LET’S CARRY BARRY TO THE WHITE HOUSE
A REFLECTION OF 1964
Jan McCall writes, “I was
singing in a club and wrote something called "The Barry Goldwater Blues,"
which was completely satire. Someone from the young Republicans contacted me and
asked if it could be a Goldwater fight song. I said that the term
"blues" didn't quite fit (nor do the rest of the lyrics), but that
I'd write another one to order. My co-author, Ralph Taylor, who I had
requested they find to help me with the politics, supplied the title and a
list for me of what Goldwater stood for. At that time I only had a vague
idea.
I wrote the song, did the
arrangement--but didn't book the band on the record. I wish that I had.
There was a very young teen-aged rock and roll drummer who had no
idea what he should sound like. I was told the Glockenspiel player
was from the L.A. Philharmonic! Unfortunately, he'd probably never played
it in a school marching band (nor had the drummer--he told me). In most
cases, Glock players hit only the accent notes, not the whole melody (which was
what I had supplied, fresh from arranging for my college band). I was too
overwhelmed by his credits to correct him. The male chorus worked tending
bar or were regulars in the club I was appearing in at the time. To the
dismay of the engineer, one of them sang "Barry, we have found will never
lool around." You can hear it clearly on the recording.
It was all for the fun of it
as I was non-political, but it turned out that I had a fine time, singing it
around the Southern California area and sharing the bill with lots of big stars.
Once I was in the infield of a large stadium in Palm Springs. There
were lots of stars and others around and there stood Walt Disney, all by
himself. Speeches were going on but he didn't seem too attentive, so
being young and brave I approached him saying something like, "I really
enjoy what you do--I think you are special." He answered politely
and graciously. Feeling that he probably was alone because that was what
he wanted (and that he especially didn't want some dippy looking blonde in a
red, white and blue pleated skirt and a plastic straw hat bothering him) I said
I would not trouble him any more as I was sure he was getting ready for his
speech. He answered (approximate quote): "Oh, I'm not
speaking. There's no time for me." No time for Walt Disney,
I thought to myself. It was a real hoot traveling about, being a
semi-star on the Goldwater-Murphy-Reagan circuit. Much of the time it was
small-time and I had to sing along with the recording, but sometimes, at
airports and big rallies, I had a band that they'd found (not the guys on the
recording) and we played Dixieland songs until Barry or George or whoever
arrived (always late) to a huge crowd.
I also met Goldwater, a true
gentleman and a Dixieland fan (re. the band that was backing me.) He was a very
impressive gentleman who I felt would treat the problems of the world honestly
once he discovered what was really going on. There is a wonderful photo of
Goldwater hanging over the back railing of a caboose on a whistle-stop tour
(this was some station in Los Angeles) with me chatting with him and
giving him a copy of the 45. This picture was printed on the cover of the Valley
News.
There's a real collector's
item out there if you can find it: It's the record with "Let's
Carry Barry" on one side, but with a blank back. It was the first
version and some were distributed. But someone in the party thought that
a verse about Barry's feelings about Civil Rights might not fly in some
areas, so we re-recorded one verse.”
Thanks Jan for the history and the use of the recordings!
First version with civil rights verse on left
Second
version which was widely distributed on right
The UPI photo used in a PA newspaper on 10/24/64
The one day whistle stop tour took
place in Southern California on 10/23/1964.
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