Is anyone else traumatized by Lawrence Welk??

It was depressing for a teen to have to sit through.... every single Saturday night... Until that is, I got old enough to date... then I was outa there..
 
My mother didn't like the show either, my father was always at work. But there wasn't anything better on, was there? I can't remember. Only 3 channels. It would be interesting to see the schedules back then. Anybody got an old TV Guide? Ha!
 
There was so little to choose from much less for teens in those days, the LW show was for older folks, a kind of pseudo McMusic. More fun to hang out in my room that watch it.
 
It's too easy to make fun of a show that is still on TV since 1955. He was a good guy, with a talented band and a talented bunch of performers. I still enjoy watching him on PBS.
 
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I think its an age thing, it seemed to appeal to our parents and grandparents generation. But why on earth would teen kids be interested? And now, since we've grown up, we have our own music to be nostalgic about. I know there are people my age who never liked rock and roll and the Beatles as teens, and went for the LW style and still do, but personally I can't relate. My mother used to prefer Perry Como and shows like Dinah Shore. Musical taste is very subjective -- and there's something for everyone out there.
 
Cookie, I too think it's an age thing, perhaps a culture thing also? The flower children generation simply had/have different musical/cultural tastes than those who were/are perhaps more conservative in their outlook.
 
I agree, Shali, there is music some people love I just can't listen to, even though it might qualify as 'good' music. Were all individually tuned in to certain tones and octaves which make us feel good and repelled by others.

On the other hand, maybe the LW show was specially crafted and suitable for older generations who needed to be soothed and chilled out from their post war PTSD and 50s/60s cold war paranoid mindrames. We young kids had no such needs, and wanted more energetic, fun and interesting stuff. Same goes for today's music, old folks don't like, the young people do, it's just different people relating to different things and having different needs. But you gotta wonder why and how a young teen of that 1955 era would enjoy the LW music, unless that was all they had and it was 1955 and they lived on some hillside and had never heard rock and roll.
 
You know, it is an age thing. It seems to me that it's connected with the whole deal about teenagers coming of age and separating themselves from the older generation. I've noticed whenever the topic of music comes up, its never limited to I like this kind of music. It always seems necessary to say how much you hate another generation's music.
For myself, electrification was the end of music. I like a melody, and lyrics sung in a normal human voice at a pace that you can understand. I know I'm just a sentimental slob, but I prefer "I will always call you sweetheart, that will always be your name" to something like "Lets do it, do it, do it, Yeah. do, do, do, do it, etc, etc." Screamed over an amplifier. Thankfully,
I can turn my hearing aids off now and enjoy my imaginary world.
 
Cookie said:
I think its an age thing, it seemed to appeal to our parents and grandparents generation. But why on earth would teen kids be interested? And now, since we've grown up, we have our own music to be nostalgic about. I know there are people my age who never liked rock and roll and the Beatles as teens, and went for the LW style and still do, but personally I can't relate. My mother used to prefer Perry Como and shows like Dinah Shore. Musical taste is very subjective -- and there's something for everyone out there.
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Yeah. Different strokes. :wink:
 
Luckily my mother never like Lawrence Welk. So I didn't have to suffer that. Reruns of it used to be popular at one nursing home I worked at. Couldn't stand to see it even then.
 
Meanderer said:
It's too easy to make fun of a show that is still on TV since 1955. He was a good guy, with a talented band and a talented bunch of performers. I still enjoy watching him on PBS. My avatar aside, he has never put me to sleep.:eek:nthego:
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I happen to know Kathy Lennon personally.. She is best friends with one of my friends... Trust me when I tell you... Welk was not that nice a guy. He was a little dictator and paid peanuts.. He fired the Lennons without warning or so much as a goodbye.
 
No tv show has ever traumatized me. My mother watched the same old reruns up until a week before she died. I didn't care for it, but watched a little with her just to make her happy. I admit, I slipped out a lot to go watch something else in another room.
 
Oh I remember Mitch! I agree though with other posters that Champagne Music isn't anything awful. Now Johnny Mathis was traumatizing. The dentist when I was a kid had a loop of his greatest hits. " Chances Are" still gives me flashbacks of the dentist drill. But really I'd rather hear that nice innocent music. I have to do some of my daily work in a receiving area with it's own boom box. I've learned to tune out most of it...but just from scattered lyrics...he has a Glock...he wants to make all the money...he's feeling really down...and he knows he's going to die soon...so he wants to make all the money...aye, I'll take Abba over THAT.

Now I was just thinking after I posted that. The problem comes with my age now. They'll be playing "It's Only Rock and Roll" or "Tell Me Something Good", worse " Disco Lady". I mean these were tunes that some radio stations banned back in the day. And there's Chaka Kahn practically dripping over the PA system. And I find myself listening to the young man with the gun and thinking like a Mom..." Okay first thing is get rid of the firearm, no really just junk it, find the deepest nearby water source and lose that piece, now you can get out of there and make all the money, but you need to get you an education, being a rapper is still going to get you killed, get a trade and get out of the neighborhood, I believe in you..."
 
QuickSilver said:
I happen to know Kathy Lennon personally.. She is best friends with one of my friends... Trust me when I tell you... Welk was not that nice a guy. He was a little dictator and paid peanuts.. He fired the Lennons without warning or so much as a goodbye.
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I had heard that before QuickSilver. I think I read it in something someone who worked on the show wrote.
 

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