Kasenetz-Katz

[B]

I've written about Kasenetz-Katz here before, but even a Google search hasn't helped
me find some of what I thought I had posted here, and in any event, I feel the need for a thread
"connecting the dots" with these two**, so here goes.[/i]

Kasenetz-Katz (edited)

Super 'K' Productions.

1968 - 1972

Collectively known as "Super K Productions" or simply "Super K"...

Kasenetz-Katz came along and coined the term "Bubblegum", Their production company
"Super K Productions" was a New York "bubblegum" hit factory, where a seemingly unending
array of unusual sounding alias' were used in production so it wouldn't appear as the same
group. In this manner Kasenetz-Katz managed to pull off a string of Top-40 hits in just under two years.

The generic 'Bubblegum" groups were manufactured in studios, some like "The Monkees" &
"The Banana Splits" were made solely for TV. They prolifically recording lightweight,
fluffy pop songs, mostly one-hit wonders and were often given quirky names.
Below I've listed some of the groups that rolled off the "Super K Productions" conveyer belt.

• The Carnaby Street Runners
• Chicago Prohibition
• Crazy Elephant
• J.C.W. Rat Finks
• The Fat Man's Music Festival
• The Flying Giraffe
• The Charles E. Funk Rebellion
• The Great Train Robbery
• Lt Garcia's Magic Music Box
• Music Explosion
• 1989 Musical Marching Zoo
• 1910 Fruitgum Company
• Ohio Express
• Professor Morrison's Lollipop
• Shadows Of Knight
• St Louis Invisible Marching Band
• The Teri Nelson Group ....

"Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus" (album cover)



"Kasenetz-Katz Super Cirkus" (sic)



KASENETZ-KATZ SINGING ORCHESTRAL CIRCUS (BDS 5020) 1968

SIDE 1
Intro (1:31)
We Can Work It Out (2:24) (Lennon & McCartney)
Count Dracula (1:39)
Place In The Sun (2:24) (Holland - Dozier - Holland)
Jamie Lyons Intro (:30)
You Lost The Lovin' Feeling (2:42) (Barry mann - Cynthia Weil - Phil Spector)
Poor Old Mr. Jenson (2:13) (J. Kasenetz - J. Katz - D. Taxin)
Down In Tennessee (2:45) (Chris Resnick - Joey Levine)

SIDE 2
Intro (1:32)
Little Bit O Soul (2:15) (Carter - Lewis)
Simon Says (2:11) (Elliot - Chiprut)
Latin Shake (2:03) (Artie Resnick - Joe Levine)
Mrs. Green (2:08) (J. Kasenetz - J. Katz - D. Taxin)
Hey Joe (4:34) (N. Marzano - J. D'Ardrea - K. Laguna - P. Naumann - J. Calvert)
Yesterday (2:15) (Lennon & McCartney)
All Gone (:35)



------------------------------

Kasenetz Katz Singing Orchestral Circus PT 1
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye-EGaVevT0


Next: Why you should care (or not).
(Feel free to jump in at any time! ;D)

**Jeff Katz & Jerry Kasenetz

[B]

Photo: Jerry Kasenetz with Faul (click on center pic)

So for two guys who would presumably have made a mint, it seems that information is in short supply.

Here's a little:

home.comcast.net/~bubblegumusic/kk.htm

(excerpt)

"...imagine if one production team produced The Beatles, Rolling Stones and The Who . . .
well, that's the impact Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz had on the charts and on your big
sister and brother's transistor radio.

Probably the most endearing quality of the duo was their willingness to get product out
on the streets as soon as they could. Only an A-side recorded? No problem! They'd quickly write
Sticky, Sticky, the simplest song of all time or Pow Wow: a pre-recorded song played backwards!
Call it psychedelic experimental if you want, but don't think for a minute that Bubblegum didn't
try to push pop farther than it had ever gone. They even orchestrated a Bubblegum concert
at Carnegie Hall and recreated the event in the studio in order to release a good sounding "live" album.

"Those two were difficult to work with," said Ohio Express guitarist Doug Grassel.
"It was strictly a money game with them.[/b] They'd tell us, 'Keep it simple. Hurry up.
You're costing us money. They'd tell us what songs to play. And if we didn't like a particular song,
they'd say something like, 'Who do you think you are? Jimi Hendrix?'"

By 1972, Bubblegum lost its flavor with the public and Kasenetz and Katz tried to move on.
They produced a slew of mid-western rock groups and found little success until Ram Jam
had a hit with Black Betty in 1977.
Like most, if not all of the Bubblegum participants, K&K haven't resurfaced since.

(more to come...)

[jarvitronics]

Feb 22, 2011 11:28:31 GMT -5 B said:

I've written about Kasenetz-Katz here before, but even a Google search hasn't helped me find some of what I thought I had posted here, and in any event, I feel the need for a thread "connecting the dots" with these two**, so here goes.

[/i][/quote]

A cast of nuts casting nets with castanets.

-j

[B]

Or is it?

By unpopular demand:

The 1910 Fruitgum Company - "Pow Wow" (Reversed) (with inverted label!)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL4MRSnwEbU


Now have you heard it forward?

1910 Fruitgum Co. "Pow Wow" Recorded Backwards 45
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSm5TvKWTlc


And then we have:

Reflections From The Looking Glass - 1910 Fruitgum Co. 45 rpm!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rQAG8kOMII


Seems an oddly poplular book amongst the recording industry at the time

Jun 16, 2009 - KASENETZ AND KATZ TEAM UP WITH "MY GOOD EYE" PRODUCTIONS
Kasenetz and Katz have teamed up with Video Director David Brodsky ( My Good Eye ) Productions
to produce outstanding videos that are now available via their Website !


(more stuff coming! )

[B]

more stuff: (Pay attention; there may be a quiz! )

Classic Recording Studios: K&K Studio City

"K&K was the home of bubblegum impressarios Jeff Katz and Jerry Kasenetz, who used the
proceeds from their many '60s hit (like Yummy, Yummy, Yummy and Indian Giver) to build
K&K in Great Neck, Long Island in 1975.

Reportedly costing $1 million at the time of construction, K&K included a 35-seat theater
and was the home of their album MagnaGlide.
Along with producing Top Of The World (Make My Reservation) by Canyon, K&K was where
Ram Jam recorded Black Betty."

Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus
by Bill Pitzonka

(excerpt)
"...The far superior second album, with billing abridged to Kasenetz-Katz Super Circus,
featured five proven chart commodities: 1910 Fruitgum Co., Ohio Express, and Music Explosion
were joined by White Whale newcomers Professor Morrison's Lollipop and the
Shadows Of Knight, who wound up on Team/Super K after their garage glory days on Dunwich.
Though ostensibly a collective effort, the album is clearly the product of Joey Levine and sessioneers.


Joey Levine in 2008

"Let Me Introduce You" is a chipper, almost Gilbert-&-Sullivanesque rundown of the
bands who are allegedly performing, and "The Super Circus" is two-and-a-half-minutes of
royalty-earning noise. Joey laid down new vocals over the original backing tracks of the Ohio Express's
"Down At Lulu's" and the Shadows Of Knight's "Shake."

"I'm In Love With You" was the album's second single, credited to Kasenetz-Katz Super Cirkus.
The mono single mix (which surfaced on the Buddah compilation album Bubble Gum Music
Is The Naked Truth) features grittier lead and female vocals.

In addition to by-the-numbers fare like "Easy To Love," "I Got It Bad For You," and "Log In Fire,"
Joey took the opportunity to stretch beyond the bubblegum boundaries.
"Up In the Air" ventured into political commentary - a deliberate over-the-top sendup of then-California
governor Ronald Reagan, while "L.A. Woman" (a Levine original)
handled sexual attraction and romantic confusion in a way that "Yummy Yummy Yummy"
never could.

Joey made one final single under the Super Cirkus banner: his experiment in French chanson,
"Embrasser." Soon thereafter, he left the Kasenetz-Katz fold.

1910 Fruitgum Co.'s Mark Gutkowski took over lead vocal duties on a Super Cirkus cover of
Golden Earring's "Dong-Dong-Diki-Di-Ki-Dong" on the Super K label, but the carnival was over.
The wheel was reinvented as the Kasenetz-Katz Fighter Squadron for a one-off on Bell
("When He Comes" b/w "Ah-La", 1971) and toss-offs on Super K ("Symphony No. 9"
b/w �Blue Danube Waltz", Kasenetz-Katz Orchestral Circus, 1971),
their own MagnaGlide imprint ("Mama Lu" b/w "Collide", Kasenetz-Katz Super Cirkus, 1975),
and Epic ("Heart Get Ready For Love" b/w "Jungle Junk", Kasenetz-Katz Super Cirkus, 1977)
but by then the concept was effectively grounded."

Now we'll get to the good stuff! ;D

[B]

The history of Buddah/Buddha records, and it's subsidiaries, is impressive, and somewhat complex.
It makes for an interesting read, if you are inclined:

The Kama Sutra/Buddah Records Story

Kama Sutra/Buddah Story and Album Discographies

It goes beyond the scope of the "Bubble Gum" era, and Kasenetz-Katz, the part on which this thread
is focused.

So - you might ask - what does this have to do with PID/PWR?
After all, a murky picture of Faul with Mr. Kasenetz does not a conspiracy make, and bubblegum
music ain't The Beatles, so.....

Fair enough. There may not be any smoking guns here, but for my two cents, there is a lot of smoke.
(Where did I put those mirrors? ;D)

Speaking of smoke...

Golden Throats - George Burns [/b] (With A Little Help From My Friends) (a FAB release from Buddah)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqjGzz5n2hg


Ya see how it kinda looks like the cover of Sgt Pepper, don'tcha?

Encore?

George Burns - Fixing a Hole
www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7pPpWSXdkY


(more to come)

[jarvitronics]

Feb 23, 2011 11:13:16 GMT -5 B said:

Fair enough. There may not be any smoking guns here, but for my two cents, there is a lot of smoke.
(Where did I put those mirrors? ;D)

Speaking of smoke...

Golden Throats - George Burns

[/b] (With A Little Help From My Friends) (a FAB release from Buddah)

George Burns - Fixing a Hole [/quote]

Ughhh that George Burns singing was so very bad.




This is also bad.



(for your two cents)

-j

[B]

As we look at the list of "artists" in the Kasenetz-Katz line up, we see what appear to be playful
references to legitimate recording artists of the time:

• Chicago Prohibition - Chicago
• Crazy Elephant - Elephants' Memory
• J.C.W. Rat Finks
• The Fat Man's Music Festival
• The Flying Giraffe - Jefferson Airplane/Led Zeppelin/Flying Burrito Brothers/ The Byrds
• The Charles E. Funk Rebellion - Grand Funk Railroad
• The Great Train Robbery
• Lt Garcia's Magic Music Box - The Greatful Dead
• Music Explosion
• 1989 Musical Marching Zoo
• 1910 Fruitgum Company - The New Vaudeville Band
• Ohio Express
• Professor Morrison's Lollipop - The Doors
• Shadows Of Knight
• St Louis Invisible Marching Band - The Beatles (Sgt. Pepper)
• The Teri Nelson Group - Ray Conniff et al

Clearly these guys had a sense of humor.

More puzzling, though, are the visual allusions to the Beatles, and the whole "Paul is Dead"
mystery on the "Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus" and "Super Circus" album covers.
Bear in mind that these albums came out in 1968, concurrent with the Beatles' White album.
The "Paul is Dead" mystery didn't come into the public consciousness 'til October 1969,
yet looking at the Kasenetz-Katz albums we see the 'dead man' in the center of the first one
(in The Music Explosion), as well as a magician, a la Magical Mystery Tour, in the Teri Nelson
Group.



On the second album we see a car graveyard (Paul was said to have been killed in a car crash),
as well as the magician again, Magical Mystery Tour type animals, a group dressed like matadors
(as the Beatles had been, on one occassion), and someone standing next to a harp, which,
of course, is the instrument that is played by angels and dead people in heaven. (scroll right)
Pretty prescient of them, I'd say!



Of course, it's one thing for a knock-off record company to imitate a legitimate group, and use
similar imagery, but what can be said when a legitimate group appears to imitate a knock-off label?
Has that ever happened? You tell me.



Could the "death" of the Beatles have been, in some way, related to the goings on at
Buddah records? We see a Buddha figure* sitting by the French horn on the left, and a figure of
Shiva / Kali (the symbol for the Kama Sutra label) in front of the T in "Beatles".

Is there more here than meets the eye? I think so, and I'll tell you why.

* As has been explained elsewhere, this Buddha statue isn't, strictly speaking, Buddha,
but for all intents and purposes it is, as 99% of the population will see it that way.
(more to come)

[B]

I'm a bit under the weather today, and I can't spend much time on this today, so before we proceed,
let's have a look at something appearing to be something other than what it is - just for practice.

illuminati Christmas illuminations in Manchester, England
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dszw1c7eXxE


Gran Ballo La Valletta 2009
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqJ56VvFnAs
- get ur tix now! www.granballo.com/htdocs/home.htm

[iameye]

Feb 24, 2011 16:15:30 GMT -5 B said:

I'm a bit under the weather today, and I can't spend much time on this today, so before we proceed,
let's have a look at something appearing to be something other than what it is - just for practice.

Illuminati Christmas illuminations in Manchester, England
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dszw1c7eXxE

They say snakes, but it's really a double helix at Deans Gate.



www.youtube.com/watch?v=dszw1c7eXxE
Carnival of Lights

See the Bird with a leaf in her mouth?

[P(D)enny La(i)ne]

Feb 25, 2011 10:29:53 GMT -5 iameye said:

Feb 24, 2011 16:15:30 GMT -5 B said:

I'm a bit under the weather today, and I can't spend much time on this today, so before we proceed,
let's have a look at something appearing to be something other than what it is - just for practice.

Illuminati Christmas illuminations in Manchester, England
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dszw1c7eXxE

They say snakes, but it's really a double helix at Deans Gate.



www.youtube.com/watch?v=dszw1c7eXxE
Carnival of Lights

See the Bird with a leaf in her mouth?

After the flood all the colors came out.





Band on the run

[jarvitronics]

Feb 25, 2011 11:50:49 GMT -5 P(D)enny La(i)ne said:

After the flood all the colors came out.

It a trophic egg from Junior's Farm; a yolk O.



-j