(near South Haven, Michigan)
Maybe they were on WWVA in Wheeling, WV and Grand Ol' Opry on WSM in Nashville, but somehow I missed the Collins Kids in the 1950s. Thanks to Sandy-- http://www.blogger.com/profile/03307968128182359860--who recently posted about Ricky Nelson's singing sons, I clicked around in a fit of nostalgia and ended up with an introduction to the Collins Kids, a brother and sister act, plus a reacquaintance with the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Brenda Lee, Jack Scott and some others. If you're in the mood for, or actually need, the soft chaos of wandering backward, then click away, not only at my offerings, but also down the right side of "the page" at YouTube. Wow.
YouTube - The Collins Kids-Chantilly Lace
YouTube - collins kids
YouTube - Collin Kids - Documentary about Lorrie and Larry
YouTube - Rick Nelson Garden Party 1985
And in case you're about to complain that there's no poetry today, here are two passages from Wordsworth's "Intimations Ode." Yes, it was fuel for the movie Splendor in the Grass with Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty.
There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore;— ...
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be;
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering;
In the faith that looks through death,
In years that bring the philosophic mind.
**
Ohhh cool. I'll be back to listen (just got home from a barbecue and have things to do right now).and thanks for the shout out!
ReplyDeleteFun music, Banjomyn. Lorrie reminds me of a young June Carter!
ReplyDeleteE. and I play bar trivia every Thursday night at our local pub. Trivia question this week: what song did Brenda Lee first do, then was covered by Elvis Presley and eventually Willie Nelson?
I couldn't wait to get home and listen to it again.
Sandy, good.
ReplyDeleteBrenda, I see what you mean about a young June Carter.
I envy you your bar trivia ritual. I'll guess "You Were Always on My Mind." Right or wrong, I've gotta confess that I didn't know she did it.
So blessings upon YouTube, the textbook of the future. (Lordie, did I just say that? But I think the reason I never quite LOVED county fairs the way I should have was that I was waiting for the vast treats of YouTube to come along).
Oh, too easy of an answer. Are you available Thursday nights for Trivia??
ReplyDeleteSure. I'll get on my private jet . . .
ReplyDeleteSo I was right? If so, I just learned it yesterday.
The first stanza opens Jonathan Miller's Alice in Wonderland.
ReplyDeleteI should be enjoying the music but I can't. I kind of cringe when it comes to sibling acts. Cringe and judge. The Partridge Family, the Osmonds , Jackson Five and the King Family. Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons and Catholics putting the brood to work. Something unseemly about it all.
ReplyDeleteAm I being too harsh? wait till Mel's uber catholic brood comes of age in this, the reality TV era. Lord help us
AH, didn't you post about Miller's Alice a while back? You gotta give Wordsworth credit for quotability.
ReplyDeletePA, yeah, over-generalization is hard to resist, but . . . I didn't watch any of those. Maybe you've hit on the reason? Who is Mel?
B52, in case you weren't following then, KB's reference is to a version of Alice she blogged about.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kbLGew-IBc&feature=related
PA, sex drugs and rock and roll.
Yes, I did. I've rented it twice and kept it for a month each time. Guess I could have bought Alice three times over. And now I want to see it again -- to hell with the MadMen in queue which I have a feeling is rather obvious.
ReplyDeleteGibson
ReplyDeletePaula, yes, I remember. Thanks for the clip. "Creepy Alice" was one label, if I recall.
ReplyDeleteAH, promise you won't quit on MadMen until you've seen at least two episodes. It can be slow, esp. in the first episode of a season, but it's also addicting. Things might be a little jacked up for drama (I know the smoking is), but I think it's a reasonably good study of the times (early 1960s)--especially for your gender.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it's hard to find characters to like or respect. Keep an eye on the young woman from West Wing.
PA, now I get it. His Melness. Charming. What a spokesperson for his group. But lest someone remember an earlier comment and call me hypocrite, I still say his Hamlet was very decent.
ReplyDeleteIt's the Collins Kids here that are scratching ME where I itch, you old closet hipster. Hang any poem that doesn't include "a whop bop a lula, a whop bam boo." (Wait 'til you hear my new recording of Blake's "Tyger." I'll have both him AND the Big Bopper rolling over in their respective graves.)
ReplyDeleteI knew larry C. still played, but it was nice to find that show with Big Sandy, (and I think that's Deke Dickerson in the Vegas band. You might want to search him as well.)
For a less glitzy but just as inspired bit of Americana:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDh2zRm1dwQ
Pancakes soon.
MM: I tried. Why not just watch 2 hours of polished plywood. Is all of this just an inverse of an old Doris Day movie? I just see a one trick pony.
ReplyDeleteGPU: "a whop bop a lula, a whop bam boo." Anybody who needs more than that is off in the head. Or ear.
ReplyDeleteANd your YouTube clip is stirring. Where else have I heard that Mary song? Springstein's recent folk album? I was gonna say Baez, but I don't think so.
AH, re: MadMen I can't even disagree with your criticism, and I'd toss in "soap opera." But I also keep watching.
Does anyone out there know the advertising or white-collar Manhattan or just big and big-city business life from the inside? Can you support or challenge MadMen's portrait of it? I'm a village simpleton, but I question whether it could have been that . . . dark.
"Mary Don't You Weep" - Banjomyn, as a Pete Seeger song? My mom used to love to go the Newport Jazz Festival, and in the early '60s she heard Seeger sing this song at Newport (or at least as her story goes...).
ReplyDeleteGPU, glad you shared this! Now, will you share your pancakes?
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/drinking-like-mad-women
ReplyDeletePaula, thanks. That's a super interesting video clip about MadMen. Hope a few can take time to watch it (about 8 minutes, concerning booze in the workplace).
ReplyDeleteBrenda, your mom's hipper than my mom. Or me, for that matter. I hope I'll take time to check out the Seeger version. Please nag if I don't.
ReplyDelete