January 8, 2010

  • SPIKED!

    From Friday's Asbury Park Press

    THE ORIGINAL SPIKE TV
    By Ed Kaz !
    Comedy Correspondent

    Subtlety.

    Now that’s a word you'll never see in the same sentence with Spike Jones. You will, however, see words like bombastic, over the top, noisy, and brilliantly outrageous. In the '40s and '50s Spike Jones and His City Slickers--a slap happy amalgam of musical anarchists--meticulously dismembered the American Popular Songbook on radio and records. As a listening experience, they were unparalleled, but you had SEE this to believe it. That situation was remedied in the 1950s when a smart (or crazy?) TV executive decided America needed an antidote to the sweet safe sounds of Lawrence Welk and Mitch Miller.



    Bring on Spike Jones. BOOM! CRASH! BANG! HONK!

    Jones' legacy of lunacy in TV’s Golden Age is captured in full low-def kinescope glory on a brand new DVD collection entitled "The Best of Spike Jones: The Funniest Show on Earth."

    This was a sonic bedlam that Frank Zappa or Trent Reznor could only dream of mimicking. For some, Jones and his "Musical Depreciation Revue" was the aural equivalent of an Exedrin Headache. For others, his swinging symphonies of controlled madness were pure nirvana. Firearms are used liberally for percussive effect. Horns honk and sirens sound at inappropriate moments. A specially trained goat would bleat in the key of C. Even a hiccup is used to great effect. Perhaps their greatest triumph--captured on the DVD--is "Cocktails for Two," which begins innocently enough with a silky smooth crooner, only to quickly devolve into gurgling noises and indescribably sonic bedlam. The TV show featured guest appearances from the likes of Eddy Arnold, Zasu Pitts, and kiddie show icon Howdy Doody, who along with his partners Buffalo Bob and Clarabelle the Clown perform their own version of a Spike Jones smash.

    If you want to see and hear an example of a true American musical genius (or if you just want to annoy your neighbors), put "The Best of Spike Jones" into your DVD player, and play it LOUD.


    DVD
    THE BEST OF SPIKE JONES
    Featuring Spike Jones, Billy Barty,
    Doodles Weaver, Sir Frederick Gas, and others.
    Infinity Entertainment/Hepcat
    Not Rated
    Available in stores or at
    www.infinity-entertainmentgroup.com

Comments (4)

  • i grew up listening to Spike Jones. he was one of my dad's favorites.

  • I was hoping your column in the Asbury Park Press today would be about tonight's appearance by Johnny Winter at the Stone Pony.  Now that's an interview I'd pay to read.

    Kaz:  Abbott & Costello or Laurel & Hardy?
    Johnny: Say what?

  • he looks like a wild guy

  • @doahsdeer -    I came THIS CLOSE to catching the Winter show, but laziness took over.  Also, Robert Gordon was playing the Brighton Bar in Long Branch...on the King's birthday no less.

    Again.  Lazy.  :)

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