I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: NICK LOWE-Tiny Desk Concert #87 (November 1, 2010).

Nick Lowe is legendary.  And yet I don’t really know that much about him.  I knew he did “Cruel to be Kind” which is very dated sounding but still great.  I didn’t know that he wrote my favorite Elvis Costello song “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding?” (which he first recorded with his band Brinsley Schwarz).  He also produced a bunch of Costello’s albums.

This Tiny Desk is a mellow affair, with Lowe gently playing acoustic guitar and his low, smooth vocals singing interesting lyrics: “His heart’s a prune / when it once was a plum / If you know him / that’s the kind of man that I’ve become” (from “Man That I’ve Become”).

“Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day” is done in the same vein.  Cathy, mellow pop, with an almost countryish feel.

“All Men Are Liars” is a pretty typical song about lying men, until you get this fascinating lyric: “Do you remember Rick Astley?  He had a big fat it.  It was ghastly.  He said I’m never gonna give you up or let you down.  Well, I’m here to tell you that rick’s a clown.”

“House for Sale” was a then new song.  And it’s just as sharp and strign as the rest.

At the time of this recording, Lowe was 61 and he sounds great.  His voice has changed, but it hasn’t lost anything.

[READ: October 29, 2015] The Complete Peanuts 1961-1962

By this book, Peanuts had been in print for nearly 12 years.  And the core group has remained Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Snoopy, Schroeder, and now Sally.  And to a smaller extent Shermie, Patty and Pig-Pen are still around.   But in 1961 he added a new character: Frieda, the girl with naturally curly hair.

One thing I hadn’t noticed so much in previous books is that he has been getting some very funny “jokey” punchlines.  Most of the Peanuts punchlines have been funny/thoughtful/amusing.  But I felt like this book had a few that were really funny.  Like Lucy saying in response to beauty being only skin deep “I have a very thick beauty.”  Or this funny groaner: Linus: “Do they always bring the cows in from the pasture at night?” Lucy: “Of course you blockhead, if they leave them out over night they get pasteurized.” I especially like that it isn’t even the final panel.  And in 1962, Charlie asks this question when he turns on the TV and sees reruns: “What would happen if comic strips had nothing but re-runs all summer?”

And of course, there’s a lot of baseball strips.  Including this one with a great set up and punchline.  Charlie is talking about the game and how “For one brief moment victory was within our grasp.”  To which Linus says, “And then the game started.”

There a series of funny fortune cookie jokes.  Linus’ mom puts a note in his lunch every day.  He reads one: “A smile each day will bring happiness your way” and Charlie says it sounds like a fortune cookie.  With a very funny follow-up the next day: “help! I’m being held prisoner in a school lunch factory.”

A funny doctor joke is that whatever crazy scheme Lucy thinks up to make people feel better is “no worse than sitting in a doctor’s cold examining room for forty minutes while he’s treating someone else.”

Snoopy grows more and more prevalent.  One of Snoopy’s new personas is captain of a ship, with several strips dedicated to his riding out rough weather (although he usually fails in the end).  He also spends a lot of time being a vulture (a particularly favorite shape of mine). A great day for him is when Charlie puts up a “Beware of Dog” sign. Conversely, he is also greeted by lots of birds who love to hang out with him and use his place for meetings and such.  (No sign of Woodstock yet).  In 1962 Snoopy goes to visit his grandfather–but he’s just not in the strip, we don’t hear anything about it.

In March of 1961 Frieda is introduced—as the girl with naturally curly hair.  She actually grows a bit redundant pretty quickly with her only two things being that she has naturally curly hair and that she is always giving Snoopy a hard time for being lazy and for not chasing rabbits.  It seems like every times he comes on it’s to berate Snoopy, and by the middle of the book, even Snoopy is saying good grief not her again (granted, it is much more obvious when you read two years worth of strips in a few days).  A funny sequence is that she gets a cat just to annoy Snoopy—the cat makes many appearances but is mostly just a floppy creature.

In April 1961 they celebrate National Library week—“Librarians like to feel needed.” Charlie also talks about teachers (Linus has a crush on his teacher and is upset when she gets married).  But Linus is even more upset about teachers and how Linus is appalled that the teacher  actually gets paid to teach and isn’t just doing it because she loves the kids.

Lucy’s Psychiatrist business is doing great, even though she is primarily there to undermine everyone she talks to–especially Charlie.  For the first time in May of 1961 she has a removable sign that says IN (but not “real in” yet).  Although in Sept. 1961 Linus calls her “way out.”  In June of 1961 they go through the whole list of fears that’s in the movie except that it is Linus rather than Charlie who has pantophobia—the fear of everything.  “THAT’S IT!”

In Oct 1961, Linus writes a letter to the great pumpkin and Sally scoffs at him for it.  In Nov 1961, CB is particularly angsty at school–sitting by himself and mentioning “that little girl with the red hair.”

For Christmas in 1961 we get the joke that if Linus doesn’t read his script, Lucy will slug him. he says, “Christmas is not only getting too commercial, it’s getting too dangerous.”

To open 1962, Lucy complains about the state of the world:  “I’ll give them just twelve years to get thing straightened out! I want everything settled by the time I’m eighteen.”

In perhaps the strangest, most quickly forgotten plotline, Linus gets glasses from Feb 1962 until about the end of July.  There are tons of eye glasses jokes, with Snoopy stealing them and wearing them.  There also a lot of ophthalmologist jokes and by the end of the summer, he’s no longer wearing them, with no word about it.

There’s a lot more funny jokes from Lucy (who may have the best lines of anyone).  Lucy: “The question is…how do you tell the phonies from the realies.”  With Charlie asking, “The ‘realies?'”  In Feb of 1962, she asks “Do you think I’m pretty?” to Charlie Brown and then gets furious when he “didn’t answer right away.”  Good grief.   Lucy continues to teach Linus nonsense (which is odd since he is obviously so smart), like  “The fascinating thing about pebbles is their growth. For some grow up to be stones while others grow up to be rocks. You shall hope of course that it grows up to be a rock for a pebble that grows up to be a stone is like youth who has gone astray.”

In May 1962, Snoopy plays the accordion mostly to annoy Schroeder, but also because he really loves it.

We hadn’t seen much of Sally this year but she comeback in July.  She is clearly much older (no longer looking like a baby).  And indeed, in August 1962 she is nervous about starting kindergarten.  There’s nearly two weeks of very funny jokes about her wanting to boycott it.  The best jokes of the bunch is that she’s afraid to go to school because of the kinds of questions they might ask: “there are certain things I’d just rather not have brought up.”  of course, she loves it once she has gone.

In Oct 1962 Sally goes to the pumpkin patch with Linus and we get this line from the movie: “if you try to hold my hand I’ll slug you.”

There’s a number of topical jokes as well.

In June 1962 Linus loses his blanket which is saved by the Air Rescue Service, who had also rescued Lieutenant Commander Carpenter.

In Oct. 1962 Charlie asks Lucy about sugar cubes polio vaccine (which is how they did it).

There’s also a baseball bat signed “Rachel Carson.”  And on Dec 22, 1962 Charlie wails, “Why couldn’t McCovey have hit the ball just three feet higher?”  This references the final game of the 1962 world series (two months earlier!), in which Willie McCovey hit a line drive which, had the Yankees player missed it, would have won the game for the San Francisco Giants.

In Nov 1962 Linus’ mom gets a tangerine colored pool table and all the moms start playing it (offscreen of course), to the dismay of everyone else.

In Dec 1962 there’s finally a Sunday strip to celebrate Beethoven’s birthday.  Later, Lucy writes her letter to Santa and asks for 10s and 20s.

And the year ends with Charlie Brown saying, “Thank you for the Christmas card you sent me Lucy.” Lucy: “I never sent you any Christmas card Charlie Brown.”  He shouts, “Don’t you know sarcasm when you hear it?”

The introduction (tying in nicely to Nick Lowe) is by Diana Krall.  It seems unusual.  She talks about early memories of a Snoopy t-shirt and how the expression “I got a rock” was a huge part of their childhood.   Her husband (who is Elvis Costello) says he most resembles Pig-Pen.  She likes that the children weren’t pious or innocents and that they ask their own questions.

She also related to the musical aspect of the strip and then delighted in hearing the melodies by Vince Guaraldi.   And Schroeder’s “Jingle Bells” joke.