MUSIC FOR SEPTEMBER 2021
‘KEEP ON SMILING’
I’ve dedicated the Song of the Month feature during summer 2021 to my band the Fashion Jungle, in recognition of the 40th anniversary of the band’s founding. And I’m ending that salute with a song the original FJ learned during that exciting summer of 1981 — but which I wrote eight years earlier. We launched the FJ, in part, to put our original material front and center. But because none of us was too prolific, I revived this old number.
I wrote “Keep on Smiling,” in 1973, simply because I was mad at one of my friends, although I was never so articulate in actual conversations with that person. The lyrics are melodramatic — I was 19 — but the overall sense of angst still works. And the big anthemic ending turned into something of an FJ characteristic. Moreover, the song turned out to be a fine showcase for the Farfisa rock organ, played here by the multitalented Jim Sullivan. Personnel: Doug Hubley, guitar and vocal. Mike Piscopo, backing vocal and bass. Jim Sullivan, backing vocal and organ. Ken Reynolds, drums. Recorded on the Sony TC-540 in summer 1981 in Ben and Hattie Hubley’s basement, near Red’s ice cream stand in South Portland, Maine. (Photo by Jeffery Stanton: The Fashion Jungle at Kayo’s, Portland, Maine, in September or October 1981.)
“Keep on Smiling” copyright © 2010 by Douglas L. Hubley. All rights reserved. Hear it below, buy it on Bandcamp !