Day: February 14, 2009

Yore Gang

Jackie Cooper is still alive, but another member of the “Our Gang” cast has died. Shirley Jean Rickert, who wasn’t one of the better known players, has passed away at age 82. She’s the girl with the curly blond locks, as seen in the memorable “Fly My Kite” from 1931. Here is the complete 20-minute 2-reeler.

[MEDIA=22]

Grandma was played by Margaret Mann, who was born in Scotland in 1868. Whenever I watched this installment of The Little Rascals, as the series was called for TV syndication, I didn’t understand why there was an electric switch on the utility pole, and I knew it had to be harder than it looked for a bunch of kids to saw down the pole.

But what I really want you to notice is the unique and wonderful music by Leroy Shield. It’s quirky, catchy, original and unforgettable to anybody who heard it while growing up. Yet incredibly, Shield received no screen credit from producer Hal Roach. In the 90’s a band from the Netherlands (Holland gets mentioned a lot here, huh?) called The Beau Hunks released some fabulous CD’s of Leroy Shield’s music. Here’s a delightful rendition of “Hide and Go Seek”, which is featured prominently towards the end of “Fly My Kite”.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/FEB/HideandGoSeek.mp3]

Segue the beguine

One of the things that came about with the rise of FM alternative album rock radio in the late 60’s was the search for perfect segues between songs. Finding that just-right combination — sometimes a tight cut, other times a fade-out going to a fade-in — was a thing of joy to a disk jockey.

Today, with streaming services like Music Choice on cable TV and TheRadio.com on the Web, if a transition between songs strikes my fancy I have no idea if it was done intentionally by a person, or by accident by a computer. The use of narrowly focused genres is, for me, really limiting. I wish every service offered a totally wide open, free-form channel. In the 60’s you’d hear Donovan followed by Frank Sinatra. Steppenwolf and Dionne Warwick, back to back. The thing that drove the all-time greatest morning man in radio, WABC’s Herb Oscar Anderson, crazy was the very thing I loved — variety, from hard to soft.

Tonight on the drive home I heard Wall of Voodoo’s “Mexico Radio” (which has always sounded to me like it was inspired by Adam Ant), and the old DJ brainwaves got going, and in my head I heard the perfect follow-up track. So I’ve put them together on the audio player.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/FEB/WallofK3.mp3]