He's Insulted

This is the first time I've featured the "Ronnie" label, and the reason for its absence until now is that the records released on this label are almost uniformly uninteresting. Not car crash bad or hysterically bad, or compelling in some other way. Just dull. This EP features the one exception, in my view. I excerpted the best song from this batch at WFMU when I first announced this project, but it's heard here with better sound quality, and surrounded by the other songs from the EP. The A side features Sammy Marshall, using (appropriately) his blandest pseudonym, "Ben Tate". The first track on this side is humorous in that Sammy is heard discussing his baby's love of dancing to rock and roll, and yet, if that's the case, there's no chance she'd be dancing to this song! This song joins a long list of song-poem records about rock and roll whose settings have nothing in common with the genre. Not surprisingly, it's titled "My Little Baby Loves to Dance"

Download: Ben Tate - My Little Baby Loves to Dance

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The real winner here is Mr. Tate's second song, "You Insulted Me". The over-the-top reaction of this writer to... whatever the insult was, never fails to get a grin out of me and has tended to startle listeners who are new to the song. We quickly go from a bit of hurt and outrage to assumptions of complete (and aggressive) non-interest on the part of his target. 

Download: Ben Tate - You Insulted Me

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Two less-than-interesting songs by someone named "May Redding" round out the EP. On "Christmas Day", it's a bit fun to listen for the sax player fitting in little pieces of "Jingle Bells" between the verses, a peculiar choice for a lyric which is focused on the religious aspects of the holiday. 

Download: May Redding - Christmas Day

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Rounding out the foursome is the oddly titled "Life's Lesser Joys", which starts off almost identically to the previous song. The off-center pressing of this side of the record adds a woozy quality to this otherwise sleep-inducing track:

Download: May Redding - Life's Lesser Joys

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Finally, a shout out to my father, Frank Purse, who left us on this date, May 3rd, back in 1996. We all miss you, dad.