And thus the earth-shatteringly talented and once-celebrated Louis Prima faded into relative obscurity
But he will never be forgotten!
That was a pretty good movie.
I thought the fad was a little dorky though. It was like it was trying too hard.
Just as you try hard to be the all knowing arbiter of dorkiness and non-dorkiness. I’m not flaming you, but you must admit you come out with opinions on the matter of dorkiness more than just about anyone else around here. I’m not the only one who’s noticed that…
Am I?
Am I?
Still, I admit that this is true, in the sense that most fads are.
Yikes! Okay, okay…no disrespect intended, I know there are real enthusiasts out there. This just struck me as a perfectly legitimate pursuit that exploded into a national mania for no apparent reason (I feel the exact same way about the current “low carb” craze, BTW.).
Love the art, hate the hype. I got that.
“Now, I’m the King of the Swingers. Boy- the Jungle VIP!..”
I have a unique gift to distinguish what is cool vs what is trying to be cool vs what is actually lame, corny or stupid. A lot of people don’t have that. I’m just trying to share that gift with the rest of the world.
See.
Most fads are by their nature “dorky” because they usually involve a lot of people adopting a style which is not natural to them in order to be a part of something “cool”. This is not cool as someone who is truly cool would not need to emulate someone else and would in fact be immitated by others who aspired to coolness. You can’t “act” cool. You just have to “be” cool.
I am not saying I’m the coolest guy in the world or anything. There’s plenty of stuff I’m into that probably isn’t that cool in the grand scheme of things.
Understood. You do bring some interesting insights.
As someone who got into swing dancing back in the late 90s, I can say that it was definitely big before the media got wind of it. I feel like the OP is confused as to the order of things. Things don’t become huge because the media makes it out to be huge. They become huge because a lot of people do it and then the media catches on. Like the Atkins craze you’re talking about. I was hearing about it for years before the media caught on to the fact that millions of people were following it. Now you can’t get away from it. But the point is that the fad is there first, and then the media hypes it up.
And into a coma. (He was in a coma for the last several years of his life, emerging for a few hours once in his final days.) His ex-wife (Keely Smith- veddy veddy bad man, incidentally- Louis used to beat the hell out of her) is making a comeback of sorts: she’s started popping up on infomercials, A&E specials, even on Bravo tribute concerts.
Swing came out of the cocktail revival that was going on, and it really was a niche. You’ve gotta be bizarre to like artists doing loungified versions of Alanis Morissette, and from there it follows you’ll want the band to play something you can dance to.
There are always people involved in some sort of social dancing-- Latin styles are always big (especially Samba), but if you want music with less of an ethnic feel, you’re not going to waltz or foxtrot, you’ve gotta jive and swing.
I actually don’t know many people who got dressed to the nines to go dancing (I never did because I’d overheat), but it’s definitely something you need to practice at home before you go out on the dance floor-- which is why it faded. Like anything else physical, swing dancing is work. Fun work, but still work.
Glad to hear it. I always thought she had one of the most powerful, sassy, somehow-wise-sounding voices I’d ever heard. Her take on the classic “The Lip” (from "Louis Prima: the Wildest!) was amazing. I’d wondered what happened to her.
It’s disappointing to hear about Prima himself being a bastard, though. I must confess to being ignorant of the man himself, but loving his music.
I hate when I have to consider that basic artistic question: Can I still support or appreciate a person’s art if I know they are or were a real inhuman shitheel?
One may disagree, but the only conclusion I can come up with is “yeah.” The art, to me, lives on as a separate entity from the man. And truthfully, if I had to stop and consider the moral culpability of every popular artist I hear or am exposed to, I’d probably have to stop liking just about everyone. I’d have a hard time finding a truly unsullied person. Richard Wagner, Woody Allen, Louis Prima, Al Green, etc. All fantastic artists, but all had their problems with moral turpitude.
Also at stake is the issue of forgiveness and holding a grudge. For instance, how does Keely Smith still feel about the long-dead Prima? Has she forgiven him for his sins against her? Does the fact that Al Green got a face full of boiling grits and mended his ways mean that I no longer have to think about the cruel irony of him beating the shit out of his wife while recording “Love and Happiness?” Do I have to stop laughing at Woody Allen’s subtly ingenious humor just because he’s a pervy scumbag? Must I sell off my Cerebus collection because Dave Sim, as unbelievably brilliant as he is, is a misogynistic, pseudoreligious, hyper-right-wing nutcase?
Nah. I don’t think so. The art is, for me, separate. The backstory is just that…backstory.
Besides which, this is Louis Prima. I’d make an exception even if I did believe art and artist should be conflated. I downloaded about 30 of his songs when Napster was legal. (Favorites: Bei Mir Bist Du Schön, Bueno Sera Signorina and of course his inspired Jungle Book appearance.