LIsten to the Eagle Scream!

Howdee, 

I'm going to lead off with a funny comment from Sammy Reed, in response to my last post, in which a song about a steel guitar didn't actually feature a steel guitar. He wrote, regarding two other songs I've posted:

Gene Marshall was also "Hummin' and a-Strummin' on a steel guitar" with no steel guitar. Then there was his "Didgeridoo" song with no didgeridoo.

 

Quite right, indeed. I would add that, so far as I know, one doesn't usually "strum" a steel guitar, at least not in the way I would use the word "strum"....

On to some ridiculous patriotism!

I've probably explained the "Air" label far too many times. Suffice it to say that the label re-released (or provided the only release) for the products of multiple other song-poem labels, and does not appear to have produced any work of its own. I don't understand how or why this worked, but there it is. 

And like plenty of other Air releases I've  heard, both of these sides seem to have been mastered directly from a 45 or acetate provided by the respective song-poem factories, as the sound is relatively poor and, on each side, there is a moment in which the sound dips, considerably, for no apparent reason. I doubt those dips in sound were on the original tapes or on the original discs which contained these songs. Both sides also cut off VERY suddenly, before the last chords have a chance to fade away. 

From the Film City company - complete with requisite Chamberlin, played, perhaps, by Rodd Keith - comes the rarely utilized Joe Staunton, manly vocalist. (Air also released multiple tracks by a Joe Stanton, a much less manly singer and clearly not the same person - also, Joe Stanton's records were clearly not Film City productions. Whether either Joe was related to Film City and Fable Records maestro Sandy Stanton, I just don't know.)

 

Joe Staunton gets to sing - double tracked, yet - the song "Stand Proud and Tall On the U.S.A.". And it's exactly the sort of patriotic clap-trap that I'd expect from a title like that. The march arrangement is perfectly suited to the lyric and yet ridiculous at the same time. 

By the way, shouldn't that be "With the U.S.A." or "For the U.S.A." Maybe that's just me. And then there's the line that made me laugh out loud the first time: "This is the land where the eagle screams". I looked it up, and I guess eagles really do scream, and there are even alcoholic drinks and restaurants called "Screaming Eagle", but it still sounded REALLY weird to me. And that ending is classically incompetent. 

Download: Joe Staunton - Stand Proud and Tall On the U.S.A.

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The flip side is from the fabulous Lee Hudson's song-poem factory. And I would have to say that, well over 95% of the time, if I have a record with Cara Stewart on only one side, I'm going to lead with the Cara side. She might just be my favorite song-poem singer. However, the oddness of the U.S.A. song won out here, especially since Cara turns out to be a supporting player on "Wishful Thinking". It's a duet with Jeff Reynolds, but Jeff gets all the solo bits, as it's clearly - in this arrangement anyway - the man's story being told. In fact, it's a little weird that Lee Hudson put Cara on it at all, as she seems to be singing Jeff's story along with him, while he's singing about her. I mean, by the end of the first chorus, wouldn't she know all the things he seems to think she doesn't know? 

Anyway, this song bounces along in a pleasant slow clip-clop, with an absolutely typical Lee Hudson arrangement, and that's just fine with me - I love his sound. 

Download: Cara Stewart and Jeff Reynolds - Wishful Thinking

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