Memory Lane: ‘That Happy Feeling’

Ach! I’m tired, I’m stiff and sore all over, it’s raining again (!), and this computer is giving me fits, it doesn’t want to work today.

So what am I doing, posting a tune called That Happy Feeling?

Well, it’s a happy memory, then. Band leader Bert Kaempfert had a lot of hits when I was in my early teens, back in the early 1960s, before our culture imploded. I don’t think music sounds like this anymore.

If you’re young, here’s a little bit of what you missed. I wish I could have missed rap music.

It’s been a while since I’ve heard that song, but I remember it well. The name is apropos.

Music changed in the postwar period, in part because amplification became easier to accomplish and the need for larger ensembles, as a way of generating volume, went away. This had good results, but other results which weren’t so good. It gave us the small ensemble, which has all but taken over, and the upside is that music became easier to produce, without the necessity of written arrangements. Unfortunately, it also allowed bands to shortcut their way into creating music, and in some cases, some very unskilled musicians ended up as acclaimed artists.

If you compare That Happy Feeling to any number of Blues based Pop/Rock tunes; well there is little comparison. The Kaempfert tune is much more intricate and complex. You have to be able to read music to play something like that. There’s an old joke: How do you get a guitar player to stop playing? Answer: Put a piece of sheet music in front of him.

Don’t get me wrong, a lot of great music has been created by small ensembles, but we have lost something too. Music like Bert Kaemfert’s has become rare to non-existent, and even if you have the opportunity to play it, making money from it is virtually impossible, meaning that such a band is unlikely to be able to tour, or for that matter, retain members, because people have to make a living.

I’m able to function in both worlds, being a fairly decent reader, yet able to wing it in a small setting with no charts. Playing from a real arrangement is very rare, outside of a handful of commercial recordings or motion picture soundtracks.

On only one occasion in my life, I have actually heard a 19 piece Big Band in person. It was a band, staffed by volunteers, and they met on Mondays, to practice in a small Jazz venue. I believe that they occasionally performed in public events, but no one was making a living from all of this effort.

“Well, it’s a happy memory, then. Band leader Bert Kaempfert had a lot of hits when I was in my early teens, back in the early 1960s, before our culture imploded. I don’t think music sounds like this anymore.”

That’s a mouthful, and very true. Somewhere in the mid ‘60s, it seems like our culture came adrift from its moorings. Successful musicians became “Pop Idols”, and required entourages, in many case including menacing security teams. The word idol was used advisedly, because fandom became worship.

I recently read a book about one of the Beatles. While I didn’t find him a particularly sympathetic character, I had to feel some compassion for the burden of such levels of fame. A former Beatle basically has to live in hiding, because they will be mobbed, assaulted, or even killed, should they appear in public.

Something is very wrong, in order for this to be the case. It’s one thing to admire the artistry of a talented person, but it’s wrong to worship them.