The Pat Boone Of Evangelicals (mp3s)

Pat Boone just can't keep his mitts off other people's stuff.  In the 50's he ripped off Little Richard and other black artists to produce watered down rock and roll that white people could listen to without turning into chest-beating savages and destroying the fabric of the family and democracy.  Sound familiar?  Of course it does.  Every generation has its white sheep.  If you want to get all spiritual about it, you could argue that without the moralists there'd be no one to piss off.  And it's not just rock music that angers the moralists.  The Nose by Dmitri Shostakovich was condemned as an "anarchist's grenade" and buried in the Russian archives for 40+ years after its first performances.  Thank god, Pat Boone never tried opera and that he gave up heavy metal.

But I digress.

Pat Boone wasn't the first to rip off black artists.  Think back to the bi-polarity of the minstrel show where white people liked black music so much that they made themselves up to look like black people because they refused to allow blacks in the theater.  I remember hearing a story that Billie Holiday actually had to "dark up" for one gig because the owner thought she looked too white.  Go figuh.

And so it was only a matter of time that the amazing Rev. JM Gates got his act hacked.  Concern over copyright prevents me from posting his magnum opus, Death May Be Your Santa Claus (yes, it's as twisted as it sounds).  As a consolation, here's a YouTube version of his Hitler and Hell sermon.  You can pick up a bunch of his stuff on the marvelous Goodbye Babylon compilation.  Gates perfected the art of speak-singing (I'm sure someone coined a better term for it) his sermons racheting them up to a feverish pitch and kicking the Devil's pointy tailed ass back to Hell.

Enter Barney Pierce, "the son of a farmer and fourth of thirteen children".  I don't mean to sound too snarky here, after all, I'm pretty sure that Gates sold more records that Pierce did.  Where I'd go to find that out, I have no idea.  On the positive side, there's always some cross-over happening between cultures.  That's not to say that you should ever confuse James Brown's dancing with Mick Jagger's impression of James Brown's dancing.  Or that you should EVER play the Macarena EVER again.

The odd thing about Hell Bound Train is the intro, with its funereal organ and ghostly introductory doggerel.  From there on out, it's a straight shot to....well...Hell.  One of the charming features of the trip is the echo-chamber voice announcing the stops.  Dramatic!

Some reviews from the back of the album.

- "This is the sort of material that I would like to have for usage in a long play album"

- "On WFMX Radio, Statesville, SC, I sold 440 packages of records all because of sermonette, 'Hell Bound Train'."

- "I appreciate your...recorded sermons, 'Gossip' and "Hell Bound Train'.  You see, I'm a disc jockey; I play this record now and again on my  country music shows and almost every time it's played it brings requests for repeats."

So, listen up, you DJs - If you want requests for repeats, Barney Pierce is gonna get the job done.

Barney Pierce - Hell Bound Train

Barney Pierce - Gossip - "Sister Suspicion went over to see Mrs. Critic the other day..."  It's tempting to think that Monty Python referenced this with Mrs.Premise and Mrs. Conclusion but I somehow doubt it.

Barney Pierce - The Monkey Story - "It's easier for a man to make a monkey out of himself then it is for a monkey to make a man out of himself."  Obviously, Barney is a closet neo-Darwinist since otherwise he'd have said "...then it is for a monkey to make a man out of itself."  This piece also argues that monkeys wouldn't go out and kill other monkeys whereas man would contradicting the whole "men are better than animals" argument.  I'm just sayin'.

Barney Pierce - Country Philosphy - Sometimes you have the antimetabole and sometimes the antimetabole has you.

Barney Pierce - Mr. And Mrs Pride - They live on the High-Falutin' Avenue, in case y'all wanna stop by.

Comments

[Engel]

There was a Mott the Hoople song called Death May Be Your Santa Claus, I think.

[Clayton]

Here is a copy of "Death Might Be Your Santa Claus." Great post, by the way.

[Paul]

Thanks, folks!

And thanks, Clayton, for putting up a link to it. It's a completely unique and I'm almost grateful that it is.

[bee]

Speak-singing: http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/textp/Parlando.html

[Richard]

Off we go again attacking the man who was the World's First Rock'n'Roll Star.A man who had 3 Gold Records before Elvis set foot in the RCA building..
But lets get it into historical perspective.
In 1950 one Randy Wood set up a label in Gallatin Tennessee for the purpose of recording both black & white singers.His first signing was the black vocal group the Griffin Brothers who cut a single called Tra La La (they call me a blues singer)-which came to nothing
3 years later Pat Boone was recording country music for the Republic label in Nashville and after 3 singles he gave up as his calling at the time was to become an English teacher not to become the next Eddy Arnold.Where he still was after winning a TV talent show and where Randy Wood stepped in.
He recorded Pat on the song Tra La La but it was shelved only to apear as a non single track on the first album-which was not a proper album as such but a collection of As and Bs up to the moment.
The same thing happenned with Elvis-the first 2 albums had not been MADE as albums as this is how the music business operated then.
Its all pure envy-to have to admit to yourself Boone was the first RnR star and not only that but the first on Billboard and Cashbox.
And let's face it the Boone singles were superior to some of the black originals-his version of Tutti Frutti is to my mind the DEFINITIVE version-listen to that sax solo which seems to pick up an extension to the melody as it honks like a honker.Long Tall Sally is even better-its 24 bars worth of solid blasting which employs octave leaps.
As for the first Boone hit Two hearts-yes a cover of a song by a black group the Charms.A group who charted with a previous song THEY covered from another black group the Jewels (Hearts of Stone)
But they Charms weren't finished yet as they next covered a song by a white girl singer CATHY CARR (Ivory Tower).
Doesn't bother me though I love cover versions

[Clayton]

Pat Boone wrote Twixt Twelve and Twenty, so regardless of when he charted, or why or how, he sucks major blowhard Christian ass.

[Richard]

In the end Pat Boone laughs softly at rock critics who praise the major dickheads who ended up as dropped out drunked out druggies (fill in your own names starting with Hendrix,Joplin,Morrison etc>)
In the end Pat Boone WON

[Paul]

I was gonna say "nice try", Richard but then I went back and listened (again) to Boone's cover and the one thing that kept going through my head was Rev. Wright's comment about black people and white people clapping. Pat is a 1 and 3 clapper.

Another point - It's a fine sax solo. Sadly, Pat neither plays the sax nor sings anywhere close to sounding like that sax solo. Instead, it's a labored 1 and 3 performance that sounds as if every note had be transcribed. It's about as spontaneous and joyous as draining the Hoover Dam.

Clayton, if you haven't heard Boone doing "Wang Dang Taffy Apple Tango" then consider yourself blessed.

In the end, what you like is what you like and it's all subjective. Richard, I'll see if they let me post the muzak covers of Ramones songs that I have. You'll dig 'em, you hep cat, you.

[Richard]

Boone's Tutti Frutti was the B side in England of I'll be home-his first No 1 in the UK.Most of the singles were altered for our market.
Of all the versions I have of Tutti Frutti the Boone version stands out as the most DEFINITIVE.While Little Richard garbles his way through the song as if he can't wait to get it over with Boone takes it as medium paced and comes up with a damned exciting sound,just the right amount of echo and a knack of turning a non song into a song-here Boone was possibly the first reconstruction merchant.
Unlike many crooners who cashed in for 5 minutes (Perry Como,Andy Williams) Boone was always 100% committed to rock'n'roll-his 3rd album was full of covers of recent RnR hits-moving with the flow through the 60s and setting up his own label Ooga Mooga via which he discovered the LEAVES who cut the first version of Hey Joe.
Its also worth noting that when Boone made an album of remakes for K Tel he included Tutti Frutti

[Paul]

Obviously (or obliviously), you've got the hots for Pat Boone. We're in "accept the things I cannot change" territory. However, two words jump out at me - "crooner" and "K-Tel". I wasn't talking about "crooning". I was talking about balls-to-the-wall rock and roll which sprung from the seven deadly sins not the crisp, dry cleaned robes of a perfect Jesus and his perfectly coiffed flock.

You might also take a look at his discography and you'll see that he was NOT "100% committed" to rock. Of the five albums released in 1957, two were gospel (and I'm guessing not shake-the-rafters gospel) and one was Irving Berlin (and I'm guessing not shake-the-rafters Irving Berlin).

Your pal...

[Mike Flugennock]

Without the moralists, we'd have no one to piss off?

I'd beg to differ. What about the friggin' Liberals?

Hell, anyone can whack the rightists; they're an easy target for Lefties these days. I can sure tell ya', though, as an avowed real Leftie editorial cartoonist and video artist, nothing gives me a kick quite like pissing off stick-up-the-ass, Volvo-station-wagon-with-a-Free-Tibet-sticker-driving, sandals-with-socks-wearing, PBS-check-mailing, Democratic-Kool-Aid-drinking, sanitized-Gandhi-idolizing Liberals, man. Whee hahh.

Yer pal,
Mike Flugennock
Washington DC Indymedia Center

[Richard]

As Pat Boone was technically a country crooner -as were Eddy Arnold,Marty Robbins,Jerry Wallace etc-he was in a position at Dot to be launched as a pop singer as opposed to doing the stone country music he'd done at Republic so became the first RnR star.This is just telling it like it was-if Boone had signed with say Decca he'd have probably been launched as a country singer and been at the most no more than Bobby Helms.
Its also worth noting that Marty Robbins covered both the first Elvis song and Long Tall Sally.
Boone's Gospel music was inspirational ie Hymns-rather than in the vein of Martha Carson but he was the first to do a cover of A wonderful time up there.
Many artists thanked Boone for covering their songs-Fats Domino is the most obvious but another was Ray Vernon (brother of Link Wray) who was the first to do Remember you're mine and Ivory Joe Hunter whose 1948 song had topped the charts in the Boone revival 8 years later
The trouble is with all these damned rock critics who made a scapegoat of Boone have little idea of how it all worked when so much misinformation goes out
Dot was the right label as they did plenty of covers from the R & B charts esp Gale Storm,Fontane Sisters

[Paul]

You will never, ever convince me that Pat Boone rocked. Ever.

There is just nothing exciting or appealing to me about Boone. He took some great songs and fed them massive doses of Prozac to sell them to (white) people that couldn't stomach the originals. He is the Americanization of Chinese food. He's the genesis of American Idol where music takes a backseat to marketability.

And I'm just curious - if Boone was SO rock and roll, cutting kick ass versions of Little Richard, why wouldn't Decca have picked him up as the ulimate rock and roll star you're painting him as?

[Richard]

Good job Decca never signed him-he could have been as crude and boring as Johnny Carroll.His own take on Rock'n'Roll was to inject it with honesty not the contrived histrionics of Johnny Carroll

[Clayton]

The only person who respects Pat Boone more than Jimi Hendrix is Debbie Boone.

[Duncan Walls]

The only two songs I would ever consider owning by Pat Boone are 'Moody River" and 'Speedy Gonzalez': one a tear jerking country pop song and one a contrived novelty song (with Mel Blanc?)that borders on stereotyping Mexicans (actually IT DOES!)Both the last two times he charted seriously.
Oh, yeah,,,just remembered. His LP on Tetragrammaton in the late sixties wasn't half bad and the only LP by Pat worth seeking out with hip current covers and a great band. Must have been an mistake. (I would even say that having owned his 'Heavy Metal" CD for kitsch value)

[Richard]

Both of these songs had previous versions and were discovered by Boone,the latter on a Mexican trip.
I take it Mel Blanc is the guy with the "Puddy Tat" voice as the voice heard after the spoken intro is that of Jacqueline Ward who was a Dot recording artist a year later when she was renamed ROBIN Ward.At the time she sessioned for both the Anita Kerr Quartet and Ray Coniff but in 1963 became the Ultimate Pixie Girl.
The original single of Speedy Gonzales is shown on my Flickr group THE ORIGINAL VERSIONS

[Kim Scarborough]

Um, in what sense did Pat Boone "rip off" Little Richard? Are you suggesting that he failed to pay songwriting royalties to Richard? Or that he falsely claimed to have written the song himself? Because those are the only ways I can think of ripping somebody off in this sense, and I've not heard anybody claim that he did either of those things.

Or maybe you think it's just automatically a "rip off" when a white person performs a song written by a black person? Does it work the other way, too? Did Coltrane also "rip off" Rogers & Hammerstein? Did Louis Armstrong "rip off" Brecht & Weill?

Pat Boone's music sucks, and he got famous by doing crappy versions of better songs. But that doesn't mean he was dishonest, or did anything immoral, and it's obnoxious of you to suggest that he did.

[kent beuchert]

How is it possible to "rip off" Little Richard by covering a song that most white folk thought was destroyed by Little Richard's racist Black interpretation. Pat Boone could sing any kind of song and never once missed a key or a beat. Listen to friendly Pursusasion (a song for the movies by the same name with the immortal Gary Cooper, a man's man who makes wimpy Brad Pitt look like the hen-pecked wimp
that he is). Anyone who knows music and singing can tell you that Little Richard truly sucked. Fats Domino was the only Blacky singer back then worth a damn, and that includes the "talking singer" nat King Cole, who wasn't in the same league as either Boone or Como. Don't believe me? Listen to the "Wind Beneath My Wings"
by Como - his last recorded song, I believe, done when he was well over 70. And no, it's not a ripoff of Middler's crappy version. Also check out Como's Bridge Over Troubled Waters, a version that instructs Simon and Garfunkle how the song was meant to be sung. Listen a learn, if you folks have the ethics and honesty.
Or guts. I'm betting that you don't, at least based on the pure BS being written by pimply faced youth that sem to be attracted to junk blogs like this. Go to AmericanThinker.com if you want to improve your minds - they could certainly use it. A TRW senior member of the technical staff and recipient of their Chairman's Award for Innovation

[Johnny Blue]

Boone had feeling. Both for ballads and for swing and in his '64 album "Boss beat" he really rocks the way to "Kansas City".. He had voice, style and dignity. And his repertoire was suprisingly vast. He could do rock and roll, pop, blues, swing, even Irving Berlin's songs with same worthiness. "St. Louis Blues" and "Good Rockin Tonight" are closer to rock'n roll style of 50s than to Big Band pop-crooners of that time. Though "Tutti Frutti" and "Long Tall Sally" are pure rock and roll records of the year 1956. Sung with feeling and whole mastery of a Big Band singer who is swinging on a black rhythm.