Jane Says ...

[Dave Monroe]

... which was to have been the subject heading of taht
last post, but ... but, very quickly, very off topic,
am currently much enjoying a freshly-opened comp. of
tracks by East German beat bands, Amiga a Go-Go, Vol.
2: Deutsch-Demokratischer Beat.  A cover of the
Zombies' "She's Not There" retitled "An Einem Tag im
September" and substituting flute for piano in the
instrumental break, a cover of "Walk Don't Run" by (of
course) Die Sputniks (wonder if they did "Telstar" as
well ...), "Volle Pulle" (?) for Sam the Sham and the
Pharaohs' "Wooly Bully," but there are a couple of
tracks by some band called Skaldowie (?) which are the
real gems here.  I don't know how this plays across
the Atlantic, but rock and/or roll seems always just
plain wackier when it's not in English.  Not to
mention when it's played by Communists.  Vol. 1 covers
East German (exceedingly, I would think) Rare Groove. 
Now I just need those German France Gall EPs ("Merci,
Herr Marquis," "Computer 8," et al.)  ...

Again, see, perhaps ...

Poiger, Uta G.  Jazz, Rock, and Rebels: Cold War
   Politics and American Culture in a Divided Germany.
   Berkeley: U of California P, 2000.

And on a tangentially similar tangent ...

Dunn, Christopher.  Brutality Garden: Tropicalia
   and the Emergence of a Brazilian Counterculture.
   Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 2001.

Will refrain from bibliographizing all the books I've
been led to by its bibliography, but it's also been a
gateway drug of sorts to records by the likes of
Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Tom Ze, Jorge
Ben and the very wonderful Os Mutantes (if you're
familiar with the very wonderful United States of
America, think, United States of Brazil).  Music is
just plain wackier when it's, well, wacky ...

And, right on cue, an East German version of Crsby,
Stills and Nash's "Hopelessly Hoping."  Also reently
picked up the East German, er, beach musical, Hot
Summer (Heisser Sommer, dir. Joachim Hasler, 1967). 
I'm sure y'all're glad the Wall has fallen, but, if
there's one thing to be said for the Cold War, it made
for some interesting pop culture.  Just try making a
decent spy movie these days ...

Anyway, am now eagerly awaiting a copy of ...

Zolov, Eric.  Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican
   Counterculture.  Berkeley: U of Cal P, 1999.

Have a fuzz-drenched (a relative term here, of course,
but all the more terrifying for it) version of Jimi
Hendrix's "Fire" I'd love some context for.  Okay,
okay, absolutely no Pynchon content whatsoever, but,
given that, a few hours ago, in one of my subsuicidal
moods, I'd planned on signing off, shutting down, and
so forth ... but, hey, someone did mention the 60s, so ...

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