Was different from 1964. 1964 was all bright and sunny, brand new. Credit the Beatles and the tsunami of British acts that followed them on to the radio.
The radio... Record companies still talk about it, but youngsters do not. But in '65 the radio was everything. Everybody had a transistor and everybody was addicted. Every market had at least one Top 40 station. And the disc jockeys were famous! And occasionally there were regional hits, but most big records were known by everybody. And I mean EVERYBODY! Every boomer listening to the radio knew every cut. The nerds might have missed the switch to FM in the late sixties, but even they were listening to Top 40 radio.
And seeing the hit acts of the day on Ed Sullivan.
WE'RE GONNA BE ON ED SULLIVAN!
Ed... Every boomer knows this too, from "Bye Bye Birdie."
Anyway, you hated having to sit through the whole program for the rock act, you tried to second-guess placement, usually the bigger the act the later in the program they appeared...but it was kind of like "Laugh-In," the next day in school everybody talked about the band on TV.
So, you know how 1965 is different?
The Beatles hit with "Ticket to Ride." AND SHE DON'T CARE!
Yes, 1964 was "A Hard Day's Night." By '65 there was a lot more depth in the Beatles' music and lyrics. Gravitas. The screaming had died down, people were listening.
So writing about "Eve of Destruction" in 1965 I decided to pull up the "Billboard" playlist, the Hot 100. I put it on shuffle, to surprise me. And there were a couple of tune-outs, not every track was a rock act. But then there was "You Were on My Mind," the We Five version.
"When I woke up this morning
You were on my mind"
The funny thing is the lyrics are negative, but the vibe of the music is positive. She's gone, long before she left Hall & Oates, but there's a bounce in the song, that encompasses the optimism of the era. We were a can-do nation, we were testing personal limits, ultimately the Army stole our slogan, "Be all that you can be."
And then came Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs and "Wooly Bully." You've got to know, we listened on the aforementioned transistor, on scratched up 45s on record players with heavy needles, there was no internet, the lyrics were up for grabs. But sixty years later, on Spotify, the words are perfectly clear.
And then the Sir Douglas Quintet and "She's About a Mover," HEY HEY! Doug Sahm had a celebrated comeback on Atlantic in '73, the album was really pretty good, but now he's been completely forgotten.
Doug Sahm died at fifty eight of a heart attack, not from misadventure, but coronary heart disease. Musicians traditionally get bad health care, never mind oftentimes having no insurance.
But Sal Valentino is still alive.
I'm getting to Sal, but first I want to talk about "Satisfaction," that came up on Spotify before "Laugh, Laugh."
"Satisfaction" is in our DNA. It was considered limit-testing, dangerous back in the day. It was the biggest hit of the summer, that riff was everywhere. And you know what the biggest complaint was? Who was a young person to complain they couldn't get satisfaction? They had their whole lives in front of them, they should be upbeat, happy! Truly, that's what people said.
And Mick and Keith are still around playing this adolescent song... I think they've had plenty of satisfaction in their lives, but people go see them to remember when, or to get a glimpse of when music truly mattered, when it made a difference.
But then I heard the Beau Brummels song.
There were two, "Laugh, Laugh" and "Just a Little." I actually preferred the latter more, but both were stupendous. Band member Ron Elliott wrote both, with help from Bob Durand on the latter. But Sal Valentino was the vocalist.
Yes, yes, yes, Sly Stone was the producer. You've proved your rock and roll bona fides, you can take your seat. Then again, did you know that Vault bought Autumn, the Tom Donahue label that released the Beau Brummels' music, and Vault was owned by Jack Lewerke, and his son Greg was the manager of Walter Egan (and ultimately the Blasters)?
Ah, trivia that might be documented online that will few will bother to Google in the future.
Now Sal was such a force that after the Beau Brummels broke up Warner signed his act Stoneground, which released three albums and...
Those of us on the east coast scratched our head. Who?
And then Sal Valentino disappeared.
"I hate to say it but I told you so
Don't mind my preaching to you
I said 'Don't trust him,' baby now you know
You don't learn everything there is to know in school"
It's the harmonica in the intro that sets the tone. The darkness. Something absent from today's hit parade. But it was all over the airwaves in '65, like with the Zombies' "She's Not There."
"Wouldn't believe me when I gave advice
I said that he was a tease
If you want help you better ask me nice
So be sincere, convince me with a 'pretty please'"
This isn't the usual teen ditty. These aren't ten to thirteen year old Beatles fans from 1964, these are late teenagers, high school juniors and seniors, who are past the era of puppy love.
"Laugh, laugh, I thought I'd die
It seemed so funny to me
Laugh, laugh, you met a guy
Who taught you how it feels to be
Lonely, oh so lonely"
WHEW! The attitude. Sure, you got it at the end of the decade with Led Zeppelin and so many more, but this was 1965! This was more of her being on his mind. He had perspective, a sense of humor, he was enjoying her being dumped by the guy she left him for.
Hmm...
But there's that loneliness.
Now in the seventies there were a ton of singer-songwriters singing about loneliness. But that's not a theme in today's I'm a winner music world. I'm a world-beater, pay attention to me, buy my cosmetics, I'm flawless. Sure, I have breakups, but I crawl from the wreckage into a brand new car. That actor, I've replaced him with an athlete!
"Don't think I'm being funny when I say
You got just what you deserve
I can't help feeling you found out today
You thought you were too good, you had a lot of nerve"
Man, we've all lived this. We've all been left, at least most of us. And this is exactly what we thought, that they believed they were too good for us. And when they take a fall, we relish it. He's DISSING HER!
"Won't say I'm sorry for the things I said
I'm glad he packed up to go
You kept on bragging he was yours instead
Found you don't know everything there is to know"
Everybody's apologizing today. For everything. Nobody's standing their ground saying the words I uttered hurt you, BUT SCREW YOU, I'M STANDING BY THEM!
"Before I go I'd like to say one thing
Don't close your ears to me
Take my advice and you'll find out that being
Just another girl won't cause you misery"
She'll survive. But he'll still have one up on her.
"Don't say you can get any boy at your call
Don't be so smug or else
You'll find you can't get any boy at all
You'll wind up an old lady sitting on the shelf"
What's that cliché? Show me a beautiful woman and I'll show you a man who's tired of f*cking her?
Oh Bob, there you go, you had to ruin it, what next, some anti-Trump venom? You've got to respect women, beautiful women have feelings too.
Then again, if you're a man... Sure, the women will complain that they've got to be skinny and wear makeup based on the images on TV and in magazines and now online, but what is also true is men are made to feel desirous of said women and the odds of being involved with one are...
Minuscule.
Of course, of course, looks aren't everything. But we live in a looks-based society.
We all have these feelings, but we don't vocalize them, for fear of being excoriated.
But Sal Valentino is setting this woman straight in this song.
And right now she's lonely, oh so lonely...
And as I'm playing the record again I'm thinking how this simple 45, not even known by younger generations, is not just a curio of the time, but an avatar of what once was. In an era where money wasn't everything. Where music wasn't just mindless or clapback. "Laugh, Laugh" is chiaroscuro...then again, you probably wouldn't know that term unless you studied art history, and we all know that's a loser's game, STEM all the way, baby, or at least business.
But the people who create our entertainment, which we live for, didn't follow the approved track. They thought for themselves, revealed their truth and we couldn't get enough of it, STILL!
We wanted to penetrate the miasma. Who were these young guys who were dropping such wisdom, who seemed to exist separate from the rest of society? They were our heroes.
So I'm listening to "Laugh, Laugh" and I'm thinking Sal Valentino should be dead. It's not like anybody has mentioned his name recently. And Michael Brown is six feet under, a man who concocted a similar sound for the Left Banke.
But I was pretty sure Sal Valentino was alive, but I went to Wikipedia just to check.
Yup, Sal's still here. He was born in 1942, just like Paul McCartney.
But he ain't living on his royalties. He gave up music, became a forklift driver, worked in a warehouse and then for the racing form.
Hmm...
We think they're dead or they're rich, but most are not. We know their songs by heart, why isn't Sal Valentino on the oldies circuit?
Then again, maybe he's lost his voice.
Or despite being alive he's not healthy enough to go on the road.
But those records... Like I said above, every single baby boomers knows them, by heart. And the guy who sang them is living in obscurity.
What a strange world we live in.
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