DRIVING STUPID TWAS BRILLIG EMOTIONAL UPSETS and other strangely named old psych bands

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Ill Folks The Blog of Less Renown, celebrating under-appreciated unusual, unique, sick or strange Singers, Songwriters and Songs

DRIVING STUPID TWAS BRILLIG EMOTIONAL UPSETS and other strangely named old psych bands

This particular post is honoring Pixelmutt, one of our longtime bloggers, who so comically felt his feelings were hurt by my post about Halloween bloggers who stick 10 or 20 stale monster-novelty tunes into a Rapidshare file and figure they've done something brilliant. Of course I wasn't referring to either Pix, or the great Reverend Frost from the South of France, who are always far more esoteric in their assortment packs. Like THIS pack, which features 20 pretty decent tunes that either have strange song titles or band names. Because, cheshire children and mad hatters... …Once upon a strawberry alarm clock, there was some peanut butter conspiracy started by some electric prunes. The idea was to come up with a trippy-far-out name to get attention for a band. The weirder the name, the more likely to get signed! Except, as you can see from the items below, even when you put an LSD tab on a kandy-kolored tangerine-flake, baby, you might not end up mau-mauing the radical chic flak-catchers who built their bonfire of the vanities at radio stations and rock mags. The happy ending for the artists below now pushing 60 or 70 or daisies: their tunes are not forgotten! Desperate psych fans who already have all the basic Harper's Chocolate Watch Association & Our Gang stuff, have been sniffing in grammy's closets and grand uncle's attic, and aside from a paisley dirndl, or a furry vest, found…kewl 45's, ones that sound like 3rd degree Byrds or slightly expired Vanilla Fudge. However (to quote Professor Irwin Corey), if ye seek, ye may actually find something that's (to quote David Seville), almost good. Or will at least pass the time while walking briskly across campus to Timewasting 101, or keep an old hippie going until he reaches the senility ward at the free clinic. So with granny glasses held on high (this is somewhat of a Tom Lehrer in-joke), let's salute a bunch of obscure but quite competent musicians and songwriters who at least came up with names so ludicrous, they've been pulled into the semi-light of day on this semi-obscure blog. It would be a little too easy, and cruel, and snarky, to go through the list and make jokes about each and every entry here. I mean, make your own joke about The Chocolate Tunnel. And keep it to yourself. The point here is to celebrate the creative spirit…and every act below was, somehow, somewhat creative. The criterion for making the Top Twenty: the band has to be unknown to the average (not you) listener, the name or representative song title has to be amusing or pretentious and the music itself must make you feel groovy, spaced out or alienated. After all, the aim with some of these bands was, "If they can do it, WE can do it," as they either wanted to be another pop-anthem band like Spanky & Our Gang (see: Rumplestilskin Kartoon), Jefferson Airplane in a tailspin (see: The Apple Pie Motherhood Band), more whimsical than Harper's Bizarre (see: Art Nouveaux), or cooler than the Yardbirds and Jimi Hendrix put together (see: Acid Gallery). The Doors had nothing on Tuneful Trolley. Or vice versa. Surely, anyone hearing Now's "The Hands On My Clock Stand Still" might ask "Did Pete Hammill really do better? Or The Strawbs? And wasn't there a damn good rip of classical that Procol Harum would've admired?" It's possible, also, that a surviving band member from Herbie's People might point to "Semi-Detached Suburban Mr. Jones" and tell his grand-children, "It was as commercial as Bob Dylan combined with Paul Revere and the Raiders! Or if Barry McGuire had been a member of Freddie and the Dreamers! It deserved a better fate…" And at the time, the manager of The Clockwork Orange probably wanted to throw a tangerine at the radio station manager who put down the phone saying, "No, a combination of Dave Clark Five and the Beach Boys is not getting drive-time airplay here..." JOLLY ROGER AND THE POPPITEERS - Joker in the Fokker THE DRIVING STUPID - Horror Asparagus Stories HEIRONYMOUS & THE DHARMA BUMS - 900 Mice WHATT FOUR - Dandelion Wine RAINY DAZE - In My Mind Lives a Forest THE ILFORD SUBWAY - A New Song KING'S KOUNTY KARNIVAL - Don't Vote for Luke McCabe ART NOUVEAUX - Extra-Terrestrial Visitations TUNEFUL TROLLEY - My Apple Pie NOW - The Hands On My Clock Stand Still CROCHETED DOUGHNUT RING - Get Out Your Rock and Roll Shoes THE EMOTIONAL UPSETS - Maintain Your Cool 'TWAS BRILLIG - Dirty Old Man GEORGIE PORGIE AND THE CRY BABIES - Enter Sunshine Exit Darkness HERBIE'S PEOPLE - Semi-Detached Suburban Mr. Jones THE CLOCKWORK ORANGES - Ready Steady THE POOH - The Suitcase RUMPELSTILSKIN KARTOON - Come To the Carnival THE APPLE PIE MOTHERHOOD BAND - Flight Path 20 Hippie Dippie Kool Far-Out Groovy Fab Songs RS download, no eye-boggling capcha codes Posted by Ill Folks at 8:17 AM Labels: Novelty 45's Read more at illfolks.blogspot.com

 

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VAMPIRA, Star Trek & SWAMP GIRL: LOULIE JEAN NORMAN

http://illfolks.blogspot.com/2010/10/vampira-star-trek-swamp-girl-loulie.html

Ill Folks

THE BLOG OF LESS RENOWN, CELEBRATING UNDER-APPRECIATED UNUSUAL, UNIQUE, SICK OR STRANGE SINGERS, SONGWRITERS AND SONGS

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2010

VAMPIRA, Star Trek & SWAMP GIRL: LOULIE JEAN NORMAN

Halloween is a few days away. 'Tis the season when the average witless blogger takes his finger out of his nose and points it to the sky, crying: "I've got a great idea! How cool would it be to do an entire Multiupload file of Halloween songs? Gosh, I'll bet nobody's thought of THAT before! Hey gang, don't buy "Monster Mash" or any of that stuff, I'll give it to you free! Trick or Treat! Trick for the artists, treat for you! Har har, ahar!" 

Over here, Halloween only is a reminder that pumpkin heads (or people who have pumpkins for heads) are temporary and rot, and to paraphrase Dylan (no, the other one) Death does have dominion. And the Grim Reaper took his scythe to Loulie Jean Norman before this blog was even born. But at least she had a long life, and it's time to celebrate this neglected and sexy spook-- and delightful Southern belle.

I was a fan ever since I glommed the back cover of a Spike Jones record (because there was one; it wasn't an mp3 file with no credits or album notes) and wanted to check who was voicing "Vampira" opposite Paul Frees' "Dracula." This was one of many wonderfully creepy supernatural assignments she took. She did the ethereal warbling as "Swamp Girl," the clammy modern-day Chloe who humidly haunted Frankie Laine through muck and mire. A while later, she was back in the jungle, supplying the rather bizarre soprano wailing on "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" for The Tokens. 

Ms Norman voiced ghosts for Walt Disney's "Haunted Mansion," and should've become better known to Trekkies at least, for her vocalise work on the theme song for the original "Star Trek." 

Loulie (March 12, 1913-August 2, 2005) left her native Alabama to become the voice of a huge parade of Hollywood stars, dubbing: Juliet Prowse (GI BLUES, 1958), Diahann Carroll (that's Loulie singing the black blues "Summertime" in PORGY AND BESS, 1959) and Stella Stevens (TOO LATE BLUES, 1962) among others. Less important on her resume was her work as a member of the Ray Conniff Singers, and as one of the back-up singers on "Moonlight Swim," which was on the soundtrack for Elvis Presley's "Blue Hawaii." She was a friend of Gordon Jenkins, which naturally meant that she got the nod for back-up work for Frank Sinatra (notably "Trilogy") and Mel Torme ("California Suite.") 

Let's simply consider her achievements with the hits "Swamp Girl," the "Star Trek" theme and "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." For this trio, Loulie Jean Norman should have a place in the Book of World Records…for instantly identifiable performances that didn't have her name on them, and for achieving greatness without singing a single written word! 

Loulie is "Swamp Girl" Instant download or listen on line. No pop ups, porn ads or wait time. 

From the original vinyl, Loulie is "Vampira" going up and down the scale opposite Paul Frees as "Dracula" for "All of a Sudden My Heart Sings." Instant download or listen on line. No pop-ups, porn ads, Paypal donation pleas or wait time.

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