Gene Pitney RIP

The first record I ever bought was at a joint on Mill Street, between Main and High in Akron, called Record Mart. It stood across the street from another Record Store called Edfred's. Edfred's was run by a big old guy that would, for a 10 year old and his or her attendant list of cultural references, pass for a Kentucky Colonel or, as we all now know it to be, Colonel Sanders. He was only cool in that he was surrounded by vinyl, just as O'Neil's department store was only cool because it had high tech listening booths where you could table an LP and put on some HEADPHONES and listen it up a bit, aka killing time in a really space age jet pilot kind of way.

Record Mart was, on the other hand, cool in all the right ways. The balding guy with the Maynard G. Krebs style beatnick Van Dyke. The jazz that was playing all the time (as opposed to the large portion of country/western across the street), and the... yes... myopic, eyepatched, cooler than cool black guy!!! This was 1962, folks!! He even had Wayfarers!

So my big brother Larry and I go in. He buys "She Cried" by Jay and the Americans. Big Tympani, big tears. I cried every time I heard it. Me? I bought a 45 RPM single by my favorite band: Mister Gene Pitney (My fave girl band was, of course Miss Lesley Gore).

"The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" written by... Burt Bacharach! Who knew?

When liberty valance rode to town
The women folk would hide, they'd hide.
When liberty valance walked around
The men would step aside
Cause the point of a gun was the only law
That liberty understood.
When it came to shootin' straight and fast,
He was mighty good.

From out of the east a stranger came,
A law book in his hand, a man.
The kind of a man the west would need
To tame a troubled land;
Cause the point of a gun was the only law
That liberty understood.
When it came to shootin' straight and fast,
He was mighty good.
When it came to shootin' straight and fast,
He was mighty good.

Many a man would face his gun
And many a man would fall,
The man who shot liberty valance,
He shot liberty valance,
He was the bravest of them all.

The love of a girl can make a man
Stay on when he should go, stay on.
Just tryin' to build a peaceful live
Where love is free to grow;
But the point of a fun was the only law
That liberty understood.
When the final showdown came at last
A law book was no good.

Alone and afraid she prayed that he'd
Return that fateful night, that night.
When nothing she said could keep her man
From going out to fight.
From the moment a girl gets to be full grown
The very first thing she learns
When two men go out to face each other,
Only one returns.

Everyone heard two shots ring out,
One shot made liberty fall
The man who shot liberty valance,
He shot liberty valance,
He was the bravest of them all.

This arrangement had the weirdest, most plaintive, whining string section I ever heard, or have heard since.I cried when I heard this song too. It was the harbinger of things to come:

Sitting in front of a black and white TV in front of my dad, watching Ed Sullivan as the Beatles played and I CRIED LIKE A BABY, I was so excited. But that's another thing altogether, cultural upheaval, coming of age, hormones, etc. etc.

But get THIS!!! My mom and dad took me to the movies to see "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," what was going to be the seminal moment of my life, my favorite song of all time and forever and ever, starring Jimmy Stewart, my favorite Charles Lindbergh, Mr. Smith All American favorite actor of all time and forever and ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got all popcorned up (with real butter, my friends), properly Raisinetted, and gloriously Goobered, only to find this Nonpareiled moment of my life stopped dead in it's tracks, cause... THE SONG BY GENE PITNEY AND BURT BACHARACH WASN'T IN THE MOVIE!!!!!

I can't talk about this anymore. He did 'Town Without Pity' and this was a big deal, along with some other stuff, but this was the watershed, this was the defining moment, and... I can't talk about it anymore.

Gene, I loved ya. R.I.P