Nick Lowe -- Marie Provost

(see also, August 6th 2011 "A Post on Marie Prevost")

JERRY LEIBER Poet Laureate of Rock 'n' Roll & Rhythm & Blues

Mike and Jerry (right) with unidentified singer.

JEROME “JERRY” LEIBER

(04-25-33 to 08-22-11)

          I learned Monday of the death of Jerry Leiber, who wrote the coolest, most hilarious lyrics in all of rock ‘n’ roll & rhythm & blues. The NPR obituary mentioned only that Leiber & his partner Mike Stoller had written “’Hound Dog’, ‘Jailhouse Rock’ and many others.”

          Is this the appropriate summation of the output of an artist who spent his life creating the following list of songs?

          “And many others” includes; practically everything ever recorded by The Coasters, including; Charlie Brown, Yakety Yak, Poison Ivy, Along Came Jones, Three Cool Cats, Searchin’, & Youngblood. Plus; Love Potion #9, Smokey Joe’s Café, Stuck in the Middle with You (Remember? “Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am…”), Treat Me Nice, I (Who Have Nothing), Don’t, Love Me, Dance with Me, Ruby Baby, Kansas City, Fools Fall In Love, I‘m A Woman (W-o-m-a-n), There Goes My Baby, On Broadway & Elvira. (O.K., I could have lived without that one, but hey, thousands of people liked it.) AND MANY OTHERS!........

             Mr. Leiber wrote my all time favorite lyric;

             “One little piggy ate a pizza,

               One piggy ate potato chips,

               But this little piggy’s coming over to your house,

               He’s gonna nibble on your sweet lips,

               ‘Cause I’m a hog for you baby,

               I can’t get enough of your love.”

Now that’s poetry! The first time I heard this lyric, especially in the context of its ultra cool R&B tune, I literally almost fell off my chair laughing.

If there’s any way you can get your hands on a copy of Rhino’s two CD set The Coasters’ “50 Coastin’ Classics” GET IT!!! It’s funky and hilarious. It just might be my all - time favorite album (and I’ve heard a few!)

Rest In Peace Mr. Leiber

Celebrate Going into Labor Day!

Sure, we are all looking forward to celebrating the upcoming Labor Day Weekend, and I'm sure we'll all have things to do -- it's so easy to come up with ideas. However, what can we do to have fun in the up coming weeks of anticipating going into Labor Day? Why not throw a "Going Into Labor Day" party?Celebrate with fetus shaped cookies from a fetus shaped cookie cutter. You can't have "Going Into Labor Day" without a fetus!

 order yours at http://www.stupid.com/fun/FETS.html

CITRUS CHRIST / NAVEL ANGEL

Although his name, apparently, has already been lost to the internet ether, some devoutly religious person sat down for breakfast recently, cut open his orange, and was convinced that what he found there strongly resembled Mr.Jesus Howard Christ. He took a photo so you can judge for yourself;

As part of an art project, I was playing around with the image in Photo Shop. I selected the image, clicked "filter", "stylize" and "glowing edge". The end results strike me as looking surprisingly angelic;

Still, Our Lady of Fatima it ain't!

The FIRESIGN THEATRE "There's A Seeker Born Every Minute"

DUKE OF MADNESS MOTORS (The Complete “Dear Friends” Radio Era 1970-1972)

          A few months back, when I started this blog, I made the comment that with all the great stuff coming out, we pretty much have paradise on earth pop culture – wise. When I made that comment I wasn’t even aware that February saw the release of “Duke of Madness Motors” a 100 page book and MP3 CD containing a whopping 88 hours of improvised radio comedy by the legendary comedy team The Firesign Theatre.

           To hear it, you would never know that it was improvised – their delivery is so fast & slick, and their content so elaborate it’s almost impossible to imagine people coming up with this stuff entirely off the top of their heads. Well, they didn’t come up with ALL the material off the top of their heads. The team brought in pre-written original pieces, and “found objects” –  communist propaganda, poorly translated technical manuals, children’s homework essays, bizarre old print ads and magazine articles – anything that would sound absurdist, or surrealistically poetic in this context. They are so unbelievably good at improv, you never hear an “um” or “er”, or someone killing time while trying to formulate a witty response when he’s put on the spot.

            I imagine them as being hard to listen to on the radio because their flow of verbiage is so unrelenting and elaborate. Luckily the booklet includes a detailed summary of each show. Each general “gist” of conversation is titled and listed in order, so by following it, the listener becomes more attuned to the general thrust of the show. (In other words, the summaries create the illusion that the shows are linear and more followable.)  

            What’s also amazing is that, with few exceptions, these shows were never recorded by the stations or by the Firesign guys. Amazingly, the vast majority of these shows exist only because fans recorded them off the radio at home and maintained the tapes for 40 years. Now that’s an amazing degree of fan devotion.  

            I haven’t gotten anywhere near listening to everything yet, but so far my favorite episode is “Live at the Basilica of the Blessed Gaffe”. It’s one of the few episodes performed in front of a live audience. I can’t imagine that the audience, expecting to see a comedy team, could have anticipated the content they would hear that amazing night. There are five or six comedic bits spread throughout, but the rest of the 90 minute show drifts in and out of poignant, thought provoking, deeply dramatic material, in a psychedelic sound college that only the Firesigns could have created. Even though they were easiest to market as a comedy team, the Firesigns truly were about providing their audience with a THEATRICAL experience. The fact that the show was performed in a church, deepens its impact – not that it is sacrilegious to perform comedy in a church, but because, as Neil Innes sang, “Oh, tell me what could be, more holy than absurdity?”

          The booklet is great too. It contains a 13 page essay, interviews with The Firesigns, their engineer and producer. It includes reproductions of many of the “found items” that are quoted, and reproductions of various promo materials. Best of all are Phillip Proctor’s amazingly beautiful, darkly satirical photo collages.

           As great as it is, this mammoth collection is probably not the best place for the novice listener to discover The Firesign Theatre. The best are their official albums. They are multi-track recorded and feature scripts full of clever layers of meaning and elliptical plot points which reveal themselves only after repeated listens.

My personal recommendations:

EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG

               The FT album that’s most coherent on the first listen. Several years ahead of its time, it’s a wicked parody of New Age stupidity. Space aliens invade Earth, Bear Whiz beer is brewed, suburbanites throw nude trailer home parties, and daredevil Rebus Canebus jumps his motorcycle into the center of the hollow earth. “There’s a seeker born every minute!”

DON’T CRUSH THAT DWARF, HAND ME THE PLIARS

               It’s universally acknowledged as their masterpiece, although it’s also their most challenging work. A young college student of the future spends a sleepless (probably stoned) night viewing himself on TV in various guises (star of Andy Hardy / Henry Aldrich style b-comedies, war films, court dramas and countless insane / inane  commercials). He emerges from the experience transformed into an elderly film comedian with phone messages pouring in from the likes of W.C. Fields, The Marx Brothers and Laurel & Hardy. The call of a passing ice cream truck proves irresistible, and our elderly hero chases after it, magically transforming himself into a little boy as the album fades out.

HOW CAN YOU BE IN TWO PLACES AT ONCE, WHEN YOU’RE NOT ANYWHERE AT ALL?

               This one sports the famous Marx & Lennon (Groucho & John) album cover …yes… On side one, Ralph Spoilsport sells an auto that literally embodies the American Dream …yes… Elfin creatures recite dirty jokes from Junior High …yes… W.C. Fields waxes eloquent bullshit about the Egyption de-vine-a-tise…yes… our hero Misterandmissusjohnsmithfromanytownusa checks into a hotel only to find himself in a doubletalk pageant of American patriotism…yes… Ralph Spoilsport is transformed and transfigured into Molly Bloom from James Joyces’ Ulysses …yes…

               Side Two is the Firesign’s most famous skit – the hilarious radio noir parody “The Further Adventures of Nick Danger, Third Eye”.

HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY

It's dawned on me that the content of this weblog has tended to be pretty dark and nasty -- Larry Tate's Death Mask, members of "our finest generation" keeping Japanese body parts as souvenirs, Marie Prevost being eaten by her dog. This is odd because I have a reputation among those who know me for being a happy- go- lucky guy.
SO.... IT'S HIGH TIME FOR A POSITIVE COMMENT! Here goes...
Wednesday we had a nice day at work. The bosses weren't there. We had cake.
Thursday wasn't bad either -- Susan brought me a brownie.
Today (Friday) I had a vacation day. I went to Des Moines. I listened to a lot of good CDs on the way there and on the way back. I did some shopping and found some good stuff I wanted real cheap. I watched the DVD "Phantom of the Paradise" a movie my brother and I went to when we were kids. It is intentionally really stupid, so I can't recommend it, but watching it was more fun than being at work.

KOZMO IS INTERNATIONAL SENSATION!

http://www.kozmoofthecosmos.com/
Since it's introduction in late April of this year, the website for the internet comic strip KOZMO OF THE COSMOS has been viewed by fans in The United States, India, Germany, Canada, The Netherlands, The Russian Federation, Malaysia, Great Britain, The Ukraine, The Phillipines & Poland! Pretty Cool! What are you waiting for? Check it out.

So what the heck is "Koozbane"? This may refresh your memory

A Post on Marie Prevost

The scrumptious Marie Prevost

According to Wikipedia:

“Marie Prevost (November 8, 1898 – January 21, 1937) was a Canadian-born actress of the early days of cinema. During her twenty year career, she made 121 silent and talking pictures.

Just as her career was blossoming, Prevost's mother was killed in an automobile accident while traveling in Florida with actress Vera Steadman, another Canadian friend, and Hollywood studio owner, Al Christie in 1926.
Devastated by the loss of her only remaining parent, Prevost began drinking heavily and developed an addiction to alcohol. After seeing Prevost in The Beautiful and Damned, Howard Hughes cast her as the lead in The Racket (1928). During filming, Hughes and Prevost had a brief affair. Hughes quickly broke off the affair leaving Prevost heartbroken and furthering her depression. After playing the lead in The Racket, Prevost's days as a leading lady were over.^[6]
Prevost's depression caused her to binge on food resulting in significant weight gain. By the 1930s, she was working less and being offered only secondary parts. A notable exception was Paid (1930), a role which, while secondary to star Joan Crawford, still garnered her good reviews. As a result of all this, her financial income declined and her growing dependency on alcohol added to her weight problems. By 1934, she had no work at all and her financial situation deteriorated dramatically. The downward spiral became greatly aggravated when her weight problems forced her into repeated crash dieting in order to keep whatever bit part a movie studio offered.
On January 21, 1937, at the age of 38, Prevost died from heart failure brought on by acute alcoholism and malnutrition. Her body was not discovered until January 23, after neighbors complained about her dog's incessant barking. A bellboy, who ignored the note Prevost posted on the door asking that no one knock on the door more than once, finally forced the door open. Prevost was found lying face down on her bed, her legs marked with tiny bites. Prevost's pet dachshund, Maxie, had nipped at her legs in an attempt to wake her up.”
I normally tend to believe the less exaggerated versions of stories, yet, considering that this version of the legend ascribes psychological motives to a dog, I question it’s truthfulness. Perhaps a more honest version of the story has been immortalized by the great Nick Lowe, in his ironically upbeat pop tune Marie Provost (sic);

Marie Provost by Nick Lowe

Marie Provost did not look her best
The day the cops bust into her lonely nest
In the cheap hotel up
on Hollywood West July 29
She'd been lyin' there
for two or three weeks
The neighbors said
they never heard a squeak
For hungry eyes that couid not speak
Said even little doggie's have got to eat

She was the winner
That became the doggie's dinner
She never meant that much to me
(But now I see) Oh poor Marie

Marie Provost was a movie queen
Mysterious angel of the silent screen
And run like the wind
the nation's young men steam
When Marie crossed the silent screen
Oh she came out west from New York
But when the talkies came
Marie just couldn't cope
Her public said Marie take a walk
All the way back to New York

Those twin “bombs” didn't help her sleep
As her nights grew long
and her days grew bleak
It's all downhill
once you've passed your peak
Marie got ready for that last big sleep
The cops came in
and they looked around
Throwing up everywhere over
what they found
The handiwork of Marie's little dachshund
That hungry little dachshund

She was the winner
That became the doggie's dinner
She never meant that much to me
(But now I see) Oh poor Marie