Re: What Is ...?--(mostly playful) musings

[elkahn <elkahn...>]

Robert:

Easy: Neil Sedaka and the Tokens. (How about Jay Black and the Americans?)

Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote BABY IT'S YOU, recorded by the
Shirelles, ca. 1961.

Can you send me the brownie in a PDF file?

Eliott Kahn


On Thu, 24 Jun 1999, Robert Cohen wrote:

> Since I too find this exchange often provocative and often somewhat funny, I 
> guess I'm pleased at having unexpectedly prompted it (that is, w/ Bob's 
> initial prompting).  A few not very vital thoughts:  Bob's "Does it have 
> Jewish significance?" (as opposed to "Is it Jewish music?") question is a 
> very useful distinction--I'll have to keep that in mind (pedagogically and 
> otherwise).  In re same:  I think the way in which Gershwin, as a very 
> self-conscious outsider (and wannabe not), appropriated American/Black 
> musical idioms into his work is very much of Jewish significance, whatever 
> we make of (i.e., in this, Jewish, context) the music itself.  I don't know 
> if we can say the same of Dylan, though, _musically,_ in an outsider sense, 
> but maybe; I don't, FWIW, see Carole King (nee Klein, BTW) or Burt Bacharach 
> at all; and I don't even (thankfully?, he says philistinely) _know_ the 
> music of most of the others!  Dylan surely does have Jewish "stuff" going on 
> in some amount of his work, though, and I'd, at least, find it interesting 
> if people wanted, when they have a chance (i.e., when it would be fun and 
> there's something more important and less enjoyable that they _should_ be 
> doing--see Robert Benchley's priceless essay on this), to share their 
> thoughts on this. (Stephen [sp?] Pickering wrote a book on it.)  _I,_ FWIW 
> (no doubt little), have my personal nominee for the most Jewish line he ever 
> wrote--a free brownie or cupcake for whoever can identify it!  Oh, and 
> Willie Nelson actually _did_ record a Jewish (?) song, Kinky Friedman's very 
> moving "Ride 'Em Jewboy," which somebody on the list, no doubt w/ the best 
> of intentions, at some point flamed as an anti-S. or self-hating song, which 
> it surely isn't. Jewish music?  Even if Willie N. sings it? Well, despite my 
> having sort-of (re-)started this, maybe, a la Pete Seeger (in re folk 
> music), it doesn't really matter.  Or maybe, a la our Bob, it's surely of 
> Jewish _significance,_ anyway....Final (thoroughly unimportant) musing:  In 
> re the Shirelles, there _were_ _some_ Jewish doo-woppers. (I realize that 
> Spector bands don't really count as such, but I'm thinking contemporaneous.) 
>   So another cupcake (I'm not sure how I'll redeem this) if you can name a 
> NYC-based doo-wop group that had at least two Jewish members!  Question:  If 
> you tax-deduct a proportion of your computer usage, can any time spent 
> reading or responding to this missive count as remotely 
> work/professional-related?  Oh well, it's summer--rlc
> 
> 
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