Posted on 08/28/2018 1:26:43 PM PDT by simpson96
Yes indeed, a somewhat odd hit song, but in 1965 rock hadn't totally taken over the radio dial. You still had sort of traditional-type songs like Andy Williams' Born Free and Bobby Darin's If I Were A Carpenter.
I didn't know that most of the TJB was The Wrecking Crew, but it doesn't surprise me really. I used to like them very much, but I thought I was the only kid that did. I was just starting to play an instrument (the trombone), so their brass-oriented sound appealed to me.
Of course later, BS&T and Chicago knocked my socks off.
When I heard Zorba on the radio (I didn't have the album), I imagined they hired some Greek guy to play the main part. I pictured him as being very sweaty, wearing a fez, with a big mustache. I was ten years old at the time.
The crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe.
Compare the Lovin' Spoonful's happy and lighthearted Do You Believe in Magic? (1965) with their angry and incendary Revelation: Revolution '69 (1968). Hard to believe it's the same group.
I was sharp-eyed enough to spot that she wasn't entirely covered in "whipped cream," that she was actually covered with a sort of white felt cloth, like the one my parents put under the Christmas tree to give the illusion of snow. The "whipped cream" was just daubed over that.
Remember the Beach Boys' "Student Demonstration Time".
Wow, I didn’t know people misused the apostrophe so long ago. I thought that little bit of societal breakdown started in the ‘90s.
= = = = = = = = =
If you want to see ‘fun’ try having an apostrophe in your name.
I am an O’C..........
When it is being looked up in the computer and I am told I no longer exist I have to tell them to try it with an apostrophe (which brings ‘dumb looks’) then get the ‘OH yes, here you are’.
Of course the spelling of my name can be O C (which turns the last name to C), Oc......, or one of my favorites O$%* C.... I usually ask those people why are they ‘swearing’ at me...THAT really gets the dumb look.
Or be filling out a form and use O’C..... and get told I can’t use ‘foreign’ symbols.
Try explaining to some ‘low info clown’ how an apostrophe has been in use since before ‘The Late JC was messcooking’.
When I ‘google’ my name ALL versions come up and I get asked why I am using so many aliases.....
ALL over an apostrophe.....
What happens when things get ‘difficult’???
I'm reminded of the words of one of the detectives who worked on the "Zodiac" serial killings case in San Francisco. In a documentary on the murders, he said "if you came to San Francisco in '67, you were supposed to wear flowers in your hair; if you came in '69, you would have been well advised to carry a .45."
All that love and optimism was like an incredibly fertile growth medium; it attracted nasty organisms from every corner of the compass. The fun and games sure didn't last long, in hindsight, but at the time, it seemed like it would go on forever. We were constantly being told "you're the New Generation," and that we could change the world, that a new day was dawning, etc., etc.
Actually, what we were seeing was more like a stock-market bubble economy, like the internet bubble of 1999 and 2000, except that it was a sociological and demographic bubble. It couldn't possibly last, and it didn't.
But what an incredible whirlwind of influences and experiences and events to view, as a young teenager, from the safety of my suburban home. I feel very lucky to have been alive then.
The 'difficult' get things?
Sorry, couldn't help it.
Having an apostrophe in your name must be no fun, I'll grant you that.
Tim Hardin wrote “Bobby Darin’s If I Were A Carpenter”.
Pop standards--so-called "adult contemporary" tunes that you would normally expect to hear on stations out here like KFI and KPOL would occasionally make the playlists on Top 40 stations. KRLA and Boss Radio 93 KHJ would regularly play Frank Sinatra's and Dean Martin's latest hits. Even Patti Page's Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte and Charles Albertine's The Long Ships got lots of airplay and soared high on the stations' weekly charts.
Bobby Darin's "If I Were a Carpenter" scored big on KHJ in the fall of '66, but out here it was Matt Monro's and Roger Williams' versions of "Born Free" that made the playlists. You could probably hear the Andy Williams version over on KPOL.
The Universal Coward--Jan & Dean (1965)
I never heard either of those songs, Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, or The Long Ships before.
I did live in Los Angeles, briefly, in 1961 and 1962. Oddly, I do remember very clearly one particular song that was very popular there on the radio: Round and Round, by Perry Como. As a 6-year-old, I was able to at least partly understand the words.
I didn't know that, thanks.
If I Were A Carpenter really mystified me as an 11-year-old. I couldn't understand the meaning of all the words, particularly the ones about "would you have my baby."
Also, I remember not being able to make out this line:
Would you miss your color box, your soft shoes shining?
I couldn't figure out who was singing it, even though the DJ said it was "Bobby Darin." I thought that couldn't be true, because the only Bobby Darin song I had every heard was Mack The Knife, totally different.
Poor Bobby. Had a weak ticker. Died too young. Got to marry Sandra Dee though, so there's that.
The Wrecking Crew blew me away.
All the music I loved was actually played by the same people!
Mostly.
Either them or The Swampers...
Glenn Campbell was so prolific.
A major major force in music.
People don’t give him enough credit.
It was heartbreaking to hear that when his Alzheimer’s got so bad he couldn’t even remember how to play his guitar anymore.
Yup. The Muscle Shoals Sound guys (and FAME Studio) had a pretty good thing going too.
Ha!
I couldn’t believe it.
I don’t believe any of them were black!
But the music sure was!
Good stuff.
They backed up a lot of black artists, though.
I think there were some who wouldn’t perform with anyone else backing them.
Caution! For a very weird take on what was really going on in the crucible that actually cooked up the hippies and happenings and, basically, what we refer to as “the sixties” try the link below. I picked it up on another FR thread. It has really stayed with me. Proceed with caution. It is in 17 parts, so when you get to the bottom of this part 1 link scroll further to the bottom and click on “continue to part 2”. Do this 17 times, if you dare. Even the Mamas and the Papas turned dark.
https://www.sott.net/article/155794-Inside-The-LC-The-Strange-but-Mostly-True-Story-of-Laurel-Canyon-and-the-Birth-of-the-Hippie-Generation-Part-1
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