Rocket To the Moon

As I alluded to in my last post, I have precious little time right now, so I will not have much to say. I do want to share a vintage song-poem ad sent to me by longtime reader/listener/commenter Tommy. Here it is: 

Thanks, Tommy!

~~

Today we have the always entertaining and barely competent Billy Grey, on the Tin Pan Alley label. The song is "Rocket to the Moon", the conceit here being that, apparently, going into outer space is the latest move to make when one is pursuing romance (?). My favorite line, a complete non-sequitur, is "Let's Not Be Different" - I can't figure out what that means, in OR out of context. 

Download: Billy Grey - Rocket to the Moon

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On the flip side, with virtually the same tempo and feel, is the sad lyric of a man who has learned his gal is moving on. He is nice enough to tell her "you're free to go", which is mighty sporty, but he'd really like her to stay, even redundantly saying "Please darling, please change your mind". 

Actually, the best things about this track, by far, are the guitarist and drummer, who are clearly in a better record than the singer, particular in the last 20 seconds, when the drummer, in particular, seems to think he's playing with a hard rock band. 

Download: Billy Grey - Darling, Please Change Your Mind

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An Easter Egg For You - A Rare Rodd Keith Album from Australia - COMPLETE!

First, let me just say that there are some things going on in my personal life which may - or may not - impact just how much time I have to give to sharing and writing here for the next month or more. If there are fewer posts, I hope it is only for this month and next. 

But TODAY, I have something ultra rare and exciting: An entire album that Rodd Keith produced, under the Film City umbrella but clearly with more money and options, for a song-writer in Australia, and released in Australia on a legitimate Australian label - W & G records. 

The existence of this album has long been known, and its contents are duly related on the Film City page of the song-poem website - although that listing shows that the album was released domestically by Film City. But I can't find that its contents have ever been shared online. My copy is the Australian release, obtained from a friendly Australian record dealer named Michael. Thanks a million, Michael!

The album is called "Island Songs of the Great Barrier Reef", and indeed, all twelve songs are about Hayman Island and the surrounding areas. 

I am fairly certain that this entire album is a song-poem/vanity hybrid album, and that these are songs written - music and words - by the listed songwriters: Reg Hudson for the first song, and John Ashe for all the others. The tunes are quite pedestrian, for the most part, although some have a nice, and appropriate, South Pacific type of lilt. But none of them have the sort of tune-writing excellence I would associate with Rodd Keith. 

What they DO have, though, is embellishment. This is Rodd Keith working with at least a somewhat larger budget than he usually had, particularly at Film City, where he was usually a one-man band. Not only is there a female singer heard nearly throughout the album - heard, in fact, virtually as much as Rodd himself - as well as both a female chorus and a mixed chorus on other songs. There are also horns playing here and there - a sax solo on the first, song, for example, and a veritable Dixieland combo playing on the fourth song on side two, South Molle Memories. In addition, there is clearly a "real" piano being played over the Chamberlin backing on a few tracks. 

And despite the bland nature of the tunes, Rodd's musicianship, vocal chops and particularly, genius for arrangement, shine through over and over again. 

Below are files containing each of the two sides, with no attempt made to separate the tracks, followed by photos of the album and the labels. 

I have NOT listened to the files I made of this album - I listened to it first before making the files, and as I said, I'm a bit busy just now. If there are any glitches, let me know and I will fix them. 

I hope you receive this with as much excitement and enthusiasm as I had in receiving it. 

Download: Rod Rogers with the Tropic Island Serenaders - Island Songs of the Great Barrier Reef, Side One

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Download: Rod Rogers with the Tropic Island Serenaders - Island Songs of the Great Barrier Reef, Side Two

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Gene's Talkin' Jesus

 

With the Christian Holy Week approaching quickly (and this is one of those years when the Western Churches and the Orthodox Church observe Holy Week's events at the same time), what better occasion than to have Gene Marshall tell us about Jesus. 

That's right, Gene is going to tell us, not sing to us. Oh, he sings a little, but mostly he's going to read a statement. A sermon of sorts. When I hear a record such as "Let Jesus Save You", I wonder a couple of things. 

First, did the song-poet understand how lyricism works, as opposed to prose? There is nothing in the spoken word section here that could have reasonably, or even unreasonably, been set to a melody. And second, was the song-poet satisfied with this performance? Gene gives a good sermon, I'll say that. But presumably, the lyricist (sic) paid for a song. What we have here, aside from about 10 seconds of instrumental passages is: 

Gene singing: 40 seconds

Gene talking: 100 seconds

Download: Gene Marshall - Let Jesus Save You

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The folks at Preview were nice enough to team up two Christian songs on one 45. It wasn't automatically going to be that way - can you imagine the song-poet of either of these sides taking a gander at the flip side and having it be either of the two songs heard in this post (you'll have to listen to those songs to get what I'm joking about). 

Anyway, "On This Mountain" is an actual song, and if nothing else, Gene provides an excellent vocal, with an appropriate aching tone in spots, unfortunately not in the service of anything special in the way of lyrics (the line "He died for all colors: black and white, you see" seems particularly half-baked) or of  backing support. Indeed, the instrumental section has to be among the more low-energy solo sections I've heard on a Preview disc, and the keyboardist and bass player don't really seem to be working from the same chord changes during this section. 

Download: Gene Marshall - On This Mountain

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