revisionist doo-wop

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

thanking amateurist for reposting the Nickelodeon doo-wop interstitials... I missed the link upthread and they are great. I'm not sure if, as a kid, I really grokked that they were meant to be an homage to anything, as opposed to just, like, weird wacky music that fit the strange visuals. Maybe I did, though.

That Neil Young song is also great, wow.

There's a great section of the Ian Svenonius book about the line from street gangs through doo wop groups to rock groups

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

whoops
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMTUPwJTRcI

& toop briefly traced the line thru to hip hop

A brother group to The Jesters, and "equally fine" (Warner: 269) were The Paragons—"real hoodlums, real zip-gun, street-warring hoodlums", Paul Winley recalled to David Toop in 1984, "but at the time I was young and crazy myself, so it didn't make any difference". (Toop: 98) The Paragons Meet The Jesters (1959), with its street gang cover and vocal duels inspired by doo-wop's street corner singing battles and live show group competitions, was "one of the first rock and roll compilation LPs" (Warner: 231) ... Relic Records have collected Winley doo-wop on The Best of Winley Records (RELIC 5019) with liner notes by Donn Fileti detailing their lo-fidelity, almost ad hoc independent approach creating a valuable and unique New York sound. Quoting Fileti, David Toop makes the point that these are comments that can equally apply to Winley's hip hop output. (Toop: 99)

Winley Records resurfaced in the 1970s with a series of releases which—like the street corner practices of doo-wop foreshadowing those of hip hop (see Toop: Ch. 2)—would in their different ways presage the advent of commercially recorded hip hop even as that movement blossomed in the Bronx and spread to the streets of Harlem. Winley released a series of speeches by Malcolm X, tied into a tradition of black oratory and to be sampled a decade later by Public Enemy and others.

from the wikipedia page for winley records of "zulu nation throwdow" fame

yeah he mentions the continuation to hip-hop as well. it's probably all based on what guys like toop write - he's not a sociologist or anything

don't the beatles do this again on "revolution 1"

Discussion about Beefheart's "I'm Glad" upthread has me thinking that, you know, they were contemporaries of a group like Thee Midniters.

I've also got these compilation albums from the mid-'60s called "Godfrey Presents: 18 R&B Flashbacks" and I guess they were kind of oldies compilations (like the Laboe, Oldies But Goodies comps) but there are records on these (possibly even some of the doo wop) that were pretty contemporary.

those nickleodeon bumpers (esp the one w/ the pineapple singing falsetto) never fail to make me smile

also jonathan richman in the era when he was touring/recording w/ the rockin robins is very akin to that nickelodeon stuff in the childlike sense of fun with which he appropriates doo wop stylings

surely the neil young song is as much or more an homage to rockabilly and the poppier side of country than it is to doo wop

finally sometimes that fleetwood mac song up above is my favorite fleetwood mac song ever--but again, to be precise the harmonies and melody sound more like lou christie or gene pitney than doo wop to me. similar to some stuff on bruce springsteen's tunnel of love LP in that way

maybe i'm splitting hairs

this is more ink spots/orioles-type R&B stuff (which predates doo wop) but ian's post inspired me

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

IIRC that's the robins (of smokey joe's cafe, etc.) under an assumed name.

so maybe not orioles but clovers/early coasters/clyde mcphatter-type stuff

I suppose it's a little off topic for this thread, but the characterization of "I'm Glad" was this:

"basically doo-wop taken straight, without any overt indications of ironic distance"

I guess I'm just thinking that there was no reason that someone like Beefheart would have even considered the question of irony with that song, especially given what one seems to read about '60s L.A. (perhaps specifically East L.A.) culture.

And thinking back, "I'm Glad" never seemed to me to be something that stuck out stylistically on that album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-n5vG2SjJY

so was kenny cool enough to come up with this intro? i want the facts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edHhe8HyekE

anybody got his home number? he'd probably just take credit for it even if he didn't come up with it. that bastard.