Sweethearts Candy Blog's

Back in the late sixties and early seventies, Bro, our friends Bob and Danny and I, played rock music in bars and clubs around the Bay Area.  That was back when drug-addicted hippies were tearing down the country and trying to help the Communists conquer South Vietnam.  One of the songs we loved to play was "Okie From Muskogee" by Merle Haggard.  Bob used to amend one line - "We don't let our hair grow long and shaggy, like the hippies down in San Francisco do."  Bob changed that to "the hippies in the San Francisco Zoo."  We laughed like hell and had a great time.

 Here's the song, sung by a very young Merle Haggard.

Two years ago I made a pilgrimage to the site of Vince Guaraldi's last gig in Menlo Park, followed by a visit to his grave in Colma, California.  I posted an article about it here.  It was called "Searching For Answers:  the Death of Vince Guaraldi."  Vince was the famed jazz pianist who wrote and recorded the 1962 jazz hit "Cast Your Fate to the Wind," and whose trio provided the background music for Charles Schultz's "Peanuts" cartoons.  Vince's Christmas album is still popular and widely played every December.

Since posting that article, I have received notes, a previously unpublished photo and other information from various people who either knew Vince or loved his work.  One of them is writing a book about Vince Guaraldi.  See the above link to see all of the latest information.

Today I learned the names of the musicians who were with Vince on his last gig in Menlo Park.  The bass player was Seward McCain and the drummer was Jim Zimmerman.  Zimmerman was with Vince in his room at the Red Cottage Inn, between sets, when Vince collapsed and died suddenly of a burst aortic aneurysm.  Vince was walking towards the bathroom when he collapsed on the floor.  Zimmerman ran to get McCain and they tried to revive Guaraldi, but Vince had died.  The only good thing about it was that he didn't suffer; death was almost instantaneous.  His mother, Carmella, later told a magazine that she was glad, at least, that Vince died as he would have wished, i.e., while playing a musical performance.

That last gig started out well.  McCain reported that the nightclub, Butterfield's, was filled with customers and that the first set went well.  The last song that Vince Guaraldi ever played was "Eleanor Rigby," the Beatles' hit.  McCain stated that Vince had an exciting version of the song.

The day before, Vince had dinner at the home of Peanuts producer Lee Mendelson.  He complained about some chest discomfort, like indigestion.  Vince had previously had an EKG and a doctor's examination to discover the cause of his discomfort.  The doctor told him he was probably getting ulcers and gave him a useless prescription of pills.  Vince's death, therefore, was not due to any personal negligence of his own.  He knew something was wrong and tried to get it diagnosed and treated.

After Vince died rumors spread that he had suffered some kind of drug overdose:  heroin, or maybe cocaine.  However, those rumors have proved to be untrue.

More information on Vince's last night can be found at the link above.

Below are some recordings our band has made for demo purposes.  We'll post more when we get them.

The sound is best when played through decent speakers; if you are listening on small computer speakers, use earphones instead.  I mean, if you can't hear the bass, is there any point?

Our male singer is getting better -- I steered him towards some lessons on how to increase your range and intonation and how to sing from your chest and "mask" rather than through your nose.

We aren't ready for Carnegie Hall or anything, but a few more demos like this and we should be able to land some gigs in local clubs, as long as they have the Blues Brothers protective screen to shield us from thrown beer bottles.

I supply the bass in these songs.


Spooky (male singer, female backup)


Memphis (male singer)


Rio de Janeiro Blue (female singer)

A reader liked this video, so I decided to post it here.  Our guitar playing grandma really rocks on this old classic, "Tequila!"

The weakest point of our band is the vocals.  It's hard to find and to keep a decent singer.  Our singer didn't show up for practice so we played some intrumentals, including the blues jam posted below.  Our funky new lead guitar player could be someone's grandma, but if so, she's a rockin' grandma.  She broke into this blues jam and we all followed her.

We had never played this piece together before, but blues follows known chord progressions and we all knew them.  Listen with earphones to hear the bass.

NOTE:  The sound balance on this video isn't perfect by any means.  The video was shot on a small, hand-held digital camcorder with a single recording input.  In spite of that limitation, I think the sound recording quality is quite good.

A Christian church in Texas made a rousing musical video to demonstrate the congregation's support of Israel.  They did it by singing a Jewish song (in Hebrew) and by waving Israeli flags.

Jean-Patrick Grumberg writes at the French blog DRZZ:

This video mixes country music, gospel and Klezmer (Jewish music).  The orchestra is composed of Evangelical Christians who recorded this onsite in a church in Texas.

In a world blindly hostile to Israel, this demonstration of friendship goes right to the heart.

See original post here (in French).

Back in the fall of 1962, when I was a freshman in college, I bought a vinyl L.P. by the Lettermen.  The Lettermen was a group of four harmony singers.  The L.P. was of them singing various college songs.  My favorite was a haunting and sad melody called "The Whiffenpoof Song."  I didn't know the origins of the song, but it was obvious from the words that the singers were supposed to be college students from, I guessed, the 1920's.  To me, the song conveyed long-time traditions, the passing of time and past generations.  Young students, vibrant with life, would also grow old and someday "pass and be forgotten with the rest."

Recently I saw a reference to "Yale" and the "Whiffenpoofs," did a Google search and found that the Whiffenpoofs are a Yale a capella choir.  They have been around since 1909 and are a Yale tradition.  Their most famous song is "The Whiffenpoof Song."  A 48 year mystery solved!  I just had to wait until they invented the internet.

I found the Lettermen singing "The Whiffenpoof Song" on YouTube.  It's embedded below.



The Lettermen's lyrics were changed just a tad to remove any reference to bars and drinking, i.e. "Temple Bar was changed to "Temple Square" and "glasses raised on high" was changed to "voices raised on high."  Here are the original lyrics:

THE WHIFFENPOOF SONG

To the tables down at Mory's
To the place where Louie dwells
To the dear old Temple Bar we love so well
Sing the Whiffenpoofs assembled with their glasses raised on high
And the magic of their singing casts its spell

Yes, the magic of their singing of the songs we love so well
"Shall I Wasting" and "Mavourneen" and the rest
We will serenade our Louie while life and voice shall last
Then we'll pass and be forgotten with the rest

We're poor little lambs who have lost our way
Baa, baa, baa
We're little black sheep who have gone astray
Baa, baa, baa

Gentleman songsters off on a spree
Doomed from here to eternity
Lord have mercy on such as we
Baa, baa, baa

Some History:  Mory, whose real name was Frank Moriarty, was the original owner of the ale house, which he founded in 1861.  Yale students discovered the bar when returning from rowing practice, and it soon became a student hangout.

The song reference "the place where Louie dwells" refers to Louis Linder, the fourth owner of Mory's, who owned the restaurant and bar from 1899 to 1912.  It was during Louis's reign that the student singing group "The Whiffenpoofs" was formed, named after a mythical creature from a popular play.  They performed at Mory's every Monday night and still do to this day did, until Mory's was finally closed in 2009, one hundred years after the Whiffenpoofs singing group was formed.

When Louis Linder retired, Mory's fans formed a nonprofit organization to own and run Mory's as a private club. Mory's had been in continuous existence for 140+ years when it was finally closed in 2009.  I do not know the reason for the closing -- perhaps it could no longer turn a profit.

Related articles:
You can read about the history of Mory's and the Temple Bar here.
The Whiffenpoofs have their own website here.