NOTE: This is a special edition. My regular blog, with news of the farm, will be back tomorrow.
My friend, Tim, asked me to make him a custom batch of soap. This is the story of his soap.
He wanted the soap to bear the words “Gonzo Vocal Barbarians”.
I used to lead a “DooWop” class at the Old Town School of Folk Music. It wasn’t really DooWop, though, it was just listed as “DooWop” in the school catalogue. It was a class where we sang my original arrangements of a wide variety of songs. Some DooWop classics, for sure. For instance, “Get a Job”, which we sang at a homeless shelter - and only realized what a horrifying choice that was mid-way through the chorus. Luckily, the homeless folks realized that the song was about being harassed by your woman, not really about joblessness.
We covered songs by The Bobs, Moxie Fruvous, Joni Mitchel, Paul Simon, The Indigo Girls. We sang “Zombie Jamboree”, “Chain Gang”, “Hey There Little Red Riding Hood”, and “You Never Give Me Your Money” (complete with a vocal version of the guitar solo).
We sang at the top of our lungs in the old school building on Armitage that had no sound-proofing. The poor ukelele classes were deafened. The guitar classes couldn’t compete with our sound. One evening, when we were all pouring down the stairs en masse, one of the faculty of the school said, “Oh, no! Here come the gonzo vocal barbarians.” One of our members had a prototype t-shirt made up the next day. Black with 1957 Cadillac pink letters: Gonzo Vocal Barbarians. We reveled in our moniker.
We sang a DooWop arrangement of The National Anthem -
“Oh say, Shooby Doo Wop, ka Shooby Doo Wop
Oh say, Shooby Doo Wop, ka Shooby Doo Wop
Oh say can you see, doo wah . . . “
As a matter of fact, we sang that arrangement at a Bulls Game. We had made a cassette recording of ourselves, sent it to the appropriate person in the Bulls organization, and they booked us. We rehearsed and rehearsed, wanting to sing the arrangement (which was complex and difficult) perfectly. We wore our “Gonzo Vocal Barbarians” t-shirts, and arrived at the venue. This was the Chicago Stadium - one of the last games before the Bulls moved to the United Center and the Stadium was demolished. We were told we would be singing around a microphone that had broadcast the nomination of Franklin Delano Roosevelt for President of the United States. (The 1940 Democratic Convention had been held in the Chicago Stadium).
It was amazing being on the court with the Bulls. We sang - really well. When we came to the end of the Anthem there was dead silence in the stadium. I don’t know if the game was sold out or not - but the capacity of that Stadium was 23,500 people. That’s a lot of people being silent. After several long seconds half the crowd burst into applause and half the crowd booed. It was a terrifying, and yet bonding experience for the intrepid Gonzo Vocal Barbarians. Not everyone gets booed by so many people.
The next day, WGN Radio did 20 minutes (including call-ins) on whether we had desecrated the National Anthem or honored it. It never once crossed my mind that it might be disrespectful to sing a DooWop version of the National Anthem.
So, Tim wanted to present a bar of soap, stamped with our name, to past members of our ensemble. Perhaps to encourage them to join in a massive road-trip to Serena Kinders goat farm, where we could serenade the goats to our hearts content once the pandemic is over. (I can only hope!)
I loved this custom request.
The first thing I do, when making a custom batch of soap is order supplies. In Tim’s case I had everything on hand that I would need except for an enormous rubber mallet and a stamp.
Once I have the supplies, it’s time to get the milk. Here I am milking Mothra.
Next I get my oils lined up.
And put on my protective equipment.
And then it’s melting the oils, dissolving the lye, and pouring the soap into molds.
The soap is ready to come out of the molds twenty-four hours later, and it’s still soft, because it hasn’t cured yet. Now is the time when I stamp the soap.
Now Tim's bars are stamped and ready to cure, ready to bring joy and fond memories to the fabulous Gonzo Vocal Barbarians.
If you would like your own custom soap, please visit my website: https://www.serenasoaps.com/. Go to the Custom Soap section and click on “Learn More”. Or, simply email me at SerenaSoapsinfo@gmail.com - that's what Tim did.