Bomps in the night

The Vienna State Opera House

In addition to info on cruises and cruise ships, as I wrote about in my last post, my friend Walter is also my go-to guy for all things regarding music.

All kinds of music.

Walter and I have been friends since back when dirt was clean. I first met him when I was a rock-and-roll deejay at WMBG, working my way through the University of Richmond. His regard for contemporary rock-and-roll music even then was intense.

Today, his interest and his music collection range from "Who Put the Bomp (In the Bomp, Bomp, Bomp)" to Broadway's musical masterpieces, from grand opera to Steve Reich. On a trip to Austria, he took me along to visit the Vienna State Opera House, not for a concert (it was off-season) but just to see one of the grandest performance spaces in the world.

Just this weekend, Walter spent nine hours, portal to portal from his home in Connecticut, to see a concert by Le Train Bleu at Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn.

Walter is really into music.

Just the other night, Walter sent me a picture of a young man and asked me if I could identify him. He gave me one clue: His initials are B.M. From the picture, I judged the man to have been a pop star in the 1960s. His photo had that phony "glamour" look, with jutted chin and hair slicked back. Was it that guy who sang "Ballad of the Green Berets," or maybe the one who did "Eve of Destruction?" Both were from a time when I was a deejay and was playing their music on the air.

I didn't have a clue.

I decided to confess my ignorance and not google songs or artists.

Walter informed me that the picture was of Barry Mann, whose 1961 doo-wop hit was the aforementioned "Who Put the Bomp." Back in the day, I thought "Who Put the Bomp" was a rockin' song. Today, I wouldn't have been able to call it to mind if Walter hadn't brought it up.

Walter probably has the single and the album in his collection.

So ... what did Walter spend nine hours to see last night? Among other works, there was "a piece I consider a twentieth-century masterpiece, Steve Reich's 'Different Trains,'" complete with recorded train whistles, voices and the Kronos Quartet.

I doubt there was a "bomp" anywhere to be heard.

To be sure, Walter's musical interests are broad and eclectic. If I need to know who wrote the Chiffons' 1963 hit "He's So Fine" or maybe who sang Wotan in the Metropolitan Opera's 2010 production of Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen," I can count on Walter to know.

I'm certain that he has the original Chiffons recording, and he probably has a program from that Ring Cycle at the Met tucked away in his archives.

I emailed Walter between the time I wrote this and the time I posted it. He does, in fact, have an original Chiffons 45 rpm recording of "He's So Fine." The computerized database of his music collection tells him he has the Japanese red-vinyl version. He also believes he has a program from the 2010 Ring Cycle at the Met. He says it's probably in a pile in his basement.

I rest my case.