He's Just a Lonely Dairy Boy

Today, I just have another record on the Air label, and it's just by Jeff Reynolds, who was just one of the stalwarts with Lee Hudson, who is just one of my favorite people who was in the song-poem universe. I just featured Air just a few weeks ago, but since Air just handled other label's material, and none of their own, I can justify that choice because these two records are from a different song-poem factory than the record I just featured a short time ago. 

And both songs are about just being.... something. That's why I just wrote that the way I did. 

The better of the two songs, by a wide margin, is the silly but endearing "I'm Just a Lonely Dairy Boy". From the very first second, anyone familiar with Lee Hudson will know this is one of his productions. It just has that bouncy, swinging sound, and what a marvelous sound it is, with great production and wonderful interplay between the instruments and the backing vocals (which appear to me to be a chorus of Jeff Reynoldses). The lyrics tell the painful story of delivering dairy products "from dawn to dark", six days a week. I think we can all relate. 

Download: Jeff Reynolds With Orchestra - I'm Just a Lonely Dairy Boy

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The AS/PMA website, by the way, confirms this record to have been released in 1962, based on this page from an issue of Billboard. Have a look - there are at least five other song-poems mentioned, on Air, Roxie and Ronnie, among the records that Billboard's considered to have "Limited Sales Potential" that week. At least those labels were sending the records in to be rated. I'm guessing that most song-poem labels did not. 

Turn the record over, and you'll find that Jeff has left his dairy days behind him, has made and lost a fortune, and now is "Just a Hobo". If I can take one lesson from this song it's that I'm going to be sure not to "go that way". 

It's another of Lee Hudson's nice sounds, but there's far less to it, and this setting always works better with Cara Stewart singing (because everything works better with Cara Stewart singing). Plus, the lyrics here are sort of stultifying, aren't they? But that "Dairy Song" - good stuff. 

Download: Jeff Reynolds With Orchestra - Just a Hobo

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The Bass Player... Yes, THAT Bass Player.... from Tin Pan Alley... is BACK!!!!

If I have a chance to pick up a Tin Pan Alley single from the late 1950's through the 1960's, I'm going to go for it, if the price is right. It's one of my favorite labels. But if that record shows a label number in the 390s threw the 400s, I'm downright giddy at the chance, and may spend a bit more than I would have otherwise. 

Because for that short period - however long it took to get through those 20 or so releases - the label sometimes (but not always) used a bass player who seemingly had no knowledge of the instrument and barely a sense of rhythm. I've shared several of these records before, most notably, but not limited to, "The Proon Doon Walk" and "Snow Man"

Well, I've got another one for you, this time featuring the stylings of Cathy Mills, who shouldn't have been let within a country mile of slow song, a torch song, or a song that was both. Yet, that's what we have here, with the clunkily named "Because We Both Belong to Someone Else"

As overmatched as she is by the style, she is again shown up by the bass player, who largely hits notes at random. Unlike those other records, though there are places where the bass part requires the hapless performer to provide some rhythm runs, and the results are spectacularly incompetent, my favorite  of these occurring from 0:40 to 0:46, before he returns to largely playing the two back-and-forth notes, neither of which are on the scales of the chord changes the song uses. 

Download: Cathy Mills - Because We Both Belong to Someone Else

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On the other side is "Would You Darling?", and I must admit I have a soft spot for these spare, "rhumba-but-only-the-rhythm-section-and-no-full-band" records that TPA was doing from time to time during this period. The band perks along nicely - it's worth noting that there is NO bass player on this side - maybe even the rest of the band couldn't stomach the way the bass player was impacting their groove and told him to lay out. 

Cathy Mills is much more suited for this number, the melody is memorable and it doesn't wear out its welcome in its 104 seconds. But I'm a sucker from pre-1960's Latin rhythms (and not at all a fan of what's come since, by the way), so your mileage may vary. 

Download: Cathy Mills - Would You Darling?

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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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