See the U.S.A., In Your... Airstream

Howdy,

Before getting to this week's corrected posts from the past, OR this week's feature, I wanted to share something I came across while engaging in another of my hobbies. I have been and continue to be fascinated by music charts of all eras, and it was while doing some research in issues of Billboard from 1946 at I came across a remarkable review.

To start, I'll say that versions of the phrase "rock and roll", specifically those alluding to sex, have been heard in blues records as early as the 1930's. But the use of the specific term in any popular written or spoken media is generally believed to have come about in the early 1950's. So I was startled to see this review in that 1946 edition of Billboard.

I've consulted with a friend who is a well known expert and published author on the subject of Blues and Rhythm and Blues and he agrees this is historic, and encouraged me to post it.

I would ask that any readers, if you're of a mind to, share this post with others who might be in the know and see if this is some sort of first, or nearly first from mainstream media. I'm really interested to hear what people have to say, and if this is as historic as I suspect it is, I would like it to be shared more widely than I'm capable of doing. I will also post this to my other blog the next time I post there.

UPDATE 10/3/20: Please see the comments section for this post = a knowledgeable reader with a most excellent name has offered up evidence of even (considerably) earlier use of the same phrase in Billboard. Details are in the comments. 

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Getting back to song-poems.... I have now repaired the posts for the month of May, 2012. Included in this batch are two, back to back features in which I shared multiple tracks that had been sent to me by others, over the years, a pair of special posts meant to celebrate some exciting events in my life and that of my family, featuring some of my favorite song poems ever. Those repaired posts can be found here and here.

The other posts that month featured a comedic turn by Gene Marshall and a most excellent Rod Rogers on a Film City pairing. It was also at that time that my mid 1990's private album release of a set of comic songs was published by Happy Puppy records, and I announced that album in yet another post that month.

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Finally, here's today's stellar production. It features the always inept Bob Gerard, who seemed to usually be accompanied by perhaps the most hapless of all the bands Tin Pan Alley put forth over the years. Perhaps you remember Mr. Gerard from the stunningly awful song "Snow Man", a post of which I will be fixing in a matter of weeks, or perhaps the highly entertaining, and totally incomprehensible "The Proon Doon Walk".

Today's first side doesn't quite give those ridiculous records a run for their money, but it's still enjoyably off-kilter and stunning in its poor quality. I was going to write that it's all about traveling the USA in a camper, but "all about" is stretching it, as the lyric here is two four line verses and a chorus, followed by a repeat of two of them, and "Let's Get a Camper" is over in just about 90 incompetent seconds.

And those lyrics - grade school level, to be sure, obvious rhymes abounding and tortured turns of phrase throughout. Using the words "Trilled" and "Scamper" indicate how far the song poet had to reach to create something approaching rhyming poetry.

Musically, it's not quite as awful as the records I mentioned above, no one performing on this record could have conceivably used it to present themselves as worthy of a job in the music field. And Bob Gerard is his typical, aggressively amateur sounding self.

Please enjoy - to a ridiculous degree if you like - Bob Gerard's Tin Pan Alley release, "Let's Get a Camper":

Download: Bob Gerard - Let's Get a Camper
Play:

The flip side, "My Blessings", doesn't have anything ridiculous on the scale of "Camper" to recommend it - it's largely just a boring dirge of a piece, badly played and annoyingly warbled without any of the fun of this ensemble's typical car-crash stylings. I'm sure the lyrics were heart felt and meaningful to the song-poet, but they're about as cookie cutter as these things ever get.

Download: Bob Gerard - My Blessings
Play: