Poison Ivy Song

Carl Gardner

By ROCKIN' ROBIN

   Carl Gardner, the founder and original lead singer of the 1950's group the Coasters, died Sunday (June 12, 2011) at a Port St. Lucie, Florida, hospice. He was 83. According to the Associated Press and writer Dennis McLellan of the Los Angeles Times, Gardner died of congestive heart failure plus had been battling Alzheimer's Disease and throat cancer.

   What made the Coasters so successful was how the American public didn't care that they were all African-Americans. That's because their music was just plain fun for black and white audiences alike. One appropriate nickname for the group was "The Clown Princes Of Rock And Roll."

   The Coasters were the very first group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, joining the second class in 1987. The Everly Brothers were among the rock hall's first class in 1986, but they were a duo. The Beatles didn't gain induction into the hall until the third class in 1988.

   When Casey Kasem counted down the top 40 rock and roll acts of the 1950's in the fall of 1975, the Coasters were ranked #13. Only three groups were ahead of the Coasters…the Diamonds, Bill Haley and His Comets and the biggest group of the 50's, the Platters.

   According to Joel Whitburn's Record Research, the Coasters' roots go back to 1947, when the Robins were formed in Los Angeles. Among the Robins' hits were "Smokey Joe's Café" and "Riot In Cell Block #9." In the mid-1950's, the Robins split into two groups. Some members of the Robins chose to remain the Robins while Gardner and Bobby Nunn decided to the form the Coasters.
The combination of the Coasters' joining Atco Records and teamming up with songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller led to a slew of hits. Although their first release, "Down In Mexico," failed to crack the Cash Box Magazine pop chart in 1956, it was a major R&B hit.

Poison Ivy's Wall of Text: Born This Way

1. Marry the Night - awesome, catchy song. Yes it sounds like a generic power ballad mixed with a club song, but try not to listen to it and not want to get up and dance. It's hard. And I think that this should have been the single off the album, not "Hair" or "Judas." The lyrics are about prostitution, but who could mix such downer lyrics with such an exuberant dance song? 2. Born This Way - the gay-rights anthem that's melody-wise also a direct ripoff of Madonna's "Express Yourself," but somehow has the neurotic beat and knife-like Gaga voice that makes it a very different song. Works better as a live act than as a radio single I think. Only misfire of this song is the overlong middle bridge section which contains these nuggets of wisdom:  3. Government Hooker - strangest song of the album, that starts out with a Phantom-of-the-Opera intro and ends with her fantasizing about John F. Kennedy. Lyrically a weird song, but also one of the hardest to get out of your head because of the slow but relentless dance beat that's at the heart of the song. This is a weird comparison but the song almost sounds like a post-KidA Radiohead song, with its wailing existential vocals and electronic synthesizer beats. "Put your hands on me/John F. Kennedy/I'll make you squeal, baby/As long as you pay me" she screams.  4. Judas - this song is a hot mess, but after 10 listens it becomes lodged in your brain until I found myself singing along to even the bridge. It sounds like four completely different songs looped together, and has a weird bridge that makes the song a good minute too long. I don't think Gaga does "religious symbolism-laden love song" as well as Madonna though. This is Gaga speaking to her teen fanbase, but it never gets deeper than Gaga talking about her hair. Gaga being Gaga, I can just picture her singing "I am my hair" and her face dripping with black mascara. I remember my parents forcing me to keep my hair short when I was little, so I can relate to the song, but it's overproduced (did we really need a Clarence Clemons sax solo?) and thus a light little ditty becomes either overlong and just flat out annoying or the guilty pleasure of the album. Think of it like the "Boys Boys Boys" of the album - so bad it's good. 10. Bad Kids - this is the song I like least on the album. The others I can find something catchy in the song, but "Bad Kids" is again Gaga singing to her tween fanbase, but with lyrics as vapid as the tween generation.

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