Well, it's been two weeks without a post - that's almost entirely due to me being a political junkie of sorts, and spending most of my free time obsessively watching the pre- and post-election news. And all I can say is... that's a relief...
Anyway, I have again updated a previous month's worth of posts, and not only does this mean I've completed the "fixing" of another year - 2012 is done, now, with the completion of January - but that January featured a bumper crop of song-poem records - twelve of them in all - so those who weren't reading/listening back then have, as of today, 14 new sides to listen to! Yay!
Among the posts I have rehabbed are: A Bobbi Blake record on MSR, an incomprehensible song sung by Norm Burns, a set of two early Preview offerings from Rodd Keith, a New Year's Day post from Sammy Marshall, and an impossibly rare and fascinating acetate from the pen of Norridge Mayhams, certainly the latter being my favorite of the bunch.
And now....
It's back to Film City and the world of Rodd Keith in his Rod Rogers persona. Today's first offering is a tragic tale, perhaps inspired by all the teen tragedy records which peppered the charts in the first half of the 1960's. It's called "Lisa", and rarely has the appellation "Swinging Strings" seemed less appropriate to tie into the song being performed, than it does of the tale of a groom-to-be describing the scene as everyone learns that there is to be no wedding, and why. "Rod Rogers and the Dreary Strings and Woodwinds" would be more accurate.
Oh, and the phrase "hit broadside" has to be among the least musical combinations of words I've ever heard in a song - song-poem or otherwise - although I do enjoy the fact that "broadside" is then rhymed with "bride".
Download: Rod Rogers and the Swinging Strings - Lisa
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On the flip side is a much brighter, shuffling, sun-shiny number titled "I Want Only You Sweetheart". The music is a bit deceiving - the protagonist of the song is suffering from a distrusting gal pal, and it's not clear if he's succeeding in convincing her of his trustworthiness. I greatly enjoy the backing track that Rodd put together for this one.
Download: Rod Rogers and the Swinging Strings - I Want Only You Sweetheart
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1 comment:
Ha! My god, you know even Rodd knew this was terrible....and yet he gives it his all, as usual! Masterful performance, no worse than many of those records, obviously not as good as "Teen Angel"! But the ghostly Chamberlin arrangement is great (as usual).
Going through all my Wonderful And Obscure mp3s this week.....thanks again, Bob, for sharing all these great (near-great, and sometimes awful, usually gloriously so!)records from the Twilight Zone. I may start peppering old posts with new comments as I get blown away by record after record, hope that's not a hassle for you!
Thanks again, for Lisa, the flip....and the whole endlessly fascinating and entertaining blog.
PS By the way, just making sure you've heard/seen this.....here's something I never thought I'd hear!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmD3uaRiiJw
Will be picking that one up pronto!!
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