BOZOS CIRCUS IS ON THE AIR. jensongs.net Mom quickly gathers us kids together as a family, but kind of a single file line of only three kids. Dad is talking to someone about a chair, since my 6 year old sibling is so small, dad had come up with this idea for him to stand on a chair to equal the heights of my sister and myself. That nice man with the clip board, is motioning for us to come across the hall to the curtain, as mom says cmon, lets go. That man now grabs the edge of this huge curtain, and pulls it back for us to walk through, and as we walk through, this sudden feeling of like when Dorothy sees the land of Oz for the first time. Bright lights, many vibrant colors, like Ive never seen. Bozo, (Bob Bell) so colorful with such firery red hair, bright red suit to match, and those big big shoes! And Oliver O. Oliver with that funny straw hate and red circles on his cheeks, and white circles around his eyes, and Sandy (Don Sandburg, Producer) the deaf mute clown with his black derby hat, also white painted around his eyes and mouth, all there, colorful as any clown can be. Having a black and white TV at home has left me with such a surreal image like a dream, that Im finally seeing this show for the first time Live in color! Quickly walking past three bleachers full of kids, in the middle of the faded blue colored tile was what looked like an X with masking tape was a big black metal chair with a red padded cushion on it. I keep on turning my head around to look at this cast of thousands wheres all the people they talk about? I wondered, as Im walking looking around, mom grabs me gently by the shoulder and aims me back in the direction of the chair, over here Scott she says as she grabs my collar, gently puts her palm, lovingly, against my cheek, So now Im standing on the left side of this chair, my sister is getting out of the way while dad picks up my little brother and puts him on the chair. Im still looking around to see maybe three to four bleachers full of moms and dads and kids of all ages. As dad walks to stand to the back of the chair, my sister takes her spot on the right side of dad. Now rolling across the floor are two very big, things with a round piece of glass on it, with big letters....WGN TV along comes the other. So these are the TV cameras I thought. I had never seen these types of things before, they looked kind of like scary robots. Dads whispering to us kids, just relax kids, welle do great Just as Dad said that, I noticed a long metal pole, also on wheels was towering over the WGN cameras, and us as well, I would find out later, that these were the microphones they would use to record these shows audio for broadcast... BOYS AND GIRLS, MOMS AND DADS, BOZOS CIRCUS IS ON THE AIR Said the Ringmaster Ned, (Ned Locke) RIGHT NOW WEVE GOT A SURPRISE FOR YOU, A SINGING FAMILY QUARTET, A WARM APPLAUSE, FOR THE SINGING JENSEN FAMILY, as the 100 or so kids and their parents sitting in these bleachers began to clap and cheer, my Dad tells us quietly which song were going to start with. Doggy Song as he softly blows his pitch pipe, to tell us where the key to sing is. HOW.....MUCH IS THAT DOGGY IN THE WINDOW, THE ONE WITH THE WAGGLY TAIL ...with four part barbershop harmony chords ringing like a loud organ, with all the notes, accurately sung, provides an exhilarating feeling to hear those chords come out of human voices, without any musical instruments. Total accapella! Proudly singing, with more confidence, all the rehearsals at home at the kitchen table, paid off...... BOW WOW. Wow, we just finished our first song, on BOZO, and no mistakes. Dad quickly whispers again Oh you beautiful doll pitch...OH YOU BEAUTIFUL DOLL, YOU GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL DOLL as a kid at home, I used to play around with sound effects with toys and such and one day dad heard me making a crunching sound, and asked me what that sound was, I told him that was the sound of something breaking! So dad decided that would be a good part in this song, and asked me if I would do the breaking sound when it got this certain part, I agreed of course, I loved making sound effects. IF YOU EVER LEAVE ME, HOW MY HEART WOULD ACHE, ID LOVE TO HUG YOU BUT ID FEAR YOUDE BREAK CRUNCH went my sound affect, ...OH YOU BEAUTIFUL DOLL, YOU BEAUTIFUL DOLL ..... Since our 1963 record, we had perfected, our arrangements of these songs as dad worked out more intricate chord changes, key changes, extensions to verses, that was much harder to comprehend when youre 3 and six years old. I mean, weve really grown up a lot, in three years. While the audience is applauding, dad hits the pitch pipe again, I want a girl he says softly I WANT A GIRL, JUST LIKE THE GIRL THAT MARRIED DEAR OLD DAD.....The intricate arrangements for the ends of Barbershop songs are called TAGS, and in the TAG, of I WANT A GIRL, My sister hits this high note DAAAAAAAAD..... While the three of us sing in perfect harmony, DEAR OLD DAAAAAAAD loud applause ensues. This is what its all about I thought to myself. Four voices singing together can capture beautiful chords, but voices with all the same character, same family, same genes, with familiar sounding voices, harmonize and ring together as one big voice. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, BOYS AND GIRLS, YOU PROBABLY WONDER HOW TO GET YOUNG KIDS TO SING TOGETHER IN A BARBERSHOP FAMILY QUARTET AT SUCH A YOUNG AGE,? WELL IT TAKES ALOT OF PATIENCE AND A LOT OF LOVE jensongs.net
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 02:02:04 +0000
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