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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