Singing Squares

January 14th, 2012
contra
There's a saxophone and a drummer with a full kit, and the caller is singing the calls. Some new contra syncretism? Or just a typical night in 1955?

The singing square, "Just Because," from live recordings over the years:

1952 Frank Fortune (studio)
1955 Frank Fortune
1973 Glenn Pease
2008 David Millstone (youtube)
2011 Tod Whittemore (youtube)
2011 Walter Lenk
(If you compare a dance program from 1955 or 1965 to one now, the biggest thing you notice is half the dances were singing squares, and the ones that weren't were mostly couple dances.)

Update 2012-01-22: I later transcribed the 'Just Because' recordings.

Update 2012-02-29: I tried my hand calling this yesterday and wrote about it after.

Referenced in:

Comment via: google plus, facebook

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Book Review: The Kingdom, The Power, and the Glory

Against the Internet

via Thing of Things April 25, 2025

Impact, agency, and taste

understand + work backwards from the root goal • don’t rely too much on permission or encouragement • make success inevitable • find your angle • think real hard • reflect on your thinking

via benkuhn.net April 19, 2025

Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?

When I thought about this question it was really hard to figure out because the way it's phrased it's essentially either a chicken just pops into existence, or an egg just pops into existence, without any parent animals involved. I thought about t…

via Lily Wise's Blog Posts April 13, 2025

more     (via openring)