and it made me ponder the dearth of songs about the majestic pickle. Oh sure, you have your novelty songs like the aforementioned Pickle In the Middle (and the Mustard on Top) done originally by Artie Auerbach on the Jack Benny radio show in 1946, but it's essentially a song about hot dogs with the condiments gettin' all the glory.
(For the definitive version, check PItM(atMoT) from the same year by the wild man Louis Prima. You probably know him as the voice of the orangutan King Louie in Disney's The Jungle Book, as well as performing the original of Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody camped up so well by Diamond David Lee Roth.)
But I digress.
As I was saying, most songs concerning the pickle and/or sundry pickling activities are relegated to the novelty and children's bins. Then you have the occasional instrumental like the oft covered Dill Pickle Rag. Written in 1907 it's a corker of a ragtime number in the great tradition of Scott Joplin. And check out the bitchin' sheet music artwork!
Am I right!? The things they were getting away with in '07! Dill Pickles indeed! Thing is, it's an instrumental. It could be called the Honeydew Rag or the (Your Name Here) Rag for all the title informs you as to the content of the song.
For purposes of this dispatch however we must, in the words of my friend Blake Reedy, "Think Globally, Rock Locally." (Blake, who once posited that in light of the tragedy of 9/11, had NYC, in lieu of Giulianni, elected instead Mayor McCheese, we would have heard stirring oratory about "taking back this country... one playground at a time.")
Rock locally... right. I present for your consideration an odd local Dallas bird with a most infectious laugh, one Tim DeLaughter (tem deLAWter). For most readers worldwide (shuh, yeah, like I've got "readers worldwide") you know Tim via his band - the only band larger than The E-Street Band - The Polyphonic Spree. On and off for the last decade The Spree have been taking their mobile Hallelujah Chorus all over the planet spreading their message of rainbows and unicorns and sunshine and... you get the picture. I always said that The Spree kinda sounded a lot like The Flaming Lips' really uplifting songs, only they took 24 members to do what the Lips did with 4. That's a drastic oversimplification of course, though I swear I saw The Spree once at Stubb's in Austin and they had one guy that was just playing one of those little bells like on the butcher's counter that you feel guilty about using 'cause you just want to beg some cooking twine to truss up a chicken or your significant other or both and you wind up buying a couple of bratwursts or somesuch just to avoid the dirty eye from Miguel who's already like, "String? Really?" Still, they put on a fun show and apparently are as yet a going concern, though Tim is recording some solo things as well as getting another band project called Preteen Zenith up and running in the meantime. You can get a nice sampling of all the above on the cloud right 'chere.
Afore there was all the above there was a decade called the 90's. You may have heard of it, unless you are my friend Scott Cecil and then it hasn't happened yet. As the 90's set forth, a young whippersnapper - oh how I love that word - by the name of Tim DeLaughter (see above pronunciation guide) formed a local Dallas band with the psychedelic sunshine pop moniker Tripping Daisy. They released their first LP in 1992 on the local Dragon Street label. For a small local label the record was a large local success, selling some 16,000 copies and subsequently caught the eye of The Man, who signed the band to the large national Island imprint, where the rest of the 90's treated the band in a tumultuous and, ultimately, sad fashion. You can find that story elsewhere.
That first LP was called Bill. Here's what it looked like.
An album full of great promise, it was full of songs some would refer to as power pop, many of the songs channeling a sound that would perhaps best be described as The Beatles as played by Jane's Addiction. But a few were such touchstones of neo-psychedelia that they would have been right at home beside any groovy little pipe dream found on Magical Mystery Tour. Such is the song I bring to you today. Full of hippy-dippy love Mother Earth lyrics and a melody that echoes Rain, the 1966 Beatles single B-side recorded during the Revolver sessions, here is Brown-Eyed Pickle Boy!
See what I did there? Pickles!
And here's the deal. Since this LP is long out-of-print (I saw someone trying to sell a copy on the eebaze for like $35), I do believe if you right click (PC) or control-click (Mac) the above link it will be available for your downloading pleasure, thereby allowing you, too, to have a pickle-related song in your collection. If anyone (Tim? Chris Penn?) has any issue with me putting this up for download, let me know and it will come down forthwith.
Seek out music at your local independent music stores.
Pickles.
I was hoping for more annecdotes in the style of Reader's Digest. Make me happy!!
ReplyDeleteI don't want a pickle... I just wanna ride on my motorsickle.
ReplyDeleteI laughed, I learned. This is a great blog Alan! Keep it up!