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:: Lawrence Welk & Myron Floren - Kit Kat Polka ::

When I was a wee lad, spending a Saturday night at my grandparent’s house was a really cool treat and I did it often. My uncle was sort of close to me in age and still lived there, and I’d root through his record albums and discover new music. Another big bonus was that there was never such a thing as “bedtime” there and I’d sit up watching Saturday Night Live, followed by Saturday Night Dead or the NBC run of SCTV until about three o’clock in the morning. But, I digress. There was one hour on those nights when I’d run from the living room covering my ears - the hour when my grandfather had The Lawrence Welk Show playing on PBS. The bubbles, the lights, the shiny yellows, the smiley, happy, sugar coated crappiness of it all literally made my 10 year-old tummy twist and turn. Of course, I’d plant myself right next to my grandfather for laughs when The Benny Hill Show came on a bit later. Good times. But, I digress yet again.



Otis Fodder and his great Vinyl Liquidation series, where he salvaged and compiled gems from thrift store finds while thinning out his record collection, opened up a window for me to the world of Lawrence Welk, and easy listening in general, a few years ago. Through that window I discovered something: Polka music is great driving music. Allow me to explain: I’m a grumpy dude sometimes, most especially when sitting in Los Angeles traffic trying in vain to get somewhere on time. But if I crank up some cheesy polka tunes real loud, drowning out the outside sounds, the people, the cars, the life going on around me starts to look pretty comical and ridiculous. And thusly, my commute becomes a fun experience. So hey, I’ve just let you in on one of the silly means that I employ to entertain myself. Of course, now I find myself with an overabundance of Lawrence Welk albums, and I can’t seem to stop because there’s always at least one decent tune on each that is worth the dollar I spent on the record. Check out this one from 1960 featuring longtime Welk show accordionist, Myron Floren, as both he and Welk serve up some fun for the road.


Phil

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