Pat BooneV2, Chap 15 (Sahha), I, p 465 - "Pat Boone"/"Be-Bop-a-Lula"

[Richard Ryan]

As mentioned in my previous post on Flip and Flop, I'm operating on
the supposition that the fixation of the "government girls" on Pat
Boone is TRP's contemptuous place-holder for the characters' lack of
taste or soul.  By the time of V.'s presence tense (1956), Boone had
already become established as a "white-wash" artist, i.e, a performer
who specialized in popularizing less racy version of R&B songs
originated by black artists.  Boone's reputation as a racial makeover
specialist may be one of the lurking jokes behind this passage's
reference to "Be-Bop-a-Lula" - which was, of course, written and
indelibly recorded (in 1956!) by Norfolk-born and -raised Gene Vincent
- who, beside being *white*, was also, prior to his music career, a
Navy enlisted man.  Although the song's original hit recording is
invariably attributed to Vincent, that version is actually courtesy of
"Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps" - Vincent's  Norfolk-based band; his
backing member's name is based on a slang term for  U.S. Navy sailors.
Music fan Thomas Pynchon could have very well seen "Vincent and the
Blue Caps" during the author's naval service (1955-1957).  There is,
as nearly as I can tell, no Pat Boone version of "Be-Bop-a-Lula."


-- 
Richard Ryan
New York and the World
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The remedy for unpredictability, for the chaotic uncertainty
of the future, is contained in the faculty to make and keep promises.
    -- Hannah Arendt