[78-L] Well EXCUUUUUUSE MEEEEE!!!

[David Lennick]

On 9/18/2010 12:16 AM, Steven C. Barr wrote:
> From: "David Lennick"<dlennick at sympatico.ca>
>> And it was none of the above in the early fifties..I used the phrase in
>> the
>> wrong context. What I really meant was "pop" and the trend in the early
>> 50s to
>> cannibalize folk, R&B and country music and whitewash it. I think folk
>> tended
>> to survive the adaptation best.
>>
> Essentially, the 1947-195? period was the nadir of North American
> "popular music!" After a few years of hopelessly-boring "music?!"
> (From "Buttons and Bows" onward?!), the public...especially the
> younger public...was desperate for music which contained/inspired
> FUN! From c. 1950 to sometime in 1955, we were subjected to
> effectively "thought-free" "music?!" No wonder that when Alan
> Freed introduced "rock'n'roll" music (mostly then-current "race"
> music...?!, a musically-starved younger generation enthusiastically
> accepted the concept...?!
>
> Steven C. Barr
>
No argument there, although Buttons and Bows was written for a Bob Hope movie. 
It became a hit despite the AFM's best efforts (both Dinah Shore's and Bob 
Hope's recordings were made with non-union back-up). That song is a gem 
compared to Toolie Oolie Doolie and that Ken Griffin waltz I wish the Germans 
would reclaim once and for all. The big bands were priced out of the business, 
folks were staying home and watching television, jazz was splitting off into 
introspective and incomprehensible directions, movies were NOT better than 
ever, and yeah, pop music was pretty lousy. Broadway musicals were one of the 
rare exceptions.

Also spracht Lenny.