Re: IVIV: Chapter Five—Head 'em off at the Past ! ! !

[János Székely]

Further confirming the thesis that IV can be read as an insider's
guide to GR (or to the writing of GR) is the inclusion of the Bonzo
Dog Band in the soundtrack. Don't forget about their _greatest_ hit
"I'm the Urban Spaceman", conspicuously missing from the playlist
while the band's name is dropped here repeatedly. The lyrics (written
by Neil Innes of Monty Python fame) are uncannily Slothropian.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbLDI5lNdRQ

Lyrics here:
www.metrolyrics.com/im-the-urban-spaceman-lyrics-bonzo-dog-doo-dah-band.html

János


2009/9/9 Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>:
> Chapter five has a number of variations on themes by Raymond Chandler, but
> first off I'd like to point to a few anomalies of "Pop" or "Rock" radio in
> the late sixties and early seventies in Los Angeles. A transition in radio
> occurred in "Pop" radio during the brief rise and steep fall of the hippies.
> KPPC turned into one of those "Underground" radio stations, featuring long
> sets, heavier sounds and stoned DJs. Eventually KPPC morphed into New-Wave
> standard bearer KROQ:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3xy8s-IQ7k
>
> The somewhat more commercial KMET soon followed suit and KRLA loosened up
> its programming policies, making "Radio Free Oz" possible even on the AM
> band and doing some decidedly strange shit on Sunday nights. I suppose an
> indication that Doc is the preterite sort is underlined by the fact that
> he's still listening to AM radio during the time of Rock's ascendency into
> FM.
>
> For many years I've assumed that Pynchon may have had a hand in [and at the
> very least, had to be aware of] the Firesign Theater. Like maybe he was the
> fifth crazy guy or somethin'. Since reading Inherent Vice, it has dawned on
> me that the Bonzo Dog Band—née the Bonzo Dog Dada Band, later the Bonzo Dog
> Doo-Dah Band—is in many ways a better comedic fit.
>
> First, allow me to paint the scene. Doc—who at times may appear to be a
> zonked-out fool [the drug-related incident on page 25 leaps to mind]—is,
> after all is said and done, a resourceful P.l. Shasta suggested "a possible
> laughing-academy angle" to Mickey's abduction, so Doc begins maneuvers upon
> co-conspirator Mrs. Sloane Wolfmann in order to determine what nut-house the
> real estate developer may have been dumped in. Doc coms up with his own
> bogus mental health clinic—"Modern Institute for Cognitive Re-patterning and
> Overhaul". aka "MICRO"— yet another echo of LSD's function [briefly] as a
> therapeutic aid for modern, over-stressed personalities. This was
> particularly true in Stanford, doubtlessly true around UCLA and Isla Vista
> is certainly close enough to Ojai for rock 'n roll.
>
> Getting ready for his visit to the Wolfmann estate, the good Doc checks out
> some "straight" costumes in his "en suite broom closet" setting his sights
> on a "double-breasted velour suit from Zeidler & Zeidler" and a short-hair
> wig that almost matched the suit. I can't help wonder how lumpy and obvious
> that wig must have looked on Larry's hirsute head. Doc has his friend "Jake"
> make up a few business cards for "MICRO" and that's the last we'll ever see
> of Jake. The card reads:  "MICRO—Reconfiguring Southland brains since 1966.
> Larry Sportello, Licensed Associate" which the author points out is true
> enough long as the license you're referring to is a California driver's.
> It's also a reminder of the point where LSD stopped being therapeutic and
> started being "party time!!!", a fad doomed to fall apart soon enough. Just
> ask Count Drugula.
>
> That "Zeidler & Zeidler"  reference reminded me of Zappa & the Mother's
> "Eddie Are You Kidding?" This is Flo & Eddie—lead vocalists in Frank Zappa's
> encomium for the low-priced leaders in Men's Fashions— doing their thing at
> the bottom line in NYC. Try around 3:45 and if you play the whole thing,
> expect to be offended.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/neqlor
>
> While the Zeidler & Zeidler chain of clothing stores folded back in  1996,
> there still is a Zeidler & Zeidler Dental Group in Century City, doubtlessly
> still deeply enmeshed with the Golden Fang.
>
> Back to Doc's car climbing into the Santa Monica Mountains towards the
> Wolfmann Estate. I've been a fan of the Bonzo Dog Band from the first time
> I've heard them—early 1968 in Fresno a DJ on an otherwise "Normal" top 40
> station decided to play "The Intro & the Outro":
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Bxv_HLwT7U
>
> Not that KRLA in early 1970 was anything like "Normal."
>
> Speaking of "Normal":
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIYOY10RD-M
>
> "We are Normal and we want our Freedom!"
> "We are Normal and we like Bert Wheedon!"
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fZr14KeS6Q&feature=related
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCJ7ycSMCkA&feature=related
>
> In fact, that Firesign Theater connection I mentioned earlier is touched
> upon by virtue of Doc's radio being tuned to KRLA and all. One of the FS's
> first audio venues was "Radio Free Oz" on KRLA:
>
> http://www.firezine.net/faq/fst-zine-faq-2.html
>
> The Firesign Theater stopped performing on KRLA on January 14, 1968 but
> continued to have a presence on L.A. radio through the seventies, over on FM
> stations KPFK [cited in Vineland], KPPC and KMET.
>
> I'll expand on the figure of Vivian Stanshall—a key Bonzo and I suspect also
> a major influence on that whole George Formby thing in GR . . .
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUq6ktf19WE
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55-oNqY1yTU
>
> . . . in a later post but meanwhile: here's the best link I've found for
> "Bang Bang." Just scroll down to the song and 'hit' play:
>
> http://www.rhapsody.com/bonzo-dog-band/the-doughnut-in-grannys-greenhouse
>
> Somehow I find this performance of Sonny Bono's meisterwerke quite redolent
> of Stewie on Family Guy.
>
> Chapter Five—more than any other in Inherent Vice—seems like variations on
> "Head 'em Off at the Past!!!", what with another "Same" Mansion and as many
> references to 40's noir conventions as can be stuffed into 12 pages [be sure
> to check out the lighting on page 58]:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5XfXECpU6w
>
>                        NICK
>        And that's why I called you today, Nancy... I mean, Mrs. Haber.
>        Something reminded me of that time so long ago under the
>        dwarf maples.
>
>                NANCY
>        (phone voice)  I don't know what prompted you to get in touch
>        with me, but you called just in the nick of time.
>
>                NICK
>        You haven't lost your delicate sense of humor, have you,
>        Nancy?
>
>                NANCY
>         (phone voice)  What?
>
>        Nick, I can't talk to you now. You have to get out here right
>        away.  My husband he... It's the same old place in Santa
>        Barbara, Nicky. Oh, hurry, Nicky, I need you, I nee...
>        (click/dial tone)
>
> . . . but this is Pynchon and as we shall, see genre conventions will be on
> full display in all their florid glory simply to underline the fact that
> after all, they're just genre conventions. Kinda like what "Head 'em off at
> the Past ! ! ! " does. Kinda like what James Wong Howe's lighting does.
>