I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: VANILLA FUDGE-Vanilla Fudge (1967).

I’m still puzzled by the existence of Vanilla Fudge.  By 1967 I wouldn’t think that a band who existed primarily on covers would be viable.  I also wouldn’t think that an album that is all covers would have been marketable.  But I guess the fascinating sound of Vanilla Fudge–lots of organ, screamed vocals and a heavy rhythm section covering recent hits at a drastically reduced speed was a sensation.

Evidently they influenced everyone (Led Zeppelin opened for them and Richie Blackmore and Jon Lord loved the organ sound and wanted it for Deep Purple) and are considered a link between psychedelia and heavy metal.

The first song is a cover of The Beatles’ “Ticket to Ride” of all songs. The Beatles released it in 1965 and two years later the Fudge put heir spin on it.  It is pretty much unrecognizable until they get to the lyrics.  Singer Max Stein takes the lyrics smooth and slow until he starts screaming like a heavy metal song (I can hear an Ian Gillan precedent).   After the “Ri-ii-iide,” in the chorus there’s a little guitar riff that stands out amid all of the organ.

“People Get Ready” (also originally from 1965) also starts unrecognizable until 90 seconds in when there’s a nod to the main riff and then a lot of harmony vocals. By nearly 2 minutes, the main melody of the song is played slowly on a church style organ and they sing the chorus in a kind of church choir.  The whole song is pretty much all organ and Stein crooning.

“She’s Not There” (recorded by The Zombies in 1964) is organ heavy with a build up for each line The song feels really psychedelic with Stein’s screamed vocals, and Appice’s drumming.  I really rather like the backing vocals.

“Bang Bang” (1966) was written by Sonny Bono is noisy with crashing drums and intermittent guitar surrounded by the Hammond organ.  About 2 minutes in, he sings in a childlike voice “Ring Around The Rosy” and “A Tisket a Tasket.”  I don;t know the original at all, but can;t imagine how it went.

After an introduction called “Illusions of My Childhood, Pt. 1” which is basically 20 seconds of keys, they get into their first hit a cool, slow cover of “You Keep Me Hanging On.”  I find that with the Vanilla Fudge, it’s the songs I don’t know as well that I enjoy their treatment of more.

“Take Me for a Little While” is less than 3:30 after the introductory “Illusions of My Childhood, Pt. 2.”  It ends with a melody of the Farmer in the Dell before the martial beat introduces us to the next song.

After the 25 seconds of “Illusions of My Childhood, Pt. 3” the official cover of “Eleanor Rigby” begins completely unlike any version of the song.  It’s just keys and such until about 3 minutes when they start singing “oh, look at all the lonely people” in a kind of choir.  When the actual lyrics come in, they are sing quietly or in a group chorale.  They end the song by chanting “they do, they do.”  It’s a complete reinvention of the songs.

The record ends with them singing a denouement of “nothing is real, nothing to get hung about.”

There really is nothing else like this band.  But they seem far more like a novelty than a foundation of a musical style.  And they’re still touring today.

[READ: February 1, 2016] “The Actual Hollister”

I really like Dave Eggers’ writing style. It always seems casual yet dedicated.  Like he might not really care that much about what he’s going to tell you but that he paid a lot of attention while he was getting ready to bring it to you.  That attitude kind of helps especially when reading something that you yourself don’t really have a care about (to start with).

This story is about Hollister, California.  Eggers says he was inspired to go there because he had been seeing those sweatshirts that say Hollister on them.  [At this point I have t confess that I have seen them, but don’t really register them and didn’t know it had anything to do with Abercrombie and Fitch].

And thus the story bifurcates into the story of the brand and the story of the town.  And never shall they meet.

Abercrombie and Fitch apparently chose the name Hollister out of thin air–it has no connection to this town–and the brand really took off (hoodies for $45).  There is an A&F origin story about a John M. Hollister but he is made up, as is his past.  Most A&F brands have fictional back stories attached to them.

But when a merchant in Hollister, CA wanted to name her vintage closed Rag City Blues Hollister A&F sued–and won!  The town suggested that the brand put a store in town to capitalize on the connection, but the town is not well suited to the brand  (being small and poor).

Eggers says he has been there twice since he moved West from Illinois 23 years ago.  He has a connection to the town–his great-great grandfather is the T.S. Hawkins who will appear two paragraphs below.  But before telling that story he describes the town in this wonderful phrase: “it is a strangely compete town, like something out of a Richard Scarry book.”

He always visits the Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital.  But on this visit the hospital was different–seemingly abandoned with a place called Gio’s Chop Shop set up in one of the wings and all the other businesses vacant . No sign of hospital working at all.

Then he tells us the real story of Hollister.  A man named T.S. Hawkins was born in Missouri.  He grew up in Missouri and had a family.  But when his wife tuned ill, the doctor told them to change climates, so they went out West (a decade or so after the gold rush). He bought two hundred acres and then heard of a man named W.W. Hollister who had 21,000 acres of farmland nearby This land eventually became Hollister, CA.

Hawkins had children and grandchildren, but when one grandchild, Hazel Hawkins, died they built the hospital and named it after her (T.S. had been very successful by then).

There are two episodes that end this story.  The first involves Eggers going to Gio’s Chop Shop which is a barbershop and he is presumed to be a narc (very funny).  The second is the coincidental opening of the new Hazel Hawkins Hospital, to which he is invited.  When he arrived he realized that he “was the peculiar relative–the poorly-dressed and unshaven man who shows up carrying a hundred-year-old book with certain pages marked.”

This all proved to be an introduction to the republication of T.S Hawkins’ book Some Recollections of a Busy Life.