Or Wait.... Maybe THIS Burning Is an Eternal Flame!

So, I thought to myself... "I haven't featured Halmark for awhile. I should feature a Halmark record". 

And within the first four or five I selected to sample, in advance of such a feature, I found I owned one with the exact same title and subject matter as the song I featured in my last post - John F. Kennedy and the "Eternal Flame". 

My first comment here is that the "Bob Storm" who is credited on this record is the tinnier, higher pitched vocalist who went by that name. Sorry for everyone who loves the ridiculous, deep voiced Storm. 

And the other comment is one which piggy-backs onto a great comment offered up by "Snoopy" to last week's Sammy Marshall JFK record. He wrote, about that song's lyrics, "what an odd lyric for what is supposed to be a solemn dirge, 'They shot him with a rifle; used a telescopic sight.'"

I will see him that observation, and make an observation of my own about another odd lyric in the midst of a solemn dirge, in Bob Storm's JFK tribute, in which he warbles "the life a man gave for the passage of one civil rights bill". (By the way, was that a theory at the time - that Kennedy was killed to stop a civil rights bill? I've not heard that before.)

Your homework for next week is to compare and contrast the Sammy Marshall and Bob Storm JFK tributes, including historical accuracy, musical merit and lyrical and compositional strengths and weakness. You can e-mail me your papers. 

Beyond that, please.... Enjoy!

Download: Bob Storm - Eternal Flame

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On the flip side, we have another example of a song-poem lyricist who didn't quite understand the difference between prose and song lyrics - or even the difference between poetry that's meant to be read and song lyrics. How is anyone supposed to make a decent song out of lines like "A Paragon of Excellence", or "Rage Ye Cyclones". Not that the folks at Halmark were trying, but even a master composer would probably throw up his or her hands if assigned to do something acceptable with these lyrics. 

Download Bob Storm - The Majestic Oak

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Is This Burning An Eternal Flame?

Greetings!

Before I get to this week's song-poem feature - and a most massive cut-up - I wanted to share a comment by stalwart blog reader Sammy Reed, which played up something I really should have caught, too. In response to the song I shared one week ago - "If I Holler, Let Me Go", he pointed out "another song which could be a 'companion piece' to that song, specifically, the peculiarly spelled "Enny Minnie Mighty Moe". Thanks, Sammy!

And now, let's move on to another Sammy: 

The JFK tribute record was a hoary tradition both within and without of the song-poem world within six months of Kennedy's death. I've featured a few of the song-poem variety here, and there are certainly others out there, surely enough to fill a CD. 

And... here's another one. It's got martial drums, a minor key, an ethereal choir, and cloying words. And it's all about "The President's Eternal Light". And speaking of all the features of this 45, don't be fooled by that 2:03 time listing. That's about how long the song is, but the entire record is nearly a full minute longer. Can you guess what fills that final 54 seconds? I bet you can. 

Download: Sammy Marshall - The President's Eternal Light

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On the flip side, the song is about "Eleanor", and it's got quite a bouncy and appealing feeling, which sadly retreats into the background. At first, the lyrics Sammy is singing indicate that he's happier with his new gal, and wants "Eleanor" to go away and stay away. But by a minute in, it's clear that the protagonist is still very worked up over whatever happened between them, and the new gal is never mentioned again. I actually find this lyrical construct to be fairly weird, which is about the 700th time I could say that about a song-poem. 

Download: Sammy Marshall - Eleanor

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And now for a cut-up. 

And I think maybe, after today, I will have run out of really good cut-ups to share. I mean, I made about six 90 minute cassettes of them, when I was in my early to mid '20's, but there was far more dross than gold, plus I often chose to "cut-up" songs that I love, but which are unknown to 99% of the population. 

I may come across a few more that I think are worthy of your time, but I truly always intended to end this particular side feature with, first, my favorite of my cut-ups, and second, the biggest cut-up project I ever tackled. 

Last week, I shared my favorite, and today, it's time for this nearly eight minute spectacular. And the source material was that most gigantic of gigantic-lengthed hit songs, "American Pie", by Don McLean. 

(I certainly did longer efforts where I played with sound, including a massive, 30+ minute montage of sound clips, but American Pie was the longest song I attempted to slice and dice.) 

Two final thoughts - first, I was, at that moment in my life, in the thrall of Gary Owens and his wonderful radio show, "Soundtrack of the '60's", in which Gary was prone to throwing out ridiculous phrases and completely cockamamie fake names. This track is LOADED with Gary Owens drop ins. 

And second, as with many of my other cut-ups, this is not safe for work. Four letter words absolutely abound, and they are joined by a few other unpleasant images.  

Please let me know what you think. 

Download: Don McLean - American Pie (cut-up)

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If I Holler, Let Me Go

 

I sure would like to know what it was about Tin Pan Alley, and presumably its advertising, which drew in so many aspiring lyricists who had cockamamie or at least out-of-left-field lyrical ideas. While every song poem label has some odd or downright bizarre submissions, Tin Pan Alley seemed to have an outstandingly weird title on about one out of every four releases, for a while there, in the late 1950's and early 1960's. Just click on the Tin Pan Alley link at the bottom of this page and read through the dozens of previous TPA postings, and see if you don't agree. 

Anyway, while today's offering is not among the strangest titles ever to appear on TPA, it's still pretty far outside the mainstream, and I was happy to see that it was sung by Ellen Wayne, who offered up some of the most ridiculous performances ever heard on song-poems. 

The song is "If I Holler, Let Me Go". I was hoping for another off-the-wall performance along the lines of Ellen's previous masterpieces, "Chicken Neck Boogie", "Don't Touch Me There!" or the bewildering "Bellingham Playday Song". However, the actual song is much more sedate, a 6/8 ballad, which, to me, throws the weird lyric into even greater relief. And Ellen's vibrato is a thing everyone should experience.

Download: Ellen Wayne - If I Holler, Let Me Go

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On the flip side is "Never Say I Didn't Tell You", which musically is pretty straightforward, too. I think the title conceit is a little weird, and certainly doesn't roll off of Ellen's tongue. But if you did not speak English, and were listening to this record, you probably wouldn't suspect it was an amateur submission, or at least not until you perhaps started wondering why it was only 100 seconds long

Download: Ellen Wayne - Never Say I Didn't Tell You

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And now, for the cut-up du jour. 

I've been sharing these, off and on, since almost the beginning of the year. And now, we've finally come to the cup-up of mine that I love the best. And in a coincidence, it's a song that could not be more perfect for labor day. I didn't plan it this way (in fact, I had this one ready a month ago), but as I was preparing it today, I thought, hey, this works out fantastically. If you don't mind, a bit of a road trip before the track. 

The source material of this song is the socialist anthem "The Banks of Marble", written in 1949, and which focuses on how the working poor provide all the labor, while the bosses get all the money and stick it in the bank, well protected by guards. True in 1949, true today. 

The song was either the first or the second song released under the name of The Weavers, in 1949. 

The version I used  here is from Pete Seeger's 1974 album, and is the title track of that album. He duets on it with his Weaver compatriot Fred Hellerman. If you want to hear the original track, it is here, in rather poor sound quality. There is also a wonderful rendition featuring Pete on banjo, and sung by a bunch of kids, just about 18 months before Pete's death. (I've been to that same festival in Pete's hometown, by the way, in 1986.)

Anyway, the Seeger/Hellerman version from 1974 is one of my top 25 tracks ever released by anyone, and that, and its storytelling style, made it a natural for me to do a cut-up with. 

A couple of things here - there are a couple of four letter words here, including a spot near the start, where I shortened the fifth word of the song, not with an insert, but with a pause button, to create a very rude word indeed. So this is not safe for  work. And second, my single favorite non-sequitur that I ever created in a cut up occurs half-way through the third chorus, the one that starts at 2:35. That's some stuffing. 

Anyway, of all of my cut-ups and mash-ups, this is my favorite. 

Download: Pete Seeger and Fred Hellerman - Banks of Marble (cut-up)

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