Oh, snap! Is it really 2013? Yes, it is. Now before you go on thinking how super-modern you are, just imagine 1913 - and how super-modern they thought they were in comparison to the fuddy-duddys of 1813.
A hundred years from now in 2113, will we finally be living on Mars? Will Beiber-Fever be lost to time? And will we still be listening to Miss Peggy Lee? We might be, especially if her 1963 LP "In Love Again" - a Cheerful Exclusive! just for you - is still around to play...on what? An MP3 player? Naw. That'll be so-o-o-o dunzo by 2113, I'm sure.
There's a lot of fine tunes in this Peggy LP. She even dares to take on "Unforgettable," Nat King Cole's signature tune (and does quite well by it, thankyouverymuch). By the way, do you think Peggy's fashions worn in the photo above will still be around in another hundred years? Hmmm. The hat, maybe. The gloves, a provisional yes, but only if truly hotcha! drag queens still exist (as we know they will). But really, I just hope and pray that room divider beads, like the ones Peggy's peeping out from below, are still in vogue. They set such a mood, don't you think?
Speaking of turn-of-the-century, the one and only Sophie Tucker bridged the eras from the 1800's to the 1900's, so there's no reason she can't continue streaking toward infinity and beyond, right?
In Sophie Tucker's "The Last Of The Red Hot Mamas Greatest Hits" - a bawdy Cheerful Exclusive! for you and yours - the Mama in question takes you back to vaudeville's and burlesque's earliest days, a time when the girls knew how to shake it for their supper while remaining (almost) entirely clothed.
Innuendo is the name of the game in songs like "You've Gotta See Mama Ev'ry Night" and "Fifty Million Frenchman Can't Be Wrong," and no one delivers them with as much sass as Sophie. Plus, she does what I think is a definitive version of "After You've Gone," wringing all the emotion from the lyric, but with a bracing frankness and lack of sentiment.
In the future, will people still want to bompity-bomp while listening to
His live concert recording in Stockholm is mesmerizing. And with song titles like "Gettin' Ready," "Left & Right," and "Brown Sugar," he's just as playfully innuendo-laden as Sophie Tucker. No, really. Listen to "Left & Right." Sophie would have been proud (and then she'd have stolen it for her own act).
Will movies like "Blue Jeans" (aka "Blue Denim") make it into the next millennium? That's a tough one.
To be honest, it's a big, flabby pile of cornball - an allegedly "daring" movie about abortion, though the word is never said out loud - so it's hard to make a case for why anyone would bother watching it, save for fans of Brandon de Wilde, the noted child actor ("Shane" got him an Oscar nomination) who made a surprisingly successful transition to adult roles (in "Hud" opposite Paul Newman), only to die in a tragic car accident in 1972 at the age of 30.
Still, there's another reason the movie might be remembered, and that's for Bernard Herrmann's genuinely moving score, the highlight of this next installment in Herrmann's 14 CD Fox series.
The Secret Song File is timeless, and so isn't much worried about this or that millennium. Guys will always be looking, leering, hoping. It's just the way things are. Oh, and people are certain to still be listening to music and partaking of ganja, both of which figure prominently in our discussion today.
Why, you ask? Because the best little alterna-electro group you probably haven't heard of yet encourages its listeners to indulge in a bong hit or two before playing their tunes, and even named one of their songs after said plant. Not only that, they really (heart) you. But I can say no more. I could, but I mustn't.
It's the Year of the Snake! Do with that what you will.
Have a totally awesome 2013, m'k?
