Tuesday Tunes
I have inherited many things from my parents. All of my DNA, a quarter of my music taste, seven fourteenths of my humour, and 100% reason to remember the name. It was one of the years before entering high school that I began to browse the records and cds belonging to my folks. The radio was crackly and always played the same stuff, I didnt earn money so didnt have many CD's of my own, and the online streaming services of today were pipe dreams. I was searching for new music. I had already heard their vinyls: Neil Diamond, Billy Connolly, The Barron Knights, that one song by Napoleon the XIV "they're coming to take me away, ha ha."
So I made my way through their moderate collection of discs. I mostly enjoyed them, but I would always come back to a collection of songs from the 50's and 60's. It took me on a journey from 'Under The Boardwalk' to 'Up On The Roof', and upon returning home, 'She Cant Find Her Keys'. Also on that CD were ...
Larry - vi-V-IV-III
The Song(s)
Song: 'Runaway' & 'Hats off to Larry'
Artist: Del Shannon
Album: Both Singles, ’Runaway’ then from ‘Runaway with Del Shannon’ - 1961 - BigTop
Method of discovery: Parents’ CD Collection
Research:
Del Shannon was the stage name of Charles Westover, a Michigander/Michiginian born after the Banana Wars (1934), who was drafted around the Laotian Civil War (1954), and died before the Gulf War ended(1990). ‘Runaway” was his most successful hit, topping the charts in New Zealand, and also in little countries like America and the UK. It’s his most prolific song and has been covered by Bonnie Raitt, Avenged Sevenfold, Kasabian and Elvis uh-huh-huh Presley, to name a few. Shannon utilises the vi, V, IV and III7 of the Verse Key, and the I, vi, IV, V7 of the Chorus Key, with the III7 and V7 respectively being the same chord and serving as a medium through which he seamlessly transitions between the two keys. Essentially it goes from being A minor to A Major (relative to Capo).
The chord-work is similar in ’Hat’s Off to Larry’, recorded the same day as the former, but released later that same year. It peaked only in Canada, reaching number 2 in the NZ charts. We have good taste. Both songs feature the ‘Musitron’ solos of Max Crook who met Del Shannon who was actually Charles Westover when he was still Charlie Johnson of ‘Charlie Johnson and the Little Big Show Band’. Max Crook immediately[sic] changed his name to Maximillion. Crook made the Musitron by stealing parts of appliances from around his house, reel-to-reel tape machines and old amplifiers, plugging them all into a three octave Clavioline Keyboard/Precursor to Synthesizer. This is the strange sound that haunts circuses.
Personal thoughts:
Both songs are about break-ups, as so many many many songs are. I’m not sure if there ever was or ever will be a subject as endless as broken hearts. ‘Runaway’ concerns itself with a woman who has left and the felings of desertion the protagonist is left with. ‘Hat’s Off to Larry’ however, is a song that laughs in the face of a woman who left the protagonist for another man, who then in turn broke her heart. Together they form two sides of a coin: Heartache and Cruelty. When I was listening to these as a young man they were separated by several other songs, and even for players alive at the time there was at least a delay in the releases. But I can’t help but feel that ‘Runaway’ is the precursor to ‘Hat’s Off to Larry’. I’ll leave it to you to decide which other Del Shannon Song completes the Trilogy.
Give it a go: If you gots a hankerin for some 1960’s sound of the future, the Musitron.
Give it a miss: If you were more of a Mod anyway
[links]
Wikipedia: Del Shannon, Runaway, Hat’s Off to Larry, Max Crook, Musitron
Spotify: Del Shannon, Runaway, Hat’s Off to Larry
Website: Del Shannon