Classic Rant #1,106 (December 18, 2013): Beatlemania, 2014 Style

It is amazing that going on 50 years, the Beatles still live.

Next year will be a prime year in the continuous celebration of everything that John, Paul, George and Ringo brought to this world, as a whole slew of celebations and releases will honor the Fab Four's 50th anniversary of becoming popular in the U.S.

It took us a little longer than most of the rest of the world to get this group. The Beatles, in one form or another, were in place since the late 1950s, and in Europe, they were hitmakers starting in 1962 or so, so it took us here nearly two extra years to get them.

And it took some enterprising things to get us to know who the Beatles were.

One was that energetic disk jockey Murry the K started playing their records on the radio. Sure, nobody was buying them before 1964, but their records were being released here to less fanfare than one could believe.

Another was that TV people like Jack Paar were showing films of all the pandemonium that was going on when the Beatles performed. How crass, these people thought the Beatles were.

And, of course, there was JFK's assassination. The country was in a understandable stupor right after this tragic event, and we needed something to lift our spirits again.

Well, the antidote was Ed Sullivan, not necessarily the man, but his show.

Sullivan picked up on what was happening in Europe, and decided that he needed this rag-tag group of long-haired musicians on his show. He saw something the country hadn't seen in these guys at the time, and he figured that he would ride with a wave that his show could, and would, create.

And boy, was he right.

When the boys appeared on that February night in 1964, nothing, and I mean nothing, was ever the same again in music, in culture, in society, in fashion, and even in haircuts.

I remember that night vividly, and you could see the changes the very next day.

Everybody wanted to be a Beatle, everybody wanted to grow their hair long, and everybody wanted Beatles records.

And that last urge hasn't left us in nearly 50 years.

In 2014, to celebrate this monumental occurrence, all the U.S.-released Beatles LPs--they were very different from their British counterparts--are planned for release.

Funny, but just a few years back, when the original British LPs were rereleased, noses were snubbed when mentioning the supposedly inferior U.S. versions, which featured different song lineups, different versions of songs, and were seemingly cobbled together early on simply to get your money.

Now they are being celebrated.

I have all of them in my collection, and those were the records that I listened to during the height of Beatlemania.

I just wish they would rerelease the 45s that we all really listened to during that time, but so far, nothing doing on that front. In England a few years back, Elvis Presley's popularity was celebrated by releasing his singles as single CDs, reproducing the covers from the original 45s. I would love for Capitol Records to do that here with the Beatles' singles.

Also, Apple announced that iTunes would release a slew of previously available only on bootleg versions of many of their songs, and these tunes were released yesterday. These are songs from the early Beatles, right around the time they were recording their first LP.

Why this is only being relegated to iTunes is probably that the powers that be don't think that these recordings will be a big enough seller to release on CD, so they are keeping it there.

Dave Clark did this a few years back with his Dave Clark Five albums and rare tracks, so while the DC5 followed the Beatles to America in 1964, at least this time around, the Beatles are following the DC5's lead.

Anyway, isn't it interesting that through all the musical fads that have popped up during the past 50 years, we all still go back to the Beatles?

Funny, many people thought that they, too, were a fad, and if they are, then it has lasted a half century, the longest-lasting fad in history.

And to that I say--

Yeah, yeah, yeah!!!

Rant #2,458: Let's Twist Again

Welcome to October 3, the 276th day of the year (the 277th in leap years).

Just 89 days remain until the end of 2019.

And today is Ernest Evans' 78th birthday.

If you don't know who Ernest Evans is, well, if you are a Baby Boomer, shame on you.

But just twist.

Let's twist again.

And then, twist some more.

Yes, the unassuming name of Ernest Evans is the real name of Chubby Checker, rock and roll's original dance pioneer, the guy who made "The Twist" the most popular dance in the world for the period and for evermore.

Sure, we have had "The Jerk," "The Frug," and even the line dance, but have any of these dances ever been more popular than "The Twist?"

I doubt it. And a lot of that has to do with Checker, his continued popularity, and his endurance.

Heck, he even tired to imitate its success with "Pony Time" and "Limbo Rock," but even the master himself could not outdo "The Twist."

Evans was just 18 years old when the song hit the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100. This happened in 1960, when Evans was 18 years old going on 19.

The single took the world by storm, and it was so popular, that a separate release of the original single also rose to No. 1, the only single to do that in the history of Billboard Magazine's singles charts.

Evans became "Chubby Checker" due to his close business relationship with Dick Clark. Evans had some girth at that time, and in a way, he resembled Fats Domino, so Clark's wife came up with the monicker "Chubby Checker" and it stuck, even though Evans hasn't had a tremendous girth for decades.

The song was originally a throwaway that was recorded by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, but Clark helped Checker find the song, and the rest is history,

The popularity of the Twist--it was even done in the White House by Jackie Kennedy herself--is that it is so simple, and anyone who can move their body even a little can do it. It also cut across all ethnic groups, and got people to dancing, moving and getting their butts off sofas and onto the dance floor.

Evans, now Checker, rode that song to fame, and there were many variations of it by other artists, including "The Peppermint Twist" by Joey Dee and the Starlighters.

Checker also did variations of the original song, led by "Let's Twist Again," and there were many others that he did to capitalize on his biggest hit, including "Slow Twistin',"and "La Paloma Twist," all of which cribbed the original song in one way or the other.

And the public loved all of them.

Even into the 1980s and beyond, performers were doing the latest variation of "The Twist," including the Traveling Wilburys, who do their own take on the song with "The Wilbury Twist."

And who can forget Checker having another hit with a rap version of the song, sung with the comic rappers the Fat Boys?

Checker became a major figure in rock and roll because of that song, and had many, many other hits up until about 1965, when the British Invasion took over the charts and public interest began to wane on his type of dance music.

He has always stayed active, and continues to be a huge concert draw even nearly 60 years after his biggest hit single hit the top spot on the charts.

Even though "The Twist" opened up the doors for other dance revolutions in popular music, including disco, Checker has been discredited by the overall rock/pop music community for being nothing more than the voice that propelled that song, a copycat artists mimicking his own success, and little else.

Thus, he is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which is really a shame.

Besides "The Twist," Checker had about two dozen other hit singles, and his LPs also reached a high level of popularity during that interesting period when Elvis cooled off and the Beatles were ready to take over.

That 1960 to 1964 period is often a neglected one, and these were Checker's biggest years.

He has been very vocal about his absence from the HoF, and has on more than one occasion derided the HoF for his omission, which probably hasn't helped him get in in the first place.

And yes, it is a great omission.

Checker has strived and survived longer than most performers in the rock era, and his dominance on the charts during his peak period really should be his calling card into the HoF.

But sadly, it hasn't led to his entrance.

With new leadership of the HoF just announced, it is hoped that Checker, and other artists from the pre-Beatles era like Lesley Gore, will finally get their due.

But even if they don't, Checker will still be "Twistin'" until he can't do it anymore, which, hopefully, isn't anytime soon.

Happy birthday, Chubby. We hope you finally get your due honors really soon.

Classic Rant #1,105 (December 17, 2013): Everyone Needs "Friends"

Through my 56 years, I have had many, many friends, people I could count on, people who I liked being with.

Friends change over the years. Oftentimes, friends when you are a kid aren't your friends as you get older.

Life-long friends are rare, but some people do have friends that they have known since seemingly their own get-go.

Sometimes friends fade away, only to return later on into your life.

And then there are "Friends."

"Friends," with the quotation marks, are people who you hook up with on Facebook.

Sometimes they are traditional friends, as described above, and you simply communicate--and keep up your friendship--through the social network.

But more than likely, Facebook "friends" are people you have never--and will never--meet, people who perhaps share your viewpoint or "like" what you have to say.

One of my "friends"--a very nice lady from my old neighborhood who I did not know way back when but have gotten to know through Facebook--wrote an interesting post the other day about a Tanzanian person (I think that is where the person came from, if memory serves me correctly) who was trying to "friend" her.

It was a funny post, but a sad one too.

So many people on Facebook reach out to others, trying to become their "friends" for really no other reason than to accumulate as many "friends" as possible.

Facebook actually has restrictions on such practices, and occasionally, they will ban people who have reached out to too many people to be "friends."

My reply was that I would take the Tanzanian any day over the people who try to "friend" me: basically young girls with bustlines that you would not believe.

No, don't think for a second that I really believe that the people trying to "friend" me are actually 16-year-old girls who have trouble keeping their upper portions in their shirts. They are probably 50-year-old men who scout out such photos throughout the Internet and misrepresent themselves.

But I cannot believe how many of these requests I get every week.

The photos are of these young, pretty girls that are sprouting out all over.

I reject them in a minute. Even if they are legitimate, why would a 16-year-old girl want to friend a balding 56-year-old anyway?

I also used to get a "friend" request periodically from another person who had a foot fetish. I got his request, went onto his Facebook page, and it was quite obvious what his interests were.

Everybody on Facebook gets strange "friends" requests, I am afraid, and my personal rule is that if I don't know the name--or at least if I don't have several common friends with the person--I just drop them immediately.

But when it comes to busty 16-year-old girls or guys with foot fetishes, I drop them like lead sinkers.

Right now, using this practice, I have a pretty good friends list. I get some nice posts, make some good ones, too, and everything is copacetic.

But as sure as I am sitting here, I guarantee you that this week, another "sweet young thing" will try to friend me, and I will continue to cut her/him/it off at the pass.

Heck, I am way too old to be scammed like this.

Give me the Tanzanian, please!

Rant #2,457: The Turkey

It is October 2, we have way less than 100 days to Christmas, and we have less than 60 days for Thanksgiving.

Yes, it is not too soon to think about the big end of the year holidays, and I guess that includes Halloween, too, which comes at the end of the month.

But let's focus on Thanksgiving this time around.

Thanksgiving is perhaps, at least to me, the best holiday on the calendar, because it does not involve any gift giving--you are the gift during this family-oriented holiday, and the big bird is the star.

But in recent years, many retailers have decided that this is the time to make their money, to make their big splurge on the year, and thus, the Thanksgiving period--the actual day, the day after, and the ensuing weekend--has become one big buying blitz, where the supposed best bargains of the year can be had in preparation for Christmas.

To really get into the buying spirit, many stores are open on Thanksgiving, stay open all night, and barely close for that four-day period.

This practice has come under fire, because some believe it is anti-family, anti-worker, and that the practice really goes against the grain about what the holiday is all about.

However, let's be honest about it: if people did not shop during this period, the stores would not be open, so generally, these stores being open during ridiculous hours--including on Thanksgiving itself--is filling a need created by the very consumers who decry the practice.

But not every store is so brazen, at least in their brick-and-mortar locations. Some stores do not open on the day of Thanksgiving at all, and many don't even have extended hours on the Friday after, better known today as Black Friday.

Of course, with the advent of eCommerce and the Internet, many of these stores kind of fudge it, because they do have their online ordering and fulfillment centers open 24/7 anyway, and thus, they do have workers working on the holiday, just not in the physical stores.

So just about all retailers get into the Thanksgiving retail spirit one way or the other, but it is always interesting to see which retailers are not going to be open on at least the day of Thanksgiving.

For Thanksgiving 2019, the partial list is as follows:

Ace Hardware
Barnes & Noble
Costco
Dillard's
Fred Meyer
H&M
Ikea
Jo-Ann
Lowe's
Marshalls
Neiman Marcus
Office Depot
P.C. Richard & Son
REI
Staples
TJ Maxx
West Marine

I tried to do an A to Z list, but several stores under certain letters are missing, but I believe that this is a representative sample of stores that will not be open on the holiday. There are dozens more.

But for every store not open, you can bet your Thanksgiving bird that there are a commensurate amount of stores that are open on the big day, ready to serve a ready and waiting and eager public.

Not me, I can tell you that.

I have no need to shop on Thanksgiving Day, and as for Black Friday, the only shopping I do that day is at my local record store on Record Store Day. I get to the store early, get in and out quickly, and I am done, period.

I was never one to shop on these days, can't see why people go crazy with their purchases during this period and I would rather be with my family than be with other shoppers, to be honest with you.

So, are you planning on shopping on the day of Thanksgiving or on Black Friday or during the Thanksgiving weekend?

Have fun, I pretty much won't be there.

Classic Rant #1,104 (December 16, 2013): Uneventful Weekend

This past weekend was a big nothing for me.

My wife worked on Saturday, and the mix of that and the snow that came pretty much washed out that day for my son and myself.

His bowling league was canceled, so after I did the shopping in the morning, we basically did nothing else the rest of the day.

We had snow, and although there was an accumulation, it really wasn't that bad outside.

And by the next morning, rain had washed it away, so there was no shoveling.

Having nothing much to do on Saturday, I decided to watch a "My Three Sons" marathon that I put together for myself, a mix of the early black and white episodes and a few of the later color ones.

I fell asleep right in the middle of it, taking a nap for about 90 minutes.

I must have been super relaxed, because I haven't done that in ages.

After my wife came home, I went out to get a movie. Yes, we are old fashioned, and the Redbox machine is very accommodating.

I rented "Man of Steel," and we spent two hours in the evening watching this movie. It was a pretty good, although not great as I had hoped, retelling of the Superman legend, filled with horrible acting but great special effects. I would give it 2 1/2 stars. It kept my interest.

On Sunday, even with my wife home, we really didn't have anything planned, but we did get some things done.

I showed my wife how to transfer music from a computer to her iPad, and I guess that was the big accomplishment of the day.

We then went out for a while to do some shopping, nothing major, but at least it got us out of the house.

We watched some TV as the day went on, and before you knew it, the day was over.

But before the day was over, I went on Facebook, and of course, there was some controversy over the video that was posted on the Newsday site about my recent neighborhood reunion.

All I can say is that you cannot please everybody, no matter how hard you try.

After exchanging some barbs back and forth, I called it a night.

And here I am now, anticipating the workday.

Sometimes, you just need a slow weekend to recharge your work batteries, and that is what I had this past weekend.

Since, like the old Loverboy song said, I am "working for the weekend," I really don't mind such a slow two days.

Now, I have to rev it up for this week. There will be no naps, no dead spots, nothing like that.

Yes, sometimes a dull weekend is the best medicine.

Rant #2,456: Good Thing

I hope everyone's Rosh Hashanah was a good one.

The holiday is just one component of the Jewish high holy days, which culminates with the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, which begins next Tuesday night and stretches through sundown on Wednesday.

On Sunday, before we went to my sister for our Rosh Hashanah dinner--which was followed by another such dinner at my parents on Monday evening--my family and I actually took in a movie, something we had not done in about a year and might not do for another year--the movies have simply gotten too expensive, and we have learned to wait for films to come out on the movie channels if we really need to see them, which we generally don't.

Anyway, we saw "Judy," the film starring Renee Zelweger as the title character, Judy Garland, and I have to say that for once, it was worth seeing a movie in a movie theater.

The film, loosely based on the Broadway play "The End of the Rainbow," focuses on the last months and days of Garland, which were filled with pills, booze, health scares, lots of tumult, and somehow, lots of great performances on stage, seemingly the only place that Garland felt at home during this sad, last period of her relatively short life.

The film shows that even as a young performer, Garland was abused, mentally, physically, emotionally and sexually by those supposedly watching over her career at MGM, and this pattern of abuse kind of followed her during her entire life, although later on, it was self abuse that pretty much did her in.

At one time, Garland was probably one of the most famous people in the world, and MGM treated her strictly, passing her off as a playful teenager while treating her basically as a commodity that had to be watched nearly 24 hours a day.

But the movie really shines showing the adult pieces of her life, and yes, they were pieces, broken pieces that occasionally came together for brilliance, but often didn't fit together in any cognizant way to make any sense.

Zellweger--who is made up to look like Garland and pretty much has just about everything about Garland's look and mannter down pat and on display in this movie--really makes the film believable in an impossible role, that of portraying an icon that just about everyone, from every generation, knows.

We see Garland go through ups and downs, both on stage and in her personal life, fueled with pills and booze and bad relationships..

We see her trying to be a mother to her two youngest kids, Lorna and Joey, and we see her acting as a grown up kid herself, not being able to handle herself or her health without handlers and men in her life who might have loved her, but used her at the same time.

Zellweger really got it right, and she is the standout in the film, propelling it--even singing a song or two out of the Garland songbook--and doing so in a way that you almost believe that you are watching Garland herself performing on screen at times.

Another standout in the movie is Jessie Buckley as Rosalyn Wilder, her handler, for a lack of a better expression, during her last run in England. The red-headed Buckley plays the role as one of the more sympathetic characters revolving around Garland in the film, and you can actually feel her fury--and her pity--when dealing with Garland, who could be impossible while imbibing pills and alcohol on a constant basis.

Although the ending appears to be a bit contrived--I wonder if the incident actually happened?--it puts a cap on this film, which is sure to be up for numerous Academy Awards. Zellweger will certainly lead the pack as Best Actress, as she handled this impossible role in a nearly letter-perfect way.

So yes, I would see "Judy" on the big screen, because Garland--whether in all of those Mickey Rooney movies she was in through "The Wizard of Oz" through "A Star is Born" and even though her later films--was meant to be seen on the big screen. Although short in stature, Garland commanded the screen and concert stage like few have before or since, and thus, seeing her on the big screen is a natural place to view her powerful presence.

You generally get three different responses when a good movie ends: applause, murmuring or silence. When "Judy" ended, the theater was as silent as could be.

And I think that that is a testament to what a good movie the audience just saw, as well as the presence that Garland was and will probably always be, even more than a half century after her death at age 47.

Go see the movie. It is a downer, but it shows how one person packed so much into such a short life, a life that was almost designed for her as a child and which she would eventually succumb to.

Highly recommended.

Classic Rant #1,103 (December 13, 2013): Open To Interpretation

This would clearly have been the laugh of the week if it had not been connected to such a solemn occasion.

The crazy sign language guy at the Nelson Mandela tribute could have ruined the occasion, but he really didn't.

As you know, he was supposed to signing for the hearing impaired, but he was signing for no one, as his wild hand gestures could not be translated into any language on this planet.

He claims schizophrenia, he claims that he was hearing voices and seeing things, and that threw him for a loop during this tribute.

Sounds to me like he had an old fashioned panic attack, and he just could not perform his duties.

That being said, this was not the first time he was used as a signer, and security should have known that this guy was a fruitcake to begin with--especially with so many world leaders, including our President, sitting nearby, he might have been labeled as a risk.

And people talk about the lax security in this country!

Look, this story became a focal point of thousands of messages in social media, the news covered it more feverishly than a war, and everybody knew this guy for his 15 minutes of fame.

But did he ruin the day?

No, I don't think so.

World leaders traveled form all points of the planet to attend this thing to honor the memory of Mandela.

Sure, the man's actions were an insult to Mandela, to South Africa, and certainly to the hard of hearing around the world.

But did his actions take away from the day and what everyone gathered for?

I doubt it.

Mandela's words and actions were much stronger, and longer lasting, than anything this guy could do.

And undue it in a single day?

No, I don't think so.

What would Mandela have done if such a circumstance had occurred while he was alive?

I think he probably would have been upset to a degree, but he would have moved on from it, and I think that that is what everyone should do about this episode.

Sure, it was unfortunate, the man is mentally ill, but it could have been much, much worse.

Yes, it was a blot on the day, but it didn't permanently stain the day at all.

Mandela was too big for that, too important for that.