The Association - Goodbye Columbus
From the LP Goodbye Columbus (original motion picture soundtrack), Warner Brothers Records, 1969
I've had insomnia ever since I was a little kid, which meant that I was more than usually attuned to the oddities of late night TV than most when I was growing up. One thing I miss about the pre-cable days is that the main thing local TV stations used to fill up the overnight hours were cheap old movies. Although I don't remember a thing about the film itself -- I probably turned the channel within the first five minutes -- I distinctly remember watching the opening credits of the 1969 film Goodbye Columbus on late night TV in Boulder when I was 10 or 11 years old, because this song stuck with me forever. It's one of the earliest examples I ever heard of a certain brand of pop music that's a big favorite of mine: stuff that's right on the edge of being hopelessly square but is nevertheless convinced of its own youthquake exuberance. Exhibit A: the theme to Love American Style, which uncoincidentally was co-written by Charles Fox, who wrote the incidental score to this movie.
I've still never seen this movie, but in high school, I read the Philip Roth novella that it's based on. I sometimes wonder if this movie is as depressing as the story, because if it is, this chirpy theme song is seriously false advertising.
-Stewart Mason
9 Comments:
Bless you. Now if you can find the Cowsill's version of "Love American Style" - I will die a happy man. BTW I loved the site so much I linked to you from my blog,
www.powerpopaholic.com
Stewart, the movie isn't as depressing as it mostly goes for laughs with Richard Benjamin as the cynical boyfriend (but no Didley Kravetz), the luscious Ali McGraw as the love interest. Jack Klugman is great as the hapless dad, but my favorite character in the movie is the guy that plays the brother - amiable but dumb as a fencepost jock. The ending is downbeat of course.
- michael
Stewart,
That style has always been one of my favorites, too.
Lea
my neighbor played the "amiable but dumb as a fencepost jock" brother. we both emplore you to rent it today.
Your description of that kind of pop is right on the money, and I read it just in time to rationalize ordering a CD with an old guilty pleasure I hadn't heard in 36 years: "Miss America", by Mark Lindsay. To this day I have no idea what it's about, and I don't care. To me, all that poetic nonsense was just an excuse for someone to write a beautiful melody, as if you need an excuse.
A few quick thoughts..
Aaron "Love American Style" is on "The Best of The Cowsills-The Millenium Collection".
Richard Benjamin was good and very annoying in "A Diary of a Madhouse Wife". But, it's been many years since I've seen it.
The Association need not be a guilty pleasure. Great song by a great band.
Steve D
I think the movie is kinda a downer; I too miss the oddball 60s/70s movies that 1980s non-cable stations played regularly. S*P*Y*S, Little Murders, Brewster McCloud... modern alt-cinema is nowhere near as psych-out.
Very cool, peteski; yeah, he is one of the better characters of the movie. I think Richard and Ali play it pretty blank and dull, but I too haven't seen it in ages.
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summer rain / rivers and miss america tie into , of all things
the god head of life on this rock er@the elements of creation .
listen to miss america carefully
most politicians do this well
tho most wouldnt admitt thier gift to mankind David von Neumann
Astounding
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