This afternoon, I was singing a little karaoke and was suddenly reminded of a classic moment in television history. If you were around in the Dark Ages, you've heard of Lawrence Welk, the famously straight laced bandleader who had a weekly television show that highlighted wholesome singing and dancing. This is the show where The Lennon Sisters could sing "Sugartime" and be sweetly sexy in satin dresses, harmonizing perfectly and giving lots of prepubescent boys hard ons.
Actually, if you check out the YouTube comments on this recording, they're hilarious. Apparently, these women were the stuff of sordid fantasies. I'm sure Mr. Welk never thought guys were getting woodies watching his show. He even had the Semonski Sisters doing it... in much uglier dresses, I might add.
Anyway, in 1971, someone had the bright idea to get a charming couple, the woman wearing an old fashioned pinafore, no less, to sing Brewer and Shipley's "One Toke Over The Line"...
Notice the guy who introduces this song about chokes as he describes it as "one of the newer songs"... After a lively rendition of this classic song, Lawrence Welk describes it as a "modern spiritual"... Really??? I bet he didn't even know what a toke is. But these two gamely did the song and gave us a truly hilarious memento of a simpler time, where a bandleader could have no fucking clue what a song was about and no one would bother to tell him.
A year ago, Bill and I went to Munich... While next week, we'll be in Italy, I'll still be humming the "Beer Barrel Polka"...
Okay, so I won't really... I just needed an excuse to put another video up.
I doubt most of the musicians on this show knew anything about bad characters like "Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown"...
Notice Lawrence Welk is dancing in the background! Too funny! I would totally watch this show if it was still on. Thank God for YouTube.
Just to close out this post, here's a very disturbing version of "The Hustle...
Actually, if you check out the YouTube comments on this recording, they're hilarious. Apparently, these women were the stuff of sordid fantasies. I'm sure Mr. Welk never thought guys were getting woodies watching his show. He even had the Semonski Sisters doing it... in much uglier dresses, I might add.
Anyway, in 1971, someone had the bright idea to get a charming couple, the woman wearing an old fashioned pinafore, no less, to sing Brewer and Shipley's "One Toke Over The Line"...
Notice the guy who introduces this song about chokes as he describes it as "one of the newer songs"... After a lively rendition of this classic song, Lawrence Welk describes it as a "modern spiritual"... Really??? I bet he didn't even know what a toke is. But these two gamely did the song and gave us a truly hilarious memento of a simpler time, where a bandleader could have no fucking clue what a song was about and no one would bother to tell him.
A year ago, Bill and I went to Munich... While next week, we'll be in Italy, I'll still be humming the "Beer Barrel Polka"...
Okay, so I won't really... I just needed an excuse to put another video up.
I doubt most of the musicians on this show knew anything about bad characters like "Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown"...
Notice Lawrence Welk is dancing in the background! Too funny! I would totally watch this show if it was still on. Thank God for YouTube.
Just to close out this post, here's a very disturbing version of "The Hustle...
