Tuesday, April 25, 2023

AT THE KMAKS, MCLAIN LEAD THE REVELERS

Harry Belafonte died today. He held a special non-rock position in my listening habits from way back in the day. My favorite song of his is "Man Smart, Woman Smarter". A repost is in order. When I first posted the song nine years ago, I failed  to explain the post's title. The Kmaks were a musical family with brothers Jeff (bass) and Joel (drums) mainstays of the San Diego music scene from the late seventies on. McLain was Dan McLain, better known as Country Dick Montana, former drummer, sometime vocalist and band ham for the Beat Farmers. I've written about him before and his one person crusade to turn anyone who would listen onto Gene Vincent. He did the same for the LP pictured above. Below I mention a beer spilling singalong of "Man Smart, Woman Smarter" at a party. It was one of those moments you never forget. A loud party with the cool rock 'n' roll crowd enthusiastically singing along with a drunk conductor (McLain) to a record most of their parents probably owned. It was special and I remember the moment like it was yesterday (it was over forty years ago!). As a side note I should mention that McLain passed away years ago, dying onstage from a heart attack and Joel Kmak is now sitting behind the kit for the Farmers (renamed after McLain passed). Anywho, RIP Harry Belafonte and McLain too! Here's the stuff from the old post:

If you saw the LP above in a thrift store, you might pass it by. If you saw it in a thrift store, practically every thrift store, just about every time you were in a thrift store, you'd reach the point of resist fatigue. That's how it was before thrift stores were raided daily by collectors and eBay sellers. The record was inescapable, and at twenty five cents a pop, which thrift store LPs commonly were, it wasn't much of a risk. 

While the song that most people associate with the LP is "Day O" (believe me, even if you don't think you've heard it, you have), the favorite among my crowd was "Man Smart (Woman Smarter)".  You know when a party has reached fever pitch when this sucker is blasting to the level of distortion and a dozen or so of your blitzed friends are are singing along to it, beer spilling out of raised bottles with every swinging gesture. Try it.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Listen:
Harry Belafonte - Man Smart (Woman Smarter) mp3
at Tumblr

2 comments:

Peter Tibbles said...

Oh my goodness, if I saw that album in a thrift shop I'd snap it up (except I have most of the tracks already, so maybe I wouldn't). I remember these songs from the fifties and loved them then. I still do.

Steve D. said...

Speaking as someone who bought cutout records by the pound at Musicland sidewalk sales circa 1977 (two LPs for 20¢ - come on! what does it take to get into my cart at that price? not {bleep}ing much), I would have bought this record if I had glimpsed it.
I still have the list of all the LPs I bought back then. Most of them have never been played. From 2016-2019, some of them were brought to 'bring your own vinyl' nights at area bars.
But I still do not have a turntable, or a cartridge, or a receiver, that can play any of these. I cannot get to many of the LPs. They're buried behind other boxes of stuff on the inside back porch here at the abode. Sigh.