I Am Stu Pitt: 2011

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Long Island Press: I Am Stu Pitt Clip

The October 20—26 edition of the Long Island Press ran a little blurb on I Am Stu Pitt and Danny & the Dirtbags… Thank you, Long Island Press people!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," Elton John. I heard this version before the original Beatles version because it was heavily played on NBC and ABC AM radio. This was not one of my 45s, but my older brother's.

What fascinated me about this song when I was in either 4th or 5th grade I found out it was about drugs. LSD mainly (not that I knew what LSD was). I'd seen photos of the Beatles all hairy and hippyish, and what always left me puzzled was here were these millionaires who seemed like they couldn't afford a bath.

Of course, Lennon would later say it was about a picture his son drew.

And I wondered if John Lennon and George Harrison were in some competition to see who could have the dirtiest beard. To me, the Beatles definitely resembled Charles Manson who, thanks to a popular book, scared the hell out of me.

Since it was the early-to-mid 1970s, whenever we'd go on vacation or on a long car ride, my mom would tell us to count the out-of-state license plates. This was her way of keeping us quiet. My brother and I concocted a new game: count the hairy hippies, which of course made us laugh every time we passed a carload of fuzzy-headed, unbathed, seemingly fly-ridden bearded-hippies.

The whole drug culture thing left me bewildered. My 9 or 10 year old brain couldn't comprehend all these rich people, not bathing, and taking cough medicine or St. Joseph's children's aspirin when they didn't need it. Of course, I liked the taste of those little pink aspirins, but why would big people do stuff like this?

Elton John scared the bejeezus outa me. He had the double-wammy going: here he was, singing about drugs and dressed like a total freak. Either you dressed like my dad or wore a baseball uniform. Anything out of that zone was, well, ridiculous. Which is kind of how it remains today.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Sara Smile, Hall & Oates

"Sara Smile," Hall & Oates. I don't know what happened to Hall & Oates in the 1980s. Maybe it was cocaine? It's hard to say that the same band that put this song out, as well as "She's Gone," also put out "Man Eater" or "Private Eyes." There's a split-personality thing going on there.

Speaking of split personalities, I suppose I have a very romantic view of women. They are generally more tolerant and patient than us guys. If you've ever seen a mother teaching her child some frustrating menial task, like tying shoes, you get a Norman Rockwell-esque picture of the loving, nurturing mom. But there is an exception to this romantic vision, and that's when you misspell or mispronounce a woman's name. Then they turn into the Incredible Hulk and start picking up vans and ripping out trees and throwing them at you.

I had a professor in grad school who insisted on us calling her by her first name, which was Sara. I had to send her one of my papers via email and I incorrectly spelled her name, "Sarah." She responded how much she loved the paper and yeah, I got an "A," but then she chided me, "My name is 'Sara," not 'Sarah." So, even though she probably wanted to strangle me for adding the "h" to her name, she was able to overcome her personal biases and grade me fairly.

My wife's name is "Deirdre," and I've seen her throw big black Cadillacs through windows whenever somebody forgets the first "r" in her name.

For some reason, girls named "Michelle" will round-house kick you in the head if you spell their names "Michele," and vice-versa.

Girls named Catherine, Kathryn, and Katherine are nothing but trouble. NEVER mix these names up and, if you meet a woman with any of these names and don't think you can handle this, walk away. But before you do, tell them to smile.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Dance with Me, The Orleans

"Dance with Me," the Orleans. Forget the fact that they had the WORST album cover ever and, try as they may, the band Rush could never top the Orleans for worst album cover of all time!

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/orleans.jpg

But this is an amazingly melodic tune with harmonies, a harmonica, guitars flowing and it sounds like there's a mandolin in there, too. If it weren't for that album cover, I'd have no problem publicly admitting I like this song. I guess it must've come out when I was in 3rd or 4th grade. Not sure. But I'm going to bet a lot of money that this song was the wedding song for a lot of couples getting married in the 1970s and was probably played in just about every high school auditorium/catering hall during the prom.

Now the first time I heard this song, I was going to see the movie Jaws at a drive-in theatre with my older brother and father. So while I am sure there are scores of lovebirds out there who reminisce about their first kiss or whatever to this song, I'll always think about hiding in the back seat of my dad's blue Dodge Aspen whenever the giant rubber shark would come up for a human snack.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

I'm A Believer: The Monkees

"I'm a Believer," the Monkees. I think this may have been one of the first 45s I bought. Why is rock n roll such a bad influence on kids? I was senior in high school when I had to use the plural form of the word "monkeys" in a typed report. My teacher circled my misspelling and made a comment like, "Not the band, the animal." Spell check woulda saved me.

I also saw the song author's name and wondered, "THE same Neil Diamond as the guy who sings "Cracklin Rose?"

By the time I reached high school, the standard party chit-chat was, "Hey, did you know Michael Nesmith's mom invented White Out? He's like a gazillionaire!" And whenever I'd hear Nesmith's name, I'd pause and wonder why he wore a wool ski cap in the middle of summer. Every now and then, I'll see some teenage guy wearing a wool ski cap and acting all bad-ass. I'll still be thinking, "Yeah, tough guy. Michael Nesmith did it first."

Monday, October 3, 2011

King Tut, by Steve Martin

‎"King Tut," by Steve Martin. I think I was in 6th grade when I picked up this 45. The first time I heard it was on the radio and it was love at first hear. This song is just plain silly. It's a work of stupid perfection. I remember there being a big deal about the King Tut exhibit and all my teachers were blathering on about its significance and bla bla bla.

Then Steve Martin wrote this silly song and… well, it's a dead guy who got dug up a few thousand years later and he was "buried with a donkey" and he's Steve's "favorite honkey." I doubt a song like this would get any airplay today for the honkey line alone.

There used to be other novelty songs that would bust out and get radio play. Some of them were really bad, like "Disco Duck." But they were so bad, they were good, like the movie "Red Dawn." Some of them were kind of amusing, like CW McCall's "Convoy." Some of them were a real riot, like Chuck Berry's "My Ding-A-Ling," or even Ray Stevens's "The Streak." (I had Berry's and Stevens's songs on 45s but cannot find them). I'd even argue that "Bad Bad Leroy Brown" had a bit of a novelty to it.

I'm not going to address the soft-porn nature of today's top 40 pop songs, with all that annoying pitch bending and idiotic moaning. And it seems today's "rockers" are too froggin serious with their pseudo-deep meanings and bogus college English 101-style literary devices (think Nickel Back meets John Mayer). Enough. Somebody write a good novelty song and will some damn radio station play it? Or is Clear Channel going to bore us all to death (like TS Eliot implied--there, there's your English 101 literary allusion).

The B-side of King Tut had not one but TWO songs: Sally Goodin and Hoedown at Alice's, featuring Steve Martin's banjo playing. This 45 was worth every one of the 99 pennies I paid for it.