A Song Poem/Vanity Record Hybrid

I've been having a hard time getting to my sites this month - it could be that there will only be two offerings this month. Just a lot going on. 

But I have a sort of weird one today, weird for a couple of different reasons, more so the second side than the first.

At first glance, the A-side of today's Preview offering looks and sounds like a typical label release of its day, Gene Marshall singing something called "Della Primavera" which my computer tells me means "Of Spring".

Like I always do, I checked first to see if either side of this record was commonly available, on YouTube or anywhere else. It is not, But upon doing that search, the annoying AI answer - which is everywhere now (and YUCK) told me about the Gene Marshall doll collection. I knew from previous searches that there is such a collection - a somewhat high end set of dolls for the collectors market. AI then told me that "Della Primavera" was a rare and very collectable Gene Marshall doll. That'd be a weird coincidence. If it was true. So far as I've been able to find, via further searches, is that AI completely made that link up. There is no Gene Marshall Della Primavera doll. 

So, as it turns out, this really IS a typical Preview label release of its day. But for a moment, I thought I had a REALLY weird coincidence to share with you. 

What was I saying.... oh, the song. Sorry about the terrible sound - I don't think the record was played to death, I just think the pressing sucks. But then, so does the song. At least it's over quickly. 

Download: Gene Marshall - Della Primavera

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The real oddity is on the flip side. It's titled "Aloha But Not Goodbye", although the torn label obscures the title a bit, and it's by The Paramours. This group does not show up on any other Preview 45's, nor does this record sound like anything produced by the label. It actually sounds more like the ridiculous, poorly arranged close harmony sing-songy tunes that showed up on William Howard Arpaia's song-poem albums and singles, for all of you who have heard those. 

What accounts for that? Well, this record wasn't made by Preview records. It was recorded for a tiny label in California called Orange Cross Records. At some point, these wily Paramours seem to have gotten the idea that maybe a label that wasn't really tiny but was completely a scam might be able to make hay with their record. THE B-SIDE of their record, to boot. And so they presumably paid Preview to put out their song again. 

I would love to hear the backstory on this one. And once again, DO NOT trust AI, which will tell you that Bobby Hatfield and Bill Medley were in this band, prior to forming the Righteous Brothers. They were not. That was a different band with the same name. 

Keep in mind - while listening to this song and imagining that The Paramours thought they might have a hit, either on a tiny label out of a suburb of Anaheim or on a label that did no promotion of its releases at any time - that this record came out around.... 1970. 

Good luck with that, men. 

Download: The Paramours - Aloha But Not Goodbye

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Mary Jo and Ted "Millionaire" Kennedy

Today's record is called "The Spoiled Millionaire" and it's by the great Gene Marshall. I'm sure that when I got this record, and looked at the title - that is, if I gave it a second thought at all - I thought it was some screed, an indictment (probably fairly vague) of some generalized, very likely fictional "millionaire". 

That is most definitely not the case. This is, instead, a story song about Mary Jo Kopechne and her July, 1969 death in a car driven by Ted Kennedy. I found the lyrics hard to understand at times, given how Gene's vocal is buried in the mix. This is even though the chirpy backup singers repeat some of what he sings, a choice which strikes me as aggressively inappropriate for the story being told. However, the song-poet clearly thinks the other person in the car should have died. 

Beyond that, I'll let the song tell the story. 

Download: Gene Marshall - The Spoiled Millionaire

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The flip side is a tribute to the credited author of the last book of the New Testament, The Revelation to John, and is therefore most logically titled "John the Revelator". I was hoping for something more interesting, because if there's one thing that book is not, it's boring. But this IS boring. There are a couple of references to what is written in the book, but nothing very interesting. Where are the Eyes of Fire? Where are the Four Horsemen? Where is the Defeat of Satan? 

No, most of this is about the writer, not what he wrote. Like I said, boring. 

Download: Gene Marshall - John the Revelator

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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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Two Insane Dance-Related Song-Poems from the Pen of John Lester

 

Okay, I must admit that when I first saw the title of this Barbara Foster (aka Bobbi Blake) 45, "Germination", I sort of assumed the lyrics would be some sort of play on words regarding certain reproductive activities. 

However, this only seems to sort of be the case - any such reference is buried in something entirely other. That is to say, not only this side, but both sides of this record seem to have come from a rather batshit crazy cranium. In the simplest terms, both songs seem to be about dancing. And yes, love-making certainly can be and has been described as a dance, and song-poet John E. Lester even makes reference to Cupid here, but the dance steps in "Germination" won't get you there. 

The opening lines of this song are a mystery to me. I've listened several times and simply cannot make out every word of what is being sung in the first verse. What I can make out is non-sensical (something about Java? "Delilah in Iceland without no fur"?, "Let's Begin like in 'Begin the Beguine'"?). We are then encouraged to "Germinate Love, It's Cupid's Thing". Having said that, though - as I mentioned, - we then are instructed in some very vague dance moves.

Maybe this makes more sense to one or more of you out there. 

Download: Barbara Foster - Germination

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The flip side features Gene Marshall doing "Cupid's Review" by the same song-poet. And it's worth noting that the only documented song-poem (other than these two) credited to this song-poet was called "Cupid's Thing", so Mr. Lester certainly had an area of interest. 

If anything, this one befuddles me even more than "Germination". You know you're in for a good time when Gene speaks over the introductory music. I can't make out one of the words for certain: 

"Make like you're on the way to the city, you know in your best <clothes?>

Know your color, love? Well anyway, you're it - YEAH!"

The rest of the song is about going to something called "Cupid's Review" (don't act too extreme, by the way). By the 38 second mark, Gene is talking again, explaining that apparently the review is a series of classic dances - whether we are watching or participating is unclear. There is an important moment when Gene questions what time signature is being used, and a bit later, he has a conversation with an unheard participant. The talking goes on for a full 70 seconds of this 150 second record.

I have literally no idea what this song-poet was on about. And I'd like to hear "Cupid's Thing". 

But - and I mean this entirely sincerely - Gene's last note is one for the ages, truly a thing of beauty, and deserved to be on a better record and song than this. 

Download: Gene Marshall - Cupid's Review

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Hitting On the Nurse

We're featuring Gene Marshall and his lovely voice today. The song has the promising title "Patient and His Nurse". Perhaps Song-Poet Harry Fineburg was writing from personal experience, perhaps he'd been watching a few soap operas, or perhaps he was just letting his imagination run wild. I say this because, to me at least, these lyrics seem to indicate the patient - who is heard in first person in the lyrics - is quite enamored of, and seems to be at least passively hitting on, his favorite nurse. 

Perhaps there is another explanation. Feel free to chime in. 

Download: Gene Marshall - Patient and His Nurse

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"All That Remains" on the flip side, is a wisp of a song and lyric. Both sides of this record are padded out to an acceptable length (for a 45) by having the chirpy background singers go on at length (as well as short periods of instrumental vamping by the band), and then having Gene sing a verse he'd already sung. This is egregious even in "Patient and His Nurse", in which we have heard all of the available lyrics at the 70 second mark. In "All That Remains", we've heard every written lyric by the 49 second point, and even WITH the padding, the record is STILL only 110 seconds long. 

Download: Gene Marshall - All That Remains

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Gene's Talkin' Jesus

 

With the Christian Holy Week approaching quickly (and this is one of those years when the Western Churches and the Orthodox Church observe Holy Week's events at the same time), what better occasion than to have Gene Marshall tell us about Jesus. 

That's right, Gene is going to tell us, not sing to us. Oh, he sings a little, but mostly he's going to read a statement. A sermon of sorts. When I hear a record such as "Let Jesus Save You", I wonder a couple of things. 

First, did the song-poet understand how lyricism works, as opposed to prose? There is nothing in the spoken word section here that could have reasonably, or even unreasonably, been set to a melody. And second, was the song-poet satisfied with this performance? Gene gives a good sermon, I'll say that. But presumably, the lyricist (sic) paid for a song. What we have here, aside from about 10 seconds of instrumental passages is: 

Gene singing: 40 seconds

Gene talking: 100 seconds

Download: Gene Marshall - Let Jesus Save You

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The folks at Preview were nice enough to team up two Christian songs on one 45. It wasn't automatically going to be that way - can you imagine the song-poet of either of these sides taking a gander at the flip side and having it be either of the two songs heard in this post (you'll have to listen to those songs to get what I'm joking about). 

Anyway, "On This Mountain" is an actual song, and if nothing else, Gene provides an excellent vocal, with an appropriate aching tone in spots, unfortunately not in the service of anything special in the way of lyrics (the line "He died for all colors: black and white, you see" seems particularly half-baked) or of  backing support. Indeed, the instrumental section has to be among the more low-energy solo sections I've heard on a Preview disc, and the keyboardist and bass player don't really seem to be working from the same chord changes during this section. 

Download: Gene Marshall - On This Mountain

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Gabriel Is the Pin Boy

I haven't featured Gene Marshall for a while, so today it's Gene Marshall day. "Thunder Lullabye" consists of a parent trying to calm a child down when the child is frightened by a storm. The parent's explanation here is an old standby (or perhaps "standbye" given the spelling of "Lullabye") fleshed out with some unlikely manual tasks assigned to a few heavenly heavy hitters. 

This record also features a rare flub by the folks behind the scenes at Preview, which you'll no doubt notice as the song comes to an end. 

Download: Gene Marshall - Thunder Lullabye

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I would love to tell you the name of the song on the flip side, and share the label with you, but this particular record came to me with the same label - the one for "Thunder Lullabye" - so I don't know its name. And this record never made it into the song-poem archives database. So feel free to supply whatever name you feel most fits the track. 

The singer is again Gene Marshall, and it's one of the endless series of "you're leaving me" song-poems, as well as yet another one of those records where the chirpy backup singers repeat the last thing the singer said, like a child with echolalia. And a hint to the song-poet (sadly unnamed, due to the lack of label credit): The phrase "Please Repeat This Again" is redundant.  

Download: Gene Marshall - Flip Side of "Thunder Lullabye"

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Little Joey Writes a Letter

I had a request for a few Christmas song-poems, and I spent part of this last weekend searching my holding for just that sort of record. While I didn't check the song-poem albums in my collection, I did look through the vast majority of my 45s, and I found.... that for the most part I've already shared most of my Christmas related song-poems over the years, either here, or, in one case, in a large post of Christmas song-poems at WFMU. Three are still way too many unshared religious song-poems (almost all of them Christian), but few of them are specifically about Christmas. 

I found two. Or rather, I found one song-poem 45 and one vanity record on the Film City label. Today is the song-poem, and in a week or so I'll offer up the Film City delight. 

From the vapid, post-Rodd Keith, cheapo synth strings era of the Preview label (and not at all long before the demise of the label), we have Gene Marshall singing "Little Joey to Santa Claus". Note how very few lyrics there are in this nearly three minute track, stretched out by an interminable instrumental break and a repeating of about half the lyrics a second time. 

Alas, as we all know, Little Joey grew up to learn to play Trombone before becoming a criminal and ending up in prison with Shifty Henry, Sad Sack and Elvis Presley. Oh, and that cutie known as Number Three. Perhaps if Santa had only brought him those roller skates. 

Download: Gene Marshall - Little Joey to Santa Claus

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This record actually has TWO Christmas songs on it. On the flip side, Barbara Foster (AKA Bobbie Blake). It's called "A Joyous Christmas", but it does not suggest anything joyful to me. I find her vocal performance really sweet at a few moments, but that's about it. Your mileage may vary. 

Download: Barbara Foster - A Joyous Christmas

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Please note that I've tried my best to honor a request. If you have a request, let me know - if I can fill it, I will!

GENE MARSHALL: 1928-2024

My best pal Stu brought me news that both of us had missed, from earlier in the year, which is that Gene Marshall - or, technically, Gene Merlino - one of the kings of song-poem singing, died early this year, at the age of 95. You can read a bit about him here. He used to have his own website, which you can still see via the wayback machine. 

Gene was a masterful singer, with a warm, inviting voice that you couldn't help believe meant everything it sang. He could adapt to many styles of music, and could seemingly instantaneously decide how to handle a song - in many, if not most cases, he was singing the song-poems you hear on this site the very first (and last) time that he ever saw the sheet music. 

But his career was much more than song-poems. He sang on TV, with popular groups, for Disney films (and other films), at least on occasion found himself at a session along with one of my biggest musical heroes, Thurl Ravenscroft. He and Thurl even teamed up with two other session singers for a Barbershop Quartet album at one point. Here is one of the songs from that album. 

Gene released relatively few records under his real name. Here is an early vocal performance with Paul Weston's group, and here he is (in poor sound quality), covering a Pat Boone hit song on one of those cheapo cover 78s from the 1950's. (By chance, his performance got paired, on the same side of the record, with Scatman Crothers great reworking of Nervous Norvis' "Transfusion".) But of course, Gene recorded under at least a half dozen different names for song-poem companies, work he reportedly always referred to as doing demos. 

I have already featured most of the greatest Gene Marshall records from my collection, and I encourage you to click on his name at the bottom of this post for all of my Gene posts (and look elsewhere online), so I don't have anything startlingly amazing to share here. But I have selected four Gene Marshall Preview 45s from what is a huge subset of my collection featuring Gene's vocals. None of these eight songs appear to have been previously posted anywhere, and they offer a variety of styles (within the increasingly limited styles that Preview offered as the label moved into the 1970's). 

Thanks, Gene.

To everyone else: Enjoy!

Download: Gene Marshall - Don't You Know I Feel Love Fever

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Download: Gene Marshall - You Asked For It

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Download: Gene Marshall - In a Little House Trailer

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Download: Gene Marshall - I'm Glad That I'm An American

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Download: Gene Marshall - That's It, Love

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Download: Gene Marshall - Hi Boys, Swing That Band

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Download: Gene Marshall - In Your Arms I Belong

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Download: Gene Marshall - Home Town Gal

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You Get No Love from Gene OR the Squires

This is a sort of fascinating record. While not every Preview release has been documented yet, and that will probably never happen, there is only one Preview release precisely like this one documented at the AS/PMA Preview page, and now here's a second one. 

What this record contains is a standard song-poem vocal rendition of a song, by Gene Marshall in this case (and in the other case, too), and on the flip side, the Preview house band, identified as "The Squires", play an instrumental version of the same song. And it's not just the instrumental track from the Gene Marshall version, it's another, different performance of the song. 

And this is a pretty misbegotten song. It seems that maybe the song-poet's first verse lyrics to "I Don't Love You No More" simply could not be fit into standard three-to-the-bar waltz beat. Or maybe someone was just getting overly creative in a way that really didn't work. Whatever the reason, in the middle of the first verse, there are two four-beat bars, and then near the end of that verse, there is a seven-beat bar (or I suppose it could be one four-beat bar). Even the nearly always perfect Gene seams tripped up by the second one. Oddly, the second time through the verse, the oddly places measures aren't present. 

And that's without even getting to the lyrics, which suggest that the singer has fallen out of love with his former flame because he doesn't like her behavior. Is that a thing? Can one simply turn off love? I don't think I ever experienced that, in any of my relationships. Maybe I'm the odd one. I dunno. 

Download: Gene Marshall - I Don't Love You No More

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The flip side, as mentioned, is an instrumental rendition of the same song. And this suggests that I was right with my second guess - that someone was getting creative with the structure of the song. I say that because the two four-bar measure in the first version are heard here, and there is no lyrical line to make space for here - in other words, the whole thing could have been a waltz in this version, if they'd wanted it to be. The actual performance is pretty much a sleep walk. 

Download: The Squires - I Don't Love You No More

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Born Loser

Looks like it's been just over six months since I featured Gene Marshall, and I must rectify that! 

 

I think maybe I've just been a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of Gene Marshall records in my collection that I haven't shared, as well as the fact that, well, most of them are exceedingly bland, musically, often despite the typically masterful vocal work by our man Gene. The records made for Preview after Rodd moved over to MSR, as well as the records that Gene made for other labels, under multiple names, are usually lacking that something special that I try to feature here as often as possible. The exceptions from that era and those other labels are usually the result of something outstanding or weird about the lyrics themselves. 

Nothing stands out about the lyrics of "Born Loser", but man, do I love the bluesy backing the band is providing here, almost undoubtedly with a major assist, if not with the whole arrangement from, Rodd Keith. The interplay of the guitarist and the keyboard is compelling - and those keyboard fills are absolutely magical - and the drumming is as excellent as it usually was in this area of the Preview label. Gene's reading of the lyric is a bit more workmanlike than it is on many of the records I've shared here, and a couple of the embellishments don't land quite right, but that's only a deficit in terms of comparison to Gene's best work - he still sounds great. 

Download: Gene Marshall - Born Loser

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On the flip side, we have the far more generic "Loving Each Other". The band - again, especially the guitarist and pianist - are doing some nice stuff, but in the service of a bland arrangement of a bland song. Oddly, I actually find Gene's vocal to be stronger here than on "Born Loser" but only by a matter of a few degrees, and that certainly doesn't make me like this side better. Nope. The whole thing is over in 109 seconds. 

Download: Gene Marshall - Loving Each Other

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Gene's Mammie

I had great hopes. 

When I saw the title of this mid-to-late period Preview record by Gene Marshall, I dared to hope that a record called "Our Mammie" might be something special. Then, I was lucky enough to win it on eBay for the princely sum of $6.00. Plus shipping. I hoped it would be worthy of presenting in this forum. 

I had no idea. 

For those of you who have heard "Green Fingernails", you know what you thought and felt when you heard the big finish of the verse, where Gene sings "You make me sick"? I think this is weird on that same level. If anyone can tell me what song-poet Edna Templeton was on about here, specifically the last line of her poem, please let all of us know. It's off the charts odd, at least to these ears. 

And I think that's all I'll say. 

Download: Gene Marshall - Our Mammie

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The flip side, "Special Feeling", isn't really much to write home about as a song, but that would be almost too much to ask for a flip side of a song like "Our Mammie". However, I will give a shout-out to the guitarist, who clearly thinks he's playing on a much better record than this one. Then again, the missed chord at 0:47 wouldn't have been left on a much better record. It's also in although interesting enough, I think, that this was also written by a woman named Edna. \

Download: Gene Marshall - Special Feeling

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Oh, Good, ANOTHER Song Supporting Lt. William Calley

 First up, I have a few links to share, courtesy of two frequent correspondents. 

First, some of you may remember this posting of an ultra weird song called "My Doll Jane" from 2015. Well, ace collector and blogger Sammy Reed has discovered a remake of the song on the flipside in that posting. When I posted "Helen Goodnight", I commented that Gene Marshall makes a major melodic flub right at the point of the key change. 

Well, whether due to that flub, or some other reason, song-poet Helen Clak (too bad it wasn't "Helen Back") commissioned a remake of her song several years later, near the end of Preview's existence. Whether this was because of Gene's flub or some other reason, I certainly don't know - it's the same song, though, same melody and everything. Sammy's posting can be found here. 

And then, from the "I absolutely did not see that coming" file, I have an e-mail by ace song-poem detective Bruce Baryla. You might remember that he came up with the definitive answer to all those questions about Bob Storm some time ago. In this case, Bruce has discovered information about Rosalee Baker, who turned up on a single known Tin Pan Alley release, which I featured here. Well, Bruce has deduced, from a series of online sources, that Rosalee Baker was the first wife of the great guitarist (and early Tin Pan Alley sideman) Mickey Baker, and would have been his ex-wife by the time of her Tin Pan Alley. Among other sources, he has found her obituary here, and also sent me a quote from a 1957 edition of Jet Magazine: 

Rosalee Baker, estranged wife of Mickey Baker of the Mickey and

Sylvia song team, auditioned for a dancer’s role in Lena Horne’s new

Broadway musical, Jamaica."

Fascinating stuff, both of you. The song-poem world is a deeply mysterious and many layered thing, and I love finding out more information from its nooks and crannies. 

And now, let's get back to the countdown:

~~

As I may have written about. here or elsewhere, I spent a huge amount of my free time, in my early 20's, at the Northwestern University Music Library, painstakingly copying down the top 40 charts (and those which came before them, back to 1940), by hand, and at times, studying the rest of individual magazines as I paged through them. My friend Stu began accompanying me for a time, and I believe he was with me, when I saw a high entry on a 1971 chart called "The Battle Hymn of Lt. Calley" by C Company featuring Terry Nelson. The song marched into the top 40 at # 37 in its second week, as I recall, stayed there, and then quickly fell off the chart, appearing for a total of four weeks.. 

I'd never heard of Calley, but Stu filled me in on Calley's atrocious, appalling and downright horrific acts in Vietnam and his wholly appropriate conviction. In an issue of Billboard from the month that the song hit, I found a front page article about the controversy surrounding the record. We wondered about the song itself, but being that it was 1982 or so, had no real way to access it without a LOT of searching.

Some years later, my friend Tom and I actually found a copy of the record amongst literally hundreds of records we'd bought, when we purchased a "dime bin" full of 45's from a local used record store for about $50 (we did that about five times - those were the days). Upon hearing the opening narration about how Calley pretended to be a soldier from early childhood, Tom was absolutely certain that it was either satire or that it was going to be an aggressive putdown of the man in question. Having already read about the song, I assured him that, as ham-fisted and misguided as it was, the tribute and support on the record were meant to be sincere. 

You can read more about that record on this page of the Vietnam War Song Project, where there are 115 songs about My Lai and Lt. Calley listed, including today's feature. The hit song I've just mentioned is number 16 on that page's list, and it includes some of the comments from Billboard. My feature today can be found there, at number 36. 

Anyway, the thing is, what I really mean.... Gene Marshall was drafted into service to provide today's offering, "The Ballad of Lt. William Calley", a record which seems to exist mostly to get people to listen to the record that they're presumably already listening to. Gene narrates about 90% of the record, rather than singing, and the song-poet expresses the interesting viewpoint that only God can judge people - no doubt he felt the same way about those protesters in Chicago in 1968 and others whose behavior he disagreed with. No doubt. 

I really wish I could be in Gene Marshall's brain before, during and after the recording of this record. For a man who, by his own admission, let fly a string of obscenities after having to record a pro-Nixon record for Preview, I feel certain that he disagreed with every word he was singing... er, speaking, here. 

Download: Gene Marshall - The Ballad of Lt. William Calley

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For what it's worth, and I'm sure to the horror of those misguided enough to consider him a hero, Calley did eventually publicly apologize for his actions. 

~~

If anything, the flip side, by the same song-poet, is the more entertaining of the two songs, if only because it contains about as many poorly written and difficult to sing couplets as any song I've ever heard. It's called "America is My Country". I'd call it half-assed, but that would be an insult to asses. And what's more, it throws in yet another reference, almost at random, to Lt. Calley. 

I'm particularly fond of this set of lines, which occur back to back:  

"We've got a Lieutenant / he's a man who treats us fair /

Yes, Sir, I'm from Oklahoma / And America's My Country /

Oh, kind folks and teenagers....."

 (note, the accent is on the second syllable of Country)

There's also this: 

"I've joined the army now, boys, and I'm working for THE government."

Download: Gene Marshall - America is My Country

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HE'S GOING TO BUILD A MAN!!!

Yo, 

Before I get to today's seasonally appropriate offering, I wanted to offer a bit of housekeeping. First, I got a couple of responses to my "possibly missing link" post from last time around. Sammy Reed has identified that the pressing is from 1961, and Snoopy offered up a legitimate release from, perhaps, the same singer (see the comments of that post). I'm not sure that calls into question the provenance of the 45 as a song-poem or song-poem adjacent record or not, but I remain interested in what people think about my conjecture, and I welcome those two pieces of information. 

I also want to thank both Timmy and Stu for their frequent, and typically very entertaining comments. Please know that I read and appreciate every single comment I receive, and please keep them coming. Apologies to anyone who commented recently who I may have missed, in offering these thanks. 

Okay, so today, I thought I'd kick off the winter/Christmas festivities with a song about winter and a song about Christmas, the latter featuring an artist billing found nowhere else in song poem land (although I'm guessing I'll hear from someone - maybe several someones - that she is clearly <this or that> west coast song-poem stalwart).

We'll start with the better of the two, a little Gene Marshall special called "Mister Snowman". This one appears to date from 1967, based on the known dates related to similarly numbered Preview releases, but the production, instrumentation and poor production certainly sounds to me like the product that Preview put out in the early '70's. Just one of those song-poem mysteries. 

The words are cutesy, but surprisingly effective, at least to me. And I genuinely find some of the melodic turns here to be extremely appealing, particularly what I would call the chorus - the section about him being "a temporary pal". That ran through my head for a few hours after I listened to this song for the first time. A silly little record, but enjoyable. I hope you agree. 

Download: Gene Marshall - Mister Snowman

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I cannot summon up any enthusiasm for the flip side, a bit of treacle called "Santa's Visit", except for the billing. The song is credited to a female singer billed as Terry Stilwell, who shows up nowhere else in the Preview (or in the AS/PMA) discography. I will (as I have before) readily admit that I am not a connoisseur of the women of either Preview or MSR, so maybe this is a commonly recognizable member of that cohort - Bobbi Blake, maybe? (I'm not aware of her working on Preview, or as early as 1967) - anyway, if so, I'm sure there will be several chime-ins. But even so, why the one-time moniker? 

Download: Terry Stilwell - Santa's Visit

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Finally, and most importantly, Cheers, Best Wishes and All My Love to my daughter Molly and her fiancé Sean, who will be getting married on December 10th. 

A Fascinating Piece of Song-Poem History

Well, the delay - and the near weeklong illness I encountered that led to it (happily, not that thing that's going around) - is over, and I have something truly unusual today. But first, another list of updates, in this case to the posts of August, 2010.

That month, I offered a Bob Storm special on Halmark (with some very funny text, if I do say so myself), a favorite Rodd Keith production featuring Suzie Smith, some typical Sammy Marshall, and a truly catchy number from Norm Burns. 

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And now, here's an obscure disc that has all sorts of song-poem history behind it: 

I was very excited to get this record a couple of weeks ago. I've always found records on the George Liberace Songsmith's label to be deeply odd, out of time and as different from the general song-poem world as are Noval, Halmark and Star-Crest. And when I saw the artist name, I was sold on getting this disc. For as many of you likely know, Gene Merlino is the real name of the song-poem stalwart who goes by Gene Marshall, among several other names. 

As far as I can tell, this is the only known case of Merlino being billed on a song-poem under his real name (although he used it throughout his career on hundreds of legitimate releases). And although Liberace's company eventually went into partnership with MSR, Gene barely ever worked for that company (one known release), so this likely predates their mid '60's partnership (and therefore, it also would predate his work for Preview). This record - a one sided acetate - likely was made before the persona of "Gene Marshall" (or any of the others), ever existed. 

More proof of that is the style in which Gene sings the song. This is not the relaxed, one take pro of his 1970's and 1980's song-poem releases. This is a mannered, altogether more serious (and more pompous) sounding Gene, who I barely even recognize as Gene at first - it becomes clear it's him quickly, but there is an overly staid tone to this that he thankfully lost at some later point. 

I wanted to mention here that, nearly 11 years ago, I posted a George Liberace Songsmith's album to the WFMU blog, and my pal Stu commented that the song "Rockin' and Rolling" sounded like it could be sung by "a slightly more mannered Gene Merlino" - a less extreme version of how I'm describing this record. Listening to it again, I am certain that he was right, and that the Gene Merlino, who stylized his vocals in this certain way, at the time of the recording of this acetate, is the same singer on "Rockin' and Rolling". 

After all that build-up, I should acknowledge that the song  - "I Shall Remember" - is no great shakes. Getting it's presentation pushed back several days did line it up nicely with Holy Week, which dovetails with the song's subject matter. It's a typical George Liberace arrangement, organ, guitar and violin combo with vocal. But it's another little piece of the song-poem story which hadn't been shared before today. 

Download: Gene Merlino - I Shall Remember

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Hallus "Slim" Sargent and His Friends on The Mustang Line

Hi, how are you?

Today, I have again corrected the posts for a month from the distant past, in this case, February of 2012. In that month, I shared a song-poem which contained a bit of direct plagiarism, a particularly incompetent Tin Pan Alley release, a Halmark record for Valentine's Day, and a typically moldy Film-City EP. 

Enjoy!

And now: 

Add caption

Today's feature is the first in quite a while from Gene Marshall. And "The Mustang Line" features what I find to be a fairly weird set of lyrics. For most of the lyric, the song-poet, one Hallus "Slim" Sargent, seems to be paying tribute to two friends he made on "The Mustang Line", in quite positive terms, going so far as to credit them from saving him from being "out in the cold". He mentions them by name, over and over again. Then suddenly, about 2/3rds of the way through, his lyric turns against them, telling them they "know where they can go", saying that he needs to break free of them and of The Mustang Line before they "cook my goose". 

Anyone have any idea what the hell is going on here? I'm assuming "The Mustang Line" is a car factory, producing Mustangs, but perhaps I'm wrong about that. If it's not, I have no idea what it might be.  

Any insight would be appreciated. And if you, like me, have none, well, just enjoy Gene's masterful singing and the asinine background vocal arrangement. 

Download: Gene Marshall - The Mustang Line

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The flip side is "Leave Me Well Alone", a four word phrase I'd personally not encountered before, at least not without the word "Enough" in between the last two words. However, a web search finds it to be common, so what do I know? 

Aside from that, it's a pretty standard "I'm fed up with you and want to write about it" song-poem, one of the many standard templates used by song-poets since the genre was invented. 

 Download: Gene Marshall - Leave Me Well Alone

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VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE!

Unless your candidate has an orange glow about him, in which case, please disregard. 

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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He'll Amputate Your Head!

First up, as I have been doing every post for some time now, I have gone back and fixed another month's worth of earlier posts. In this case, it's August of 2013. That month featured four posts, including a couple of Vietnam related efforts on Tin Pan Alley which were sent to me, the longest song-poem I've ever heard, on Halmark, a two-artist release on the tiny Spa Records label, and a swinging record on one of the earlier labels, Arco Records.

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Next up, here is another in the collection of ads found for us by Brian Kramp, this one from Virginia:

Thanks, Brian!

And now, on with the countdown:

Now if you've ever seen the Song-Poem documentary, "Off the Charts", you've seen an interview with Gene Marshall, and you've also seen him in the studio. One word that wouldn't seem to apply to him is "Mean". And yet here we have a mouthful of a title, "The Meanest Man in the World is Me", with Gene singing his heart out, performing lyrics which certainly indicate that the protagonist of the song would at least compete for such a title. 

This one is full of fun, unexpected lines, funny and weird enough that I'd really rather not give away the pleasure of experiencing them for the first time, aside from that wonderful quote in the title. So, without further ado, here's some epic meanness: 

Download: Gene Marshall - The Meanest Man in the World is Me

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On the flip side, we have a record with as timely a title for today's crisis as I can imagine, "When You Call Your Doctor". However, this is 150 complaint about sitting for far too long in the waiting room, with a bit of a punchline built in. I wonder how many other songs have ever been written about having to wait for the doctor? 

Download: Gene Marshall - When You Call Your Doctor

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It's All About the Lyrics

Howdy,

I have a pair of Gene Marshall records which feature some truly memorable lyrics, but first, there is quite a bit of other news and such to go through.

First up: It was earlier last year that I discovered that a podcast had used one of my most ridiculous songs - titled "A Sailing Milk Moustache" - as the introductory music for their year-end show. I reached out to the person behind the podcast, and, after quite a bit of conversation, ended up doing a lengthy interview with him for one of his episodes, all about my history, in terms of my collecting and, particularly, my humorous songs. I was then invited to be a part of this year's New Year's Eve/New Year's Day special.

Interestingly, the show's general theme is (this is from their website):  "A podcast and Website dedicated to understanding the world in which we live from a Christian worldview perspective", although nothing remotely in that area came up in the two shows I was part of.

My interview can be found here, and the New Year show - which I am only part of sporadically, can be heard here.

~~~

Secondly, I have in recent days, had two people reach out to me, one directly, and one via a friend of mine, seeking specific song-poem records, neither of which, sadly, are part of my collection, or I'd have helped them myself. One is probably relatively easy to find, being on Preview, and the other is probably a long-shot. If anyone reading this post has either of these records, please let me know, and I will put you in touch with my correspondents.

The first is:

Preview 1453
Rodd Keith 
A: You Only Want To Hurt Me
B: It's Over-It's Done

And the second is:

Film-Tone 200 (EP)
Ken Starr & Orchestra / Vocal Trio
A: I'm A Funny Little Snowman / True Love (Joseph H. Collins) 
B: Wheel Chair Blues 

~~

Third, I want to thank everyone for the continuing comments to this and my other site. I really enjoy reading what people have to say.

And I'd like to link to a site mentioned in one of those comments, the latest installment of Sammy Reed's "Music of the World of the Strange and the Bizarre". It's a reposting of several earlier shows he did, and can be found here. 

And in answer to another comment, I will endeavor to share an entire Michael Kasberg album some time soon.

~~

And finally, I have updated and fixed the posts from March of 2014. These include an unusually peppy number on Noval, a typically half-assed number by Gary Roberts and the Sterling gang, a fairly awful offering from Tin Pan Alley, and a Preview entry showing everyone making something out of nothing.

And now...

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Speaking of Gene Marshall and Preview, that's who and what we're featuring today. And I'll be up front when I say that neither of today's offerings have much to recommend them from the musical end of things - each of them is badly recorded, shows no creativity in arrangement or performance, and generally reek of the malaise that tends to emanate from late-era Preview records (this appears to be from 1976).

But oh, those lyrics! The song I'm cueing up first has the most to offer in this area, and does so repeatedly, while its flip side just has one amazing line, something that I never expected to hear in a song-poem record.

Up first is the fantastically named "So Many 'Minis'", and as you might just expect with that title, this contains a fairly sexist set of lyrics, and in particular, a few lines which would raise many a red flag in today's "me too" era, and rightly so. Gene, as the avatar for the song-writer, is not particular about the human being wearing the "mini", in fact, they seem interchangeable to him, to the point that he concludes, "I wanna take one to bed tonight". There is no mention of getting to know the person behind the mini.

Please be sure to listen to, and enjoy, Gene's (presumably improvised) riffing on the subject of the song during the fade out. It's the highlight of the record, I think.

Download: Gene Marshall - So Many "Minis"
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The flip side might hardly merit much more than a short, one paragraph dismissal, especially in comparison with "So Many 'Minis'". I mean, it is dull, it seems to go on forever, and it's about as cookie-cutter as a mid-'70's Preview can get, and it's musically of a style that leaves me exceptionally cold.

That's the way it would be, were it not for the second line of the song, which made me laugh so hard the first time I heard it that I almost choked. Again, not what I expected to hear Gene Marshall - or any other song-poem warbler - sing.

Download: Gene Marshall - My Lady Most Fair
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