ALL THE BEST FOR A 60s MUSIC DRAGON YEAR IN 2012

Questing For A Singapore 60s Christmas Record

Having met five of them recently but separately, I decided to highlight this particular recording of our top local pop music stars. I had kept on the shelves this vinyl to wait for an opportune moment to post it. I am not the first to do so.

So when I was in touch with former rhythm guitarist Jap Chong and wrote to him about this EP, he explained that this special pressing (CHK 1063) was recorded before a live audience to enact a rousing Christmas party ushering in the season of plenty. It was the first time that pianist Jimmy Chan, the band's latest member, made a pressing with them. This vinyl was completed just before they left for their first trip to Hong Kong near the end of 1967.

For the new readers of my blog, after some changes in their line-up since they first started in 1960 and before they disbanded in 1970, here are The Quests (lst image) once again with (from left): Jap Chong (rhythm), Sam Toh (bass), Jimmy Chan (keyboard), Lim Wee Guan (drums), Reggie Verghese (lead) and Vernon Cornelius (vocals).

And how old were these guys then? In their twenties. Forty-four years down the road with Jingle Bells, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, White Christmas, We Wish You A Merry Christmas. Yes, and a Happy New Year too.
Images/Article: Andy Lim Collection.

If you have stories to tell about The Quests and other local musicians, pop bands and singers please contribute in the Comments column. We must keep our pop music heritage going for the young ones. Some of them know that we had a golden age of music once upon a time but most of them don't.

It doesn't matter what your story is, even if you say, "It was so hot at the Singapore Badminton Hall at Guillemard Road when I saw The Quests on stage the first time..." It is such an important comment because our young boys and girls don't know that we were devoid of air-conditioning in the 60s and we were practically fanning ourselves with newspapers, souvenir programmes and paper fans but at the same time cheering and screaming for our own pop stars, dancers, comedians and MCs on stage.

Your take on the stories of yesteryear is so important. Let's help each other and please give generously. Thanks.

The Quests will appear in a Queentown Festival get-together at their old school concert hall in September, 2013.

SMRT Trains, Christmas And Vintage Elvis Presley

SONGS I LOVE:

Our problems with SMRT trains here in Singapore remind me of vintage Elvis with Mystery Train. No connection whatsoever with the lyrics. There are hundreds of train songs but this one is the best ever by the best singer ever. But I am not sure about Singapore having the best train service ever. Seems to have made many Christmas shoppers unhappy. Cannot go to Orchard Road... (Song is on the right side-bar of this blog).

Train arrive, sixteen coaches long/ Train arrive, sixteen coaches long/ Well that long black train got my baby and gone/ Train train, comin' 'round, 'round the bend/ Train train, comin' 'round the bend/ Well it took my baby, but it never will again (no, not again)/ Train train, comin' down, down the line/ Train train, comin' down the line/ Well it's bringin' my baby, 'cause she's mine all, all mine/ (She's mine, all, all mine)... by: Junior Parker n Sam Phillips 1953.

MERRY XMAS FOLKS AND FOR A HAPPIER TRAIN RIDE 2012! GIMME A BREAK!

Image: Google

Lyrics: You Tube

Bowler Hats, Checkered Vests: Singapore Dixieland

"Way down in New Orleans at the Golden Goose/I grabbed a green-eyed dolly that was on the loose/Well I dig that music and she sent me too/I said pretty baby come on let's do/The Dixieland Rock /Well the Dixieland rock /Let your hair down sugar, shake it free/And do the Dixieland Rock with me...

With the blue light shining on her swinging hips/She got the drummer so nervous that he lost his sticks/The cornet player hit a note that's flat/The trombone hit him while the poor cat sat..."

Elvis Presley, King Creole: Dixieland Rock lyrics.

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"Dixieland music, sometimes referred to as hot jazz, early jazz or New Orleans jazz, is a style of jazz music which developed in New Orleans, USA at the start of the 20th century. It spread to Chicago and New York City by New Orleans bands in the 1910s. Well-known jazz standard songs from the Dixieland era, such as Basin Street Blues and When the Saints Go Marching In, Tiger Rag, Basin Street Blues, Panama are a few known songs. Edited: Wiki."

New Orleans came early to Singapore and this island has no Golden Goose Club but the above lines from Presley's song prompted me to write this posting as I vaguely remember when a *Dixie band performed in the sixties in Singapore. These were music artistes well-versed in their craft and as the above images prove, were well established and even televised in black and white way back when.

The music caught on some in Singapore and there has always been a steady stream of enthusiasts who love the genre. Al Hirt, Pete Fountain, Louis Armstrong were some of the imports that locals listen to.

Check out their full regalia too - bowler hats, checkered vests, special bow-ties and sleeve garters that were usually worn by musicians playing this genre, be it barbershop, ragtime or Dixie. But suspenders (master interviewer Larry King's favourite) and straw hats, familiar accessories for the uniform, were not used here. To all 21st Century male fashionistas. You don't know what you've been missing. Cool Cats they were man!

The first image features a Radio Television Singapore (RTS) camera in a studio at Caldecott Hill, filming a group playing Dixieland music for a Special Easter programme. The second one shows Anthony J Danker with his solid Hofner guit with bowler hat intact. The third shows, from left, Eddie Fernandez, Harry Klass, Anthony Danker, Claude Olivero and Jimmy Gan. If there's ever to be a 50s Music Hall Of Fame line-up, these boys would definitely fit the bill.

Today, Dixie is alive and well on our island, thanks to the various schools, Community Clubs and music institutions that help to organise groups. One group, the Summertimes Big Band (Singapore) has a thoroughbred of jazz players, vocalists and music directors trained, qualified and schooled from licentiate colleges in the UK and US to lead the way.

The pictures above could have been taken in the mid-sixties after the advent of television in 1963 but are labelled under a 1958 portfolio. Is this a mistake? Anyone?

*Read Horace Wee's (previously with RTS/SBC Orchestra) under Comments below:

Images: Thanks to Anthony Danker for them. Courtesy of National Archives, Singapore (for online reference viewing only).

Original article: Andy Lim.

Dixieland Rock: Elvis Presley: 

Movie: King Creole. 

YouTube video by: 13 AMTRY.

Singapore Sixties Music Is Spreading Positively

Has this blog been hijacked? Yes if the whole blog is taken and put under another name. No if only one posting with a particular theme is taken verbatim. The practice is common. But it's interesting news because the above screen snip was taken from Rock Is Alive at coffinride.com on 8th January, 2011.

The above image reads: Rock Is Alive: We Gonna Rock n Roll All Night Singapore 60s: Andy's Pop Music Influence: Rock n Roll Yodeling … 新加坡60年代安迪的流行音乐的影响. सिंगापुर निश्चिंत संगीत. ஸின்கபொரெ முஸிக் இன் தெ 60ஸ்

Read more here: http://singapore60smusic.blogspot.com/2011/01/one-of-worlds-greatest-45s-album-cover.html

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I guess this one isn't but helps to spread Singapore 60s music news. That's good. And what a shapely, lithesome body... the guitar I mean.

Image from: http://www.coffinride.com/

Rollin' On Canadian Highway With BTO Rockers...

SONGS I LOVE:

Thanks to my wonderful Canadian buddy Rob M. for the songs I've learnt and the ride along the scenic Canadian Highway:

My own knowledge of heavy metal or rock bands is hardly enough for me to write any decent posting on the genre. But I truly appreciate my first ever heavies when I listened to Deep Purple in the 70s and except for a few songs like Smoke On The Water, Highway Star and Black Night the interest stopped there because I could not take too much of the cacophony and extremely high decibels emanating from both the powerfully voiced singers and their amplified instruments. It was only by chance that I listened to this genre of music again.

On a nostalgia trip in the mid-nineties I returned to Vancouver, Canada and travelled from there to Winnipeg in a car. A really wonderful Winnipegian friend (image 2) came all the way from his home town, drove West to B.C. for two days, picked me up from the city in his purple, 1995 two door sports Chevvy Cavalier and we drove back East for the next 8 days, seeing sights across British Columbia, Alberta, Saskachewan, Manitoba and hearing songs by *BTO (image 5, 6) and other 60s to 70s rockers from his car-radio.

We met many friendly bikers along the way (image 4), bears catching trout on the Canadian rivers, deer that walk the roads, camouflaged white goats amidst the pale hills and sometimes soaring eagles in the skies. In the background, the rugged mountains, hush pines and glacial plains (image 1) were a bonus.

"You seem to love loud music?" I asked on the second day of our journey.

"To keep me awake Andy," he replied. "You don't wanna drive the car since you guys drive on the wrong side of the road in Singapore and I have to keep myself awake all the time. Besides, BTO music is truckers' music and drivers keep themselves awake and entertained with heavy metal and CBRadio."

I understood what he meant. It was hard for him to keep awake during the long and quiet drives (image 2), especially after lunch. I kept my mouth shut for the rest of the journey realising that if it weren't for my good friend I would have to suffer a bus trip that would take more days. But I always made sure he was awake and chatted with him when the player was switched off.

The baptism of gutter guitar filled me with fire and after some driving practice I took over Rob's car on the fourth day. I learnt a few songs on the road like, Taking Care Of Business, Roll On Down The Highway, You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet, Take It Like A Man, Let It Ride, a favourite American Woman and other rock hits.

I also realised that the growling guitars and gruff grinding of voices from heavy rock kept me awake while we were on the long Canadian roads from two o'clock in the afternoon, sometimes under a blazing Canadian sun in the middle of June. But when the eyes just would not open, we would shade under a large tree on a side road and take a cat nap.

I was sad, not glad, when I had to leave Winnipeg again and missing the BTO stuff that I never got to collect. I am still learning about this genre of music. Anyone got any vinyls or CDs of truckers' music to spare?

*"Bachman–Turner Overdrive (frequently known as BTO) is a Canadian rock group from Winnipeg, Manitoba, that had a series of hit albums and singles in the 1970s, selling over 7 million albums in that decade alone. Their 1970s catalog included five Top 40 albums and six Top 40 singles.

The band has sold nearly 30 million albums worldwide, and has fans affectionately known as gearheads (derived from the band's gear-shaped logo). Many of their songs still receive play on FM classic rock stations (Wiki)."

Images 1, 2, 3, 4/original article: Andy Lim Collection.

Image 5, 6: You Tube and Google.