From High Brow To Low Brow

Mercury Cougar cruising on Culver Road in Rochester, NY
Mercury Cougar cruising on Culver Road in Rochester, NY

Remember when state license plates were distinctive? Remember when cars didn’t all look alike? I was following these guys yesterday as they cruised down Culver. I never get tired of this drive. I’m guessing this car is a 1968 but I could be way off.

I ripped some old vinyl over the weekend. Screamin Gypsy Bandits from Bloomington, Indiana, Sun Ra Italian pressings on Horo that never came out on cd and a live Archie Schep from Germany (I borrowed these from Tom Kohn) and Dr. John The Night Tripper lp, Gris-gris, that I heard in Rick Simpson’s basement and just had to have. And then Brad Fox called a while back singing a song from an lp that we used to listen to. I recognized the tune as being from a Keith Jarrett/Jan Garbarek lp called “Belonging” so I ripped that for him. And then I thought I would might as well make a digital copy of the Hi-Techs singles.

When I took the shot above I was headed to the Eastman Theater to pick Peggi and her mom up at the opera. I was listening to WPXY and kept the station on as we cruised back down Culver to our house.  We were all singing along to something that had the refrain of “You’re a womanizer, womanizer, baby”,”You spin my head right round when you go down” and “you’re hot when you’re cold and you’re in when you’re out”.  Top Forty is a little raunchier than the Invictas “The Hump” was in the mid sixties but it’s still based on the same catchy melody/riff/rhythm thing.

2 Comments

2 Replies to “From High Brow To Low Brow”

  1. Bob was right, Screamin’ Your Head has an awful lot of key changes- and some plonky bass sounds courtesy of yours truly and my lousy hippie bass. Wish I could redo it with my trusted P-bass!

  2. My dad had a Cougar like that, and the bossest thing about it for me was the taillights were from the future (I naively thought then) — instead of just blinking, they were sequenced so they’d “move” to one direction or the other. Slick.

    It was sort of a Mustang for people who didn’t want to be like everyone else. Like you’re sayin’, that doesn’t happen anymore. Still not sure the year, though.

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