Something Quite a Bit Different From Preview Records

Okay, well I couldn't pass up a chance to buy a Preview single showing this label, even without hearing it: 

Well, it turns out that, although I've labeled this the "song poem of the week", because that's what this feature is - this is almost certainly a vanity record. The Preview discography does show there to have been a handful of vanity records - for the most part records sung by the composer of the songs - they also appear to have been extremely rare on the label. I've previously shared this resolutely awful example of a Preview vanity release. 

And it does have something of a song-poem pedigree - the song-poem database contains the following quote, which it reports to have been from the fall, 1976 issue of Vellez Music News: 

"The banjo and the arrangement gives this record the flavor of the 20's and 30's. It's got a good beat and sound. Banjo lovers will get a kick out of this one."

As Vellez Music News was the house organ of another song-poem label, I think that at least leaves this one well within the song-poem universe, if also residing in a far distant quadrant thereof. 

Anyway, while my previous Preview vanity offering was a terrible record, this one, on the other hand, borders on delightful, if completely silly. It's credited to "The Four of Us" and contains two songs performed in 1920's style, albeit the 1920's as they likely would have been heard on "Laugh-In" or some other 1960's or 1970's variety show.  The A side (appropriately) is called "My Model 'A'", about a run down 1920's Ford, and it plays up both the charms and the weaknesses of both songs. The tight harmonies are really nice, and the words are cute, but why, oh, why couldn't they have bothered to use a real Dixieland combo instead of the barely competent instrumentalists here, especially the bass player, who hits a few obvious clams. 

Download: The Four of Us - My Model "A"

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The flip side, "Banjo Pickin' Blues" has exactly the same strengths and weakness as "Model 'A'", although I would add that, if you're going to write a song with the words "blues" and "banjo" in the title, it might be nice to set it to blues chords and style and get a banjo player who has had more than six lessons. 

Still, it's a fascinating little side trip from the label and well worth sharing. 

Download: The Four of Us - Pickin' Banjo Blues

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I Thought YOU Were Buck!

Sorry about that post title - it's an inside joke that I couldn't resist which will make sense to only one person who reads this blog. But it does sort of reference at least the title of today's feature, which is: 

I JUST bought this record and could not wait to send it. It's a later-era Film City release from just after Rod (Rodd Keith) Rogers' string of releases ended. My best pal Stu (the recipient of this post's joke title) has somehow determined that the 3000 series of Film City releases are from 1966, and I have no reason to doubt him. Since that's right around when Rodd Keith appeared on Preview, it all makes sense. 

Anyway, we have Rodd's primary replacement here, Frank Perry, singing a song called "Buck Fever". And a most entertaining number it is, too, set to a bouncy backing with a shuffling drum setting and a fun story in the lyric. And there is a reference to a geoduck, which I'm guessing is the only time that bizarre creature was ever mentioned in a song-poem. But the best thing may be the sound effects - yes, SOUND EFFECTS - Spike Jones styled sound effects, yet - that punctuate the track. This was money well spent!

Download: Frank Perry and the Swinging Strings - Buck Fever

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On Buck Fever, Frank Perry got to work with the immortal "Swinging Strings". On the flip side,  "Will the Dreams I've Been Dreaming (Mean Nothing)", he is accompanied by the Film City Orchestra, sounding very much like the Swinging Strings. I wonder why. 

But while "Buck Fever" seems to pass by in but a moment, and I wish it had gone on longer, "Will the Dreams...", despite being only 22 seconds longer, seems to go on for about three days. I simply cannot stir up any enthusiasm for this record at all. Blech. 

Download: Frank Perry and the Film City Orchestra - Will the Dreams I've Been Dreaming (Mean Nothing)

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