Reality unfolds at the edges of Silverworld :or: Kenny Young may just be a degree closer than the legendary Kevin Bacon (a MOSS post)
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where it all began - "Under the Boardwalk"
I'll get to the unraveling a bit later...but, last night I started humming the old Drifters song "Under the Boardwalk" for no apparent reason. I don't recall hearing it anywhere, or even anything related to oceanfront property (although I did post some modern surf music the other day)
Still, there I was humming along, walking the mental beaches and almost tasting the hot dogs and french fries they sell when another thought hit me. There it was, a slab of vinyl that had a considerable amount of playtime back in the summer of '78...a disc by the dude who originally co-wrote "Under the Boardwalk" that included a version of said tune that morphed from the original to an updated version. A disc that, as I remembered it, had some kind of loose sci-fi theme to it. A recording that was now neccessary imperative to find and hear.
A quick look at wiki for "Under the Boardwalk" gave me the name, Kenny Young - yeah, that's the guy - but not the album name I was looking for....but a few minutes of clicks later I had it, "Last Stop for Silverworld"! Though I didn't stumble on it until 5 years later, the disc was released in '73. Some excerpts from Joe Viglione's All Music GUide write up:
"On the heels of David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, songwriter Kenny Young reprises the 1964 Drifters hit he co-wrote with Artie Resnick on this 1973 science fiction-styled album released by Warner Bros. It's an ambitious and effective project that comes with elaborate packaging and some help from Albert Hammond, Andy Kim, and the Drifters' Gerald Garrett."
and
"Before Robert Appere co-produced some valuable mid-'70s work with another singer/songwriter, Neil Sedaka, he and his team of well-known session men Dean Parks, Leland Sklar, Jim Horn, Russ Kunkel, and the gang put their magic here. The co-writer of "Mandy" and other Barry Manilow hits, Richard Kerr adds his piano and composing skills to "Wake Up Navajo," while John "Rabbit" Bundrick and Rolling Stones sidemen Bobby Keys and Jim Price also lend their skills to music that truly deserves the support."
groove to the under-my-thumbness of "Amanda in a Silverworld"
I trolled through a few net-queries and, surprisingly, found a torrent with a real lo-fi version which just wetted the appetite more. A few more clicks over to Amazon this morning, and to my surprise, they actually had the thing!! Ahhh, I'm right back in that basement college apartment (with my cat Zeus, who insisted on urinating at the only window opening...blehh!)
Not sure how much I agree with the Ziggy Stardust comparison, but I like it, it's a comfortable set of songs that showcase the prevalent styles of the early 70's, an American ode to the blistering glam movement that doesn't so much stoke the fire as carefully stir the embers. You gotta give the guy kudos for the unmarketable version of "...Boardwalk". yeah, it may seem corny or even toxic to some of you, but I like it for many a reason.
Here, however, is the clincher. I'm listening to this puppy after I got to work this morning, just grooving to some old-time madness and marvelling at how cool modern technology is. I went to read up some more on Mr. Young. Guys got a long list of credits to his name, you can check it if you wanna. But, one of the most recent things he has produced is Buena Vista Social Club - Rhythms del Mundo. Which I just posted on, like, yesterday. Man, sometimes life is just weird!
"In the year 1997 there lived 2 kinds of inhabitants on the Planet Earth.They were Yumans and Hobos" Kenny Young
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_Young
[MostObscureSeventieS is not trademarked by me, but I'll send the Langoliers after ayone who cops it]
close it up with with (the slightly corny) "Pices Baby"
Comments (12)
very cool post! so, at any point, did that Twilight Zone "music" start playing?
well, if I didn't hear it then, I'm starting to hear it now...
wow, so the dude can "sing" cool
Kewl find.. or re-find. It is nice when you can complete that circle.
And on the Bruce vibe, I was hanging out late on a Tuesday night at a Jazz Bar on Broad Street in Richmond, VA waiting on a waitress to get off so we could meet some friends for drinks (eclectic bar scene back in the day), regardless, there was a blues band up on stage, they sounded ok, but had this strange harmonica vibe going. I looked up on stage... and what do you know..
It was Bruno himself, he was in town filming a movie for a few days, and just kind of wandered into the bar, asked the band if he could join them, and whipped out his mouth organ and started joining in. He was just quietly sitting in the back corner of the stage out of the lights with a hat pulled down low, enjoying his moment of annonymity.
thanks for the Ghost-ly tale...that had to be kinda kool.
love the new avatar.
in the year 1997 there are 2 kinds of inhabitants......the yumans and the yobos, haha!!
...and they lived happily ever after...well, you know where...
Dude was connected! Clearly he was plugged into the 70's AM radio scene (Albert Hammond and Andy Kim!), but like most of those cats had higher aspirations. The 70's is a treasure trove..so many folks got a chance. Thanks for scraping the moss off this one.
He kinda reminds me of a Bert Berns type of cat..part of the "machine" that cranked out fluff, but with a real core of substance right beneath the surface. Plus..they just did it. Cool.
no prob C. Hey, I did not know that much about Berns, so I took a peek...I guess you probably already know - he produced the original "Under the Boardwalk"! Nice one.
He wrote hang on sloopy too (as Bert Russell)..Ohio's official Rock Song!
and I Want Candy..If anyone doesn't know the Strangeloves story, that's a hoot..One Strangelove was Richard Gotteher, he went on to found Sire w/Seymour Stein (who started at King Records) and then he started the digital distro/aggregator company The Orchard..the 60's and 70's cats did it all!
Like the British music biz story..the US world of Rock and Roll was very small...lots of folks names pop up all over.
Ah, thanks for posting the Stones vid! I just returned from a hurricane (tropical storm)/veteran's day holiday, so now just saw it!! :)