DIG THIS WITH BILL MESNIK AND RICH BUCKLAND- THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS

THE NERVE REUNION

This is Bill Mesnik of the Splendid Bohemians with a musical tale that could Hit A Nerve with you:

Sometimes life surprises you, and families are created and sustained where you don’t expect. I belong to a garage band brotherhood, consisting of five late-life Peter Pans, swaddled in the moon-glow of teenage rock n roll dreams, and dedicated to the proposition that all musical talent, although not necessarily created equal, can restore rejuvenation to those who practice together. 

We call ourselves The Nerve (as in: “of all the…”), and we are: Steve Rockwell (guitar and vocals); Rees Pugh (drums and vocals); Preston Maybank (bass and vocals); myself - they call me “Professor” (guitar and vocals); and our harmonica emeritus Bob Pescovitz, who relocated to Bellingham, WA. We’ve played in bars, bowling alleys, house parties, and street fairs….. for over 25 years, and I love them dearly. 

When I retired and moved and hour and a half away, I thought, “Ok, that’s the end of that”, and even when our eternally optimistic leader Rocky vowed to organize a jam to anoint my new garage I have to admit I doubted that it would ever happen. But, lo, the waters parted last weekend and the Nerve reunited. 

I offer this document as proof that miracles, even ragged ones, can come true. The cuts are: Kansas City, Tough Enough (with Ben Math sitting in) , Go to Work, Go to Church (my original), and Clyde Played Bass - worked up by Preston in honor of my new grandson.  

                                                             Welcome To Hotel Bohemia

Eccentric. Rebellious. Amoral, quite often. But bohemianism was, maybe still is, about much more than just frightening the horses.

The writer Virginia Nicholson recently told the Today programme that "in a sense, we are all bohemians today".

But what is a bohemian, how do you spot one, and might you be a boho, too?

"Bohemian" was originally a term with pejorative undertones given to Roma gypsies, commonly believed by the French to have originated in Bohemia, in central Europe.

The Oxford English Dictionary's definition mentions someone "especially an artist, literary man, or actor, who leads a free, vagabond, or irregular life, not being particular as to the society he frequents, and despising conventionalities generally".

But the connotation rapidly became a romantic one. From its birth in Paris in the 1850s, and the huge success of Murgier's play Scenes de la vie de Boheme, the ethic spread rapidly.

Gypsy clothes became all the fashion, sparking a style which lives on today through lovers of boho-chic like Sienna Miller and Kate Moss. And artists and poets from Baudelaire to van Gogh characterised bohemian ideals.

Its foundations in the Romantic movement of the 19th Century imbued bohemians with an almost quasi-religious sense of purpose.

In Puccini's opera La Boheme, the poet Rodolfo and his friends do not shiver in their Parisian garret where Mimi's hand is famously frozen merely because of their poverty. Theirs, as Rodolfo has it, is a higher, if more sensual, calling.

I am a poet!

What's my employment? Writing.

Is that a living? Hardly.

I've wit though wealth be wanting,

Ladies of rank and fashion

All inspire me with passion;

In dreams and fond illusions,

Or castles in the air,

Richer is none on earth than I.

Although steeped in its French roots, the bohemian ideal transferred easily to many countries and cultures.

In Britain, the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the aesthetic movement of the 19th Century imbued bohemianism with a dangerous, dashing, social cachet. Later, the exploits of the Bloomsbury group - one of whom was Nicholson's grandmother, Vanessa Bell - thrust it into the cultural limelight.
Across the Atlantic, poets and writers like Jack Kerouac, William S Burroughs and Paul Bowles led their own offshoot. And the playwright Arthur Miller's prose conjures the musty essence of that temple of American bohemia, Manhattan's Chelsea Hotel, where "there are no vacuum cleaners, no rules and shame".

"Everyone has a view of what the bohemian is," says Nicholson. "The bohemian is an outsider, defines themselves as an outsider and is defined by the world as an outsider... A lot of people regard them as subversive, elitist and possibly just a little bit immature."

Bohemians were typically urban, liberal in outlook, but with few visible political passions and, above all, creative. Though critical of organised religion, they were keen - witness the pre-Raphaelites and Oscar Wilde - to defend and explore the religious spirit.

Above all, they defied the constrictions of hearth and home and the false morality which they believed underpinned it.

In essence, bohemianism represented a personal, cultural and social reaction to the bourgeois life. And, once the latter was all but swept away by the maelstrom that was the 1960s, the former was doomed, too.

UNTIL NOW!!!!

&a

David Lindley was one of a kind - The ultimate sideman.  “The Prince of Polyester” played a mind-boggling array of exotic stringed instruments and musical genres with swing and inventiveness. One of the pillars of the Southern California folk-rock sound that dominated the airwaves in the 70s, this Sancho Panza to the dueling Quixotes of Jackson Browne and Ry Cooder was founder of the legendary 1960s world music pioneers Kaleidoscope, and deeply beloved. 

When he went solo I guess it was too hard to pin him down commercially. For example, this satirical Hawaiian Slack-Key pastiche is one of several styles covered in his “Very Greasy” album - which also includes a cover of the Temptations Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone and Bobby Freeman’s Do You Wanna Dance (in a Ska rhythm). It’s a brilliant evocation of a drunken, middle-class, luau themed office party.

He was a humble genius, I suspect. When my wife went to see him in Santa Monica I asked her to have him sign my Kaleidoscope CD. She told me that when he saw it he was touched, remarking that he was surprised that anybody still listened to it. On the contrary, it remains a precious reminder of a musical giant who once bestrode the earth.

The earth shifted for me when I heard Uncle Dave Macon for the first time. This was when the Harry Smith Anthology was released on CD in 1997. The energy of this man, swingin’ his claw hammer banjo and elating me with his infectious humor, brought the sepia-toned 19th century to boisterous life, and I was smitten. 

I began listening to, and reading, as much as I could get my hands on, and although the “Dixie Dewdrop” died the year before I was born, he was kinetically alive for me, lifting me out of whatever funk I happened to have been in, into a realm of pure joy. 

What an inspiration for an aging aspirant: He was discovered by accident by Marcus Loew of the Loews Theatre chain at the age of 50, and elevated to the heights of radio stardom on the Grand Old Opry, and national recording acclaim. How fortunate that these technologies, though in their infancy, were around to document the power of this entertainment fireball.

He was a beloved amateur (in the truest sense of the word), who had simply enjoyed entertaining customers along his freight hauling mule line. This exemplifies Joseph Campbell’s  assertion that if you just follow your bliss, everything will flow from that. This was simply how he lived, and as one of his band members attested: “all day long, from morning til midnight, it was a show.” And, what a show it was!

HOTEL BOHEMIA IS DESIGNED TO LEAD YOU TO A DESTINATION CONSTRUCTED WITH THE HOPE OF EXAMINING THE HOLY PAST, THE PUZZLING PRESENT AND THE POSSIBILITIES OF OUR IMPENDING FORTUNES.
THIS PROGRAM IS DEDICATED WITH LOVE TO THOSE WHO INSPIRED THE ARCHITECTURE OF THIS HOTEL BOHEMIA PREVIEW:

MEL BLANC, PHIL OCHS, ANDY DEVINE, SAM LAY, EUGENE O'NEILL, ROBERT RYAN, NICK GRAVENITES, BEN WEBSTER, DAVID MAMET, AL PACINO, LEON FUCHS, CHUBBY CHECKER,  BUDD SCHULBERG , ROD STEIGER, MARLON BRANDO, ELIA KAZAN, AL JOLSON, MURRAY 'THE K" KAUFMAN, TRACEY DEY, THE ROCK, JOHN BELUSHI, DON RICKLES, FRANK SINATRA, JOHNNY CARSON, JEFF LYNNE, RODNEY DANGERFIELD, DIANA KRALL, EDWARD R. MURROW, ROBERT THOM, ED BEGLEY,  SYLVESTER STALLONE AND BILL MESNIK.

"I am a determinist. As such, I do not believe in free will...Practically, I am, nevertheless, compelled to act as if freedom of the will existed. If I wish to live in a civilized community, I must act as if man is a responsible being."
- Albert Einstein,

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."
— John F. Kennedy.

1) All Going Down Together – Bobby Stevens of The Checkmates LTD-
From The 1971 Album "Life".
2) Down We Go- Kaleo-
By The Icelandic rock band Kaleo  in 2016 and released as the second single for their second studio album on Elektra Records.
3) Mr. Nasty – The Remars-
Written in 2016 by Film Director Steve Karras  ("About Face: The Story of the Jewish Refugee Soldiers of World War II") and performed By The Remars.
4) They Watered My Whiskey Down – Phil Burdett-
 Recorded in 1993 By United Kingdom Singer and Songwriter Phil Burdett And The New World Troubadours -From The Album Diesel Poems.
5) Oh Baby Don’t You Weep – Part One – James Brown and His Famous Flames
6) Oh Baby Don’t You Weep – Part Two – James Brown and His Famous Flames
Recorded in 1964 and based  upon the spiritual "Mary, Don't You Weep" it was recorded as an extended-length track and released as the first two-part 45 RPM  of Brown's recording career.
7) The End Is Not In Sight- Russell Smith
Written and Performed  by Russell Smith of The Amazing Rhythm Aces in 2002,  this song was first released by Jesse Winchester in 1974.

There was a crippling blizzard in Iowa in April of 1973. Over a foot of snow fell, coupled with 50-70 mph winds. But, inside my dormitory at U of I, I was warmed by the eternal sunshine of Pentangle’s evocation of the 12th century. The plangent voice of Jacqui McShee, accompanied by John Renbourn and Bert Jansch’s jazz infused “baroque folk” sustained me throughout that challenging season. 

Not usually one to subscribe to any woo-woo, New Ageist practices, I nonetheless became convinced that I had lived before as a medieval troubadour - a sensation that recently resurfaced when I was introduced to the Witcher saga, because I strongly identified with Dandelion, that narrative’s ironic balladeer. 

Ms. McShee was my gateway drug to the time-traveling vocal intoxications of Anne Briggs, Shirley Collins, Maddy Prior, June Tabor, Sandy Denny, Kate Rusby, and others. A.L. Lloyd and Richard Thompson became my “spirit guides” through the library of Child ballads; a path which eventually led me back home to the USA via Alan Lomax and Pete Seeger. Song research became my professional passion and mission. 

Willy O Winsbury (Child 100), a traditional Scottish ballad, has many variations and possible derivations, one of which originates in the recounting of James V’s courtship and marriage to Madeleine de Valois of France. In Pentangle’s deft retelling, Willy and Janet’s love triumphs over shame and death. You cannot ask for more than that. 

The original line up of Traffic had it all: mysticism, funk, folk, world music, and a healthy dose of irony. For an acid head like me they were the perfect accompaniment for a trip through shifting patterns of synchronicity. Of course, Traffic was helmed by the one and only Steve Winwood, who as a teenager impressed the world, shouting the blues on “I’m a Man,” and “Keep on Running” with the Spencer Davis Group, and was now considered a full-blown genius. But they also needed Dave Mason for ballast, because after he left the rising balloon, Winwood navigated the group into extended jazz noodle-ville - (but, that’s another story!) 

Who knows what tomorrow may bring from the group’s eponymous second album is a deceptively simple groove and mantra that resonates across genres, time-zones, and philosophies, releasing a blast of joy-filled dopamine to one’s synaptic receptors, even as one contemplates the evanescence of life. And, that swinging organ counterpoint is smoking! 

As I felt the waves of dislocation beginning to distort my perceptions, Winwood encouraged me to “step outside” of my mind, and “float across the ceiling…” I trusted him, and so I did just that. And, it was good.

Bizarre was originally formed in 1967 as a production company when Frank Zappa and his manager Herb Cohen negotiated their own production deal with Verve Records. The purpose of forming his own production company was to give Zappa complete creative control over his work and the works he planned to produce for others.

Bizarre Records was then established in 1969 along with a companion label, Straight Records, with the intention to release albums by avant-garde artists on Bizarre, and recordings by more mainstream artists on Straight. Both labels were distributed by Warner Bros. Records.

However, the original Bizarre Records concept failed to work out as expected due to issues with distribution and management. This led to some very unusual albums on the Straight label (Captain Beefheart, Alice Cooper), and Zappa and The Mothers of Invention were the only artists who stayed with Bizarre Records.

When the original distribution contracts with Warner Bros. ended in 1973, most Bizarre and Straight recordings were re-issued by Warner and/or Reprise, and Frank Zappa moved on to launch a new record label, DiscReet Records.


Discography
Albums

• Sandy Hurvitz – Sandy's Album Is Here at Last (r. d. : December 9, 1968) (c. n. : V6-5064)
• Lenny Bruce – The Berkeley Concert (r. d. : February 17, 1969) (c. n. : 2XS 6329)(1)
• The Mothers of Invention – Mothermania: The Best of The Mothers (r. d. : March 24, 1969) (c. n. : V6 5068)
• The Mothers of Invention – Uncle Meat (April 21, 1969) (c. n. : 2MS 2024)(2)[1]
• Wild Man Fischer – An Evening with Wild Man Fischer (April 28, 1969) (c. n. : 2XS 6332)(1)
• Frank Zappa – Hot Rats (October 15, 1969) (c. n. : RS 6356)(1)
• Various – Zappéd (r. d. : November 10, 1969; February 3, 1970) (c. n. : PRO 368),
• The Mothers of Invention – Burnt Weeny Sandwich (r. d. : February 9, 1970) (c. n. : RS 6370)(1)
• The Mothers of Invention – Weasels Ripped My Flesh (r. d. : August 10, 1970) (c. n. : MS 2028)(2)
• Frank Zappa – Chunga's Revenge (r. d. : October 23, 1970) (c. n. : *MS 2030)(2)
• The Mothers of Invention – Fillmore East – June 1971 (r. d. : August 2, 1971) (c. n. : MS 2042)(2)

DELICIOUS by Jim Backus and Friend (Jubilee, 1958)

This lascivious one-off came to me via Dr. Demento, the famed broadcaster and collector of novelty records. The evocative cocktail music by Mort Garson and Buddy Kaye sets the salacious scene. I immediately recognized the familiar voice of the tipsy seducer as Jim Backus  (known for Mr. Magoo and Thurston Howell III). But, who was that sexy siren playing footsie with him? It was Kay Connell, who couldn't reveal her name on the record, as she was under contract at ABC-Paramount - so she remains deeply obscure, known to recorded history only as Jim’s “friend”. 

Everyone loves to laugh; it’s contagious. JIm and Kay's chortling is so infectious that it sparks spasms of glee in anyone who hears it. I dare you to try to listen to this record while resisting the effervescent bubbles of mirth that these two wobbly wantons are serving up.

Jim Backus did some estimable dramatic acting, including as James Dean’s dad in Rebel Without a Cause, but he hit comedy pay dirt with Magoo, and later on Gilligan’s Island as the clueless millionaire. On this unique document, the actor demonstrates his powerfully persuasive comic gifts.