DIG THIS WITH BILL MESNIK AND RICH BUCKLAND- THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS
My Fellow Americans, Life is actually just a microscopic, deluded moment in time, so let's cut to the freakin' chase. One look at our impending election debacle can solidify my case. It has been my contention since birth, that the answer to every difficulty we encounter on this sacred yet demented Stone, can be revealed with ultimate clarity through the ultra neurotic engagements of Music, Art, Literature, Film, Poetry and a good Pastrami sandwich. Why would any sane human spend so must time on a film set (Do you know how long you gotta wait until your 8 second deliverance of an edited beyond repair line gets a chance to become a professional embarrassment etched in time forever? ) or expend so much energy in a recording studio, piecing together another ode to a man or woman who could not care less how much love existed within your digestive tract? It's all about hymns and prayers and a quest for mercy and forgiveness and silence and faith. We were blessed with Charles Bukowski, Gene Chandler, Lenny Bruce, Mitch Ryder and a legion of creative explorers whose influences provided the air we breathe. So Let's Dance! This site shall explore the reaper, find a way to disarm the stench of injustice, discover some true loves and talk it all over before it's all over. So what's the worst that our desires could produce? Failure? So sue me. I'm going to require your assistance in making as much trouble for the grown-ups as possible. Let the record show that my childish heart yearns to disrupt the madness. Join me Ladies and Germs!
With Gratitude For Gena Rowlands, Nancy Sinatra, Jerry Quarry, Leo Gorcey, Arthur Alexander and Joey Heatherton, Your Splendid Bohemian, Rich Buckland.
DIG THIS WITH BILL MESNIK AND RICH BUCKLAND- THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS
THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS PRESENT: THE SUNNY SIDE OF MY STREET with THE "MIGHTY MEZ" - SONGS TO MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD - EPISODE #28: WEDDING BELL BLUES / THE FIFTH DIMENSION (1969, SOUL CITY)
Laura Nyro wrote this song - (a tribute to torch singer Helen Merrill) - in 1966, but, it didn’t do much for her at the time. Three years later, when The Fifth Dimension recorded it, it shot to number 1. The radiant lead vocalist, Marilyn McCoo, sang it to her betrothed, Billy Davis Jr., on the various television variety shows of the day, and audiences lapped it up. Nyro, the oddball composer-prodigy from the Bronx, consistently channeled her soulful declarations to many other artists of the time - (Three Dog Night, Blood Sweat and Tears, Barbara Streisand) before being identified as the singular genius behind the magic.
My high school girlfriend Cindy was a 4’11’’ spitfire with an identical twin. Her dad, Hank, a long-distance truck driver with a provocative (to put it generously) sense of humor, enjoyed teasing us. He called me “Keppy” (the yiddish word for Head, because my hair was thinning). Whenever this song came on the radio, trumpeting the refrain: “Marry Me, Bill!” - and it was ubiquitous - Hank, and Cindy’s two older brothers, would give us shit mercilessly, - and I HATED IT. I hated the song and I hated them for pushing the uncomfortable question on us - because, despite the fact that Cindy hoped for the eventuality of matrimony, I didn’t, and that was painful for her.
Today this song sustains a shining memento for me - a reminder that I have enjoyed the gift of being loved by a soul who refused to give up on me. Fiercely loyal, uncompromising in her passions,- Cindy, my first love.
