Cousin Brucie here (thanks, everyone, for the flashback in the last post)!. Let’s take another trip down memory lane to 1964 to find out what those almost-cool almost-kids Joan, Greg, Bert, Pete, Trudy, and Peggy are listening to that year!
I think of Joan Holloway Harris as a bossa nova gal, since her walk has that kind of built-in shimmy. (I keep hearing Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd’s “One-Note Samba,” from 1962, when I think of her. Video plays music only with album art.) She will be all over the Grammy-winning Getz/Gilberto album by Getz and Joao Gilberto, which includes “Girl from Ipanema,” with a vocal by Gilberto’s wife, Astrud. And she will get the followup, too, the live-at-Carnegie-Hall Getz/Gilberto #2. “Girl from Ipanema” you’ve probably heard to death, but how about the Joao Gilberto-sung “So Danco Samba,” with its cool dance-in-stocking-feet-with-your-loved-one groove? If only Joan’s (official) loved one deserved it. (Once again, video is music only with album art.)
Joan’s husband, Greg Harris, doesn’t like music. His favorite sound is broken dishes.
Bert Cooper, who is the only MM character who grew up could possibly have spent at least part of his childhood without recorded music, strikes me as being an opera kind of guy. He might watch TV because it’s part of his job, but for pleasure, he will sit down and listen to an entire opera recording, maybe reading along with an English translation of the libretto, and really soak it in. Like almost all opera buffs of that era, he kvells over Leontyne Price, and why not? She could sing almost anyone on earth under the table. Price recorded Giuseppe Verdi’s la forza del destino in 1964, and it gets Bert through many a cold night without having to squeeze himself into a tux and tight shoes. I couldn’t find any Leontyne specifically from 1964, but here’s a live piano/voice recording from February 1965 of her at Carnegie Recital Hall, singing “La Mamma Morta” from Umberto Giordano’s Andrea Chenier. (No live video footage, unfortunately, just the music and photos.)
Pete Campbell is, if nothing else, a man with his finger in the wind — probably exactly the kind of person Bob Dylan would later mock in “Ballad of a Thin Man.” He’s teetering on the brink of 30, and he knows what’s coming — soon, very soon, young adults are actually going to want to look and act their age, not their parents’, and they will have money to spend. Therefore, it will be he, among the adult characters, who immerses himself most completely in the Beatles and in the whole culture surrounding them. His personal tastes, though, probably run more to Henry Mancini — he loved the “Baby Elephant Walk” from Hatari! (link is to video with music and background title only), and he runs around the house humming the “Pink Panther Theme” once it hits the Adult Contemporary top 10 in ’64. He can’t help himself.
Trudy Campbell loves Mancini, too, but she’s a sucker for his ballads, like “Moon River” and “Days of Wine and Roses.” Know who did a bang-up version of the latter, along with Mancini’s “Charade,” on his 1964 album From Hello Dolly to Goodbye Charlie? That great musical chameleon Bobby Darin, that’s who. He also did swinging versions of “More” from Mondo Cane and the ever-fabulous “Sunday in New York,” which no doubt gets her and Pete Lindy Hopping (and more?) around their apartment until the downstairs neighbors pound on the ceiling. (Video is music only with background title.)
Peggy Olson, of course, went to see Bob Dylan with Kurt in Jet Set. But although I’m sure Peggy is a folkie — since she puts such a high premium on sincerity — I don’t think she’s necessarily a folkie purist. Come ’66, she’ll probably go bananas over Simon and Garfunkel, and I get the feeling that she likes her Dylan with a little sweetening, so prefers Peter, Paul and Mary’s and Joan Baez’s versions of Dylan songs to his. (Though next year, when folk-rock comes in, she’ll be loving “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Positively Fourth Street,” which will blow wide open what pop-song subject matter and structure can be.) She probably enjoys the spirit and energy of the Beatles and thinks they’re fun to dance to, but it will take until Help! and Rubber Soul, one year down the road, before she thinks of them as profound. Meanwhile, she’ll be digging Joan Baez’s Joan Baez/5, which includes Joanie’s version of Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me, Babe,” here performed live in concert in 1965. Note that Baez sings this without changing from male viewpoint to female, and identifies the song as an anti-marriage protest song. Think our Pegs can relate, maybe just a smidge? (Lyrics here.)
Next up: Sally, Ken, Paul, Carla, Harry, Smitty, Kurt, Duck.
19 Responses to “More Mad Music for S4: Characters’ Choices, Part 2 (Joan, Greg, Bert, Pete, Trudy, Peggy)”
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Doctor Harris might not like music, but he appeared to be headed out of town as last season ended, on his way to new experiences. Between Armed Forces Radio & Saigon's various smoke-filled entertainment establishments, he'll get to hear a good cross section of the year's hits. Will it be 1964? http://www.musicoutfitters.com/topsongs/1964.htm
I also see Joan listening to Bossa Nova–just because I love that music so much. (Yes, there's much more to it than "Girl From Ipanema.")
Both the Campbells probably prefer the MOR side of the hit parade, but Pete does care about The Youth Market. So he'll probably pay attention to the English sound & all the Swinging London cultural trappings that accompanied it. Hey, it's got a good beat & you can dance to it; he & Trudy might have some fun doing "research." (Although there's been a hint of changes coming for the Campbells.) And we saw him listen to a bit of jazz, which was not limited to smoky Village dives; Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" had already been a hit on the Adult Contemporary charts (renamed MOR in the early 60's): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwNrmYRiX_o
We already heard Peter, Paul & Mary; Father John Gill played a tune from their first album, alone in his room. Wonders of Google–here's an earlier Father John Gill: http://weblogs.variety.com/on_the_air/2008/10/mad…
Surely Peggy will like PP&M–who covered Dylan tunes in a more palatable fashion. (I had my day as a folkie purist, but find PP&M's stuff really beautiful. Besides, they shared Dylan's manager–so he got royalties & they got the hits.) I don't see Peggy collecting many records, but there were good local radio shows playing interesting stuff. We saw her enjoying the Twist–but I can't imagine Duck taking her dancing. Wonder who will?
Burt could definitely love opera, but I really want him to collect Nonesuch Explorer records; Japanese & Balinese tunes would match his decor. http://www.rockpaperscissors.biz/index.cfm/fuseac… Alas, that first-class folkie label didn't start releasing the international recordings until 1967. Hey, Columbia's Center for Ethnomusicology also began in 1967. Maybe Bert was one of the patrons. http://www.ethnocenter.org/about
(Sorry, music makes me Free Associate. I was a Teenybopper in the 1960's. And I've also flirted with Ethnomusicology.)
Ms. Price also recorded Madama Butterfly in '62; if Bert's an opera fan he probably appreciates the Japanese setting of that piece.
Maybe when Vatican II hits full swing, we'll see Peggy at one of Father Gill's new folk Masses.
Interesting. I love oldies music so I just checked to find some of the big pop hits of '64: http://www.popculturemadness.com/Music/Pop-Modern…
I love the Burt Bacharach/Hal David music sung by Dionne Warwick (and other artists) and I think Peggy might like some of it too. I could see her getting into "Walk On By."
And I think Pete would appreciate the Temptations and Mary Wells — I think he'd be impressed by Motown music, possibly. I could see him listening to it and saying, "A thing like that."
Wonderful selection, thanks! Mel Torme also did "Sunday in New York" for the movie of the same name. It was on AMC the other day – Rod Taylor, yum!
Another singer who covered many Dylan songs was Judy Collins, particularly on her Fifth album (1965)- really liked her version of Mr Tambourine Man but as early as 1964 when she performed Farewell and Masters of War on her third album.
I do see Peggy "feelin' groovy" to the 59th Street Bridge Song when it comes out in a couple of years.
I don't know if the show has ever established Bert Cooper's exact age, but I'm guessing that he was in his late 60s or early 70s in the early 1960s.
Thomas Edison's phonograph was patented on February 19, 1878 and recorded music on cylinder (and later, disc) became commercially available not long afterwards.
So, unless Bert is much older than I'm guessing, it seems impossible to me that he grew up without recorded music.
I love connecting Baez's version of It Ain't Me Babe to Peggy. MadChick's link surprised me. I would have thought something as dark as, say, You Really Got Me or House of the Rising Sun came later in the 60s.
I definitely see Trudy as a Burt Bachrach kind of girl. Promises, Promises is still a couple of years away, but Knowing When to Leave is perfect for her soundtrack.
Joan will definitely be buying the Francis Albert Sinatra/Antonio Carlos Jobim album when it comes out. And she's also going to own some Brazil 66.
SmilerG, I had Bert pegged as older than that. I remember his sister Alice saying she "can't imagine" how old Bert must be by now. Robert Morse is close to 80, I figured Bert would be within a few years of that. So at least he'd probably have spent his early childhood without it, in all likelihood. But I'll amend the post to reflect that.
Now that I think of it, yes, those songs do seem to fit in more with late 60s music!
Meowser — I thought Bert was supposed to be a lot younger than that (maybe late sixties in 1962?), but it's hard to say. I'm thinking too that what was old back then wouldn't be considered quite as old now.
I kvell at Leontyne Price. What a voice. Thanks for posting that.
I could easily see Peggy being into folk music, and later folk-rock. Maybe she’ll be meet a special someone at a concert. I know she doesn’t need a man to be happy, but I would like to see her dating someone nice, instead of whatever it was she had with Duck.
Pete would like Motown, but would have to say he’s only listening to it for work, because Trudy won’t approve.
I can’t wait for the next round! I’m especially curious which Beatle Sally will pick as her favorite. My guess is John, the witty rebellious one.
"Joan’s husband, Greg Harris, doesn’t like music. His favorite sound is broken dishes."
Why would you say this?
Because I'm a wiseass?
Here's a hot number I think Bert Cooper would enjoy.
It's called the "Tiger Rag" and was first recorded in 1917 by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band.
Here's a more recent performance by an amazing British organist named Richard Hills …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWClq1Pr7hM
Some nice Latin sounds by Stan Getz and DC guitarist Charlie Byrd, recorded in 1962, that anyone listening to Bossa Nova then would've heard …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-vlX8uRLMQ
Here's some more about similar albums from the early 1960s …
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=31…
We've determined that Peggy probably likes the cheerier type of folk music. (I maintain she's got a bit of Irish blood mixed with the Norwegian; it's an old tradition dating back to the Vikings. So she may have heard the Clancy Brothers–here with Pete Seeger: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKJ8g9asQnU&fe… )
This album certainly has the look of a folk record of the day; page down a bit: http://jspiotto.blogspot.com/2010/06/crazy-4-cult…
Looks innocently cheery enough for Peggy, maybe even for Pete & Trudy. And Joan might feel mysteriously drawn to these characters….
Robert Morse is 79.
Bert was probably born mid 1880s which would make him mid to late 70s on the show. Phonographic records (the big 78s) were produced beginning in 1910 when he would have been in his mid 20s (Chaliapin recorded for the Gramophone Company in 1902, the first full opera, Verdi's "Ernani", was recorded in 1903 so perhaps Bert is a big fan of classical music.
Meowser, I think this kind of post might be even more fun, and generate more reader comments, if you broke it into mini-posts and focused on one character — or maybe a pair such as Kurt and Smitty or a married couple — at a time. After all, the Internet is making us stupid
Thanks for your great work!
You made some good points here.