Maggie and God: Never Alone

Yesterday morn I awoke with a tune published in 1927 bellowing in my brain. Honestly, I don't understand where these things come from! It was, what they called back then, a "novelty" number entitled "I Never See Maggie Alone". Written by Everett Lynton and Harry Tilsley, it tells the story of a frustrated suitor who never seems to find time alone with his girl (the aforementioned Maggie) to pitch a little woo
The lyrics find her father, her mother, her sister and her brother everywhere, from a dimly lit living room to the end of a fishing line to even under the hood of this poor shnooks car!
The song was a big hit with the flapper set and was recorded over the years by folks as diverse as Slim Whitman to Ray Charles. This particular version I found on Youtube features a yodeling Kenny Roberts. It's a little piercing but you get the idea.
And here are the words:
I've got a special problem with my girlfriend Maggie,

Privacy is very hard to get.
I've tried and tried to find some way to get her all alone,
But nothing that I've tried to do has quite succeeded? Yet!

She brings her father, her mother, her sister and her brother.
Oh, I never see Maggie alone.
She brings her uncles and cousins, she's got 'em by the dozens.
I never see Maggie alone.
And if I phone her and say to her "Sweet,
Where shall we meet, supposing that we eat?"
She brings her father, her mother, her sister and her brother
Oh, I never see Maggie alone.

Maggie dear just won't go out alone.
Seems that she must have a chaperone.
When we go out, wherever we are bound,
There is always somebody around.

She brings her father, her mother, her sister and her brother.
Oh, I never see Maggie alone.
One night while we were out walking and she got tired of talking,
She invited me up to her home.
I turned the lights down, 'cause they were too bright.
Oh what a night, when I turned on the light,
There was her father, her mother, her sister and her brother
Oh, I never see Maggie alone.

Maggie dear is very sweet to me,
When she's near I'm happy as can be,
I long to say, "I want you for my own,"
But I never can see her alone.

I bought a roadster, two-seated, I even had it heated,
So that I could see Maggie alone.
While we were driving and kissing, the engine started missing,
And we were a long way from home.
I jumped right out then as fast as I could.
Found what was wrong, for when I raised the hood? (Guess who!)
There was her father, her mother, her sister and her brother
Oh, I never see Maggie alone.
I never see Maggie alone.

From the ridiculous to the sublime, this a.m. I heard a hymn as I staggered into the bathroom but could not remember the title. As I usually do in these circumstances, I wandered around the house for several long minutes humming the song over and over. No words, mind you. Just the tune.
So I ended up doing what I usually do when I can't remember a song.
I asked my wife, who, after a few minutes hesitation said - "Oh God Of Loveliness".

Bingo! and here it is as done by a fabulous choir from St. Teresas Parish from St. Johns Newfoundland.
So my morning "name that tune" went from the ridiculous to the sublime. I must admit I do find the first song rather catchy. Maybe I'll try to learn it.

Rosin The Bow (Or Beau)

Todays song: 9/15/2014 - "Rosin the Bow". traditional. Also known as "Rosin the Beau" and the melody was used for "Acres Of Clams".

This mornings song was trapped in my head for several hours until I picked up one of my song books (and one of the best you could ever invest twenty-five bucks in) called "Rise Up Singing" and edited by Peter Blood and Annie Patterson.
Up till that moment the melody was driving me crazy and the words were equally illusive. I thought it had the words....."....and I have been frequently sold." but I couldn't for the life of me wrap my earworm around it.

And then, as I opened the book, there it was.
"Rosin the Bow"
If you hear the melody you will know it after just a few notes. It's a very infectious tune and just cries out for audience participation; repeating the last line of this chorus-less song.
     "Take a drink for Old Rosin the Beau......."
     or
     "Surrounded by acres of clams.................."
Did I mention the melody is used for "Acres of Clams" (which was gathered by John and Alan Lomax in their collection of American Folk Songs)?
As a New Hampshire boy I remembered the melody very well after Charlie King used it as a scaffold to hang upon it anti-nuclear lyrics.
     "It's the nukes that must go and not me..........."
This was the rallying cry of "The Clam Shell Alliance" a group of New Hampshire rebels who's protest and largest non-violent occupation of the Seabrook Nuclear Reactor in the mid and late 70's gained nationwide attention.
This song went through many changes over the years and was used in many political and social causes over the years.
I posted this video clip of the song because, first, the performer, Matthew Vaughn, had chosen the version from the book I mentioned earler and because he has a voluble and breezy style of presenting his material. His guitar is from the -  "Hey. So it aint an expensive Martin. Get over it!" - school of thought which I like. Although I wish I had an expensive Martin and, yes, I had a guitar like Matthews and I gave it to my son Andy years ago and bought an acoustic electric Washburn which I now use on my Youtube flics and gigs. He now plays better then me, bought a better guitar and gave the old one to his older brother who it now playing almost as well as me. Theres a moral in this somewhere.
Matthew Vaughan has placed on his plate the task of youtubing all 1200 songs of this prodiguous book. I'm not sure how far he has gotten because "Acres of Clams" is about the second or third song alphabeticaly in this tome, Good luck my friend. I will check in with you now and then to see how you are doing.
This young man has a more then passable voice and looks somewhat like Harry Connick, Jr.
Destiny awaits, Matthew

Take Two

Today I'll be posting two earworms for the price of one. Why? Because in attempting to post one yesterday I managed to accidentally delete several hours of work. I never said I was a smart man. Just a computer-challenged man unable to get a teenager to show me what to do.

Yesterday song: 9/13/2014 - "Theme From Gunsmoke" written by Rex Koury with words added later by Glen Spencer. There were several titles given this song over the years like "Empty Saddles" and "Dusty Trails". Tex Ritter sang a version of it for the B side of his hit record "The Wayward Wind". Such diverse folks such as Lawrence Welk and Duane Eddy produced instrumental versions. The vocal meandered with lyrics featuring ghostly cowboys and other nebulous images.
The radio version of "Gun smoke" debuted in 1952 and ran till June of 1961. It featured William Conrad as the stony voiced Marshall Matt Dillon and was one of the first "adult" western as it tackled issues of drug abuse, murders, rapes, insanity and murder without
blinking and left Hoppy, Gene, Cisco, Roy, The Lone Ranger (thanks Clayton Moore, who would have turned 100 today) in the dust.

Today: 9/14/2014 - "Goodnight My Someone" written by Meredith Wilson from his musical
"The Music Man" with story by Wilson and Franklin Lacey. It glommed 5 Emmys after it's Broadway debuted in 1975 and sung in the movie version by town librarian Marion (played by Shirley Jones) and accompanied by Amarrillis as she practices her cross hand piece.Professor Harold Hill later does a duet with her using this song and "Seventy Six Trombones". Many years ago our oldest son John played the part of the lisping little boy "Winthrop" from this show for a highschoool production. He was pretty good.
Meredith Wilson was involved heavily with movies and broadcasting, receiving several Oscar nominations for various film scores including Charlie Chaplains' "The Great Dictator".

 He was born in Mason City Iowa in 1902 and received an education at the Juilliard School of Music before becoming a flute and piccolo player with John Philip Sousa famous band and moving to Hollywood where he eventually became music director for the NBC network affiliate out there.While at this job he became a member of the "George Burns and Gracie Allen Show" where he played their shy music director. He later went on the compose many serious classical pieces like  Symphony No. One in F Minor and Symphony No.2 in E Minor. He received praise for his music as, "complex" and "well crafted" with sometimes "starting counter point.
Wilsons other Broadway shows include "The Unsinkable Molly Brown', later made into a movie starring Debbie Reynolds and "Here's Love".

Time To Start Something Special

     Each morning when  I get up there are several lthings I do. Put on my slippers. Remove my CPAP mask (and those with sleep apnia know of what I speak), and I shuffle over to the burea to select my uniform of the day. This involves underwear (boxers). T-shirts. (cotton, plain) some kind of outer shirt and pants. Then I look in the mirror to make sure I haven't accidently morphed into a 6 foot axelotl or giant Asian cockroach.
     Having ascertained that I haven't, I start down  stairs for the coffee. And a song pops into my head. Unbidden. Uncalled for. It just blooms like a tinkling musical flower. And it is usually always different.
     There might be Gilbert aned Sullivan on the menu. Or Chuck Berry, Miles Davis, Yitzak Perleman. Django Rheinhardt. Sometimes it's Broadway. Occasionallhy it night be a ditty I wrote. But it is always different.

Every morning like clockwork - a new song!

     A week ago or so I started tracking these daily tuneful bon-bons on my www.banjohangout.com site and I quickly realized that I need to spend more time on the daily songs without wearing out my welcome on the other site. Plus I get to expand my daily observations on my morning serenade.
     I will post new songs here from now on and, of course I will still comment on live music concerts, new CD's and new performers.
     If possible I will find a Youtube video of the song I get or I might possibly plink on my guitar and play it myself. I may be close to 72, but I still can be understood.
     So look here from now on when an Earworm wiggles it's way into your cranium, And please feel free to let me know what your "song of the day" is from time to time.
     Music is too good for silence. We need to talk up tunes more.
     Adios till tomorrow.

Sitting on the Dock of the Bay

I do a bit of "busking" when the summer sun begins to draw tourist to our fair town. Not anything special. I usually bring a couple of instruments and a tip jar (in case someone would like to contribute to my beer habit and gas guzzling car - or is it the other way around?) Anyway, it is fun to sit in the sun next to the water and gives me a chance to view folks from a different angle and, in some cases, provide fodder for my blogs.

Sunday my family and I took a ride to Portsmouth to pick up one of my sons after a weekend of fun with his college friends at a beach in Kittery Maine. While waiting we walked about Prescott Park in the older part of Portsmouth, near Strawberry Banke, a restored 17th century village that duplicates life as it might have been lived back then on the New Hampshire coastline.

Shepp Shepard at Prescott Park
Portsmouth NH

Just a few minutes into our stroll, I spotted a gentleman, tucked into the side of a bench and hard upon a seawall overlooking a small clutch of lobster boats. He was playing a "Dell Arte" guitar - a"Selmer-MacCafferie" look-alike and an instrument I have been trying to save up enough money to buy for the last 20 years or so. His is a "petite Bouche" model and he was playing it with consummate skill and intensity.

I love "Gypsy Jazz", a kind of acoustic swing music popularized by Django Reinheardt and the Hot Club Quintet of Paris in the 1930's and 40's. When an accident to his left hand left him the use of only three fingers, Django developed a totally new style of jazz, using speed and triadic chords. He helped bring the guitar to the front of the band and made it a lead instrument.

I sat down and listened to this man play, and I felt happy. Gypsy Jazz does that to me. How could I not tap my feet or snap my fingers as these notes shimmered off the fingers and strings and spilled over me like a musical shower; washing away my troubles and cares?

The man playing the soulful guitar was Richard (Shepp) Shepard and is one third of a jazz trio, "Ameranouch"; the name developed from "American" which they are and "Manouche" the tribal name of the aforementioned  Django Reinhardt.

The other members of this "tribe" include Michael Harrist on upright bass and Jack Soref guitar.

"Shepp" was kind enough to talk with me for a half hour or so and even played a request. "Nuages" or "Clouds" in French was performed with loving care for its creator, Django and then Shepp paused and demonstrated how he has approached this iconic of all Gypsy Jazz anthems.

His take was pure American with a kick-ass hard bop approach. I was overjoyed. Silently I gave thanks knowing this style of music will never fade away. In fact, it has been reborn with a cleaner edge and a blazing rhythmic pattern.

"Ameranouch's" latest cd is titled "Hot".

 And it is! Thoroughly!

There are six songs all composed by Ameranouche and they provide many minutes of pure delight. Each one contains crisp lines and golden chords of pure joy.

"Canto" begins with a flamenco riff and dives headfirst into this Spanish gypsy influenced toe tapper that spins around like a bright red skirt to flow out from a perfect body and topped with eyes of flame and warm arms with fingers making love to castanets. (Whew! What a vision!" These guys are good!)

"Mambo 13" begins with assorted clicks and taps, perhaps made on half filled wine glasses and goes to the body of the guitar and rolls accross the floor with perfect rythym. (And occasional grunts from the boys.)

My favorite from this CD is "Johnny's Swing" written for Shepp and his wife Marias son John Russel' It truly roars out of the speaker and takes you along for a ride. It has a crisp pace and a bop style that appeals to my feet.

""Sweet Solitude" and "Hot" (protect your cd player from spontaneous combustion) are all smooth capable tracks that feature "Ameranouchs" gypsy flavored jazz with bop rifts and blues tones. These are men who are in a groove and they pave the way for the last piece on the album.

"Suite Maine" is a three part piece ("Drive", "Silloutte" and "Sunset Jericho") that allows the group to stretch out. It starts with a smooth flow of notes, a morning perhaps in Maine. It then allows a vision of pine trees, lakes and the outdoors and then the sun sets. But wait! What's this? Crickets. Gypsy jazz and a nighttime chorus are woven into a beautiful picture of sound.

 (L to r) Richard (Shepp) Shepard, Michael Harist and Jack Soref

I had a hard time determining between Shepp and Jack when they take the lead and, though it would be unfair to make comparisons (for they have a style all their own), their playing reflects the daring of Berrelli Legrin and the speed of Joe Pass, with a tightness and quality you would expect from a top notch group.  Michael provides the stability necessary from the lower end of the string family and he is more then adequate when it comes to bowing a riff.

"Ameranouche" is pure pleasure and you can catch them next at The Riverwalk Cafe and Coffee House in Nashua NH August 1st and The Greenroom in Somerville Mass. August 2nd.

This cd is worth getting. Add it to your collection of small group jazz for a smooth ride home. Or, if you need a little background to your next porch party. Perhaps a quiet evening in the pad with your favorite one? Whatever, I wouldn't steer you wrong would I? I haven't so far.

(C) 2014 by George Locke















Ameranoush Web Site

The Sins of the Fathers

I live in a town which triples in population during the summer. Meredith NH is located on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee and has been the gathering place for well over a century for middle and upper class folks from Boston and other urban areas in New England (we call them "flatlanders") who wish to escape the city when the weather grows unbearable. 

There is money to be had in these here hills.

Some of the money is spent attending summer theaters which sprout like mushrooms in New Hampshire from June to September,and Meredith has two of them - not mushrooms - summer theaters.  As a 31 year wedding anniversary present from our kids, several of whom have a bit of that theater blood in them, they  gave us two tickets to attend a show, and last night we did just that. It was "Miss Saigon".

"Miss Saigon" is a musical with lyrics by Richard Maltby Jr. and Alain Boublil, and music by Claude Michel Schonberg. They come armed with heavy credibility as they gave us"Les Miserables".

"Miss Saigon" is the 12th longest running broadway musical of all times which is remarkable considering the company they keep such as "The Sound of Music", "Oklahoma","My Fair Lady", "Cats", "Guys and Dolls" and so many more whose titles have become part of the broadway patois for the last seventy-five years.

I wish I had the space to list all the cast and crew from this show which left my wife and I stunned and left me with a 50 year old memory.

"Miss Saigon" is a modern retelling of the Puccini opera "Madam Butterfly" in which a young geisha and a young American Naval officer fall in love. He leaves "Butterfly" with a promise to return someday, which he does but with his American bride. "Butterfly" has had his child in the meantime, and this news which destroys her hopes and dreams causes her to take her own life at the end.  

As Bugs Bunny says at the end of the WB cartoon "What's Opera Doc?", "What did you expect from an opera? A happy ending?"

Now the setting is South Vietnam towards the end of the American presence and a few days before the helicopter lands on the roof of the embassy in Saigon and gave us that iconic picture of frightened Vietnamese clambering over each other to try and escape before the North Vietnamese pour into the city. They would be hunted down and shot as traitors by the new government. (By the way that scene was electrifying and left me numb! Hats off to the director Brian Feehan and tech director, Bryant Cyr!)

It was that iconic photo of the children left behind, and lifted up in despair to the chopper by hysterical mothers which caught the attention of Boublin, Schonberg and Maltby. What we had done to the country, we had done to the women of that country and left thousands of "Bui-doi", children of mixed blood, or "dust" as some carelessly put it.

"Madam Butterfly" is now "Kim" (played to perfection by Quynh My Luu) a bar girl who had lost her parents in an apparent napalming of her village. We see her first night in the bar, operated by a spot on sleaze named" Engineer" (Antonio Rodriguez III) She meets the American marine, Sgt. Christopher Scott (Justin Luciano...what a voice!)

Events progress to the bitter end and Kim takes her own life after giving up Chris and her son "Tam", played by tiny toddler Benjamin Tedcastle with mind blowing innocence and acting chops far beyond what his four year old face and body belies.

But what I really want to talk about is not this play (superb) the actors, directors, crew, technicians and ensemble (professional and up to any standard on Broadway right now!) but about a memory I had.

It was one of the first scenes when Kim agrees to become a hooker at the bar. I suddenly remember seeing this before. For real.

Many years ago when I was embedded as a military correspondent and photographer with the 1st Cavalry in South Korea, I spent time in one of the local villages.

Paju Ri was a typical town in a third world country in the middle of the last century. Dusty and poor with an agrarian culture that was dependent on rice as an economic backbone.

I could travel anywhere and at anytime with my journalist credentials and, as an 18 year old healthy boy, I visited many towns, including Paju Ri.

                                                                                              There was a bar called the Black Cat Club I frequented where I would sample Korean beer (vile), Philippine suds (even viler) and Koreas answer to saki - mokoli! (if you had a death wish!)

And there were girls. Lots of Korean young women spouting American names, Sandra, Jane and Diana. (Diana was a woman I had strong feelings for and decided to rent a "hooch" with her. Hilarity did not ensue and that is a story for another day.)

One Friday night, a new girl was introduced to the GI's gathered. I don't remember her name. But I do remember she did​ not look comfortable even a little embarrassed, perhaps. And she was dressed in her finest clothes, I'm sure. Those on this site who have visited the "Land of the Morning Calm" probably remember the long dresses and high waistline up to the chest or "folk costumes" worn by Korean women.. She was a little on the heavy side and was trumpeted by a local pimp as a "cherry girl". A virgin. I wasn't exactly on speaking terms with that name anymore....but I still remember feeling somewhat awkward at that moment. She was easily my age, and probably younger. I don't recall.

I left the club later that night wondering about her for she had disappeared as the evening progressed.

The next weekend I dropped into the place where everyone knows your name and saw her again. I had to look twice. The change was ugly.

Before there was a fresh face, a timid smile and pretty eyes. Now there was harsh makeup, thick mascara, rouge, crimson lipstick and clothes that were too tight, too provocative and a face in which the smile had run away, perhaps never to return. I grew in unasked for wisdom that night. It was as though a flower had been stepped on and then propped up with sticks, coated in lacquer and sprinkled with confetti. A gentle bird crushed and then stapled to a board. It just wasn't right.

I wondered at the change and what had driven her to seek this way of life.  Did she have parents? Was she a farm girl? 

The show I saw brought me back to those clubs and to a woman whose story was older then time and marched in step with conquering armies of brutish men since we first picked up clubs and learned to kill one another. I have never forgotten this persons face or the sadness that washed over me back then.

The show is remarkable, the acting and singing is excellent. The memories are sad.

Pictures above:  

1. Interlakes Summer Theater cast-"Miss Saigon"(left to right) "Kim", Quynh My Lu, "Engineer", Antonio Rodriguez III, "Chris", Justin Luciano.

2. "Miss Saigon" logo

3. Your truly South Korea, 1960

(C) 2014 George Locke

Eydie: A Torch Singer With Class To Burn

     She was a black and white goddess of song when I first saw her perform on Steve Allen’s version of the “Tonight Show” and I was sitting with the old man waiting for my mom to head off to work… the graveyard shift at the pediatric ward in a local hospital.

     Eydie Gorme was dark haired, and although the TV was without color, I envisioned her tresses a deep chocolate brown and soft and smelling of rose petals. Her lips were painted what I thought must be the richest vermillion imaginable. And her svelte form foamed into my adolescent mind with teen-age hormones rampant.

     Ah Eydie. Why did you have to marry that good looking guy….what’s his name?

     Oh yeah. Steve Lawrence. He had one hit……. “Go Away Little Girl”. Big deal!

     From those sweaty nights in the late 1950’s till this very day, I followed her career because her voice had balls. Now, don’t get me wrong. I know I’m transgender-ing adjectives. (I’m also inventing new words, apparently), but this woman could sing. I mean sing with a capitol GRRRRRF.

     It’s well known in the music business that she had a range of several octaves and could attack a song with no mercy, leaving lyrics, tone, volume and empathy crushed and broken in her wake when she finished. Smoke settled on stage or in the studio when this woman sang. And I mean this in a good way.

     She had a hit or two to pay the bills like “Blame It On The Bossa Nova”, but the real  skill she displayed as a performer lay with the American Song Book.

     As an example, I present to you her interpretation of an Iriving Berlin classic, “What About Me?”

     It’s true that this is not as well known as some of his most popular songs like “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”, “White Christmas” Etc., but it stands the test of time and the lyrics are real grown-up words with real grown up feelings. Her reading of this will tear your heart out. This is not a miss-soft-as-silk giggly teen age gusher. This is a full grown adult woman with a broken heart and she is belting it out to the one man in her life who got away. She probably has a glass of Old Granddad next to her the piano. And no chaser.

     “And maybe a baby will climb upon your knee and put his arms around you…but what about me?” Each time I hear this, my breath is taken away.

     No woman singer alive could “read” or interpret lyrics any better then Edie. And that includes a lot of diva’s, not the least being Ella, Billie, Edith, Barbra, Aretha and all the rest.

      Out of the service and behind a civilian radio station console, smelling of soundproof tile, ozone, hot tubes, warm plastic and cold coffee, I glommed every album (Columbia, I think) she cut that was sent our way as part of the avalanche of records we received from record producers every week.

     She and Steve were the toast of Las Vegas and clubs all over the world. They were show people extraordinaire and few couple acts could compete. (Mostly because they got divorced - ie.Sonny and Cher, Louis Prima and Keely Smith among others).

     Eydie also was fluent in Spanish and had a wonderful career in that market. 

     She passed away a few days ago and left us a body of work that speaks for itself.

     If you have never listened, I mean really listened to her, you are missing out on an acoustic miracle. There is a place in my heart where her larger then life voice will always reside.

     So long Edyie. What about us.