Remembering Spike Jones

A conversation with an old friend yesterday drifted into musical tastes. He asked what kind of music I listened to growing up and I realized what an eclectic mix it had been. My Mom and an aunt were church pianists, there was the usual pop music, and since my early years were in Kentucky there was, of course, Bluegrass. Renfroe Valley was only a few miles down the road and Red Foley's family was part of our community. Renfroe Valley still runs strong. Here's a link.

Then I recalled early television and Spike Jones, of whom my friend had never heard. His television show was a weekly favorite, but sometime in the late fifties he went silent. Someone asked him in an interview once what happened and he said that his type of entertainment was having fun with (or making satirical fun of) good music. But with the coming of rock-and-roll music (this was his opinion, not mine) pop music had deteriorated so far that his kind of entertainment was no longer possible.

This morning I did a You Tube search and this is what I found.