An Easter Egg For You - A Rare Rodd Keith Album from Australia - COMPLETE!

First, let me just say that there are some things going on in my personal life which may - or may not - impact just how much time I have to give to sharing and writing here for the next month or more. If there are fewer posts, I hope it is only for this month and next. 

But TODAY, I have something ultra rare and exciting: An entire album that Rodd Keith produced, under the Film City umbrella but clearly with more money and options, for a song-writer in Australia, and released in Australia on a legitimate Australian label - W & G records. 

The existence of this album has long been known, and its contents are duly related on the Film City page of the song-poem website - although that listing shows that the album was released domestically by Film City. But I can't find that its contents have ever been shared online. My copy is the Australian release, obtained from a friendly Australian record dealer named Michael. Thanks a million, Michael!

The album is called "Island Songs of the Great Barrier Reef", and indeed, all twelve songs are about Hayman Island and the surrounding areas. 

I am fairly certain that this entire album is a song-poem/vanity hybrid album, and that these are songs written - music and words - by the listed songwriters: Reg Hudson for the first song, and John Ashe for all the others. The tunes are quite pedestrian, for the most part, although some have a nice, and appropriate, South Pacific type of lilt. But none of them have the sort of tune-writing excellence I would associate with Rodd Keith. 

What they DO have, though, is embellishment. This is Rodd Keith working with at least a somewhat larger budget than he usually had, particularly at Film City, where he was usually a one-man band. Not only is there a female singer heard nearly throughout the album - heard, in fact, virtually as much as Rodd himself - as well as both a female chorus and a mixed chorus on other songs. There are also horns playing here and there - a sax solo on the first, song, for example, and a veritable Dixieland combo playing on the fourth song on side two, South Molle Memories. In addition, there is clearly a "real" piano being played over the Chamberlin backing on a few tracks. 

And despite the bland nature of the tunes, Rodd's musicianship, vocal chops and particularly, genius for arrangement, shine through over and over again. 

Below are files containing each of the two sides, with no attempt made to separate the tracks, followed by photos of the album and the labels. 

I have NOT listened to the files I made of this album - I listened to it first before making the files, and as I said, I'm a bit busy just now. If there are any glitches, let me know and I will fix them. 

I hope you receive this with as much excitement and enthusiasm as I had in receiving it. 

Download: Rod Rogers with the Tropic Island Serenaders - Island Songs of the Great Barrier Reef, Side One

Play:

Download: Rod Rogers with the Tropic Island Serenaders - Island Songs of the Great Barrier Reef, Side Two

Play: 

Sammy Marshall Fans Rejoice! It's a Full Sammy Album!

 Greetings, 

I'm still having trouble finding time to post, and it's likely September will be one of the dreaded "only two posts" months. But I gave you four tracks last time around, and to make up for the scarcity of posts again this time, I'm giving you TEN BIG TRACKS - and they're all on one album!

More about that in a moment. But first, the usual business about updating broken posts from what is now getting to be the distant past. 

We're all the way back to April of 2009! That month, I wrote a whopping seven posts, five of them song-poem related. These included a particularly ridiculous Mike Thomas entry, a Preview single featuring two different singers under the same name, the fabulously named Teacho Wiltshire on an early Tin Pan Alley release, an excellent early Rodd Keith record from Film City, and the story of - and contents of - the very first song-poem record I owned, which I acquired in 1976, with no idea what it was. 

At that time, I was also regularly sharing recent finds that were of the non-song-poem variety, and for that month, I shared a wonderful Louie Prima record (now readily available on Youtube, but I thought I'd be a completist), and a record I'd discovered by an obscure singer I love (and who I'd been featuring for some time at that point), Toby Deane - song record which is not yet on Youtube (that post's track is of extremely low sound quality, and I'm looking for the record in order to update the link with a better sounding file). 

Okay, that's outta the way....

~~

The AS/PMA site documents one album on the fairly horrible "Ronnie" label, and while this is not that album, it does carry the same title, "Ronnie Presents New Songs of Today", which seems rather redundant to me. I mean, "New Songs of 1913" wouldn't make much sense, would it? 

Anyway, this is a 10 inch LP, with five songs on each side, ALL sung by "Ben Tate", which is a pseudonym for Sammy Marshall (and yes, I know, "Sammy Marshall" was also a pseudonym - his real name is Marc Simpson). The album label looks like this for side one: 

I have to admit, were it not for the oddity and rarity of this being a song-poem album, and all by someone not known for albums, I wouldn't necessarily have chosen any of these for individual feature. They are, for the most part (some may say entirely) lifeless, dull, soulless, musically vapid and generally have lyrics which are about as uninspired as can be. In other words, typical Ronnie song-poem tracks. 

But sharing it is what I'm doing today, and here is side one of the album: 

Download: Ben Tate - New Songs of Today, Side One

Play:  

And here is the other side, featuring the two songs which I think at least have some oddness to the lyrics, track two, "Farewell, My Beloved", and the closing tune, "Do It Right"

Download: Ben Tate - New Songs of Today, Side Two

Play:

By the way, if anyone is interested, the same eBay seller from whom I bought this album has another copy listed on eBay right now. 

And here's the side two label: 

A Full Song-Poem Album. On Halmark. Yes, it's a HALMARK ALBUM!

Greetings!

Before I get to the site updates and today's amazing offering, I want to let everyone know that I've again been offered the chance to take part in a podcast, about yet another item from my large collection of recordings. 

In this case, it's about the history of, and my history with, an album called "Musical Memories of Camp Bryn Afon", a record made in tiny quantities in 1965, one copy of which I've owned since 1985. It is a deeply obscure choice for this honor, but it is my second favorite album ever. 

The podcast is part of the series "Ephemeral", and is the fourth to feature aspects of my collection. This episode can be found here: 

https://www.ephemeral.show/episode/cba

~~

I have, as usual, updated yet another month of posts, in this case, October of 2009, a month in which I shared a fantastic and ridiculous Tin Pan Alley bopper, a different Tin Pan Alley record featuring two revealing sets of lyrics, a nice set of tunes from Rodd Keith and a rather insane dance tune from the pen of Norridge Mayhams. 

Finally, that month I also created a fun little mash-up, of two recording acts unlikely to have actually worked together, and I shared that in a post to be found here.  

~~

The big news this week is that, after a long delay, I am honoring a request from a reader, and posting something that I would guess is exceptionally rare: An album on the Halmark label. 

Released in what I believe was the early years of the label - 1969 - it's called "Mercy Drops", and is made up entirely of songs with Christian lyrics, with all twelve songs written by someone named Joe Carmen.

And the Halmark people were already up to their standard tricks, not bothering to hide the fact that they used the same tracks over and over again. One track is featured on a song on each side, and most ridiculously, another track is featured on two songs on the same side (side two). Perhaps they thought the song-poet. 

More likely, they didn't care. 

Whatever the explanation, I think it speaks a high level of contempt on the part of Halmark towards their customers, one that I've thought was clear for a long, long time. 

A few other oddities here. First, the logo on the record is entirely different from the style they used, and frequently modified, on their 45's, and what's more, it looks enough (to me) like the logo of the real (and enormous) Hallmark Cards company that there could have been a lawsuit, had more than perhaps 20 people ever seen this record. 

And second, two singers are credited: Bob Storm and Marshall Young. The songs credited to Bob Storm do not sound like the Bob Storm who is credited on some of the Halmark singles. But Marshall Young - on some tracks he does sound like, and quite clearly IS, the same singer so often identified as Bob Storm on those later records. But I perceive at least three singers here, labeled as these two men. It makes me wonder if "Bob Storm" doesn't exist the way that another label stalwart, "Jack Kim" clearly does or did exist, as we know his real name, Jack Kimmel. Maybe "Bob Storm" was a catchall for more than one singer, and not even clearly delineated as the unctuous over-emoter we all know and love until later. 

Halmark is just one mystery after another. 

Here's what the front cover looks like: 

And here's the label on side one. 

The tracks and credited singers on side one are: 

Mercy Drops - Bob Storm

God's Great Love - Bob Storm

Jesus At Calvary - Bob Storm

Fill My Heart, Dear Lord - Marshall Young

Our Father's Great Love - Marshall Young

How True Are You to Jesus - Marshall Young

Download: Mercy Drops, Side One

Play:   

The tracks and credited singers on side two are: 

When Jesus Came To Our World - Marshall Young

Christ is the Worlds (sic) True Light - Marshall Young

There Are Changes in the Heart - Marshall Young

Where is God - Marshall Young

The Last Word in Jesus is Us - Bob Storm

Jesus Did All Things Well - Marshall Young

Download: Mercy Drops, Side Two

Play:  

Here is the back cover: 

In case you can't make it out, the address of Halmark is listed as being in the small town of Lapel, Indiana (not far, I'm guessing, from Cuff Link, Indiana and Button Down Shirt, Ohio, but quite a ways north of Inseam, Kentucky), and was pressed by a company in Richmond Indiana, both far away from Halmark's actual headquarters in Massachusetts.

Here is the label for side two: 

Truth and Universal Truth: The Inspirational Songs of Michael Kasberg

Several weeks ago, I posted a song-poem single written by the singularly unusual and wonderful song-poet, Michael Kasberg. I mentioned that, once he got the song-poem bug, he really went to town, creating his own label, and churning out several albums of his idiosyncratic material. I had a few requests for more Michael Kasberg, and today, I am honoring those requests.

But first, I want to update you yet again as to the fact that I have corrected the broken links on another month's worth of posts, in this case, those from March of 2013. These include a typically odd and disjointed entry from Mike Thomas on Tin Pan Alley, an above average record for the Noval label (which admittedly isn't saying much), a typically stodgy release on Film-Tone, and a Gene Marshall record featuring a really poor choice of words on one side and blatant plagiarism on the flip side. I've actually updated the text on that last one to indicate that the folks at Preview seem to have recognized the thievery and turned the publishing credit over to the holder of the copyright on the song being ripped off.

~~
And now on to Michael Kasberg, with that full album as promised, "Truth and Universal Truth: The Inspirational Songs of Michael Kasberg".

Mr. Kasberg seems to have used the folks at MSR, perhaps exclusively, for his releases on his own Kay-Em label. Here, he credits Richard Kent (much more well known under a similar aka, Dick Kent), Barbara Foster (who I believe is Bobbi Blake - I'm sure Sammy Reed can confirm or rule this out), and Joan Merrill, who I am not familiar with. I don't see a date my copy of the album, but the AS/PMA website lists it as having been released in 1982 (with all of his albums having been produced between 1978 and 1984, the latter date lining up with the end of known production from MSR).

Here's an edited, rearranged version of what I wrote about Michael Kasberg back in December:

Kasberg's songs feature tortured syntax, a sense of jokiness, and a "slightly off" feeling throughout much of his material, and all of this shines through on most of his songs - certainly more often than not. The word "idiosyncratic" could have been invented for Mr. Kasberg.

I am not going to highlight anything specific from this album, but rather, just let you enjoy it from start to finish. I've simply digitized it in two files, side one and side two. The titles can be seen in the scans of the record labels and in small print on the photo of the back cover. I also encourage you to read this enlarged scan of the text found in the center of the back cover, as it is just as enjoyable as the music:

I have not checked these files for any skips or electronic glitches - I simply didn't have time to listen to the entire thing twice - if there are any imperfections, please let me know, and I will fix the section as soon as I get the chance.

Download: Richard Kent, Barbara Foster and Joan Merrill - Truth and Universal Truth: The Inspirational Songs of Michael Kasberg, Side One
Play:

Download: Richard Kent, Barbara Foster and Joan Merrill - Truth and Universal Truth: The Inspirational Songs of Michael Kasberg, Side Two
Play:

Words and Music by "Jim" Stross

I know posting around here has been a little sparse in recent months, and particularly in January, but BOY OH BOY do I have a lot to share today, including eight previously unheard song-poems, all from the same disc.

First up, I am happy to announce that I have been invited to be part of yet another podcast, this one focusing on my own personal 25 favorite song-poem and song-poem related records. This has been in the works for over six months, and the podcaster, Brian Kramp, and I finally did the interview late in January. The podcast can be heard here and here, and if you want to see the list of songs, it can be found here (the list is in reverse order, from 25 up, with a section near the top of a handful of song-poem related discs (which are not actually song poems). It's all explained in the show.

Brian was nice enough to include one of the songs from my recently released album of comic songs, and also to include a cover I performed, live, of one of my favorite song-poem related records, at the end of the show.

Looking over the list, there are some others I might have included - and I've been invited to do a second episode. I think there might be a few replacements in the bottom half of the list, so this is not my absolute top 25, but it's close, and the top 10-12 are unshakable. And as I've mentioned here before, my tastes in song-poems does not necessarily match that of the larger (however large it is) song-poem fandom world - there are, for example, no MSR, Sammy Marshall or Gene Marshall tracks in this top 25, it does reflect that my basic taste in music prefers things from before 1965 in a lot of cases, and a LOT of the fringe of this fringe world is represented.

I hope you'll enjoy it.

Brian has also offered up a multitude of song-poem ads that he's found, since our interview, and I'm going to share those with you, much as I shared a similar collection that was sent to me a few years ago. I don't have a lot of details about them. Here's one from Calgary:

~~~

Second, as has been the case for the last several months now, I have fixed yet another month worth of postings, in this case, January of 2014. This was a month I tried out a short lived feature in which I shared song-poems about places, a sort of song-poem travelogue. This includes the earliest known "Real Pros" record, featuring a trip to Napoli, a peppy Rodd Keith trip to Wisconsin, an absolutely wonderful pair of polkas from Cara Stewart, and a soulful vocal from Gene Marshall. I remember deciding to go on that little song-poem road trip, and can hardly believe it was over six years ago!

This completes my postings from 2014, with the exception of a massive post I did upon the occasion of the death of Pete Seeger, which I will have to put back together when I have considerably more time. 

~~~

To make up for the slow down in postings lately, I thought this would be a good time to share a song poem album. In this case, "album" is a bit of an overstatement, as this is a ten-inch special, containing eight songs and about 24 minutes of music. But it's a unique entry, in that it represents an otherwise unknown label and song-poet. 

The songwriter - who in this case wrote both the words and music, making this a song-poem/vanity hybrid, is identified as "Jim" Stross, just like that, with quotation marks. He employed the Globe song-poem factory and its stable of singers, providing that key link between vanity project and song-poem release. The label is JKS, presumably Mr. Stross' initials, and the label informs us that the record is "Not For Sale". Don't tell anyone that I bought it on eBay. 

The first side contains the following four songs: Just Before Sunset, One Night in Tucson, Sudden Love & Stop Playing With My Heart. The first three are sung by Sammy Marshall, the final one by Kris Arden. They generally have the typical Globe studios sound. I have not separated them out - here is side one: 

Download: Various Artists - Words & Music by "Jim Stross", Side One

Play:  

Side two starts with my favorite of the eight songs, a Sammy Marshall dance special - which are almost always fun - titled "Dip, Flip, Twist, Stomp". This is followed by My One Ambition (which has a co-writer and is sung by Kris Arden), Autumn Rain (sung by Mary Kaye), and Santa Claus Means Christmas (sung by Kris Arden). Enjoy!

Download: Various Artists - Words & Music by "Jim Stross", Side Two

Play:  

Yours Cruelly, Mrs. Suds

Well, I haven't been posting much, what with a quadrennial visit from the accreditors, and the unexpected need to replace my car as quickly as possible. Hasn't left much time to do a lot of other things. And there still isn't a lot of time now, so although I'd hoped to respond to a couple of questions today, that will have to wait until next time.

As a reward for your patience, I'm going to offer up a full song-poem album, one that is so new-to-me that I haven't actually had a chance to listen to it yet - in fact, if there are glitches here, please let me know, because I literally didn't have the time to listen to this while the file was being created, or to the file, once it was done.

With one exception.

I bought this album despite the facts that I 1.) have almost no patience for the output of the Columbine label, and 2.) very rarely find anything to enjoy in the work of Kay Weaver, who dominates this album. And the reason I did, as soon as I saw it on eBay, was the presence of the song title you see up there at the top of this post, "Yours Cruelly, Mrs. Suds". I HAD to hear what that was.

And so, here is it. It does not disappoint.The lyrics do not contain the title phrase, and are instead concerned with the narrator of the lyrics seeking a "1-1-8". My friend Stu found a reference to this phrase meaning "drunk", and that could certainly be the meaning here, judging from the remainder of the lyrics. Lee Scott, in her only vocal on the album, gives a full bodied reading of those lyrics. And oh, those lyrics. Someone is having an issue with alcohol, and it doesn't sound like the rest of his life (the lyricist is male) is going that well either. I'll let you experience the joys of this song for yourself - it's certainly one of the more esoteric song-poems I've heard in recent months. Or years. And that may well be my favorite song-poem title phrase ever.

Download: Lee Scott - Yours Cruelly, Mrs. Suds

Play:

And now, for your edification and enjoyment, the entire album. "The Now Sounds of Today" (which is the name of virtually every Columbine album), edition CRH - 81:

Again, I have not listened to these, so you all are actually going to get the chance to enjoy this collection before I do. As was often the case, the good (?) folks at Columbine included two public domain songs that nearly everyone would know, in order to make this look like a legitimate release. Kay Weaver handles 16 of the 18 tracks, with Ralph Lowe and the aforementioned Lee Scott each handling one. Enjoy!

Download: Columbine Records: The Now Sounds of Today (CRH-81), Side One

Play:

Download: Columbine Records: The Now Sounds of Today (CRH-81), Side Two

Play:

In Memory of Elvis on 8/16/18

It's been 41 years since the King of Rock and Roll last saw the inside of an earthly bathroom, and in honor of this death anniversary, I want to offer up a full song-poem album, one on the Royal Master label, featuring three singers - Matt Vincent, Jaye Pauley and Jim Ward - not heard on this site before. In all, nearly 45 minutes of song-poems.

 

(I hoped to have more to say about the album, the anniversary and the individual tracks, and set aside a couple of hours to do so, but car problems last night (now resolved) ate up that time, and a third hour as well, and in order to get this up today, I'm just going to share the tracks. I haven't even had a chance to make sure there are no glitches in the MP3's. Please let me know if there are any issues.)

So herewith, the front cover of this masterpiece:

And the record label for side one, containing all the song titles and lyricists:

And here are the two sides of the album:

Download: Various Artists - A Tribute to the King, Side One
Play:

Download: Various Artists - A Tribute to the King, Side Two
Play:

Here is the back cover: 

 

Here is the label for side two:

 

 

And a close-up of the back cover, showing the performers of each song: