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Tiny Bubbles - with a real tiki - on Lawrence Welk |
ikitnrev
Grand Member (8 years) 
Joined: Jul 27, 2002
Posts: 1298
From: D.C. / Virginia
|  Posted: 2010-03-30 3:42 pm Permalink
The subject title says it all. From a 1968 Lawrence Welk episode, country star sings the classic Don Ho song, accompanied by Buddy Merrill on the steel guitarist -- all with a fair-sized tiki standing nearby!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAmoEED_mvA
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10600
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2010-03-30 10:09 pm Permalink
The horror, the horror!  Another one of those moments in pop culture history that poignantly underscores the scope of the generation gap between the Polynesian pop veterans and their Beat and Rock-loving children.
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ikitnrev
Grand Member (8 years)
Joined: Jul 27, 2002
Posts: 1298
From: D.C. / Virginia
| Posted: 2010-03-31 1:27 pm Permalink
Here is one more from you .... no tiki, but with very colorful shirts!
'Sweet Leilani' with vocals by Joe Feeney, and Myron Floren on accordion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apWyqR9ufOE
This is from 1978 - one year after Myron's notorious 'Disco Polka' Lp was released.
Vern
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Kaiwaza
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 06, 2003
Posts: 411
From: Waikiki Beach, Hawaii
| Posted: 2010-03-31 4:28 pm Permalink
Love it! Lawrence Welk did a few Hawaiian shows, including one where they actually FLEW here and filmed on location...some great shots including duet singing while riding in the Sheraton Waikiki's glass elevator.
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Hakalugi
Site Administrator
Joined: Aug 10, 2004
Posts: 2816
From: Redondo Beach, CA
| Posted: 2010-03-31 8:50 pm Permalink
Here's another Welk Tiki addition,
The Lawrence Welk Presents George Cates' Polynesian Percussion LP.
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woofmutt
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 26, 2002
Posts: 2584
From: Seattilite Telstar
| Posted: 2010-04-08 2:46 pm Permalink
"Another one of those moments in pop culture history that poignantly underscores the scope of the generation gap between the Polynesian pop veterans and their Beat and Rock-loving children." -bigbrotiki-
I'm not trying to be an ass* but I seriously can not figure out what your point is regarding this clip.
*It just comes naturally to me.
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Attribution is the sincerest form of flattery.
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10600
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2010-04-08 9:33 pm Permalink
Thank you for explaining that this is an earnest request for an explanation.
My point is that the THE main reason for the sudden disappearance of Tiki culture was the so-called the GENERATION GAP, a phenomenon that began in the mid-60s and continued into the 70s. It describes the huge gulf that opened in cultural, social and political consciousness between the generations that invented and enjoyed Polynesian pop, and their children, who wanted to have NOTHING to do with what the older generations thought was cool. Though this attitude is somewhat inherent in every generation change, the 60s/70s generational divide was more radical than any other before or after, and swiftly relegated Poly pop and Tiki to the scrap heap: One can vividly imagine how a young fan of the Beatles or Stones would have recoiled in horror at the clip Vern posted above.
I think this post would be a fine occasion to discuss this cultural phenomenon with some other examples.
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MadDogMike
Grand Member (3 years) 
Joined: Mar 30, 2008
Posts: 6490
From: The Anvil of the Sun
| Posted: 2010-04-09 11:51 am Permalink
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On 2010-04-08 21:33, bigbrotiki wrote:
My point is that the THE main reason for the sudden disappearance of Tiki culture was the so-called the GENERATION GAP, a phenomenon that began in the mid-60s and continued into the 70s. It describes the huge gulf that opened in cultural, social and political consciousness between the generations that invented and enjoyed Polynesian pop, and their children, who wanted to have NOTHING to do with what the older generations thought was cool. |
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From what I have seen, a vast majority of us are in our 40s and 50s. So WE started and furthered the "Generation Gap" - WE were responsible for the near-death of Tiki!
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ikitnrev
Grand Member (8 years)
Joined: Jul 27, 2002
Posts: 1298
From: D.C. / Virginia
| Posted: 2010-04-09 1:49 pm Permalink
I am 48 years old - was 7 years old when the Lawrence Welk 'Tiny Bubbles' clip first aired. It was more likely those 10-20 years older than myself then that rebelled against the older generation.
One of my favorite examples showing this gap was the movie 'The Graduate' - released one year before the Welk clip. Here is an excerpt of what I previously posted several years ago on this topic.
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In the Graduate, the older generation is the one that is into mixing cocktails, and it is Mrs Robinson who wears the exotic leopard-skin outfits and goes to hotel lounges to listen to the bands playing there.
Young Benjamin, played by Dustin Hoffman - hates this whole culture - and equates it with being plastic - he prefers drinking beer in the pool versus cocktails, and prefers rock and roll music to the old bump and grind music being played in the strip clubs.
I consider the success of 'The Graduate' to be one real reason of why the original lounge culture never was adopted by the younger generation of that era. But now it is 42 years later, and the generational differences that existed in the 60's are long past - we are more free to listen to whatever music we like, without having the emotional baggage it once did. Some of us listen to the music with an awareness of its historical significance, while others will listen to it simply because they like the way it sounds.
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Vern
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10600
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2010-04-09 2:20 pm Permalink
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On 2010-04-09 11:51, MadDogMike wrote:
From what I have seen, a vast majority of us are in our 40s and 50s. So WE started and furthered the "Generation Gap" - WE were responsible for the near-death of Tiki!
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Not quite. We just continued what our older brothers, the dope-smoking long hairs had set in motion. But we already had an easier attitude with our parents and grandparents culture, and though we were into Punk, that Anti-attitude was directed more towards our brother's Hippy and Rock Star generation than that of our forefathers. Lawrence Welk was already somewhat amusing to us. Sid Vicious singing My Way was a tip of the hat towards the later Lounge revival.
In the BOT and Tiki Mod I mention a few of the factors that spelled the end of the WW I and II generation's cultural influence on (late) 60s and 70s daily life and after:
The John F. Kennedy assassination
The Vietnam War
The Beatles and other long hairs after them
Women's Liberation
All these and more happenings created disillusionment about old ways and inspired new modes of thinking and acting. This was a good, necessary way of maturing as human beings. It was just too bad that in the wake of it Tiki culture was not recognized for its unique qualities and left in the dust.
What other historic events -social, political, or cultural- can you think of that relegated Tiki to the old fart heap?
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lucas vigor
Tiki Socialite
Joined: May 12, 2004
Posts: 3453
From: "I've chopped my way through real jungle
| Posted: 2010-04-09 2:40 pm Permalink
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[
The Beatles and other long hairs after them
All these and more happenings created disillusionment about old ways and inspired new modes of thinking and acting. This was a good, necessary way of maturing as human beings. It was just too bad that in the wake of it Tiki culture was not recognized for its unique qualities and left in the dust.
What other historic events -social, political, or cultural- can you think of that relegated Tiki to the old fart heap?
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I have been saying it for a long time now....and I make enemies every time I say it! But it is something I firmly believe in!
The Beatles and other long hairs after them were the DEATH OF TIKI and LOUNGE CULTURE!
And that's a truly unfortunate thing, because the style, music, architecture and music was excellent.
really, I can't think of any other historic events that helped it's demise other then hippy-rock culture. The Hollywood celebs and other "cognoceti" who had previously been into Dave Brubeck now latched onto the stones and the Beatles as the next big thing. Everyone jumped on the bandwagon. Even artists I love like Frank Sinatra and Sergio mendes started playing Beatles songs. Of course, I like their versions better! (But that's another story).
Perhaps it was the adoption of youth pop/rock culture by Hollywood that helped kill Tiki and Lounge culture. We see how influencial hollywood still is, noteably in the world of Hip Hop. Hip Hop use to be an underground movement, now it is mainstream. Watch the Disney channel and see how many cartoons and characters are from the hip hop world. It's pervasive, and kills what came before it, same as rock music did.
I need to make a disclaimer, because I am separating the style of the 60's rock culture with an actual long hairsyle worn by many today. I have many friends who have long hair, so it is not about that, per se. Why, look at a guys like Spermy or Big Tiki Dude. They both have long hair, but are heavily into Tiki culture, and know and understand it and it's roots. So this is not anti-fashion, ok? If you have long hair, don't be offended by what I am writing.
It's just that the old lounge scene was a vital and wonderful scene, in a wonderful time period. The generation gap between that and what came after could not be deeper or sharper, as Sven pointed out. Why is that?
Start with slogans like "don't trust anyone over 30" and go from there.
Nowadays, you watch a show like "Icarly" (Yeah, I watch because of my daughter) and the characters use words like "Old Dudes" referring to anyone older then them. But these same old dudes can take their children to a rock concert and both young and old will enjoy the music. Just go on youtube and read the comments from so many kids liking old clips of REO Speedwagon, for example.
This kind of co-habitation never happened in the 60's. The Beatles wiped the past clean for these people, as sure as a Tsunami can wipe out a whole town like it never existed. Sad, really, because they killed Arthur Lyman in the process!
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10600
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2010-04-09 3:12 pm Permalink
Lucas, you still sound like as if, while you "tolerate" the long hair wearing TCers of today, you see the long hair generation of the 60s as some kind of "bad guys"? This strikes me as odd. They were just children of their time, and they were more inspired by a need for love and honesty than many generations before and after.
Here's another classic that was a death knell to the Mai Tai generation: Watergate
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khan_tiki_mon
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Sep 15, 2006
Posts: 259
From: Syracuse, NY
| Posted: 2010-04-09 4:10 pm Permalink
bigbrotiki said, the 60s/70s generational divide was more radical than any other before or after. Absolutely the truth. I am in my early 50s and the difference between my generation and my parents is vast while the difference between my generation and that of my children is slight. My kids and their friends see nothing wrong with enjoying the music or fashions of older generations or in sharing their music and fashion with their elders. It can be cool to be "retro". Of course my kids and their friends had their rebellious stage but it didn't involve the wholesale trashing of everything associated with previous generations. The 60s were a unique passage in history.
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lucas vigor
Tiki Socialite
Joined: May 12, 2004
Posts: 3453
From: "I've chopped my way through real jungle
| Posted: 2010-04-09 4:10 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2010-04-09 15:12, bigbrotiki wrote:
Lucas, you still sound like as if, while you "tolerate" the long hair wearing TCers of today, you see the long hair generation of the 60s as some kind of "bad guys"? This strikes me as odd. They were just children of their time, and they were more inspired by a need for love and honesty than many generations before and after.
Here's another classic that was a death knell to the Mai Tai generation: Watergate
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Put it this way, Sven...whereas I agree with their 60's liberal values completely, I just have a problem with their sense of style, fashion, and choice in music and art. The love and honesty part I have no problem with. Nor their need to challenge the status quo, the "man" or the "system". If you were to peel off my outer wrapping, you would very much see the soul of a hippy.
The ironic thing is, very few of the performers that invented exotica or lounge music, were "children" in any sense! They were adults, living in an adult world that loved their martinis and gin and tonics. If you look at the demographics, the people making this music in 1958 were already adults, well over 30 in most cases. They may have been children at one time, sure, but they were children of the swing and big band era, and that was not so dissimilar from what they were doing at the time.
But yes, you are right...I do see them as bad guys and I make no bones about it. They helped kill off a great era in culture! I tend to overlook things like watergate, because they are irrevelent (in my opinion) to the wonderful night club scene of the same era. Sure, we had watergate (which was a disgrace) but we also had the Apollo space program, and those astronauts were into cocktails and easy listening music, for the most part. I choose to remember the "golden" era for what was good about it, not what was bad.
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JOHN-O
Grand Member (first year) 
Joined: May 16, 2008
Posts: 2488
From: Dogtown, USA
| Posted: 2010-04-09 11:48 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2010-04-09 14:20, bigbrotiki wrote:
.....though we were into Punk, that Anti-attitude was directed more towards our brother's Hippy and Rock Star generation than that of our forefathers. Lawrence Welk was already somewhat amusing to us. Sid Vicious singing My Way was a tip of the hat towards the later Lounge revival.
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Yes, absolutely. Punk Rock generation = Tiki Revival generation.
Actually one of the first "ironic" lounge acts was the Circle Jerks. Their act was captured in "Repo Man" (1984), a full decade before the Lounge Revival.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUbnOFPud3M
So Lucas, what do you think of this guy?....
(And Lucas knows who it is. For those of you who don't, it's NOT Jesus Christ, Jim Morrison, or Charles Manson.)
Also I finally caught the Hula Girls tonight (although Vigor-less). I'll post on that elsewhere.
[ This Message was edited by: JOHN-O 2010-04-10 00:52 ]
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