Great cover of a fun little ditty. That hat will come in handy if he has to rob a train or sumfin on the way home.
I’ve heard that everybody has one good book in them, or one good song. Only a few have more than one. This could be exhibit A. It’s a cute little slice of life story about living in Los Angeles. By a girl living in Los Angeles. She better move, or she’ll never get another.
2 Responses
Dear Sippican:
As you know I am a member of the silent generation. We were born prior to 1946. My earliest memories of music on the radio are of the swing bands, which could be heard on radio up until about 1953. Very quickly with the 1954 recording of”Rock Around The Clock” the world changed. The following summer I was 11 years old and completely absorbed in looking for “rock and roll music”. Song after song came very quickly then “That’s All Right” with Presley. By 1956 “Rock and Roll” was well established and on every radio in America. In my mind this is a very quick turn around, from Big Band to Rock and Roll seems to have been only about two years for the change to be complete.
Question: How did they do that to me? I was not a big city kid. I only occasionally listened to the radio. I was 10 years old when they– whoever they were, media, promoters, ? changed my world. Every Sunday I went to a traditional Episcopal Church in a conservative upper middle class town. I had choir practice on Thursday and Church choir on Sundays. There were no radios to carry around and listen to while out of the house.
Question: WHAT THE H*** HAPPENED? What great power did those people have that could change the world so quickly?
I ask this question again. I believe the first baby boomers graduated high school in 1964 when the Beattles arrived in the winter of their senior year. That generation– “those kids” went wild. Then . . and then there was the music stuff of Mick Jaeger and CO.–1965. It had only taken another three years to change America’s taste in popular music.
I remember in 1958(9th grade) I had several male teachers, all of whom had seen service in WWII. They were strong supporters of this country’s ideals. One of those teachers taught what would today be considered “history”. In 1958, I also had a female teacher who taught “history”. She was moving houses one day and when the movers picked up her sofa they found a copy of the “Communist Manifesto” under her couch cushions. The entire town immediately became aware of the fact that she was “communist”. My male teachers were in a rage about her and I do not know if she taught school after that year.
The reason I mention all this is because I am wondering; did she and other less visible supporters of the socialist/communist ideals have a lasting influence on those kids coming through the system just three years behind me? It seems to me that while the high school graduating class of 1964 adored the new sound of the Beattles, they were also already indoctrinated to a very different form of ideal government. When I remember that It only took three years to wipe away the bing band sounds and replace them with Rock and Roll, I ask the question, could the same thing have been done to the baby boomers? Did it only take three short years of “re-education” to explain their dramatic turn away from accepting the traditional American ideal of government?
My point is that with limited technology it did not take long to change a generation’s way of thinking about music and government.
You contain multitudes. Please continue to share.