365 Days #100 - Introducing The Unique Keyboard Sounds of Helen & Dick Bouchard (mp3s)

MP3:
1. Nobody Wears A Frown In Tweekertown (1:27)
2. At The End Of The Rainbow Is Tweekertown (2:39)
3. Spanish Flea (1:44)

This LP is mostly notable for "Nobody Wears A Frown In Tweekertown," a theme song for "the soon to be released TV cartoon series - Tweekertown." Anybody ever heard of this show? As far as I can tell, it never got off the ground. I think the concept has lots of potential, though! So if there's any aspiring animators out there who want to make a pilot, here's a great theme song all ready to go! Also included is the more introspective "At The End Of The Rainbow Is Tweekertown." The rest of the record is made up of cover tunes. I've included their version of "Spanish Flea" for good measure.

- Contributed by: Pea Hix

Images: Cover

Media: LP
Album: Introducing The Unique Keyboard Sounds of Helen & Dick Bouchard
Label: Cadenza
Catalog: BST 137
Credits: Helen & Dick Bouchard
Date: late 1960s

Comments

[strictly kev]

awesome Pea, your entries are definitely the ones I'm digging this year.

[Andy]

I think "Tweakertown" should set in a small north Idaho city; Lewiston, for example.

[Bat Guano]

There's a small trailer park in southwest Michigan known as...

Okay, I'm not the first person to notice that this is a very amusing unintentional drug reference? "Tweaker" is slang, on the streets, for a methamphetamine abuser, if you don't know. That makes the sped-up sound of this all the more hilarious.

[pea hix]

the bouchards actually come from my hometown, san diego, which is recognized as sort of the unofficial ground zero for tweek culture, specifically the suburb of clairemont. the basic historical reason being that meth was invented by the us army to keep their pilots up all night for bombing runs. after the war, large amounts of soldiers ended up naturally settling in san diego, and clairemont was one of the new large suburbs built to accomodate the new influx. not surprisingly, many of these servicemen continued their meth habits, and passed the addiction on to their kids, and it spread far and wide from there. to this day, clairemont is notorious for being a real-life "tweekertown!"

[BiggerJ]

Were there any lyrics on or in the cover? Although the first two songs (the ones from the never-made show) have no lyrics besides the obvious tweekertweeks, they sound very much like lyrics were written for them (the fact that their titles are singable where each main verse would begin makes this clear). I feel a little sad that the lyrics to these delightful songs may be lost to the world forever.

[pea hix]

i agree that the tunes are written in such a way as to at least fit the titles of the songs, but there are no lyrics in the liner notes. my guess is these were probably done on spec, with an anticipation of proper lyrics at some point. if anyone wants to volunteer some suggestions... :)

[Farley]

Pea Hox: Meth was invented by the Japanese (first synthesized by Akira Ogata in 1919), however it's true that the U.S. armed forces utilized meth in WWII, so did the Japanese, the Germans, etc.

The 'Tweakertown' mp3s are awesome.

[Jean-Paul Bouchard]

As a vault creeping record collector, lover of the odd and wonderful, and most importantly as a Bouchard. I am both proud to have heard it and grateful for the post. Its interesting to find an amazing artist from way back when..intentionally on unintentually making music works that strike straight to the heart with a distant and much younger relative in New York City.

cheers.