Guess Who's Gung Ho!!! It's Gene "Go Hung" Marshall!!!!

 

Last week's post contained one song which was indirectly about Vietnam, or at least had lyrics which would have been at least less likely outside of things that went during, and in part because of, that conflict, specifically, in that case, Woodstock. 

I thought I'd continue the theme today, with a 45 featuring not one, but two songs which certainly owe at least part of their existence to the Vietnam War. Beyond that, how could I possibly not share a song-poem titled "Gung Ho", particularly with perhaps the Gung Ho-iest song-poem singer of them all, Gene Marshall, singing it. 

Now, to me, "Gung Ho" has always meant to do something with great enthusiasm. But its original meaning to Americans, as explained on this page, was "Work Together", which is the basis for this song.(According to that site, even that understanding of the Chinese phrase is inaccurate.) Again, I didn't know this, but the phrase was specifically associated in this country with the Marines, and I suspect that the song-poet (who wrote both of these songs) was inspired by the then-current military activities in South Asia 

Anyway, here's another martial number, and Gene does his typical excellent work. I can't imagine another song-poem singer who would have been suited for this material. 

Download: Gene Marshall - Gung Ho

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Before I get to the flip side, I want to acknowledge that, again in the last post, I mentioned my friend Stu's speculation that the female singer accompanying Rodd Keith was Bobbi Blake. Sammy Reed, who I suspect knows more about Bobbi Blake than anyone else outside of her family, tells me that's not the case. Both Stu and Sammy know - and care about - the female voices of Preview much better than I do, so I don't know, or honestly care, where I land on that debate. 

But now I have a performance which is undoubtedly by Bobbi Blake, or, as she was known on her Preview releases, Barbara Foster. The narrator of "White Crosses" is, believe it or not, America herself, and herein, she laments and pays tribute to her war dead, saying that each of those deaths caused her pain, and that they were not in vain. Again, given that this was written and recorded during our misadventure in Vietnam, I beg to differ on that last point. 

Download: Barbara Foster - White Crosses

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Hurt Me! Hurt Me! I'm Sure! No Way!

I offer apologies to Moon Unit Zappa, but her lyrics seemed too good to pass up with regard to today's offering: 

On the first side, we have the queen of MSR records, Bobbi Blake, or, as she was known in the early days of the label, Bobbi Boyle, with a request for some pain - well, at least psychic pain - in a slightly countrified setting, one which reminds me at several moments of one of my favorite song poems, Dick Kent's "In Loving Is the Doing". Not surprising, as that record's label number was barely 20 releases later. Bobbi Blake offers up her typically solid vocal performance, but after four or more listens, I'm still not sure I understand what is exactly being asked for, or why. Maybe the concept is just too foreign to me...

Download: Bobbi Boyle - Hurt Me Just a Little. 

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The flip side of this record is credited to Nancy Cole, a singer credited on only two documented MSR records. I do not recognize this vocalist - maybe someone out there does? She's competent enough, and the makers of smooth music provided a fairly catchy tune for the lyricist's work, which has the unwieldy title "This Little Fool Has Had Her Fill of You". However, the words are almost comically artless, featuring very direct descriptions of wrongs done. And there is only so much you can do fit lyrics which don't fit the same pattern into a repeating melody, so Nancy sometimes has to quickly squeeze in extra words, and other times she has to stretch out lines such as "You Treat Me Like Dirt" over several beats. 

Download: Nancy Cole - This Little Fool Has Had Her Fill of You

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Rod and Bobbie Take Arco for a Spin

Good evening!

I have updated yet another month's worth of old, broken-down posts, in this case, July of 2009. 

That month, I shared the following: a perfectly dreadful - and highly entertaining - release on the Noval label, a confusingly titled Tin Pan Alley release, which is also missing an artist credit, an early MSR release featuring Dick Kent and Bobbie Boyle (aka Bobbi Blake), and, best of all, a fantastic and ridiculous record called "Goodness Gracious, It's Contagious" (the comments of which contain a response from a member of the songwriter's family!). 

I also posted a link to a then-upcoming song-poem event. It was a long time ago, but the link to the site and its information still works!

~~

Okay, here's a fairly odd duck of a song-poem release. If you'll click on this link to my previous posts of Arco releases here... well, at the top (for now), you'll see this post, but beneath it, you'll see the other posts from that label. And you'll hear that they feature early 1960's sounds, including some tracks which are closer to swing than to anything popular after 1955. Those found at the AS/PMA website seem to feature either acts which do not show up anywhere else, or which came from the Globe song-poem factory. 

Today's record, though, comes from much later - late 1960's, at least, features one track from Film City and one apparently from MSR (or perhaps Preview), has a quite separate numbering system from the other releases, and sports an entirely different label (although still with the same address indicated on the AS/PMA page, indicating that it is the same Arco label). 

What's more, the sound quality is dreadful, sounding to me as if the records were mastered directly off of another 45. It's a pretty standard Rodd Keith Chamberlin opus, with Rodd showing up here as Rod Rivers (with Orchestra). This record, "Don't Come Crying Back to Me", is a cute little number, and I wish I had a better pressing of it. 

Download: Rod Rivers with Orchestra - Don't Come Crying Back to Me

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~~

On the flip side, we have Bobbi Blake, under the name of Bobbie Boyle (just as indicated above), with the song "I'm Just a Simple Living Girl". Here we have a fairly interesting tale, if I'm making out the words right, of a young woman who identifies as a hippy, but is strongly not interested in some of the free living, free love aspects that people assume someone who looks like her would partake in. 

Again, the crappy pressing takes away much of the charm that might have been...

Download: Bobbie Boyle with Orchestra - I'm Just a Simple Living Girl

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Gettin' Down and Dirty With.... The MSR Band?

 With today's post, I have completed the corrections to another month, and with that month, January of 2011, another year of the broken post project is finished. I now have only to get to 2010 and 2009 to complete the vast majority of posts at this blog, and virtually all of the song-poem posts, which began in earnest in January of 2009. 

Today's corrected posts (one of which contains references to a then-current project of also correcting old, broken links) include a whopping twelve tracks, including a two record posting of Bobbi Blake on MSR, a very late record from Norm Burns on Sterling, an EP featuring the great Rod Barton along with Sammy Marshall, and one of the best 45's ever released by Halmark, with some truly ridiculous lyrics, sung ridiculously by the inimitable Bob Storm. Even if you ignore the other links, I strongly suggest you give that Bob Storm number a try. 

Now that that's taken care of, we have this: 

I do not often share MSR releases here - I honestly don't understand how their product became the shorthand name for "song-poem" amongst so many aficionados (i.e. "MSR Madness). I think that generally - and absolutely, after Rodd Keith's death - the backing bands feature what were apparently top of the line studio musicians playing like hacks, with no attempt to hide their disinterest in the material. This doesn't come out as car-crash fascinating or "bad" funny, but simply tedious. 

I did, however, get a kick out of "To Prove It To You", by Bill Joy. Bill Joy is the singer on the very first record I ever heard that was identified beforehand as a song-poem (I owned two others, which I one at a record booth at a school fair, all the way back in 1975). That song was "How Long Are You Staying?", and it remains the high point for a singer who otherwise doesn't interest me at all - not at all good, but not entertainingly bad, either. 

But I knew this was something special as soon as the song started. For rather than being Bill Joy's typical soulless disco, this is a "bump-and-grind" record, something I thought would have been far beyond the ability of Mr. Joy, or the interest of the MSR band. Right on both counts. This is a entertainingly awful stuff. Whatever the opposite is of "giving it their all".... well, that's what the band is doing - they effectively give the impression of not only never having seen a stripper, but not having any idea of what a stripper might be. And Bill Joy.... well, he wasn't capable of doing anything well, musically, so  he's right at home. The lyrics are nicely, and appropriately vapid to match the music and singing. 

Enjoy!

Download: Bill Joy - To Prove It To You

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On the flip side is the aforementioned Bobbi Blake, a much, much better singer, trapped here in a deadly dull - and therefore much worse - flipside song, titled "It's All Over". 

As with the A-side, and as with most MSR product of this era, this record is poorly recorded and pressed, leading to terrible sound quality, and the song is innocuous and bland, they seemingly made no attempt to fit the words to a memorable, or at times, even singable melody. 

I honestly wish Bobbi Blake had worked with a different crew and company. 

Download: Bobbie Blake - It's All Over

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Big Irish Mike and The Fisherman

Hi!

Before I do anything else, I want to share with you a video that I made. Early in the shutdown, my church asked for happy videos - anything under two minutes - to send out to the congregation while we were alomst all spending lots of time at home.

My thought was to perform one of my favorite Ragtime pieces, a song I learned, by rote, off of an album when I was perhaps 16 or 17. As I say in the clip, I'm a sloppy pianist, but I make up for that in enthusiasm. And I've been forgetting to link to this client for two months now, so here it is. An added bonus (?) you get to see my charming visage and the rest of me, too. Click the link for the video!

A Ragtime Nightmare

I'm sure that was excitement enough, but I have also spent the early evening today fixing another month's worth of posts.. We're all the way back to January of 2013, so that's another year I've fixed!

That month featured a post featuring a classic Preview release owned by a friend of mine, which I identified as Rodd Keith, a statement which several song-poem fans disagreed with. I also shared a wonderful EP on Air records (featuring not one but TWO fantastic songs), two versions of the same song on an early Film City single, and a pair of songs with some interestingly odd lyrics, sung by Gene Marshall.

And speaking of Gene Marshall.....

Today, we have two interesting lyrics from the pen of one Myrtle Snow. I chosen to go first with "Big Irish Mike", a tale of Irish drinking, Irish brawling and an Irish punchline. Ho Ho Ho. 

Listen carefully to the story related by Gene Marshall: 

Download: Gene Marshall - Big Irish Mike

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On the flip side we have Bobbi Blake in her guise as "Barbara Foster", which Preview used on her releases. This is the tale of a woman who wouldn't mind her fisherman husband leaving her to go fishing so often, if only she didn't suspect he was fishing for something other than fish, and if only she didn't believe that maybe someone else was out there trying to catch him. This is a warm, inviting vocal, and she really sells the lyric. 

Download: Gene Marshall - My Fisherman

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Dick and Bobbi

As has been the case for several weeks now, before getting to today's offering, I want to update you as to updates. I have moved back another month, and have now made new connections for all posts from October, 2014. They include: A Hal(l)mark Bob Storm special, a minimalist Mike Thomas number on Tin Pan Alley, a jawdroppingly ridiculous Gene Marshall record about Nixon, and an very late, and depressing, MSR effort by Rodd Keith, or, rather, Rodd Rogers. 

And speaking of MSR....: 

I'm just not much of a fan of this label, particularly its output after the death of Rodd Keith. But I know there are plenty of MSR fans out there, so much so that the compilations that were released a few decades ago were subtitled after the label.

Despite my general disinterest, I do find this one, "Bye Bye" to be a minor pleasure, a nice, bouncy, almost polka-esque number, sung with more gusto than it deserves by Dick Kent. The sing-songy melody here reminds me more than a little of the repetitive melodies created by William Howard Arpaia, for those who know about him. That is not meant as a compliment.

Download: Dick Kent - Bye Bye
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On the flip side, as she so often was with Dick Kent (or, if you prefer, he on her backside), is Bobbi Blake, singing a curious lyric titled "My Souvenir". Again, this is a nice vocal, but this one suffers, as to many latter-day MSR records, from the sound of a certain deeply chintzy, early synthesizer, a model which renders many of those records unlistenable, at least to my ears.

Download: Bobbi Blake - My Souvenir
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Hand Me Down Girl

I thought I heard a little bird whisper in my ear "you haven't featured an MSR 45 in almost 15 months". So I went to the box, found one from that label's early days (being that I am strongly non-partial to their latter day releases), and found a nice little song from Bobbi Blake, written by that famous song-poem "Dee", a lyric with a sad story to tell, titled "Hand Me Down Girl". The lousy sound quality is rests entirely on the shoulders of those who pressed this record.

Download: Bobbi Blake - Hand Me Down Girl
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On the flip side, we have an unusually uninspired offering from Rodd Keith (listed here as Rodd Rogers), on "Me and My Guitar".  Not that the songwriter gave him much to work with. At least in this case they gave the guitar a prominent role - I've heard several song-poems about certain instruments which hardly feature the instrument in question, if at all.

Download: Rodd Rogers - Me and My Guitar
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A Mid-Summer Treat - A Full MSR Album from 1971!

I thought I'd send out something extra special today, especially in light of the fact that I've been sharing more like three "song poems of the week" each month instead of four for most of the year.

So.... here's a FULL album from MSR, titled "New Songs for '71", featuring Dick Kent and the Lancelots on most of the tracks, and Bobbi Boyle (Bobbi Blake, I do believe) and the MSR singers on the remainder.

Just a few notes:
     - I believe that "Hot Pants and Leather Boots That Shine" has traveled the song-poem collector  circuit, although I'm not sure. I just know that I'd heard it before getting this album.
      - Even though that's the case, it is not, by far, in my estimation, the most interesting track here. The next to last song on side, for example, "Do Right", stood out to me for it's ridiculously simplistic sloganeering, and the final track on side one, "California City" is a marvel, in the way it seems to be wanting to tell a story, but simply repeats the same incomprehensible and pointless anecdote twice.
      - The most amazing track here, by far, is on side two, and is called "Forty Going North". I was actually inspired to get up and make sure I still had the same album on the turntable, so different was this from anything else on the album, and indeed, from anything else MSR was doing around this time. Truly an amazing track.

I have not separated out the tracks - they are linked here simply as side one and side two.

Enjoy!!!!      

Download: Dick Kent and the Lancelots and Bobbi Boyle and the MSR Singers - New Songs for '71, Side One
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Download: Dick Kent and the Lancelots and Bobbi Boyle and the MSR Singers - New Songs for '71, Side Two
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A Six Song Command Performance

Before getting to todays record, here are two more very early Song-Poem ads, from "Film Fun" magazine, courtesy of reader and correspondent Pete! Note that these two ads seem very much to come from the same company, but that each is listed as being at a slightly different suite in the same building from the other.





And now, for a very special episode of "Six Songs in Ten Minutes":

I've never before featured anything from the Command Performance label, first because I don't have very many records on this label, and second because they tend to be, to my ears, very bland, along the same lines as those recorded on the latter day (post 1974) Cinema and MSR releases. Not a surprise there - all three labels seem to have been using virtually the same core bands and singers. I just don't hear the magic in the music that seems to be guaranteed by the name of the house band at Command Performance. Based on what's been released on song-poem comps and other information I have, I suspect I'm in the minority in this opinion of this troupe and their various labels, and by all means, if you want to hear more from the MSR/Cinema/Command/Etc. gang, let me know - I certainly have piles of it.

But this one stood out mostly because of the text of one of the songs, which we'll get to in a minute. Like similar EP's on Cinema (and others on Command Performance), the folks at the label managed to squeeze six very short songs on the two sides of the 45, then suggested in the timings that the songs were mostly right around two minutes. One is, the rest aren't - and nearly every song is 12-15 seconds shorter than indicated on the label.

I'm pretty sure the singer here is Bobbi Blake, and suspect that I know I'll hear from at least one or two people either confirming this or contradicting me.

I'm pretty much going to just line them up and let you play and/or download them, but I do want you to pay special attention to song two, "Our Society". I will say no more. The six songs are:

Download: The Music Magicians: The Beauty God Created
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Download: The Music Magicians: Our Society
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Download: The Music Magicians: Life of Peace
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Download: The Music Magicians: Little David
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Download: The Music Magicians: I Found a Friend
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Download: The Music Magicians: Ahead of It All
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Oh, I will add that I was hoping that "Little David" was about the behind-the-scenes machinations at George Carlin's record label (which was called Little David), but sadly, that does not appear to be the case.

Christmas is Coming! What if Jesus Comes, Too?

By now, some of the more perceptive of you may have picked up on a few subtle hints that Christmas is coming. While the Episcopalian in me wants to point out that this is not actually the Christmas season; that season actually begins on December 25th and runs to January 5th (hence, the 12 days of Christmas...). But that's a battle long lost to Burl Ives, Bing Crosby and Thurl Ravenscroft. And if you have to lose to three people, those aren't bad people to lose to.

So I'll chime right in for the next three weeks and offer up some Christmas related song-poems.

But one thing I do know is that the first Sunday of Advent, in whose week we are still in at this moment (depending on where and when you're reading this) has as part of its focus the preparation for Jesus' second coming. And that's where Bobbi Blake and the folks over at MSR come into the picture. Please excuse the shoddy condition of this 45, which has either been much loved or sadly neglected before it made its way to me, and join with song-poet Billie N. Yates in her wondering about how things would be "Should Jesus Come Today".

Download: Bobbi Blake - Should Jesus Come Today
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On the flip side is a little White Gospel, MSR style, with Bobbi Blake again offering up the vocal on "One Day at a Time", another offering from Ms. Yates. For this listener, at least, this song does not replace the John Lennon classic of the same name (one of my favorite JL solo tracks), in my brain.


Download: Bobbi Blake - One Day at a Time
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She Really Likes Those Green Mountains!

Here's an example of a song-poem, the specific likes of which I can't remember seeing before. Both sides are both sides written by the same lyricist - which is admittedly hardly a rarity - but both sides also have nearly identical song titles, but for one changed word. And of the two, the song that lyricist Dorothy Deane would presumably have preferred to have sung by a woman is the one sung by a man. I don't think these songs are particularly good - the second one I actually find extremely dreary - but I thought that the pairing of the songs themselves was interesting.

Bobbi Blake takes the lead first with "My Dear Green Mountain Home". The backing is pretty bland, as I find the majority of late '70's MSR records to be, but the lyrics are at least sweet, and Bobbi Blake provides a warm vocal.

Download: Bobbi Blake - My Dear Green Mountain Home
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Dick Kent takes over with "My Dear Green Mountain Sweetheart", which is just enough slwer than the flip side to become more and more tedious as it goes on - this is not helped out by the way that whoever wrote the music drags out the words of the chorus. And then there's "Oh, My, She's Just Swell".

By the way, the hum you may detect on both of these sides is right on the record. It starts off after the lead-in groove, and ends before the trail-off groove on each side. You can even here someone speak softly for a split second at the start of Dick Kent's side.

Download: Dick Kent - My Dear Green Mountain Sweetheart
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She's a Big Mama

Here's a nice example of MSR's earliest days, when their material resembled much of what Preview was doing, rather than the horrid pressing quality and disco stylings they moved into some time later. Bobbi Blake (identified here as Bobbi Boyle) has a song, "Big Mama" that's right in her wheelhouse, and she does a great job with it.

The song starts with a nice a cappella trio before settling into a swinging groove, with a bopping bass and supportive synth strings. The lyrics give self-praise to the writer - a "big, big mama" - and what she needs in a man. The whole thing wraps up in 105 fun seconds.

Download: Bobbi Boyle - Big Mama
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Over on the flip side, we get another label stalwart, Dick Kent, singing a lullaby, "Sleepy Head". I don't hear anything special here, musically, but the lyrics are appropriately sweet, and Dick Kent does a first-rate job with the vocal.

Download: Dick Kent - Sleepy Head
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Practice Your Rhythm

Regular readers will already know that I'm not much of a fan of certain song-poem labels - MSR and Columbine being the biggest names from the business that I can largely do without. But... I never intended this site to be just about my taste, and I should try more to reflect the whole world of the song-poem. I don't own much Columbine, so it rarely, if ever, shows up here, but I have MSR records coming out of my ears, and I might need to put them into rotation a bit more often.

Here's a start: A decent release from 1980, titled "Practice Your Rhythm". This is a nice enough shuffle of a track, with a bright, peppy and happy vocal from Bobbi Blake. The primitive synths (one of the things I could do without) are largely relegated to background flavoring, and the track is dominated by a real rhythm section, including a bouncy bass and some solid piano.

Download: Bobbi Blake - Practice Your Rhythm
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On the flip side, we have Dick Kent, telling us how "One Woman's Sufficient for Me". The lyrics to this one are quite odd at times - at one point he mentions that it's one "body" that is sufficient for him, and what's the reference to a voucher about? There's very little about this track that I like, but I will mention that it features some excellent and interesting bass playing.

Download: Dick Kent - One Woman's Sufficient for Me
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That's Her Kissy Face - In Prison

Continuing last week's feature of songs sent to me from a long-time song-poem pal, I've got two songs from a Cinema release, featuring of course The Real Pros. As with last week's feature, because I'm getting these from outside of my collection, I don't have label scans.

The two songs contained on this record could hardly be more different. On the A-side, we've got a light-as-a-feather pop confection called "That's Her Kissy Face", featuring the unusual pairing of acoustic guitar and cheapo synth, over which the singer - who I think is Bobbi Blake - sings a wonderful sweet lyric about a mother's love for her young daughter. Despite the ridiculously low production values, it's a keeper!

Download: The Real Pros - That's Her Kissy Face
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On the flip side, we have Gene Marshall, emoting all over something called "Prison Blues", something of tone poem (a tone-song-poem?), with absolutely no beat or rhythm. Over outtakes from the Deep Purple/Iron Butterfly song-intro file, Gene does a first rate job of offering up the feeling behind the songwriter's words of woe. It's a fairly singular sound and performance from within the song-poem world, actually. Have a listen:

Download: The Real Pros - Prison Blues
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A big thank you to Michael, from me and all the readers and listeners!

AND an addendum, all these years later - it appears I was wrong about both singers here. I'm not convinced that it is not Bobbi Blake on the first cut and it is not Gene Marshall on the flip. I don't know the female singer, and the male singer is the same one who was on most of the earliest Cinema releases. 

A Little Housekeeping

Shortly after I began this song-poem-of-the-week project - exactly four years ago this week, as a matter of fact - commenters began requesting that rather than share just one song, that I post both sides of any single that I choose, and that I scan and include the labels from both sides. I aim to please, and with very few exceptions, I've done that in all of my posts since early in the project. 

But I didn't do so in my recent WFMU post of ten Christmas song poems (which, in case you missed it, can be found here). So, in a little act of end-of-the-year housekeeping, here are nine of the ten flip sides from the tracks featured in that WFMU post (as mentioned in that post, the tenth record, "Picolo, The Christmas Elf", had a significant, crescent moon shaped crack in it - the flip side was virtually unplayable, and in trying to make it playable, I broke that crescent shape right out of the record. Ah, well...)

Here goes!

I actually believe this record, and one other (below) have been available online at some point, and may circulate among collectors, but I can't find that either of them are currently available, so, in the interest of completeness, I'm including them. The flip side of the Norris Mayhams Christmas single "Jingle Mint Twist", also by Mayhams, and sung by "Singing Sammy Marshall", is "Come Back to Me": 

Download: Singing Sammy Marshall - Come Back to Me
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The flip side of Norm Burns' "Christmas With You" is the rather bland "Living Rose":

Download: Norm Burns - Living Rose
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"Xmas and You" may have been a bit of sweetness from Eleanor Shaw, but the flip side is anything but sweetness. Have a listen to "Scars On My Broken Heart": 

Download: Eleanor Shaw - Scars On My Broken Heart

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The high-end song-poem outfit Stylecraft brought us "Christmas in Ireland" in my WFMU post, and on the flip side, the same batch of performers, headed by Lynne Richards, offers up "You've Got to Live to Love":

Download: Lynne Richards with the Bill Lawrence Orchestra - You've Got to Love to Live
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Next up, two songs which I really should have included in that WFMU post, because they are both Christmas songs. But I was paying attention to titles, and not having a re-listen before making the files, so I didn't pay any attention to that fact. Here, a week or so late, is the flip side to "Christmas Tree", Sandy and Patty's Fable label rendition of "Oh, Lovely Night": 

Download: Sandy and Patty with The Panics - Oh, Lovely Night

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And another Christmassy one, here's that other record that I think probably floats around in trading circles, Rod Rogers' flip to "Smile, It's Christmas", in which he expresses a holier thought for the day, "Let's Share a Prayer":

Download: Rod Rogers - Let's Share a Prayer
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Eleanor Shaw is back again, with the flip side of "Dear Santa", which is titled "Come Back":

Download: Eleanor Shaw - Come Back
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As was often the case on MSR records, labelmates shared a release on MSR 2377. On the reverse of Dick Kent's "Everywhere You Go on Christmas" lives Bobbi Blake's very un-Christmassy "Wicked Woman":

Download: Bobbi Blake - Wicked Woman
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Saving the weirdest for last, here is Madelyn Buzzard. At WFMU, I shared her song "Christmas is the Love Within Your Heart". For the flip, we have the mid-winter saga "Chicken House Blues", which pairs deeply strange lyrics with half-assed musical performance, and Madelyn's relentlessly terrible singing for true song-poem trifecta. Enjoy!

Download: Madelyn Buzzard - Chicken House Blues
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HAPPY NEW YEAR - It's been a challenging, at times wretched year, for family, friends and neighbors. Aside from a bright spot at the beginning of November, there's not much I would want to relive, and I'll be happy to see a new, hopefully better year come along. Despite all that, I have greatly enjoyed, yet again, sharing all of this wondrous, odd and unique music with you, and one bright spot has been the feedback that I've received here, and at WFMU, and for that I am thankful.

Bob

Uncatchy Song Title Day

Time is short this week, but as always, I have at least enough of it to offer up two more slices of song-poemery. Today we have two songs featuring clunky, wordy titles, of a type unlikely to catch on with anyone. This 1974 release is on Cinema, which means that the credited artist is The Real Pros, which in this case means the same old anonymous backing band, fronted by two stalwarts of the field. First up, Bobbi Blake singing the "Let's Shake Hands With Our Neighbors":

Download: The Real Pros - Let's Shake Hands With Our Neighbors

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The flip side has Dick Kent taking over lead vocal duties, on a charming number whose title also could definitely have used some editing, "In the Deepest Depths of Lonesome":

Download: The Real Pros - In the Deepest Depths of Lonesome

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When You Put This Song In Your Cassette...

This is another one of those weeks when there's too much on my plate to say much about the offering of the week, but like the U. S. Mail, I'm dedicated to delivering as promised. So here's the Queen of MSR, Bobbi Blake, with a song with an intriguing line in the middle of its lyric. "When you put this song in your cassette, you can bet I'll be gone". Was the writer of this lyric having her song commissioned primarily as a way of breaking up with her beau? It seems at least possible, given the lyric! Here's "Put On": 

Download: Bobbi Blake - Put On

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The most intriguing thing about the flip side of this record, "Say it With a Smile" (by the same song-poet, by the way), is that the billing is for "Bobbie Blake", rather than "Bobbi Blake". This occurred from time to time on MSR singles, but I don't think I've seen both spellings, one each on either side of a 45, other than on this record:

Download: Bobbie Blake -Say It With a Smile

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Chariots of the Gods

Time is exceptionally short this week, as I head off to a fabulous all-weekend-long activity, so I'm just going to offer today's Bobbi Blake feature, which also, unfortunately, features the absolutely terrible sound and pressing quality that MSR was noted for, at this time. Here's "Chariots of the Gods": 

Download: Bobbi Blake - Chariots of the Gods

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And a sad story indeed, is heard in this flipside, "Dear Sister":

Download: Bobbi Blake - Dear Sister

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Bobbi Blake

This is the week I get to offer up a more substantial thanks to a reader/poster named Sammy, who let me know of all the broken links which I've slowly been fixing. He's a big fan of Bobbi Blake, and has pointed out a glaring hole in the collection of songs I've posted over the course of 25 months - no Bobbi Blake! I'll rectify that today, and in the near future. The absence of the lovely-voiced Ms. Blake is less because of any dislike on my part for her singing (although, to be fair, my tastes in female vocals on song-poems run closer to the 1950's style heard on records by such singers as Betty Jayne and Cara Stewart). The main reason is that she did most of her work for MSR, a label whose general sound (with major exceptions) doesn't do all that much for me. But I never intended this site to just be about my taste - if I'm not posting something from a segment of the song poem world that you like or love, by all means let me know, through a comment to a post. Today, though, two MSR 45's which are major exceptions to my apathy for that label, at least on their respective A-sides. Best of the four Bobbi's to be heard today is probably the one which goes by the unlikely title of "Rochester New York Blues". I dunno, those words don't seem to have much in common with each other, or with the musical style heard on this platter. However, what is there is suitably odd and interesting. There's a nice soulful band performance, with some great organ fills during the vocal, but when the solo section hits, the weirdness begins, as it sounds to me like a carnival has come to town. On top of it all is a first rate vocal.

Download: Bobbi Blake - Rochester New York Blues

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The flip side is the downright turgid "Beggar of Love", which features that unfortunate string keyboard which is the biggest reason for my dislike of many MSR singles.

Download: Bobbi Blake - Beggar of Love

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  Picking up the pace, though, is the a-side of the second record I'm featuring today, a driving rocker with a forceful vocal (and in which those synth strings are thankfully buried), "Run My Son", a plea to the writer's child to follow the straight and narrow. The sudden fade makes me wonder if there was an error further towards what was supposed to be a longer fade. 

Download: Bobbi Blake - Run My Son

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Finishing out the set is "A Woman", another bland ballad, with one of those song-killing spoken sections. But getting two good songs out of two song-poem 45's is certainly far above the average.

Download: Bobbi Blake - A Woman

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Thanks again to Sammy - hope this is a good start at a pay back! 

A Bit of MSR

As I think I've mentioned here before, I'm not really a fan of the MSR label. There are records on the label (mostly from their early years) that I just love, but generally, I find them far less interesting than the records their competitors were making at the time. Oddly enough, MSR was a sister label to Preview, whose records from much the same era I often just love. I do find it odd that the compilation CD series was titled "MSR madness" - they wouldn't be the label I would focus on. 

I do, however, know that I'm in the minority with this, so I thought I should make the effort from time to time to share a sample of the many MSR 45's in my collection. Here's one featuring Bobbi Boyle (better known as Bobbi Blake - thanks to Sammy Reed for that reminder!) and Dick Kent. 

First up is Bobbi Boyle with "Seeking": 

Download: Bobbi Boyle (Bobbi Blake) - Seeking

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And here's Dick Kent, on the flip side, with the clunkily titled "Oh, Juanita, My Sweet Senorita":

Download: Dick Kent - Oh, Juanita, My Sweet Senorita

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