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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1 comment:
Thank you, Bob, for posting this. You're so right--he knew how to arrange a record. The female singer reminds me of his duettist on "Merry-Go-Round." I wonder if they're the same person.
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