HEY NOW! Saluting KINGSLEY -- as Lame British Bints hop to POPCORN

The Man of the Moog has eclipsed; Gershon Kingsley is gone. Born Götz Gustav Ksinski (October 28, 1922 – December 10, 2019),  he wrote operas, Jewish music, and arranged music for Broadway shows and even wrote film scores. But...butter this: his greatest fame came with "Popcorn." It first appeared on one of his own moog albums (1969) and became truly an international sensation via a cover version in 1972. 

No download on this, because the YouTube video is a must-see. Yes, it's kicky, fashion-conscious "Top of the Pops" bints who're "dancing." You can call it dancing. They seem to have their shoes nailed to the floor, afraid if they actually hop up and down their tampons would slide out. Don't strain yourselves, zombitches:  

Isn't it nice how easy Google makes it for bloggers to access YouTube clips? Oh. That's right. Google OWNS Blogspot and OWNS YouTube. Thats Squid Pro Squat, or whatever. Another nice thing is that YouTube's reinvented all their rules to make sure that they make all the ad money, and almost anyone posting old clips is DEMONETIZED. Accent on the DEMON. But let's get back to Gershon Kingsley. 

He grew up in the tense times when Nazi Germany was fomenting even more deadly pogroms and anti-Semitism than the other neighboring countries from Poland to Russia and back. Though his mother was Catholic, there was no way he would be spared from persecution in Berlin. With increasing violence against Jews all around him, and only fifteen, he journeyed to Israel (then called Palestine) and lived on a kibbutz. He would not see the rest of his family for eight years…when they all ended up in America.

Kingsley’s first success came in California, after he was rejected by Juilliard. He attended the LA Conservatory of Music (now Cal Arts) and worked as a synagogue organist. He arranged and conducted summer stock productions in California, and in 1955 came to New York where there was more opportunities for theater work. He was soon arranging and directing music for Broadway and off-Broadway shows, from “The Entertainer” (1958) to Ernest In Love (1960).  He was musical director for Joffrey Ballet productions, and “The World of Kurt Weill” with Lotte Lenya. 1964 was a busy year, as he was musical director for two productions, “Josephine Baker” and “The Cradle will Rock.”  In 1966 he became a staff arranger at Vanguard Records. He soon had his own deal at Vanguard for his innovative pop-moog work with Jacques Perrey. He was switched on: 

Kingsley founded the First Moog Quartet, appearing on an Arthur Fielder “Evening at Pops” show. Unfortunately “Concerto Moogo” performed on that show, was never released on disc. I was fortunate to have a reel-to-reel copy of it, but I have no idea what happened to it. I contacted Gershon's website a year ago, asking if the item would ever be uploaded to soundcloud (the website has done this for a lot of his work) and of course, got no reply. Webmasters rarely respond to anything that involves forming a coherent sentence, and certainly nothing that won't bring them money. ("I'll build your website...answering or forwarding emails is extra!") Oh, some webmasters will offer a form reply "thanks for your interest. Your suggestion/question will be evaluated." Perhaps one day "Concerto Moogo" as performed by the quartet and Boston Pops will surface. It does exist.

There was only one First Moog Quartet album, and curiously, "Concerto Moogo" wasn't on it.  Vanguard released two Perrey-Kingsley items, “The In Sound from Way Out” (1966) and “Kaleidoscopic Vibrations” (1969).  In 1970 he released his own album,  “Music to Moog By.” More royalties turned up when Walt Disney theme parks adopted some of his compositions, and a catchy melody was adopted as the theme for the “Joker’s Wild” TV quiz show. Kingsley also wrote music for TV commercials, which was very lucrative and also won him a few industry Clio awards. He scored the film “Sam’s Song” in 1969 (along with “Silent Night, Bloody Night” in 1972 and “Sugar Cookies” in 1973).

He didn’t neglect “serious” music, composing religious music, “song cycles,” “new age” electronic music, and even opera, including “Tierra,” which had its premiere in Germany. Another opera, “Raoul,” told the story of Raoul Wallenberg and premiered in 2004. Of course, the world still loves its “Popcorn,” which Kingsley first recorded in 1969, and the group Hot Butter made a hit in 1972...and cover versions have been popping for decades since. Oh, one more thing...just in time for Chanukah, here's a download of THREE HEBREW PRAYERS. Shalom, Gershon.

THREE HEBREW PRAYERS by GERSHON KINGSLEY