[78-L] Lawrence Welk's son said...

[fnarf at comcast.net]

I love to watch old Lawrence Welk shows, just for the magnificent clothes and hairstyles.

I think it's weird that the assisted-living place my mom lives in (which is very nice) has "Lawrence Welk Hour" every Saturday night at 6. Most the people in there are in their 70s and 80s, which means they were in their 40s or even 30s when the shows originally aired. These people aren't supposed to be Lawrence Welk fans, are they? Or is there something that happens to a person when they hit 60 that makes them crave soothing clarinet-and-accordian duets performed by people in butter-yellow and mint-green paisley pantsuits, and should I be worried about it happening to me?

Oh, God, it already has. Guy and Ralna have bewitched me.

K.D. Lang famously almost outed herself in a performance once by saying "I've heard the rumors, and I want to address this tonight; it's true, I am a lllllll...awrence Welk fan.



----- Original Message -----
From: "David Lennick" <dlennick at sympatico.ca>
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 3:15:41 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Re: [78-L] Lawrence Welk's son said...

But..but..but....yes he recorded with Johnny Hodges (and it was a gorgeous 
album, I agree).

But it's still LAWRENCE FREAKIN' WELK!

And nobody cries when you cut up an accordion.

dl

Taylor Bowie wrote:
> Jeff,  Welk had a black drummer for several years,  Paul something,  who 
> replaced the excellent Johnny Klein.  This would have been ca. 1968 - 75.
> 
> George Cates was Welk's musical director for many years and wrote a lot of 
> fine charts.  The other day I watched a YouTube vid where Welk announces 
> that a tune was "a Joe Haymes arrangement."
> 
> Taylor B
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Jeff Sultanof" <jeffsultanof at gmail.com>
> To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 2:46 PM
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Lawrence Welk's son said...
> 
> 
>> Interesting that this thread would come up. Welk was a huge traditional 
>> jazz
>> fan, and his last band was one of the best big bands in the country, with
>> excellent musicians who could play absolutely everything. When the band
>> played big band standards, it played them very well. He had excellent
>> arrangers such as Jack Pleis and Joe Rizzo (who once wrote for Stan 
>> Kenton).
>>
>> Let's also remember that he loved Johnny Hodges, produced an album for him
>> in which no expense was spared, and wanted to hire him to play lead in his
>> band, proving he was also color-blind when it came to musicians (although
>> Arthur Duncan was the only black performer on the show, and a tap dancer 
>> to
>> boot). If he couldn't get Hodges, he got alto players who sounded like
>> Hodges, such as Skeets Herfurt whom he got out of retirement. I looked
>> forward to Herfurt's solos every week, as he could still play beautifully.
>>
>> Welk knew what the public wanted and gave it to them (Yes, I also find Joe
>> Feeney and Norma Zimmer hard to take), but he had good taste in music, and
>> it showed in the final years of his show.
>>
>> Jeff Sultanof
>> On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 5:11 AM, RAY KILCOYNE <kil at roadrunner.com> wrote:
>>
>>> From: "Rodger Holtin"
>>> The problem for guys like DL and others is you have to wade through hours
>>> of
>>> Joe Feenamint and Norma Zimmmmerrrrzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ... and I don't blame
>>> you.
>>> We let it play while we do the dishes and once in a while get lucky - but
>>> like any other instance of getting lucky - it's not very often.
>>> I've waded through many an hour of Welk just for a short glimpse of Kathy
>>> Lennon.  Still do.
>>> RayK
>>>
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