SOUNDTRACK: KASENETZ-KATZ SUPER CIRCUS-“Up in the Air” (1968).
Reading about bubblegum music has led me to a fascinating trove of information. Like that most of the songs were written by two guys who “created” many of the bands. Most of these bands have a revolving cast live but had the same band on record. The two creators were Jerry Kasenetz and Jeffry Katz.
In 1968, Kasenetz and Katz created a “supergroup” which consisted of members of their “Super K Production.”
Their first album was hilarious, because according to the inner gatefold cover’s liner notes, the “supergroup” consisted of 46 members. However, the album cover itself only shows 33 members (plus Kasenetz and Katz in tuxedos) while the individual inner cover photos total 37 (excluding the non-existent St. Louis Invisible Marching Band, whose photo is represented by a white block). To add to the confusion of the actual number of participants, the LP package came with a page of stamps with each member of the “supergroup”, including their names and the individual group he or she represents. The members of The Teri Nelson Group (except Teri Nelson herself) are shown as INVISIBLE BAND on the stamps. Side 2 opens up with Music Explosion leader Jamie Lyons announcing the individual members of the newer or lesser-known groups. Some of the names mentioned do not coincide with the members shown on the stamps.
Hilarious and crazy. This song “Up in the Air” comes from the supergroup’s second album in a year. They renamed it “Kasenetz-Katz Super Circus” and the roster was reduced to five groups: The 1910 Fruitgum Company, Ohio Express and Music Explosion, with the other groups replaced by Shadows Of Knight (who had just been acquired by Super K and signed to Buddah’s Team label) and White Whale label group Professor Morrison’s Lollipop (formerly the Coachmen of Nebraska). Despite these representations, the tracks were actually recorded by studio musicians with lead vocals by Ohio Express lead vocalist Joey Levine.
That’s a lot of setup for an amusing almost novelty song.
There are two different guitar lines. One playing high notes and the other playing a melody). Thumping bass and drums enter and then the song shifts to a groovy bassline and vocals that seem sped up. And the lyrics are sort of political.
I don’t read poems by Poe
Look at Palooka Joe
Watch the Ed Sullivan Show
I love Governor Reagan
There isn’t a real chorus, just a repeated final line about Governor Regan (pronounced “Reegan” for some reason–like “Regan,” the King Lear character).
Don’t dig Joe Pepitone (la la la la la)
Or talk on the telephone (la la la la la)
One thing stands all alone
That’s my governor Reagan
Hail, Hail, hail our leader!
[Clavichord solo while backup singers chant “Hail Reagan, Hail to the Chief”]
Reagan was governor of California at the time. The creator of the site Bubblegum Reviews asks, What is Reagan actually being criticized for here? He hadn’t actually done much to damage American democracy at that time.
Some may say he’s the Gip
Some say he’s lost his grip
I say that he’s a pip
He’s my Governor Reagan
A man who has so much hair
A man that is not all there
A man who just loves the chair
That’s my governor Reagan
More from Bubblegum Reviews:
The song seems to be making fun of him for having an inane persona derived from his good looks and movie career (“he’s the Gip”/”so much hair”). It also denigrates him for having a feeble intellect or a weak grasp on sanity (“lost his grip”/”not all there”). His supporters are equally dimwitted: instead of reading poetry, they look at Palooka Joe.
According to Wikipedia, “in Reagan’s campaign, he emphasized two main themes: “‘to send the welfare bums back to work,’ and, in reference to burgeoning anti-war and anti-establishment student protests…’to clean up the mess at Berkeley.’” In one incident, his actions led to the death of one protester and the blinding of another;
[WHAT? HOW DID THIS GUY BECOME PRESIDENT?]
later, he sent out the National Guard to occupy Berkeley. It may have been his anti-protest stance that rankled with Levine et al. — youthful revolt seems to have been something people in the music biz were generally in favor of, even if they weren’t particularly interested in what was being revolted against. This autocratic approach to free speech may also be what’s behind the song’s implication that Reagan demanded unquestioning fealty (“hail, hail, hail the leader”).
How timely.
Is this a bubblegum song? It’s hard to say for sure. Kasenetz & Katz wrote most of the biggest bubblegum songs so they knew what they were doing. Maybe they were trying to branch out. It’s really nifty. I’ll have to listen to more.
[READ: June 15, 2020] Bubblegum Week 6
Over at the Infinite Zombies site, there was talk of doing a Quarantine book read. After debating a few books, we decided to write about a new book, not a book that everyone (or some people) had read already. This new book would be Bubblegum by Adam Levin. Many of us had read Levin’s massive The Instructions which was not especially challenging, although it was a complex meta-fictional story of books within books. It was kind of disturbing, but also rather funny and very entertaining.
So I’ll be posting weekly ideas on this schedule
| Date |
Through Page |
| May 11 |
81 |
| May 18 |
176 |
| May 25 |
282 |
| June 1 |
377 |
| June 8 |
476 |
| June 15 |
583 |
| June 22 |
660 |
| June 29 |
767 |
You Can Be Right and Kind At The Same Time,
or: Why Would You Hate a Part of Speech, Dude?
I was really looking forward to seeing Jonboat again. He has been this looking figure–billionaire, astronaut, husband of the most beautiful woman in the world, father of Triple J. And we know very little about him besides that. And WOW does he make an impression. Sort of. Actually, he doesn’t make any impression except on Belt’s psyche.
This section begins with a bit of a misdirection: Belt picking up a magazine at the White Hen because astronaut Jonboat was on the cover. Flipping through, he couldn’t find the article (typical of big glossy magazines) and wound up looking at an article about the famous chef Clem.
Clem (I’m guessing inspired by Emeril?) was eggplant shaped with arms like noodles–he looked like a combination of Ringo Starr and Yasser Arafat–he seemed all wrong and yet he looked fantastic. This was because everything in the room was custom made just for him. He was measured for an oven, molds were made of his hands for his knives etc. Somehow the objectively handsome assistant looked unfit in the room because everything fit Clem.
I love the librarian joke that Pang shouts at him: You think my name is Marian? (and a wonderful discursive joke about this not being a library). But Belt didn’t buy the magazine because he needed money for Quills.
This is all a set up to say that Jonboat looked in his office as if every inch of it was measured to fit him.
As Belt walks in, Jonboat says “Hey, you,” and holds out his arms for a hug. It take a second before Belt realizes he’s talking to Fondajane who is next to him.
There’s some playful banter between Jonboat and Fon. And yet I can’t decide how to read this. Is Jonboat a pedantic jerk or is he fun and good at teasing?
She says “As the kids say…Now we’ve come to the part where I make my exit.” I love that Fon either doesn’t know or doesn’t care what the kids actually say. Jonboat suggests they say, “I guess that’s my cue [to leave].” But Fon retorts that that was two eras back. They gave that up for their name and out: “Fondajane: out.” Jonboat says that he never heard of it: “Jonboat: incredulous.”
When Belt tries to interject into the banter, Burroughs pats his arm to tell him to keep out of it. As Fondajane leaves she says she has to meet Robbie bin Laden for dinner. This story’s skirting of 9/11 with lines like this is fascinating and I wonder if there will be any kind of payoff, or if it’s just reminders of the slightly-off timeline.
Finally Jonboat turns his attention to Belt. He gets out his business gear (he is there to sign the contract for Triple J) and Belt notices a cure running on top of a globe. Jonboat is trying to train it to walk on four feet, but it is disposed to walk on two–a sort of glorious defect.
The cure is really cute. Even for Belt. Belt starts to get uneasy–so much so that Burroughs steps in his line of sight to avoid any trouble. Belt is surprised and dismayed that he didn’t just want to hold it, he wanted to squeeze it–and he imagined in some detail what the experience would have been like. (more…)
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SOUNDTRACK: ARLO PARKS-Tiny Desk Concert #80 (September 15, 2020).
I had never heard of Arlo Parks before this set and then today Spotify recommended her album to me. How about that.
I thought it was a very clever idea posting about bubblegum music for this book. If only I had known how much music was actually mentioned in the book and, ultimately, how inappropriate these songs are to the book–in tone and content.
1910 Fruitgum Company has a great, bizarre name. Especially for a band that released such poppy songs.
