26/08/2011

Boston


There are many examples of towns and cities that carry their history in tandem with the present. Athens and Rome, obviously, where the monuments from centuries of long ago provide one of the main tourist attractions; London, where echoes of the past in the Tower of London, the Monument, the Jack the Ripper walks, mingle with the modern everyday; Dubrovnik, where you enter a medieval walled city in the 21st Century.

There are less obvious examples too, including Boston. It may seem familiar – though not as much as New York - from TV shows but the visitor there (eg me) also becomes aware of a past they may only be vaguely aware of. Take the Freedom Trail, for example, a walking trail along and past several historical sites in Boston: Paul Revere’s house, the site of the Boston Massacre and others. Knowledge of the American War of Independence by the average Briton is probably a bit hazy and can also get mixed up with the flotsam and jetsam of history that floats round the mind. Was George Washington cutting down a cherry tree sometime then? Weren’t the French pretty important in the outcome of the War of Independence and when did they then become cheese-eating surrender monkeys? A vague recollection of a Disney film, Johnny Tremain, sometimes shown on Sunday afternoon TV, with British redcoats stomping about colonial Boston like storm-troopers whilst the townsfolk sang Sons of Liberty.

The Boston Tea Party was in the film too, of course - also the unlikely subject of a hit by the Sensational Alex Harvey Band in 1976. This historical era, in fact, has cropped up a few times in pop music. 60’s American rock group Paul Revere and the Raiders performed in full historical uniforms. (This trend, as with Union Gap in American Civil War dress, seemed mainly an American phenomenon. I can only think of the New Vaudeville Band and their Edwardian toffs’ attire as a UK comparison). Lonnie Donegan had a big UK hit in 1959 with a version of Johnny Horton’s Battle of New Orleans ( not Boston, obviously, but same era), primly substituting ‘bloomin’ British’ for ‘bloody British’ in the lyrics. Horton’s version, though, is worth seeing just for the exploding alligator and balletic redcoats.

However, it is always something of an eye-opener to visit a country abroad and see a glimpse of history through their eyes and not through the lens of your own country. In Cuba, for example, seeing the photos - and hearing the accounts - of the missile sites of 1962 or realising, as you are asked to leave your rucksack at the entrance of a shop in Havana, that you could be seen as a potential terrorist come to bomb. In Boston, it was my daughter’s American partner urging us to see Bunker Hill; ”that’s where we whupped you”.

The historical side of Boston, however, is only one of many and there has always been pop music from and of Boston to keep its image contemporary as well. In the late 60’s record companies, seeing the success of West Coast groups, tried to kick-start the ‘Boston/Bosstown Sound’, largely based round local groups Beacon Street Union and the wonderfully-named Ultimate Spinach – though it never really got off the ground, any more than the ‘Farnborough Sound’ did in the UK. With Ultimate Spinach in mind one could, however, draw up a dinner menu of sorts based solely on the names of groups. It might look like this:
Starters
Grapefruit
Eggs Over Easy with Salt ‘n Pepa and Bread with (Great )Peanut Butter (Conspiracy)

Main
Meatloaf , Wild Turkey or Fish with Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Black-Eyed Peas, Ultimate Spinach and a Smashing Pumpkin

Dessert
Raspberries or Cranberries with Jam and Cream
Coffee
Vanilla Fudge

Since then however, there have been scores of songs that have looked at Boston from every angle: an impressive list was given in the comments on the Paris Bells column. Some, like Shipping Up to Boston by the Dropkick Murphys, have celebrated the boisterous waterfront life. There is the lyrical description of the Fens area by Jonathan Richman: “And there's a silence to that place as you stand there in the sun, and there's also this haunting silent sorrow, because the glory days have gone“. There is Augustana’s vision of escaping California for a new life in Boston, in their song Boston: heading eastwards, not westwards, to a promised land.

Against some of these the song here, also just called Boston, might seem at first a bit incongruous, too laid back and mellow, a geographical relocation of I Left My Heart in San Francisco . It is from a 2004 album, Outrun the Sky, by Lalah Hathaway, daughter of soul singer Donny Hathaway, and who has a smoky, velvety voice that has echoes of Cassandra Wilson. Yet, for me, the mood of it fits what I experienced there in parts of the city. Like watching people playing chess in an outdoor cafe in the afternoon sun; or going for breakfast - including Greek yogurt and blueberries - in the relaxed atmosphere of Zoe’s Diner in Cambridge; or ambling along the Freedom Trail, though giving up before Bunker Hill in favour of a drink and cake in the Faneuil Hall Market.

A song by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, They Came to Boston, criticises visitors just like me, seeking out Quincy Market or the Swan Boats in the Public Gardens: ‘They came to Boston on their vacation. They came, they saw, they annoyed me. They saw it all, what! Faneuil Hall! It's best if they just avoid me..they found the Hub confusing,looked for the Swan Boats in Mattapan, well, I find that real amusing".  A similar attitude, I guess, to the derogatory South Coast term of ‘grockle’ to describe seaside holiday tourists. I subsequently looked up an old Ultimate Spinach track - Genesis of Beauty - and sensed in the opening bars the same sort of drift away feeling as the Lalah Hathaway tune, a side of Boston no less, or more, real than that seen in the songs of the Dropkick Murphys or in Boston Legal –or, for that matter, the Mighty, Mighty Bosstones. Different sides in tandem, just like the past and present.

Link to song

58 comments:

  1. I think you're totally right that bands who wear historical dress are an American phenomenon, but so is historical reenactment, I think - unless you have hoards of Britons who regularly dress up and renact battles and events on Sunday afternoon over there? For some people it's a major hobby over here and getting the details right is SUPER important for them.

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  2. Love that photo - which I recognize from Harvard Square! Great detail in the background when you click on it and it zooms in, with the list of cities in yellow (from Boston down to Philadelphia) - very appropriate list for your blog.

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  3. It's a really interesting question about how familiar Boston seems, from TV shows and general cultural images. Definitely less familiar than New York. Though in recent times, the movie The Town was an intimate look at the city, then there was Good Will Hunting too. And the current TV show Rizzoli and Isles does good on-location stuff in Boston where it is set.

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  4. The cherry tree incident never actually happened though. It is attributed to an aged lady, who was a distant relative, and, when a girl, spent much of her time in the Washington family. But was made up.

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  5. That video to Johnny Horton’s Battle of New Orleans is like some kind of acid trip! They just don't make 'em like that anymore........

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  6. Ha ha ha - this was the best line I've read anywhere for a really long time: "Was George Washington cutting down a cherry tree sometime then? Weren’t the French pretty important in the outcome of the War of Independence and when did they then become cheese-eating surrender monkeys?" GENIUS.

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  7. I love the exploding crocodiles!!

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  8. Oh dear, I apologize on behalf of Bostonians for your daughter's partner's version of Bostons' history! (”that’s where we whupped you”)

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  9. Geoff, this is brilliant - below. I forwarded this to everyone I know. It'll be a viral email forward soon!

    Starters
    Grapefruit
    Eggs Over Easy with Salt ‘n Pepa and Bread with (Great )Peanut Butter (Conspiracy)

    Main
    Meatloaf , Wild Turkey or Fish with Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Black-Eyed Peas, Ultimate Spinach and a Smashing Pumpkin

    Dessert
    Raspberries or Cranberries with Jam and Cream
    Coffee
    Vanilla Fudge

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  10. I love the bands "menu" too but can you illuminate the desserts part for those of us with a less encyclopedic grasp of music history?? Is there a band called Raspberries or Cranberries with Jam and Cream, and Coffee, and Vanilla Fudge

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  11. Jackie, the desserts just refers to the Cranberries (Irish band).....

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  12. Love the menu list:) Was there really a band called Grapefruit though??

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  13. It was me who posted that long Boston list back when you were writing about Paris, I'm not sure why! To save people scrolling back for that list, in case they are interested, here it is again!:) More relevant this time! Although maybe to establish a tradition of irrelevance, I should now post a long list of songs about another city that isn't Boston (like a random list of songs about Hong Kong or something!).

    * "As We Walk to Fenway Park in Boston Town" by Jonathan Richman
    * "Bank of Boston Beauty Queen" by The Dresden Dolls
    * "Beantown" by John Cena
    * "Bigger Things in Mind" by Westbound Train
    * "Bill Lee" (Boston Red Sox pitcher, 1969-1978) by Warren Zevon
    * "Blue Thunder" by Galaxie 500
    * "Billy Ruane" by Varsity Drag (Ben Deily)
    * "Boston" by Augustana
    * "Boston" by The Byrds
    * "Boston" by The Dresden Dolls
    * "Boston" by emmet swimming
    * "Boston" by Horror Show
    * "Boston" by Kenny Chesney
    * "Boston" by Paulson
    * "Boston" by The Party of Helicopters
    * "Boston" by Patty Griffin
    * "Boston" by Vampire Weekend
    * "Boston and St. John's" by Great Big Sea
    * "Boston Asphalt" by the Dropkick Murphys
    * "Boston Babies" by G.B.H.
    * "Boston Belongs To Me" by Death Before Dishonor
    * "Boston Bound" by The Kings of Nuthin'
    * "Boston Jail" by Porter Wagoner
    * "Boston Rag" by Steely Dan
    * "Boston Rose" by Liam Reilly
    * "Boston Subway" by The Pubcrawlers
    * "Boston United" by The Unseen
    * "Boston, USA" by The Ducky Boys
    * "Bostons" by Have Heart
    * "Bunker Hill" by Michael Penn
    * "Charlie on the M.T.A." by The Kingston Trio
    * "The Chosen Few" by the Dropkick Murphys
    * "Dirty Water" by The Standells
    * "Driving on 9" by The Breeders
    * "Etoh" by The Avalanches
    * "Fairmount Hill" by the Dropkick Murphys
    * "The Fenway" by Jonathan Richman
    * "For Boston" originally by T.J. Hurley (and, more recently, by the Dropkick Murphys)
    * "Girlfriend" by Jonathan Richman
    * "Government Center" by Jonathan Richman
    * "I Want My City Back" by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
    * "The Ice of Boston" by The Dismemberment Plan
    * "I'm Shipping up to Boston" by the Dropkick Murphys
    * "I'm Yours Boston" by Big D and the Kids Table
    * "In Defense of Dorchester" by the Street Dogs
    * "Ladies of Cambridge" by Vampire Weekend
    * "Logan to Government Center" by Brand New
    * "Mass Pike" by The Get Up Kids
    * "Massachusetts" by Bee Gees
    * "My Sister" by Juliana Hatfield
    * "Never Alone" by Dropkick Murphys
    * "Normal Town" by Better Than Ezra
    * "Pipe Bomb on Lansdowne Street" by the Dropkick Murphys
    * "Please Come to Boston" by Dave Loggins
    * "Riot on Broad Street" by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
    * "Roadrunner" by Jonathan Richman
    * "Rock and Roll Band" by Boston
    * "Savin Hill" by Street Dogs
    * "Shot Heard 'Round the World" by Ween
    * "Skinhead on the MBTA" by the Dropkick Murphys
    * "Subway" by Mary Lou Lord
    * "Sweet Baby James" by James Taylor
    * "T DJ" by Freezepop
    * "Tessie" by Dropkick Murphys
    * "The End of Radio" by Shellac
    * "There's A Black Hole in the Shadow of the Pru" by American Nightmare
    * "They Came To Boston" by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
    * "Wicked Little Critta" by They Might Be Giants

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  14. Here is Lonnie Donnegan's version of the Battle of New Orleans too....

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI4t0NpF3z8

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  15. Yes there was a band called Grapefruit, on the Apple label!
    They are all separate groups, Jackie-the Raspberries, the Cranberries, the Jam, Cream, Coffee (had a hit called Casanova) and vanilla Fudge.
    We do have historical re-enactments here too Ingrid-mainly the Civil War period of roundheads
    and cavaliers
    Geoff

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  16. I love the Augustana song - saw them live too, and this song is just brilliant live:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1BcHWLXw9Y

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  17. I am pretty sure that I said we whupped ya at Lexington and Concord, not Bunker Hill (as the British actually won at the Battle of Bunker Hill, kind of). Or maybe I said that about Bunker Hill to try to inspire you to keep walking the Freedom Trail a bit past the cafe at Faneuil Hall..... which worked, I remember, although not as far as Bunker Hill itself.

    Great column Geoff!

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  18. Oh, I really thought it was an American thing (the historical reenactment)! Well, I'm glad that there are other countries that share in this odd pasttime too!!

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  19. I loved your ending - especially because more so than lots of other cities, I find Boston really hard to get a firm (stereotypical?) image of - so many different versions and angles, such a long history.

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  20. I think Bunker Hill goes down as a pyrrhic victory! Yes, we did get a bit further than Faneuil Hall, so maybe the inspiration worked!

    Geoff (I cant access my account to sign in!)

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  21. Wow, amazingly weird band names, now I feel hungry after reading about the band called the Jam, Cream, Coffee! Thanks for the clarification!

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  22. Great blog this week, Geoff, and thanks for reminding us about the real Tea Party (none of this right wing faux-memory tea party crap). Wonder if Sarah Palin reads your blog...........

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  23. I was in SAHB. Also with the band Nazareth.

    Interesting concept and well-written blog, mate, You might like my novel, Hail Vibrania, when it comes out next year. It's set in the far future and deals not just with a dystopian world, but also the mortal anguish of a dystopian mind. Where events are glimpsed in the mirror of imagination. For it is just a tale or more truthfully a metaphorical tragedy. But yet a tale never shy of wit nor calamity. Until then, here's some serious choreography, from the instrumental break in Runaway, that may make you smile:

    https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/304704_267229399969704_165312293494749_1123333_25132_n.jpg

    Zal

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  24. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-CbF7yyV8M

    Here's a little clip of the film Johnny Tremain, in case anyone isn't sure what Geoff is talking about! (I wasn't, so went in search of clarification - ah, I love old movies!).

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  25. I love Zoe's Kitchen in Cambridge, great food all day, friendly people. I always try to find an equivalent place in whatever city I'm living in, and it's never quite the same.

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  26. I thought Gone, Baby Gone and Mystic River were both good Boston movies.

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  27. Wait, Geoff, I'm pretty sure there is an implication somewhere here that you didn't finish the Freedom Trail, which I think is illegal in Massachusetts, so you'll have to go back and finish it sometime!!

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  28. I don't think many Americans realise this, but France is the most underestimated military force in the world, with the third highest military spending on the planet and an estimated 300 nuclear warheads at their disposal. National stereotypes are so weird.

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  29. The image of the French as cowards, in the American imagination, is only a post World War II phenomenon. It arose because of deep enmities over competition in the global marketplace, diplomacy and international status. American consumer goods threatened to indundate French society. While American conservatives faulted France for its contributions to feminism and the sexual revolution. French citizens were more open to socialism than Americans during the Cold War, and France's withdrawal from NATO in 1966 caused further tension. Then the U.S. and France clashed over intervention in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, and then again in 2003 over Iraq. But until the 1950s, the stereotypes and the tensions just weren't there. The countries were intimate allies, - all the way from the French help with the American Revolution to the alliegiance in WW1 and WW2.

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  30. I actually think the British first began the 'French are cowards' stereotype. The Latin poem "The Dispute between the Englishman and the Frenchman" from the 1340s has the French as cowardly and feminine (and the English as unkempt, uncouth and filthy). Then Shakespeare has lots of comments and jokes about the French army in Henry V.

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  31. Yes, I agree with Justin - “Being as dirty as a Frenchman” is actually an English proverb, too!

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  32. I love The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, who produced some of the most original, creative and shamefully overlooked music of the decade, thanks for mentioning them.

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  33. Yes, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band created music that was every bit as daring, exciting and theatrical as many of their peers, they just never received the credit for it.

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  34. Here's the great song Shipping Up to Boston by the Dropkick Murphys: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-64CaD8GXw

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  35. This is one of the only versions of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones song They Came To Boston that I could find - not a great version but at least it gives you a flavor!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whCEYsdfXwg

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  36. Here's the Union Gap with their Civil War uniforms, in case Geoff's mention of them made anyone curious! - http://musicofourheart.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/6.jpg?w=300

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  37. In addition to the uniforms, the band members of the Union Gap also gave themselves military ranks, from General Puckett down to Privates Whitbread (the drummer) and Withem (the keyboardist). This was to tie in with the fact that they had taken their name from the site of a famous Civil War battle.

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  38. I wonder if they could get promotion!
    In the video of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Zal (Cleminson) who comments above is the guitarist in trademark pierrot make-up.

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  39. I was bassist and vocalist for the Beacon Street Union. You can hear one of our sounds here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjKS8cK-vNQ. I think we would have been around longer if it wasn't for the stupid gimmick of saying there was a Bosstown sound, which backfired. Time Magazine gave us a good review though, in May 68: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,902162-2,00.html

    Now I own and run Canobie Lake Park, in Salem, New Hampshire, which my dad and his friends bought when they were pretty young in 1958. Hope you'll stop by sometime if you're in the area. We used to be an important live venue and I can tour you round the ballroom, where, for example, during the British Invasion, several groups from across the pond played at Canobie. The first was the Searchers (“ Needles and Pins” ), followed by Herman’ s Hermits, Peter and Gordon, and The Yardbirds (with Jimmy Page). But after 1965, the crowds became more rowdy and disorderly, so Canobie Lake Park began phasing out what were once cute little record hops, that had turned into superstar concerts. The contract demands by acts were also becoming prohibitive in costs and absurd terms and conditions. One such case was the potential performance by The Young Rascals. In addition to a huge amount of money, their contract demanded that each of the four guys in the group must have his own dressing room, each with its own bathroom, any police on duty must not carry firearms, and the Park would have to rent all the instruments, including a Hammond B-3 organ. They also required that they be picked up at Logan Airport in four separate limousines. My father and his partners said no thanks. And that was the end of the live Rock ‘ n Roll era at Canobie Lake Park. But last year in 2010, we at Canobie refurbished the old Ballroom, which we now call the Dance Hall Theater, where we host tribute shows like Elvis and Michael Jackson. In the back of the theater, we built the Canobie Lake Museum, where you can see news articles and photos of the hundreds of acts that performed there over the decades.

    Wayne Ulaky

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  40. Wow, hi Wayne!!

    I saw the Beacon Street Union many times in Boston in the late 60s. Sometimes they would throw bags of flour around resulting in a low budget fog show. They always fooled me with this next trick no matter how many times I saw them. They would come on stage and we would all clap and yell. They would start plugging in and tuning up. It seemed to take a long time. Eventually your attention would drift and you would just talk to your friends. At some signal the whole band would slam into the opening chord to My Love Is at full volume and SCARE THE BEJEEBERS OUT OF YOU. Great band!!

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  41. I actually really like the first album by Ultimate Spinach. Musically it is a delight. Great engineering also. Crisp sounds and effective use of multiple tracks. There is a wide variety of guitar sounds using wha-wha, fuzz, echo, tremelo, feedback and volume control. This album is still well thought of by psych fans. In 2008 the English glossy magazine Classic Rock listed the 42 Greatest Psychedelic Albums. This album was Number 36, in there with Sgt Peppers, Axis Bold as Love, Disraeli Gears, etc. Here's what they had to say:

    "Leaders of the Boston psychedelic surge, Ultimate Spinach were re-crystallised from the not-quite-so hippy dippy Underground Cinema around multi-instrumentalist Ian Bruce-Douglas and singer Barbara Hudson. On their debut album they viewed the Renaissance musical landscape through rose-tinted spectacles and came up with elaborate suites like Ballad Of The Hip Death Goddess with its theremin solo and the folkbluesy Ego Trip, all bolstered by Hudson's ethereal vocals.
    The album sold well but the hippies were not enamoured with the crass marketing campaign to promote the so- called 'Bosstown Sound', and any attempts to reach out to the West Coast were scuppered after Country Joe McDonald sued them for supposedly having copied Section 43 in their Sacrifce Of The Moon."

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  42. Your meal doesn't sound very appetising though Geoff. Not sure I'd want eggs and peanut butter, followed by meatloaf and spinach, then some fudge. They don't even offer you that meal in Abergavenny.

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  43. Vanilla Fudge seem very much still around - they are touring at the moment and I saw them on a talk show performing recently: http://www.vanillafudge.com/contents.htm

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  44. Paul Revere and the Raiders seem mildly insane - check them out! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiiDbB-Ur8c

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  45. I really don't think the reenactor costumes helped The Union Gap. It caused a disconnect for listeners...what they saw on TV did not match the mental image conjured by very cool songs like "Don't Give In to Him" or "Lady Willpower." It was confusing -- here's a guy singing like Eddie Fisher, but he's wearing some sort of costume. Honestly, if ever a talented artist was less than ideally suited to being a "star," it was Puckett - because he turned his passion for Civil War history into an image for the group.

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  46. Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs had weird outfits too..........: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHF558u6Q_8

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  47. Yes, but when you consider what bands were wearing for non-historical dress, even the Civil War / Revolutionary costumes don't seem that weird...... -

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDlHaZz9PNo - check out the spaceage fashions by Labelle!

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  48. And then there was the Beatles in Hello, Goodbye: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBZ8ulc5NTg.

    Just a few years before this video was made, the Beatles, in their black leather jackets and duckbill haircuts, would have laughed and said rude things if they'd seen this band on the telly.

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  49. If we're having an 'eccentric band costume' tangent, then I want to add the current Indie band Of Montreal....

    http://www.thrillermag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/james3.jpg

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  50. Nice lyrics to the song Geoff highlighted (which everyone seems to be ignoring, not sure why!!)

    I have left my heart in Boston
    And I left my soul in springtime
    And I‘ve forgotten how it feels to be in love again
    And I still miss you

    Somehow I left the world behind me
    I can't remember how to find me
    And I‘ve forgotten how it feels to truly love someone
    My God, I miss you

    And nobody ever said that it would be this hard
    Just want to go back
    And walk with you along the Charles
    You never believe how hard this real world thing can be
    Until you see

    I think I lost my smile in Cambridge
    And my spirit in a snowy haze
    And I‘ve forgotten how it feels to be in love with life
    I really miss you

    So I've been around the world by now
    And I've seen enough to know
    That if you truly find your heart somewhere
    You better take it with you where you go

    And nobody told me my life would be this way
    I'm watching the years go sailing by
    Just like the days
    I'm thinking how Boston seems to be the perfect place
    To leave my heart

    I have left my heart in Boston
    I left it right there
    At the downtown crossing
    Yeah, yeah, yeah

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  51. Very mellow and beautiful song by Lalah Hathaway, thanks Geoff.

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  52. I hadn't ever heard of Lalah Hathaway - is there anything else you recommend by her, Geoff - any other singles or an album?

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  53. I find the Hathaway song Boston pretty haunting - sends shivers right through me.

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  54. I saw Lalah Hathaway playing at the Chene Park in Detroit last month - her performances are truly about song, with little or no unnecessary theatrics. She doesn’t try to display her every-vocal-ability or the breath of her vocal range on every song, she simply sings, and sings well. Her repertoire consists mostly of medium to slow tempo songs. Confident, yet personable, she approaches her songs with “here it is…I hope you like it.”

    It is strange, but with five albums and more than two dozen appearances on the works of others to her credit, commercial success somehow seems to elude her despite her richly-textured voice. Yet, she enjoys a devoted fan base that recognized such songs as Breath and the Grammy-Nominated, That Was Then from her 2008 release, Self Portrait. The audience last month in Detroit responded well to her rendition of Earth, Wind and Fire’s Love’s Holiday, and Can’t Hide Love, her nod to Detroit’s own Anita Baker Angel, and her cover of the Luther Vandross classic, Forever, For Always, For Love.

    The evening was thrown slightly off track when a woman walked up the center aisle, onto the stage and attempted to engage Ms. Hathaway in a conversation right in the middle of one of her songs. Kudos to Chene Park Security who swiftly, firmly, yet respectfully removed the uninvited guest from the stage without further incidence, and placed a security person in the aisle for the remainder of the show. Seated in the front row, it was clear to me that Ms. Hathaway was a little frightened by this woman’s bold and uncontested ascend to the stage and it took her a moment to recover. But recover she did, and she went on to give a stellar performance that included Summertime which featured some great solos from her background singers, and a solo from her guitar player that had the audience dancing both in their seats and on their feet.

    Despite her linage, when she sings it is clear Lalah Hathaway is no heir-apparent. Armed with a rich, sultry voice, the classically trained song stylist has rightfully carved her own niche among soul and jazz legends over her two-decade-long career.

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  55. Lalah is a vocal icon and a musical pinnacle. Can’t nobody touch her. She is in a class all by herself.

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  56. Lalah Hathaway sounds much better than Rihanna, Beyonce, and all these other so called divas who sing r&b songs that sound like that pop crap.

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  57. I think Lalah has it better than the big “singing stars”. She gets to put out consistently stellar work and she she doesn’t have to sell her soul (literally & stylistically) to the big record companies.

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  58. The album Outrun the Sky is as good as any J.J -and a recent track Sun.
    I don't remember much of meals in Abergavenny except someone in a chip shop claiming he had had fish and chips for dinner every day for the past 20 plus years!

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