Dr Romanelli
This holiday season Dr Romanelli reinterprets one of Jim Henson’s fanatic fan favorites.
We have a few surprises along the way , so stay tuned for updates in the coming weeks…
Visit here for more info = www.drdoozer.com
The inspiration for this release is based on hospital volunteers sometimes referred to as candy stripers. This name is derived from the red-and-white striped jumpers that female volunteers traditionally wore, which resembled sticky candy . Candy Stripers originated as a high-school civics class project in East Orange, New Jersey, in 1944. The uniforms were sewn by the girls in the class from material provided by the teacher – a red-and-white-striped fabric known as “candy stripe”.
T.Rex arrived at the perfect time. Marc Bolan’s history had mirrored Pop’s own… Rocker.. Mod… Flower Child… Then, suddenly, he broke with the status quo, shattered and splintered what had come before and emerged as the electrified, stylized, über pop bopping GLAMSTER!
Sounding remarkably modernly-hyped and yet at the same time retro… with knowing nods to Chuck Berry Bo Diddley Fats Doo Wop and even ELVIS. Bolan hit on a remarkable formula that linked and synched old and new. And he did it with a look that shook. Satin blazers and purple maryjane shoes with pastel socks… Top hat and corkscrew curls framing a pale, cherubic face — lightly glittered eyelids batting as the 14 year old girls swooned, and the boys raced to guitar shops to buy Les Pauls and Flying V’s…..
That, my dear friends, is when the 70s began.
The sound was amped up cranked up riff rock with soaring falsetto backing voices right out of early R & B… the beats were tight and the bass heavy… the songs were pure pop heaven: all cars and dragons and sexual innuendo… and it was all sung in an other worldly vibrato that was Bolan’s alone.
The first time I consciously heard T.Rex it was THE SLIDER, blasting through the oversized home stereo speakers of a high school friend. “METAL GURU.. IS IT YOU?” I was knocked off my seat even though I was standing, and I have yet to fully recover. When my band The Bongos popped on the Billboard Dance Charts in the 80s, it was with a T.Rex song, “Mambo Sun.” Bolan was in my blood.
Marc Bolan is an icon of the first degree. His arrival was crucial to what came after: the dance-oriented new wave punk pop that followed him owed its very existence to those T.Rex hits. And his sudden departure, at age 29, just as that next phase was gaining ground, only served to make him more iconic. More timeless. A mystical cosmic dancer – for all eternity.
The artist Masakatsu Sashie captures the unlikely marriage of past present future retro pop that Marc embodied. How appropriate now, as the Twentieth Century itself can be viewed as a hovering orb not unlike Sashie’s paintings, that we pay tribute to the Twentieth Century Boy himself.
Richard Barone
New York City
August, 2009
Richard Barone is an acclaimed recording artist, performer, composer, and producer. He has produced countless studio recordings, and collaborated with world-class artists in every musical genre – from Moby to Liza Minnelli. As musical and theatrical director, he has scored shows and staged all-star concert events at such venues as Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. Barone lives in New York City, where he is recently completed work on his fifth solo album, GLOW, produced by Tony Visconti. His first book, FRONTMAN: Surviving the Rock Star Myth, was published by Backbeat/Hal Leonard Books and performed as a ‘Musical Reading’ at Carnegie Hall on October 1st, 2008.
http://RichardBarone.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Barone
http://MySpace.com/richardbarone
