The Funky Genius of Vince Guaraldi

Watching ABC’s “It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown” special last night, I was struck once again by how these shows, watched ad infinitum in childhood, can seem so new again years later. When I was a kid, I was fascinated by Snoopy’s independence. Not only was he never on a leash, he seemed to be the only adult on the program – albeit one prone to getting himself tied up in Christmas tree lights, trapped inside malevolent ping-pong tables, and getting his nose stuck in birdhouses. Eventually, I just accepted the fact that he could pilot a Sopwith Camel while neither Charlie nor his friends could cross town without the help of his grandmother and her station wagon.

Last night though, what stood out most for me was Vince Guaraldi's very progressive soundtrack. Everyone is familiar with “Linus and Lucy”, the famous piano driven and jazzy theme to 1965’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” For the Easter special though, released in 1974, Vince goes deep into the funk.

Check out the tune he drops in this clip at 1:50. It’s as if he had been hanging out with Buddy Miles at Woodstock’s bachelor pad and just started riffing. The guitar is straight up Abraxas-era Santana. Later, at 4:47, he goes into a laid-back but soulful lounge riff (during which we see the infamous visual elevator joke at 6:46), reminiscent of "Cast Your Fate To The Wind" but updated for the post-Shaft era. You just don't think about these things when you're lying on your stomach in your parents' living room and looking up at an RCA big enough to double as a butler's table.

Of course, Vince Guraldi was already an accomplished composer before he hooked up with the Peanuts franchise, and his non-cartoon related output is well worth checking out. Sadly, he died all too young of a heart attack in February of 1976. Thank goodness a new generation will always be able to discover his brilliance every April, November and December.

I’ll be hoisting a dyed egg in his honor this Sunday.