My taste in music has been a sort of embarrassing evolution from my teen years, and a coming event in May in Grand Rapids brought it all back to me.
I’ve always had a preference for instrumental music rather than songs that have been sung. There are obvious exceptions, like the Bonzo Dog Band and Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.
However, three instrumental artists had the greatest impact on me in my salad days — pianist Floyd Cramer, the surf guitar icons of the Ventures and Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass.
I am sometimes sheepish about reaching back for memories of my favorite music from the 1960s. I am keenly aware that many jokes suggest Alpert is merely a latter day Lawrence Welk and Cramer was just an overrated Nashville sessions musician.
But they were the precursors to my overwhelming interest in classical music, which began with two Czech composers, Anton Dvorak and Bedrich Smetana near the end of my freshman year in college. I’ve never looked back, and confess my dream job that I will never realize is teaching the history of what some people call serious music.
I took the plunge with Herb Alpert in 1965 because of the iconic album cover for “Whipped Cream & Other Delights.” It featured a fetching young woman enveloped almost entirely by whipped cream. Whether she was wearing anything else, I don’t know.
I became a big fan of Herb Albert & the Tijuana Brass between 1965 and 1967, but I switched to classic music in 1967, thanks to Tom Waterfield, boyfriend of Joymly Dannenberg of Allegan, and roommate Walter G. Tarrow, who introduced me to Dvorak’s “New World Symphony” and Smetana’s “The Moldau,” respectively.
Strangely the memories all came flooding back because Mr. Alpert is still going strong, as evidenced by his planned performance May 11 in Grand Rapids, complete with new members of the Tijuana Brass. Herb just keeps rolling along. While I would have made a point to attend 60 years ago, I don’t think I’ll watch and listen this time.
I proudly salute Mr. Alpert, however, even though he’s been characterized as a post- Lawrence Welk figure in popular music, he is far away from this stereotype.
Alpert is a very well to do musical artist and record company owner who discovered the Carpenters, but he is very active in promoting progressive political causes.
I found this out in the documentary film “The Yes Men,” about two very savvy con men who spoofed the corporate world with hilarious presentations, such as a hamburger made of solid waste from humans and animals. They gave away free hamburgers to everyone as they proceeded into the hall to hear their presentation and filmed their reactions as they were eating and watching. I just about split a gut.
The two “Yes Men” made a point at the end of the movie to thank Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass for their financial support
Take that, all ye stereotypers.
