As a kid (and ok, adult!) I used to spend as much free time at the library looking up music and checking out as many Lps as possible ( I know I have a 30 year old fine at one and I’m afraid to go back there…seriously). So, having the web at my fingertips is just a mind boggling privilege. My cottage needs vacuuming, I should fold clothes, stop my ass from spreading any further (I think you can measure it in trajectory as well as surface area now), and call my Grandma, but instead, I’m sitting here on a lovely Sunday afternoon, searching song after song and FINDING IT!!!! Life is pretty good. The other stuff can wait. And this is pretty kitschy. I submit this only with adoration and ok, maybe slight obsession for the men and the music on this record. Most awmoker’s know how I love jazz, but I had to state that anyway.

Soft Shoe is a brilliant dance form made more popular by vaudeville performers (I’m pretty sure of the vaudeville reference anyway) and it’s very,very closely related to tap (if not entirely synonymous with it). I love dance as much as music and used to have a go at it when I was younger. I always think of Bill Robinson doing soft shoe while throwing down sand in some film I can’t recall but I think they were on a boat and there was a good band. It sucks to not be able to retrieve something that should be remembered. I’m pretty sure it was Stormy Weather. Almost positive, in fact. But the point is, Soft Shoe is not big puffy shoes that look like saddle shoes that have had a bad run-in with a bicycle pump.

But again, this record is fabulous and it even has something else that qualifies as kitsch. Feast your ears on The Flintstones Theme done right.

<iframe width=”420″ height=”315″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/W2XPi-uQHQY?rel=0″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

Sure, there have been some various jazz offerings of this song, but I still think this one is tops. Kitschy? Eh, yeah, kinda. Excellent? Definitely. Do I want to wear those big, soft, puffy saddle shoes? You bet. And I’d do it while sitting like a slob next to my HiFi, listening to a good record and eschewing housework…