"Judy in Disguise (with Glasses)"

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnfred

Judy in disguise, well that's what you are
Lemonade pie with a brand new car
Cantalope eyes come to me tonight
Judy in disguise, with glasses

Keep a-wearing your bracelets and your new rah rah
Cross your heart with your living bra
A chilly sweet sparrow with guise
Judy in disguise, with glasses

Come to me tonight, come to me tonight
I've taken everything in sight
Unzipper the strings of my kite
Judy in disguise, hey that's what you are
Lemonade pie, hey got your brand new car
Cantalope eyes come to me tonight
Judy in disguise, with glasses

Come to me tonight, come to me tonight
I've taken everything in sight, unzipper the strings of my kite
(Oh, Uh oh, Uhhh)
Judy in disguise, what you aiming for
A circus or a holiday, that's what you are
You make me laugh about you
I guess I'll just take your glasses

make sure you get the right one! ruin the song for yourself by comparing for hours!

I demand documentation

...THAN most of the stuff those other bands did

I don't know what the heck genre "Judy in Disguise" is. Seems less "frat-rock" to me than Swingin' Medallions or "Farmer John" or something.

Hombres: Not Tex-Mex at all in their sound (unlike Sam the Sham, ? and the Mysterians, Sir Douglas), just in their clothes and name.

I lump them in with not only the Box Tops (they do Penn/Oldham song, "Out of Left Field" as well as "She Shot a Hole in My Soul" which the BTs also did) [frat-soul-pop with its hipness factor being that "they do cool soul-music covers" so kinda like that whole Carolina Beach-Music aesthetic, except JF were residents of Louisiana]) and with any number of vocal groups like Harpers Bizarre or Spanky & Our Gang. Basically vocal groups who got psyched-out post "Revolver"/"Sgt. Pepper." And also like the Sir Douglas Quintet. JF were far more baroque and the joke was basically that there they were, posing for a picture with their matching uniforms and tubas, and behind them were the familiar hanging-moss LSU trees. They all look like they're stoned or getting ready to get stoned or drunk.
Relaxed about the whole thing.

Anyway, it's a really good album, every song is some kind of off-kilter thing, some drollery, and easily as good as 10cc or someone like that from the song titles alone: "Most Unlikely to Succeed," "Agnes English," "Judy in Disguise" and the killer, "AcHenall Riot."

What's great about "Judy in Disguise" is how it treats the overdone pop of the Beatles as ridiculously easy, the bass line is like a beginner's version of a soul bass line. To me, this is about as inspired as some of the tropicalist stuff being done at exactly the same time in another hot climate.

And considering Judge Judy is from Brooklyn and never lived in Louisiana (Fred's turf), and that she was married when the Fred song was written, I'm not quite buying that she was the Judy that was in disguise.

New Jersey Italian machismo in a high-pitched voice p'raps?

When I was very young and Lou Christie was in the charts I went under the severely mistaken impression that it was Lou Costello.

I always assumed that the appeal was that they looked like tough guys but had hearts of gold that could be divined through their singing. And as for the Four Seasons, women love it when men sing in harmony because it shows they're listening. (Did they have lots of male fans? I didn't think so, but maybe.)

"judy in disguise. (bump) with gla-sses"

part is like the definition of a bad hook. to me, at least.

Yup. And he remains huge there. I figure his success comes down to this: The older folks loves 'em some bel canto, or at least pretentions thereof, and the kids gave him cred 'cuz he sang about sex in "Rhapsody in the Rain."

No, I was saying "Let It Out" by the Hombres reminds me of "Tighten Up." Don't know which of those came first. Don, I think that album's called AGNES ENGLISH?

By Don's request, this is from the rolling country thread last week:

so i've been listening to this 20-song 2004 compilation called *life and times* by a louisiana singer-songwriter named butch hornsby who apparently used to write songs (in the '90s i guess) for john fred, formerly of the playboy band fame. first nine tracks are identified as "malaco rough mix"es; not sure if that means he was making demos for the southern soul label, or recording in their studio (if they have one) or what. other stuff was apparently connected to a label (studio?) called deep south, and four songs are "mandeville bathroom session"s. anyway, the guy's pretty eccentric, a country soulster closest vocally to a young david allan coe (the similarity is most noticeable in "suddenly single"), but with a few wacko titles like "i ain't no chauffeur" and "don't take it out on the dog" and (my favorite so far) "rock bottom on romaine," which seems to concern being strung out in hollywood, and romaine rhymes with cocaine, so draw your own conclusions. except the liner notes allude, somehow, to hornsby meeting some kind of tragic end, and this bizarre cryptic part might be ABOUT romaine: "butch hornsby made people uncomfortable. tommy lorio tried to warn butch's wife carol. he use dried lettuce and food parts that were petrified upon his ceiling as a visible manifestation of that warning. carol didn't listen." what the? but carol's note (and john fred's) don't mention lettuce, and a google search to find out more left me high and dry.

actually there's also something about butch hornsby that reminds me of terry allen. (he even does a song called "the smithsonian," so there's a fairly good chance he appreciates art. "i have seen the universe," too.) and he sings way too good to just be a demo singer.

I feel like chicken tonight, feel like chicken tonight
I've eaten everything in sight, unzipper the strings of my kite
(Oh, Uh oh, Uhhh)

Palazzotto engineered a recording agreement with ABC Records in Los Angeles for Louisiana country-writer-artist Butch Hornsby, whose album was produced by Cyril Vetter at Malaco Studios in Jackson, MS. in 1975.

at any rate, I got to find out more about this guy.

http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/cdrev/johnfred-rs.php

None at all. Tribute notes from Palazzotto, John Fred, Butch's wife Carol, and two people named Cyril E Vetter and Duke Bardwell, but, frustratingly, nothing to inform people about his life who don't already know about it. A couple more thoughts about the music, though: There's a definite rockabilly (as in Elvis and Jerry Lee) influence to some of the singing, but none of it really sounds like rockabilly per se; the closest it comes is a sound that I'd describe sort of as a darker and more confused version of the carnival rhythms in Freddie Cannon's "Palisades Park," maybe. (Hey, anybody who wants to talk about Freddie Cannon on this thread, go for it! He was great!) Also, Hornsby's bathroom sessions (whether the bathroom was actually in a mental hospital or not) are the most skeletal and hard-to-hear four cuts on the album, as you might expect. Outside of "Rock Bottom on Romaine," my favorite tracks are "Since You Run Out," "100% Chance of Getting Me Down," "I Ain't No Chauffer," and "Suddenly Single" (the latter of which has some Gary Stewart in its sound, too, I decided, though still more David Allan Coe in it.)

The one that disturbed me was "Come and Get It" by Badfinger: "If you want it, here it is, come and get it, but you better hurry because it's going fast." I wasn't sure what "it" was (sex? drugs?), but I was positive it was something I didn't want to think about.

And I interpreted the line about the lyrics to "Judy in Disguise" as saying that at least they weren't as bad as "Yummy Yummy Yummy," but yes MAYBE I WAS WRONG.

Tangent: I often wonder about that whole 60's ultra-rockist prog-loving, lyrics-focused, album-orientated school of rock criticism, because it seems to me that its foremost representatives aren't very canonised today. I mean, all the big guns of the 60's and 70's - Meltzer, Marcus, Christgau, Dave Marsh, Lester Bangs - pretty much position themselves *against* this sort of ideology, in one way or another. And sure much of that might just be revisionism, but what vintage stuff of theirs I've read doesn't seem to confirm that.

Anyway, I'm sure Tommy James has lovely albums! I've never heard a track by him I didn't like.

Doesn't there seem to be some sort of hierarchy here? I mean, he's saying the Box Tops and Tommy James both have album filler, but Tommy James belongs to "the Tommy Jameses" group of bands whose albums - with their filler - are not just terrible but much worse than terrible.

Well, he's certainly saying that The Box Top's albums, though bad, are still better than those by Tommy James, sure. And the use of "even" in regards to the Box Tops, who have "never released a second-rate single", does seem to imply that the Box Tops are the cream of the crop of that sort of sub-genre, which means he probably thinks they're better than Tommy James in general, yeah (though that doesn't necessairly imply that he thinks Tommy James is worthless.) I still see no need to frame all this into terms like "realness" and "authenticty", which Christgau never really used in that review. I mean, let's face it, pre-Big Star, rock snobs probably hated the Box Tops and Tommy James in equal amounts.

Boy, parsing Robert Christgau's sentences just never gets old, does it?

http://www.stupidlyhappy.com/archives/judee%20sill.jpg