Belgian Popcorn - Raers in the Family
Deep_Sang
1,081 Posts
The following is a story about my stepfather, Dow Patterson, and a record he made in high school. I'd love to hear from anyone else who has similar stories.So like I said, around 1959 when Dow was around 18 or so, he saved up a bit of loot and borrowed some from his dad and made a record called "Deacon Jones." I think it is a bit of a old standard that he covered, I forget, but it's a fifties rock kind of style. He has been a songwriter and guitar player his entire life. He grew up in Lubbock, Abeline, and Austin, TX and loves to tell stories about being in the scene back then and how he beat artists like John Denver in songwriting/playing competitions (before he changed his name to John Denver). When the Vietnam war broke out, he joined the army, which seems to be one of, if not the biggest regret in his life, and moved to Alaska during his service. Doing so halted his music career, hence the feeling of regret, as many of his friends and contemporaries have gone on to have successful careers in music. He released some other 45's, but the one I mentioned is the subject of this story.A few months ago he received a letter from a collector in the midwest who asked if the Dow Patterson to whom he was writing was the same one who recorded "Deacon Jones." He wanted to find out if Dow had any copies of the record to sell for the man's collection and to be posted on the man's website devoted to music of the genre. The collector offered $30 for it, and informed Dow that some collectors would pay $50 for it. He had a couple copies and happily sent one to the man, no charge. Having not had any interest in his recording since it's release, he was naturally extremely excited to have someone listening to it and appreciating it.Further communications with the collector revealed that his song was "big in Japan" as well as several european countries, and it had been reissued on cd in a series devoted to high school musicians of the fifties, largely southern rock related I believe. Not only that, he was informed that, while a couple other songs he had released were appreciated, "Deacon Jones" was extremely desirable because it was in a style referred to as "Belgian Popcorn." I've since ebayed this genre for fun, and it's a search term that's used, albeit not too frequently. This classification naturally struck Dow as odd considering he grew up in small cities in Texas, and did not listen to any Belgian music, nor did anyone he knew. But apparently, the rhythmic style of the song was similar to that which was popular in Belgium. He has since received a copy of the cd compilation and might be featured on another one in the future and is happy about the whole experience.Thought this might be a fun story for yall, some of whom have gone through the same process to acquire records, and puts the idea of reclassifying genres in perspective for me. It was just kinda funny to be on this side of the collecting story. Oh yeah, Dow's a record collector too, and has quite an impressive collection of country and southern rock of the fifties.Here's a soundfile of the song: Deacon Jones
Comments
But was anyone else expecting
"- Hey Jack, what's happenin'? - I don't know. - Well uh, rumour around town says you mighht be thinkin' 'bout goin' down to the shore. - Uh, yeah, I think I'm gonna go down to the shore. - Whadda ya gonna do down there? - Uh, I don't know, p-play some video gamess, buy some Def Leppard t-shirts."
when the song started?
Hahaha, if you knew Dow, you might still expect this.
He was probably saving space on the 45.
Absolutely, especially considering that, you know, it was your typical private press record that didn't reach a big audience and didn't sell many copies (not that many were made to begin with). For all intents and purposes it was forgotten until collectors discovered it again.
Great story. That's a nice song too. Your dad sounds like
Johnny CashJaquiem Phoenix (I just watched Walk The Line).I recently got in a touch with a guy from the band Troyka, which was a local metal/psych band. I specifically asked him what it felt like having his work be appreciated 30 years after the fact by a bunch of young record collectors. He was too eccentric to answer strictly, but it's something I'm always interested in knowing.
Honestly, did you have to google those lyrics, or is your recall that good? That there took me back 20 years...