Riot!
two years late
While working at Radio Shack some years ago, I had to hear an attempt at a swing song by a former marginally successful ska band. The corporate warlords had decided that the best way to drive employees insane was to force them to keep a tape of Radio Shack ads playing at all times, and they amended this during my employment there to include two rock videos per cassette. One such video was "Zoot Suit Riot."
Now, I slept a lot in high school, but I know what the real zoot suit riots were: during the second World War, Mexican nationals would head north of the border to put the moves on the American seoritas. With most of the strapping young men of the US off to war, and the rest reduced by wartime rationing to nerdy suits with thin lapels, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Unfortunately for said Mexicans, the draftees would occasionally come back on leave and start riots to defend the honor of their girlfriends.
I explained this to a befuddled co-worker when he began singing along, figuring that a conversation would provide a (slightly) less annoying use for his voice. I was not yet as jaded as I've become, and I was surprised that he had no idea what I was talking about. Forgetting stuff from school is one thing, but his memory couldn't even be jogged.
I mentioned this occurrence during a recent conversation about the differences between actual big band music and the modern imitations, and it occurred to me that people who liked that song probably don't know what it's about, and people who do know the subject matter probably aren't that impressed by the song. So, aside from the song having a '40s sound and the lyrics being based on '40s events, what's the connection? God damn those Cherry Poppin' Daddies.
I originally thought the song was by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and when I investigated, I found out that you can win a "memorable event" for your high school jazz band by covering one of their songs. This means now there are swing revival bands on both sides of the public education spectrum, and that doesn't sit well with me at all.
Now, I slept a lot in high school, but I know what the real zoot suit riots were: during the second World War, Mexican nationals would head north of the border to put the moves on the American seoritas. With most of the strapping young men of the US off to war, and the rest reduced by wartime rationing to nerdy suits with thin lapels, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Unfortunately for said Mexicans, the draftees would occasionally come back on leave and start riots to defend the honor of their girlfriends.
I explained this to a befuddled co-worker when he began singing along, figuring that a conversation would provide a (slightly) less annoying use for his voice. I was not yet as jaded as I've become, and I was surprised that he had no idea what I was talking about. Forgetting stuff from school is one thing, but his memory couldn't even be jogged.
I mentioned this occurrence during a recent conversation about the differences between actual big band music and the modern imitations, and it occurred to me that people who liked that song probably don't know what it's about, and people who do know the subject matter probably aren't that impressed by the song. So, aside from the song having a '40s sound and the lyrics being based on '40s events, what's the connection? God damn those Cherry Poppin' Daddies.
I originally thought the song was by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and when I investigated, I found out that you can win a "memorable event" for your high school jazz band by covering one of their songs. This means now there are swing revival bands on both sides of the public education spectrum, and that doesn't sit well with me at all.