« Quarterly Report: Second Quarter of 2008 Podcast | Main | 'Flash Back »
July 09, 2008
Retrohump: Putting Your Arms Around a Memory (Hint: Don't Try)
the Ronettes - "Be My Baby"
(Shindig!, 1965)
I'm definitely not here to trash Ronnie Spector. It would take some kind of simpleton to deny her music's lasting impact and appeal. But I left Sunday's free concert feeling a bit muddled. My unease had nothing to do with the performance really. She's assembled an exceptional backing ensemble whose worship of her original material was obvious. No wanking guitar solos here, thanks. And it's a supreme understatement to say that Ronnie is still in fine voice. In fact her youthful demeanor and love of performance is little changed from the 40 + year old vintage clip above. But despite my admiration for a very well executed show, I'm left to wonder what use it had outside of nostalgia? This quandary was mostly aimed at the smattering of doo-wap numbers by interchangeable 50s artists called things like "the Schoolboys" or "the Romantics" and possessing cut and paste lyrics about neutered teenage romance. Watching these songs ably performed still left me with the impression that I might have had watching a 40s swing band or even a Medieval lute player--that I was watching a form of music that had slipped from modernity.
Sure, the roots of innocent doo-wap eventually morphed into the modern pop and R&B styles of today, but no one is actually doing much of anything to drag the actual form forward. Really, even her much more influential girl group styles are usually unimaginatively quoted (see: the 4 million songs after "Just Like Honey" that still swipe that "Be My Baby" drum kick) or treated as winking kitsch by clever bands (see: early Long Blondes and every Pipettes song ever). With any luck, Bradford Cox is at home right now, recording the tragic gay goth doo wap record that will completely revolutionize the genre, but for now, there's no evolving conversation with the style's legacy. It has to be considered momentarily dead.
Here a Ronettes song that's still got a bit of pep to it...
the Ronettes - "Baby, I Love You"
Ronnie Spector - "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory"
(McCarren Pool, 07.06.08)
The least freeze dried segment of the concert was (fittingly) the performance of Johnny Thunders' "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory" as arranged for her by Joey Ramone in 1999. Of course, rearranging a 70s punk track isn't inherently vital, but for once it let Ronnie articulate feelings she may have had after her 21st birthday. Maybe it was her regally mature presence, forced to relive teenage simplicity that created the disconnect for me in the first place. Her reading of the sublimely jaded opening lines, "it doesn't pay to try, all the smart girls know why..." seemed the show's most honest.
Johnny Thunders - "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory"
(French TV, date unknown)
Spector could never have been as big a mess as the original New York Doll, no matter the effort expended. The song is a disappointed classic, but the lip-sync above looks eerily like a Martin Short sketch from his SNL stint. Ronnie's looking twelve miles better now than this dude ever did, for whatever that's worth...
Johnny Thunders - "You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory"
Posted by Jeff Klingman at July 9, 2008 10:45 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.merryswankster.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/1670
