Cee Dubbaloe Elly Are

Here in the East, the temperature scraped 100 this past week, so I thought it was a good time to remind everyone that it's C-O-O-L-E-R, Cooler in the Shade.

cooler... in the shade.

This picture was sent to me a while back by Dan Ohnemus (Octet '04), and I remember being flattered that a Lemmings song had stuck in somebody's head to the degree that they'd actually take a picture like this. But then, "Cooler In The Shade" is a sticky song. 

It's also a Lemmings milestone. Prior to 1984, our repertoire consisted only of things we could steal and Bill's criminally-too-few Tom Lehrer gems. That was pretty much it. But then we heard Cooler, fell in love, and really wanted to sing it, so we-slash-I was forced to create an original arrangement. It was only my second one after "Won't Stand", which was more like a lift than an arrangement. So, Cooler was really the first time I-slash-we realized we didn't have to depend on the kindness of strangers for our music. 

Blanche DuBarbershop

But how did we find the song? It wasn't on a record. Not on the radio. Not available on the black market for a kidney. It came to us, not surprisingly, from the source of all things cool, Patron Saint of the Octet and the Lemmings, David A. Barnes. 

Jesus of cool

[That's one of my favorites pics from a photo shoot we did at the end of my senior year.] Dave ended up linking us to the man who wrote the song, Franklin Micare. Dave explains: "I first saw Franklin in 1975 at a bar called Brandy's on 84th between 2nd and 3rd. He was the most talented and entertaining person I had ever seen with my own eyes. At that time, all I really wanted was to play the harmonica well enough to play with him. It reached a point where I got to play one song, "Bring It On Home To Me," from my table.

The Three Deuces

My table then got closer and closer to the stage. 
I think I finally played onstage with him at the Back Fence. He literally taught me how to be a professional musician. I don't  remember when he wrote "Cooler in the Shade"... early 80's... I guess I dragged Slope down to see him and he dug the tune and the rest is history!"

So, Charlie (aka Slope) in turn drags some of us to these shows, we become semi-regulars, we do the arrangement, it becomes a "Lemmings hit", and we record it in 1986 at Excalibur Studios with an engineer named Art Polhemus (you can listen to it here).... 


The Polhemus Tapes


And then, in 1989, we get the chance to sing at the Guggenheim Museum, and we take that opportunity to connect the circle of love by inviting David and Franklin to perform Cooler with us. Yes, there's video.  Here it is.

Great exit, right? Warren Hunke was in the audience that night and said afterwards something like, "Barnes and Micare emerged from the audience as if from a San Francisco fog, like something from a Raymond Chandler novel." 

In other words, they're cooler.

POLL RESULTS: Like "fire" in a crowded theater, we enjoy yelling just about any 1-word song title on the planet. Pants, Poesh, Mung... we don't care. This week: what's your favorite soundbite from Lemmings lore?  If you've read this far, you might as well vote. Upper right.


Cease speaking. (And thank you, Schwa, for mocking up that picture of Blanche DuBois with Barbershop book.  ..."A Streetcar Named Sincere".)