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From '50s NYC clubland, a Yma Sumac-inspired version of "Babalu" by jazz/calypso singer Phyllis Branch.
Author Archives: Little Danny
Beyond Boettcher
Curt Boettcher, ‘60s wunderkind producer and arranger, has gotten some attention at Office Naps before. The creative force who infused songs like the Association’s “Cherish” and Eternity’s Children’s “Mrs. Bluebird” with echt-Aquarian sensibilities, Boettcher played no small role in the … Continue reading
Primitiva
Some raw, wild instrumental combo rock ‘n’ roll from the late ‘50s this week. Contemporaries, these three selections embody the type of sound that would keep rock ‘n’ roll vital and interesting before the British Invasion. While there’s no highly … Continue reading
The desperate hours
This week we look at a few representative examples of a wonderfully dark, slow strain of post-War rhythm and blues. The lyrical content has always hovered around the same subjects – lost love, deep loneliness, obsession, suicide, death – a … Continue reading
Exotica mix
I have a new exotica mix (Time (Is Endless)) currently featured at online magazine Triple Canopy: Time (Is Endless) Since early 2008, Triple Canopy has been bringing together writing from essayists, researchers and cultural observers with work with contemporary artists … Continue reading
The Lonely Beat: 100 themes from the Naked City
The Exotica Project’s long-promised next phase is finally up and running: The Lonely Beat: 100 themes from the Naked City The Lonely Beat’s format should be familiar, but the collection focuses on post-War music inspired by, or evocative of (sometimes … Continue reading
Party!
A point I like to make endlessly around here – and I’m far from the first to do so – is that rock ‘n’ roll didn’t cease to exist in the few years between its first explosion in the ‘50s … Continue reading
The Space Race
The Soviet Union’s successful launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite in October of ‘57 was just one of several early culminations in what had already been a long-simmering struggle for space between the Soviets and the United States. Sputnik was … Continue reading
The teen art of lonesome
Heartbreak and loneliness, as topics, had already been beaten to death in teenage popular music on the eve of the British Invasion. But that wasn’t necessarily the problem. Rather, it was that heartbreak and loneliness were always so poorly and … Continue reading
