Web surf # 1…from Grant-Lee Phillips to Back to the Future

Web surf # 1…from Grant-Lee Phillips to Back to the Future   

Courthouse Square

I was listening in the car to FM Radio on the low end of the dial where all the public radio stations are-and came upon a folk-rock song with vocals that sounded a little like Bono.  The DJ didn’t say what the song was –and so when I went home, I tried to figure it out.  I had trouble googling the lyrics because I hadn’t been able to  make out the words to well.  All I could remember was “She is a lily” or “She is like lily”.  So I tried figuring which radio station I had been listening to –it turned out to be WUMB and then I looked on their website to see if they had a playlist-they did. 

The song was called  “Lily-a-passion” by Grant- Lee Phillips.  It’s an original song  available on a solo album of his called Virginia Creeper.  So what’s a “Lily–a-passion”? I don’t know, maybe Grant is referring to the flower called the Passion Lily.  Yes indeed so here's the video for that song -assuming it' working at the time you read this 

I had vaguely remembered an act called  Grant Lee Buffalo-and that it  had some sort of connection with Husker Du. The connection turned out that Grant Hart , one the  members of Husker Du also had the first name Grant, and that another Husker-Du-er , Bob Mould , had helped release one of Grant Lee Buffalo's  recordings . I eventually figured out that Grant Lee Buffalo had disbanded and that Phillips  now went by the Grant-Lee Phillips moniker and that   he was a recurring character on the Gilmore Girls TV show-where he played  a troubadour who sang songs in the town square on the show.  There is a  video that compiled Grant's appearances on the Gilmore Girls on YouTube (see below).

The town square on the video looked familiar-and I thought to myself that it was the same town square that was used for  the Back to the Future movies. Well I was correct , the location was a back lot called Courthouse Square which is movie set for Universal Studios. Somehow from there I looked up the Back to the Future movies and learned that Eric Stoltz (of Mask fame) was the original Marty McFly.  Five  weeks into the shooting of the film, director,  Robert Zemekis recast McFly because Eric Stoltz wasn’t funny enough.  Michael J. Fox took over the role and the rest is history and future history.  I was also reminded that the second and third Back to the Future movies were shot  back to back-one of the earliest set of  big budget films  to be filmed in tandem, so as to save production costs.

Eric Stoltz playing Marty McFly. Eric with dark hair-that's wrong right there!

Web Surf # 2-Reparata and The Delrons to Coco Rocha to Eero Saarinan

Reparata and the Delrons-Mid  1960's lineup Lorraine, Reparata, and Nanette.

I discovered the obscure New York girl group, Reparata and the Delrons whilst looking up  backing musicians. The group's lead singer, Reparata (her  real name was Mary Aiese) took her stage name from a nun who was one of her teachers. Mary Aiese left the group in 1970 to be a teacher herself. The tall girl, Lorraine Mazolla , later sang with Barry Manilow's backing group, Lady Flash. I don't know anything about Nanette the third  girl. Some  other chicks sang with the group as well.

This vocal trio never had an American Top 40 hit, yet somehow continued to make records between 1964 and 1972.  They only made two studio albums.  One of the group's claim to fame is that  they were among they were among the backing singers on the 1969 Rolling Stones hit, "Honky Tonk Women". They also were one of the opening acts on the Stones 1965 Tour of North America.

 Reparata  and the Delrons did have a Top 20 hit in the UK with a song called "Captain of Your Ship". The video  of "Captain of Your Ship"  above is from a German TV-show. It is the only archival television footage of them.

  

  The girls performing" I'm Nobody's Baby Now" -a great song written by Jeff Barry.

TWA Terminal, JFK Airport, 1962

Reparata and The Delrons -Look In My Diary

The song below (Look in My Diary) was actually not released till the 1997. Hard to believe, since it sounds like a hit to me. It's my favorite song right now. It was recorded around 1966 but  never used on any of their original singles or albums.




The video above  is actually a unofficial  mash-up video  compiled by Mr. Trubec. The first bit is from a Longchamp commercial featuring super model Coco Rocha. She is a Canadian born model of Irish-Welsh and Russian descent. I don't now where the other bits  with the oriental girls and the redheads are taken from.

The original  2013 Longchamp commercial (above)  featured the Bee Gees song-"You Should Be Dancing". The other model featured  is another Canadian  Liisa Winkler. Yes that's two"i"s.

 The airport terminal where the video was filmed  is unmistakably  the  former TWA terminal building at JFK International in NYC. Surprisingly,  Eero Saarinan's   classic space age  terminal is now a hotel.

onge

TWA Flight Center at Wikipeida
To learn more TWA's terminal five

originally posted December 2013