Disco Norris

I'm here today to continue the unique saga of Norridge Mayhams, better known (when known at all) as Norris the Troubadour. If you follow this link, you will find all of my previous Norris postings (including this one) and hopefully some text to explain who he was and my fascination with him. 

Norris was only on the fringes of the song-poem world, but I include him here because, although he wrote all the lyrics and music to his songs (including an actual bona fide hit song), once he discovered song-poem companies, he gave up singing his own songs and let the professionals (or near professionals) do it. Despite the fact that at least a half-dozen performers sang his songs from then on (if not far more), the records usually came out baring the artist name "Norris the Troubadour", adding, in later years, "The Seaboard Coastliners", as it does in this offering. 

And he never stopped hawking that one hit song he wrote. It was called "We'll Build a Bungalow" and it was a hit in 1950. A protracted legal battle over its copyright followed, and Norris never stopped trying to parlay it into another hit record. 

So it was that Norris engaged yet another company to re-record his song in 1978 or so, in a thoroughly disco-fied setting. I don't know which company he contracted with (perhaps others can make a suggestion of this), but he most clearly told them to "Make it Sound like that "Yowsa Yowsa" record that's so big right now ("Dance Dance Dance" by Chic), which the producers did, right down to the old-timey megaphone announcer heard now and then on the track.  

 

To my ears, the result is resolutely awful, amateurish in the extreme and almost comically overlong (all of them common faults of disco records of the time). But I am dedicated to getting as much of Norris' story out there, and as this one does not seem to have been shared on the internet before, I'm presenting it here.  

Download: Norris The Troubadour, The Seaboard Coastliners - We'll Build a Bungalow (You Spell It For Two)

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On the flip side is "I've Got Soul Love Burning In My Heart". It's a wisp of a song and of a performance - didn't anyone tell this band that disco records aren't meant to be 123 seconds long? - sung in the falsetto style and instrumental backing favored that decade by the makers of Philly Soul (quite possibly my least favorite genre of popular music ever, or at least in the running). As a result, I can't stand this record. The fact that it's pressed a tiny bit off-center adds an appealing level of wooziness, but still, this side is a no-go for me. At least it's short. 

Download: Norris The Troubadour, The Seaboard Coastliners - I've Got Soul Love Burning In My Heart

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Norridge, Rodd and Tom Dooley

Ya know, I love my hobbies, especially those that let me share parts of my collection here and on my other blog. And I love my work. If anything, it's gotten richer with a promotion a few years ago, and a more recent redefinition. But it became clear this month that, under that redefinition, Septembers are going to ridiculously busy for me. I'm going to try to prepare in advance for my blogging sites in the future, but this year, I really haven't had the time to dedicate to much posting. 

So I tried to catch up today, the first time I digitized anything in weeks. First, as I have been doing recently, I re-upped a set of old broken posts, in this case, five from December of 2014. You can find those here - the first four feature Christmas and religious song-poems of varying quality, while the last one... well, that's the one featuring "The Beatle Boys", which is one of my two favorite song-poems ever. 

And I will also acknowledge that today's offering may not be a new one to some percentage of the readership. Two decades ago, when the song-poem audience was reaching whatever zenith it reached, a CD reissue of a remarkable album was issued. That was Norridge Mayhams' "Our Centennial Album", credited to "Norris the Troubadour, Seaboard Coastliners". This album collected 29 songs that Mayhams had written, all of which he had paid various song-poem factories (and the like) to record for him. Most, if not all of these tracks had previously been released on 45's on Mayhams' label(s), and as they came from various companies, they actually featured a number of different vocalists and bands, all appearing under the name of one or more of his nom-de-plumes. 

Anyway, I say all this to offer a bit of history, but also to acknowledge that a certain, unknowable size number of those of you reading this may well have already heard these two songs, or even own them on a copy of that CD. But for those who don't, I really can't pass up sharing this 45, as the first song I'm putting up is among my top 20 favorite song-poems ever - it's my favorite from the album (there is one song on the album that I love much more - a version of "Mary Ann McCarthy" - but the version of that record that I love is not the one on the album. I find the one on the album to be fairly terrible). 

Anyway, here it is: 

On the Centennial Album, this is identified as "Tom Dooley Last Will and Testament", which is in keeping with the lyrics, but this title, "Tom Dooley Testament", works just as well. Norridge Mayhams clearly paid for the folks at Film City to produce this track, and Rodd Keith - no doubt thinking it would be released under the name Rod Rogers - provides one of his finest creations ever. And he didn't even get his preferred name on it - just "Seaboard Coastliner"

This is just damn cool. I don't have another, better word for it. The lyrics are interesting, Rod almost never did anything more slinky and sexy with the usually very clunky chamberlain - every voicing and musical choice is fantastic - and his vocal performance is loose, sly, soulful and understated all at the same time.

Many, maybe even most, of Mayhams' releases have fairly poor sound. My speculation is that he received the acetate or actual 45 from the company involved - in this case, Film City - and then mastered his 45 directly from the vinyl he received. I have no proof of this, but that's sure what it sounds like. In most cases, it is the detriment of the material, but in this case, it gives the proceedings a suitably spooky, even otherworldly feel. I'm not any other record I've ever heard sounds quite like this.

If you've not heard this before, I'd love to hear what you think.

Download: Seaboard Coastliner - Tom Dooley Testament
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On the flip side, there is a positively schizophrenic Christian Revival-style song, :"Jesus Will Be Coming Soon", a song which starts with a bouncy, Spiritual setting, then into a 1950's organ driven inspirational number, and back into the Spiritual, all in less than 105 seconds, complete with a truly terrible edits near the start. For this one, Mayhams' company of choice was the Globe song-poem factory, with Sammy Marshall taking the lead, again billed as "Seaboard Coastliner".

I really have to wonder what the average record hound thinks, when coming across this record, with the billing the same on both sides, two totally unrelated subjects (a murderer's reflections / the second coming), sung and played but are what are clearly two different singers and bands.

Download: Seaboard Coastliner - Jesus Will Be Coming Soon
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I should be able to get to more frequent postings now.

Cashing In on a Craze

Today, it's back to our road trip, at least...sort of. But it's really a trip inside the fascinating mind of Norridge Mayhams. For today's record is one which appeared on the "Mayhams" Little Shirley Records label (got that?), but which has key differences from the one record on the same label listed at the song-poem database site. On that site, the one record identified, from 1962, has a different label number, the same song on one side, but a different song on the other side. That song is listed as "Zoomba High Kicka Zoomba", which is a familiar Mayhams title, appearing on at least three different Mayhams releases that I know of.

The funny thing is, the song listed on this record, identified with the unwieldy titles of "The Pennsylvania TWIST and the California TWIRL", IS, in fact, "Zoomba High Kicka Zoomba", perhaps the very performance heard on that other "Little Shirley" release. The only difference seems to be that a prelude has been attached to it, telling us to do the dance steps referenced in the new title. Oh, and the singer, Miss J. M. Abreau, offers up a few shouts of encouragement to dance during the song, as well.

Unless I miss my guess - and it's quite possible, of course, because it's only a guess - Mayhams took the original track, and added a brief reference to the suddenly repopularized TWIST, and tried to hop on the bandwagon by making it appear that the same old Zoomba song was really supposed to be a TWIST number. Given the crappy sound quality, it seems at least possible that Miss Abreau added her new intro (and voiceovers), as well as the guitar intro, to a tape into which the existing record was being played, rather than to the master tape. See what you think!

Download: Miss J. M. Abreau - The Pennsylvania TWIST and the California TWIRL
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Whatever else that is, it's a ridiculous record. Is there a line in there says "Zoomba Zoomba Commander in Chief"? That's what I hear....

Miss Abreau also shows up (as Julia Abreau) on a exceptionally rare acetate of two Mayhams songs, which I posted a few years ago here.

On the flip side, Miss J. M. Abreau offers up some of Norridge Mayhams hard-won dating and romance tips, in "Play it Smart - Play it Hard". I really wonder who ol' J. M. (or Julia) was, because her vocal stylings are uniquely weird and and somehow both hypnotizing and unappealing at the same time.

Download: Miss J. M. Abreau - Play It Smart - Play It Hard
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Norridge Mayhams Last Gasp

Within the greater song-poem world, Norridge Mayhams has always been something of a hero to me. Not only did he do it all himself, he often did it quite well. In a career lasting over 40 years, he went from Gospel to Raunchy Blues, from Latin-tinged idiosyncratic records to straight ahead pop and rock and roll. He wrote both the words and music for most of his songs, and in the early days (through at least the late '50's) even sang on several of his records, in addition to releasing them on at least three of his own record labels. He even wrote a hit song, "We'll Build a Bungalow". One of his records, the earlier of at least two versions of his song "Mary Ann McCarthy", remains one of my three or four favorite song-poem records.

So it was with considerable sadness that I listened for the first time to today's record, which is among the last that Mayhams produced. As described at the AS/PMA site linked above, shortly after his final triumph, the 1976 double album capturing a good 15 years worth of his best material, Mayham's life began to fall apart. As heard here, just three years later (in 1979), not only has he moved on from some truly wonderful styles of music, and into the most mindless version of disco possible, but he is also expressing his grief at the death of his dear wife, Shirley. The words are actually touchingly sweet, but when paired with the stupid beat, the obnoxious synth, the out of town guitar and single trumpet notes (not to mention the crappy production), the effect is fairly depressing. My guess is that it is Norridge Mayhams himself singing here. If so, it's with (in what was probably his 70's) a shadow of the life-affirming voice from his records of two and three decades earlier.

Download: Seaboard Coastliners - Sweet Shirley 
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"Sweet Shirley" was actually the b-side. The less said about the truly mindless a-side, "Dance Dance All Night Long", the better, but here it is:

Download: Seaboard Coastliners - Dance Dance All Night Long
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By the way, at least one further Mayhams record may have been released, if the order suggested at AS/PMA is accurate, that one featuring what may be this same recording of "Dance Dance" along with a disco remake of "We'll Build a Bungalow"

A Great Norridge Mayhams Find

STOP THE PRESSES!!! This is BIG!!! Well, at least is BIG if you love Norridge Mayhams as much as I do.

I've written here about "Norris the Troubadour" before, linked to the great article about him at the AS/PMA website, and even posted my live, cover version performance of his song "Mary Ann McCarthy". What I don't think I ever expected to find was an acetate containing two different versions of a song he later commissioned, during the time he was interacting with various song poem companies.

The song in question is "Be No Fool - Play It Cool - Stay in School", and it appeared on his Mayhams Collegiate label at least four times. All of these may have been the same version, the one sung by Rodd Keith, credited variously to "Professor Marcel's Collegians" (which would indicate it's Sammy Marshall, which two commenters have reminded me it is not), "The Professor" and on Mayham's classic double album, to "Norris The Troubadour Seaboard Coastliners".

However, it's now clear that this wasn't the original rendition. I have managed to take ownership of the aforementioned Mayhams Collegiate Label Acetate, with two performances of "Be No Fool - Play It Cool - Stay in School". Both are performed by the little known Julia Abreau. A trip through the AS/PMA website shows that Ms. Abreau shows up exactly twice - once, on the Air label, doing a song with no known Norridge connection (however, Air was connected to the Globe family of labels, home to Sammy Marshall, so there's that connection), but the other, a record credited to Miss J.M. Abreau, appeared on the "Little Shirley" label, on which she sang two songs by... yes... Norridge Mayhams!

So what do we have here? Well, one side says "Piano Vocal", and the other side says "Organ Vocal". Oh, but that barely scratches the surface of the wonders of this record. Just have a listen to Julia Abreau's vocal performance on the swinging piano side of this record, and tell me this isn't a huge song-poem find:

Download: Julia Abreau - Be No Fool - Play It Cool - Stay in School (Piano Version)

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Well, that was tons of fun, wasn't it? But I bet it scarcely prepared you for the "organ voice" version, in which the organ plays a beat that had me prepared for a version of "Hava Nagila", before Julia Abreau came in, READING the words, as a poem. I love the little asides - "if they're smart that is", and especially, at the end, "best thing for ya, ya know!". To me, this whole version sounds like a weird transmission from an alternate universe, where this is typical of the sounds heard on the radio. Or something. Enjoy!:


Download: Julia Abreau - Be No Fool - Play It Cool - Stay in School (Organ Version)

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(a note - I usually do a small amount of correcting of surface noise, if needed, on the records I post here. In this case, I found that attempting this correction led this record to have a very odd, processed sound, so aside from a few huge "pops", I haven't touched this one, leading to more surface noise than my postings usually have)