Today is Dave Brubeck’s birthday – he’s 91 years old.

The jazz man was born in California and raised by a cattle rancher and a music teacher. I think if him as a thoroughly American musician – dedicated to freedom of expression, but willing and able to please the audience. Just the right combination of inventiveness and show business.

Here he is in a perfectly ’60’s-type setting (the year was 1961) performing with the quartet on Paul Desmond’s “Take Five”.

There was a moment in 1951 when we could have lost Dave Brubeck and all he brought to our culture. This is from a PBS website devoted to Brubeck and his music:

While working a gig in Hawaii, Dave had a swimming accident and nearly broke his neck. “I was swimming with my kids on Waikiki Beach and my last famous words were, ‘watch daddy,'” Brubeck recalled. “And I dove into a wave and there was a sandbar right in front of me. And rather than hit it with my face, I turned my head and it almost broke my neck, and I thought I was gonna be paralyzed. I had to go to the Army hospital and stayed there for twenty-one days in traction and they were able to pull my neck back.” While lying in traction at a local hospital, he lost his job and his trio.

I’m both amused and horrified at this: “… my famous last words were ‘watch daddy.'” Ooof. How many pour unfortunates have gone to the great beyond with that exact set up? And what sort of person would you become if you had actually watched your daddy dive into the afterlife while showing off for you at the beach. I’m so grateful Dave Brubeck survived, but it does make me wonder.

What tricks can you do to impress the kids? And would you want to leave the world doing that particular thing?

I’ve been sifting through some lists of Novelty Songs lately. I will state unequivocally that the Novelty Song is a worthy musical genre that has faded in popularity in recent years, much to our detriment.

That’s assuming that I know what a novelty song is, and that I have even the slightest clue as to what passes for popular in 2011. Two questionable assumptions.

To me, a novelty song is an intentionally comic number that may or may not be a parody. They sometimes have weird instruments, strange voices, silly noises, and even sound effects. A novelty song can become popular, but only a very short while.

Some novelty tunes have dated references but timeless appeal. They can be wordy and quite complicated, like this one.

Novelty numbers can also be weirdly polished and borderline inappropriate, like this one.

And then, of course, there’s everything Allan Sherman ever did.

But one thing all novelty songs seem to have in common – they’re not today’s music.

What’s a novelty song to you?

A friend sent this video. I find it fascinating that people will go to such lengths to create something unique. I admit I’m impressed by the patience and craftsmanship on display here. But the question that kept coming back to me while I watched was “why?” Think of skill required and the time invested. The music has been performed more beautifully by others – this is a glorified player piano in the woods, admittedly inspired and visually delightful, but there has to be another reason.

And there is. You’ll see it at the end.

So all this careful planning and detailed effort was really about creating a trap to capture your attention. And the ultimate goal was to get you to feel an irresistible urge to own a cellphone that looks like a big wooden kidney bean. The marketing strategy was to amaze people so they would start sharing the video online, and it worked! At least I passed it along to you, and you may share it with someone else, so I guess we fell for it completely. But I’m unashamed. Really, whether the purpose is creating great art or simply moving the product, I admire the work that went into turning this wild idea into something real.

Here’s another video showing some of the behind-the-scenes activity.

Are you an idea person, or the one who brings that idea to life?
Or is it possible to be both?

Today is the birthday of Hank Williams in 1923. He only recorded 66 songs under his own name in the short time between his emergence at age 25 and his death at 29. Thirty seven of those recordings became hits. That’s 56% – a hit-to-miss radio that I suppose will never be equalled. It amazes me that I can sit here in 2011 and at my leisure call up Hank Williams to perform one song on video while he is heard singing another. I doubt that Hank could have imagined such a result when he stood in the studio and looked into the glassy eye of that TV camera.

The Hank story is one of the saddest among the endless volumes of tragedy that fill music’s dark library of biographies. Near the end he was drugged, in pain and unreliable – missing show dates and losing his gig with the Grand Ol’ Opry, singing in beer halls in Texas and Louisiana.

Hank Williams had a great talent. He made the Lovesick Blues famous, though it’s one of the few songs he did that he didn’t write. If he had managed to hold things together, he could have had a much longer career but probably not the same legendary profile.

It’s odd how well we remember the ones who crash and burn.

Live long and stay obscure. Die young and be remembered. Your choice?

It’s Labor Day Weekend. Apologies for the late post, baboons. I slept in. I was up and walking around, but my brain was not “online”.

Trail Baboon will take a brief hiatus for the holiday and return with a fresh post on Tuesday.

Here’s a song for Labor Day – the famous union activist rallying song, “Joe Hill”.
References to this tune usually mention Joan Baez, and there’s no doubt, she’s great.

But for my money, the quintessential version of Joe Hill is this one, done by the incomparable Paul Robeson.

Interesting that in this time of diminishing influence for organized labor, a new book is out about Joe Hill. William A. Adler’s biography of the Union icon has been reviewed favorably in the New York Times (pinkos!), and with cool reserve by the Wall Street Journal (fat cats!).

Invariably the headline that goes with any review is that this new book presents evidence that Hill, a labor activist executed for murdering a Utah grocer in a botched robbery, was framed.

Maybe. Maybe not. Why didn’t he use the evidence to exonerate himself? One argument is that he realized his fame as a martyr was more valuable to the union cause than his own life. Hill is said to have encouraged his executioners to “Aim” and “Fire”!

It’s hard to imagine anyone taking such a dispassionate view of a fatal choice, but if I knew that cueing the firing squad would eventually get Paul Robeson to sing an unforgettable song about me, I might understand.

Who would you choose to sing the heroic ballad about you?

The lyrical half of the legendary songwriting team Leiber and Stoller, Jerry Leiber passed away yesterday in Los Angeles at the age of 78.

What a shame, but what a great life he had, doing work he loved with his friend (and sometimes adversary).

Leiber was the lyricist, but he and Stoller worked as a team, sometimes quite quickly. Here’s a great exchange from a 1990 Rolling Stone interview:

Leiber: “Hound Dog” took like twelve minutes. That’s not a complicated piece of work. But the rhyme scheme was difficult. Also the metric structure of the music was not easy. “Kansas City” was maybe eight minutes, if that. Writing the early blues was spontaneous. You can hear the energy in the work.

Stoller: In the early days we’d go back and forth note for note, syllable for syllable, word for word in the process of creating.

Like telepathy?

Leiber: We’re a unit. The instincts are very closely aligned. I could write, “Take out the papers and the trash” [“Yakety Yak,” by the Coasters], and he’ll come up with “Or you don’t get no spendin’ cash.”

Everybody has a favorite Leiber and Stoller song, maybe several. There will be a lot of attention placed on “Hound Dog” and the work they did with Elvis, but my favorite from the L & S oeuvre is this one.

Here’s what Jerry Leiber said when asked what makes “Stand By Me” so appealing.

“It’s the bass pattern. There are lots of great songs. But that is an insidious piece of work. It can put a hole through your head. It’s not a great song. It’s a nice song. But it’s a great record.”

Here’s another favorite – the first act ending sequence from the Leiber & Stoller musical, “Smokey Joe’s Cafe’.” Simplicity and humor make Leiber’s lyrics stand out.

Song lists and accolades are everywhere today. What’s your favorite Leiber and Stoller song?