Give the Drummer Some!

 

I don't have a lot to say about today's offering, particularly not the first of the two I'm sharing. The singer is Eleanor Shaw, who we last heard doing the utterly ridiculous "Ohoo Made a Sing Out of Sex". For this song, "Fountain of Hope", I have listened a few times, and I really don't know - or much care - what she's singing about, not only because it's sounds pretty vapid, but more so because as the song goes on the drummer is killing it. The guitarist has some nice moments, too. This is the same basic minimalist lineup that appeared on Tin Pan Alley for over a decade, but they rarely sounded this good. And for song poem drumming, I usually only expect to hear playing like this on 1960's Preview releases. 

Download: Eleanor Shaw: Fountain of Hope

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The flip side is "A Soldier Dies", and I liked this less and less as it went on. First, Eleanor Shaw does not appear to be the right singer for this type of material. But more than that, the gung-ho view of Vietnam soldiers - even at the time of this release (1969 or 1970), but certainly in retrospect - doesn't sit well with me. I daresay at least a good portion of soldiers who found themselves mortally wounded at that point in the war did not consider themselves willingly doing a job "they had to do" or that their deaths allowed others to be free. And when, in the end, the song-poet ties the soldier's death into the hymn "Onward Christian Soldiers", that was way too much for me. 

Download: Eleanor Shaw: A Soldier Dies

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Ohoo! Ohoo Who? OHOO! Who's That? And What Did Ohoo Do?

Today, a record I've wanted to share for a really long time, but always held back because.... well because the record came to me with a chip out of the outside edge, and neither side will play all the way through from the start. But several days ago, I decided to see if I could create a sound file from each side which starts early enough that nothing but a few opening chords or riffs were missed, and hopefully almost make it sound like nothing was missing. Happily, I was able to do that well with one side, and passably with the other. Or at least they sound good enough to me. No more than five seconds appears to have been missed on either side.

The focus of all of this burning desire to share a record with you is the song "Ohoo Made a sin Out of Sex". And really, how could it NOT be. Especially when it features a singer as consistently awful as Eleanor Shaw (look for her other songs posted here if you don't believe me). This is the side with the nearly passable attempt at correcting for the missing music at the start. 

Other than that, I think I'd like to let you experience the weirdness, the downright otherness of this track, rather than go into much detail. Suffice it to say that it's truly awful in every aspect possible, particularly the vocal, and as the late host of a local radio show used to say "What the Hell is She Singing About". 

Download: Eleanor Shaw - Ohoo Made a Sin Out of Sex

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The flip side is "What Is Love?", happily not the insipid and mind-numbing number from 1960 by the Playmates, but unhappily, a song just as bad. And whoever wrote a melody line which contained the sweeping high notes of the sort heard at the 0:29 point.... well, clearly that person was not aware of Eleanor Shaw's vocal limitations. 

On the other hand, it's not too many songs, particularly not songs addressing aspects of the human condition (as this one does) which make reference to flat tires and a sprocket wrench. So there's that. 

Download: Eleanor Shaw - What is Love?

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Mooned by Tin Pan Alley

If you've paid attention at all to the song-poems of the late '60's and early '70's, you'll know that one of the common themes that crops up over and over again is Astronauts. Today, I have for you perhaps the weirdest, most ridiculous of these entries, a song simply titled "Moon", and sung by the aggressively terrible singer Eleanor Shaw.

I know that many song-poem records were done, literally, as sight-reading jobs, but to do so, the labels really needed to get people who were competent (or better) at sight reading. And if Eleanor wasn't sight reading, she's even worse than I thought, given her performance about 25 seconds into this 92 second treat.

And what, exactly, is the song about? Clearly, there's a reference to Neil Armstrong, and some other moon-related thoughts, but I'm not really picking up on a story here, or even a coherent line of thought. Perhaps Ms. Shaw's vocals are just that distracting, that I can't concentrate closely enough on what she's saying.

Regardless, I think this one is an all time winner in the so-bad-it's-great school of song-poems, an area in which Tin Pan Alley, during this era, really went above and beyond.

Download: Eleanor Shaw: Moon
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The flip side, "Summer Night (Soirs D'ete), does not enchant me much at all. Indeed, it seems to go on forever and ever, although it's actually barely a minute longer than its astonishing flip side. The supper-club style backing band is shown up throughout by their lead guitar player, who seems to have 85% of all the talent involved in both sides of the record. And yet even the band is considerably better than their singer.

Download: Eleanor Shaw: Summer Night (Soirs D'ete)
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Helping You Get In That Winter Mood!

It's been hard to tell it around these parts (just outside of Chicago), especially with temperatures yesterday above 60, but Winter began either on December 1st (if you listen to the Meteorologists) or three days ago (if you listen to almost everyone else).

To help get you in the mood, here's a record from Tin Pan Alley, from the label's mid-to-latter days, a period when their hiring standard seems to have been "only allow people who have minimal talents on their instruments or in singing".

At least either the typesetter or the song-poet himself kept with the incompetence theme, spelling the word "Icicle" as "Icycle" (I only just noticed this, so if you are a perfectionist, you'll need to change the spelling on the downloadable track).

It's worth noting that at one point the lyrics move us into August - I'm not at all sure we weren't there from the start. If so, Eleanor Shaw is singing to something that isn't even there.

Download: Eleanor Shaw: The Little Icycle
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The less said about the flip side, "Always", the better. Suffice it to say that Irving Berlin has nothing to worry about.

Download: Eleanor Shaw: Always
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HAPPY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!!!

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

What the Hell???

It's Tin Pan Alley Blowout Day here at the home of Song Poem of the Week, with six for the price of two. And the usual two are free! Was there any other song-poem label which displayed more variety during its years of operation than Tin Pan Alley? From 1950's efforts in doo-wop, they moved into the sounds of the day, taking stabs at calypso, topical song, novelty pop, and 1960's pop, among many other genre's, and plenty of hard to define releases. Beyond that, Tin Pan Alley records' lyrics can be among the weirdest I've found on song-poem records. Here, in chronological order, are three supremely odd releases. First up, an almost comical pairing of marital complaints, both from the pen of the perfectly named Larry Loco. First up, Billy Grey offers up Mr. Loco's views of Marriage, from the male perspective. 

Download: Billy Grey - Marriage

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  Then, on the flip side, Eleanor Shaw presents Larry's conception of the complaints of a woman, not only about her marraige, but about all men. The sound quality here is terrible, by the way, but the words more than make up for it.

Download: Eleanor Shaw - Man

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  Moving up several years now: Near the end of their days as a label, Tin Pan Alley stopped identifying the performers by name, and started slapping a couple of group names on their labels. The last four songs are by "New Image". First up is "Pride", with the lyrics shoehorned - no, pistol-whipped - into a rockin' backing track. I've listened to this nearly a half-dozen times, and have no idea what the hell she's singing about. 

Download: New Image - Pride

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 No such problems with the flip side, "A Girl and a Guy in Love", the problems here, instead, being the sheer banality of the lyrics (have there ever been worse or more obvious rhymes than those featured in this record?), and the barely in tune vocal.

Download: New Image - A Girl and a Guy in Love

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  Leaving the best for last, here's one of the highest numbers I've ever seen on a TPA record - meaning it is among their last releases. Beyond that, it's easily one of the most unhinged things I've heard on a TPA record (on both sides) - in both cases, my first thought, again, was "what the hell???". But I think I'll let both sides speak for themselves. Here's "Fortune Teller": 

Download: New Image - Fortune Teller

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And perhaps my favorite of the six, this little slice of Steppenwolf wannabe rock, "Lady Wildcat".

Download: New Image - Lady Wildcat

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