Thursday, March 18, 2010

Ole Dirty Face

Who among the song-poem faithful could resist taking the chance to hear a song-poem called "Here Comes Ole Dirty Face"? Not me! And so I won the record at an eBay auction, and gave it a spin not long after. Although such dedication often ends in a letdown - more song-poems are dull at best, even those with promising titles - I think this one was worth it. This is hardly a new subject for a song, but the use of "Ole Dirty Face" as the name of the lead character is a more creative move by the lyricist than you'd find in most song-poems. As with all Cinema records, this one is credited to "The Real Pros", and in this case, I'm certain it's Dick Kent on the vocal. I don't exactly believe Mr. Kent singing this, but he's very rarely my choice to sing anything, but maybe you, the listener, will enjoy his performance more. 

Play:  

The flip side, "A Smouldering Fire", is more of the standard issue song-poem for the era. This fits Dick Kent's style much better than the A-side, in my opinion, but it ends with one of those maddening spoken word things that are so common to song-poems. It's also interesting to note that this record is in such complete stereo, with a great deal of separation between what's going on, on each side of the mix. That's not exactly standard practice for most song-poem records.


 

2 comments:

Timmy said...

Dirty Face is good.

Anonymous said...

6/3/21:
I notice now that the music used for "Dirty Face" is the same music (of course, different version) used for "Weasels in the Chicken House", from a Major Label Records "Hit Sounds of Today" album!
http://strangemusicworld.blogspot.com/2020/05/hit-sounds-of-today-l-8057.html