Posted by:
memikeyounot
(
)
Date: August 10, 2016 09:16AM
I graduated from high school in 1967, so you can figure out how old I am and if you were around then, you’ll likely
remember some of the cultural touch-points of that era.
From my mother, I got a love of Frank Sinatra and his music. So, when his daughter, Nancy, started her career as a singer and “actress”, I liked her music as well but wasn’t a rabid fan.
(About 1975, my then-wife and I, and some friends drove from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas for a weekend. We saw Liberace in concert for about $10.00 per ticket, but I couldn’t talk my wife and the other couple into spending about $18.00 IIRC to see Frank Sinatra at Caesars. A regret to this day.)
In 1966, the bishop of my ward in Sandy, UT who was a true Mormon asshole and who shall remain nameless (PLUS, the same guy was my seminary teacher, so I got a double dose of his assholery. He wasn’t very good at either of those callings, but that’s another story. The summer of 1966, he was on a rant in more than one meeting about the “smut” that was Nancy Sinatra’s song, These Boots Are Made for Walking.
It came out in February 1966, and it was a huge radio hit. Bishop Asshole told us that under no circumstances were we to watch or listen to this smutty song. (I think he even suggested that we turn the radio dial if it came on in the car). And he kept it up in seminary classes regularly. The seminary teacher I had the year before did the same thing with “I Can’t Get no Satisfaction". He was a bishopric counselor to Bishop asshole.)
Keep in mind, you couldn’t go to YouTube to watch these songs on demand nor could you hear it on your phone or connect in your car radio by Bluetooth to listen to it. (Yes, I did that).
On Facebook, I belong to a “group” called Vintage LA. I’ve never lived in LA nor never wanted to, but like some of the history of the city. The woman who runs the group is Alison Martino, the daughter of Al Martino (The Godfather, anyone?) and she posts lots of interesting things. She’s not as old as Nancy Sinatra (she’s 47, I think) but she has a true love of LA history and she had a post about Nancy and that song recently.
Not that I had forgotten, but it reminded me what an awful Mormon Bishop Asshole must have been to spend so much of his time (and ours) worrying and praying about how that pretty lame song was affecting good Mormon boys and girls of that time.
For those of you who don’t remember the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbyAZQ45uwwEdited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2016 09:20AM by memikeyounot.