(today's zomby) AND THE RETURN OF SUMMERTIME!

Get it? Deadbeat? 'Cause he's... aw, forget it. You know what we need on this dreary, cold autumn day? A little dose of summertime, summertime, sum-sum-summertime.

The Jamies were four youngsters from Boston who scored their one and only hit in 1958 with the indelible "Summertime, Summertime," which reached #26 on the national charts. A re-release of the song reached #38 four years later, marking the last time the group ever scraped the Top 40. This is one of those songs I grew up hearing on the radio and in TV commercials (I'm pretty sure it was used in an ad campaign for an amusement park, possibly Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH.) I never really took notice of the song, though, until I saw the 1978 crime drama Fingers, in which Harvey Keitel's sensitive, music-obsessed character declares "Summertime, Summertime" to be the most innovative song of 1958. And he's right, too. Half a century later, it's a song which grabs you with its unique arrangement, utilizing stacked harmonies, a falsetto lead (provided by the songwriter's sister!), and a jangling harpsichord.



"Summertime, Summertime" is proudly secular, even anti-authoritarian ("I'm sorry, teacher, but zip your lip!") but according to the Jamies' brief but intriguing Wikipedia entry, the song's roots may be religious. Supposedly, the members of the Jamies started out as church singers and based their sound on sacred harp singing, a curious form of religious choral music which began in the Deep South. Before seeing the Coen Brothers' criminally underrated remake of The Ladykillers, I had never heard -- or even heard of -- "sacred harp" or "shape note" singing, but it's a genre which has greatly intrigued me ever since. As a scholarly exercise, compare the Jamies' recording of "Summertime, Summertime" with the following example of traditional sacred harp singing. Listen hard enough, and you'll find that there are indeed parallels in the way the harmonies are structured and different vocal lines are layered.

(NOTE: Try to ignore the vocal tune-up which occurs during the first eight seconds or so of this clip. It gets better after that.)



Okay, if sacred harp singing isn't your thing, here's Sha Na Na doing their version of the song on their campy 1970s variety show.



P.S. - Who wears studded leather vests to the beach?

(today's zomby) AND TWO DALE ARDENS!

I don't really "get" this one, even though I wrote it. I guess I just thought it was funny to have the little bird talk like Robert Netwon in Treasure Island.

And speaking of venerable fantasy/action franchises...

(from l to r) Jean Rogers as Dale Arden; Melody Anderson as Dale Arden

In an entertainment industry hellbent on exploiting valuable properties, there is occasional talk of possibly rebooting Flash Gordon for a new audience. Unfortunately, the most recent attempt, a 2007 TV series on Syfy, proved neither entertaining nor popular. The original comic strip soldiers on, of course, and the character appears regularly in comic books as well. But the prospects of a new Flash Gordon movie or series seem shaky at the moment.

Well, I'm here to say that Hollywood should keep trying! Why? Dale Arden, that's why! Flash Gordon's long-time love interest is a role which seems to bring out the best in actresses. It's hard not to look good wearing the finest in futuristic haute couture. Lovely, feisty Jean Rogers played the role in a 1936 Flash Gordon serial. And Melody Anderson played the role in the crazily-entertaining 1980 Flash Gordon film Maybe it's even time to give Dale her own franchise. Just a thought.

(today's zomby) AND THE BOB DYLAN/MARTHA QUINN SUMMIT OF 1984

C'mon, Zomby, we both know you can't read.

How are you this Monday, citizens?

I'd like to share with you an interview I found on YouTube. It's MTV sweetheart Martha Quinn interviewing rock legend Bob Dylan for the cable channel back in 1984. Although Bob is a notoriously prickly interview subject, Quinn catches him in a relaxed, lighthearted mood and they have a nice, laid-back conversation. What's most bizarre is that at the beginning of this footage, Quinn herself seems to be putting the finishing touches on Dylan's makeup. Here's a snippet of their pre-interview conversation:

QUINN: Is this liquid eyeliner that you're using?
DYLAN: No.
QUINN: Just what is it?
DYLAN: It's a pencil.

So there you have it, folks. Bob Dylan got his mid-1980s raccoon eyes with a pencil and not liquid eyeliner.

The shadowy underworld of "Stairway to Stardom" fan art!



The faces of Stairway to Stardom

"On the Stairway to Stardom, we've got the other shows beat by a mile!" 

Those are the optimistic lyrics of the theme song of Stairway to Stardom, the notoriously low-budget TV talent show that ran on Manhattan public access from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. Much has been written about the show already, and there are more YouTube clips than you'll ever be able to watch. Even NPR did a piece about the show once. 

Information about Stairway's eccentric performers is tough to find these days, though there are occasional breakthroughs. In a way, part of the show's appeal lies in its utter mystery. Who were these people? Where did they come from? Where did they go? Even the program's affable host, Frank Masi, seems to have vanished. (Update: Mr. Masi died in 2013.)

Undaunted, the fans of Stairway to Stardom have expressed their admiration for the bizarre series in a time-honored fashion: fan art. I've tried to find every piece of Stairway-related fan art on the Internet, and here is what I have come up with so far. Make sure you click on the performers' names to see clips of them in action!

Toni Marie Terrano



Toni M. Terrano shows us what the door is for. (source)

Gloria Huddle



Gloria Huddle wants to speak to Jesus long distance. (source)

Wayne Rubin



Wayne Rubin raises money for dandruff. (source)

Precious Taft



Precious Taft, beautiful when she's angry. (source)

Lucille Cataldo



Lucille Cataldo is worried, tired, and late. (source)

(today's zomby) AND "WHATEVER HAPPENED TO MADONNA LOUISE CICCONE?"

And speaking of '90s nostalgia...

Here's a masterful 1996 MTV promo by David LaChappelle in which Madonna and Courtney Love are reimagined as, respectively, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

(today's zomby) AND A REALLY NEAT REMIX OF THE "PARKS & REC" THEME SONG!

And as promised, here is a really neat remix of the Parks & Recreation theme song entitled "Hampden Park" by E-Dubble.

ZOMBY Can Solve the Global Energy Crisis, Part II

I guess the word is out. Loose lips, Zomby. Let this be one to grow on, my living impaired friend.

(today's zomby) AND THE MOURNFUL, TALKY MUSIC OF RED SOVINE!

Yes, today's cartoon is rather shamelessly "of the moment," so I thought I needed something decidedly un-trendy, even anti-trendy to balance it out...

That'll do nicely, Red.

Red Sovine (1918-1980) (awesome real name: Woodrow Wilson Sovine) was a popular West Virginia-born country singer of the 1960s and 1970s who specialized in making incredibly depressing songs about death and heartbreak, often involving truck drivers. Many of Red's most famous songs were "recitations," i.e. spoken-word pieces which combined a narrative poem with a musical backing. In fact, Sovine dubbed himself the King of the Narrations. Like many, I discovered Red's unmistakable work thanks to a frequently-aired TV commercial for a posthumous greatest hits album:



You can see how a commercial like that might stick in a person's mind. It's hard to imagine someone like Red Sovine making it in the slick, image-obsessed world of country music today. That's a lot of what I like about the guy, as shamelessly sentimental and hokey as his records might seem. He made more conventional C&W recordings, but to really know Red Sovine is to listen to his recitations. Here's his most famous and successful record, "Teddy Bear," a song whose narrative is so pitiful (handicapped boy with dead trucker father and poverty-stricken mother) as to put Charles Dickens himself to shame.



You think that's sad? Dig this next one. (And listen for a reference to zombies at the 3:20 mark.)