One of Rodd Keith's Earliest Song-Poem Records

Well, Howdy-Doo!

We are rapidly approaching the point at which all of the song-poem entries on this site will have been "fixed" - I have now corrected March of 2010, meaning that there are only 14 months of entries left to correct, since I began the "Song-Poem of the Week" project, some 12 and a half years ago. There are a handful of earlier posts I will also correct in do time, but the main project here has been to reconnect all of the song-poem postings with their original files. 

Specifically, today,.in fixing March of 2010, I have resurrected these posts: an Irish specialty offered up by a Tin Pan Alley singer who always went by "Lance", Dick Kent singing about "Ole Dirty Face" on a Cinema release, a vanity project involving Sandy Stanton's Film City label, by the one and only Stich Stampfel, and a record from the Globe company on a tiny label - a record where my original text had some major errors, which I have now corrected. 

And now, here's something special for today: 

So far as I know, Sandy Stanton's hiring of Rodd Keith for work at his Film City label, marked Rodd's entry into the song-poem world. And I think that fact makes this record (along with a few others I've shared) quite notable. According to its label number, and a variety of information available at the Film City page (and related pages) at the AS/PMA website, this record is probably one of Rodd's first dozen and a half song-poems under his own pseudonym. He is likely on at least another dozen as the Chamberlin player, as well. See the notes after the second side of this record for more information on really early Rod Rogers on Film City tracks. 

What's clear from today's tracks (and the ones linked below) is that Rodd Keith arrived at Film City with his talents fully developed, and that it took him virtually no time to get up to speed with the Chamberlin. Today's lead track, a mid-tempo thing called "Hide and Seek", has a lovely backing track, complete with strings, choral-ish and sax-ish flavoring, and best of all, some fake, picked lead guitar, playing an intricate melody throughout and in a lead solo section. Top it all off with a sweet, effective harmonized vocal, and you have a nice little one man band song-poem record.  

Download: Rod Rogers with the Swinging Strings - Hide and Seek

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The flip side, "September Wind" has many of the same features, although admittedly in the service of a style of song which doesn't do much for me. But even in a record which I find less than scintillating, I still admire the work that went into it. What you're hearing here would be easy to do today in a matter of minutes, using Midi, and sound more accurate, but given what he was using, and that it was brand new to him, I think this is a rather amazing, and the flip side much more so. 

Download: Rod Rogers with the Swinging Strings - September Wind

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As promised, here is some more information about Rodd Keith's earliest days at Film City and in the song-poem world: 

I featured the record immediately before this one (in terms of label number) almost ten years ago, here, and an even earlier one in 2013, which can be heard here. I shared a truly horrific vanity record from the label, which likely features Rodd on Chamberlin, back at WFMU, which is an even earlier release, and which can be found here. And the lowest numbered Film City disc in my collection, number 1012, is a wonderfully atmospheric record which also clearly reflects the magic of Rodd on Chamberlin. I posted it in 2013, and it can be heard here. 

Poodles and Moons and Sammy, Oh My!

Sorry about that title. I just finished reading a wonderful, fairly legendary book from the '70's, about the making of the Wizard of Oz. I inherited it from my mother, and finally got around to reading it, after seeing it on her bookshelf, then mine, for 40 years. 

I also meant to include, in last weeks post about the plagiaristic song-poems, that the three 45's that I excerpted, sold for a combined total of almost $200.00, which strikes me as excessive. But your mileage may vary. 

I have also, as usual, updated yet another month of previous posts, in this case, April of 2010. Discs which had their contents posted that month include a record from early in Rodd Keith's tenure at MSR, a record written by my favorite song-poet, Edith Hopkins - a fantastic teen-idol type tune decrying empty churches - as well as two, count 'em, two, records by Ellen Wayne on Tin Pan Alley, one is quite decent, and is titled "Devil Fly", and the other is an amazing song-poem record for the ages, titled "Don't Touch Me There!"

And, keeping with the Wizard of Oz theme, at least in that the movie features a dog in a key role, and so does today's feature.....

Today's feature, from Sammy Marshall, under the name "Ben Tate", which was his moniker at the fabulous Ronnie label, contains two demonstrations of the "writers who were not nearly as clever as they thought they were" school of song-poemetry. Both records, particularly the first one, contain some lyrical howlers. 

The first is "My Poodle", and it is a veritable plethora of tortured rhymes and forced cleverness. Right away, we havelines designed to end with "curly" and "surly" and then some. My favorite stupid lyrical moment comes at 0:55, and I will not give it away here. 

Download: Ben Tate (Sammy Marshall) - My Poodle

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The author of the flip side, "A Half Moon", fails (to my ears, anyway) for a different reason, that being that he starts with what surely seemed like a clever idea, but which doesn't stand up to any level of attention. It contains the following rhyme: 

"A half moon is mysterious / as you gaze upon it at night

It can  make you delirious / about the half that's out of sight"

My problem is: does anyone actually think a half moon is mysterious? Since the rest of the song is a simile, comparing this moon analogy to the way everyone has a half of us which is mysterious to our loved one, it seems like the initial concept should at least have some truth to it. 

What the writer says about we humans (apart from the moon comparison) is pretty accurate. I just wish there was a better analogy behind it. 

But maybe I think too much. 

Download: Ben Tate (Sammy Marshall) - A Half Moon

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Roger Smith's Lament, PLUS Some Truly Astonishing Plagiarism

To quote a favorite Mike Thomas single of mine: It's Spring! It's Spring! It's Spring! (I'll eventually fix the post featuring that song - the second one ever in the "song poem of the week" project - when I get to January of 2009)

And today, I have updated another month's worth of old post, this case, those posted EXACTLY eleven years this month, in May of 2010. That month, I posted an EP on Ronnie featuring a quintessential song-poem title, "You Insulted Me", a bit of supper club Rodd Keith, a ridiculous single from the ridiculous Gary Roberts, what appears to be a song-poem acetate, complete with sheet music, and a Halmark record featuring, in what may be a unique recording, Bob Storm in a duet performance.

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Before I even get to today's feature, I want to call your attention to, and let you hear some of, a few remarkably contemptuous releases from the very end of the road for Tin Pan Alley records. 

Seven 45's by "The Melodiers" went up for auction on eBay about ten days ago. Lengthy sound clips were shared for each side of each record, although no complete side was included. The Melodiers are a band whose work on Tin Pan Alley I've actually enjoyed to varying degrees, including one release that, despite being about a ridiculous topic, I simply love. 

And four of the seven singles sound pretty much like the Melodiers records I already own or have heard. 

But five of the six tunes on the other three 45's were inexcusable, examples of rank plagiarism several steps beyond anything I'd ever heard on a song-poem - blatant, effort-free rip offs of giant hit records of the past, showing more contempt for the song-poets, and the music industry in general, than I've ever perceived, even in the most redundant Halmark records or tossed-off late MSR record. 

To illustrate this, I thought it was essential to make a copy of the available segments of all five of these sides (and there was a sixth which was almost as obnoxious, which I didn't include), and share them with you as a medley. 

The songs are heard in the following order:

What You Were (Tin Pan Alley 1135)

Ruth Ellen My Darling 

Any Way Out (Above two on Tin Pan Alley 1129)

In Between

He Goes Through Life Every Day (Above two on Pageant 1060 - apparently a spin-off label)

Here's the medley:

Download: The Melodiers - Plagiarism Medley

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I'll just give you a head's up here. If I come into position of a new-to-me record by Roger Smith, it will show up here within a few days. 

A few days ago, I came to own a new-to-me Roger Smith record, and I'm sharing it here. Surprise, surprise!

This is not Roger Smith in over-the-top, about to go out of control rock and roll. No, this is maudlin Roger Smith ("Acc. by String Band", by the way), offering a lament for love lost to death. But he's just as over the top, offering up about as weepy a performance as you'll ever hear on a song-poem. Please enjoy "(In a Grave) Just Over the Hill", and try not to cry. 

Download: Roger Smith Acc By String Band - (In a Grave) Just Over the Hill

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That's actually a well enough written song, and played well enough, that I questioned if it was a song-poem, particularly as it's not on a label I've ever seen or heard of before. On the other hand, every other Roger Smith record I've ever seen or heard has quite clearly been a song-poem. And if that's not enough, we have the flip side, which is clearly, oh so clearly, the word of an amateur. An untalented amateur. 

Among my favorite clunky lines in "Why Act So Strange?", are "although our love isn't new/it isn't old" and "you loved me awhile/and you always wore a smile".

Download: Roger Smith Acc By String Band - Why Act So Strange?

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Dear Mother

Happy Mother's Day to all of you Mothers and everyone who has ever even spoke to a Mother!

Today, I have again updated a month from this site's past history, in this case, June of 2010. 

Posts corrected from that month include a record paying tribute both to John F. Kennedy and to Kennedy's focus on Physical Fitness, a Brosh label release capturing two songs each from the Globe and the Halmark song-poem factories, a release on the tiny Arco label, with two singles, primarily featuring Joe Noto and Phyllis Ruby (including an all time favorite song-poem of mine, "My Lover",  and an insane - one might say "bananas" - Gene Marshall record about... Bananas. 

I also wrote a short post linking everyone to a large post I'd done at WFMU that month, all about the Fable Label. 

Oh, and that was the month I turned 50 years old. I observed that occasion by posting a lot of my old material. Quite a bit of that posting has been duplicated since then by my having put two entire albums online (in fact, it was this posting that led to me having the opportunity to post my "Many Moods" album online), but I thought I'd fix the post anyway - some of the material there is unavailable anywhere else. . 

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And now: 

I wanted to make sure to do something for Mother's Day, so I went through my singles, and whattaya know, the first four potential "Mother" songs were all on Halmark 45's. Two of them stuck out as particularly worth sharing, and I put the other one aside for next year. 

"Dear Mother" is a pretty typical "my mother is a saint" song-poem, but I found it interesting primarily because it features a backing track that I don't recall hearing on a Halmark label (although I may very well be corrected), and it's a bit different than than a lot of the tracks they recycled so much.  Also, that's certainly not Bob Storm singing, and I don't think that's Jack Kim either, so I don't know who it might be. 

I hope the song-poet's mother enjoyed it. 

Download: Halmark Productions - Dear Mother

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Up next is "The Possessor", and it's another one of those "yes, we get it, you're Christian" lyrics sort of lyrics, albeit one with a few more esoteric lyrics than usual. It's set to one of my favorite, completely over-the-top Halmark backing track, one which was behind a track on the first song poem record I (unknowingly) ever heard. 

Download: Halmark Productions - The Possessor

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Side two kicks off with another backing track which was on the first song-poem record I ever heard. And if Mom got a happy tribute on the other side, Dad gets a sad story here. The song is called "Daddy's Gone For Good", and one thing that will be hammered into your brain by the time you're done listening to it is that, well.... Daddy's Gone For Good.  

I do like the fact that this particularly song-poet seems to think that heaven is literally in the sky - like somewhere hidden in the Milky Way. I suppose that's not a rare belief, but you don't often hear it phrased that way in song. 

Download: Halmark Productions - Daddy's Gone For Good

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The final track has the unwieldy (to my ears) title of "Unhappy Ends", and that's not a title that is obvious from the often even more unwieldy lyrics. He's really hoping for a reunification, but that title doesn't really indicate he thinks it's going to happen. The sudden fade out heard here is how the record ends. 

Download: Halmark Productions - Unhappy Ends

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