Open thread 5/15/23
I just found out that Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” was a cover version. Here’s the original from 1959:
Here’s Chubby, 1960:
The New Neo
A blog about political change, among other things
I just found out that Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” was a cover version. Here’s the original from 1959:
Here’s Chubby, 1960:
Ben Bradlee writes of the time when he and his wife would visit John and Jackie Kennedy at the White House, which they did fairly often, and on at least one occasion tried out the latest dance craze in the Presidential mansion….
Yep, those were the days….
https://twitter.com/_B___S/status/1658063961995067393
it was a more innocent time, unlike the dumpsterfire they insist is normality,
Well, I’ll be darned, I thought those guys were white.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/reporter-visibly-shaken-cnn-boss-scolds-emotional-trump-town-hall-coverage?dg
I think I’ve heard the Ballard and the Midnighters’ version as often, or more, than the Checker’s version. I like Chubby Checkers and his rendition of the song, but I think the original by Ballard and the Midnighters’ is a bit better.
Hank, et al, did a lot of double entendre songs, in the blues tradition, that were banned from most radio stations, yet was a hit regardless. WHOD, a black, low power coffepot AM station (with one white DJ who became a Pgh legend -Porky Chadwick), was the only radio station in the Pittsburgh metro area that would air them. _Work with me Annie_is the prime example.
From the Fox News site…I guess the Durham report is out…yawn…if anyone is at all interested. I’m not.
Durham says FBI partisan and biased. Who knew?
It has long seemed to me that Hank Ballard’s “Finger Poppin’ Time” may as well have served as an improvement on his own “The Twist” — and luckily for Hank, Chubby never bothered (to my knowledge, anyway) covering “Finger Poppin’ Time”.
“The [Chubby Checker] Twist” and “Finger Poppin’ Time” were big hits at around the same time in mid-1960. [“The Twist” soared again in 1962 as part of the Twist craze, you know, Peppermint Lounge and all that.]
“Finger Poppin’ Time” by Hank Ballard And The Midnighters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMeoOwcwyTw
Re: Finger Poppin’ Time
M J R:
I knew I knew it, but couldn’t remember it, so a pleasure to be reintroduced!
Doing a bit of google-fu I discovered there is a Stanley Brothers cover. They were serious classic bluegrass players — the first to copy Bill Monroe — so I was rather surprised.
Great banjo break. And you can pop your fingers to it.
_________________________
I feel so good
And that’s a real good sign
–The Stanley Brother, “Finger Poppin’ Time” (1961)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtNNramVD_s
I’m not averse to bearing witness for artists, particularly those great and being forgotten. Surely the Stanley Brothers qualify.
Here’s a song more characteristic of the Brothers. It’s its own perfection.
_______________________
While I was singing, somebody touched me.
While I was singing, somebody touched me.
While I was singing, somebody touched me.
Must have been the hand of the Lord.
–The Stanley Brothers, “Somebody Touched Me” (1961)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCfCRbZTcRw
huxley (8:11 pm), I never ever imagined a country-sounding (replete with banjo break!) “Finger Poppin’ Time”.
It’s like a totally different song to my ears (which by now are weaker with age). But being a totally different song, it’s not a question of I like this one better than the other one, or vice versa, because to me they’re like totally different songs [as I was saying].
I like ’em both!
So thanks for the introduction to The Stanley Brothers . . .
When Trump was first elected, fears that he might go overboard brokering bipartisan measures seemed well founded. Such deals were his brand at the time. However, Democrat calls for his impeachment before he even took office and continually during his term took that agenda off the table. More yet, deep state sabotage of his administration was a bitter surprise. Those experiences appear to have caused him to rethink his pattern of appeasing establishment forces to gain their cooperation.
Now the gloves are off.
Trump: I’ll Release All JFK Files If Reelected
Meanwhile, a massive double mushroom in Khmelnytsky, Ukraine.
Impressive.
Trump: I’ll Release All JFK Files If Reelected
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Release them. The smart money says the people emotionally invested in hunting for truffles aren’t going to find them. The subject’s been done to death.
Ben Bradlee writes of the time when he and his wife would visit John and Jackie Kennedy at the White House, which they did fairly often, and on at least one occasion tried out the latest dance craze in the Presidential mansion….
==
IOW four people with children, ages 31 to 45. If that’s your state in life, you should excuse yourself from knowing a godddamned thing about the latest anything.
Wow. Another day of scandalbra! Going by our hostess’ Monday threads, at least.
I guess my word-play on “candelabra” is inspired by the Avenger’s comic book blockbuster movies wherein the meme “The Deep State IS Hydra” was born — Hydra headed is a no longer a mythical multi-headed monster working to undermine America. It’s now the same in real life as in the fictional realm.
Multi-headed because as soon a one head is lopped off, two more grow to replace it. From Marvel Comics in 1965, the symbol seen is a green ring with a Nazi—SS skull surmounting Octopus arms.
Wiki useful explain these origins, briefly:
Hydra (often capitalized as HYDRA) is a fictional terrorist organization appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Its name alludes to the mythical Lernaean Hydra,[2] as does its motto: “If a head is cut off, two more shall take its place,” proclaiming the group’s resilience and growing strength in the face of resistance. Originally a Nazi organization led by the Red Skull during World War II, Hydra is taken over and turned into a neo-Nazi international crime syndicate by Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. Hydra agents often wear distinctive green garb featuring a serpent motif. Hydra’s plans for world domination are regularly foiled by Marvel Universe superheroes and the intelligence organization S.H.I.E.L.D.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydra_(comics)
I HAD ORIGINALLY HOPED THAT THE YOUNG WOULD SEE THE FICTIONAL/real life PARALLELS. It struck me as obvious and inescapable.
I suppose I ought to dig around before consigning my naive hope — and a last decade parallel to “the hunger games” Young Adult fiction of the ‘00s, starring Capital City versus the exploited provinces of Panem [and a Blue state/Red state analogy], which drew on Roman imperial history, and literally Bread and Circuses — to the the proverbial ash bin of history.
I made a graphic out of of a photo capture of Dictator Biden speaking with upraised fists, desecrating Independence Hall last August — added a Hitler moustache and “Sieg Heil!” — real life has reached such ridiculous heights of such inainities. “Politics” imitates history…and evil fictions becomes our lived Truth.