Minimalist Lyrics, With Frank Perry

Okay, a few things before we get to today's feature. 

First, I heard from a correspondent named Jay, who has found the most phenomenal picture. Please research (here and elsewhere) W.L. Horning if you are unfamiliar with this man's work. With that said, I share with you now a picture of W.:L. Horning that Jay managed to discover. 

The picture had a caption which read: 

Wesley Horning, Denver Composer He learned to compose by picking out tunes on guitar.

If you have heard any of his "compositions" you will doubtless find that statement extremely hard to believe. Anyway, here he is: 

The other thing I want to share is that Sammy Reed has posted an entire song-poem album, one of the countless editions of "Music of America" collections which appeared on Hollywood Artists. There are some doozies on that album, which is posted here.

And now:  

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I get a kick out of today's 95 second feature, because it features what must be among the shortest bits of song-poetry ever committed to a song-poem record. When I saw that Frank Perry would be singing "You're Messing With the Wrong Guy", I assumed that Frank's performance would be a first person warning to someone that he himself (Frank or the song-poet) had had quite enough of... something and was offering a warning to stop messing with him. 

But nope, that's not it. In fact, the lyrics couldn't be less specific. Or less wordy. I hope you'll forgive me for ruining the surprise, but over some super peppy Chamberlin backing, the following four lines are all there is to the lyric here. Anything else is repetition or slight variance: 

Baby, you're messing with the wrong guy

Don't you know that guy will get you down. 

You're fooling with the wrong type of people

Don't you know they're trying to make a fool of you. 

And that's it. I also enjoy the hard stop at the end. 

Download: Frank Perry and the "Swinging Strings" - You're Messing With the Wrong Guy

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The flip side, "Going to Memphis" threatens (on the label) to be almost four minutes long, but it's actually just under three minutes. And this song honestly doesn't have many more words than "Messing", despite having an extra 75 seconds to say it. Perhaps you won't be surprised to see that the same song-poet wrote both of these masterworks. I find this side a whole lot less interesting than its flip side. It plods along, doesn't it? 

Download: Frank Perry and the "Swinging Strings" - Going to Memphis

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Rusty Ray is a Dick

Hello, 

First, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who will be celebrating it this week!

Also, I am continuing to slowly rebuild the early days of this site. Having completed all of the "song poem of the week" posts, I am now addressing the first few years of posts. Today, I have "fixed" two posts which each had a half-dozen offerings in them. 

One was a follow-up to a WFMU post, in which I offered up several vintage children's records, and a few others that I have known since I was a child. The other, from February of 2008, was in tribute to my mother, who had died several weeks earlier, and I shared several tracks that she recorded during her long career as a coloratura soprano, tracks ranging from 1944 to 1990. 

Now, here's a singer who was not a coloratura anything: 

Six years ago, I shared the only record I owned at that time, credited to "Rusty Ray" I stated that I did not recognize the singer as anyone who I had previously heard on a song-poem release, and, for that previous offering, that statement still stands. 

I have since obtained another Rusty Ray record, also on the Action label, but in this case, the singer is quite clearly the man much better known as Dick Kent. This is weird, because Action already had a name for Dick Kent, specifically, "Dick Lee", so why did they change his name for this release. And why, having done so, did they offer up an entirely different singer, seven releases later, under the same name of Rusty Ray. 

These are the questions that no one today has answers to. 

Anyway, the winner here has to be "Happy Hippy", which bops along with a Chamberlin approximation of a swingin' Holiday Inn lounge sound. If you want one writer's stereotyped idea of what a hippy might have said, in the early 1970's, this "happy go lucky" portrait will be your cup of tea, complete with a moral/warning at the end

Download: Rusty Ray (Dick Kent) and the "Singing Strings" - Happy Hippy

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A heavy, almost thuddish beat greets us at the start of "Jigsaw Heart", on the flip side, and that drum beat, heard throughout, sounds more appropriate for a stripper than what the words portray here, which is a wish for the singer's loved one to come back home. 

Download: Rusty Ray (Dick Kent) and the "Singing Strings" - Jigsaw Heart

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A Jaw-Dropping Rodd Keith Record

Relatively early in my days of song-poem collecting, I asked song-poem maven Phil Milstein for his insight into what was the most popular song-poem, among those he'd heard from and interacted with. His answer was that it was Gary Robert's magnificently weird and half-assed "Do You Know the Difference Between Big Wood and Brush". This made sense to me, because not only was it likely the first song-poem most fans heard (at that point, at least, as it was the lead track on both the first vinyl and the first CD song-poem compilations), but it has a lot of the hallmarks (sic) of the best/worst of song-poems - utterly personal lyrics, no sense (by the lyricist) of what will and won't work when set to music - in this case, spectacularly so - minimal effort by the backing band, and a singer who is no great shakes.

Today, I have an example of what happens when a musical genius, his better days behind him, is offered a chance to work with a similarly convoluted, personal set of lyrics, words which have no business being made into a song. And I find the results stunning, sad, astonishing at times. I would not rank the weirdness on a level with "Big Wood and Brush", but this record is deeply odd in its own ways, while sharing that glorious factor of incompetent storytelling in the lyrics.

The genius in question is Rodd Keith, performing on one of the first records released on Sandy Stanton's "Action Records" label, along with the "Big Action Sound", which is simply the Chamberlin. My guess - and it's just that - is that at this point (1972), Rodd was under contract with MSR, and could not appear as either Rod Rogers or Rodd Keith, so he shows up here as "Terry Thomas", perhaps in honor of the great British comic actor.

Anyway, this record is a mess. Rodd's Chamberlin choices, while they do contain some interesting parts, are often shrill and ugly. Vocally I hear a shell of the man who'd offered so many great performances in the 1960's. And the material he was given to work with is... something else - I'll let you discover its charms.

See what you think!

Download: Terry Thomas and the "Big Action Sound" - I'm a Lonely Man
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On the flip side is a song for which Rodd - as Terry Thomas - actually took co-writer credit. It's a better song (lyrics by the same person as on "Lonely Man"). Rodd sounds a bit more engaged, and the track is more cohesive, too, but there's nothing there that holds my attention. Your mileage may vary.

Download: Terry Thomas and the "Big Action Sound" - Make Up Your Mind
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MOVIN' WITH PAPA!!!

 

I could have this chronology quite mixed up, but it appears to me that, near the end of his time running the Film City empire, Sandy Stanton began releasing a good number of his factories productions on the newer, Action Records label. Most of the known Action releases seem to have been released after the end of the last few known Film City releases, and essentially feature the same cast of characters, plus and minus a few, frequently accompanied by the ubiquitous Chamberlin.

 

Today's feature, 'Move with Papa", sung by the occasional Film City/Action warbler known as Frank Perry, is notable for some fun, silly lyrics, and, particularly, the atrocious work done with the Chamberlin: whoever made this track provided a second track of chording which is just slightly - and aggravatingly - out of tune with the rest of the track. The final chord over the rest of the track is a particular howler.

 

Oh, and while I'd love to think that the co-writer of these tracks was the great English comic actor Terry-Thomas, that seems unlikely.

 

Download: Frank Perry and the "Big Action Sound" - Move with Papa

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I can't actually work up much to say about the flip side, "Like An Angel So Sweet", which is a fairly typical non-entity from the genre and from this label.

 

Download: Frank Perry and the "Big Action Sound" - Like An Angel So Sweet



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By the way, I do have a plan to try and keep up to a once-a-week posting schedule again, starting this week. Here's hoping!

Rockin' Hard with Rusty Ray and Phil Carroll!

As I've written before, Phil Carroll is something of a song-poem lyricist superstar, having been the wordsmith behind such songs as "Yippee Hippee", "Watch Johnny Carson", "I Take a Fancy to Nancy", and my personal favorite by a wide margin, "Dreams of Love". Most of these can be found online or on the previously released song-poem compilations. MSR records even seems to have had a separate set of label numbers just for Phil Carroll's songs!

But here's a double dose of Phil Carroll, seemingly from a few years down the line from those MSR releases. Appearing on the "Action" label, which seems to have been a small off-brand label for some of Sandy Stanton's releases (perhaps after the demise of Film City?), and notable for some truly horrible sounding pressings (this record included) - I understand from Phil Milstein that Stich Stampfel, whose vanity pressings on Action have label numbers just before this one, complained a lot about the pressings of his records. 

So I apologize for the sound quality of these files, but they come by them honestly. 

The singer here is one "Rusty Ray", who I don't recognize at all - anyone else out there want to hazard a guess as to whether he's one of the song-poem stalwarts or a one-time interloper? The first song I'm offering up, "Magic Touch", strikes me as an attempt to make a early-70's hard-rock record on a Chamberlin, a ridiculous concept if there ever was one. If there's any doubt, please enjoy the direct rip from a well known example of the genre near the ending. I hope you laugh as much as I did.

Download: Rusty Ray and the "Swinging Strings" - Magic Touch
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The flip side, "A One and A Two", seems to be an attempt at a mid-'60's dance number, complete with instructions making up much of the lyric, although the suggestions of what to do for each couplet are different enough that I suspect anyone trying them as they are called out would likely sprain something. And again, the Chamberlin is probably not the right instrument for an interactive dance track.

I have to wonder if, after getting such wonderful results from MSR (largely from Rodd Keith) if Phil Carroll was satisfied with the work done by Sandy Stanton's crew. The answer is probably yes, as he submitted another two-fer, including the song "When They All Go to Chicago", sung by Dick Kent (as "Dick Lee"), which I hope you'll again be able to hear here, when I get the old posts back up and running (the files are currently dead). I'm hoping to have the old posts repaired soon.

Download: Rusty Ray and the "Swinging Strings" - A One and A Two
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A Song-Poem For Your Mother

Ah, Mother's Day. A day for flowers, gifts, an outpouring of thanks, a nice dinner, perhaps at the fanciest place in town, a phone call if you can't be together and, of course, Frank Perry and the "Big Sound" of the Film City Chamberlin. For those who struggle to express a single original thought, and for whom even Hallmark's cards seem a bit too edgy, I offer here, free of charge, a song to give to your mother, containing the blandest of mother's day wishes imaginable: 

Download: Frank Perry and the "Big Sound" - Happy Mother's Day
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That sound sure is big, huh? Of the flip side, the seemingly endless "I Thought You Knew", the less said, the better:


Download: Frank Perry and the "Big Sound" - I Thought You Knew
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For Labor Day

What better way to pay tribute to the working men and women of our country and world on Labor Day (well, America's Labor Day, anyway) than with a look at one of those jobs which is so indispensable that its practitioners can't even get Labor Day off - the Policemen and Policewomen of our cities, towns and villages. The song is "We Proudly Hail Our Police". And what better man to do it than Frank Perry, who is woefully under-represented among the listings of song-poems to be had. And what better accompaniment than the that fabulous band "The 'Big Action Sound'", which is nothing more than the ol' Chamberlain! 

Download: Frank Perry and the "Big Action Sound" - We Proudly Hail Our Police

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The AS/PMA website has this record as being from the early '70's, which seems fairly amazing. I'm assuming that this comes from some sort of listing in a trade publication or an ad in the same, since the AS/PMA folks didn't know the artist for either side of the record. Their dates tend to be correct, though. On the flip side, we have the Chamberlain man himself, Rodd Keith, in his guise as Rod Rivers, also with the fictional "Big Action Sound", on a less than stellar effort, "To Love". The lyrics here get positively circular, and more than a bit hard to follow:

Download: Rod Rivers and the "Big Action Sound" - To Love

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When He Says "Go Out", He Means It!

Heeeeeere's Rodd!

Here's a great one from Rodd Keith, masquerading as Rod Rivers and the "Big Action Sound", on the Action label. This song title "Before I Go Out" isn't all that intriguing, but the lyric is great - when lyricist Valliere Hancock uses the phrase "Go Out", she adds "Like a Light", and the rest of the words make it clear that she's talking about all the things she wants to do and learn before she dies! Rodd's brilliant use of the Chamberlain, as well as his vocal stylings, only add to the fun. I'd be surprised if this wasn't recorded around the same time as the equally jazzy and atmospheric "Tom Dooley Last Will and Testament" (from the Norris the Troubadour album, and which everyone reading this words should hear, if you haven't already). Like that song, this has a cool, laid back vocal that nonetheless fits the unusual words.

Download: Rod Rivers and the "Big Action Sound" - Before I Go Out

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For the B-side, the same writer submitted another song, "The Splendor of Love". She shows none of the spirit that makes the A-side so interesting, going so far as to borrow the opening line from a former #1 song which was heavily identified with that same opening line, "Love is a Many Splendored Thing". Easily the best thing about this song is the Chamberlain track that Rodd created for it. At times, it reminds me of some of the John Lennon Mellotron experiments which are available on bootlegs (the Mellotron being essentially the same instrument as a Chamberlain). There is a moment in the backing track from about the 1:45 point to the 2:00 point which I find to be nothing short of gorgeous, and which certainly shows off Rodd's keyboard genius.

Download: Rod Rivers and the "Big Action Sound" - The Splendor of Love

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Stich Stampfel

Many, perhaps most of those reading this blog have heard Stich Stampfel's classic vanity/song-poem hybrid record of "If I Could Only See Your Face", and perhaps the background notes written about it. It was part of one of the two online song-poem albums released a few years ago (for which I was happy to provide a couple of records). If you're not familiar with this song, or those two albums, they can be found here and here. Stich's song can be found on the "Rat-a-Tat Tat, America" compilation. What those notes don't mention is that "See Your Face" was actually the second submission that Herman "Stich" Stampfel made to Sandy Stanton's Action Label. Today, I'm offering up the other of those two singles. As with the other record, it's pretty clear that Mr. Stampfel submitted a demo of his own performance of the song, and someone in Stanton's outfit overdubbed a Chamberlain track to fit the existing vocal. The result is that the record sounds essentially like a Rod Rogers-era Film City production, but with a far different vocalist. Here's the A-Side, "Don't Know Who You Are": 

Download: Stich Stampfel and the "Singing Strings" - Don't Know Who You Are

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And the nearly identical B-Side, "I've Loved and I've Lost":

Download: Stich Stampfel and the "Singing Strings" - I've Loved and I've Lost

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Phil Carroll

Phil Carroll was one of the more productive song-poets of the golden age of the genre. He even appears to have had an entire label-number series dedicated to his works, on the MSR label. 

In addition, in the eyes of at least a few people that I know - and probably many more - he was one of the best. Many of his compositions call them his "hits" - have appeared on the various compilations which have been released, or are part of the many tapes which circulate among song-poem collectors. These include "Yippee Hippee", "Dreams of Love", "Watch Johnny Carson", "I Take a Fancy to Nancy", and my personal favorite, "Dreams of Love".

I've found several Phil Carroll records over the years, perhaps because he was from Chicago, and that's where I've done the majority of my song-poem digging (well, my non-online song-poem digging, anyway). Here, as a sort of indirect suggestion by my friend Stu, a big fan of Phil Carroll's "hits", and who said he wasn't familiar with this one, is a Phil Carroll record from my collection, Dick Lee (AKA Dick Kent) and the Swinging Strings, on the Action Label, with "When They All Go to Chicago":

Download: Dick Lee and the Swinging Strings - When They All Go to Chicago

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The other person I know, who has had a "thing" for Phil Carroll, is Phil Milstein, creator and former master of the American Song-Poem Music Archives. As a way of making a vague connection with the above song, here's a song that Phil found particularly "out there" (my words, not his - I believe his word was "wack") upon his first hearing it - it's Bobby Boyle's Nu-Sound Label recording of "Daisies On the Land":

Download: Bobby Boyle - Daisies On the Land

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By the way, although the singer better known as Bobbi Blake released some records under the name "Bobbi Boyle", this record is not by Bobbi Blake.