Howdy, folks!
First, I'd like to say that I recently wrote the most personal post I've ever done, which is at my other site, and was written in honor of the 100th anniversary of the birth of my father. I'd be honored to have any of you who are interested read it. It can be found here.
And second, I continue to rehabilitate the earliest years of this site, and I have now addressed posts made more than 14 years ago, in November of 2007. It strikes me as likely - perhaps even definite - that most of the things I posted in the first three years at this site have long since been on YouTube, although I haven't checked. But I'm going to fix the posts anyway.
In November of 2007, I offered up a guessing game in the form of a resolutely awful version of "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport", a goofy rock and roll novelty record sung by a grade schooler, a very early jazz band performance of Ragtime music, and a teen girl record (a b-side) that I've loved ever since hearing it. In addition, I have added 2021 comments to three of those four posts.
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The exceptionally tiny "Bang Bang" label, out of Washington D.C., seems to have been the vanity project of someone named David Fitzgerald. Only two records on the label are documented at AS/PMA - today's EP makes it three - and of the eight songs on those three discs, David Fitzgerald wrote six of them, and claimed to have produced both songs on one of the singles (despite them being performed by a stalwart of the Globe song-poem factory). Even more odd is that one of the eight songs on those three 45's is a cover of "Ode to Billy Joe".
Anyway, my Bang Bang release is, as mentioned, an EP, with all four songs written by Mr. Fitzgerald - two songs published by "Fitzgerald's Music" and the others published by "Omniscient Music" All four songs feature the main female singer from the early days of Globe, JoAnn Auburn, here appearing, as she often did, as "Damita". I enjoy all four of these tracks, to varying degrees, with the standout leading off side two. But here on side one, we'll lead off with a song that starts with a surprisingly acceptable take on mid 1960's Blue-Eyed Soul. For me, at least, the feel isn't sustained - the band is way to low in the mix, and the backup singers don't fit the mood at all, but it's more than I would have expected from Globe. Here's "Your Soul Searching Kisses":
Play:
"Baby I'm Your Match" follows, and is my least favorite of the four-pack. The song sort of meanders, melodically,, and the band has reverted to the sort of hackwork that I tend to expect from the Globe band. Also, the phrase is sung far more often as "I Was Your Match" than "I'm Your Match".
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More upbeat Soul-flavored Rock follows, with my favorite of the record, "Hey Boy, Stay in School". Musically, this is pretty much indistinguishable from some of the other material here, but I really enjoy the lyrics, which are so very far away from anything you'd have likely found on an actual hit record - have the lyrics "The P.T.A. was right" ever been featured in another song? Also, I must say, also put me in the mind of one of my favorite figures from the song poem world, Norris Mayhams, would wrote repeatedly on this same subject, particularly
this record. Additionally, I enjoy the fact that this song is 88 seconds long.
Damita closes out the record with "Just Yesterday's Dream". This is a very typical, 6/8 setting for Globe, but her warm, appealing voice adds enough appeal to make it listenable. But then, on the other hand, there is a tape splice at 1:43 which not only results in a glitch in the sound quality, but actually cuts out part of the song! Half of a measure is just gone! How on earth was that allowed to happen? And was Mr. Fitzgerald upset? I think I've run into the sounds of a splice a few times, but usually little or no material is actually missing. Sheesh.
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