My Scoop on Alley Oopby Eva Pasco 
"There's a man in
the funny papers we all know"--Alley Oop, the comic strip caveman
created by V.T. Hamlin in 1932. This Stone Age, though not
stoned, Neanderthal was immortalized in 1960 through the
screwball lyrics sung by the Hollywood Argyles--
really Gary Paxton with a multitrack solo since he
was already under contract with another label as "Flip" of
"Skip and Flip." Alley Oop oop oop oop oop...Well, this
cat's name is a Alley Oop... This song took a club to the
English language with phrases such as: genuwine
dinosaurah, a head fulla hairuh, and grizzly
bearuhs.
Nevertheless, I grew to appreciate this pop tune
during my adolescence in the Sixties. I'd add my own
voice to the multitrack when it played on WICE, one of the two hip
local AM stations in Rhode Island at that time. My
fondness for this song evolved from the task of removing wallpaper
from my bedroom walls in preparation for paint. Mind you, it
wasn't the odious task of inhaling noxious fumes from
the solution my mother presoaked the walls with, nor using my
elbow grease for the tedious scraping that infused me with
rebellion. I loved the frilly rosebuds on pink
background that enclosed my sanctuary. My sorrow
and resentment grew in proportion with
the advance of bare plaster.
Then, as the week
wore on and I begrudgingly scraped along, large blurred sooty
letters began to appear along the wall where my bureau stood: P - O
- O....some sort of message left behind! I picked
up momentum to scrape away at the soggy remnants and
soon uncovered the comedic handiwork left behind by a
plasterer: ALLEY OOP. My dismay over parting with my beloved
wallpaper receded with the excitement over this discovery.
Adolescent disappointments are so shortlived, making room for
dreams and adventures. Alley Oop...He's
the king of the jungle jive... Ride, Daddy,
ride
|
.jpg "The 60s - Carl - 1968 - Vietnam")
