Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/10/28/sammy-davis-jr-s-tonight-show-love-song-to-a-city.html
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I got really into SDJ after hearing his one and only Motown album ‘Something for Everyone’.
There’s Rat Pack Sammy, Crooner Sammy, Mr Entertainment Sammy - and then there’s Funk soul Sammy:
‘In the Ghetto’ seems to resonate a little more from SDJ than his friend Elvis, in my book.
"Wichita Lineman’
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speaking of Belle Isle:
we went to Belle Isle as a family when I was in elementary school, drove over from Southfield. there is a small aquarium in the building there, not like the usual kind, but exotic fish in small-ish tanks (big compared to home sized) line a large corridor.
the electric eel had an alarm-type bell next to his tank, and when the eel discharged its electricity, it completed a circuit and the bell rang.
“come on over here and see the electric eel, Elmer!” said my grandfather (he called me Elmer for some reason.) so I joined him for a look and when I got there, sure enough, the bell rang. “he likes you!” papa said. I was really shy, so I said nothing but I gave him an incredulous look. I figured papa was fucking with me because… papa was usually fucking with me. the bell kept ringing. “you don’t believe me? go stand over there.” I did and the bell stopped. “now come over here.” I did and the bell rang at more intense intervals than before. the nearby kids started to take notice. “it likes my grandson!” papa said, and similar patter with the other children, beaming and laughing.
the attention was enough to make shy me uncomfortable so I backed away from there, which papa thought was hilarious.
now, I don’t know what he was doing, some kind of magnet in his pocket or maybe a certain color he wore or something, but knowing papa, there was some passed-down-the-generations Detroit knowledge that he was doing to make that eel ring the bell and he’d been waiting all day to fuck with me.
it’s alright, papa, it was a fun prank, I was just shy.
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