Harking for a simpler time.....

[Stearmen]

Welk's biggest mistake was trying to "become relevant" once his show left the network and went into syndication in the early '70s -- a dance band has no business trying to play songs written for rock/folk/country performers, and it's difficult if not impossible for any band to do so without looking ridiculous. Imagine Count Basie trying to play "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds," and the effect would be just as ludicrous. And the Count didn't even have the handicap of pretty white people in his band to contend with.

There were a lot of Golden Era performers who fell into this trap in the sixties and seventies. At one of the radio stations where I worked, there was an LP by Rudy Vallee of pop hits circa 1967 which made him come across as a pathetic, aging clown, not the fine and sensitive vocalist he had been in his prime. God only knows what the poor man was thinking. And even Bing Crosby, who should have known better, dabbled in this sort of thing -- he did better with it than most, because of his sheer talent, but it was still a vast comedown from his prime work.

There are three very complicated reasons why those singers went down the pop sean. 1. Money, 2. Money, 3. Money!

[HodgePodge]

Imagine Count Basie trying to play "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds," and the effect would be just as ludicrous. And the Count didn't even have the handicap of pretty white people in his band to contend with.

"Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" wasn't tackled on it, but the Count did make a recording in 1966 called "Basie's Beatle Bag," which is 11 tracks of the Basie band playing beatles songs.

[Kishtu]

Apropos of not a lot, this was an interesting article:
http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Don-...ail/story.html

Not so much for what Dame Fiona Roberts says, but for some of the responses - "she needs to get out of a Famous Five novel" being one of them.

Living a simpler life seems to be looked on as some kind of exclusively middle-class phenomenon. Fair enough, I suspect that in the UK having the money to "drop out" to a degree probably is, but I was slightly astonished by the level of antipathy shown to the kind of lifestyle many of us aspire to in the Lounge.