It's maudlin hour here at song-poem central. Today we have Norm Burns, singing a first-person narrated letter from Billy in heaven to the family down below. It's called "Billy's Poem". I'm going to guess that there was a real Billy and that this composition meant a great deal to the song-poet named on the label. that being the case, I hate to be critical. And yet.... well, I'll just say that if I had the opportunity to write my family from the great beyond - or imagine what a family member might do, given the same chance - I would like to think I'd be more eloquent and say considerably more than the greeting-card level thoughts offered here.
This is among the last records that Norm Burns made. It's from 1973, and he died unexpectedly in 1974 after a very short illness, from what I've been told. This is number 641 - the last known Norm release (aside from one several months later, which may have been held back for some reason) is number 666. I'd love to have heard a poem from Norm from the hereafter.
Download: Norm Burns - Billy's Poem
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The flip side is a snoozer of a track called "Someone to Need Me", and it is one of innumerable song-poems on the subject of being alone / looking for love / looking back sadly. I'd really be more interested to hear what happened to the people with whom the song-poet used to enjoy happy times around the fire. The hard swing into religion in the second half is a bit unexpected for this particular breed of song-poem, but even that doesn't pull me out of the stupor caused by the arrangement and performance.
Download: Norm Burns - Someone to Need Me
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5 comments:
If its a rite pressing then its from 1974 numbers 32501 through 34214 were used in 1974 857 different issues.
Like most, if not all of the Sterling records from this era, the record has a copyright date right on the label. In this case, it says 1973. I'll take that over any pressing information.
Apesville, what's your source for Rite data? Is it later than 45rpmrecords.com?
As for this record...the less said the better. The a-side wins, just because it's not so turgid. Thanks for posting--I sure HOPE this wasn't his last recording.
As far as the dating of this record...the Rite #s are 32297/32298, falling well within 1973.
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