Word: doo-wopping
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...born in Puerto Rico/ Came here when I was a child..." Simon was preparing the mix for a song from The Capeman, his new musical that recounts a bloody tabloid crime from the 1950s, explores questions of guilt and redemption and introduces a rich dose of Latin rhythms and doo-wop music to Broadway. One riff from the electric keyboard caused him to make a face. "It's too synthy, too 'woo-woo.'" he said. "Have you got some nice strings?" Another muddy spot he wanted rerecorded: "The piano's too busy. You lose the lyrics." Putting the finishing touches...
Ambivalence is never a completely favorable trait in the musical world, especially for an inherently questionable soundtrack, but it somehow keeps Bean from the movie music graveyard. The surf-rock doo-wop of the Beach Boys' "I Get Around" and the 80s staple "Walking on Sunshine" from Katrina and the Waves lend a familiar sound to a bunch of otherwide deservedly unknown songs. Don't think that unpopularity leaves other tracks necessarily disappointing. "I Love L.A." by the revivors of this past summer's Latin element, O.M.C., has a catchy groove, Boyzone's "Picture of You" frolicks in generic...
Pretty much since then, black artists who wanted to play rock 'n' roll--as opposed to pop, or doo-wop, or soul music, or funk, or disco, or rap--have had a hard time getting a hearing from the music industry, which, thanks to its perceived marketing needs, tends to pigeonhole artists in "black" and "white" slots. The irony, of course, is that while white artists like the Rolling Stones are exalted for their borrowings from black music, black artists who try to reclaim the now predominantly white classic-rock tradition are often met with industry indifference, if not hostility...
...there are no unpanned nuggets here. The five vocals and two instrumentals hold mainly archaeological interest, offering vague signposts to the musical trails the lads would later blaze. The first, In Spite of All the Danger, is a Paul-and-George ballad with John singing lead, the others singing doo-wop with a perversely rockabilly twist, and an anonymous pal banging out triplets on a piano. They imitate the Everly Brothers' tight harmonies on Hello Little Girl, Maurice Williams on Like Dreamers...
...PAUL SIMON. The singer-songwriter-ethnographer, who says he's "not generally a fan of musicals," is writing The CapeMan with Nobel laureate Derek Walcott and plans to bring it to Broadway next year. In a publicity stunt casting call last week, young a cappella groups competed in a doo-wop contest. The winners, TROY JACK, JAMAL REED, KEN MCKLENDON and JOEDI IMBERT, had the voices for Simon's musical but not the attitude. They want to give the $5,000 prize money to their churches...