Reviving San Diego's Rock Renaissance
(Paul Kaufman gives new meaning to the phrase “Trivial Pursuit.”)
Here’s another parlor-type game: Describe two songs that seemingly have nothing in common (era, style, etc.) yet have multiple disturbingly similar characteristics once you list them.
Here’s an example: The Beatles “I Saw Her Standing There” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll All Night” by KISS. You’re thinking this is crazy, but hear me out:
(Manual Scan/Lemons Are Yellow vet Paul Kaufman hails rock-‘n’-roll Yiddishkeit.)
David Klowden already perfectly summarized some pastrami- and tongue-in-cheek ethnic pride in a recent post: “I am putting together a seminar & book tour for my method: ‘Dave The Jew Shows You how to Make Beautiful Women Think You’re Cooler Than You Are in Ten Easy Lessons’ ™.”
In the spirit of David’s post (and our earlier “Hyphenates” thread), here’s “Jewish like KISS,” a musical number based on the irony of having one foot in the Ché Underground and the other in a cultural Old World. (Both had a healthy reverence for the historical.)
I thought it would be fun to have our own sort of self-referential “We’re an American Band”-type number, with all the required fake bravado. I threw in shout-outs to some of my favorite Jewish rockers, Joey Ramone (born Jeffry Ross Hyman) and KISS members Gene Simmons (Chaim Witz) and Paul Stanley (Stanley Eisen).