Thursday, February 29, 2024

Sha-Boom Bang

 


Brother Zee and The Decades
From L. to R. : L-R on the picture above; Al Linde, Bobby Zoidis and Charles "Pedro" Buford

Sha-Boom Bang

In 1963 three members of The Vice-Roys on Ramco Records, recorded on the same label as Brother Zee & The Decades. 

Picture and info from The White Doo Wop Collector blog

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

I Hate Barney

 

 

 

The full story of this CD has been told by Dylan Greenberg

I knew I had to get to the bottom of this somehow, and I realized if I could get some of the people involved with this project to talk to me, I could create an oral history of the album. Over the next two weeks, I was able to interview three of the key figures involved in the album; Cindy Jo Hinkleman, the production coordinator, Tony Haynes, the primary songwriter, and none other than the legendary Freda Payne herself.

When I told Freda I wanted to interview her about this album, her initial response was one of bewilderment.

Freda: “Why are you interested in that?!”
Read the full story here

I Hate Barney

For all Barney fans, you can see (and download) some 230 Barney and friends episodes here


Monday, February 26, 2024

Killing Me Softly With These Sounds

 

 

Yes, Sir, please killing me softly with your sounds

On February 28, 1993, the eyes of the world suddenly converged on a small religious community just outside Waco, The FBI did try to use music and other noise to torment Koresh's group into leaving the house. One of the survivors of the standoff, Clive Doyle, recounted much of the siege in his autobiography. In an excerpt from The New Yorker, Doyle writes that the noise from the FBI was constant and included "rabbits being killed, warped-up music, Nancy Sinatra singing 'These Boots Are Made For Walking, Tibetan monks chanting, Christmas carols, telephones ringing, reveille." 

A BBC News report claimed that "Enter Sandman" by the American heavy metal band Metallica, along with music from the children's television programs Barney the Dinosaur and Sesame Street, were used for sleep deprivation and to culturally offend Iraqi POWs

In the War on Terror, the US used the songs "The Real Slim Shady" by Eminem, the Meow Mix theme song, and "Fuck Your God" by Deicide to torture.

When the United States invaded Panama in December 1989, Manuel Noriega took refuge in the Holy See’s embassy on December 24, which was immediately surrounded by U.S. troops. After being continually bombarded by hard rock music, including Van Halen's hit song "Panama", and The Howard Stern Show for several days, Noriega surrendered on January 3, 1990.[

The Hill, reporting on the #OccupyLafayettePark protests, wrote: "A former adviser to Hillary Clinton hired a Mariachi band to play outside of the White House in an effort to disrupt President Trump's sleep on Wednesday night." The "former adviser"  probably assumed that Mr. Trump didn't like much hear the Spanish-speaking (or singing) people, The name of the marachi band is unknown. Instead, I've included a nice little piece sung by the all-time favorite crowd pleaser young Joselito from the 1958 movie "Joselito el ruiseƱor de las cumbres".

Pakistani-Englishman Moazzam Begg, arrested by the CIA in Pakistan in 2002, wrote one of the most comprehensive memoirs describing the tortures he witnessed in the U.S. military prison system. During his stay at Bagram, Afghanistan, he suffered the Bee Gees.
He thought it was a joke at first: "Once they even played the Bee Gees' Saturday Night Fever soundtrack all night long. 'Hardly,' I thought,'‘enough to break anyone I knew.' ... 'We'll talk. We'll all talk,' I said in half jest when they played it, 'just turn that crap off please!'"

U.S. Navy veteran Donald Vance suffered this torture after the U.S. Army raided the Iraqi security firm he had been investigating as an unpaid FBI informant. When all the employees were rounded up, he was treated as a suspect, taken to an unofficial prison camp and tortured with song. Vance would catch himself singing along to songs he liked. "I can't remember how many times I heard Queen's "We Are the Champions.'"  Vance survived due to his military training. He started to talk to himself, telling himself jokes, trying to keep a rational train of thought going. He knew if he let the music completely "mask his thoughts," he would never get his mind back again. This method is likely what helped Vance emerge from this prison a "damaged" but not "broken" man.

Binyam Mohamed suffered Eminem's "Slim Shady" for 20 days. "I heard this nonstop over and over," he reportedly told Clive Stafford Smith, his lawyer and the founder and director of Reprieve, a U.K-based organization determined to end music torture practices. "The CIA worked on people, including me, day and night for the months before I left. Plenty lost their minds." Mohamed said he could hear others in the prison "screaming and smashing their heads against walls."

I've also added some sounds such as the sounds of the dentist drill, found at YouTube. From a long video (one-hour long of painful sounds).

Sources:
* https://www.mic.com/articles/87851/11-popular-songs-the-cia-used-to-torture-prisoners-in-the-war-on-terror

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_in_psychological_operations

* Jon Ronson : The Men Who Stare At Goats (book, 2004) See chapter 7 : The Purple Dinosaur. 

... and so on...

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Bowwow Theory


According to the Bowwow Theory, (Compare dingdong theory, pooh-pooh theory, says Merriam-Webster), the language originated in imitations of natural sounds (such as those of birds, dogs, or thunder). That's my inspiration for this compilation loosely based on various imitations of sounds in songs.

Anita And The So-and-so's - Rinky Tinky Rhythm
Bette McLaurin - Zip
Bill Haley - Chattanooga Choo Choo
Bobby Day - Beep Beep Beep
Bonnie Lou And Rusty York - Let The School Bell Ring Ding A Ling
Carol Fran - Knock Knock
Connie Francis - Hey Ring-a-Ding
Desda - Splish Splash Twist
Eddie L Davis & The Bureaucats - Tick Tock Rock
Harvey Fuqua - Ooh Ouch Stop!
Jerry Irby - Clickety Clack
Jo Ann Reynolds - Ring A Ding Dong Dandy
Jo-Ann King - Cha Cha Choo Choo
Little Esther - Ring A Ding Doo
Lloyd Price - Yakety-yak--bing Bang
Louis Prima - Beep Beep
Marci And The Mates - Oops There Goes Another Tear
Marvin Rainwater - Boo Hoo
Maymie And Robert - Ha Ha Hee Hee Ho Ho Hum Hum
Mickey Hawks & The Night Raiders - Bip Bop Boom
Pauline Shivers - Boom Boom
Percy Mayfield - Ha Ha In The Daytime
Pierre Le Bon - Sh-boom
Ricky Rene And The Fabulous Desires - Ouch
Roscoe Gordon - Ouch! Pretty Baby
Scat Man Crothers - Golly Zonk!
The Accents - Ching A Ling
The Bell Sisters - Boo-hoo
The McGuire Sisters - Achoo Cha Cha
The Treniers - Who Put The Ungh In The Mambo
Tito Mambo - Black Pepper
Wink Lewis - Zzztt Zzztt Zzztt

Ouch!


Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot : Comic Strip