What, You Kidding Me?

[sleepy]

I said, Are You Kidding Me? You know who you are. I'm a goin' to Hurl!
I mean This:

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[GSGregg]

Hey, wait a sec---I thought the phrase was "Black Leather Jacket.....and Motorcycle Boots"! Different / later tune?

 

[sleepy]

I Know What You Mean GS! I originally searched for "Black Leather Jacket and Motorcycle Boots". Seriously, that's what I thought it was.

But that would make the next line, "And a-Black Denim Trousers with An Eagle on the Back."

 

[GSGregg]

The Cheers used co-ed four-part harmony (not exactly Manhattan Transfer, but who is?) and leading tones to make F minor chords into minor-augmented, minor-sixth, minor-seventh, and minor-major seventh and maybe even a minor ninth-thirteenth. What I seem to remember is THE PHRASE sung in unison by male voices as the last line of the verse / chorus. Maybe as part of one of those spliced-together novelty tunes...

Then again, is there a guarantee that my memory still works?

 

[sleepy]

No GS. My memory wasn't working either. That recording produces Mass Delusion/Illusion.

And you Sir are a Musicologist. I am but an itinerate, however, I am guessing that The Cheers' use of similar chordal structures beat The Association by 10 years.

Btw, can you give a rundown on the chordal structure of Twist & Shout/Isley Bros.?
That one fascinated me back in '59.

EDIT: Just so you know, the "ahh" part that is listed as an A7 for The Beatles' version. And me thinks it is a chromatic scale plus a second octave. But I don't know how to say it with words. I can say it with fingers.

 

[GSGregg]

Ha---not as much of a musicologist as one might think; just a by-ear player who never really learned to read music because my ear was too efficient. Growing up, however, around all kinds of music and plunking along---by ear---on the piano gave me a top-of-my-head repertoire that served well at all the weddings, bar mitzvahs, fundraisers, conventions and whatever other stuff we did in lieu of nightclubs the last 15-20 years of my 'career'---union wages tended to jack the price of a band to where the young and hep were not the ones paying the bills, and those who were wanted the 'top 40' of the forties, thirties, or even twenties---Wait a minute.....how did I get on THIS?

Anyway, if an arrangement required a reading guitarist (one such was seldom added unless he sang his ass off, in which case I was assigned elsewhere), I would spend a break reading (one note at a time, like the way I type) and memorizing the part.
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Structure of Twist and Shout? As far as I know, it's modeled after Latin / Mexican / whoever else folk songs with three chords in a I - IV - V - IV sequence like La Bamba or Louie Louie (which alters the V chord to minor, but it's legal )---I know; not a very sophisticated seminar, is it?

EDIT: Didn't mean to imply that the two examples are actually folk songs although the original Louie Louie may be.....

 

[GSGregg]

A little more grey matter applied to the folk songs; Louie Louie is based on an old Jamaican song involving sailing, slavery or both (not really an expert in this) and La Bamba is indeed a folk tune, although every village or community created its own, and Ritchie Valens (Richard Valenzuela), being California-born, is said to have used non-traditional lyrics (again, I'm not an expert---maybe hit Wikipedia for something more accurate)

 

[sleepy]

Easy. You got into THIS by having a piano to play on. And if you are like me, you played with it when the grown-ups started their talking to one another, or when the songs on the radio were duds.

And yeah. La Bamba is correct. That's what I played in '58. But since then I've seen the story about La Bamba being a folk song from 1928. But I'll tell ya. I never heard it before I played it. I was only 4 years old. But that was the tune that I also used for...

I remember very well sitting at my step-grandfather's piabi as the grown-ups began their talkin' in the other room, and stretching my pinkies and thumbs to hit those 5 notes one at a time and hold them. I wasn't used to using the damper pedal.
My Brother came in and added his fingers to help. That was Fun!
In hindsight, many times songs are created several years or more before they finally get recorded.

I think Phil Spector's version of T&S was different in order to avoid similarities to La Bamba. But that's how I played it. First. Funky family. And about that dude. I was born with a speech impediment, so I had a portable tape recorder in '59 for my speech therapy. And later, my Uncle loaned me a pro model to use that he bought to practice his auctioneer's voice on (probably something that he made up). But, I was aware of stereo tape, though these were Mono recorders. I remember suggesting recording one's self on top of one's self (overdub) while adjusting the positioning for each dub from left to right, one position for each dub along the stereo stage, thus forming "a choir" sound.

Oh Boy Lodi! My folks are cheap...

 

[sleepy]

It's getting harder to be original all the time.

 

[sleepy]

I've given up on it a long time ago. But I remember my Brother showing me chords on the piano. He played 4 4/4 bars of A, 2 bars of D, two bars of A, two bars of E, two bars of D, then A.

So playing with those in early '58, I just played A-D in half notes, then E as a whole note.

Back in the mid 80's when my hazing was in full swing, as "The Silence", and I really believed that I came up with La Bamba, I suggested the bio-pic. And they took that too.

Edit: I don't remember some of these as personal, though most of them are. I would think The Bee Gees would be a stretch, but SNF was recorded in L.A. and my high school teacher played french horn on the soundtrack. Why do my folks keep everything so..uncertain?

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That playlist to the right, though maybe it differs for others?

 

[GSGregg]

I wasn't aware of The Top Notes' recording, or Spector's involvement, but after finding the tune on YouTube (OhMyGod---1961 really WAS before my time) I read the Wikipedia article on T&S. In retrospect, the tune had the feel of other stuff of the flavors du jour before Phil's 'Wall of Sound' broke ground. Bert Berns (Russell), who had co-written the song with Bill Medley, didn't like what Spector produced and chose to produce the Isleys' cut and show what he'd had in mind. To me, MUCH better.