What Kind Of A Man Reads Playboy?
When I started this blog I swore to myself it was going to be about looking forward – new concepts and trends in music, new technologies, etc. And definitely NO nostalgic nattering, droning on about how much better vinyl records are (though they ARE) or the “golden ages” of various styles of music. But we seem to be at a crossroads in today’s pop culture; I see many young up-and-coming bands taking a back-to-basics approach to production values and songcrafting, and the popularity of musical competitions on TV igniting a new interest in forgotten pop classics. New musical technologies are about making things simpler, to not impede the creative process. I remember this arc of the music cycle very well, because at the dawn of NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS, I had just moved to Toronto, seeking a new start. Freshly fired from a BostonKansasStyxSupertramp cover band, I wanted to shed that glossy pop and re-invent myself.
So this post is going to be about how sometimes leaping ahead takes you to a place further back than you started from…
I got a job at Roblan’s Warehouse, the main distributor for Sam The Record Man, thinking about the networking possibilities, as well as how great the fit for my skillset. That didn’t matter- Sam wanted cheap, didn’t even care if you spoke english, most of my fellow bottom rung-ers were Chinese (If you ever wondered why your special order from Sam’s was wrong….) My only stroke of luck was that I was hired just prior to summer holidays, and demonstrating a knowledge of records got me rotated through the various departments as a temp replacement. The first adventure was “the Returns Basement”…. (spoken in a contemptuous voice, implying a Stygian crypt of uncleanliness)
Surprise! Matt & Dave were very friendly, funny cats who had converted a dank cement basement into a colorful tribute to the history of vinyl. The walls were covered everywhere with all the records that featured the female form. Herb Alpert, Ray Conniff, Boots Randolph, Roxy Music, and hundreds of unknown lounge lizards who had discovered marketing rule number one;
(drum roll) SEX SELLS
But it wasn’t just the girls, these guys could discuss the relative merits of Acker Bilk and Ace Cannon, in the same breath as Killing Joke or Joy Division. I had never met such musical non-partisans before- they had a deep appreciation for ALL music, and could intelligently discuss the commonalities that linked Engelbert Humperdinck and Adam Ant, or the classical themes that appeared in both Beatles and Black Sabbath. They showed me that everything old is new again – one night we got invites to a record release party for Jack De Kyzer’s Rockabilly band “The Bop Cats” (The Stray Cats were currently no 1) and we wound up in the A&R guy’s office listening to the REAL stuff; Sonny Burgess, Vernon Taylor,et al.
(much, much later that night, after a few ‘shish bowls-full, he started pulling out all his ‘slush pile’ demo tapes. All the wanna-bes and earnest hopefuls that should have considered a career in comedy instead. Laughed until it hurt…)
That same week, Wayne Kramer’s Air Raid played at Larry’s Hideaway and blew the doors off with a heavy rock version of the Supreme’s “Stop, In The Name Of Love”. Saw tons of new/ modern bands too (Kinetic Ideals, Breeding Ground, L’Etranger, etc.), went to auditions seeking that SOUND no-one else was doing (paging Lorenzo St Dubois !), but the mirror had been shattered. In every Talking Heads song I heard Sergio Mendes & Brazil 66, in every Bauhaus lurked Ziggy Stardust. And when The B52’s “Rock Lobster” infected all of Toronto later that summer, all I could think was:
WHAT KIND OF A MAN READS PLAYBOY?
June 3, 2014 at 8:10 am
I vaguely remember Jack DeKyzer…he had Blue Rodeo in one of his videos, somehow.
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June 3, 2014 at 1:34 pm
He’s doing quite well now as Roots-Rock/Blues, trying for Colin Linden’s crown as “Canada’s Ry Cooder” CBC2’s “Sat Nite Blues” has his stuff in regular rotation.
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June 3, 2014 at 6:07 pm
Well good on him. It’s hard to make a living of it.
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June 3, 2014 at 9:21 pm
Never would have believed it back then, I thought The Bop Cats were way too obviously a clone of The Stray Cats. “Train Called Rock ‘N Roll” was a real barn-burner though, wish he still did it.
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June 3, 2014 at 2:58 pm
This is a superb weblog, would you be involved in doing an interview about just how you developed it? If so e-mail me!
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June 3, 2014 at 6:23 pm
The female form? I think I saw a picture of one once …
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June 3, 2014 at 8:59 pm
Aaah yes, the bra & undie page of the Sears catalogue..
😀
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June 4, 2014 at 4:33 am
Amen.
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June 6, 2014 at 1:34 am
Heard a stand-up comedian one time wistfully remembering the Sears catalogue and its effect on his masturbatory fantasies. Of course, he said, now we have the internet, so all we have to do is go to http://www.sears.com...
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June 6, 2014 at 4:50 pm
Ancient coot that I am, my pubescent years lacked the veritable ocean of porn that is the internet. The drawings of headless torsos in underwear Sears mail-order dept.sent us were all we had. God BLESS Larry Flynt
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June 6, 2014 at 12:51 pm
Poor Moe Sizlak and the Sears catalogue!
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June 6, 2014 at 5:08 pm
MoiHaHaHa! I love that, perfect contribution, thank you for posting 😀
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June 7, 2014 at 10:15 am
My pleasure – anytime Simpsons seasons 3-7 can be referenced, I’ll be there!
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June 4, 2014 at 1:27 am
Hello! I would wish to supply a large thumbs up for your exceptional info you can have here about this post. I’ll be coming back to your weblog internet site for further soon.
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June 6, 2014 at 1:34 am
We all just read Playboy for the articles, you know.
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June 6, 2014 at 5:06 pm
That’s what I’m mocking with the picture above (dontcha love my shoes? and my retro coffee-table HiFi?)
I always dug the “Playboy All-Star Band” polls when they came out. I still have the one with caricatures of Keith Emerson on Organ, Stevie Wonder on Clavinet, Tower of Power Horns and Duane Allman on guitar.
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June 6, 2014 at 1:35 am
We all need a Matt & Dave in our lives. You were fortunate to meet them.
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June 6, 2014 at 5:14 pm
Watch for more posts about them labelled “Tales From The Vinyl Basement”
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June 6, 2014 at 6:44 pm
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June 9, 2014 at 9:38 pm
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