Pop music paleontology, soda pop culture, new concoctions, dancing skeletons, joint articulation, artichoke studies, sport coats and leisure suits, more
A funny thing caught my eye when glancing at the Billboard Hot 100 from October 3, 1970: two songs about snake-killing mongooses (mongeese?), as in Rudyard Kipling’s “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” from The Jungle Book, charted side by side. “Mongoose,” by Elephant’s Memory (#54), was a five-minute jam-rock beard-waggler featuring an occasional straight narrative, while Donovan’s “Riki Taki Tavi” (sic) (#55) - one of my longtime favorites of his - treated Kipling metaphorically (I guess). I always did assume that pop chart compilers were nothing but jokers.
Elephant’s Memory - “Mongoose” (1970)
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Donovan - “Riki Tiki Tavi” (1970)
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We lost El Parche last Friday - he was 71, but going great guns and I’m still feeling a bit depressed about it. His El Corrido De Jhonny El Pachuco album, incidentally, is one of the best records ever made - never mind that no one seems to know when it actually came out (I’ve always guessed ‘81). Let it burn.
Steve Jordan - “Las Coronelas” (198?)
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Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth passed away in 1932, but his “Brejeiro” got a new lease on life when The Muppet Show debuted in 1976. I guess what this says about “Muppet Show Theme” composers Sam Pottle and Jim Henson is that they had good taste.
Bola Sete and His New Brazilian Trio - “Brejeiro” (1966) (excerpt)
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“The Muppet Show Theme” (1976) (excerpt)
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The Veins - Iron Tears on Angry Cheeks (2001)
Margaret Smoot - I Wear Your Duster (1973)
The American Horns - The Chrysler-Plymouth Jingle Sessions (1977)
The Kamchatka Octet - “Risk” Music (1976)
Don Brockett - Norway My Way (1969)
Doreen Dorado - Hey, Country Music (1978)
Various Artists - Earlobe Records Presents Misdirected Gems (1981)
Casper and the Ghostly Trio - Favorite Hymns (1955)
The Frosted Five - Hot Dog Friends (1963)
B. Serious - Grammy Jammyz (2002)
Diamanda Galas - Greetings from Branson Pavillion (1993)
The White Epoxy Mongrels - Austro-Turf (1982)
Oscar Brand - Ballads for Bawdy Balletomanes (1962)
Jay Em - The Sober Interloper (1999)
The Flatlanders - Flat, Not Broke (c. 1984)
Lord Pecos Pete - Jew’s Harp Zodiac (1966)
The Lonesome Larynx Ramblers - Tossed in Austin (1975)
Alan Lomax - American Avon Lady Field Recordings (1952)
The Won’t Go Homers - Sonata for Your Merlin (1980)
The Martin Yard Ensemble - Red Licorice Eruption (1983)
Yma Sumac - Guide Me Savior (1968)
The New Sufi Choir - Presents “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” (1997)
Van Morrison - Kerrville Campfire Tapes (1990)
Dale and Grace - Tacos for We Two (And You Too!) (1959)
The Eddie Peabody Coalition - KJAK Presents “The Jeffersons” Suite (1987)
Original Broadway Cast - Miss Otis Sistrunk Regrets (1956)
Horst Grimstad Combo - Mambo Trombones (1951)
Imperial Toy Company - Bubbles: A Study in High Fidelity Sound (1972)
Various Artists - The Best of “Live at Carlsbad Caverns” (2006)
Mel Torme - Sings Letters to the Editor (1985)
Jufel Frit - Ejne vergona fajnet (1986)
I recently got talking with Kendell Kardt about his pre-Rig days in New York City and he again made my head spin somewhat when he talked about a folk group he played in called “Forever Children” that included his friend Paul Giovanni (other members included Ronnie Gilbert, Joyce Aaron, and Mike Poznick). This is the same Paul he writes about in his private, online memoir - a guy he gave guitar lessons to and who performed, along with the aforementioned Ms. Aaron (Kendell’s girlfriend at the time), in an experimental troupe called the Open Theatre. Paul and his partner, the British playwright Peter Shaffer, eventually (and benevolently) flew Kendell out to London during an Open Theatre stint out there circa 1970 so he could reunite with Ms. Aaron.
That’s pretty much the end of Kendell’s own story with Paul, but the memory drive in my head kept clicking over the familiar-sounding name, and I remembered it was the same name listed as composer on the opening credits of the the 1973 Wicker Man cult film (performed by a group called “Magnet”). So I dug up an album cover by the group Side Show, that I since found out Giovanni had also belonged to, and Kendell said, “yes, this is Paul, second from the left.” I then told Kendell about The Wicker Man and have now replaced the long standing encyclopedia listing in my head that read “Paul Giovanni: Forgotten British folkie who composed a one-off soundtrack to a singular movie” to “Paul Giovanni: New York actor, composer, and old friend of Kendell’s who also happened to write the music for a singular movie.” Giovanni passed away in 1990, but although this New York Timesobituary makes no mention it, that enchanting soundtrack alone will keep his memory alive and well.
(Another friend of Kendell’s, by the way, recently sent along this piece from the Guardian about a Rocky Horror-style Wicker Man singalong that just took place in London…)
I guess a better title for this post would be David Rose (composer of the theme for Little House on the Prairie, the long-running ’70s-’80s TV drama I remember as a steady depiction of heart-wrenching pioneer misfortune) does Marty Paich (featured arranger of Gloria Lynne’s 1963 Gloria, Marty and Strings LP). Surely the image of the Ingalls family traveling on a hilltop to their “little house” had him thinking about Gloria and Marty’s “Folks Who Live on the Hill” to the extent that he nabbed and reworked that opening french horn intro, even building a whole theme song around it, as a knowing wink.
Gloria Lynne - “Folks Who Live on the Hill” (1963) (excerpt)
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David Rose - “Little House on the Prairie Theme” (1974) (excerpt)
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I don’t know if Mott the Hoople’s Mick Ralphs ever gave a hoot about “Baby Jane” (see below). As far as I can tell, in fact, I’m the only one to have noticed it here in Webville….
It’s true that over-borrowing, though, was a bit of a problem for late 70s-and-beyond Rod. In ‘78, he got busted pretty quick for using Jorge Ben’s “Taj Mahal” refrain for his “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy” smash. The fact that all of Rod’s proceeds for the song ultimately went to UNICEF, though, seemed to cool all tempers. Rod got in trouble again in ‘88 when his “Forever Young” irritated Bob Dylan, whose own “Forever Young” was an obvious influence. So the two mammoths ended up splitting the royalties. No compensation for those of us who were irritated by the song in general.
Jorge Ben - “Taj Mahal” (1972 version) (excerpt)
Written by: Jorge Ben
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Jorge Ben - “Taj Mahal” (1976 version) (excerpt)
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Rod Stewart - “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy” (1978) (excerpt)
Written by: Rod Stewart and Carmine Appice
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Mott the Hoople - “Wrong Side of the River” (1971) (excerpt)
Written by: Mick Ralphs
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Rod Stewart - “Baby Jane” (1983) (excerpt)
Written by: Rod Stewart and Jay Davis
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The Blues Magoos - “(We Ain’t Got) Nothin’ Yet” (1966) (excerpt)
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Deep Purple - “Black Night” (1970) (excerpt)
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