or even three charts simultaneously... And that was a good thing... If you were in the car with your folks, and you managed to talk them into letting you put WIBG on the radio... Just as they had about had it, and were ready to change the dial... One of the cross-overs from Pop would come on... Whew... Saved again... Some artists had a real knack for knocking off cross-over hits... Old pros... The real professionals like Sinatra and Tony Bennett just kept on truckin' thru it all... And a new old pro... Bobby Darin... It seemed like every song he released hit the Pop and Rock charts...Let's head over to The Boat, grab eight or ten cups of coffee, and listen to some cross-overs...





The Golden Ages

There have been Golden Ages for damn near everything associated with every society… And I gotta tell you… The era we are visiting here was chocked full of Golden Ages… The U.S. was still the supreme king of manufacturing… Steel… Appliances… TV’s… Automobiles... The unemployment rate hovered around 3% - 4%, and by golly, didn’t that just fuel the economy… Sub-divisions and Levittown wanna-be’s had the housing and related industries booming, a Golden Age, so to speak, as families sought the American dream in the suburbs… Did I mention automobiles?... Certainly a Golden Age was happening there…Ford made a full sized retractable hardtop convertible called the Skyliner… Nice heavy big blocks with plenty of horses under the hood… Pontiac Grand Prix and Bonneville were hot like firecrackers… And talk about a Golden Era… Muscle cars… You want muscle???? 1964… In this corner… Weighing in at 3500lbs… Costing $4500 (with every available option)… Sporting a 389 Tri-power cubic inch engine…. The Pontiac GTO…

I’ve mentioned before that the 50’s – 60’s was the Golden Age of television… And I hope to do a little more on that topic later…. Also, there is no doubt that this blog is somewhat stuck in the Golden Age of Rock ‘N Roll… But the artists of that time didn’t forget their history… They remembered the by-gone Golden Era of Big Bands and Swing, and created some wonderful hit covers of great old songs from the 30’s and 40’s… Proving what John Lennon said about a good song... It will always be just that... A good song… Yesterday, today, and tomorrow…



Veterans Day Circa 1960

In 1938, an act of Congress made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday “…. a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as "Armistice Day."…. After American forces had fought aggression in Korea during the early 50’s, the 83rd Congress, at the urging of the veterans service organizations, amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word "Armistice" and inserting in its place the word "Veterans."… In 1954 President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued the first Veterans Day Proclamation.…. In the 50’s and 60’s, lots of folks still referred to it as "Armistice Day"… and the majority of the male population were WWII and/or Korean War Veterans….Ike was a vet… JFK was a vet… Most of the dad’s were Vets… Sure as shootin’ there was a national draft…

But high school kids in the early 60’s didn’t think too much about it… Indeed, before the “Gulf of Tonkin Resolution” in August of 1964, Viet Nam was barely a blip on America’s radar… I mean… Ya… If you were a guy, you would most likely get drafted… So you would go… Even Elvis… The King… Got drafted and went… I remember that my sisters were thrilled that he passed his physical “with flying colors”… And my dad had to admit that Elvis was OK… He didn’t try to squirrel out like most movie stars and pretty boys… Nope… Elvis did his duty… He was alright… And two years guarding the country didn’t kill his career… IT FLOURISHED!!!...

In the 40’s there were a lot of songs aim at G.I.’s… But not so much the peace time late 50’s and 60’s… But that does not diminish the role of the American Vet… Men and women… Dating back to the Minute Men and Colonial Militia… Have played in enabling us to eat hog dogs at ball games… Bad mouth our government… Or write blogs about damn near anything we want… So… Let’s celebrate the American Vet!!!! 

American Bandstand

Back in the day… Bandstand was the “Cat’s Pajamas”… Beginning locally in Philly in 1952, and featuring mainly short musical films, and occasional studio guests, Bandstand was an early predecessor for the type of music videos that became popular in the 1980’s… After a short time, the show changed to a dancing format, with teenagers dancing along on camera as the records played… In 1956 Dick Clark replaced Bob Horn, the original host… And the show took off like a rocket… It was picked up nationally by ABC (becoming American Bandstand) on August 5, 1957…

There were regulars… Who were kinda like minor movie stars… And kids who stood in line day to day to get on the show… The latest records were played… And there were guest artists, who would lip-sync their records… A spot on the show could propel an artist or group to stardom… Or a song up, and off the charts… Local idols, Bobby Rydell, Frankie Avalon, and Fabian were the Bandstand “Golden Boys”… Clark would often interview the teenagers about their opinions of the songs being played, most memorably through the "Rate-a-Record" segment… Another segment was “Role Call”… The kids would pass in front of the camera and say their name and where they went to school… It seemed like every day there was three or four girls answering to “Mary, South Philly”… In 1958, ABC even gave Clark a Saturday night time slot for The Dick Clark Saturday Night Beech-Nut Show, which originated from the Little Theatre in Manhattan… Let’s tune it in… All three of the Golden Boys are on tonight…



South Philly

Philadelphia sits approximately half way between the home of nation’s capitol, and what is arguably the city that is the world’s most over-rated, NYC (he spits as he says it)… Some say that because of this geographical juxtaposition, the city has an inferiority complex… This certainly wasn’t the case in early days of Rock ‘N Roll…

Indeed, 1955’s Rock Around the Clock, one of the most important records in Rock 'N Roll history, was the creation of Philly’s own Bill Haley and His Comets... Within a couple of years, a group of kids harmonizing on the street corners around 8th and Snyder, belting out Doo-Wop, were common fare, and South Philly, helped along by the emergence of native born artists like Chubby Checker, Frankie Avalon, Fabian, Jimmy Darren, and Bobby Rydell had made Philadelphia virtually synonymous with Rock ‘N Roll... And of course there was our old friend, American Bandstand, from 46^th and Market. Even tho' it is home to such iconic entities as a world class art museum and symphony orchestra, the Liberty Bell, and Constitution Hall, Philly was, at the time, best known around the world as the Mecca of Rock 'N Roll , and the birth place of The Twist and The Bristol Stomp.

Let’s head over to the Italian market… Maybe Danny and the Juniors or The Four J’s will be hangin’ out rehearsing…







Blowin' in the Wind

Besides Rock ‘N Roll, another genre of music started emerging onto the scene… Or should I say re-emerging… Folk… The term had been around since the 1800’s, and since the Great Depression, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Doc Watson, and others had been creating songs that told the stories of the people… Railroad songs… Cowboy songs… Mining songs…Songs about the people and their lives… Happy songs… And songs about struggles for equality and survival…



Of course Woody was The Man!... His Talkin’ Blues… This Land Is Your Land… Union Maid… Hard Travelin’ and others, written in the 30’s and 40’s were classics, but had  lately received little attention... However, that was about to change... Artists in New York's Greenwich Village, like Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs, and a troubadour who was to become the poet laureate for a generation, Bob Dylan, started to not only re-discover Woody, but write a new chapter in the book of Folk Music... The Folk Revival... They asked questions... Important questions... But don't look for answers here... The answers, my friend,  are blowin' in the wind...



“… Television… what you will observe is a vast wasteland.” ~ Newton Minnow, 1961

Wow… I wonder what Minnow would think of the tube today???... Actually, all things being equal, I kinda think TV was pretty good… Sure… There were only three networks… And sure… Rabbit ears were the defualt “modem”… But hey… There was some good stuff… And it was FREE!!!

Steve Allen… With his Men on the Street and Crazy Shots was a riot… Ernie Kovacs was a true creative genius and also featured Edie Adams (talk about babes)… Jackie Gleason and Art Carney never failed to make you laugh…

Sunday nights were great!... There was Ed Sullivan, who always had something for everyone, even us teenagers (like Elvis or The Beetles or Brenda Lee)... And then... And then... And then... There was Maverick...

  

Ah, the westerns... Gunsmoke... Cheyenne... Sugarfoot… Wyatt Earp… The list goes on and on… And Sitcoms… Donna Reed… Ozzie and Harriet… Jack Benny… Burns and Allen… Not to mention detective shows... Richard Diamond, Private Detective (David Jansen)... Mike Hammer (Darin McGavin)... Meet McGraw (Frank Lovejoy)... In retrospect, I think maybe Minnow was looking into the future...

But it's dance time... Now put on your best smile... And stand up straight... It's almost time for a ladies choice...





*How can we know the dancer from the dance?

     Weekends were for dancing… Dancing and dating… Dating and… OOPS… That’s a whole different blog… Dances were everywhere… Schools had them… Fire halls had them… Catholic churches had dances... Man… There were even Ballrooms… You could go to a dance on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sunday nights... Not to mention that they were cheaper than dates!!!.... Besides, you didn't have to be Fred Astaire or Ginger Rogers... You just did it... Slow dancing was a basic box-step foxtrot... Except everyone kinda went around in a big circle... And even the slow songs had easy to follow beats... Fast dancing was the jitterbug... (tho' some places called it the Lindy)... There were some variations... The stroll was kind of a slow precursor to line dancing... And of course there was Chubby Checker and the Twist...

I was one of the lucky guys who had older sisters... So I had pretty much completed basic training by the time I hit high school... And of course, you could always see how it was done on Bandstand!!!... And... What a great way to meet girls!!! I hope to kiss a duck if it weren't...Hey... Wanna dance??? Let's cut a rug or two with Killer!!!



*Special thanks to William Butler Yeats for lending me the title for this post...