Silly Sundays - The Buoys - Timothy

For the month of August, Silly Sundays will be devoted to some tracks written and performed by renaissance man Rupert Holmes (official wiki AMG), the only man to win a Tony and an Edgar for the same work. (We'll be hearing a song from that work later this month, methinks.)

In 1971, Holmes was writing and recording and producing songs with his friend Ron Dante (of The Archies fame/infamy), and his friends The Buoys (official wiki interview). The Buoys were signed for a major label single, but the label wouldn't set aside even a penny for promotion. As such, Holmes had to promote the single himself. He set out to write a song so offensive it would be banned and censored, thereby achieving fame. Inspired partially by Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons," what he came up with was "Timothy," a dark tale of implied cannibalism.

Holmes' plan worked -- the song was quickly banned by some stations, and the record label issued two different censored versions (boo hiss for censorship!), but it slowly moved up the charts. Which means at one point Casey Kasem introduced the song when it entered the Top 40. The label also tried to defuse the controversy by announcing that Timothy was a mule, which claim was immediately denied by Holmes and the band. The Buoys went on to record two more albums, only one of which was released. The members have occasionally reunited in different formations, and here's a live video of the song from 2005. Holmes went on to record many more albums, write Broadway shows and novels and work with Barbra Streisand, of all people.

Most weeks, I provide a buy link for anything in print, but apparently the available commercial release is unofficial, and The Buoys, and Holmes, aren't getting any royalties, so I won't do it this week. Shame.

The Buoys - Timothy
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PS -- It's my mom's birthday today. She doesn't read this blog, but it's worth pointing out that once, she made the creepiest Donner Party joke I've ever heard. Happy birthday, Mom!

Silly Sundays - Stan Freberg - Incident at Los Varoces

Our final post for Vegas/Canyon week here at She'll Grow Back also marks the introduction of a new feature: Silly Sundays. After this week's near-death of one of my favorite blogs, Dr. Forrest's Cheeze Factory, I've realized it's time to post or repost some of my favorite silly recordings. (This week's is more serious than most, and much longer too.)

If I had twelve hours to spend on this post, I would put up an additional webpage detailing all the cultural references in this fifty-year old recording, but I don't have anywhere near that long.* So let me just say this:

Stan Freberg was the son of a Baptist minister, and the voracious spirit of Las Vegas, even fifty years ago, bothered him no end. In 1957, network radio was dying, and sponsors were light on the ground. Despite the weak position he found himself as a network radio comedian, Freberg recorded a twenty-minute-long, all-out attack on Las Vegas. Like the best satire, it's just as funny and prescient today as it was at the time. (There have been, in the past week, at least two blog or forum posts tying North Korea's nuclear bragging into this piece.)

And, also like the best satire, it scared the crap out of the people responsible for distributing it to the masses. After hearing it pre-broadcast, weak-willed CBS Radio execs demanded a different ending for this, though I imagine they didn't expect God Himself to take an active role in the new version. (I've never heard the second version, and I don't think it's ever been released to the public after that first broadcast. Anyone out there wanna try to prove me wrong? Please? And, also, boo hiss for censorship!) Stan himself gives us all the details in his delightful autobiography, It Only Hurts When I Laugh.

In 1957, Freberg was at the top of his game. He wrote and produced 15 near-flawless half hours of radio, and it's an incredible shame that these CDs are out of print. Luckily, a best-of is available, via the buy link down there. Like all of the best of Stan's work, today's recording also features Daws Butler, Peter Leeds, June "Rocky" Foray and Peggy Taylor, with the Billy May Orchestra, and also Jud Conlon's Rhythmaires.

This track is 20 minutes long, and 50 MB. Download with care.

Stan Freberg - Incident At Los Varoces
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Buy from Amazon -- Buy from Deep Discount

*If you're looking for extensively-researched blog posts on Freberg, look no further than this page here.

Stagger Lee Saturdays: The Boppers

Here's something entertaining. The Boppers (Google translation of Swedish Wikipedia -- translation of official site) were a Swedish group who specialized in covers of American rock and roll or doo-wop songs from the 1950s and 1960s.

For some reason, they covered Lloyd Price's censored, nonviolent version of Stag. I can only assume it's because their language skills were not so great -- the lyrics here at their official site indicate that they misunderstood a few words. When I first heard this version, I assumed this version was tongue-in-cheek, satirizing the castration of Stag achieved by Price's censor. The lyrics here say that Stag and Billy were "hugging" in the dark (not arguing, as Price's censor would have it). And though the action here still revolves around Stag's girlfriend, Billy clearly calls Stag not his "best friend" but rather his "boyfriend."

This album has apparently been out of print since 1983, so for the second week in a row I can't provide a buy link. Instead, the link goes to The Boppers' official store where you can buy T-shirts and CDs and what is clearly the must-have item: $5.00 hot pants.

The Boppers - Stagger Lee
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Buy hot pants from the band

Stagger Lee Saturdays: Lloyd Price Month

So the story goes like this: Dick Clark didn't like the violence in Lloyd Price's hit version of Stag. So he asked Price to go back in the studio and re-record it. Time and time again, Clark is accused of this, but I've never seen any proof, or a definitive statement from anyone who was there, or anything I'd trust. Price appeared on Bandstand and sang Stag unbowdlerized, with the shooting intact, so I question just how much of the blame for this rests on Dick Clark's head.

This version has no Stetson hat, no killing, not even any gambling or drinking. Here Stag and Billy argue, not over cheating at dice or politics, but over Stag's girlfriend. These lyrics are so terrible, I have to assume they're at least a little tongue-in-cheek. Stagger Lee, the badass to end all badasses, is turned into a little whiny bitch in this version: "I don't wanna see him no more"??

Musically, I still like this version -- since it was recorded at basically the same time, with as far as I can tell the same musicians, it doesn't suffer from the usual curse of rerecordings. (And boo hiss for rerecordings!) Instead it suffers from the curse of the well-meaning censor. (Also, boo hiss for well-meaning censors!)

Come back next week to hear a much later rerecording...

Lloyd Price - Stagger Lee (nonviolent version)
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The Jackson Five - I Saw Mommy --ing Santa Claus

This is one of the treasures of my music collection, with a great backstory. Many years ago, while the internet was in its infancy and the earth's crust was still cooling, I met a guy online and traded some tapes with him (I can't find him these days, so I won't name him and maybe get him in trouble). He claimed to have an uncle who worked for Motown during the early 80s, who gave him all kinds of rare outtakes. I have a wonderful 90-minute tape of this stuff, with vocal flubs and studio chatter.

And then there's this.

As previously mentioned, this blog is officially neutral on the subject of cussing in Christmas songs. I apologize for the censor's bleep -- apparently that's on the original tape my friend's uncle copied. (No telling what generation that tape is, hence the low fidelity.) Close listeners will note that this appears to be the original backing track -- since the vast majority of Motown records were recorded first as instrumentals, then the vocals added*, apparently this is an alternate vocal take from Michael and the boys. Now I personally think this is absolutely adorable and hilarious in a juvenile way, but there are others who would find this offensive, so I understand why this will never officially see the light of day.

I'm posting this on Wednesday, December 10th. I'm also starting a pool to see how long it takes Motown to serve me legal papers to remove it, so get it while you can.

The Jackson Five - I Saw Mommy --ing Santa Claus (Adult version)

*Longtime readers of this blog will already know this, as Motown songwriter Barrett Strong told you this in this post.