{"id":2666,"date":"2017-03-13T16:29:46","date_gmt":"2017-03-13T20:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?p=2666"},"modified":"2024-01-23T09:27:24","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T14:27:24","slug":"candlepin-swing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/candlepin-swing\/","title":{"rendered":"Candlepin Swing (Bill Morrissey)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Candlepin Swing (Bill Morrissey)\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OkGxQickyTM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>One of the things I liked about Bill Morrissey&#8217;s songwriting was how regional it was &#8212; other New England folksingers often seemed like they&#8217;d rather be from somewhere more romantic, but Bill was writing things like &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/small-town-river\/\">Small Town on the River<\/a>&#8221; about Newmarket, New Hampsire; &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/my-baby-and-me\/\">My Baby and Me<\/a>,&#8221; about fall, love, and hunting season; and &#8220;Candlepin Swing,&#8221; the only jive jazz number ever written about candlepin bowling.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-2668 \" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/LEHS-Candlepins.jpg?resize=223%2C214&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"223\" height=\"214\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/LEHS-Candlepins.jpg?w=320&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/LEHS-Candlepins.jpg?resize=300%2C288&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 223px) 100vw, 223px\" \/>Some of you may not know what candlepin bowling is, so I should start by saying that for most of my youth I hardly knew there was any other kind of bowling. Our local emporium of the art, Lanes &amp; Games on Route 2, did have a few duckpin lanes, but I don&#8217;t remember seeing anyone using them and certainly never was with anyone who suggested we might try that strange and foreign variant of normal bowling. Many years later, I tried it, once, using those weird balls with the three holes in them, and sprained my index finger so I couldn&#8217;t play guitar comfortably for a month&#8230; which never happened with normal-size bowling balls.<\/p>\n<p>So anyway, I was charmed when I heard Bill sing this, because it was such a wonderfully ridiculous example of regional pride. Unlike me, Bill was a man of the world, familiar not only with our sport but also with what is apparently known as bowling in <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2669  alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Carmen-Salvino-and-Ray-Bluth.jpg?resize=237%2C234&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"237\" height=\"234\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Carmen-Salvino-and-Ray-Bluth.jpg?w=320&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Carmen-Salvino-and-Ray-Bluth.jpg?resize=300%2C295&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 237px) 100vw, 237px\" \/>the\u00a0 rest of the country; hence his knowledgeable reference to Carmen Salvino and Ray Bluth &#8212; names I know only from this song, and knew wrong until I researched this post, which is why I pronounce the former&#8217;s name &#8220;Carmine&#8221; in my video.<\/p>\n<p>Bill always introduced this with a reference to Slim Gaillard, one of our favorite musicians. Gaillard was a fine guitarist and decent pianist who made some legendary recordings with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie &#8212; or, as he referred to them on &#8220;Slim&#8217;s Jam,&#8221; Charlie Yardbird-o-rooney and Diz MacSkivvin-vout-o-rooney &#8212; as well as Bill&#8217;s favorite nonsense number, &#8220;Cement Mixer, Putti-Putti,&#8221; and a perky track I recall mostly for Slim&#8217;s spoken introduction:<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-2690 \" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/slim-gaillard.jpg?resize=166%2C213&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"166\" height=\"213\" \/><em>We&#8217;re going to cook up a fine dish now, real groovy: wrap up some fine grape leaves and chip up a little lamb-o-rooney; sprinkle on a little fine rice-o-rooty and a little pep-o-rooney, a little pep-o-vouty, sprinkle on a little salt-o-rooney to put the seasoning in there, make it really mellow. Then you nail an avocado seed up in the ceiling and let it vout for a while.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Bill loved Gaillard&#8217;s surreal hipsterisms and would frequently lard his speech with o-vouties and o-roonies, and Slim&#8217;s influence was palpably present in his jive masterpiece, &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/king-jelly\/\">King Jelly&#8217;s Good Morning Irene Song<\/a>.&#8221; But the song he specifically cited Gaillard on was always this baby &#8212; partly, I suppose, because the juxtaposition was so unexpected. So anyway, here it is, in honor of Lanes &amp; Games, and Bill, and my insufficiently misspent youth.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2671  alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/lanes-and-games.jpg?resize=229%2C190&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"229\" height=\"190\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/lanes-and-games.jpg?w=353&amp;ssl=1 353w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/lanes-and-games.jpg?resize=300%2C249&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 229px) 100vw, 229px\" \/>Incidentally, Bill never recorded this, and neither did anyone else, so I have to wonder whether at this point I&#8217;m the only person alive who knows it&#8230; if so, that&#8217;s tragic and I hope others pick it up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the things I liked about Bill Morrissey&#8217;s songwriting was how regional it was &#8212; other New England folksingers often seemed like they&#8217;d rather be from somewhere more romantic, but Bill was writing things like &#8220;Small Town on the River&#8221; about Newmarket, New Hampsire; &#8220;My Baby and Me,&#8221; about fall, love, and hunting season; &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/candlepin-swing\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Candlepin Swing (Bill Morrissey)<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - 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Bill was one of my closest friends at\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Elijah-Wald-rayograph-blog.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4345,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/night-shift\/","url_meta":{"origin":2666,"position":2},"title":"Night Shift (Bill Morrissey)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"January 23, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Night Shift\" was probably the first song I ever heard Bill Morrissey sing, the first time I went to hear him at the Idler in Harvard Square. It was around 1981, and he typically used this semi-autobiographical picture of dead-end life in a fading northern mill town to open his\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2030\/11\/Morrissey-photo-Boston_Globe_Mon__Jun_28__1982_-e1705955772655.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5512,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/barstow\/","url_meta":{"origin":2666,"position":3},"title":"Barstow (Bill Morrissey)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"December 1, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I have a lot of favorite Bill Morrissey songs, and this is near the top of the list. I was sitting at the dining room table on Appleton Road with Jeff McLaughlin one afternoon, when Bill came downstairs and sang this for us. He'd been working on it for a\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Bob-and-Diana-Suckiel.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3170,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/lone-star-bob-wills\/","url_meta":{"origin":2666,"position":4},"title":"Lone Star Beer And Bob Wills Music (Red Steagall)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"October 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I forget who loaned me the Red Steagall album with this as its title song, but I know it was in Vancouver, BC, and I taped all the songs I liked--which was most of them--and learned this one and \"Someday (You'll Want Me to Want You),\" which remains a staple\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Red-Steagall-LP.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3128,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/sioux-city-sue\/","url_meta":{"origin":2666,"position":5},"title":"Sioux City Sue (The Donlins and Passim)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"October 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This one always makes me think of Rae Anne Donlin, who was from Iowa, which I didn't know until I sang it one night in the club she ran with her husband Bob, and she told me it made her think of home and asked me to do it again\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Bob-and-Rae-Anne-Donlin.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2666"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4920,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2666\/revisions\/4920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}