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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