Thursday, January 21, 2010

In Everyone's Life, There's a Bummer of '67

You know, as a rule, I try to post mp3s here of stuff with some -- uh what's the phrase I'm groping for? -- genuine musical interest.

Okay, okay, except for that Beatle Barkers stuff.

Not today, however.

Seriously, this is just heinous, although I think it's worth posting for extra-musical reasons. So, from the depths of the Summer of Love, please enjoy(?) Marcia Strassman and her deeply inauthentic ode to the inner DFH in all of us -- "The Flower Children."




Yes, as we mentioned last week, that is indeed the same Marcia Strassman who later found fame and fortune as Gabe Kaplan's wife Julie on Welcome Back, Kotter. And who better to deliever the immortal lyrics "The flower children/really know what's right/And they're just trying to tell this world/that there's no need to fight"?

Really -- who?

And here's the dirty little secret: To me, and (this has been scientifically proven) to every other straight Jewish guy of my generation, Julie Kotter was, how you say, fantasy fodder.



C'mon -- you don't think we were watching that stupid show for Ron Palillo, do you?

In any case, I'm sure you'll forgive me for including this example of Strassman's early, funny work.

13 comments:

steve simels said...

Note to self: Absolute period dreck featuring B-list 70s TV stars less interesting to readers than hoped.
:-)

Gummo said...

I had that song on a Rhino cassette called Summer of Love. It stood out among the rest like a turd in the punch bowl.

Obviously written by some Hollywood hacks who thought 'this is what the kids want now, baybeee!'

steve simels said...

She really sounds like a nice suburban Jewish girl you knew from high school.

Noam Sane said...

Yes, Julie was hott. Her role in my life was later replaced by Billie from Lou Grant.

steve simels said...

Ooh, I'd forgotten about her.

Don't think she made any records, though...
:-)

FD13NYC said...

What about good old Patty Duke's Don't Just Stand There. The theme to the TV show was a bit kooky too.

TMink said...

Wow, that is really bad. I think I need to gargle.

Trey

jackd said...

Steve, it's less lack of interest than it is trust in your judgment.

A suggestion for your other blog: If Welcome Back, Kotter launched John Travolta's career, do we owe the show A) gratitude, B) forgiveness, C) undying enmity, D) other?

Unknown said...

Although I wasn't particularly keen on the song, I liked the unintentional (and very mild) swearing in the first line of the song:

"The flower children are blooming everywhere."

In America that's innocent enough, but in England the word "blooming" is an exclamation, as in: "Cor blimey darlin', it's bloomin' cold tonight."

It's very mild swearing on par with other old-fashioned terms such as "egad", "zounds", "gadzooks", that kind of thing -- all the kinds of swear words I prefer to use other than the other more common and overrused ones.

So, rather than thinking that Marcia was marvelling at how all the flower children around her were blossoming into wonderful people, I thought she was complaining about how many flower children there were bothering her. (And if she was, I just hope all those flower children finally left Marcia alone.)

Anonymous said...

I'd do her, bad song or not!

ROTP(lumber)

dave™© said...

C'mon -- you don't think we were watching that stupid show for Ron Palillo, do you?

I guess I should take this opportunity to point out that in high school, my wife had a crush on Ron Palitto.

Honest to God...

Dave said...

Yes, M.S. was gorgeous, but until a few minutes ago, I remembered her face and not her unfortunate hit.

I've always loved Uni Records's label, and what an interesting roster they had. I guess Uni made most of its money from Neil Diamond and Elton John, but they also released cool singles by the Strawberry Alarm Clock, Hugh Masekela, the Foundations, Fun and Games (remember "Grooviest Girl in the World"?), Desmond Dekker & the Aces (how did this reggae classic end up on Uni?), Betty Everett, John Fred and His Playboy Band, Love Unlimited Orchestra, and latter-day Brian Hyland and Andy Kim.

Someone at Uni had a real musical sense, and eclectic taste, so unlike most of MCA's misbegotten forays into music. But I have no idea who was running the show.

jeff said...

according to wikipedia, she is dying of metastasized breast cancer that has spread to her bones.