If I haven't made this clear enough already, a lot of the stuff on this blog is way past my era, so while I love songs that tell me to do the watussi etc., I wouldn't know a watussi if I saw it. I spent a lot of time scrutinizing details of the surfer's stomp to no avail, I need a visual representation.
My friend's dad (and music enthusiast) reminded me that this is why youtube exists
but even then there's a lot of misinformation with lots of little girls dancing the mashed potato they saw in the Hairspray movie
The Mashed Potato is pretty basic (and DeeDee Sharp provided a video as well, though there are backup dancers that might confuse as to what the dance really is). But what about The Jerk? The Watussi? The Surfer's Stomp?
James Brown tries to show off a few, but ends up really just showing off with no room for education
What I'm saying here is that if you know this stuff and want to go stick it on youtube, you've done us all a service and you might achieve internet celebrity status! I know, that may not sound horribly attractive, but if you're not going to do it, who will?
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If you demand more complicated dances than these provide, I came across something the other day that's pretty cool. A local thrift store was selling 45s in little plastic grab bags, 5 for 5. You could only see what was on the outside, but I noticed a Champs single I didn't have on one side, so I bought it. Turns out San Juan \ Jalisco is a pretty boring single from later in their career, turning a little more Latin than rock & roll with less-than-exciting results. It's since been put on one of their compilations, so here's that version
The Champs - San Juan
But more excitingly, it came with somebody's instructions for what looks like a pretty complicated dance. I doubt any of you would go through the effort of performing this, but it's a cool little artifact.
click for the readable version (I'll get a scanner one day)
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