Where Are the Liverpool Invasion Three?

Sorry I haven't been around today. I've been out shopping. Up and down Main Street with my shopping bag looking for a skull. I needed one so I can go up in my pear tree and meditate on the transitoriness of life. St. Francis thought highly of the practice so I thought I should try it.

Well, I finally found one and it's pretty nice. It was in the back at the Dollar Store. In fact, there was a whole box of them. I think the Pirates of the Caribbean ride must have been overstocked. But I like it fine. It glows in the dark too, which could come in handy in the pear tree if I'm up there at night or if I want to play a joke on the neighbors. And it has a lid I can take off and put things inside.

So far it hasn't worked out too well though. I try to meditate on memento mori, like my blogger friend Paula says, but my visions come out more like besame mucho. Instead of the yawning pit, I keep having visions of tiny Snickers bars. And little Butterfingers.

Anyway, while I was out shopping, I got to thinking about the Liverpool Invasion Three. You might not remember them but they were pretty big in 1965. They even played my high school once. I still have Nigel Twist's autograph somewhere.

Those guys had some interesting songs. Of course there was their big hit, Just A Bit of Fun, but in a way their famous "answer songs" were even more interesting. Like when the Righteous Brothers had their hit, You Lost That Lovin' Feeling, the LI3 came out with Hey, I Found Your Lovin' Feeling (You Left It On The Counter At The Market.)

Come to think of it, I guess it wasn't as clever as I thought it was at the time.

Maybe they were more of a cult thing. They never got really big, like, say, Herman's Hermits or Freddy And The Dreamers. But they were big in San Mateo, where I grew up. With their high pointy collars and skinny black ties and winklepicker boots -- it was like they brought Carnaby Street right to my hometown. Ziggy, Ignatz and Nigel - I wonder where you are today?

At the time I actually had a friend Ignatz who lived down the street from me. It was uncanny how much he looked like Ignatz Loverman from the Liverpool Invasion Three. But he was a San Mateo kid like me. Plain old Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki. Kids made fun of him on the schoolbus. But sometimes when he'd been using his pimple cream, in a certain light with a Beatle wig on he could almost be one of them. It made me wonder but I never asked him about it. I think he must have wanted to be just like Iggy though, cause sometimes I would catch him practicing talking with a Liverpool accent. And he would go in his garage for hours and practice all Iggy's famous bass runs. It's too bad that when the LI3 played our Grad Night, poor Ignatz didn't show up. He was so shy.

Well, life is strange, eh? Today Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki owns the Family Pharmacy at 3rd and B Streets. He's real big in the Rotary Club too. As for Iggy Loverman, he just disappeared forever like so many great musicians of the past. Someday I'd like to find those guys but I guess it'll never happen. The good die young, they say...