Eventually, Everything Comes Full Circle, Or So It Seems

[JSngry]

Late 60s Astros radio broadcasts (of which I listened to damn near every one) weren't truly over until the post-game show (the Astros Wrap Up Show, I think it was called?) came and went. The show featured a most catchy them played on what I have since come to know was a piccolo trumpet.

Now, my buddy Ricky Goode (Hey, Ricky!) were both big Top 40 buffs as well as dorkus maximus baseball geeks, and many was the time we would talk about that theme, commenting on it's unique quality, how it just had a...thing to it, at once happy and smartass, hip & corny, and...just who the hell was it anyway? We actually used to whistle it in classes when things got boring, just to piss the teachers off. And it worked, one particularly cranky science teacher knew it from the Astros games and made it a point to say that that was the most obnoxious song ever written, which should give you an idea just how much of a thing that song had.

Well, hell, that was 40 years ago, and I ain't seen Ricky Goode since LTB & I got married in 1983 (rumora abound as to where he is/was, etc., not all of them "pleasant", but all of them believable...). And I had totally forgotten about that song, although its aesthetic of smartass/hip/corniness is one to which this day I have an abiding affection, often against my better instincts. As for what it was, bothering to figure it pout was an even more lost notion than the song itself.

Life takes some odd twists and some even odder turns, so it shouldn't be unusual to note that the last week or so, I've availed myself of an opportunity to explore the back catalogue of Pat Williams. Threshold is just a bitch of an album, melding pop-culture and jazz in a way that is unforcedly Mass Acceptance ready, which probably explains why it was such a commercial flop. But oh well about that. Heavy Vibrations is one I'd found in the cutout bins a long time ago, and it's cool for what it is, but Think & Shades Of Today are the ones I was most eager to check out, especially the latter.

Turns out that they're bot about exactly what I thought they'd be - hip-corn, or vice versa. The type of think that was completely "unhip" back in the day, but now in retrospect...it's still unhip. But it's not, if you know what I mean. It's really neither hip nor unhip, music like this. It's just....wack to think of the investments of time and money and peoples to make what are essentially "easy listening" albums and twist the shit up this much and still have it remain...essentially "easy listening". My mind reels at what everybody involved was thinking. But the playing is top-shelf, as is the writing, and in the end, it is quality, quoite high quality, in the service of warping commerce. So hey.

Anyway....I get to the last tune on Shades Of Today, a Williams original called "Bubbles Was A Cheerleader", and right from jump, this shit sounded familiar. The into over, the main theme commenced, piccolo trumpet, and....HEY - there it was, the Astros post-game show in full splendor. Pat Williams, warpedass easy listening, Marvin Stamm, the soundtrack of a forgotten youth suddenly right there.

Bubbles Was A Cheerleader. Yeah, don't I know it.

Suddenly, it all made sense.

[Joe G]

Are you going to post a soundclip or what?

[JSngry]

I wish I could...

It's one of those things that "squares" can dig at face value, those "in the know" can dig at face value (with a totally different face), and "hipsters" can absolutely, unambiguously hate.

The joke, I think, is on all of them!

Bubbles Was A Cheerleader, dig?

[JSngry]

Here it is on a podcast: http://whyfidelity.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=148122 or http://media.libsyn.com/media/whyfidelity/...fidelity_49.mp3

Check out what it s compiled with:

1. Little Girl - John & Jackie

2. Miss Teenage America - Carl Maduri

3. Ooh! She's Young - M. Dolenz

4. Multi Kolored Mini-Skirts - Peter Thomas

5. Bald Headed Papa - The Gingersnaps

6. Let's Shack Up Together - June & the Exit Wounds

7. Bubbles was a Cheerleader - Pat Williams

8. Where's the Playground Susie - Jerry Vale

9. Music to Watch Girls By - The Higsons

10. Cute Little Wiggle - David Carroll

11. Daddy, You Gotta Let Him In - The Satisfactions

12. Je Taime Moi Non Plus - Traces

Hey.

[JSngry]

Also available, it woul appear, on this Japanese collection: http://www.amazon.co.jp/RESORT-MUSIC-%E3%8...9/dp/B000065E6C

TRACKS:

01. Procession: Signature Tune (2:42)

02. The Caterina Valente Singers: Dominique (2:06)

03. Jose Roberto e Seu Conjunto: Aventura (2:01)

04. Kenny Rankin: Tamborine Man (3:11)

05. Orchestre sous la direction de Michel Colombier: Sous le soleil exactement (2:06)

06. James Brown At The Organ: Our Day Will Come (3:55)

07. Brigitte Bardot: Nue au soleil (2:20)

08. Michel Legrand: He, Antonio (2:59)

09. Jose Bartel: Marin, ami, amant ou mari (1:48)

10. The Dirty Shames: Coconut Grove (2:49)

11. Cal Tjader: Sally's Tomato (3:11)

12. The Sandpipers: Never Can Say Goodbye (2:45)

13. Diana Ross & The Supremes: Bah-Bah-Bah (3:17)

14. Boulou: Bluesette (2:55)

15. Jean Constantin: Pas tant d'chichi ponpon (Samba da Minia Terra) (2:31)

16. The Alan Copeland Singers: Tiella Lee (3:07)

17. Pat Williams: Bubbles Was A Cheerleader (2:52)

18. Les Parisiennes: Qu'est-c'qu'on attend pour etre heureux (2:23)

19. The Madisons: Le Grand "M" (2:44)

20. Jose Bartel: Nous voyageons de ville en ville (2:32)

21. Tamba 4: San Salvador (2:17)

22. Stan Getz: Communication '72 (2:27)

23. The Swingle Singers: Fuga In Bulldozer (1:48)

24. Roland Kirk: Raouf (3:05)

25. Claude Nougaro: A tes seins (Saint Thomas) (2:00)

26. Tamba 4: Weekend (1:57)

27. Quincy Jones (features The Morgan Ames Singers): Maybe Tomorrow (4:23)

28. Orchestre sous la direction de Rene-Pierre Chouteau: La guerre des boutons (2:35)

29. Don Costa: Adios (3:22)

So there. James Brown, Brigitte Bardot, Roland Kirk, The Caterina Valente Singers, and, of course, Bubbles.

Who was a cheerleader.

[JSngry]

You rule, Rod!

Yeah, the show would begin it's sign-off with a fade-in at the 1:29 mark and play it out to conclusion, iirc, with the announcers inevitably finishing right on cue for that final church cadence.

And on the intro, Gene Elston, who had one of the driest, most urbane voices & deliveries in the history of baseball radio, would not speak until after the fanfare. He'd wait until Stamm started playing & the vibe got all martini, as, after all, befits a post-game show.

Wow, Gene Elston, Ricky Goode (Hey, Ricky!), & a 1968 (?) Pat Williams cut all converging out of nowhere in 2008. Lord, please don't take me anytime soon, this is waaaay too strange (and fun!) a trip to check out on right now!

Edited June 21, 2008 by JSngry

[JSngry]

So strange that you mentioned Williams' Threshold.

Last week, I was really in the mood for this LP -

can't explain - just one of those strange yearnings, I suppose.

Especially, that really quick and light opener...

It's a very good album, I think. Not jazz, not pop, not soundtrack, all of them rolled into one and just happening on its own terms. Plenty of texture, great writing, great playing.

Tell you what, Pat Williams (or as he now calls himself, Patrick Williams) is not somebody to trifle with. No siree.

[rachel]

Thanks to Jim, this little ditty will be in my head all day. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

[JSngry]

The bring the circle even fuuler (and something so obvious that I must have been an idiot not to recognize it yesterday), I had a road gig last night - in Houston.

buh buh buh BUH

buh buh BUH

[JSngry]

A Prelude To Bubbles: http://www.astrosdaily.com/audio/69closer.mp3

[Tony Pusey]

So, Bubbles was a cheer leader....and Sheena is a drunk docker.