(8 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
Last week a commentator put the bug in my ear that I do not ALWAYS have to write about subjects that I like very much. I have done it before, but usually in connexion with other topics. This installment is different.
This one is concerned with Pat Boone, one of the most insipid and untalented “artists” ever to plague us with his presence. He was a creation of his time, and although he could sing, sort of, was and still is, in my opinion, more of a curious relic of desegregation.
Please come with us on a very curious journey that still does not very well explain how a relatively talentless individual has continued to be in the spotlight since before I was born, and I am not that young. Please enter here.
Charles Eugene Boone, born 19340601, now 76 years old, is still with us to annoy us. He, although born in Florida, claims to be a direct descendant of Daniel Boone, yes, that one, not Fess Parker. Here is a quote from him from the ultra right show from the Christian Broadcasting Network, Pat Robertson’s notorious for truth distortion, The 700 Club.
I have, but I know I have inherited some of the DNA of my great, great, great grandfather, Daniel Boone.
Let us do some maths here. A generation is generally defined as a 30 year span, give or take, in a family’s heritage. Great, great, great, grandfather then implies four generations, or around 120 years, give or take. Taking 1934, the year of his birth, and subtracting 120 years comes to 1812. Daniel Boone died, at the age of 85 (a very long life for the time) 18200926. So it is POSSIBLE that a 77 year old man could have had an offspring at that time, but I find it unlikely. Also, there is no record of Daniel Boone having children at this time in his life, and also no record of him ever being in Florida.
Thus, it is obvious that “Pat” Boone’s first name is made up, just as I suspect his “heritage” is. I believe this man to be fundamentally a fake, at least as far as his real first name and his heritage goes. His family moved to Kentucky when he was 2 years old, around 1936. As far as I have been able to tell, that was his first contact with Kentucky and the Daniel Boone tradition (which is very fluid, and lost in the fog of history).
He pretty much grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, which is a very beautiful city. I used to drive through it often, and compliment the excellent design of their interstate and feeder highways. I have never been stalled there except for twice, once with a construction delay, and another time because of an accident. Those highways are well marked, and the electronic signs give excellent information for those of us driving through.
In any event, “Pat” Boone went to high school at the pubic David Lipscomb High School, and to college at the private David Lipscomb College, also in Nashville. Hmmm, just who is this David Lipscomb? Well, he was a fundamentalist preacher, and also a pacifist and, according to some folks, an anarchist. That does not jibe with “Pat’s” extremely conservative leanings now. I can not say what the college advocated at the time, but the founder even advocated not to vote because of religious concerns.
Let us move on a bit, because trying to unscrew Charles’ (I refuse to use the name “Pat” any more unless there is evidence that he legally changed his name) past is difficult. There are too many contradictions. By the way, he is an Ivy League graduate, from Columbia in 1958, the year after I was born. He was graduated magna cum laude from there in a really technical, and highly respected curriculum: General Studies. How can one even get a degree in General Studies? The Geek could be graduated in that curriculum in about ten seconds, also magna cum laude and with oak clusters and laurel leaves. What is it with this guy? Oh, before I forget, he is a member of the Kappa Alpha fraternity, a racist one that admires Robert E. Lee in its spiritual source of chivalry. Getting the picture about Charles now?
Well, before that, he started recording “music”. Here is one of his first faux hits, from 1954 on Republic Records, welcomed by the frightened white folks who thought that Fats Domino might be a threat to little white girls. Yes, I am using racist terms, but that was an extremely racist time, and that was the mindset of many, many people, especially folks from the southern United States. He did not write this song.
How about the real deal? By the way, Antoine is still with us, only 9 years younger than my dad was. You tell me which version is better.
That was not all. Charles made his fortune by demelanating black music to make it more acceptable to white record listeners, who had much more disposable income at the time, and so could buy many more records. I would be interested in seeing the royalty payments as well.
I just came on a piece of his, in color, that has a very interesting gesture that comes in at 1:39. Unfortunately, the embed code is blocked, but here is the link. It his cover of Tutti Frutti, the Little Richard hit. Is this just a coincidence, or is this a Nazi salute? You decide. He did not write this song.
How about a better version? Even recorded when Little Richard was much older, this 1995 version still has much more feeling than Charles’ cover did in the 1950s.
He also covered another Penniman hit, Long Tall Sally. His version, although competent from the standpoint of his singing, is completely without feeling or, as we would say now, soul. He did not write this song.
Once again, please compare it with Little Richard’s version. You tell me which one has more feeling in it.
Here are some other songs of his that charted. Don’t Forbid Me was #1 on Billboard in 1957 for some strange reason. It comes over with as much feelings as his covers do. He did not write it.
His next #1 is sort of his signature song, Love Letters in the Sand. It spent five weeks at #1. He did not write it, since it was written in 1931!
Why anyone liked it is beyond me. However, taste has little logic about it.
He last charted #1 in June of 1961 with Moody River. He did not write it. It is just about as insipid as his other works.
Charles has always worn his cross on his sleeve and has also been extremely active in conservative politics. One cause that he strongly supported was the war in Veit Nam, perhaps because by the time that it really accelerated he way way too old for the draft. He supported Reagan for Governor and President, and was also an ardent supporter of W. and the Gulf War, going so far as to question the patriotism of those opposed. That is a pretty far cry from being brought up in a church that urged its members not to get politically involved, as far as urging them not to vote!
I was living in the Bluegrass region in Kentucky in 2007 when I actually got a robocall that he recorded for Ernie Fletcher, but I hung up on it before I listened to it all. I now wish that I had listened, because only during the research phase for this piece did I realize that he was using homophobia as the pitch, saying that Steve Beshear would turn Kentucky into another San Francisco by supporting every homosexual cause.
He is a regular contributor to World Net Daily, a vile rag. One of his editorials compares progressives to horrible disease, calling us “…black, filthy cells.” This sort of emphasizes my mention of the Nazi salute, the only musical reference above that had the embed code disabled, but I did provide the link. If you did not look, go back and see it.
In 1997, Charles underwent a bizarre transformation into a tight leather and sunglasses wearing heavy metal “artist”. The reason is still obscure, and the results are horrible. Here is a smattering of some of the work from his record, No More Mr. Nice Guy. I do not know what to think of it.
The result was it got him thrown off Trinity Broadcasting Network, and he had to go hat in hand to the executives with his minister to get back into good graces. He said that this was just a parody of himself, all in fun. Right.
Charles has never been a stranger to pitching commercial products. As far back as the late 1950s he was a pitchman for Chevrolet, and GM even sponsored his TeeVee show, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom. That has removed a bit of the shine from my 1967 Camaro, sadly.
In the late 1970s he was pitching for a product called Acne-Statin, an acne remedy, obviously. Of course, he was pimping out his kids for the adverts (daughter Debby in particular). When the Federal Trade Commission shut down the adverts for false claims, he finally agreed to be held personally liable for a small fraction of any monetary claims against the company that manufactured the product. He also indicated that the was essentially shocked, SHOCKED! that the company pulled him into making the adverts without scientific evidence that the product acutally worked. Right.
Even today, he is pitching things. Now, what would you imagine that a die hard conservative might advertise? If you guessed that he has followed the lead of the convicted felon G. Gordon Liddy and said gold, you would be correct.
He is pitching for Swiss America Trading Corporation, a gold seller that also has employed Dr. Michael Wiener (aka Michael Savage, the horribly hateful radio talk person), who acutally holds an earned Ph.D. in a technical subject. Here are a couple of his adverts:
Since none of the stills or vidoes seem to be newer than five years or so (although one of the gold adverts was running as lately as yesterday on The 700 Club), here is a more recent picture of him:
If you get the idea that I do not like Charles Eugene Boone very much, you would be correct. I believe that he was always a sham, and never had any real talent, but rather was a relatively good looking young white man that could sing a little and was non threatening to the public. This is not just my thesis, as he put it in his own words:
I have no special or extraordinary talent; it’s just that I’ve had the right breaks at the right time.
How true. If you disagree, please let us discuss it in a civil manner. I also welcome any and all other comments.
Warmest regards,
Doc
4 comments
Skip to comment form
Author
calling out one of the least talented personalities of our age?
Warmest regards,
Doc
Yeah, these essays are far more time consuming than many might realize.
By the way, since Boonie loves war so much, he could have entered the military immediately after high school since the Korean Conflict didn’t end until fourteen months after he would have graduated. He could have well gotten over there in time for a piece of the action.
I had a physical education teacher in high school who had been in the Marines during the Korean Conflict. As one might imagine, he wasn’t exactly the warm, fuzzy type. An out of shape classmate was doing calisthentics when the teacher said to him loud enough for all to hear, “You do pushups just like Pat Boone!”
That sequence of cover versions by Boonie is beyond description! Can’t decide which of his cover versions is the worst, there are so many contenders. Give me Mrs. Miller, Tiny Tim or Archie & Edith any day!
I must have overlooked Boone’s version of “Stairway to Heaven” for my essay last week. Oh, well. I could go back and add it, but I won’t.
Of course, like many who inhabit the Planet Bush, one can merely contrive their own set of convenient “truths” and given their gullibility (something to do with “having faith”), completely believe their own falsehoods. Boone appears to be no exception.
A direct descendent of Daniel Boone? My calculations result in an average of more than 41 years between generations. His ancestors must have all been a bit slow getting out of the starting block. Let’s demand that he produce some valid birth certificates!
Speaking of Kentucky, I was fortunate enough to visit the very impressive Kentucky Capitol Building in Frankfort during late October of 2007, a few days prior to Fletcher’s failed re-election bid. The governor wasn’t in, so I had the opportunity to see the inside of his office (decorated with University of Kentucky paraphernalia, just the ticket to winning the vote in Louisville). His office staff seemed to speak more fondly of his dog than him. Although they were pleasant enough, they didn’t appear very optimistic about still having jobs after the election.
And finally, if you haven’t seen it yet, Daniel & Rebecca Boone’s final resting spot commands a very pleasant view of the Frankfort, most of which lies in a valley. There was still some pleasant fall color when I was there. This photo was apparently taken during another season…
when I was a kid. DoWops and rock and roll the real stuff were the only thing that feed my white suburban soul. I grew up in LA and got my very own transistor radio in the third grade. First song’s I remember hearing were Rockin Robin and Bring it to Jerome. I found a pirate radio station from Mexico I could pick up with Wolfman Jack and my favorite Huggie Boy both DJ’s that played the real stuff. Who listened to his crap? The same generation that now wears tea bags on their hat’s and hated teh hippies? God knows even my parent’s and my grandma thought he sucked. They thought Elvis was funny but really couldn’t handle my BoDiddly records, or Little Richard, too uncivilized, too sexual, to much soul.. Chuck just worried them. They liked Buddy Holly. He was a smart gentleman cracker, not like Jerry Lee who also freaked them out.
When I was an ‘adult’ in the 80’s and living in Hollywood we went to Tower Records on the strip and Pat Boone was there. He was as slimy looking as a lizard pol. He had an entourage of nasty looking thugs around him, there was a constant buzz rippling through the store it went Pat Boone, Pat Boone, Pat Boone, Pat boone. It must be weird to spend your life with this buzz always accompanying you, it didn’t sound complimentary at all, but I doubt he noticed. He looked like he was made out of rubber. Then again so did Billy Idol and David Bowie when I saw them in the real. life.