Posted on 05/19/2005 3:08:43 PM PDT by missyme
The Archies Story Image is the most important consideration for some people when it comes to rock 'n' roll. According to this school of thought, if an artist doesn't put out the right kind of visuals and attitude, he probably isn't worth listening to.
Members of a band have to look sufficiently surly. They must sneer convincingly. Their torn T-shirts, tattoos and black leather need to convey the proper air of defiance. Cynical attitudes, acquired from years of performing in cheap dives, are essential. Don't let them be too cute!
Nobody who's too appealing to fourteen-year-old girls is acceptable. A real rocker wouldn't be caught dead with his picture in magazines like Teen Beat, and it goes without saying that a band can't be anything like The Archies.
A cartoon studio group with its own Saturday-morning TV show is just about as uncool an image as you could ever want. So it comes as no surprise that rock critics have been trashing Archies records for 30 years now. Wouldn't they be surprised, though, if they ever took the time to really listen to Archies records?
They'd discover that this "bubblegum" band cut more than a few great songs. Between September of 1968 and September of 1971, The Archies gave Saturday-morning TV its best rock 'n' roll since the animated Beatles crashed the kiddie airwaves three years earlier. Adults never realized how good it was . . . or so it seemed, until a song called "Sugar, Sugar" was released, and rocketed into the stratosphere.
Stranger still, HBR (Hanna-Barbera Records) released the 13th Floor Elevators' psych-garage classic "Your Gonna Miss Me". It was never used in any televised HB cartoon though.
My faves played a mean guitar AND fought crime!
Please ping me.
"Strangers in the Morning" from 1972 was the best single the Archies ever did. When I was in radio during that long-ago era, I'd play that tune for other jocks, and they loved it until I told them who it was.
I saw a "detourned" video that showed clips from the Archies to the tune of "God Save the Queen" by the Sex Pistols.
Johnny Rotten meets Jughead!
My dad grew up in Haverhill, MA (amongst other places), the inspiration for the Riverdale in the comic strip (Bob Montana's hometown, I believe). To this day the Eagle Tribune in nearby Lawrence runs the strip under the name "Haverhill's Archie".
"I just can't believe the loveliness of lovin' you, I just can't believe it's true.. like the summer sunshine pour your sweetness over me..." good stuff. Much preferred over the drug lout filth of that era...
The Archies are most prominent in a long line of hit bands and pop stars that were, in fact, entirely fictional characters!
Others include The Spice Girls, Britney Spears, Milli Vanilli, and dozens more!
The Archies are most prominent in a long line of hit bands and pop stars that were, in fact, entirely fictional characters!
Others include The Spice Girls, Britney Spears, Milli Vanilli, and dozens more!
bump
I have to go to see Sith in a few minutes, so I will just give you the short version: I heard their CD being played over the PA at a record store, where they were playing a short set to publicize their first American tour. They were great, I met them and they signed my CD cover, and I just saw them live at the legendary Fillmore three weeks ago.
Unlike the Archies, Puffy AmiYumi was already around for years before someone decided to make a cartoon out of them. The cartoon show is OK, but the band kicks righteous...uh...what's Japanese for "butt"?
On the tape was the Way Outs' song:
There's a place where I can go
And that's where I'm gonna be
I'm saying goodbye to you good people
'cause I've found the place for me
Yeah yeah yeahhhhhh!We're goin' way out (Way out!)
That's where the fun is, way out (Way out!)
That's where the sun is
Cause I've found the place for me-ee-eeee!
They were never as good as the Archies, and they couldn't act, either.
I will drop a bomb here. Years of listening to Howard Stern on WNBC radio in the early to mid-1980s has produced one piece of "useful trivia," at least for this thread.
WNBC radio had a traffic reporter that was regularly harrassed by Stern. The reporter was capable and funny, usually pulling off a comeback or two, despite every effort to unhinge her.
The traffic reporter in question was directly related to the creator of The Archies. She would chat for minutes on the Howard Stern Show about her family's real connection to the fictional town and characters. It was veery interesting.
(In a Paul Harvey voice) Howard Stern would call her by a different, more repugnant name but you know her as
FoxNews' own Donna Feducia...
and now you know
the rest of the story.
Here's a pic of Dan DeCarlo with his wife Josie, along with convention chairman Sam Conway and two mascot performers from the convention.
Those skirts are pretty short....
The Archies were too bubblegum for me.I don't recall any of their songs.The Monkees were pretty good,and imo they had some good songs.Liked the show too.
Well, I've posted in
some fringe threads, but I will not
post in a thread -- Hey!
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