Back in Action
Allisyn is feeling SO good as a result of her recent operation to remove blockage from an artery in her heart that this evening we indulged her in her favorite pastime: shopping! After dinner I spent forty-five minutes sorting through and discarding dead coupons, and then it was on to Kroger. I barely made it, enduring an aching hip and frequent breaks for a bout with "Montezuma's Revenge" - Remy got pretty worn out also. But at the end of it Al was grinning from ear to ear, and it made me feel good to see her feeling so good. (Anyone for Chuck Mangione?)
Speaking of which, here's some lyrics I came up with back in the 70s for "Feels So Good"
Feeels....Soooo...
Good
It feels so good
So very good,
So very very very
Good...
It feels so good
It feels so good
It feels so good
So very
Very good...
So very good
So very good
So very good
It feels so good
It feels so
Very, very good
It's very, very
Very good
Hey don't you know it feels so good
Hey man its fee - lin' real - ly good
Hey! Watch yourself - it feels so good
Hey man it
Feeels....Soooo...
Good
(etc.)
(Sing it to yourself - it really fits...)
Happy Birthday Andy
Today is the (shudder!!) 76th birthday of the male pop singer who has no hope of ever being redeemed or re-discovered by hip revisionists - Andy Williams. At one time, when you could hear "Jesus Christ Superstar" blaring out of every powerful stereo up and down the block, Easy Listening or "Elevator Music" was viewed as "destruction". Nowadays Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Martin Denny are revered as timeless legends, but not Andy, who impresses even the most open-minded critics with the same qualities as may be found in a package of Kroger Pepper Jack singles - square, white and cheesy.
I'm not so sure myself - I still like his 1950s Cadence 45s, and still wonder if that isn't Dorothy Collins orgiastically chanting "That's Good! Baaaaby that's Good!" in the background of "I Like Your Kind of Love." But on other occasions I certainly get it. There are some radio shows which I have planned simply by grabbing a stack of LPs and picking the best songs off each one. And one such batch once included a Columbia LP by Andy. I went to what looked like it might be the best tune, and couldn't even bear it: OHMIGODDD!! THIS IS HORRIBLE!! THE CHEESE - THE CHEESE - TURN IT OFF!!!
Poor Andy. I used to love his TV show - not that syndicated abomination from the 1980s which peppered our billboards coast to coast with thirty foot high depictions of his cheesy eminence in a tux - but the one back in the 1960s. Okay - for a moment imagine this: we finally do make contact with aliens from another galaxy. They are not hostile, and in fact music loving. So the scientists dish up a smorgasboard of music for the aliens ranging from Hildegard to Green Day. They devour most of it with calculated indifference, but the intergalactic aliens go hog wild over Andy Williams. They jump up and down with glee, jabber excitedly to one another as Andy's songs play, and begin to regard the images of his LP album covers with the sort of status reserved for a demigod.
Then one cold night, a gigantic horn-shaped vaccuum nozzle, like one in a Dr, Seuss illustration, protrudes from their spacecraft and sucks up every single Andy Williams
record, video and master tape from the face of the earth. And they speed away to another galaxy, never to be seem again.
This is what it will truly take for the work of Andy Williams to once again find appreciation in our lifetimes.
Uncle Dave Lewis
uncledavelewis@hotmail.com