I don’t get what Sha Na Na is about; and their Wikipedia page doesn’t help. Did they genuinely perform 50’s songs for appreciative audiences? Was it all performance art designed to mock the genre? A mix of both?
And how did their performance go over at Woodstock?
They started out as a gentle parody of 1950’s rock bands (or 1950’s tribute bands), but as they gained fame, they realized they had a winner, and performed as a serious tribute band. At least, that’s how I saw it.
My mom loved their songs non-ironically when they had their show in the 70s and/or 80s.
D. All of the above. They managed to walk the fine line between tribute and satire in a manner not seen again until Utopia’s “Deface the Music”. While not at Woodstock, I would think that the reaction would have been to regard them as satirical. Gave a whole new meaning to the words “acid flashback”.
All three.
During the time where they were popular, they did a lot of the silly stuff and goofy humor, but they were also a decent do-wop group.
I saw them live in their heyday. They were seriously performing the old 50s songs with a lot of skill, but added humor to be more theatrical. They genuinely loved the music, but wanted to punch it up.
The audience loved them, but their audience was not the people who originally listened to their music, but rather their children (or those in between).
Remember, too, that oldies stations didn’t exist. You’d hear a song from time to time, but nothing regularly. So the Sha Na Na songs were often brand new to the audience.
**Sha Na Na: Satirical Parody, Ernest Tribute, or Pure Cheese?
**Yes.
From the Wikipedia article:
The '70s were a strange time.
Having been at Woodstock, I can attest that their performance was greeted with wild enthusiasm. I think the audience both enjoyed the music for it’s own sake as well as it being a satire of the genre. I, like others, had grown up hearing the music as kids. While rock had evolved by 1969, fifties rock was still rock. It wasn’t our parents’ music, it was the music of our older siblings.
Sha Na Na at Woodstock:
Initially, most of the guys in Sha Na Na were students at my alma mater, Columbia University. Very smart guys (Scott “Santini” Powell went to medical school, and became an orthopedic surgeon after leaving the band). So, the greaseball image was totally a put-on.
They were just guys who loved Fifties music.
That Wiki article is kind of confusing. It seems to treat the touring band and the TV show band as separate entities. Did they not tour when the TV show was on?
Sha Na Na were the kings of Woodstock
You know it’s true deep in your heart
Greasy guys in gold lamae
If only Hendrix had been so smart
iirc there’s some neat footage of them performing in the film Festival Express, about a rather chaotic series of concerts performed across Canada where all the performers travelled together on a special train…
Actually, this is the clip I’m thinking of, with lots of crowd reaction shots - they definitely liked them. The police, not so much!
Totally!
My bolding. In the late sixties and early seventies, rock stations would play older music, sometimes in the mix and sometimes as a Blast from the Past set. Sometimes days or weeks would be dedicated to older music. Not all rock stations were top 40 stations, and even some of them would flash back to top 40 for year 19XX for a day.
The way I remember it, they started out as a parody, but when fifties nostalgia hit in the seventies, they became more serious about it.
Before they became famous, they performed in a theater in my home town. The write up of the concert in the alternative newspaper described something very different from later performances.
E.g., the concert started with a band member insulting hippies using the f-word. Then spitting on the audience ensued. They wanted to make it clear that there weren’t some sort of joke act and they didn’t want an audience of freaks laughing at them. They seriously didn’t like acid rock/metal and such that was popular at the time and really loved 50s music.
The TV show represented something of a sell-out.
They were a part of the RocknRoll revival which was going on at the time. Lots of people were doing Little Richard and Chuck Berry covers - they were the ones who dressed the part and made it their whole act.
Pure show business.
I saw them in that era. That was pure schtick.
They loved 50s music and were pretending – acting in character as greasers from the time. My friends and I were hippies and laughed loudly when the did that bit. (And they didn’t spit at the audience – they spit on the stage).
Your alternative newspaper was clearly humor impaired.
I worked, indirectly, with co-founder and forensic linguist Robert Leonard (gold lame, bass) and asked our go-between why he left show biz. His reply was, roughly, “Once you’ve shared a stage with Hendrix and Joplin the only way left is downhill or into another career.”