Selections from 'The Wayfarers at the World's Fair' (1964)

The Wayfarers were one of countless earnest young American groups to come out of the 'Great Folk Music Scare' of the 1950's and '60's.

They remain a footnote in Rock Music history, as guitarist/vocalist Sean Bonniwell would go on to form the garage-rock band The Music Machine, after The Wayfarers disbanded as the Folk craze was waning.

Their third (and final) LP was recorded at the 1964/1965 New York World's Fair.

(Psst! ⬆ Check out the World's Fair video clip links at that Wikipedia entry!)

Like the Fair itself, the album was upbeat and hopeful. A product of changing times in an era of wishful thinking, looking towards the future and coasting on the fumes of what remained from the 'New Frontier / 'Camelot' era in the U.S.

From the album's liner notes:

"The Wayfarers have been true to their name. Their first album was recorded in Hollywood. Their second album was recorded in San Francisco. And here, with their third album, they're in Flushing Meadow, New York City, and making history.

"For this is the first album to be recorded at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair... in fact, it's the first album ever to be recorded in a live session at any World's Fair.

"The unique talents of the Wayfarers were especially suited to making a World's Fair album. For theirs is a new kind of music and the bass, banjo, six-string and twelve-string guitars accompany talents that are unique in their versatility. Comedy? It's here. Pathos? It's here also. In fact, the very breadth and spirit of the Fair itself is here. And the Wayfarers capture it with that sound that is all their own - - their special pavilion in that biggest of all world's fairs, ENTERTAINMENT."

"Thousands of World's Fair visitors watched while this recording was being made.
Some were actually a
part of the audience.
Others watched from the RCA Pavillion's Observation Gallery and countless others watched over the hundreds of color television receivers located throughout the Fair."




Having weathered various changes over the years, Sean Bonniwell remains active in the music business. In a 1997 interview, Bonniwell said that "...Ray Blouin, the banjo player of the Wayfarers, is a professor of economics in Virginia", and bass player Tom Adams has been presiding for many years as a judge in Santa Barbara County, California.

Guitarist Dick Bailey continued to play music, and in the 1970's was part of a Charleston, SC bluegrass trio, 'Beresford Creek', that included Ray Blouin. They released an LP in 1977.

Bailey also co-owned a club in in Charleston called 'The Whale's Tail', where he would often play.
He died in 1988.


From 'The Wayfarers at the World's Fair' LP (RCA Records, 1964), Listen to:

Progress Is the Middle Name of Man
The Ballad of the Battle of the Great All Digit Dial†
Malagueña Salerosa
When I Was a Young Girl
Crabs Walk Sideways
The Ladder Song
Roll On, Tomorrow Is Coming

(click for audio)

- - OR download all 7 tracks in one 24 Mb zipfile.

† Historical footnote: This song refers to the phasing out of 'alphanumeric' phone number prefixes (DUnlop 8, BEnsonhurst 5, etc.) that was occuring in the U.S. at this time.

The consensus was that the 'self-serve' aspect of losing the assistance of your local telephone exchange, coupled with having to deal with a longer string of numbers all represented a difficult and inconvenient adjustment. Only the tip of the iceberg...

Memories of Gus Somera and the Old-School Yo-Yo

I still have the Yo-Yo Champion patch awarded to me by the legendary Gus Somera.

I won it in competition when I was a kid, (6th grade, perhaps?) one hot afternoon in the parking lot of the local 7-11 store.

Perhaps you recall when the ads would suddenly appear on TV, promoting Duncan Yo-Yos and all the amazing tricks you could do.

Apparently it meant 'Yo-Yo Season' was fast approaching, and Duncan's team of 'Professional Yo-Yo Stars' were on tour, coming soon to YOUR town!

I'd remembered Gus Somera's name from the same crop of ads from previous seasons. Maybe there were other familiar names, but to my mind Gus was clearly 'the man'. And lo and behold, there he was that one afternoon.

I think by 6th grade I was just beginning to think I was too old to get excited by such events, or that it was perhaps uncool to actually participate. (As I recall, in junior high it was uncool to participate in most anything) But Gus was too cool, and I was thrilled to join in.

There's Gus, ⬇ below in a photo I found at Mr. Yo-Yo.Com. Looks like it was taken several years earlier than when I saw him in the mid-1970's. He's demonstrating Duncan tops, which I can't imagine ever sold as well as their yo-yos.



I recall he was very jolly, and really good with all the younger kids. A professional. He wore a yellow blazer that made him look like a real estate agent, and he had dozens of replacement yo-yo strings draped around his neck.

He informed all us kids that we were going to have a contest and there'd be prizes, but first he'd teach us some tricks.

Before he got to that, he stressed the importance of knowing how to take proper care of your strings. You're not going to do any tricks with a messed-up string. He showed us how to replace it, how to loosen it or tighten it, and kept stressing the value of proper yo-yo hygiene. It was sage advice, and I've never forgotten it.

After replacing all our strings, he ran through basic tricks; sleeping, around the world, walk the dog, rock the baby, etc.

One thing he seemed to delight in was a trick I *believe* he may have called the shot-gun.

He'd be doing a trick that involved 'sleeping' the yo-yo, and while we watched, the yo-yo would quickly hop onto a length of string now draped along his forearm, pause a moment, and then suddenly shoot along his arm towards our faces. At the last moment, it would smack loudly into his palm, scant inches from our noses. As we jumped back startled, Mr. Somera would cackle with glee. His laugh sounded like Pat Morita as Arnold at the drive-in on 'Happy Days'.

I didn't know it then, but Gus Somera was just about as big a yo-yo celebrity as you could find in those days.

He was one of the original Filipino
yo-yo demonstrators, going back to the early 1930's when the Duncan company was beginning to promote its new product.

Donald Duncan had purchased the
yo-yo company and the name from Pedro Flores, a Filipino American who'd had better success at popularizing the toy in the U.S. than others who'd gone before.

Flores had grown up with similar toys in the Phillipines, and early marketing of the yo-yo touted it as having originated as a primitive weapon in the Phillipine jungles.

Duncan hired and trained Filipinos to act as product spokesmen and travel the country
demonstrating it.

An interesting career.

Gus' obituary clipping above was swiped from an article appearing at Ausgang.⬆ Lest you think the life of a Yo-Yo Man is all peaches and cream, here's a link to their interview with another who's lived the life.

-And here's a link to further facts about yo-yo history.

That day in the parking lot, when it came time for all the kids to have their yo-yo competition,
Gus Somera was of course the judge. I'll have to say he was very forgiving. I'm sure there were several kids whose skills were better than mine, but I think most everybody received at least a 'champion' patch or a sticker or something.

I can't imagine I could have succesfully accomplished any tricks more advanced than 'walk the dog' or 'rock the baby'. Still, a victory is a victory, right?

-Here's a link to a glossary of modern yo-yo tricks.

Predictably, the world of the yo-yo has changed much since back in my days of competition. (Okay, one day) It's gone 'extreme', like everything else.

It occurs to me that what I remember playing with is akin to the old surfers with the enormous, long and heavy wooden boards. Or the old skateboards with metal wheels. I haven't a clue what differences recent history's innovations in yo-yo technology have made. Clutches? Pre-set sleep mechanisms? Whaaa? These kids today...

But the results are amazing, even to a codger like me.

Check out this completely radical video clip of Grindslave in action, from the Yo-Yo Freaks website.

And here, ⬇ complete with a cheering crowd moved to their feet, is Paul Han at a 2006 chamionship. Yow!!!



Somewhere, I'd like to think that Gus Somera is cackling proudly.

ADDENDUM, 1.13.09: Hey! There's Gus now, below ▼ in a video clip of a Duncan Yo-Yo TV ad from 1976!

The Blue Chips - One Hen (1962)

Some people absolutely loathe novelty songs.

Clearly I feel differently, but in most cases I can understand the reaction.

I can't find any info on The Blue Chips, but I suspect that this record may have been something of a one-off production for some studio musicians and vocalists.

The lyrics to this song, sung in a cumulative fashion à la "The Twelve Days of Christmas" or "Eh, Cumpari!" are familiar to many.

What's not quite clear are it's true origins. It's showed up at different times as a campfire song, and one story says that it goes back to New York in the early 1940's, where it was used as a warm-up exercise for radio announcers.

Does it go back further? How has it changed? Are there still kids singing this at camp?

It seems to be like a bit of folklore, with many variations existing, some with very different words.

The long list in this version appears to be:

-One hen
-Two ducks
-Three squawking geese
-Four limerick oysters
-Five corpulent porpoises
-Six pair of Don Alversos tweezers
-Seven thousand Macedonians in full battle array
-Eight brass monkeys from the ancient sacred crypts of Egypt
-Nine apathetic, sympathetic, diabetic old men on roller skates with a marked propensity to procrastination and sloth
-Ten lyrical, spherical, diabolical denizens of the deep who haul, stall around the corner of the quo of the quay of the queasy, all at the very same time

Mis-heard lyrics, and lyrics that don't make a bit of sense don't help matters...

A 'chanted' version of it also shows up as 'The Tibetan Memory Trick' on Flo & Eddie's 1974 LP,' Illegal, Immoral and Fattening'.

On the Blue Chips' record, songwriting credits are taken by the production team of Hugo & Luigi, in collaboration with George Weiss.

Do we believe that? Or did they adapt something that had been around for several years prior, as the '1940's announcer's test' indicates?

It was, after all, in 1961, just a year before this recording, that the same team would take credit for writing 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' for The Tokens, which was not, in the strictest sense, exactly the truth.

Answers, anyone? Your own tales of this song? All are welcome.

Listen to: The Blue Chips - One Hen (click for audio)

Reasons To Be Cheerful: week of 07/06/07

1. Summer heatwaves with record-breaking temperatures can't last forever. At least not yet.


2. Patton Oswalt has a new stand-up comedy CD, 'Werewolves and Lollipops', due to be released any minute now.

I'm excited.
I've seen him live a couple of times, I loved the previous CDs, always happy to see him show up in movies or on TV shows, even tired sitcoms.

What can I say - - I'm a fan.

See also:
Patton's official website,
and at MySpace




3. Speaking of the voice of Patton, 'Ratatouille' worked perfectly for me.

Pixar continues to find new amazing ground to break technologically, and they continue to let those visual effects take a back seat to telling a great little story.

Similarly, they're still letting superb vocal performances speak for themselves, without milking the recognizable-celebrity-voice factor. (However, I'd like to get Peter O'Toole's ending soliloquy/review on my alarm clock.)

Hey, and if you click this link (or my identical permanent YouTube 'vlog' link in the sidebar) you can check out director Brad Bird's original 1987 'Family Dog' TV episode of "Amazing Stories".

The videos (three segments) should likely still be near the top of the stack, as of this writing.

Fun animation from Brad Bird, waaaaaay before 'Ratatouille', 'The Incredibles' or "The Iron Giant'.

4. I just picked up the second volume of the 'Soul Sides' CD compilation series, curated by fellow-former-KALX-DJ Oliver Wang.

I'm a sucker for a good cover version of a favorite old tune, and that's where O-Dub's choices have gone this time.

Check out 'Soul Sides Vol. 2: The Covers' at the Zealous Records website. You can audition the tracks there, as well.

5. "No man with a good car needs to be justified!"
- Hazel Motes

It's a sad statement that the film 'Wise Blood' still has not yet had an official release on DVD.

Director John Huston's 1979 adaptation of Flannery O'Connor's novel was a pitch-black satire on religion, shot almost entirely in Macon, Georgia.

It features a stellar performance from Brad Dourif, in a rare leading role, with great character turns from Ned Beatty, Amy Wright and Harry Dean Stanton.

THE GOOD NEWS is; if we can't yet find the movie on DVD, we can now at least watch 'Wise Blood' online.

Some kind soul has uploaded the entire film from their old vhs copy to 'video.google.com'

It'll have to do for now, and beggars can't be choosers, I guess.

Check it out, and remember to shake hands with Gonga.

The Morning After The Night Before, x 2: Fred Dunn / Shelley Berman

Here in the USA, The fifth of July has long been designated by many as something of a 'National Hangover Day'. It's one of several scattered about the calendar directly following other major holidaze.

Here's a couple of old record selections on the subject.

I can *almost* convince myself that the poor sound quality of the Fred Dunn record is true to the spirit of the genre and the subject matter.

Beyond that, I'll guess that it was released in the early 1950's, but otherwise I don't have any info for you on Fred Dunn or his Barrelhouse Rhythm. Anybody?

Listen to: Fred Dunn and his Barrelhouse Rhythm - The Morning After (click for audio)

In the late 1950's, Shelley Berman helped to revolutionize stand-up comedy.

His 'Morning After' routine was included on his first LP, 'Inside Shelley Berman'.

When the album appeared in 1959, the idea of a record capturing a live stand-up 'concert' was an alien concept.

Nevertheless, it won the first ever non-music Grammy award that year.

← (1962 photo by Jim Marshall, from his book 'Proof')

See also: The Official Shelley Berman Web Site

Listen to: Shelley Berman - The Morning After The Night Before (click for audio)

Trix And Nothingness: 1957 print ad

(click to ENLARGE) ⬇

- - Or: 'When you gaze for long into a bowl of Trix, the abyss gazes also into you'.

- - Or: 'Silly rabbit, nihilism's for kids!'

Seriously, though. Not to overstate the matter, but there seems to be something sinister afoot in this full-page magazine ad from '57.

When's the last time you read an advertisement that acknowledged the potential for breakfast to be 'ghastly'?

As to the little girl's demeanor; Mom knows Trix will brighten her mood. Perhaps a sounder campaign approach would be for the ad to show the 'after' shot? Or both? I'm just saying...

As it is, the girl's appearance suggests she might be grappling with issues beyond merely breakfast, and perhaps for good reason.

Mom is preparing to modify her daughter's behavior with fruit-flavored sugar. The ad suggests that the child will 'fall in love' with her bowl of Trix.

Problem solved, food equals love.

Foolproof, 'cuz nothing ever goes wrong with love, especially when mixed with an eating disorder, right?
And patterns like these don't linger as a child grows older, right?

Happy, happy, happy, of course life has meaning, dear. No, we're not alone in the universe, don't be such a silly. Now cheer up and eat your bowl of angst, like a good girl.

To quote poet Marti Stephen, from 'In The Terrible Act Of Eating';

"No one will love you as much as the food on your plate."

Bent Fabric - The Midnight Sun Will Never Set, and other selections from 'The Happy Puppy'

I loves me some Bent Fabric.

(Mr. Fabric, then) ➔ ➔

Always the proper measurements of schmaltz mixed with sprightliness and whimsy, tempered by intricately-crafted simplicity, and - - oh yeah, masterful piano playing.

'The Happy Puppy' was his second US-released LP, coming in 1962 hot on the heels of his hugely popular first album and its title track, 'Alley Cat'.

Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, Bent Fabric (aka Bent Fabricius-Bjerre) formed a small jazz combo soon after the end of WWII, while in his early twenties.

In 1950 he founded Metronome, which would become Denmark's premier record label. Fabric would continue on to great success as record executive, composer, recording artist, and as host of his own show on Danish TV.

In 1958 the Metronome label released recordings made in Stockholm of 25-year-old American jazz artist Quincy Jones collaborating with Swedish big band leader Harry Arnold.

Among the songs they performed was Quincy Jones' composition 'The Midnight Sun Will Never Set'. While Jones was living and working in Europe, he'd written the song with singer/lyricist Henri Salvador. (Salvador's vocal version was released as 'Soleil De Minuit'.)

I've always loved the tune, especially Bent Fabric's quietly haunting instrumental version. During my years deejaying at KALX I'd throw it into the mix often.

(Mr. Fabric, now) ➔ ➔

Now approaching his mid-eighties, Bent Fabricius-Bjerre is still active and still performing.

I can only imagine what sort of 'national treasure' status he surely must hold in Denmark these days...

From Bent Fabric's LP, 'The Happy Puppy' (Atco Records, 1962), listen to:

Zero Zero

The Midnight Sun Will Never Set

Love Is Just Around The Corner

Tip Toe Serenade

(click for audio)

(In choosing selections to offer from the LP, I've avoided a few that are currently in print on the 'Very Best of Bent Fabric & His Piano' CD)

(link:) Dave DeVries' Monster Engine

-Link: Dave DeVries' Monster Engine

It's nice to see that many folks around the net have previously reported on Dave DeVries, but I'm thinking that if I managed to miss all of it until yesterday, maybe it'll be new to a few others as well.

To quote Dave's 'mission statement' at his website:
"The Monster Engine is a book, a demonstration / lecture and a gallery exhibition.

"The premise for all three came from one single question: What would a child's drawing look like if it were painted realistically?"

I'd say the answer is 'pretty freakin' cool'.

Dave has worked for many years in the comics industry, and is primarily known for images on trading cards featuring DC and Marvel super-heroes.

- Here's a link to a gallery page displaying some examples of that artwork.

Creating the fantasy comic book images without living models to work from has helped in fleshing out the childrens' art.

He's been working with kids for several years, collecting their artwork and collecting their stories.

- Here's a link to a great phone interview with Dave from 2005, over at Small World Podcast.

Among other things, he talks about the origins of Monster Engine, and the physical process of adapting the drawings.

He gives interesting insights into how different children create their artwork, and how his embellishments manage to retain some of the fascinating power and wonder of the originals.

- Here's a link to more photos of Dave in action at a Kustom Kulture Gallery event.
























-Link: Dave DeVries' Monster Engine

(I was eventually led to 'The Monster Engine' via a post at Third Eye Dumb, via Saint Ambush).

Three older Gahan Wilson cartoons

I found the cartoons below while leafing through some old magazines.

(Once upon a time, it used to be that there were lots of magazines that ran single-panel cartoons, he said snarkily.)

I'm not sure if these three have been reprinted before. Maybe they have, but not recently - - ?

I've seen LOTS of Gahan Wilson cartoons over the years, but I'm not recalling these...

⬆ From the September 17th, 1957 issue of Look Magazine ⬆

⬆ From the February 20th, 1968 issue of Look Magazine ⬆

⬆ From the October, 1968 issue of Laugh-In Magazine ⬆

As near as I can tell, it's impossible not to love the work of Gahan Wilson.

I've heard people say "His stuff disturbs me", but I've never yet found anyone who'll say they don't like it.

- - And he's still turning out top-notch work at The New Yorker.

Man, I used to just pore over his book collections - - 'I Paint What I See', 'And Then We'll Get Him", etc.
That must have begun back in junior high, the perfect time to be discovering that stuff. Then I couldn't get enough of 'Nuts', his strip that ran in National Lampoon. Brilliant.

Later on, when my nieces were little, I made sure to have copies of his children's books around for them to check out. They always wanted me to read 'The Bang Bang Family' to them, probably because I had to be noisy reading it aloud...


There's great stuff to see and original art for sale over at Gahan Wilson's website.

The Dapps with "Pee Wee" Ellis - The Rabbit Got The Gun (1968)

Saxophonist Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis was a core member of James Brown's backing band during the sixties.
His collaborations and arrangements on songs like 'Cold Sweat' and 'Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud' have ranked him as one of the pioneers of Funk.

Round about 1968, when this instrumental 45 was released, The Dapps were the backing band to several recordings of other artists in the James Brown 'stable' of musical acts.

(See also: 3 excellent volumes of the 'James Brown's Funky People' CD compilation series)

The group's line-up apparently changed in different recording sessions, and it seems likely that regular members of Brown's own band acted as session players.

Odds are that most of the following line-up are on this record:

Eddie Setser - Guitar
Charles Summers - Bass
Tim Hedding - Keyboards
William 'Beau Dollar' Bowman - Drums
Ken Tibbetts, Ron Geisman - Trumpet
Les Asch, David Parkinson - Sax

In 1971, Brown's band, The J.B.'s would record a second version of 'The Rabbit Got The Gun'.

Listen to: The Dapps, featuring Alfred Ellis - The Rabbit Got The Gun (King label, 1968)

(click for audio)

Barbara Feldon in Look magazine, 1968

This article ran in the 12/24/68 issue of Look magazine, as the Get Smart series was in the middle of its 'shark-jumping' fourth season on TV, when Agents 86 and 99 got married. (185-?)

It was the fifth and final season when they had the twins.

(click on images or page numbers to ENLARGE on a new page)

page 1 ⬆
page 2 ⬆
page 3 ⬆
(click on images or page numbers to ENLARGE on a new page)

There's background info available on Barbara Feldon at her Wikipedia page, including links to other related sites around the net.

You may also wish to check her out in this vintage black & white TV ad at YouTube.

- - and if you click on this link at 'Lil Mike's Last Known Thoughts & Random Revelations' blog and scroll down the page, you'll find Feldon's sultry vocal stylings on her song '99', from her mid-1960's 45 single.

In Crowd of the month: Billy Preston

Hard not to like Billy Preston, and it's still sad to know he's no longer around.

I've always especially loved his 1973 hit 'Will It Go Round in Circles'.
Had the 45 when I was a kid.
A great one to belt out, full on, when you're in the shower or alone in the car.
You know - - where you do your best singing...

Billy Preston rocked the hairdos, too.
He had the massive seventies 'fro, but there was also that mid-sixties straight quasi-Beatle cut, the one he had back when he'd appear on 'Shindig' and such.

He recorded his instrumental version of
'The "In" Crowd' on September 11, 1965, and the LP was released in March of '66.

See also: Billy Preston's official website, and a 'Fifth Beatle' page at The Internet Beatles Album site.

From his 1966 LP,
'The Wildest Organ In Town!',
listen to: Billy Preston - The "In" Crowd
(click for audio)




From the early 1970's, one of a series of themed celebrity Craig car stereo print ads. ⬆