Well, triple-dog damn-it! I was determined to get my next A-list blog bit posted here tonight, but it didn’t happen. It’s to be titled ‘MY SH#T LIST’, and it will include something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.
But I
couldn’t get it up tonight. (Oh, get your mind out of the gutter! I simply
meant that I ran out of time and couldn’t get the blog bit posted.)
But I
only have a few passages from The Holy Bible to copy (that’s the “something
borrowed”) and then my next A-list blog bit will be complete. So, tomorrow
night I’ll get it up for sure... unless I’m struck by a bus... or space junk...
or the liquor stores run out of bourbon.
So, check
back tomorrow night, all you ‘Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends’ junkies. (Who the
hell am I yakking to?)
However, for
now, just to tide you over, I’m posting the video of a patriotic song I like a
lot. I was reminded of it when I quoted from it in a comment to my friend Arlee Bird.
.
I
mentioned this song on this blog back in June of 2008 in my test titled [Link:] EDJUCATION-R-US:
"We B Edjucatin' U." [Issue #1: Polatics & Soshial Studies]
Here’s
the tune, by one of the greatest choral groups of all time, with lyrics by one
of our nation’s most influential Founding Fathers:
"The Declaration" of Independence - sung by The Fifth
Dimension
.
.
That song
– ‘The Declaration’ - can be found on the 2-disc, 36-track CD release ‘UP-UP
AND AWAY: The Definitive Collection’ by The 5th Dimension. I play it often
and I highly recommend it. Getchaazz to a record store and buy it!
.
.
~ Stephen
T. McCarthy
YE OLDE
COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem
attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read:
"posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com,
so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.
.
A personal drone attack. Now there's a concept to be reckoned with.
ReplyDeleteAND, I had never heard this rendition of the Declaration of Independence before.
Good? Bad? So-So?
Delete~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Underground'
Drones, declaration, blog bit overall or you in general! HA!
ReplyDeleteDrones. = bad
Declaration = good
Blog bit overall= ok but not the list I was lookin towards
You = always awesome ha,! Did I mention the two too many margaritas I had last night!
Thanks!
DeleteTwo too many Maggies? Well, like I always say: Why overdo a good thing when you can just as easily over-overdo it?
I'm definitely a fan of Margarita (pretty much the only thing tequila is any good for), but having partaken of El Coyote's version (in L.A.) many times, I became somewhat spoiled and slightly a Margarita snob.
If you can't have an El Coyote Margarita, the next best thing is to drink so many inferior ones that you can no longer tell or care about the difference.
~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Underground'
Carl! I forgot again to click that clicky thing. I can see today is going to be a doosey
ReplyDeleteHair of the dog?
Delete~ Stephen
I like their sound, but more than that (as mentioned in the song description on Youtube) it's a great way to actually memorize it. I can still remember songs I heard 20 years ago, and yet I can't remember 3 sentences put in front of me 5 minutes ago.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to that SH#T list!
3-B ~
DeleteThe 5th Dimension had a very interesting history, much of it covered in the booklet included in the CD set I recommended in this blog bit.
Five members (of course), all Black. Prior to the formation of the band, one guy became the first African-American tenor ever accepted by the New York Metropolitan Opera.
Another guy pitched professionally with one of the L.A. Dodgers' farm teams and was also a professional photographer.
Oddly, one of their biggest hits, 'ONE LESS BELL TO ANSWER' was overlooked as a single. But later it was used in an episode of TV's 'It Takes A Thief' series, in which it was part of a plot device (when the song ended it set off a bomb).
Shortly afterwards, a tiny L.A. radio station began playing the song even though it had not been released as a single. Every time the station played the song, its switchboard lit up with phone calls from listeners. The station passed this info onto the 5th's producer, the song was then released as a single and went to #2 on the Billboard chart.
How The 5th Dimension wound up with their first #1 Billboard hit and one of the most iconic songs of the Hippie Sixties, 'AQUARIUS', is even weirder:
One of the 5th's singers lost his wallet in a New York City taxi cab. The next passenger found it and contacted him. In gratitude for the return of his wallet, the singer gave the man free tickets to The 5th's N.Y.C. concert.
Returning the favor, the man, who just happened to be the producer of a new Rock Musical in New York called 'HAIR' (perhaps you've heard of it?) invited the band to HIS production.
There, during the performance of 'HAIR', the band first encountered the song 'Aquarius' and decided to record and release it. The rest, as they say, is history.
Sometimes it's all just in the cards; sometimes it's a matter of fate. But if you put something like that in a fictional story, many readers would complain that it was "too contrived".
Life is weird.
~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Underground'
That was amazing. Proving what I've always believed- that Marilyn McCoo can make any song sound good. I wonder how they'd handle singing Obamacare?
ReplyDeleteCW ~
DeleteGlad you enjoyed it, Brother.
I hate to even think about a great group like The 5th Dimension singing about Obamacare. The heavenly should never mix with the hellish, eh?
~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Underground'
I learned lots I didn't know here. I knew almost nothing about the 5th Dimension, except that I didn't like them at the time and nothing had happened in the last 40 years to change my mind about it. For example, I didn't know about the member who was the first black tenor at the Met. I SHOULDA known that!
ReplyDeleteI didn't care for the song, as songs go. The words? Incredible! The melody? Well, much of the document does not lend itself to melodic interpretation, in my opinion.
However, in spite of the fact that I don't care for it, I am very pleased that they wrote a melody to the greatest political document of all time. That tells me that, I OUGHT to like them, at least a bit. I HATED "Aquarius" and saw them sing it on many shows in the 60s. I watched because I thought McCoo was hot, but didn't like their rather "straight," unhip sound. My dad liked them, which was another reason I didn't turn the channel. Of the black performers around that era, I liked Ray Charles, Otis Redding, and Lou Rawls (among others). I liked their more soulful sound than the "clean" sound of the 5thD.
But, I'm glad you brought it to our attention and I'm glad to have heard it.
It further confirms that although our minds goosestep in unison on some matters, when it comes to music we march to different drummers.
SHEBOYGANBOY SIX ~
DeleteYeah, imagine that, eh? You and me not agreeing on a song or a group? Well, there's a first time for everything. Ha!
I always liked just about EVERYTHING I heard by The 5th Dimension. For years I had a single-disc 'Best Of' CD, and since I didn't think there was one bad track on it, I eventually decided to buy the 2-disc set I mentioned in this blog bit.
Great move on my part. Of the 36 tracks, there are only two I don't care for ('Paper Cup' and 'Carpet Man'). Much of their harmonizing is so incredible that I'd put The 5th second, after The Beach Boys, on my list of all-time favorite choral groups.
Some of their vocal arrangements were simply spectacular and unusual. For example, 'DIMENSION 5IVE' is really a Jazz vocal with no words - a form of scatting that is intricately worked out and wonderful, in my opinion.
Songs like 'SWEET BLINDNESS' and 'BLACK PATCH' with their vocal arrangements are like listening to the most complex Jazz charts - I could never tire of hearing them.
And then 'ASHES TO ASHES' and 'FLASHBACK' touch my heart and make me so melancholy. But 'UP-UP AND AWAY' will probably always be my sentimental choice at #1.
If you can find 'DIMENSION 5IVE' at YouTube, give a listen and see what you think. You probably won't like it because there's an almost Pat Metheny Group element to it (which might partially explain my love of it).
>>...Well, much of the document does not lend itself to melodic interpretation, in my opinion.
SixBro, I know exactly what you mean by that, because the first 5 or 6 times I heard it I thought the same thing. The melody seemed very random, almost like there was no real melody but just a patchwork quilt of various vocalists singing solo, then some group singing, some more soloing with a little background harmonizing, etc., etc.
For awhile I didn't think there was any real "song" there. But then something happened; I learned to really "hear" it after repeated listenings and found the whole thing very musical and exceedingly interesting.
Now, I can sing it, hum it, whistle it - because it eventually came together in my mind as a whole song, albeit one with a complex arrangement and many shifts in tempo and rhythm. It's really quite an intricate musical piece and, in my opinion, is worthy of the ideas it is communicating through the words/lyrics.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Mr. Six!
~ D-FensDogg
'Loyal American Underground'