BEFORE BEV

Cast Your Fate to the Winds -- I vowed to do that the day I got my army discharge, this was after Vince won a grammy for it in 1962, (Before Bev) and Mel Torme did a great version (Before Bev) and even now there is a wonderful Etta James of it (after Bev) and I think you can imagine Etta in front of Killer Joe doin' it? There are words to it and the best singer of those words is one Bev Bivens in a recording from the We Five.

Bev is the unremembered, overlooked vocal power of them days, the best unknown girl rock singer. There was always some rumor floating around that she died in an accident or a suicide, but she just went on to another life as Bev Marshall and had kids and lives up by Joanbear. No one knows it these days, the ignorant music historian bastards, but Bev was the first rock and roll girl singer to make it on the charts (You Were On My Mind) as part of a co-ed rock group. <http://www.geocities.com/officialwefive/beverlybio.htm> You have to go back to Irene Goodnight to find a hit with a girl singing with boys Before Bev.

Before Bev it was all boys (from Bill Haley to Herman's Hermits to Buffalo Springfield) or all girls (Chiffons to Supremes to Pointers, etc)

Before Bev there was a law that you din't have girl lead singers in rock bands with boys in them.

Before Bev there was a "No entrance" sign on the highway, holding back Grace Slick, Janis, Stone Ponys, and the avalanche that followed, all the way to Abba.

[ Dissemble: Abba has a soft sweet place in my heart for being there on tape one night in a disco in Tunis where at closing time I whirled and whirled 'Becca Nicholwitz in a tight embrace in the middle of a candlelit dance floor while 50 muslim girls were scandalized when 'Becca and I kissed and danced away the last half of Dancing Queen and 50 muslim guys didn't know how to get from the mosque to that kiss, and have been resenting it an' blowing up Americans before and since. Abba ain't Beethoven, but Robin, there is a part in one of the Charlie Brown specials where Schroeder plays Beethoven as the little ribbon of notes scrolls out of his toy piano, and that ribbon of notes is played by Vince Guaraldi so you can hear Vince do Beethoven if you can search out the right VHS tape in the kiddie section of the video store.]

[Furthermore: You can also rent Muppet Movies there, including a musical tape featuring the greatest hits of Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, which is tommy's "that band below in the orchestra pit" featuring Animal on drums. I once filled in an application line where it asks you to list foreign languages you speak with Mock Swedish, bork bork, and got enough points to move on to the next level 'cause you needed more than one language on the application. Both my sons speak fluent Mock Swedish, and I always get a double take when I mention that my sons are Bill and Ted respectively, as if I was putting somebody on in Mock Swedish.

Keanu Reeves is not my son, but has good lines in THAT movie, quotes Axel Rose to a princess after Bill Preston gives him the most useful piece of romantic advice that has ever been uttered in Movieland: "Quote her some lyrics, Dude." I promise it works. It is the best way to make romantic order out of the chaos of love, except they outlaw love in Belgium, home of the worlds largest supercomputer dedicated solely to solving stochastic chaos theorems.

I wouldn't leave just yet, there is still fun to be had. Hershkeee dooo!]

The We Five featured Mike Stewart, as well, who was the brother of John Stewart of the Kingston Trio who was the mentor of Lindsay Buckingham; so there would be NO Stevie, and no Fleetwood Mac, without Bev having been there first.

The founder of the Kingston Trio was Dave Guard, replaced later by John Stewart. Dave lived up on Whiskey Hill Road which you can see from the trail behind Joanbear's house. I betcha you can see Bev's house from there too, as Joany lives at one of the best view areas they have to offer in all of Unitestan. I'm playin' a little Nanci Griffith right now, and I think I'll go have a bit o' Bacardi and coke and think some more about Ruth and how we all cast our fates.

"A Month of Nights
A Year of Days
Octobers drifting into Mays ..."

thassa nice piano, Mister



PS 6/23/07 My friend Robin sent me some very interesting links to add to Bev-ology: She has a Wikipedia article. And there's a nice Google video clip. And this great performance clip. Yum.