Le Streak, C'est Chic

 A fun little disc for you today to round of the year… perfect for your New Year’s Eve party!

 

Born in Quasqueton, Iowa as Larry Lee Blankenburg, Larry Lujack was a US Top-40 radio DJ who worked throughout the States for almost 50 years. Beginning in 1958, in his then-hometown of Caldwell, Idaho, he would become best-known while living and working in Chicago, where he ruled the airwaves for almost 20 years. He retired in 1987, after his son was killed in an accident and he underwent heart bypass surgery, but he was persuaded to return to the microphone several years later, finally retiring for good in August 2006.

 

Larry’s sole single, The Ballad of the Mad Streaker came out in 1974, the same year that novelty records supremo Ray Stevens had an international hit with The Streak, that funk band High Voltage issued their single Streakin’ backed with Here Come's The Streaker, and that blues singer Arelean Brown released her 45 I Am A Streaker.

 

Just in case you were unaware, ‘streaking’ is the act of taking off your clothes and running naked through a public area – it could be for publicity, as a prank, a dare, or even as a form of protest. In the early 1970s streaking became associated with sporting events, and the press was filled with photographs of nude men and topless women (in Britain, Erica Roe earned a place in the nation’s hearts after streaking at a cricket *rugby* match in 1982), usually pursued by sporting officials or policemen.

 

For a short time records about streaking were everywhere. In the UK, Willie Flascher and The Raincoats issued (Everybody Wants To Be A) Streaker which, for some odd reason was retitled Everybody Wants To See A (Streaker) when it was reissued in New Zealand, and reggae trumpeter Bobby Ellis issued Streaker Disco. Controversial comedian Rudy Ray Moore released his album The Streaker around 1975 in the US, and many more would follow. Elephant’s Memory, famed for their association with John and Yoko and the Beatles’ Apple label, released Rock 'N' Roll Streaker, and I’m sure that none of you will be remotely surprised to discover that there are several song-poems about streaking, including Lee Scott’s The Streaker, and Ralph Lowe’s Harold, the Drag Strip Streaker.

 

The flip side of the Lujack 45, Music to Streak By, is simply a slightly extended instrumental version of the plug track that really does not work as a stand-alone, unless you have some perverse reason to perform the song karaoke-style, that is. Anyway, here are both sides of Larry’s 1974 single… just in case you do fancy streaking in a karaoke bar!

 

Enjoy!

 

Download Ballad HERE

Download Music HERE