Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Shel Talmy 1937--2024

Oh, damn. This guy produced sooooo many of my all-time favorite songs and albums. Classics by The Who, The Kinks, The Easybeats...the list is semi-endless.

Hell, if for nothing else than this 1966 masterpiece of an LP...

...he would deserve to be immortal.

I should add that -- and I was unaware of it until the other day -- he was also at the helm for this little gem, which has a special place in my heart, sentimental old fluff that I am.

Doesn't seem like his style, per se -- you know, like "My Generation" or "You Really Got Me" et al -- but just beautifully, beautifully crafted. A gorgeous pop record.

Okay, now I have to tell a story.

When that Chad and Jeremy song came out originally (in 1964 -- wotta year!), my long time friend and bandmate (of Weasels fame) Allan Weissman was particularly known, at least amongst our high school chums, for his song parodies. I can't remember all the hits Al rewrote satirically, but I recall he did a particular classic, featuring our 11th grade science teacher Mr. Dubin, which was set to the tune of Petula Clark's "Downtown."

Anyway, Al was later inspired to write a take-off on "A Summer Song," which we actually performed in public on a couple of occasions, and it still cracks me up. The revised lyrics (and sing along, won't you?) were...

Planes
Crashing into mountainsides
With a loss of many lives
That's what I like

Soft
Areas of baby's heads
Hit them there and they'll be dead
That's what I like

They say that all good things
Must end someday
Governments must fall
But don't you know
That I like it more
When I read in the news...
That someone got mugged last night
It serves them right

So when your aunt
Goes and takes her landlord's life
And does it with a butcher knife
That's what I like
That's what I like...

Thank you.

And thank you, Shel Talmy. You did good, sir.

10 comments:

mistah charley, sb, ma, phd, jsps said...

1/"Summer Song" hasn't crossed my auditory threshold in the 21st century, and probably not for several decades before that, but the parody words had me "hear" it clear as a bell - metaphorically speaking.

2/My mental filing system has Chad and Jeremy next to Peter and Gordon - now that Chad and Gordon are gone, Wikipedia tells us:

Since 2018, Clyde has been performing with Peter Asher of Peter & Gordon fame.

Anonymous said...

Re: Weird Allan (not to be confused with satirist Weird Al). Perhaps the lyrics you shared inspired Mr. Zevon, notably for Excitable Boy. The sentiment (or lack of) seems very similar. :-)

- Paul in DK

Allan Rosenberg said...

Re: Shel Talmy

It's amazing how many of my all-time classics he produced. He helped create the Rock & Roll we loved.

As to Allan Weissman:

I remember you guys singing the Chad & Jeremy parody. It's songs like this with Allan's lyrics that helped shape my sense of humor. Thanks a lot Allan!!!

Captain Al

ChrisE said...

:-) Do you think if some enterprising record company put together a best-of set on Shel's productions, they could call it "Talmy Something Good" ?

steve simels said...

HEY NOW!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Allan could go pretty dark sometimes in those days.

Jai Guru Dave

Anonymous said...

The Kinks were a favorite band of mine in the early 70s. Face to Face was an interesting LP
However, Muswell Hillbillies was one of the most creative both artistically and especially musically as well as being well recorded.
They covered mental illness, alcoholism,
Anorexia and classicism with Rays tongue in cheek presentation.
I enjoyed the six times I saw the Kinks perform in concert in the Boston area in the early seventies.
I also enjoyed your music reviews in stereo review during that time and the fact that you to were a Kinks fan

Guypinot said...

And...related, but not about music...Jeremy shows up in Marianne Faithful's (2nd, I think) memoir as having ended up on the same overnight train trip, and her telling the world that he was really great in bed. (This gets mentioned by Peter when introducing Jeremy in one of the YouTube clips of their shows that are about.)

Anonymous said...

It all comes back and bites you in the end.

danny1959 said...

I know that his production of Love Too Late by The Sorrows was considered troubled, but I love that album anyway.