"I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman"
Whistling Jack Smith
What kind of title is this? Who Was Kaiser
Bill? Where's the Boy Wonder?
From everything2.com:
Remarkable UK pop tune
from 1967 performed by Whistling Jack Smith. There are no vocals, just
instrumental backing to a great deal of jocular whistling. The
whistling is apparently the work of the Mike Sammes Singers and the
record producer. A cheery, almost militaristic number that could only
have been made in Britain in the sixties. The record was the
brainchild of two Rogers: Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway. It reached
#20 in the Billboard charts and #5 in the uk charts. Following its
success, an artist was appointed to 'be' Whistling Jack Smith, and an
album was released, but the success of 'Kaiser Bill' was never
repeated.
So what's with this Batman stuff?
Wikipedia to the rescue:
A batman (or batwoman) is a
soldier or airman assigned to a commissioned officer as a personal
servant. A batman's duties often include: acting as a "runner" to
convey orders from the officer to subordinates; maintaining the
officer's uniform and personal equipment as a valet; driving the
officer's vehicle, sometimes under combat conditions; acting as the
officer's bodyguard in combat; other miscellaneous tasks the officer
does not have time or inclination to do. The action of serving as a
batman was referred to as "batting". In armies where officers
typically came from the upper class, it was not unusual for a former
batman to follow the officer into later civilian life as a domestic
servant.
OK, so just who was this
batman? Wikipedia says:
John O'Neill was a professional
musician born in County Durham, England to Irish parents. He was
famous for his whistling abilities and was also an accomplished
trumpeter.He is widely believed to have had a hit single with I Was
Kaiser Bill's Batman credited as Whistling Jack Smith (a play on
"Whispering" Jack Smith). However the exact nature of who Jack Smith
was is unsure; certainly in TV appearances an actor lip-synced
whistling to a backing track, and some sources attribute the single to
British Decca/Deram producer Noel Walker, as producer and performing
artist.
But wait! What about "Kaiser Bill?" Dustbury.com
says:
Forget stately Wayne Manor. The
real question here is why Kaiser Wilhelm II, emperor of Germany and
king of Prussia, would have needed a small-b batman (a British soldier
assigned duty as servant to an officer) in the first place. And when
that's settled, we can work on the question of "Who was Whistling Jack
Smith?" The name is a send-up of singer Whispering Jack Smith,
soft-spoken because of an injury sustained in World War I; many of the
noises are made by the Mike Sammes Singers, well-known in Britain but
in the USA perhaps best-known for being the parents of the kids
chanting on John Lennon's "I Am The Walrus", and the leader of all the
whistlers was recording producer Noel Walker. The tune was orignally
titled "Too Much Birdseed" (!) and was concocted by Roger Cook and
Roger Greenaway, previously of the Kestrels; their song "You've Got
Your Troubles" (also produced by Walker) became a major hit for the
Fortunes, and as "David and Jonathan" they did a successful remake of
the Beatles' "Michelle" in 1966. Everyone at Decca, owner of the Deram
label, seemed surprised that this little ditty became a hit, and in an
effort to keep the hype going, the label designated singer Coby Wells,
real name Billy Moeller (brother of Tommy Moeller of Unit Four Plus
Two), already signed to Decca, as the "official" Whistling Jack Smith
for touring purposes. Greenaway and Cook would go on to write many
other songs; perhaps their biggest hit was "Long Cool Woman In A Black
Dress", the Hollies' crunchy Creedence pastiche. Billed as an
instrumental, "...Batman" actually contains one word, uttered by Noel
Walker: curiously, it's "Hey!" on the 45 and "Oy!" in the stereo mix.
There. I hope that's clear now.
"Rumble"
Link Wray
The song without lyrics
that was actually
banned from airplay in 1958!
A lot of people don't remember the song
or the artist. Link Wray and
his Ray Men created an overdriven, distorted electric guitar sound for
their recordings, and are credited with having invented the power
chord, which some say led to heavy metal and punk rock music.
Once again, we turn to Wikipedia for
the story behind the title of this unique hit instrumental:
In 1958, at a
live gig of the D.C.-based Milt Grant's House Party, attempting—at the
urging of the local crowd—to work up a cover sound-alike for The
Diamonds' hit, "The Stroll", they came up with an eleven and one half
bar blues song titled RUMBLE which -they first called "Oddball". The
song was an instant hit with the live audience, which demanded four
repeats that night. Eventually the song came to the attention of
record producer Archie Bleyer of Cadence Records, who hated it,
particularly after Wray poked holes in his amplifier's speakers to
make the recording sound more like the live version. Searching for a
title that would hit home with radio listeners, Bleyer sought the
advice of Phil Everly, who listened and suggested it should be called
Rumble, as it had a rough attitude that reminded him of a
street gang. Rumble was slang for a "gang fight."
The menacing stalking sound of
"Rumble" (and its title) led to a ban on several radio stations, a
rare feat for a song with no lyrics, on the grounds that it glorified
juvenile delinquency. Nevertheless it became a huge hit, not only in
the United States, but also Great Britain, where it has been cited as
an influence on The Kinks and The Who, and Jimmy Page among others.
Jimmy Page cites the song in the Davis Guggenheim documentary "It
Might Get Loud" and proceeds to play air guitar to the song in the
movie. Pete Townshend stated in unpublished liner notes for the 1970
comeback album, "He is the king; if it hadn't been for Link Wray and
'Rumble,' I would have never picked up a guitar." In other liner notes
in 1974, Townshend said, of "Rumble": "I remember being made very
uneasy the first time I heard it, and yet excited by the savage guitar
sounds."
The complete story of Link Wray is a compelling
one and a good read for any rock fan, regardless of age. You can check
it out at
this
page on Wikipedia. |
