Piano Bar Sammy and Three Song-Poem Lesser-Lights

Today, it's another Air EP for y'all, featuring a Sammy Marshall track where he is heard in a setting I do not recall hearing Sammy in, before. 

I don't really want spend a lot of time recapping the Air Records craziness yet again. Suffice it to say that Air seems to had connections with several of the largely song-poem factories and released some of the product, more often than not with two or three labels represented on the same release. Again, I have no idea how this worked, but Air doesn't really appear to have done any in-house work at all. On this EP, there are tracks from at least Globe and Film City, and maybe another company, as well. 

But hey, whatever their story was, the did use, for a time, one of the best label designs I've ever seen:

Globe is represented - at least, if not more - by Sammy Marshall, identified here as Sonny Marshall. And as I said, I don't think I've heard him in quite this setting before. It's almost demo-simple - Sammy and a piano, in a very Piano-Bar-Like setting. The song is "Footprints on the Moon" - this is the second song I've shared with that exact title, by the way (this one, unlike the other one, does not feature plagiarism). 

This one is an interesting little tribute, naming the Apollo 11 astronauts by name, acknowledging that there were voices in America who thought the whole endeavor was a waste of money, and praising them for having the "courage like a stone". I guess I'll need to start being more aware and impressed by the stones I pass, perhaps even basking in the radiance of their courage. 

Download: Sonny Marshall - Footprints on the Moon

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Next up is another piano-and-voice number, so this could be from the same company (Globe) as the previous track. But compared to the ultra-professional Sammy Marshall - well, compared to 98% of the vocalists ever recorded on a vinyl release - the singer here, identified as Andy Gordon, is a rank amateur, and he offers up a laughably bad performance. It's not quite as bad as Bob Lloyd's greatest hit, but it's in that ballpark. I am reminded of the Stan Freberg record where the producer grabs the first kid he runs into on the street and asks him to sing on his teen pop travesty. 

The song-poet, meanwhile, clearly had Gilbert and Sullivan on his mind when he wrote "Sing Willow, Willow, Willow", but sadly, did not have the lyricism of W.S. Gilbert and did not pay for music to be created at the level of Arthur Sullivan. 

Download: Andy Gordon - Sing Willow, Willow, Willow

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Side two gives us two Christian-themed songs. The first of the two is credited to Jack Carver, but even a momentary listen proves that the singer is none other than Film City low-light Jimmie James, who made a series of terrible records - and one hilariously bad two sided disc - at the very end of that label's existence. You can hear the other Jimmy James tracks I've shared here with this link, two more tracks I've credited to "Jimmy James" are here (including one credited to "Tony Markham"), and the two ridiculous tracks I just referred to ("Free Love For Sale" and "Mini Girl Song" are buried inside this WFMU post. There is also this Christmas song. 

Anyway, if the voice of Jimmie James didn't give away that "There is Something" is a Film City production, there is the omnipresent Chamberlin backing, as well. The song is a somnambulistic two minutes, with the most boring backing imaginable and that inimitable, awful voice. 

Download: Jack Carver (Jimmie James) - There is Something

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We finish up with yet another piano-and-vocal thing. Perhaps all three are from Globe, but I don't recognize two of the three singers, so who knows. The piano and the production does sound the same on all three. 

This one is sung by Margie Murray, who shows up on about a half-dozen Air releases around this time. She's not as bad as Andy Gordon, but she's several steps below good, and at least a few below okay. I'll say this, I'm glad there's not an Andy Gordon/Margie Murray duet on this record. I'm picturing them doing a version of that stupid Lita Ford/Ozzy Osbourne song now. Actually, they'd likely improve on the original...it'd be a challenge not to. 

Anyway, the song is "Jesus Suffered", which, in its construction, sounds to me like the song-poet was trying to capture some of the intense energy and feeling of the song "Where You There?", without any of the effectiveness of that songs tune or affectivity of its lyrics. 

Download: Margie Murray - Jesus Suffered

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Our Colors on the Fourth - Wouldn't That Be Fun?

I have a special edition of "Song Poem of the Week" for the Fourth of July! I've scoured my collection to find something patriotic, and have settled on the always ridiculous pipes of Jimmie James, with his rendition of "Our Colors".

Near the end of Film City's run, there seems to have been a brief, post-Rodd Keith period. I say that because among those final releases, he disappears from the artist credits (as Jimmie James - sometimes Jimmy James - and a few others show up) and because there is a sudden, steep drop-off in musical creativity in those records, as well. The last few singles that I know of on the label feature downright treacly Chamberlin work, with minimal attempts at combinations of sounds, or of anything remotely interesting. The link above goes to one other Jimmie James record which I posted at WFMU, and within this post are two more Jimmie James records, among my all time favorites from my collection (Mini Girl Song and Free Love For Sale) which are from either side of the same single, and which were originally posted at the AS/PMA website.

Today's flag-honoring record is downright woozy. With it's plodding beat, Jimmie's pompous delivery, overly-flowery patriotic language, and near four minute length (despite the 2:19 listed on the label) it would have been a decent example of the ridiculous side of the art of the song-poem anyway. But the record is also pressed off-center, adding a delightfully drunk feeling to the entire proceedings. And Jimmie's next to last note is more than worth the price of admission:

Download: Jimmie James - Our Colors
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But wait, there's more! The flip side of the record, "It Would Be Fun", has joys of its own for the listener to discover, primarily in its lyrics, although there's also something to be said for a fairly catchy, if very brief, bridge section.

Download: Jimmie James - It Would Be Fun
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By the way, although Jimi Hendrix is known to have used the name Jimmy James around the same time that Film City was in operation, I think we can safely assume that this is a different Jimmie James.