११ ऑगस्ट, २०१८

"Eleanor Roosevelt lived across the hall in the 1940s when we first moved in."

"My mom, Jane Bishir, was a Midwestern girl who’d come to New York to make it as a writer and became the closest of friends with Vivian Vance long before she was on 'I Love Lucy.' She was my godmother. My godfather was the best babysitter on God’s green earth, Garth Williams, the illustrator for all these wonderful books. He would be doodling, and there was one evening where he showed me three or four spiders: 'Which spider do you like?' He and E.B. White were going around the bend to avoid the Disneyfication of 'Charlotte’s Web,' and he wanted to try it out on a kid. My dad was a classical harmonica player and good friends with Burl Ives, who asked him if we could let this songwriter from Oklahoma stay at our house for a while. So I’m in bed, and in the next room I hear Woody Guthrie singing and playing, and in my total infancy I thought, 'He’s not as good as Dad.'..."

Said John Sebastian, quoted in "How ‘Summer in the City’ Became the Soundtrack for Every City Summer/The dog days of 1966 were filled with riots, protests and a nation on edge. Not to mention a brutal heat wave. But in Greenwich Village, something new was happening" (NYT).

४२ टिप्पण्या:

MayBee म्हणाले...

My mom said whenever she heard "Summer in the City" she thought of Richard Speck killing all the nurses in the hot summer city apartment, and now that's all I can think of too.

Mike (MJB Wolf) म्हणाले...

Interesting time and place to come of age.

Churchy LaFemme: म्हणाले...

Don't know if it's true, but I always heard his career cratered after the Spoonfull (we won't talk about "Welcome Back"..) because he gave up his dealer to get out of being arrested, and the music world shunned him..

Etienne म्हणाले...
ही टिप्पणी लेखकाना हलविली आहे.
wild chicken म्हणाले...

That song makes me think of LA, precisely at Melrose and Vermont, and cars, delivery trucks, screeching buses, smog, and heat.

You had to be young to tolerate all that.

MikeD म्हणाले...

I always preferred Billy Idol's Hot in the City.

Fernandinande म्हणाले...

These sure are some city songs.

Animals "Bright Lights Big City"
Bowie "Suffragette City"
Jan & Dean "Surf City"
Lovin' Spoonful "Summer In The City"
Ramones "Surf City"
Rubber City Rebels "Rubber City Rebels"
Stones "Walkin Thru the Sleepy City"
Stones "Bright Lights Big City"
Wilbert Harrison "Kansas City"

Mike Sylwester म्हणाले...

Unknown at 12:08 PM
I always heard his career cratered after the Spoonfull ... because he gave up his dealer to get out of being arrested

It was another member of the band -- Zal Yanovsky -- who gave up the dealer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sebastian

tcrosse म्हणाले...

Blogger Fernandistein said...
These sure are some city songs.


Animals We Gotta Get Outa This Place

Mike Sylwester म्हणाले...

Song lyrics by John Sebastian (born in 1944)

-----

Did you ever have to make up your mind?

Did you ever have to make up your mind?
And pick up on one and leave the other behind?
It's not often easy
And not often kind.

Did you ever have to finally decide
And say "yes" to one and let the other one ride?
There's so many changes
And tears you must hide.

Did you ever have to finally decide?
Sometimes there's one with big blue eyes, cute as a bunny,
With hair down to here
And plenty of money.

And just when you think she's that one in the world,
Your heart gets stolen by some mousy little girl,
And then you know you'd better make up your mind
And pick up on one and leave the other behind.

Sometimes you really dig a girl the moment you kiss her,
And then you get distracted by her older sister.
When in walks her father and takes you in line,
And says, "Better go on home, son, and make up your mind."

And then you bet you'd better finally decide.
And say "yes" to one and let the other one ride.
There's so many changes
And tears you must hide.

-----

Sung by The Loving Spoonful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sqXBB1ETU0

Mike Sylwester म्हणाले...

Song lyrics by John Sebastian (born in 1944)

-----

Do you believe in magic?

Do you believe in magic
In a young girl's heart --
How the music can free her
Whenever it starts?

It's magic
If the music is groovy.
It makes you feel happy
Like an old-time movie.

I'll tell you about the magic,
And it'll free your soul,
But it's like trying to tell a stranger
About rock and roll.

If you believe in magic,
Don't bother to choose
If it's jug-band music
Or rhythm and blues.

Just go and listen.
You'll start with a smile
You won't wipe off your face,
No matter how hard you try.

Your feet start tapping,
And you can't seem to find
How you got there,
So just blow your mind.

If you believe in magic,
Come along with me.
We'll dance until morning
'Til there's just you and me.

And maybe,
If the music is right,
I'll meet you tomorrow,
Sort of late at night.

And we'll go dancing, baby,
Then you'll see
How the magic's in the music
And the music's in me.

Do you believe in magic --
Believe in the magic of a young girl's soul?
Believe in the magic of rock and roll?
Believe in the magic that can set you free?

-----

Sung by The Loving Spoonful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL7XdoS5Je4

readering म्हणाले...

It knocked Wild Thing (The Troggs) out of #1 and was knocked out by Sunshine Superman (Donovan). Those were the days.

Mike Sylwester म्हणाले...

From the linked article:

“America was convulsing in a way, a time of huge unrest, incredible violence,” said Jon Savage, author of 1966: The Year the Decade Exploded.

On Aug. 1, in Austin, Tex., a lone gunman introduced America to mass murder. Charles Whitman killed his mother and wife and then more than a dozen people, sniper-style, from the University of Texas’s clock tower, wounding more than 30 others.

I was 14 years old in 1966, so I remember when Whitman shot those people from the tower.

A couple of years ago, PBS broadcast a superb documentary about that event. The documentary was done mostly in rotoscope animation. Her is the documentary's trailer.

The Crack Emcee म्हणाले...

I've got a lot to say about this most excellent post, but, first - I'm sorry, Ann - but I was seriously reading the article, and looking at the photos, but when I got to the one labeled "Gerde’s Folk City nightclub in the Village, 1961" - the year of my birth - I thought of Tom Lehrer"s song about The Folk Song Army and started cracking-the-fuck-up!



The Crack Emcee म्हणाले...

Everything about this post was cool: the article, the memories it sparked, the connections it makes to other things I'm interested in, including a recent obsession with the mechanics of "I Love Lucy".

It was really kind of amazing.

fleg9bo म्हणाले...

city songs

And who can forget Surf City by Crack the Sky?

The Crack Emcee म्हणाले...

[Slaps forehead]

"The connections it makes to other things" - "Eleanor"

I can be so dense sometimes,...

Mark Nielsen म्हणाले...

city songs

Wild West Side, by Dire Straits (on their debut album)

Bilwick म्हणाले...

"My mom said whenever she heard 'Summer in the City' she thought of Richard Speck killing all the nurses in the hot summer city apartment, and now that's all I can think of too."

I think of the Summer of Sam.

I Have Misplaced My Pants म्हणाले...

Crack ~ My teenage daughters have recently discovered Tom Lehrer all on their own. I am delighted!

Clyde म्हणाले...

And the young woman walking her dog past him as he stands on the steps in the Village probably has no clue who he is. Sic transit gloria mundi.

Bay Area Guy म्हणाले...

I was in NYC last week and it was fucking hot! The subway stations are blazing hot, although the cars have good air conditioning once inside. I went to Strand Bookstore wearing a suit. I was sweating harder than Patrick Ewing.

rcocean म्हणाले...

Eleanor Roosevelt was a Commie Bitch. Seriously.

She surrounded herself with Soviet spies, and worked with CPUSA to uncover "Fascist Spies" during WW2, and tried to get Westbrook Pegler who attacked her, investigated by the FBI and thrown in Jail.

She also convinced FDR to pardon the Head of CPUSA and Harry Bridges and tried to get Alger Hiss made Assistant Sec of State in 1945.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

I've always liked "Younger Generation" — which has some wonderfully disturbing lyrics:

Why must every generation think their folks are square?
And no matter where their heads are they know mom's ain't there
Cause I swore when I was small that I'd remember when
I knew what's wrong with them that I was smaller than
Determined to remember all the cardinal rules
Like sun showers are legal grounds for cutting school
I know I have forgotten maybe one or two
And I hope that I recall them all before the baby's due
And I know he'll have a question or two

Like "Hey pop, can I go ride my Zoom?
It goes two hundred miles an hour suspended on balloons
And can I put a droplet of this new stuff on my tongue
And imagine frothing dragons while you sit and wreck your lungs?"
And I must be permissive, understanding of the younger generation

And then I'll know that all I've learned my kid assumes
And all my deepest worries must be his cartoons
And still I'll try to tell him all the things I've done
Relating to what he can do when he becomes a man
And still he'll stick his fingers in the fan

And "Hey pop, my girlfriend's only three
She's got her own videophone and she's a taking LSD
And now that we're best friends, she wants to give a bit to me
And what's the matter daddy, how come you're turning green?
Can it be that you can't live up to your dreams?"

Mark O म्हणाले...

Whoa.

wild chicken म्हणाले...

He popped up here in missoula a couple years ago, checking out guitars in a local shop. Seemed ok, friendly and down to earth.

My Favorite was Darling be Home Soon

Bay Area Guy म्हणाले...

I always liked "Heatwave" by Martha and the Vandellas.

tcrosse म्हणाले...

I always liked "Dancing in the Street" by Martha and the Vandellas.

mccullough म्हणाले...

For me, John Sebastian is the Welcome Back, Kotter theme song.

Churchy LaFemme: म्हणाले...

You can tell Paul wrote "Eleanor Roosevelt" because.. what? Oh! *Never Mind*

Darrell म्हणाले...

Cousin marriage is cool.
Really.
Who else was going to marry Eleanor?

Mary Beth म्हणाले...

On Aug. 1, in Austin, Tex., a lone gunman introduced America to mass murder.

Why this one the one that "introduced America to mass murder" and not Howard Unruh in 1949?

cf म्हणाले...

Whatsup, @nyt? You trained us well, and now you put this nonsense up: It's a buncha white men from some last generation and their women, so we care why? I am confused. White guys are dirt, right? We all got us some grievance, right?

So what is with this little romantic valentine to these old asshole crackers?

Jaq म्हणाले...

And meanwhile, American Pickers found the band bus from Aerosmith before they got famous.

William म्हणाले...

That zeitgeist is some ephemeral shit. He was in the zone for two years and then it all vanished. Not the money and probably not the talent, but the flare his music made when you first heard it. I've had some of his songs on my playlist for over fifty years, and I'm not tired of them. He never did find that first fine careless rapture, but he wrote and performed five or six songs that you can carry all the way home. . Even by rock standards, his years in the zone were comparatively brief........ I think rock stars have a supernova period of five to seven years, and then they're doing oldie tours. Maybe the zeitgeist is a bell shaped curve, and he's on the wrong side of it.

tcrosse म्हणाले...

I think rock stars have a supernova period of five to seven years, and then they're doing oldie tours

Here in Vegas they can be imitated in a Tribute Show. The tributes, a major industry here, offer a snapshot of the artists at their best. What a hideous idea to have some young people do imitations of you from the day.

Henry म्हणाले...

My dad was a classical harmonica player

His dad was the classical harmonica player.

Ambrose म्हणाले...

So did Eleanor and Vivian Vance hang out? I got lost in the plot, but the possibilities are limitless.

babuilder म्हणाले...

Hmmm. Maybe environment is a better predictor of success than I thought. I spent the same time in small town Oklahoma as a teen trying to decide if I'd be drinking Coors Original or Boones Farm Apple Wine that night, and how not to get the shit beat out of me by the town tough while dragging main street.

The Crack Emcee म्हणाले...

Ambrose said...

"So did Eleanor and Vivian Vance hang out? I got lost in the plot, but the possibilities are limitless."

From what I've read, VV was friends with everybody on Earth, but William Frawley.

अनामित म्हणाले...

Lovin’ Spoonful is WAY underrated. I liked “Darlin’ Be Home Soon” and “6 O’Clock”

michaele म्हणाले...

Still have my album even though it's certainly not in pristine condition. Think I'll go down in the basement and pull it out.