Wolf Finck's Noval Dream

Howdy, 

I have a bunch of things to start off with. First, I'd like to point out that for the second time in three posts, there was a nice little conversation in the comments about one of  my posts, in this case, the one from last week. It started with my two most frequent commenters, my "analog" world pal Stu and my online pal JW (Michael) stating their beliefs that "Bill Clifford", who was featured in that post, was, as I guessed might be the case, Rodd Keith, and this moved into a discussion of the possible reasons for his various names. You can read those comments at the end of that post. I have added Rodd's name to the post labels. 

Second, am continuing to list the duplicates from my song-poem collection, which I mentioned last week, as well. Those sales can be found mixed in with all my other items, here. 

Third, I thought since I've mentioned having put my song-poems into order a few times, I thought I'd show you what that "order" looks like. Here's a photo:

Each of the full boxes holds somewhere in excess of 200 45's, I think. And I have another box or more of 45's sitting on a shelf by my computer, which are the ones I feel are more likely to be shared here. 

Here's what's in the piles/boxes from left to right: 

My s-p albums

Small labels part one

Small labels part two

Favorite Labels - Film City, Fable, Sterling, Mayhams related

Tin Pan Alley

Preview

MSR (with 78's and 10 inch albums mixed in the side)

Finally, I have yet again updated another month's worth of old posts, in this case, April of 2011. That 

month, I shared both sides of a whopping six song poems, in five posts. These included a typically blah Halmark offering, a song for spring on the tiny Vellez label, yet another great late 1950's offering on Tin Pan Alley, a nice one from Cara Stewart (under an assumed name of her own), and a twin spin featuring some religious material from both Gene Marshall and Norm Burns. 

And speaking of blah offerings from uncredited performers....

I'm actually being a tiny (very tiny) bit unfair here. Because while "Blah Offerings" would have been a more accurate label name for Noval Records, on today's record, they actually offered something just a little exotic. For the lyrics to "Only a Dream", by Wolf Finck - who goes on the list of wonderfully named song-poets - the Noval house combo tried a slightly south-of-the-border groove. And while the results are fairly laughable, at least they tried - I don't, for example, remember a lot of Noval releases with much percussion, let alone the multiple percussionists heard here. 

Download: No Artist Named (Noval Productions) - Only a Dream

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Much more typical of Noval's work is the flip side "Trust Jesus Day By Day". Typical touches: no beat; the piano doing little more than playing the exact same melody that the singer is singing; homely and technique-free singing; and what should be the saving grace, the vibraphone. This is one of my favorite instruments ever, but even its presence doesn't save anything here, save for that lovely opening few seconds. 

Download: No Artist Named (Noval Productions) - Trust in Jesus Day By Day

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Howden Records, Part Two

 Howdy, Everyone!

Before I say anything else, let me share with you that, once I straightened up and arranged nearly all of my song-poems, I found that I had duplicates of more than a dozen 45's. And as a result, I am listing those duplicates on eBay, roughly one per day, on weekdays. So far, two are listed and have bids, and I have enough to continue listing them through at least the end of next week. 

My eBay page, which is dominated by my old copies of Billboard Magazine, which I've been selling off for years, is here, and like I said, buried among all the other detritus of my collecting life (and that of other family members) will be a number of song poems. 

And again, those sales are at this location.

Of more interest to most of you, I'm sure, is the set of posts that I've updated and made "Live" again today. This week's corrections were to May of 2011. During that month, I shared a very early (and sort of unusually labeled) Norman Burns entry for Mother's Day, a Judy Layne 45 on Preview (with a clear assist from Rodd Keith), a typically (and entertainingly) inept entry from "Lance" on Tin Pan Alley, and an EP on the Columbine label. 

And now!!!

About two and a half years ago, I shared a record on the Howden Records label, and shared that I had acquired four records on that label. As I explained in more detail in that previous post, discerning if Howden was a song-poem label took a bit of research. Briefly the song quality and performance quality was higher than on most labels, but there was some overlap between the songwriter for all of the Howden releases, as well as one of the performers, with those on other song-poem labels. In reality, I'm guessing that this label was a hybrid of song-poem companies and vanity recordings, and that Howard Dennington, the author of all songs on the label, wrote both the music and the lyrics for his songs, then paid for song-poem companies to realize his songwriting dreams.

Today, I have the second of that Howden records I bought. 

Today's share contains one release which sounds too professional to be a song-poem, as was true on some of the other sides, but also contains a track which has the obvious hallmarks of a very familiar song-poem factory. And I will say in advance that both sides of this record are beat to hell, so the sound quality is somewhat lacking - I've done some significant "cleaning up" of each side. 

Let's start with the track that sounds like a "legit" release to me: 

And this side features the same singer heard on both sides of the first Howden record I shared, Ella Howard. And again, "I Hear a Melody" sounds to me fully like something a real label would have really released, aimed at the actual sales and radio airplay market. It's competently made, features a cohesive and coherent melody and lyric, and I find pretty darn catchy, in both melody and arrangement. This is a pretty good record, with nothing of the "a little bit off" that one often finds in the "pretty good" song-poem releases. I'm not saying this would have been a hit, had it been intended for the legit market, just that it has the sheen of something targeted to that market.

Download: Ella Howard - I Hear a Melody

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It is on the flip side of this record that any doubt of this label being related to the song-poem, whether they are also vanity records or not. This song features a singer credited as "Bill Clifford", who does not show up on any other known song-poem product. However, I believe what we're hearing are the unmistakable sound of the Chamberlin, and the style of the Film City label that was the most identified with that remarkable instrument. 

What's more, "Bill Clifford" sounds tantalizingly like Rodd Keith at his most unctuous, at least at a few points. And the Chamberlin track could certainly be Rodd. But I don't actually think it's him singing, as there are more moments that don't sound like him at all, but I do find myself wondering who this is. m I overthinking this? Any thoughts? 

Download: Bill Clifford - Everyone But You

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Les Longman, Song-Poet Extrodinaire!

Greetings, and welcome to "Only 43 More Hours With This Idiot In Charge".

First, I want to thank Rock Smith for submitting a great question with regard to Rodd Keith. It has been answered by people who gave more complete answers than I would have, so I'll just direct you to that discussion, which can be found at the bottom of this post.   

And second, I have returned to correcting the old posts, in this case those from June of 2011. In that month, I supplied a song for flag day, sung by Gary Roberts (so you know there's no breeze in that flag), a fantastic Rodd Keith production just in time for Father's Day, a very early and very non-formulaic Sammy Marshall offering, and a creepy number from The Real Pros. 

Give that my younger daughter graduated from high school that month, I also shared a post in honor of her that month, and included a very funny story-with-harp-backing that she had "performed" at a party at our house a few years earlier, and I have fixed that link, too. 

And now!!!!

I had a hard time deciding which side of this EP to start with, as I find there to be interesting material on both sides. It's on the Air label, a label which specialized in releasing (or perhaps much of the time, re-releasing) the work of other song-poem factories, particularly (but probably not limited to) Globe, Film City and Lee Hudson. 

The "Air" logo and design on this release is quite different from those on most of their 45's, but the address gives it away as the same label. I think I've only seen this design once before. Oddly, within a few label numbers on either side of this release, they used a radically different - and much more familiar - design. 

Back to the songs - I believe I sense the presence of two different song-poem companies here, as the songs on one side of the record sound nothing like those on the other. What's more, it features two singers who only ever show up on the Air label, including one, Jimmy Thompson, who only shows up on this EP. In the case of both singers, they only ever appeared on air singing the songs of today's song-poet. 

And I'd like to hear more from that song-poet, Les Longman, based on the material here. And luckily enough, it turns out he wrote at least 30-40 song-poems that are documented at AS/PMA, including several more Air EP's and singles, none of which I've ever heard, outside of this EP. He also wrote the only known songs to be released on two tiny labels, "Shatter" and "Zap". There's a great picture of him, looking to me like a cross between Frank Zappa and Adolf Hitler, on the AS/PMA "Air Records" page. 

Anyway, let's start with the side I pictured above, the side featuring frequent Longman-tune-crooner Roy Brown (and for those of you of a certain age, from Chicagoland, no, I'm sure it's not that Roy Brown).

Both of the songs on this side are quite short. The first one is "Just a Break", which to me sounds vaguely like any number of dance records from about 1965. The best part of it, I think, is the instrumental intro, but the who thing has got a solid, driving sound, and a simple, effective lyric, as far as it goes, although it stumbles to a start just as it seems to be building up to something, with far too many "Hey's" from Mr. Brown. 

Download: Roy Brown - Just a Break

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You'll be forgiven upon hearing the start of "Late in May", if you think Sonny James is about to start singing "Young Love", and the whole song has more than a passing resemblance to any number of late '50's country-pop records, but the theft works for me - I particularly like this song's backing track (minus the girls), but Roy Brown's vocal fits it well, too, and the lyrics, while simple, show more talent than those of your average song-poet. 

Download: Roy Brown - Late in May

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~~

Now let's get to the Jimmy Thompson tracks. As I said, these seem to come from a very different production house. In fact, these come the closest - of anything I've ever heard - of sounding like something that would have come out the deeply weird production stable of another person whose rare recordings I collect, a man named Larry Taylor. You can hear his unique stylings here and here, and see if you agree.

But I should share the songs in order for you to do that. My favorite song on the EP, and by far the most creative one, lyrically, leads of the Jimmy Thompson side, and it's called "Channel, Channel". This is marred by some terrible sound transfer issues - the beginning sounds like the tape was damaged - although it gets better. I enjoy the tinny piano, the shuffling drums, the indelible melody, and as mentioned, the clever, unusual lyrics. 

Download: Jimmy Thompson - Channel, Channel

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Finally, the only song on the EP to bust the two minute mark, and the one that really sounds like Larry Taylor, "We've Got Problems". In this number, the protagonist thinks his relationship is great, but quickly finds out that's not the case. This is the draggiest of the four numbers, and is probably the weakest one, as a song, I suppose, but the tic-tac piano sound really makes it sound different, in a way that appeals to me. 

Download: Jimmy Thompson - We've Got Problems 

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Let It All Happen To You!

Happy New Year! It's certainly been an eventful one so far. 

Today, I have returned to my fixing of previous posts, and we're now all the way back to July of 2011. In those days, I occasionally posted FIVE times in a month (those were the days), and July was one of those times. So today, I have brought back to life posts featuring: a fairly bizarre lyric sung by Mike Thomas on Tin Pan Alley (that one is an all time favorite of mine), a posting featuring Dwight Duvall and Cara Stewart on the tiny Brosh label, some primo Bob Storm on Halmark.. err, Hallmark, a short and sweet number by Gene Marshall, and an absolutely wonderful entry by Rod (Keith) Rogers on Film City. 

And speaking of Rodd Keith...

While I watched the playoffs yesterday, I did some straightening up of my 45's, and specifically updated my song-poem collection. The last time I organized my (then) holdings was probably eight years ago, and everything I've accumulated since then has just been tossed into a box at random. So now they're arranged by label and label number, and I came across several promising titles that I'm sure I haven't shared here yet. 

One thing I decided to do - since this is a sub-genre that is so highly prized - is to eventually share any and all of my early Rodd-Keith-on-Preview 45's which have neither been anthologized, are on youtube (or whatever) or have previously been shared here. This numbers only a handful, as it turns out, and I'll start this project today, with a country flavored 45, which likely dates from late 1967 or early 1968. 

By far the better side, to these ears, is the bouncy "Let It All Happen to You", a sprightly and brief 6/8 time exhortation to living in the moment and being open to whatever happens, with more than a passing reflection of the language of the flower children. I could really do without the chirpy backup singers, but otherwise, this is a cute, if very slight, offering. 

Download: Rodd Keith - Let It All Happen to You

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We slow down to more of a walking tempo for "Say Goodbye and Go", a heartfelt if not particularly inspired lyric, which seems likely to reflect the writer's reality, as do so many of these breakup, heartache-ridden we hear on song-poem records. The backing is by-the-numbers, but Rodd injects his typically effective emotional vocal, complete with a little sadness breaking up sound on the final word of the record. 

Download: Rodd Keith - Say Goodbye and Go

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