As I've probably mentioned almost every year since starting this project, the middle weeks of May are the busiest of the year at our house, for a variety of reasons. The two graduations just added to that craziness, and I ended up skipping a full week for reasons not related to technical problems for the first time ever. I'm going to try and get back up to speed over the next week and a half with two more posts. But first.....:
Before I get to the mystery mentioned at the top of the page, here's the (much) better of today's two songs, which is offered up by our old pal Norm Burns. It's titled "Shanghai Blues", which is a misnomer for at least a couple of reasons. First, that specific combination of words is never said during the lyric, and second, the music is about as far away from Blues as I can imagine. (A side note - what is the word that Norm sings before the word "Blues" in the chorus?) All that said, I enjoy this bouncy, peppy (if also slight) little number, and hope you will, too.
Download: Norm Burns and the Five Stars - Shanghai Blues
Play:
On the other side, it's a whole different story. As far as I can tell, the artists involved, "Victor & the Trophies", never showed up on any other song-poem release that's documented (in fact, a search for that phrase turns up only one hit - the AS/PMA documentation of this record!).
What's more this sounds NOTHING like any other Sterling record I've ever heard. It sounds to me far more like the stuff that the MSR crew were turning out in Los Angeles for both the MSR label (under their own (or assumed names) and Cinema (under the name "The Real Pros). There is none of the crisp guitar, minimalist band arrangements or any of the known Sterling singers on this record. Instead, it has the muddy, half-assed sound (in my opinion, anyway) sound that the MSR folks produced more and more as the '70's wore on.
On the other hand, I don't recognize any of the vocalists here as sounding like an MSR regular, it seems unlikely that a label in Boston which did things in house would team up with an LA crew, and the devolving of the MSR/Cinema sound I'm referring to really started to devolve after Rodd Keith's death in 1974, and this record is from 1971. So maybe it's just a vanity record that ended up pressed onto a Sterling disc, written and recorded by some local band. I really have no idea.
It is, however, deadly dull, interminable (nearly SIX minutes long), badly produced and unimaginatively performed.
Thoughts? Anyone?
Download: Victor and the Trophies - The Melody of Love
Play:
5 comments:
A new word to me: "slumgullion"
Here's a page I found with slumgullion recipes.
http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-0,slumgullion,FF.html
The "Melody" song (what an ironic adjective) is a lame attempt at diving into the Disco craze. It has some of that slick Philly sound to it. A real crapper. THANX!
I'm gonna send my little lady out to get some Slum Gullion ingredients for our Memorial Day cook-off...
7/31/19:
I'm glad you've got this song working again!
Here's my 2 cents about how I think "The Melody of Love" might have come about:
This seems to be to be a legit demo where a first recording was made with the music & background vocals. It sounds to me like this recording was done by the MSR folks. The music sounds like Rodd Keith’s material of his last few years, and the background singers sound a lot like “The Sisterhood”, who sang on several MSR albums, and who in these early years sound to me like a multi-tracked Bobbi Blake. When that recording was received, a second recording was apparently made with Victor singing along. For some reason, that tape was sent to Sterling.
If I’m right about all this, this would be a rare appearance of Bobbi Blake on Norm Burns’ home label! Notice when the gal songs "I hear that me - lody -y". Does that sound like like Bobbi or not?
And doggonit, i forgot all about that slumgullion stew! Thanks for bringing this back!
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