Sitting on My La La Waiting on the Ya Ya

Three small things that have kept me from totally losing it, this week:

The Five Du-Tones - Chicken Astronaut (mp3) (buy)

Oscar Brown, Jr. - But I Was Cool (mp3) (buy)

The first is a 1964 b-side from a St. Louis soul quintet most noted for recording "Shake a Tail Feather" the year before.  ("Feather," a bigger hit for everyone who did it after the Du-T's, gets a shout at the end.)  "Astronaut" is hilarious, adheres to its little comedy concept (there's a countdown, and I love the guitar part that imitates the fake-news telegraph wire), but it's no novelty throwaway.  It blubbers, wails, rocks.

The second is from the incomparable Oscar Brown, Jr., off his necessary record Sin & Soul... And Then Some.  Brown was a very theatrical vocalist, and smart and serious enough to be funny.  His "Cool" narrator's composure, his over-the-top breakdowns, the hepcat back-up all bang against each other to great effect.  He totally meant to do that.

The third is this unfortunately unembeddable Gary Numan bit from The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.  I've grown to like Ferguson a lot.  Yes, his repetitive bits become ruts, his skits are lame.  But he's a better performer than the other late night hosts, he's not afraid to get smart, he's not afraid to be a buffoon.  Lately, he's been wonked on a variety of (hopefully) prescription medicines and has totally run with it.  If there was a tangent-going-off-on marathon, he'd come in second to some guy from Kenya.  Though I don't know how they'd know where to wind up.

I'm not a robot at all!

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