Coming to Terms With Bazooka Joe – An Xperience Column
Written by Staff on April 4, 2024
Coming to Terms With Bazooka Joe – An Xperience Column – by Johnny Mystery.
Recently a good friend brought to my attention that after two years of writing this column, I have not touched on the rich history of Bubblegum music. Seriously, I could have sworn I did. No—I looked back at my archives (or as I refer to them, my X-Files) and I’ve barely mentioned even one record. Now some would accuse me of being embarrassed to bring it up, but nothing could be further from the truth. I’ve talked up my love of Bubblegum to nearly every fellow music lover I’ve ever met. In fact, I’ll tell people about it who don’t even care and attempt to cross them over to my side. I’m usually met with blank stares because, let’s face it, Bubble Gum gets a bad rap, even today.
The early days of Bubblegum ran right alongside the advent of album-oriented rock. All those new groovy FM stations were playing 11-minute cuts from progressive LPs for all the “with it hipsters” who suddenly outgrew the Dave Clark Five and were banging their collective noggins to Blue Cheer while hanging out at the head shops (I always hated those mellow places). They would never, ever consider going over to AM radio and checking out the latest offering from the Ohio Express or the 1910 Fruitgum Company. That type of music was for your little sister, or tone-deaf pre-teens who could never grasp the magnificent Woodstock Generation. Listen to what the flower people say …
I swear, somebody once told me to never get the first Moody Blues album because it was recorded before they went progressive. And why? The cat said it was Bubblegum music. Clearly, if you ever heard that record, it’s an attempt at R&B and not a really good one, but it was not Bubblegum. Bubblegum became the go-to genre for anything the new enlightened moderns of hippy land considered bad music. Nobody was really around to check into it, so the rumors just grew. If the song stinks, it must be Bubblegum!!
Do you know who wanted to be the greatest Bubblegum band of all time? The Ramones. Joey and Dee Dee are quoted saying that several times. You don’t have to imagine what the Stooges mixed with the Music Explosion sounds like, because the Ramones did it and it sounds freaking COOL You can thank Bubblegum music for the explosion of Glam in the 70s. Listen to some Suzi Quatro or Slade and tell me you don’t hear “Quick Joey Small.” Tell me the Bay City Rollers would even exist if it was not for “Sugar, Sugar.” Yeah, that’s right, I mentioned a song by a cartoon band, SO WHAT!! “A good record is just a good record.” Do you know who said that? John Lennon.
Would you even consider it a stretch to call the Monkees the first Bubblegum band? Consider this if you will; The Monkees, aka the Prefab Four, were put together as a TV show. They pretended to be a band at first, they only did the vocals. Don Kirshner, the king of Bubblegum, corralled and produced all the material. This is truly Bubblegum of the highest order. Just last month, I attended a program called “Monkeemania” and the place was packed. The crowd and the participants were made up of all ages and many of the people were not even born when “Last Train to Clarksville” was a hit. Talk about universal appeal, this Bubblegum stuff.
From ‘67 to ’70 and beyond, the Bubblegum hit machine went into high gear. The 1910 Fruit Gum Company had hits with, “1,2,3, Red Light,” “Goody Goody Gumdrops,” “Indian Giver,” and “Special Delivery.” The Ohio Express did “Beg, Borrow and Steal,” “Yummy Yummy Yummy.” and “Chewy Chewy.” The Lemon Pipers went to number one with “Green Tambourine” and followed up with “Rice is Nice.” All of these records were released on the Buddah label, which would turn out to be the most successful company during the Bubblegum era. “Quick Joey Small” by the Kasenetz-Katz Orchestra was also a minor hit on Buddah.
Check out “Little Bit o’ Soul” by the Music Explosion. Every Mother’s Son made a big splash with “Come On Down to My Boat.” Crazy Elephant had a hit with “Gimme Gimme Good Lovin.” Don’t forget the ultimate Bubblegum hit, “Sugar, Sugar,” by cartoon band the Archies, which spent six weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. By the way, “Sugar, Sugar” was rejected by the Monkees when Don Kirshner presented it to them. Success is the best revenge, right Donny boy?
After the initial hits of the Shadows of Knight and ? and the Mysterians, those bands released a few sides on the ill-fated Super K label but were met with little interest. Super K did put out one record that got some collectors’ attention. Check out “Voodoo Medicine Man” by label owners Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz. Barely a record, and sounds more like a demo, but it’s lo-fi goodness all the way.
From the looks of some of these tunes, it might seem the key to having a Bubblegum hit would be to mention food twice in the title. The one thing these records do have in common is that, for the most part, the song subjects were almost always harmless and very bubblegum-y. Now scrape the gum off your shoes, and get out and hit the bins! Jughead is counting on you!
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