h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You asked me to look at your BBVD entry a few days ago and I completely forgot about it until just now So, do you want the full-on Gosho PR treatment?

Well, it looks really very good and there's little that I can find to suggest in the way of improvement. It might be helpful in getting a grasp of the band's timeline if you could hint at when Scotty Morris began forming the band. You might also want to add a footnote to the effect that spectator shoes are called co-respondent shoes in the UK http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=co+respondent+shoes&btnG=Search+Images Is that the same thing?

I'm not sure about the first footnote. Lounge music was originally music which was played and sung in the lounges of Las Vegas hotels, rather than the 'big room', which is where the Rat Pack would be playing. We showed a documentary about it at the Drafthouse last year. I can't locate a link to the page for it but it's got to be in there somewhere. If only I could remember the password for the admin site at the Drafthouse I could go in there and look it up These days, lounge is more likely to mean 50s and 60s easy listening music. I don't think swing, or even retro swing, is an offshoot of lounge. It's more closely associated with jazz.

Well, of course I want the full treatment. I'd feel cheated, otherwise

Co-respondent shoes! I'd never have guessed. But I was concerned that 'spectators' wouldn't translate. Thanks!

On the timeline, I've included the best information that I can find, which is that he started gathering the band somewhere around 89 or 90. Given that most bands need time to get some recognition under their belts before self-producing and their first independent release came out in 94(?), is it enough to assume that most of the formative stuff happened between 89 and 91, and the recognition bit came between 91 and 93? Those dates are just guesses because the information isn't readily available. Does it need to be more specific in the entry?

The lounge/swing bit is a little fuzzy. I don't know if you read any of the other PR comments. Originally the footnote said that swing gets "lumped" with lounge a lot these days (and it does), and I think the first PR comment was from someone who had thought they were the same thing. I sat on that for a few days and decided that a lot of what the Rat Pack did fell into both categories, and there are lots of artists that do the same. Much of their music is considered lounge for the specific songs they use (standards) or the environment they originated from, as you suggest, but what makes them swing (or not) is the arrangement. Am I making sense?

On the other hand, it may just be that I have made these connections based on my own experience. The station that I listen to for this kind of stuff (and, coincidentally, where I found this particular band) bill themselves as 'jazz, swing, blues and lounge'. Jazz is a big, big mixed bucket of styles, most of which I've realised I don't really like. Blues likewise. So it's my assumption that this station must play a very specific variety of those genres. On the other hand, they play a wide variety of lounge, and quite a bit of retro swing. So it's possible that I've derived a skewed definition of these styles based on my listening patterns.

allmusic.com appeared to support my ideas, but I could have been reading it only for what I wanted to find (similar to hearing only what you want to hear )

Is the footnote meant to be saying that swing is a sub-genre of lounge, or the kind of stuff the Rat Pack sing? It reads to me like it's saying swing, but swing is definitely more jazz-related than it is lounge-related. Swing was around in the 30s and 40s before there ever was such a thing as lounge. We had a separate swing section at Cheapo where we kept artists like BBVD, but all the classic swing bands like Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman etc were filed in jazz. The lounge section had artists like Esquivel, James Bee, Bert Kaempfert and Yma Sumac.

You're right, I wasn't thinking from that direction. Meanwhile, I think if you ask most people what 'lounge' music is, they would think of Frank, Dean and Sammy. Much of their more popular music, though, was done with big bands. There's a lot of crossover.

What about this for the FN:
"Unlike standard lounge music, to which it is somewhat related (perhaps as a second or third cousin), where there are endless versions of all the Rat Pack's songs by every new Mike, Pete and Harry."

We need a Cheapo up here. I have to dig through the "Rock and Pop" section for *all* of this stuff at our local used outlet.

To be honest I'd ditch the whole lounge reference. I've never connected swing, or retro swing, with lounge (or retro lounge ). Swing is for people who like to dress up in zoot suits and do the lindy hop, while lounge is for people who like cocktails and south sea islands and 1950s decor.

Okay. It's gone.

I appreciate your help, Gosho. Any other comments?

Yeah.

You're lookin' particularly gorgeous today

Flattery will get you everywhere.

I know

Enjoying your holiday?

So far

I spent the first two days doing very little except sitting on the sofa and remastering some of my bootlegs. Yesterday evening I went down to the local supermarket and bought a few bit and pieces I'm going to need today. I bought a leg of lamb a few days ago so I could have a proper Sunday roast with all the trimmin's (roast spuds, gravy, onion sauce) today, and I'm going to bake an apple pie in my new pie dish. I also bought a pound of butter and this morning I made some clarified butter. That stuff that the Galloping Gourmet always used to swear by. Until he got all boring and health-conscious

Oh, and I got some milk so that I could make custard for my pie Soy milk just doesn't make good custard.

Tomorrow or Tuesday I think I'm gonna check out that supermarket where they sell the British foods (BV says they got Ty-Phoo tea there). I've also got to make next week's bar schedule either tomorrow afternoon or Tuesday morning, depending on when I get all the necessary info about next week's movies. I might go and see the new Woody Allen film too.