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“Abracadabra… People Are Strange”
‘It’s Three AM on a Monday, And I should be getting some sleep. But there’s some brand new explaining, That I find’s still remaining…”
Oops! Wrong song. I’m a little late this week, since work was very hectic (ha ha) last week, but that’s a story for another time and place.
Last week, I noticed that “The Band Currently Passing as The Doors”, to paraphrase some guy from Minneapolis, was playing at the Garden State P.N.C. Arts Center. I thought this was funny, since the frontman would obviously be missing, and no, Lynrd Skynrd wasn’t on the bill with them. Everyone I mentioned this to said they didn’t like the Doors then, and still didn’t now, and furthermore, without Jim Morrison, the question was even more absurd. Nevertheless, some others I know were going to the concert. I guess they didn’t know any better.
In the late 70’s a band I was in had to cancel some work due to a member leaving. One of the club owners complained that she had to get a new, unheard of band “Crystal Ship”, which was, yes, you guessed correctly, a The Doors tribute band, to replace us. They did a fine job, and went on to be very successful. As a matter of fact, they made more money than the real The Doors did. They probably played better than The Doors also. I can remember a review of The Doors in the late 60’s in the “LA Free Press” which described them as having become a comedy act. All I can say is “Roll, baby roll!”
Meanwhile, over the past couple of days, a friend of mine uploaded a comedy version ( at least I think it is) of “People Are Strange” to http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?PID=301319&T=9173. You remember that one. It had a sound best described as a cross between “The Third Man Theme” and a typical Halloween song. No they didn’t have videos in those days. But one thing they did have in those days, and still do now, was Robitussin cough medicine with codeine, which per the regulations of the State of Maine was available at the rate of one bottle per person per month without a prescription. I have a feeling this may have changed since then, but I am unable to verify it at the moment.
In any case, some of my friends discovered that Robitussin and The Doors were a winning combination. The developed an entire ritual around this. In retrospect, if I had a film (no camcorders then kids) of it, it would be even more of a classic than the late 60’s pot party movies. It certainly was ten times funnier. Simply put the first step was to put the recordings containing The Doors’s artistic efforts (all three or four of them) on the turntable. Step two was to chug the bottle of Robo, as they referred to it. Step three was to lie back and groove on the vibes. There were some subtle nuances. One time someone tried Romilar instead of Robo, and found the effect wasn’t the same. Among other things, the Romilar made him vomit. This was NFG, as I would say some years later. NFG doesn’t stand for “New Found Gold”.
I’m sure you’ll all be glad to know my friends all survived, at least to my knowledge, to become reasonably productive members of society. As the years went by, the stature and legend of The Doors also grew, as did Jackie Gleason’s. Crystal Ship eventually broke up, and don’t ask me why. Meanwhile, in the early 80’s, Steve Miller had one of his biggest hits with a song called “Abracadabra”, which was another dancing skeleton classic in the same vein as “People Are Strange”, although most people did recognize its mindless characteristics. George Thorogood, another one of those I had come across during my meanderings in the 70’s came out with a cover version of whatever “Well I woke up this morning, and I got myself a Bee-Yuhr” is actually called. I remember now – it’s “Roadhouse Blues”. Even more bizarre, Sugar Ray came out with a cover of “Abracadabra”, which was even more pointless, but an improvement over the original, in that it got rid of some of the Halloween hokiness of the original.
“This is a story, Of Houlton, Mai-aine. Back in July, I went there again… ( [Guitar sound] -Skree, Rang, Dang, Dang, Dang!)”
Damn! Wrong song again!!!!
Ed Colton Perth Amboy, NJ Aug. 25, 3:38 AM |
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