Wednesday, December 07, 2016

Flying Saucer Freight!

Howdy, folks! First, here's another gift from Pete, a song-poem ad from a 1931 issue of "Modern Screen Magazine". You get a FREE BOOK, too!:
 

And now:

 
 
Determining the provenance of Fable Records releases is a real challenge. A good percentage of them seem not to be song-poems, but rather a mix of vanity records, label honcho Sandy Stanton's own compositions done by friends and hangers-on, and attempts at legitimate hits. I shared many of my favorite the (likely) non-song-poem Fable releases back at blog.wfmu.org, and I suggest you look for "Fable Label" there.
 
 
Regarding this record, though, I have no doubt. If you search through the "Catalog of Copyright Entries" (a really fun read), you'll find that today's song-poet was later credited with co-writing songs with both Jack Covais and Lew Tobin, each of whom was the head man at a song poem outfit (Tin Pan Alley and Sterling, respectively). That settles the matter for me.
 
Here we have the previously unheard Jimmy Wasson, with the ever-present Sandy Stanton Combo, performing Ms. Murray's most excellent "Flying Saucer Freight", at a rollicking good, freight train styled tempo. I'm personally mystified as to what the Flying Saucer references mean, as none of the rest of the song seems to be concerned with Outer Space, but maybe someone more in tune with the jive of them time (or, perhaps, familiar with train lingo) can hep me to what she might have meant.
 
Regardless, here is yet another mover and groover from Sandy Stanton's wild combo, and a fairly inspired lyricist:
 
Play:
 
As seems to be a recurring refrain here, I have no such glowing words for the flip side, also supplied by Ms. Murray, the exceptionally earnest and dull, "No Matter What You Do", also sung by Jimmy Wasson:
 
Play:
 
 
 
 
On a personal note, I don't want the day to go by without acknowledging that this would have been my dad's 95th birthday. Wish you were here, dad!

4 comments:

Stu Shea said...

I assume that "Flying Saucer" is the name of the train? Nice rockin' little record. And I wish your dad were here, too. :|

Graham said...

I'll agree that it's a nice little rocker. I'll have to check the Erie Railroad's named freights and see if that was the name of one of their trains. I know that at least one company used the name 'Speedwitch' on their fast freights.

Keep it up. Looking forward to the day when the 'lost files' are fully restored.

Sammy Reed said...

12/15/16:
Bob - and others who are interested - I jusdt put up my new blog post about New Image!
Click the link on my name to see it.

Sammy Reed said...

That's JUST! Please excuse me.