Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Great Moments In Marriage

One of the most peculiar records in my collection is an EP on the Film-Tone label. I don't remember where I bought it, but I do remember being pretty sure, upon looking at it, that it was a song-poem record. And I was correct. If you're familiar with the Star-Crest label, and their rather old-fashioned style of song-poemetry (and example of which I posted here, some time ago), you probably won't be surprised by the sound of Film-Tone records, an associated label. Supposedly, within the industry, Star-Crest was known as Star-Crust, due to their outdated style.

On the other hand, as moldy as this style is, the song lyrics are more clever than those of most song poems, and the vocal arrangement actually shows that some thought went into it. No artist was named on this record. Please enjoy Film-Tone's "Flying Saucers": 

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The second song today is linked with the first song only in that the subject of the song, Nancy Reagan, may have believed in another type of flying saucers, or perhaps in that she sometimes seemed to have originated from outer space. And also, of course, the subject of the first song - marriage - was the biggest reason why Nancy remained famous, after her retirement from acting.

Michael Kasberg, the author of this song, probably deserves a page dedicated to his singularly bizarre song-poem output, of which this is barely a taste. Still, the twists and turns in this lyric, including Gene Marshall's final comment, are worth the price of admission.

This track is taken from a private compilation made by a friend of mine, several years ago, and the beginning of the song is cross-faded with another track by a non song-poem artist. Here's Gene Marshall with "Lovely Nancy": 

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4 comments:

Stuart Shea said...

"Flying Saucers" is so great...it's funny, enthusiastic, and has a truly miserable, violent lyric done laughingly. Genius.

Sammy Reed said...

These songs aren't working now.

Sammy Reed said...

"Flying Saucers": From the same folks that gave us "Steppin' on the Gas"!
I don't know if there's any other song that mentions "Jiggs & Maggie" in it!

"Lovely Nancy": What's the deal with the end of that song?!?

Timmy said...

I just LOVE "Lovely Nancy"... Could have been no. 1, somewhen, somehows.