Opening the door
to NOvember
The wind practically pulls me out
and drops me like trash along the street.
Oh, yes, the grim time is arriving. WHile the sun shines, we smile, and somehow dig in deeper to force… wait a minute… I am not going there.
What I mean to say is- I hope you check out this band, the Porkka  Playboys, from Finland. My saxophone friend Nathan Hanson was raving about them, and I looked on the You and tube, found them. ( this winter I will learn how to do the link thing).
They are a street quartet with power- (you can tell that they had music in their schools!!) I am quite taken by them. Incredible youthful energy- tackling a traditional song ” Volga”, ” bombelo”, a song by megadeath,motorhead or something, while in a sauna.  hilarious!
But what really struck me is their version of ” the boys of summer”. Like many recovered jazz fascists of my generation, I hardly payed any attention to the Eagles or Don Henley after a certain point.  I probably heard this song in the 80’s , in the background, and did not even notice it.
After watching the Porkka  Playboys pound this song ( in the street somewhere – Helsinki? in April) I got curious to hear what the original was.
I was seriously disappointed….
Very SoCaL- the instrumentation was so tame, lush synthesizers, predictable, stock, lacking
in urgency. The images were worse..” beautiful” ladies with vacant eyes,- how does one make scenes of beach look pornagraphic? yuk.  I left that site, and back to the Porkka Playboys.

It was very refreshing and encouraging to hear this song in the proper hands-giving it youthful vitality, uplifting vocal harmonies, melodica, concertina, a drummer playing polyrythms on a strong plastic box ( small cymbals)- while playing on the street.
I can’t imagine people walking by, but you see their shadows. The Porkka  Playboys
played on, with sheer exuberance, and love.
Rock on Porkka  Playboys. Keep your hearts strong, and your voices alive