There has always been a group of musicians who were just a bit off-center. When my mom was waiting for my dad to get back from the war, it was Spike Jones. Jones, a gifted musician and bandleader, used guns, whistles, pots, pans, cowbells, hammers, bird calls, klaxon horns, bricks, gargling, breaking glass, and God knows what else to make some truly wonderful and unforgettable music.
Jones was quite the celebrity in his day. But when the Big Band sound died, his music slipped into obscurity. Sure, Big Band stations can still be found, but what are the odds that a serious deejay would dare play the William Tell Overture that segued into a truly bizarre horse race (...and Beetlebaum...)?
Well, Mr. Jones, who died too young at the age of 53 in 1965, would have been quite pleased with the emergence of a 1970 jock at KPPC in Los Angeles. His name was Barry Hansen, but the persona he created that year was Dr. Demento.
It all started when Hansen got a deejay gig while still in high school. He was in charge of serving up sock hop music at local dances. The young jock had discovered, in his childhood, a store that sold 78's for a nickel apiece. The music was quite hit and miss, but some of the misses were hysterical.
Hansen was hooked on the deejay thing, and pursued a musical career. This included working as a roadie for Spirit and Canned Heat, both out of L.A. 1970 found him spinning records at KPPC. His specialty was oldies, and some of them were quite obscure and funky. One in particular attracted the attention of fellow DJ Steven Clean: Transfusion, by Nervous Norvus. "You have to be demented to play that!" he told Hansen.
An idea was born.
He changed his on-air name to Dr. Demento and began specializing in songs that were, well, nowadays we would describe them as the kinds of songs you'd hear on the Dr. Demento show. Viewers ate it up. Spike Jones was suddenly thrust onto the children of the parents who remembered him from the 40's, and the kids loved him! The good Doctor relished digging up old gems from his massive collection of 78's. Benny Bell's 1940's record Shaving Cream might have become forgotten without Dr. Demento's help. The show's closing theme was Cheerio, Cherry Lips, Cheerio, a 1929 Scrappy Lambert recording.
But there were a plethora of newer songs, too. Hello Mudda, Hello Faddah, Poisoning Pigeons in the Park, They're Coming to Take Me Away (ha ha!), One Horned, One Eyed Flying Purple People Eater, Monster Mash, and my all-time favorite: Star Trekking. That last song makes me laugh out loud every time I hear it. "It's worse than that, he's dead, Jim! He's dead, Jim! He's dead, Jim!" Oh, by the way, on the very first Dr. Demento show, a ditty called The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins was sung by none other than Leonard Nimoy.
The show became syndicated in 1974, and is still around today, I'm happy to say. In 1976, an aspiring musician sent in some tapes, and Dr. Demento liked what he heard. So did the listeners. Thus was launched the career of Weird Al Yankovic.
The Doctor is going into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in a few days as of presstime, and it will be a better place for his presence. Unfortunately, no local station carries him in my area, but I do have some collections on mp3. They're a hoot to listen to, and we should all be grateful that Barry Hansen was demented enough to dig them up for us.
Comments (5)
I was born in 1951. My only sibling, a brother, was 14 years my senior. In the early 50's he purchased a Spike Jones 45rpm (what else???). It featured two tunes of the 1920's: Black Bottom and The Charleston-- all the more frenetic due to Spike's interpretation. The Charleston-- the dance-- enjoyed a short resurgence in the early 50's. I remember my brother's high school friends rolling up the rug on Saturday nights and dancing to it! I loved that record and played it so often. My brother let me keep it for 20 years before asking for its return. I am thankful for having had a bright, older brother. Because of his presence and active influence, I recall so much more of the 1950's than I might would have at such a young age. He brought the popular world into the house, and so often took me out into that same world.
Posted by NCeddie | November 4, 2009 9:27 AM
Posted on November 4, 2009 09:27
Thanks for a great reminder about Dr. Demento. We can't pick him up anymore either. I wondered what happened to him. It was always a fun time when his show was on at work. When we had time,we would gather around the radio to listen to his show.
Posted by Barry Reed | November 4, 2009 10:23 AM
Posted on November 4, 2009 10:23
Ah, Demento! I remember listening to him on the radio in the mid 70s, I think, while building model rockets. I delighted in hearing "They're Coming to Take Me Away, ha ha!" since I had remembered that as a kid. But you never ever heard it again because it scared or bothered some people. It was harmless.
Its funny how sensitive America was to many things back then. Just saw a documentary on the Smother's Brothers tonight. Again, America did not like jokes from the Bible. How dare anyone see humor there ;-)
They say America was having a breakdown in the later 60s and indeed, it might have been but being so serious and supersensitive was one reason why maybe they were having a breakdown. There was an awful lot that was good about the old day and age. There was more decency, kindness, compassion, humanity. But there was much that needed correction, too.
I recall Demento in the 80s with new stuff. I recall "Fishheads," B52s, and various things. I believe Demento was on TV, too, by then. Am I right or was I having a flashback ;-)
Humor is an interesting study and it was up in the air in the 60s. I think "old" America had become a little bit spooked by war, communism and rapid changes. They became afraid of anything they did not understand or relate to. And having very much questioned about what they grew up believing was terrifying to them and they did not have enough brain power to make proper sense of it so they just rejected it all.
But the young persevered and the old died off and things changed. BUt sadly they kept on changing and changing and went way beyond where they should have. Damn that pendulum, right?
But Demento, in a spirit sort of Like MAD mag, was something meaningful to us kids of the 60s, 70s and on. There was still so much to love from the 60s and 70s. I am not so sure anyone will see anything particularly warm about the 90s or on, anymore than they did about the 30s. Loved those 60s, man! It was like far out, baby! ;-) Anyone remember the hippie lingo of say, the Groovy Goolies or Scooby Doo? Loved that, too.
Posted by Scott Irv | November 4, 2009 11:38 PM
Posted on November 4, 2009 23:38
I remember Spike Jones. However, I didn't appreciate his "music" until I was older and took a second look at it.
Rita blogging at The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide
Posted by Rita | November 18, 2009 8:04 PM
Posted on November 18, 2009 20:04
I didn't discover the Doc until the late 70's. I was then hooked on the wackiness! Who could ever forget the great tune...Fish heads, Fish heads, Rolly Polly Fish heads! And the wonderful..There coming to take me away, oh my! Long live the Doc!
Posted by Riversend | February 1, 2010 5:01 PM
Posted on February 1, 2010 17:01