Somewhere Over the Boy's Dead Body....
It's wedding season.
The boy has been somewhat well-known in ukulele circles for over 10 years. He's the first to say that he's not a hot-shot player...but quite capable enough to form a sturdy setting for the jewel that is his voice. Back in the mid-90s, before there was a ukulele scene, before message boards, before youtube, before you heard ukulele in every damn commercial on TV for everything from car insurance to wireless telephone to Hamburger Helper to paper towels to 3 different makes of cars (seriously, listen when you next turn on the TV....during the commercials...uke uke uke), he sung and played rhythm guitar in a rockabilly/Western Swing trio. Early on, and after he took up and fell in love with ukulele (and much to their occasional chagrin!) he'd convince them to back off on the musical fireworks and let him do some ballads on the uke. People loved it. It's the voice that kills. One reviewer back then called his "a voice unspoiled by rock n' roll." Slim Whitman, Dean Martin, Marty Robbins, Gene Vincent...these are his predominant vocal influences....and he can crack a perfect falsetto here and there that can make you weak in the knees. After that band ended not with a bang but a whimper, he was solo. And it was super unusual at the time (still is a little, even with the proliferation of ukulele performers)...a big, broad-shouldered, High-Life-chugging, Italian rockabilly looking guy, lumbering onto a stage to bust out nothing but a ukulele and that startling voice. I've honestly never been at a show and seen a noisy bar go dead silent at the sound of a performer so abruptly as when he gets up. I have personally seen jaws drop. I think mine did when I first saw him, in fact. But I'm getting there. By the late 90s, the uke scene was cooking up...forums, bulletin boards, Expos and Fests started happening...press here and there. I got interested in the early 2000s, merely for the music of its heyday era....started learning my chords and whatever. At the time when we met, I had co-founded a trio consisting of two cellos and a singing saw with occasional ukulele and/or wacky sound effect or percussive items. We did all 20s material, dressed to the hilt...it was fun for a couple years.
Long story short, the boy and I met almost exactly five years ago while playing the same shows. Blah blah blah, I left an already ruined marriage to be with the boy, things turned out well, I have almost everything I ever dreamed about...house, gardens, chickens, someone to go junkin' and yardsaleing with...and an instant spot in his band. That happened right away. With him on uke and voice, me on cello (usually bass-style) and voice and a wonderful steel player, we have a nice little thing going. We mainly do old Hawaiian and 20s/30s hapa haole stuff, just about everything off Marty Robbins' "Songs of the Islands" album (exaggerating for effect), some Slim Whitman gems, other random 20s-40s tidbits. The thing is, though...
About the time we met, the uke thing started going crazy...newsgroups, forums, blogs, youtube (seriously- type in "ukulele" and see what happens...4,000,000 people with webcams in their bedrooms playing covers of EVERYTHING) and we just got tired of it. Too much personal history and personalities got wrapped up in this tiny instrument to where it's not like it was to either of us. Ukulele has too much baggage with it right now. There began virtual scene dramas, ego-battles pertaining to events, etc. Ridiculous for such an innocent looking little instrument, no?
At the same time, burlesque/vaudeville/cabaret doings were going crazy around these parts. It was fun to be involved at first. Mind-blowing to me-of-little-confidence to have our band (the girl trio) get a tiny touch of press in a major city...play pretty frequently, create a little buzz....well, maybe a couple gnats' worth. But then my reclusive, anti-social nature started to creep back in. Two moves and a baby split up my band, and I just fell into the boy's....he who had also grown disenchanted. And over the past few years, we've almost completely sworn off the nighttime club/bar gigs which only leave you with a bar tab way bigger than what you were paid (if anything), a loooong drive home and exhaustion at work the next day. Instead, we've fallen into planned events. Weddings, luaus, parties, festivals...and my favorite- (and always the most sincerely appreciative) nursing homes. They pay well, there are no worries about whether we are cool enough and we're home to lock the chickens up and get the dog outside. We never self-promote and have no website or page on a social network. It's all random and word of mouth. For both of us, the only thing that keeps us going is a pure love of the early/mid 20th century music. Heaven is having people over to just play and drink under the tiki torches on the back deck. The fashion show aspect of sceney gigs, the hobnobbing and hugging and small talk and coolness competition...I used to be able to rock it, but now the mere thought just about gives me facial tics at this point. Maybe I'm just old. But I don't even feel like trying anymore because it seems every city has a half dozen vintage-haired, tattooed "chanteuses" younger and better-looking than me belting out the standards at scene shows...and even if they aren't that great, people still shower them with compliments, half because of their burlesquey look. I've seen it. And I don't want to be one of the mediocre ones who doesn't know it. I have a HUGE fear of being the Emperor in New Clothes. The boy has been there and done that as far as the scene even 20 years ago and he doesn't care to get involved again. So, really, the way we do it now is pretty ideal. And so there's the total background. The long-winded version.
Back to weddings....it's that time. There is only one we've agreed to and that's because it's a friend's.
We got a dreaded message on the machine this very evening with the one request that the boy will NOT fulfill...and I don't blame him. It was a woman who's getting hitched at a fancy place in one of the wealthiest towns in our state, "my friend gave me your number", somewhat desperate-sounding, because she can't find anyone who will play......"Somewhere Over the Rainbow." Of course, specifically the Bruddah Iz version. You know the one. The version that has effectively erased from the mainstream consciousness any other version. Also known as, "you know....that humongous dead Hawaiian guy."
And that is high up on the list of Things (in all of life) the Boy WILL NOT Do. It's a stand on principle. He could cash in. But to play it, the "ooooo oooooo ooooooooo," would be capitulating to pop culture, to the total disregard of the origin, to the supersaturation of ukulele. I think he would feel like a sell-out, a whore. I'd refuse, too. No way I would learn a bass part for that thing.
Particularly because the boy has been doing that song for years . Without the "oooooooo ooooo ooooooo"s. Because...remember? You CAN. And it's absolutely lovely when he does it.
The thing is, that's the second request he/we have gotten in the last THREE DAYS to do the "fat Hawaiian guy version" of "Over the Rainbow" at a wedding. WHY? It's been kicking around for a while now. For a while there, you couldn't escape it. But I thought once it was used on "American Idol" a couple seasons ago, it would go off somewhere and die. But now all of a sudden again? Didn't they do it on "Glee" recently? Is that why?
I'd be pissed if I was Bruddah Iz, looking down. Sooo much straight out plagarism of every single nuance of his interpretation. I mean, do your own thing with it, somebody!
The song itself is a marvel....
I know Judy Garland was the definitive until the "ooooo ooooo"s came over the rainbow, but many others took a good stab. Ella's version is fantastic...and she uses the intro verse, too. Sarah Vaughn. Jerry Lee Lewis....gosh...who else?
Connie Francis. Aretha. Not an ooooo to be found.
I think I'd take Nina Hagen's Lolital, Liza-Minelli-drag-queen at a mental institution version over hearing the "oooooo ooooo ooooooooo" again.
The version most like the boy's is definitely Gene Vincent's. Throw a couple quick yodel cracks in there, some lovely ukulele picking and a stunned, hushed atmosphere and then tell me that it suffers from its "oooooooooo"-less-ness. I think NOT.
You really want something different for your wedding? Let the "ooooooo"s go away,then.
Dunno why this is such a big deal, but it is. This innocent request is somehow representative of the tragic fact that the 20th century is slipping away, and much like our young waiter at Uno recently who honest-to-gosh DID NOT KNOW who Louis Armstrong was (!?!?!), very very soon will be a time when Judy Garland and all the rest since might as well have never opened their mouths around that beautiful song because the next generation will not remember. If it has NOT happened yet that some kid who actually could sit still enough to watch "The Wizard of Oz" on the teevee watched Dorothy belt it out and was puzzled and disapppointed by the lack of "ooooo", then I will eat my hat. One of them, anyway. Sad, sad, sad. That waiter looked like a recent lobotomee at the mention of Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gilespie...the people in the photos on the wall behind our booth. Those two, I can kind of understand. But Louis?! And what are we even going to do now that there are so few movies or cartoons that use old songs that you can name to the young folks to try to jog their recognition? Ugh! Must we accept that this generation's Ella is Beyonce and their Louis Armstrong is Snoop Dogg?
It's just one more thing slipping away. Sigh.
I don't mean to be cranky. We still have to tell this poor lady no without sounding like jerkfaces. It's nothing personal. Too each his own. Oooooo oooooo oooooooo. My conviction is a little marred by guilt, though...I mean, it's for someone's wedding....can't we not just placate? But then I think about it. And the answer is no. I'm quite sure that someone will be happy to do it...the vast majority of uke players we know go the note-for-note "ooooooo ooooo oooo" route now, so....shouldn't be too hard. Happy weddin'. Ah salute!
The boy has been somewhat well-known in ukulele circles for over 10 years. He's the first to say that he's not a hot-shot player...but quite capable enough to form a sturdy setting for the jewel that is his voice. Back in the mid-90s, before there was a ukulele scene, before message boards, before youtube, before you heard ukulele in every damn commercial on TV for everything from car insurance to wireless telephone to Hamburger Helper to paper towels to 3 different makes of cars (seriously, listen when you next turn on the TV....during the commercials...uke uke uke), he sung and played rhythm guitar in a rockabilly/Western Swing trio. Early on, and after he took up and fell in love with ukulele (and much to their occasional chagrin!) he'd convince them to back off on the musical fireworks and let him do some ballads on the uke. People loved it. It's the voice that kills. One reviewer back then called his "a voice unspoiled by rock n' roll." Slim Whitman, Dean Martin, Marty Robbins, Gene Vincent...these are his predominant vocal influences....and he can crack a perfect falsetto here and there that can make you weak in the knees. After that band ended not with a bang but a whimper, he was solo. And it was super unusual at the time (still is a little, even with the proliferation of ukulele performers)...a big, broad-shouldered, High-Life-chugging, Italian rockabilly looking guy, lumbering onto a stage to bust out nothing but a ukulele and that startling voice. I've honestly never been at a show and seen a noisy bar go dead silent at the sound of a performer so abruptly as when he gets up. I have personally seen jaws drop. I think mine did when I first saw him, in fact. But I'm getting there. By the late 90s, the uke scene was cooking up...forums, bulletin boards, Expos and Fests started happening...press here and there. I got interested in the early 2000s, merely for the music of its heyday era....started learning my chords and whatever. At the time when we met, I had co-founded a trio consisting of two cellos and a singing saw with occasional ukulele and/or wacky sound effect or percussive items. We did all 20s material, dressed to the hilt...it was fun for a couple years.
Long story short, the boy and I met almost exactly five years ago while playing the same shows. Blah blah blah, I left an already ruined marriage to be with the boy, things turned out well, I have almost everything I ever dreamed about...house, gardens, chickens, someone to go junkin' and yardsaleing with...and an instant spot in his band. That happened right away. With him on uke and voice, me on cello (usually bass-style) and voice and a wonderful steel player, we have a nice little thing going. We mainly do old Hawaiian and 20s/30s hapa haole stuff, just about everything off Marty Robbins' "Songs of the Islands" album (exaggerating for effect), some Slim Whitman gems, other random 20s-40s tidbits. The thing is, though...
About the time we met, the uke thing started going crazy...newsgroups, forums, blogs, youtube (seriously- type in "ukulele" and see what happens...4,000,000 people with webcams in their bedrooms playing covers of EVERYTHING) and we just got tired of it. Too much personal history and personalities got wrapped up in this tiny instrument to where it's not like it was to either of us. Ukulele has too much baggage with it right now. There began virtual scene dramas, ego-battles pertaining to events, etc. Ridiculous for such an innocent looking little instrument, no?
At the same time, burlesque/vaudeville/cabaret doings were going crazy around these parts. It was fun to be involved at first. Mind-blowing to me-of-little-confidence to have our band (the girl trio) get a tiny touch of press in a major city...play pretty frequently, create a little buzz....well, maybe a couple gnats' worth. But then my reclusive, anti-social nature started to creep back in. Two moves and a baby split up my band, and I just fell into the boy's....he who had also grown disenchanted. And over the past few years, we've almost completely sworn off the nighttime club/bar gigs which only leave you with a bar tab way bigger than what you were paid (if anything), a loooong drive home and exhaustion at work the next day. Instead, we've fallen into planned events. Weddings, luaus, parties, festivals...and my favorite- (and always the most sincerely appreciative) nursing homes. They pay well, there are no worries about whether we are cool enough and we're home to lock the chickens up and get the dog outside. We never self-promote and have no website or page on a social network. It's all random and word of mouth. For both of us, the only thing that keeps us going is a pure love of the early/mid 20th century music. Heaven is having people over to just play and drink under the tiki torches on the back deck. The fashion show aspect of sceney gigs, the hobnobbing and hugging and small talk and coolness competition...I used to be able to rock it, but now the mere thought just about gives me facial tics at this point. Maybe I'm just old. But I don't even feel like trying anymore because it seems every city has a half dozen vintage-haired, tattooed "chanteuses" younger and better-looking than me belting out the standards at scene shows...and even if they aren't that great, people still shower them with compliments, half because of their burlesquey look. I've seen it. And I don't want to be one of the mediocre ones who doesn't know it. I have a HUGE fear of being the Emperor in New Clothes. The boy has been there and done that as far as the scene even 20 years ago and he doesn't care to get involved again. So, really, the way we do it now is pretty ideal. And so there's the total background. The long-winded version.
Back to weddings....it's that time. There is only one we've agreed to and that's because it's a friend's.
We got a dreaded message on the machine this very evening with the one request that the boy will NOT fulfill...and I don't blame him. It was a woman who's getting hitched at a fancy place in one of the wealthiest towns in our state, "my friend gave me your number", somewhat desperate-sounding, because she can't find anyone who will play......"Somewhere Over the Rainbow." Of course, specifically the Bruddah Iz version. You know the one. The version that has effectively erased from the mainstream consciousness any other version. Also known as, "you know....that humongous dead Hawaiian guy."
And that is high up on the list of Things (in all of life) the Boy WILL NOT Do. It's a stand on principle. He could cash in. But to play it, the "ooooo oooooo ooooooooo," would be capitulating to pop culture, to the total disregard of the origin, to the supersaturation of ukulele. I think he would feel like a sell-out, a whore. I'd refuse, too. No way I would learn a bass part for that thing.
Particularly because the boy has been doing that song for years . Without the "oooooooo ooooo ooooooo"s. Because...remember? You CAN. And it's absolutely lovely when he does it.
The thing is, that's the second request he/we have gotten in the last THREE DAYS to do the "fat Hawaiian guy version" of "Over the Rainbow" at a wedding. WHY? It's been kicking around for a while now. For a while there, you couldn't escape it. But I thought once it was used on "American Idol" a couple seasons ago, it would go off somewhere and die. But now all of a sudden again? Didn't they do it on "Glee" recently? Is that why?
I'd be pissed if I was Bruddah Iz, looking down. Sooo much straight out plagarism of every single nuance of his interpretation. I mean, do your own thing with it, somebody!
The song itself is a marvel....
I know Judy Garland was the definitive until the "ooooo ooooo"s came over the rainbow, but many others took a good stab. Ella's version is fantastic...and she uses the intro verse, too. Sarah Vaughn. Jerry Lee Lewis....gosh...who else?
Connie Francis. Aretha. Not an ooooo to be found.
I think I'd take Nina Hagen's Lolital, Liza-Minelli-drag-queen at a mental institution version over hearing the "oooooo ooooo ooooooooo" again.
The version most like the boy's is definitely Gene Vincent's. Throw a couple quick yodel cracks in there, some lovely ukulele picking and a stunned, hushed atmosphere and then tell me that it suffers from its "oooooooooo"-less-ness. I think NOT.
You really want something different for your wedding? Let the "ooooooo"s go away,then.
Dunno why this is such a big deal, but it is. This innocent request is somehow representative of the tragic fact that the 20th century is slipping away, and much like our young waiter at Uno recently who honest-to-gosh DID NOT KNOW who Louis Armstrong was (!?!?!), very very soon will be a time when Judy Garland and all the rest since might as well have never opened their mouths around that beautiful song because the next generation will not remember. If it has NOT happened yet that some kid who actually could sit still enough to watch "The Wizard of Oz" on the teevee watched Dorothy belt it out and was puzzled and disapppointed by the lack of "ooooo", then I will eat my hat. One of them, anyway. Sad, sad, sad. That waiter looked like a recent lobotomee at the mention of Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gilespie...the people in the photos on the wall behind our booth. Those two, I can kind of understand. But Louis?! And what are we even going to do now that there are so few movies or cartoons that use old songs that you can name to the young folks to try to jog their recognition? Ugh! Must we accept that this generation's Ella is Beyonce and their Louis Armstrong is Snoop Dogg?
It's just one more thing slipping away. Sigh.
I don't mean to be cranky. We still have to tell this poor lady no without sounding like jerkfaces. It's nothing personal. Too each his own. Oooooo oooooo oooooooo. My conviction is a little marred by guilt, though...I mean, it's for someone's wedding....can't we not just placate? But then I think about it. And the answer is no. I'm quite sure that someone will be happy to do it...the vast majority of uke players we know go the note-for-note "ooooooo ooooo oooo" route now, so....shouldn't be too hard. Happy weddin'. Ah salute!
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