A 1977 Radford High grad (Better Midler's public school alma mater, which she rarely mentions any more) asked about my favorite Hawaiian record. Aha! The first reason to do one of the things for which blogs are most fun: Make a LIST.
Stephen King's back page column in the May 9 issue of PEOPLE Magazine features a fine flash. (King's magazine stuff is much better than his novels, says this avowed non-reader of fiction, truth being so much stranger than, etc.) King says that an oft-overlooked iTunes tabulation tracks the number of times you played a song . King then presents his own list based on that scientific, not subjective, data. Cool idea. But, weird songs from him, man, such as "0394413" by Beau Jocque & the Zydeco Hi-Rollers, which he ranks at #3.
In keeping with my lifelong practice of borrowing from the best, I did King's thing. After starting WDG my library of Hawaiian (and "local") songs -- i.e., anything recorded about Hawaii or by someone from here -- has topped 11,000. The most versions of any tune are racked up by "Hawaiian War Chant."
Once I wrote a magazine story about New York deejay David Garland who played 75 version of the tune. Of course I got carried away, discovered many other versions and traced the song to a composition by Prince Lalaihoku of the royal family, many of whom were songwriters. Titled Kaua i ka Huahuai or "We Sleep In The Spray," the original told of two native lovers fornicating in the flora.
NOTICE: I will mention this now and never again. No use of "official" Hawaiian language diacritical markings will be used on this here blog, see. Why?
(1) There are no fonts for the required okina (the backwards apostrophe used to indicate a glottal stop!) and the macron (the line over vowels that means something I still don't understand).
(2) These blips were never used when I was growing up and pronouncing fish like Humuhumunukunukuapuaa just fine, thank you. Kosher for a few decades is Humuhumunukunukuapua'a. Does that tiny okina help you say it? These symbols became chic and then virtually mandatory in the 1970s, one of the few things I find offensive about the "Hawaiian Renaissance".
(3) Now they are required on all street signs in the state, making them more difficult for us kamaaina (old timers -- now printed kama'aina in the daily papers and others trying to be Hawaiian by punctuation).
(4) Tom Rounds arrived in the then-Territory of Hawaii just before statehood in 1959 and jumped in as KPOI Radio's news director and never blew a pronunciation. This was not because TR managed the Amherst campus radio station and put in some time at WINS-New York. It was because he is smart, cared about being professional and the Hawaiian language contains 13 letters. (This is more than I can say about my first move to California when I called La Cienega Boulevard "La Chee-negga" and rhymed La Jolla with "uh dollah.")
So please don't hassle me about this, OK? You try pronouncing just some of the artists now streaming on WDG if you ain't akamai: Like, Dennis Kamakahi and The Makapuu Sand Band.
Well, this linguistic expedition has taken space I would have used for my Fave Hawaiian Songs based on iTunes airplay, which is a hell of a lot more scientific than how we picked songs at KHJ-Los Angeles and AMERICAN TOP 40. Jacobs: "Paul Mauriat and then "Respect" by Aretha when we count 'em down?" Drake: "Uh, I don't think so." Now it can be told.
The above pictured album is a subtle clue about what came in at Number One. The full list will appear later, or "bumbye" as we say in Pidgin. Meanwhile please comment on your favorite Island song, whether you be from here or were passing through on a honeymoon, sucking up mai tais and sun on an expense account, military assignment or deportation back to LAX for smuggling drugs into Hong Kong. (Who could have been that stupid?)
Wrapping up: I hope that you take the time to listen to the WDG website sometime. It's designed "to be heard and not seen." Some very special audio engineers worked long and hard to get a sound out of this old plantation-style house that we feel rivals anything on the web. Check out the Credits page for the most amazing list of broadcast talent that comprises our crew.
We have compared live performances from Da Jungle Studio with bigtime studio recordings of the same fine artists (like Dennis Kamakahi, one of the world's best ki ho'alu ("slack key") acoustic guitarists and it's a real "Blindfold Test," a great feature from DOWNBEAT Magazine.
In fact that was the inspiration for the wonderful Phil Spector section of the KHJ original HISTORY OF ROCK AND ROLL that crack engineer Bill Mouzis and I recorded in the Melrose Avenue hallway laughingly called "the production studio".
But that's yet another story. Happy pau hana, Aloha Friday and have a million dollar weekend.
RJ
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