Fo’ shizzle!
(10 downloads)Friday, Feb 08, 2008
Sticking true to form, the Medallions present us with another ‘fast car’ side A vs. ‘slow girl’ side B disc, with this release “Speedin’” & “Edna”. Their records also demonstrate clearly that Vernon Green and company take neither of these subjects very seriously. More vying for the role of Court Jesters than Crown Princes; the Medallions show off a penchant for goofball humor and raucous theatrics which would be later emulated by another Los Angeles group, the Coasters. Another interesting characteristic is their use of onomatopoeia and gibberish when the English language fails them with its structural limitations. Here, with “Speedin’”, as with all of their car oriented songs, group members takes turns vocalizing the squealing brakes, cracked cylinder heads and judgmentally impaired passengers with equal gusto. On the other hand, as can be seen in the earlier post regarding their ballad “the Letter”*, Mr. Green was capable of evoking such Ur-language terminologies as “‘pulpitudes’ of love” and “sweet words of ‘pizmotality’” while pitching woo in a spoken recitation delivered with an almost John Candy-ish lack of sincerity.Much like the chorus of sound effects, the spoken love letter is a very predictable element in the Medallions’ formulaic love ballad. The fact that the Medallions seemed to be rewriting same two songs over and over is part of their charm, but it’s also what made them seem a bit one dimensional when compared with a hugely successful act like the Coasters. It should also be said that the Medallions did not have one of the greatest song writing teams in pop history working behind them, the way the Coasters had Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller. The names Lieber & Stoller may not be as commonly discussed as say Lennon and McCartney but they loom just as large when one considers the impact that they had on the formative years of Rock music. In addition to the Coasters, they were the song writing team behind Elvis Presley and as producers they were mentors to Phil Spector. These guys wrote "Stand By Me" with Ben E. King and produced the Drifters and wrote "Kansas City" and "Love Potion #9" and they played an important role in Atlantic Records' ascent as the primary R&B label.
DooTone 364, 1955