A Barely Pink Drink

Tricked you, friends!

No, that's not Tiki T. in the picture below, but the incomparable Patty Duke from her volatile role as Neely O'Hara in Valley of the Dolls. Undoubtedly you'll be wanting to wet your whistle while watching this full-chested flick, and Tiki T. has got the cure!

I'd like to start on this one about 24 hours ahead of time. Infuse some (cheap) vodka with a chamomile tea bag for a nice infusion. Take that bag out sooner than later! Or you'll end up with vodka as bitter as an aging Broadway actress (check the movie for that reference).

Pour chamomile vodka into a shaker with some pink grapefruit juice and a little elderberry liquor (Saint Germain http://www.stgermain.fr/ is a good one, pretty bottle too!).

Shake vigorously with ice and serve up. We found this naughty little number at the Barcelona restaurant in New Haven, Connecticut. Gracias!

So enjoy the kick off to the holidays, enjoy your drink and enjoy Sharon Tate's assets. The night looks promising!

XO!
Tiki T.

Vinyl in the Valley of the Dolls

"Valley of the Dolls" Soundtrack (1967) - 20th Century Fox Records

Hello Friends,

Things are getting campy tonight on Vinyl in the Valley! 

The 1967 film version of Jacqueline Susann's 1966 best-selling novel stars an adorable 
Barbara Parkins, an all-grown-up Patty Duke, and a so-sexy-it-hurts Sharon Tate as young, nubile ingenues trying to act/marry/claw/drink/screw their way to the top!


The titular "Dolls" don't just refer to this trio of starlets but to the copious amounts of colorful little pills that they wash down in order to cope with their melodramatic lives!        

As the opening lines of the film and record reminds us: "You've got to climb Mount Everest to reach the Valley of the Dolls!"  You said it sister! 

The music on the LP (with songs written by Andre Previn) is soft and sublime and provides an almost delusional counterpoint to the manic and over-the-top melodrama going on in the movie.

Fun Fact # 1: Judy Garland was originally cast in the film but was fired because of her substance problems!  Though she did keep her character's sequined pantsuit and wore it on tour!  

Fun Fact # 2: The first of many, many Oscar nominations for composer, John Williams.  (It would be the only Oscar nod the film would receive!)

Fun Fact # 3: Dionne Warwick sang the title song in the original movie but, due to contractual obligations, could not appear on the soundtrack record.  Dory Previn, wife of Andre Previn, recorded the version for the record!

Fun Fact # 4: Raquel Welch was originally offered the role that went to Sharon Tate.  A year after this movie, Tate would marry Italian-child molester-director, Roman Polanski.  A year after that she would have a starring role in the Manson Murders!  And, scene...
  RATING: 3 Boobies, Boobies, Nothin' But Boobies out of 5

Diamond Rugs - Blue Mountains

from their self-titled debut album (2012)

its a real hoot!

Other Worlds, Other Sounds

Esquivel & his Orchestra - "Other Worlds Other Sounds" (1958) - RCA Victor

Hello Friends,

Tonight we're coming to you from the Space Age Bachelor Pad.

"Zoo-wee!" is the word that comes to mind when listening to this classic lounge LP!   

Mexican-born pianist and bandleader, Juan Garcia Esquivel, burst on to the scene in the late 1950's with instrumental cocktail music that was a generation ahead of its time! Known as "The King of Space Age Pop", Esquivel embraced the then-relatively-new Stereophonic recording techniques and really let loose in the recording studio.  He would arrange and deconstruct familiar standards; infuse the most modern of studio techniques; blend in his jazz, latin and classical influences and send them off in a sonic spaceship.  The finished product is melodic, percussive, whimsical and unlike anything else you've ever heard! 

 

Vocal choruses are used throughout the album as musical Exclamation points adding just the right amount of "Pop!" or "Zoo-Zoo"-ing.  Instrumental glissandos became his trademark.  Instruments-- like an organ, harp or steel guitar-- would bend notes up several pitches in a smooth, fell swoop!  Like traveling through space & time at the speed of light! 

From the red-dressed hottie dancing seductively against an alien backdrop on the cover (one of our ALL TIME FAVORITES, btw) to the whimsical and alien-sounding notes within its grooves, this album is a classic.   Each of its twelve songs are stand-out examples of pure musical genius!  Muy Bueno, Senor Esquivel, MUY BUENO! 

RATING: 5 Space Age Bachelor Pads out of 5

Happy Thanksgiving!

William S. Burroughs - "The Thanksgiving Prayer"

Thanks for the wild turkey and the passenger pigeons, destined to be shit out through wholesome American guts.

Thanks for a continent to despoil and poison.

Thanks for Indians to provide a modicum of challenge and danger.

Thanks for vast herds of bison to kill and skin leaving the carcasses to rot.

Thanks for bounties on wolves and coyotes.

Thanks for the American dream,
To vulgarize and to falsify until the bare lies shine through.

Thanks for the KKK.

For nigger-killin' lawmen, feelin' their notches.

For decent church-goin' women, with their mean, pinched, bitter, evil faces.

Thanks for "Kill a Queer for Christ" stickers.

Thanks for laboratory AIDS.

Thanks for Prohibition and the war against drugs.

Thanks for a country where nobody's allowed to mind the own business.

Thanks for a nation of finks.

Yes, thanks for all the memories-- all right let's see your arms!

You always were a headache and you always were a bore.

Thanks for the last and greatest betrayal of the last and greatest of human dreams.

Gobble! Gobble!

The Bax is Back

Les Baxter and His Orchestra & Chorus - "Kaleidoscope" (1955) - Capitol Records

Hello Friends,

We've got some early Les Baxter ("The Bax") on the turntable tonight!  The sublime twelve instrumental tracks on Kaleidoscope pre-dates the really groundbreaking Exotica stuff that would comprise Baxter's LP's of the late 50's/early 60's. 

But like a morning mist on a Tahitian beach, beneath the melodies of these 12 tracks you can hear faint whispers of more exotic instruments, jungle rhythms, wordless choruses and other-worldly sonic experiments! 

Kind of hate the shitty LP cover, though. Looks like a Christmas decoration my grandmother threw out!

RATING: 3.5 Aprils in Portugal out of 5

The Rum Diaries: Ron ABUELO Anejo

Hello friends,

Going back and forth from the tiki bar to the turntable all night long really makes you work up a mean, mean thirst!  

Tonight we're taking a break from record reviews and instead we're focusing our attention on one of the world's most delicious (and misunderstood) libations-- RUM.

Described by Marco Polo in the 14th Century as "very good wine made of sugar", the history of rum is as interesting and complex as the drink itself.  The story of Rum is the story of slavery, of pirates, of Navies, of the New World, of exploration, colonization, capitalism, rebellion and of course, hot, drunk college girls on Spring Break!  

YO HO HO, indeed!

RON ABUELO ANEJO 

Distiller: Varela Hermanos, S.A.
Country: PANAMA

Cost: $14.00 (!)
Proof: 80
Size: 750 ml

Description: Blend of selected aged rums, matured in small oak barrels.

Ned Tugent says: "Good, versatile rum that's reasonably priced.  Hints of caramel & maple, but not overly sweet! A little hint of oak-smokiness on the finish! Grade: B"

Tiki T says: "A strong vanilla bean on the nose.  A little smoky on the front with a soft cream on the backend! Grade: B+"

In 1908, a young Spanish immigrant, Don Jose Varela Blanco, established the first sugar mill in the Republic of Panama.  In 1936, at the behest of his three sons, good old Don Jose started distilling this sugar into something quite delicious!  Hence, Varela Hermanos was born!    

Here's the Ron Abuelo website if you'd like to learn more!  

Enjoy!

When I paint my masterpiece... I use bourbon!

Take a load off, friends!

Looks like you could use a maple infused cocktail!

In an effort to give a "tip of the hat" to Robbie Robertson and Co., we thought long and hard about a cocktail that would marry the industriousness of American city life with the rugged wilderness of Canada.

Hence...The Maple Old Fashioned! You'll love this one, I promise!

Use high grade maple syrup and use it sparingly, as you want the suggestion of maple more than a wad of it. I also advise using a reputable rye (we really like http://www.bulleitbourbon.com). You're looking for a slow burn with a sweet ending, here. Shake up your rye, maple, ice and Angostura bitters in a shaker and strain into a glass tumbler. Garnish with an orange peel, no need for chunks of overly sweet bar fruit. This one is guaranteed to drive your dixie down all night!

XO!
-Tiki T.

A Drunkards Dream... If I Ever Did See One!

Original LP Title: "Free Moustache Rides"

The Band - "The Band" (1969) - Capitol Records

Hello Friends,

Tonight on the turntable we've got The Band's second LP.  Its self-titled, but here on Vinyl in the Valley we like to refer to it as The Brown Album.

And what a great listening experience The Brown Album is... a real Hootenanny!!!  Its a ramshackle mash up of American roots music: country, folk, soul, blues, ragtime & rock with some lessons in American History thrown in to boot!  There's Confederate soldiers, retired sailors, drunken miners, labor union organizers, proud thieves and unfaithful servants!  (Sounds like the unsexiest Halloween party ever!) 

The Band dressed in Civil War outfits a.k.a.
"Stuff White People Like"

Side One almost plays like a Greatest Hits collection with "Across The Great Divide", "Rag Mama Rag", "Up On Cripple Creek" and the incomparable, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down".  The side closes out with "Whispering Pines" featuring Richard Manuel's heartbreaking and haunting vocals. 

Side Two is no slouch either with "Jemima Surrender", "Rockin' Chair", "Jawbone", the rocker "Lookout Cleveland", and the country-soul working man epic, "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)"! 

The themes, characters and tales-- as well as much of the music-- is timeless, rustic and nostalgic.   Obviously, The Band didn't really fit the mold of mainstream rock & roll of the late 60's.  While most bands were writing Vietnam protest songs, these guys were reminiscing about the Civil War! 

In this way, The Brown Album is similar to The Kinks' masterpiece, Village Green Preservation Society '68-- an album so steeped in nostalgia with songs which longed for a more traditional "country life" that was considered to by quite unhip by many hipsters at the time!  But hey, that's the problem with these hipsters!

RATING: 5 Civil War Re-enactments out of 5

Cleveland Rocks!

The Outsiders - "Time Won't Let Me" (1966) - Capitol Records

Hello Friends,

We've got some good old fashioned U.S. garage rock on tap for tonight!

Formed by guitarist Tom King in 1958, The Starfires were a hard-working band of Clevelanders who cut their teeth in the blue collar bars and dance halls of the North Coast.  When they signed to Capitol Records on the strength of their single, "Time Won't Let Me", the band was persuaded to change their name to The Outsiders.  Their debut LP was released in 1966 and is a perfect storm of American blue-collar garage rock, British Invasion-inspired arrangements and healthy doses of blue-eyed soul and Motor City Rhythm & Blues!

The album kicks off with the rousing, "Keep On Running"-- a Jackie Edwards song that was a hit the year before for England's The Spencer Davis Group.   The ballad, "Listen People", is up next and was also a hit for another British band, Herman's Hermits!  

The single, "Time Won't Let Me" combines an uptempo Mersey-inspired rhythm with a driving background of Motown-inspired horns.   Written by King and his brother-in-law, Chet Kelley, the song blew up on AM Radio and ensured that the Outsiders would be slightly more than a footnote in the annals of rock & roll history! 
   

The oft-covered, "My Girl", is a tip of the hat to the songs coming out across Lake Eerie while the Stonesy R&B rocker, "What Makes You So Bad You Weren't Brought Up That Way", is a nod to songs coming from across the proverbial pond!  Side One concludes with a mellow and strings-laden cover of the 1962 hit by Jay & The Americans, "She Cried". 

Side Two contains two more covers-- Buddy Holly's "Maybe Baby" and Bobby Day's "Rockin' Robin"-- and the originals, "Chase Away The Tears", "Was It Really Real" and the tearjerker, "Girl In Love". In addition to being the B-side to "Time Won't Let Me", "Was It Really Real" contains a killer guitar solo!  

The Outsiders would release 4 more LP's, continually change personnel, ceaselessly tour and, by 1968, call it quits!  Another rock & roll dream left to history!  

Fun Fact: Hey kids, did you know that Outsiders' lead singer, Sonny Geraci, had a hit in 1972 with the one-hit-wonder band Climax and the soft-rock ballad "Precious & Few"?  Big Deal! That song sucks!

RATING: 4 Cleveland Steamers out of 5

Night Winds (100th Post, Bitches!)

Jackie Gleason - "Night Winds" (1956) - Capitol Records

Hello friends,

Is there anything better than a chilly November evening, a tall bottle of red French wine and Jackie Gleason on the turntable?  Well, we don't think so! 

Using an ensemble of 23 flutes (count 'em) to replace the Bobby Hackett's ghostly cornet solos, Night Winds is some more of the same lush and soothing mood music that Gleason made famous in the mid 1950's.  The songs flow into one another seamlessly-- each side of the record is like a dreamy soundscape. 

Fat, sweaty, chain-smoking and mostly drunk, its truly amazing what Jackie Gleason would accomplish in 1955-1956.  Not only was his recording career hugely successful but, "The Jackie Gleason Show" was a top- rated variety show on television and "The Honeymooners" were at their creative height!  (The last episode of the "classic 39" would air on September 26, 1956.)  I guess they don't make them like they used to!  The Great One, indeed!     

RATING: 4 packs of cigarettes a day out of 5  

Comin' in the Back Door

¡ Ay Caramba !

The Baja Marimba Band - "Baja Marimba Band" (1964) - A&M Records

Hola Friends,

We're going down tonight-- South of the Border-style-- with the debut album by the legendary Baja Marimba Band!

Led by marimba player extraordinaire, Julius Wechter, and produced/arranged by one Mr. Herb Alpert, The Baja Marimba Band was formed in part to cash in on the fiesta-style music started by the likes of the Tijuana Brass and Sergio Mendes in the early 1960's.  Their whimsical, laid-back lounge style has its roots in latin jazz and Exotica.  (In fact, Wechter, a talented percussionist, cut his teeth playing with Martin Denny in the 50's.)  

The songs are percussion-heavy (lots of bongos, vibes and marimbas, obviously), with flamenco guitar, the occasional brassy burst and spaghetti western-type wordless choruses thrown in for good measure!  The song selections range from melodic and atmospheric ("Maria Elena", "Charade", "Samba de Orpheu" "December's Child") to downright zany ("Up Cherry Street" & "Acapulco 1922")!  

"Comin' in the Back Door" would be the group's first and highest-charting single.

And don't let the fake mustaches and sombreros fool you, this band was about as Mexican as a Burrito Bowl from Taco Bell!

RATING: 4 Frito Banditos out of 5