Love That Drumming

Howdy, Y'all,

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! To kick off the new year right, here's an amazing ad, again sent by correspondent Pete, dated 1918, from Photoplay magazine, and encouraging all songwriters to have a go at "writing the SONG HIT OF THE WAR". That's a spin I hadn't encountered before, and a fairly reprehensible one, if you ask me. Just astonishing.

And now....

Today, a record on Preview which is unusual for a couple of reasons. First, it has Gene Marshall on one side and Rodd Keith on the other. That's not unheard of, but it's far from typical. Second, Rodd is credited here as "Ken Roberts", a moniker that he appears to have used only on a handful of records, circa 1970-71. I believe this is the only "Ken Roberts" record that I own. Finally, my preference, by a wide margin, is for the Gene Marshall side, which would not typically be anybody's guess if you were to combine these two singers during Rodd's Preview years, much as I often just love Gene Marshall's performances.

And admittedly, the Gene Marshall song here, "Someday I'll Find a New True Love", is no great shakes as a song or a lyric, and the vocal is fine, but nothing special. But I dig the hell out of the band's performance, especially some truly special work by the drummer, whoever it was. This is not something that I am typically drawn to, but boy, do I love the drumming on this record, even if its just a series of nice - at times Ringo-esque - fills. See what you think!

Download: Gene Marshall: Someday I'll Find a New True Love
Play:

From the flipside, here's Rodd, as Ken Roberts, with a song titled "Blueprints On My Heart" (although the sung lyric is "Blueprints To My Heart"). Either way, that's an interesting metaphor, and I'd appreciate someone doing something interesting with it, but this is dreary by every measure. Draggy, uninspired musically, and it seems to go on forever (even though it's barely three minutes long). Your mileage my, of course, vary.

Download: Ken Roberts (Rodd Keith): Blueprints On My Heart
Play: