90's Swing Book

[flat-top]

Although it's a relic from the 90's swing revival, this book was a great source for info on zoot suits, vintage ties, hats, shoes and all that good stuff.
http://www.amazon.com/Swing-New-Ret...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205041616&sr=1-1
Some pretty well dressed guys like Royal Crown Revue and several others do in depth interviews, and they know what they're talking about!
Definitely worth a look!

 

[Matt Deckard]

I have the book. It is very much a diagram of the 90's swing aesthetic. Not quite my cup of tea though it was interesting when I got it.

 

[Babydoll]

I have it too - as a "coffee table" book. A snapshot in time....

 

[reetpleat]

I worked with the author, Vale. He was a cool guy. He had done the first re-search book on Modern Primatives which was the first documentation of what would become, in part, the pirecing, tatoo, burning man etc etc trend. I didn't do much more than help identify people in photos and share my perspective and thoughts over the course of a few meetings. But I am listied in the credits and think I did help him get a good view.

I still have my copy. I think the interviews are great, and he does a good job, as far as an outsider view goes. While it does not exasctly get things wrong from a factual perspective, not really, in my opinion, capture the trend or movement quite accurately. But until I write my book, I guess my perspective will have to wait.

I do find it a little much in the way he attempted to portray it as a subversive, counterculture, but he is old school from the punk rock days who believes in the power of counter culture, so you can forgive what might have, in retrospect, been a bit of wishful thinking or journalistic hype. Romor had it, by the way, that he had played with Blue Cheer, once consider the loudest bnd in rock and roll, but I don't know if it is true.


I do think it was cool that he was able to docement the early days in San Francisco, before my time, when they wer having punk rock and rockabilly shows in warehouses, and Royal Crown Revue came into that scene, coupled with a few other people and events, and started it all. Brings back a lot of memories of a really special time that I am sure most on the lounge would have loved to hae been a part of.

I actually financed a trip to Catelina by taking a suitcase full of copies he sold me at cost and selling them during swing week for retail. Fun.

 

[flat-top]

I have it too - as a "coffee table" book. A snapshot in time....

It's funny how almost everyone in that book were never heard from again, or never made it at all.
There were a handful, like the aforementioned RCR, that truly loved the VINTAGE aspect of the scene. I can still reread those chapters and get something out of it.

 

[flat-top]

I do find it a little much in the way he attempted to portray it as a subversive, counterculture, but he is old school from the punk rock days who believes in the power of counter culture, so you can forgive what might have, in retrospect, been a bit of wishful thinking or journalistic hype. Romor had it, by the way, that he had played with Blue Cheer, once consider the loudest bnd in rock and roll, but I don't know if it is true.

Cool story Reet!
And yeah, he's trying to keep the punk thing running throughout the book, which, if it was a common theme with some of these people, so be it, but it does get a bit silly after awhile.

 

[reetpleat]

It's funny how almost everyone in that book were never heard from again, or never made it at all.
There were a handful, like the aforementioned RCR, that truly loved the VINTAGE aspect of the scene. I can still reread those chapters and get something out of it.

I don't know about some of them. Actually, some of the bands were not even popular amongst the "scene" even when the book came out.

But Lavay Smith is still actively playing as far as I know, Some of the guys from Indigo Swing have been playing for years as Stompy Joe/Swing Session. I am sure a lot of the other bands are still playing or the members are, a many of the members were very experienced, long time blues and jazz players.

Most of the people have moved on, except thedancers ae probably still dancing.

One thing that he didn'tseem to capture that had already happened, was the split between the dance scene and the the lifestyle people. By the time the book had come out, the scene had split into three factions. Those tht had gone back to the rockabilly scene, having found swing too square, those that were lifestyle, dress up crowd, which had drifted away from the dance events to their own events such as the Art Deco Society which had only been marginally interested in the bigger scene as they ahd alwasy existed anyway, and the dance scene, which was only marginally related to the rest of the lifestyle scene. By now it is almost completely divrced and is more about dancing.

 

[reetpleat]

Cool story Reet!
And yeah, he's trying to keep the punk thing running throughout the book, which, if it was a common theme with some of these people, so be it, but it does get a bit silly after awhile.

While some of the band member such as RCR, and Scotty from BBVD, and some of the roots of the scene were in the punk scene, I don't think I knew hardly anyone who had been a punk rocker then become a swing guy. I guess there wre a few, but many were just regular folks, some wre kind of rockabilly or fifties fans, some wre just kids, some of the crowd such as Lee Press On and his following were all from Renaissance Fair. Overall, I would not relly consider it based in punk except maybe some of the bands. Musicians would make sense ,because if you ae a musician at a young age, you may well have been into punk, then as you get more into music and playing ,you may be open to new forms and higher levels of skill, so turn to swing.

As far as Rockabilly, I don't really know anyone who had been into rockabilly, then became a big swing person. Rockabillies always seemed to stay rockabilly. They have alwasy had their own scene and it has always been much stronger and long lasting than swing. Some of the europeans in the book would probably be more accurately lumped in wiht the american rockabilly scene than the 90s swing scene. The europeans have alwasy been more into clothes, furnishings, vintage lifestyle, and being more dressy.

 

[renor27]

I for one went punk into swing

I must be the very strange ones
I went from SF punk to ska to swing
As punk became more hateful and neo Nazi I moved into ska and then as I got older in the early 1990's went back to looking for the root music and found the delta blues and 1920's jazz. This lead me into swing in the city in the mid 1990's.
Yes there was a split between the dancers and life style folks ( those who like the cloths cars buildings etc like what we all like here on the lounge )
Those folks who were less about the dancing and more about the style can be found today in the art deco groupies. But one thing is for sure every one loved the music.
Many of the SF bands are still around and still playing just not as much as 10 years ago but they still have gigs. Lavay Smith play weekly in north beach Steve Lucky keeps busy in the Bay Area and even Lee Presson and the Nails play from time to time:eusa_clap

 

[reetpleat]

Forgot about Steve Lucky. They wre not as popular as some as they wre more r and b than swing or rockabilly, but I loved them. Very cool folks too. And I am glad to hear that Lee Press On is still gigging. Who would have ever imagined a swing band could have been collbled together from ska, mod, ren fair, and goth?

And you are absolutely right. Everyone appreciated the music, weather it was new school neo swing, or straight up traditional blues, r and b or swing, it was all there adn it was all good and it was all appreciated.

There may have been many opinions going around about one band compared ot another, but I hardly recall anyone ever straight out not liking any of them.


So, if you were around the city in the mid 90s, we must have known each other. I am mateo. You?

Always great to have a little nostalgic trip down memory lane.

 

[reetpleat]

One interesting thing I thought of this afternoon. Vale, the author, was the one who first broke the "modern primitive" thing, and was on the edge of the swing and rockabilly scene with this book. But he may have been a little too ahead of his time. Today, the modenr primitive has full embraced the rockabilly psychobilly etc scene in what was an original SF trend that was emerging around the same time.

I don't know a lot about it but I know it was first documented in the SF magazine Gearhead. It seems to encapsulate the whole vintage/rockabilly/punk/tatoo/hotrod/motorcycle/piercing/funny facial hair/betty page bangs think. I cal lit gearhead, althoug I don't know if that is much of a current term.

At any rate, that is the trend that seems to have really emerged and survived.

 

[kools]

I also have the book, and like it. I don't, however, alwyas agree with the author's perspective.

The "scene" did also hit the world outside of California...although I always envied the quantity and sometimes the quality of the bands from the west coast. The midwest scene did evolve from various sources...rockabilly, punk, blues, school jazz, and of course the dancers. Heck, there was even a band here in Milwaukee that played disco (!?) 4 nights a week and then were a "swing band" on Thursdays.

Most of the rockabilly folks never really left rockabilly during the swing days, they merely stopped by to visit the swing scene. Easy enough because of common roots. Most have gone back home to rockabilly.

Most of the musicians were looking for a way to make money.

Most of the non-musicians did not "come from" anything. They just got turned on by the scenes appealing features. Some stayed, most eventually left.

I was fully immersed in the scene for the entirety, but didn't feel like I joined anything. My band had been playing jump blues because we liked it...then the people came and then the media came and told us we were a swing band. We had fun.

 

[flat-top]

Most of the rockabilly folks never really left rockabilly during the swing days, they merely stopped by to visit the swing scene. Easy enough because of common roots. Most have gone back home to rockabilly.

I agree totally. Here in NY, at least from what I saw, the two scenes would mix, until the swing scene blew up. The commercialization of the swing scene drove the Rockabillies away. And unfortunately as the swing scene fizzled out, most of the venues that had any type swing nights shut down, and took the Rockabilly nights with them.

 

[resortes805]

Jeez, I bought this book back in high school when it first came out. What the heck ever happened to the people from Work That Skirt? I heard that people have spotted them at some rockabilly shoes here and there, but they kind of up-and-vanished.

 

[Serial Hero]

I picked this up last year at a used book store for five bucks trade credit.

Kind of fun to relive the memories. I still listen to RCR, BBVD, SNZ, and the Cherry Poppin Daddies along with my other big band/ jazz cds.

I think I'll pop "Swingers" in the 'ol DVD when I get home tonight.

 

[Guttersnipe]

Jeez, I bought this book back in high school when it first came out. What the heck ever happened to the people from Work That Skirt? I heard that people have spotted them at some rockabilly shoes here and there, but they kind of up-and-vanished.

I run into one of the guys from Work That Skirt on a regular basis in San Francisco. Actually, a bunch of the folks from SF who are mentioned in that book are still around...

 

[Katzenjammer]

Romor had it, by the way, that he had played with Blue Cheer, once consider the loudest bnd in rock and roll, but I don't know if it is true.

Yeah, that's true...he played keyboards in the 1970s incarnation of the band. Pre-punk, naturally!

 

[Forgotten Man]

Didn't like it... the whole book says: We like the fashion of the era but, not the era to insinuate that everyone then were racists and homo-fobs.

It's like trying to hot rod the era... No thanks.

 

[ChrisT]

I didn't know this book.
But I have orderd it now.

thank you for make me heard of it

 

[ChrisT]

I just finished to read this book. A good book
Does anyone know an other book on the same subject?