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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