.I have recently been obsessed with PBS. You know those concerts they've been showing for about five years now? It's been the glam Seventies, the psychedelic Sixties, or the mod Sixties - so many options with the amazing span of that decade... but finally they've dived into the Fifties with a big concert of mainstream Fifties groups. And for some reason I have become downright obsessed with this one. For all I know, it's from years ago, but I am only now discovering it, at any rate.
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If I had to pick a favorite musical era it would be ten or fifteen years later or ten years earlier: let's face it, there's a Fifties formula here. All the "doo-wop-she-waddy-waddies" and the "sh-boom-sh-booms" are pretty repetitive after a while.
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But to see these people today is what is so exciting.
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See, that's the irony. This gang is older than the others PBS has trucked out. But they seem as young as they ever were. Here's why - and remember, this comes to you from a hippie T-shirt-and-jeans girl, so don't think I'm selling you some kind of conservative line, here. The thing is, these singers come out in well-turned dresses and suits, just as they did when they were brand new faces on the scene. The Four Preps are all coordinated and buttoned. The McGuire Sisters are shimmery and crisp. The years melt away.
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Conversely, the musicians of the Sixties and Seventies went to great lengths to break free of that dress code, and thank God for that, say I! But when those guys come out, silver-haired but in long hair and caps and ratty denim, they look - well, old. They're still wearing the costume of the young rebel, as they should, and as they did! They have no choice. It's who they are. I get that. I wouldn't want it any other way.
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But then you see the Four Aces and they're as they always were, somehow. They haven't aged. At all. Not really.
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My favorite part: Lynn Evans, the lead singer from the Chordettes. I was in the kitchen when I heard her announced, and then that saucy little song came on: "Lollipop! Lollipop! Oh! lolli-lolli-lolli-lollipop! Lollipop! Oh!" To me, that song screams teenager. Some fresh little Lolita breezing by the corner with a lollipop - knowing exactly her effect on, say, the Four Lads, who happen to be standing there "standin' on the corner, watchin' all the girls go by." That's the power of very early rock and roll. You can hear the sex appeal loud and clear, and it stays - you know - contained. But no less urgent.
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And when I came into the living room, there was Lynn Evans today, in a long, trim dress, swaying and singing. She was spirited and rockin' and she sounded and looked like - well, like herself, and like the Fifties, and like an older woman, and, equally, like that saucy teenager on the corner. Hinting, smiling. "He loves to kiss me till I can't see straight." Wow!
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Fifties pop.
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*Pop!*
