I have met a wonderful friend when I interviewed Stan Blitz author of American Bandstand the Untold Story. Stan, much like me is a music connoisseur. Not only do we love music of the past, we understand and realize that much of the very roots of today’s rock music came from the 30s, and 40s. Stan recently told me he was doing a radio show of the music of the 40s and it got me thinking…

 Oh how we forget such an important part of our past. Of course when I think of music of the 40s the first thing that comes to my mind is the sounds of jazz and the echo of big bands. This clearly sounded much better than the sounds of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Japan. The 40s was a very dramatic time and the music was also dramatic.

 People such as Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, were band leaders of some of America’s biggest bands and had people dancing and swinging on the dance floors. Soon singers who sang with these big bands became solo artists. Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Shore, Rosemary Clooney, even Doris Day became the star attractions of the big band era.

 As the big band era was blasting dance floors, Be-Bop and Rhythm and Blues and Jazz was sweeping the country. Charlie Parker, Dizzie Gillespie, Billy Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald filled the airwaves and The Andrew Sisters, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra and the Mills Brothers were introducing us to what we now call pop music.

 The music of the 40s was upbeat—and why not? TV dinners, Tupperware and aluminum foil was making life easier for women and they could enjoy songs like Rum and Coca-Cola by The Andrew Sisters, In the Mood by Glenn Miller, Don’t Fence Me where the Andrews Sisters teamed up with Bing Crosby, Sentimental Journey with Les Brown and Doris Day, and Some Enchanted Evening by Perry Como.

 The 40s music scene might be best known for jazz greats like Ella Fitzgerald who’s first hit was A-Tisket, A-Tasket, Sarah Vaughan who recorded her first song Lover Man with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday who not only sang but co-wrote God Bless the Child, Don’t Explain, and Lady Sings the Blues.

 Let’s not forget to mention country music. By 1939 the Grand Ole Opry had become the most popular music show on the radio and the 40s heard from Hank Williams, Roy Acuff, Gene Autry, Tennessee Ernie Ford, and Tex Ritter.

 Just a little trivia I found fascinating was that almost 1/4 of the music that people listened to in 1940 was Glenn Miller. Well that was until Artie Shaw  hired a singer named Frank Sinatra  but  he was making only 75 bucks a week so he ditched that band and found his fame with The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra where in one year, they recorded 40 songs. He soon became a crooning success.

 The bottom line is I think we tend to ignore how much the 40s music shaped music history.  We say the 50s was the beginning of rock and roll, but in my mind, some of these fine singers, were the core so  much of the music we listen to today.

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This past week we celebrated the birthday of Mr. John Lennon. He was someone I considered a genius and a man well before his time. His assassination was one of the very events that literally changed the lives of millions of people. Its events such as this that remain in our minds and it got me thinking…

We all have unforgettable events in our lives and for me, there have been several. We all have those moments in time that we simply cannot forget. I was only 5 or 6 when JFK was gunned down and have very little memory. I know that people were standing in front of the TV crying. That was my clearest memory. I was older when his brother was assassinated and recalled that humans were capable of crying rivers of tears. I knew at that point in my life that nothing would ever be the same for the Kennedy family, or for the United States and that knowledge made my heart heavy.

 A moment in time that stands out for me was the brutal slaying of Martin Luther King. I knew he had a dream and I remembered watching that speech. When a white man named James Earl Ray shot down this leader I was devastated beyond words. I am unsure if I was sad for him or sad about the way I heard white people rejoice in his death. It was a very brutal introduction of hatred and racism and what people were capable of saying. It was a lesson I did not want to learn, and sadly am still learning that people are filled with hatred and racism, even today. 

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When man walked on the moon it was  unforgettable. I was glued to the tube and watching when Neil Armstrong become the first man to walk on the moon. I recall holding my breath hoping he would be okay as he stepped out of his ship. It seemed surreal and made us all believe that we could do anything and everything if we simply put our mind to it. For a moment there was magic in our world.

 My mother was at jury duty the day Elvis died. She was a huge Elvis fan. I recall wondering who was going to tell her when she got Home. I was part sad and part in amazement that the King of Rock died on the toilet. How would I tell my mother her hero died on the john? She had heard it on the radio on the way home so we did not have to break the news to her, however the days that proceeded and the TV shows and the events were something I will always remember. 

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For me, the most devastated thing I recalled that changed my life was the assassination of John Lennon. I could get my head around the assassination of a president and I could even understand why white people would want MLK dead, but nothing could prepare me for Lennon’s assassination. I was playing in a band at the time, and they all knew Lennon was my favorite. They all came over to my house and we sat and lit candles, and listened non-stop the radio playing Beatle songs. We all sat in tears and our minds were in shock and our hearts were so broken.  I am not sure what affected me the most. That people could be so crazy and we let them walk the streets, or that the mind behind the music was gone in a single moment. I recall going to Reid Park and participating in the memorial. For me, it was what memories were made up of. Nothing affected my life as a young woman as much as this did.

 These were just a few of the events when I was younger that remain in my mind as if it were just yesterday. Events of our past can really shape who we become today. Because of MLK I have become a more compassionate person towards all race. Man walking on the moon opened my eyes to anything is possible. Elvis dying reminded me that we are not immortal and kings die, oh yeah and that I never want to die on a toilet.

 What in the past has affected your life?

I watched a movie last night that featured an actress wearing a pair of red go-go boots throughout the whole film. Though I felt this was unbelievable, that is the fun of movies, and this got me thinking….

I have to admit, I had them. My sister had them, and everyone I knew had Them. Those white go-go boots made from shiny white plastic. Why? Because they were mod man, it was what was hip and fashionable. Looking back, I am not so sure I would have fallen prey to this particular 60s fashion, but as I was entering my “hippyhood” as an adolescent, I experimented with all sorts of fads before I found, just being was the in thing.

I actually had two pairs of the plastic white boots. Some days I would wear them with a short skirt, dress, or shorts, but it sort of cracked me up to see myself looking so Nancy Sinatra. Most days I would wear them with bell bottom jeans or if thre was a day I wanted to play like I was a moon person.

 Of course, I would wear them when I could to school since my parents demanded we wore dresses until 7th grade. I would try to wear them to a church. My parents belonged to a rather weird religion, and I, even at a young age, rebelled against it by trying to wear those boots to their church.

Go-go boots were all the rage as Nancy Sinatra sang “These Boots are Made for Walking”. She made that song a hit as two bird-caged women danced next to her. Sinatra made sure that as women’s skirts got shorter the boot tops got longer. There were several kinds of these boots. You could get the white go-go boot either up to your calf or past your knee. They also had some that went above the ankle. They normally zipped up the back or side, and later they had these slick boots that laced up the front.

Most people give credit to André Courrèges as the originator of the boot that was often referred to as Moon boots. These boots were huge hits on TV shows that involved dancing like Hullabaloo, American Bandstand, and Shindig. They were also a huge hit on runways for mod, groovy fashion lines.

Today, the knee high boot is still popular, though most are not made of cheap white plastic, and clearly they are not called go-go boots, and rarely do you see women dancing in bird cages wearing these silly waxy looking boots. However, women did wear these plastic white boots along with their mini skirts and white lipstick for almost a decade.

I look back and am grateful that following some trends was something I had more fun laughing at rather than participating in. The last few bands I played in, I had to perform “These Boots are Made for Walking” as a sort of salute to bad fashion. Then again, if you wanted to look like a moon lady, the fashion wasn’t so bad.