The Mixed Up Life of a Real Pro

Greetings!

First, I would like to make sure everyone gets to see and download an album which was linked in the comments of a previous post. It is a full Hollywood Artists album, and it is available here. Thank you, anonymous poster!

And now, for today's main feature: 

For those who haven't read any of the 18 or so places I've written it before, I really get a kick out of the early Cinema releases, all billed as being by "The Real Pros", but largely featuring one guy with one of those early '70's console all-in-one keyboards. 

While today's two offerings will never make my "all time favorite Cinema releases" file, I think they do, in a way, offer up the quintessential song-poem experience, or at least we have the scam (or, if you prefer, the design of the business plan) boiled down to its most basic essence: A person writes a lyric and sends it in. It gets set to a superbly generic, sort of loungey arrangement and is sung by a soloist who accompanies himself on an all in one cheesy organ. The performance is one that any decent composer and musician could throw together in a quarter hour. 

No big arrangement, no band, nothing particularly professional sounding about it at all. The lyric gets written - "Mixed Up Life", in this case, happily with the sort of utterly cookie cutter lyrics found so often in the genre - and a short while later, it is a demo-level-sounding generic song. And you have a perfect record with which to explain and demonstrate the song-poem to the uninitiated. 

Oh, and the last vocal note is worth the price of admission.

Download: The Real Pros - Mixed Up Life

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I chose to write all that about "Mixed Up Life", but I could pretty much say the same things about the flip side, "Nobody's Baby Am I", which has the added feature of a mess up in the bass notes during the first seven seconds. Would have been that hard to start over, after just getting seven seconds into your performance? Undoubtedly no, but clearly that option was considered unnecessary. 

Also note the producer note at the bottom of each side of the label, which in each case falsely co-credits the song-poet herself for production work. This is one of the earliest Cinema releases (1971 - as evident by the "71" in the label number), and this bit of fiction is a feature that Cinema would eliminate by its 1972 releases. 

Download: The Real Pros - Nobody's Baby Am I

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And now, let's return to our Cut-Up / Mash-Up feature, after a one week break. 

I'm sticking with the Mash-Up theme of the last few posts, and returning to circa 2005, when I was doing a bunch of these sorts of things. I focused on one of my favorite Beatles' tracks, "Julia". As you may know, this is the only song to ever come out under the Beatles name to feature a solo John Lennon performance. It's also one of the fairly few Beatles songs not to feature any percussion. 

I thought maybe I'd like to hear how it sounded with some rhythm behind it. And I'd like to break down what I did. In order to understand where, exactly, I took some of those rhythms from, you have to hear two of my beloved Star Ads. In case you aren't familiar with Star Ads, I wrote about them here and here, and quite recently, I was featured on a podcast talking all about them and sharing a bunch of them. 

Anyway, I thought of two of them which featured significant and interesting percussion in spots, and in which that percussion was heard, by itself, at times. 

First, I thought about this bizarre little ad, specifically the two bars of percussion at about the 0:03 point, which I would loop and slow down for the first verse of "Julia", then return to it more and more as the song continues: 

Download: Star Ads - Speedway's Guided Tour

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Then I thought of this high powered car ad, specifically, the drums heard between the sales pitches and at the end, which I would slow down to an extreme degree, and use on the bridge and, again, more and more, near and at the end of "Julia".

Download: Star Ads - New Tiger in Town

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Finally, I swiped the opening drum intro from "Why Don't We Do It In the Road", which I'm guessing nearly all of you are familiar with, and which occurs a few moments before "Julia" on The White Album. I used that bit of drumming extensively, too. 

I called the resulting creation, "Rhythm of the Ocean Child", and it sounds like this: 

Download: The Beatles with Star Ads - Rhythm of the Ocean Child

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Scotty or Sandy?

Today, I'm going to take a bit of a deep dive into one corner of the song-poem world, the world of Sandy Stanton's Fable & Film City career. This might be a bit "in the weeds" for the casual listener, but I'm going to try and be brief and hopefully you'll find this interesting. The record in question looks like this: 

As many of you probably know, Sandy Stanton owned both the Fable and Film City labels, largely having wound down Fable around the time that Film City started up, although he released at least a handful of Fable records many years after the last year of bulk releases. And if you know that, you'll know that Sandy Stanton recorded under his own name from time to time, primarily during the Fable years, but also at a handful of times on Film City. 

Which brings me to this record, "As Long As I Have You" by Scotty (Sandy) Scott and the Rockin' Country Band. My first thought here was that Sandy Stanton decided, for whatever reason, to appear on his label under an assumed name. You can listen to Sandy sing here, here and here or simply click on the link for posts labeled "Sandy Stanton", and then listen to this song. 

Download: Scotty (Sandy) Scott and the Rockin' Country Band - As Long As I Have You

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It's also worth noting that, while Stanton used full bands on his Fable releases, and relied on the limited, but fascinatingly sounded Chamberlin on his Film City tracks, for this one, he seems to have dumbed things down quite a bit, and I believe he's using one of those early basic home synthesizers, of the sort that Leonard Cohen sometimes used (to his detriment, in my opinion) and the use of which always remind me of this song by Robin Gibb.  

Okay, so maybe you're with me now, and agree that Scotty (Sandy) Scott is Sandy Stanton. Or maybe you don't agree. But the thing is, I suddenly remembered that I have another record by Scotty Scott, a completely ridiculous and terrifically entertainingly awful vanity record on Film City. I posted it to WFMU seven years ago. 

As you'll see, there's no "Sandy" mentioned, and Scotty Scott is listed as the co-writer on both sides. And if you listen, I think you'll agree it could be the same singer, yet again, or this record and the one on WFMU could be one and the same, and the voice on Sandy Stanton's records could be a different one. Or Scotty Scott could be one singer, and Scotty (Sandy) Scott another. The writing credit under the name Scott really throws me off - did Sandy Stanton co-write those two awful songs under an assumed name and then sing them under that name?  

In brief - were Scotty Scott and Sandy Stanton the same person? If so, why use the other name, and why give a hint to who he was on one release and not the other. 

While you're thinking about that, here's the flip side of the record, 'You Shot Me Down". 

Download: Scotty (Sandy) Scott and the Rockin' Country Band - You Shot Me Down

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 You may have noticed that I was way overdue for a post - other responsibilities got in the way. That's the same reason that the cut-up / mash-up feature is taking the week off. 

Gold Stars and Changing Hearts

 

Today, I have a Rodd Keith record that may resonate more with me than it does for others. And that's because the backing track is nostalgic for me - the track heard here is the exact same track heard on the very first Rodd Keith record I ever found, when I started looking for song-poem records way back in 1996. That was a song titled "Where Is the One?", which, oddly, I've never actually featured here, and I'll have to rectify that. 

Anyway, this is Rodd in country-pop mode, with a bit of a twang, over that loping backing track, with "Gold Star", a bit of a story song that perhaps contains one verse too many - it's that rare song poem that lasts nearly three minutes and twenty seconds. 

Download: Rodd Keith - Gold Star

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The flip side is "The Changing Heart", and I find this record positively weird. The song itself is straightforward enough, with a backing track this is mostly notable for some really nice drum fills, as I find to be the case on Preview records of this era. 

But then, at the one minute point, and throughout the rest of the record, Rodd made a production choice what is one of his very rare misfires, as his production and arrangement was usually stellar. But in this case, he added some very ineffectual backing vocals, and more to the point, mixed them at the same volume as the lead vocal. The first time I heard the record, they seemed so ham-fisted, I thought maybe someone had turned the TV on - that's how out of place I found them. See what you think! 

Download: Rodd Keith - The Changing Heart

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And now, rather than another one of my cut-ups, I have another one of the Mash-Ups I did, while briefly feeling inspired to work in that area, back around 2005. 

In this case, I noticed a very similar rhythm that "Getting Better" from the Sgt. Pepper album, had to a big hit from the summer of 1966, and decided to put them together. I think it turned out quite nicely, and I also managed to get this one onto our local Breakfast With the Beatles program a few years later. 

Download: Better Take Me Away (mash-up)

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Storytime! With Teacho Wiltshire

Hey there, 

Before I get to today's rockin' offering, I wanted to share something that Sammy Reed, who has offered so much to this site over the years, wrote about this Halmark posting from two weeks ago. 

I will say right off the bat (a little pun there) that I don't know anything about the various sites and discussions that go on about Rite pressings. That's not my area at all, and if you explained to me what they are and why they mattered, I'd probably be looking at you blankly within 27 seconds. 

But what Sammy found is that the numbers on that Halmark disc line up with a gap in a Rite discography quite nicely, and that the Halmark release is probably the missing disc in that discography. Here's where it gets interesting for me: assuming he's right (or Rite) about where those numbers come from, then the Halmark disc in question is from 1966. The song poem archives website has Halmark ramping up to a start in 1967, and most of what I've read and learned has them doing most of their work in or after 1970. I just thought that was interesting enough to mention. 

And now, let's visit with my sixth favorite Marx Brother, Teacho:  

Have I mentioned that I tend to really enjoy records by Teacho Wiltshire? His tenure with Tin Pan Alley was brief, at the very start of the label's history, and I think I now own a copy of all but one of the records that came out under his name on the Tin Pan Alley label. (He also went on to a successful and distinguished career in the more legit music business.)

I really like both sides of this record, which is from 1956, but my vote for the better of the two goes to "I've Got a Story Tonight!". It's a rockin' slab of vintage R & B, in which the first person narrator tells his sad-sack tale to a bartender. Sometimes, I think I write to much in describing a record, so I'm gonna stop there, and let this one speak for itself. 

Download: Teacho Wiltshire, His Piano and Orchestra - I've Got a Story Tonight!

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On the flip side, there's another pretty good mover and groover, titled "Check Your Heart". I enjoy Teacho's vocal mannerisms, and I think in this case, they - as well as a pretty hot band - make the song better than it would otherwise be. I could even easily imagine someone liking this one more than its flip. Good stuff!

Download: Teacho Wiltshire, His Piano and Orchestra - Check Your Heart

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And now, it's cut-up time. Or rather, one cut-up and one mash-up. The appetizer is the cut-up, and it is about as brief as a joke can be. Every now and then, while playing around with records, I would get an impulse to take a record that I found particularly wretched and/or annoying and dispense with it with a quick one-off joke. Too many of those, and it'd become repetitive, so I just did it now and then. Here's what I did with a # 1 song from 1963 that I've always thought was aggressively stupid: 

Download: The Angels - My Boyfriend's Back (cut-up)

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And that mash-up: In 2005, when mash-ups were still (I think) a fairly popular thing, I got the impulse to do a bunch of them, from my own weird perspective. I posted two of them, many years ago, here, and here. 

But before I did either of those, I put together the following little item, which I think is quite inspired. I was listening to "Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35" by Bob Dylan, and got to thinking about the the rhythm played in the opening drum beat. What song, I wondered, had that distinct rhythm, and might make for a good mash-up. 

What I thought of was a song from 1956, which is about as innocent a record as you can get, the polar opposite of the Dylan track. But they both had that rhythm, and in that way, they fit together perfectly. Over the bridge section, which occurs twice, I layered altered elements of another song, one from 1967. I suspect many of you will recognize where that sample comes from, as well. Quite simple work, actually, but very effective. 

I hope you'll enjoy this. It's one of my favorites. 

Download: Tonight You Get Stoned (mash-up)

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My Song & My Tears

Today, we have a song-poem singer that I've only featured once before, and in that case, only one side of a 45. Her name is Nancy Sherman. The Air label didn't have its own studio, and relied on several of the other song-poem companies for the recordings released under its label. I believe this one comes from the Globe song-poem factory, very early in the existence of both Air and Globe (this record is from 1960). 

As he did on most of the earliest Air releases (but rarely after 1960), label head Jack Curry attached his name as a songwriter on both sides of this single. 

The better of the two songs and performances, by a wide margin, is "My Song". I find this track slinky and fairly sexy, veering almost into Lee Hudson territory at a few points. I particularly enjoy an excellent, Les Paul influenced solo. Nancy Sherman is no great shakes, missing a few notes here and there and hanging onto a few others fairly shakily. But the overall effect is pretty nice. 

Download: Nancy Sherman with Orchestra - My Song

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"Tears of Fate" on the flip side, is a ballad, with lyrics which seem to be quite heartfelt and personal to the writer. However, I have listened to it four times today, and I can't make head or tail out of them. Would someone out there like to decipher the story here?  

Nothing much happens here, musically, and Nancy Sherman's performance indicates that, whatever her abilities on the mid-tempo "My Song", she was not suited for this sort of slow material at all. The pitch problems hinted at on the flip side are all over the place here, and she shows a significant lack of ability when holding longer notes. 

Download: Nancy Sherman with Orchestra - Tears of Fate

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And now, a few more cut-ups. First up, a very short one-off joke, but a very good one, I think. My friend Stu thinks this may be the funniest thing I ever did in a cut-up. 

The song is "Teenage Brain Surgeon" by Spike Jones, featuring a vocal by the incomparable Thurl Ravenscroft. It's not necessary to know the song - although I'd encourage it, as it's great - but just know that I took the first four words, and then cut out everything except the last word of the song, making a complete sentence (and statement), and, in effect, a very, very short, but complete song. 

Download: Spike Jones Featuring Thurl Ravenscroft - Teenage Brain Surgeon (cut-up)

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And here's the main dish. If you've read certain of my posts, here or on WFMU, you'll know that I revere Pete Seeger, considering him to be both the most important American musician of the 20th century (musically and politically), and the greatest singer ever recorded. 

On his 1955 album of Union songs, he sang the anthem "We Shall Not Be Moved", along with a chorus of friends, including a not-yet-famous Mary Travers. It's one of my favorites of his recordings. 

While doing cut-ups, I realized that I had a tape I could excerpt featuring a friend of mine saying the word "bowel", and that this was too great an opportunity to pass up. I also stuck in a bit from a tape where another friend read of the name of an album that was sitting on my piano, the classic comedy album, "Inside Shelley Berman", and used some other creative drops-in throughout the rest of the track. Here's the result. 

Download: Pete Seeger - We Shall Not Be Moved (cut-up)

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Hey, and both of these are G-rated! 

That Was Quite a Conversation!

(A side note right off the bat. I know this label says "Hallmark", but the company primarily used the spelling "Halmark", and to keep things easier with references and with post labels, I'm staying with "Halmark".)

Today, I'm sharing a Halmark EP (one of the relatively few that credits the man known as Bob Storm on the label), entirely because of the first song on the disc.

This song, "Our Anniversary" involves looking back at a first conversation (a "meet cute" as they say) between a now long-lasting couple. The relating of this conversation - well, the actual "lines" which are reported), is so ham-fisted and ridiculous that I laughed out loud the first time I heard a particular line from it, and I couldn't want to share it with you. 

The song lasts about three minutes, but the key section is from 0:36 to 1:27. I somehow hope this was a first person report, except that I can't fathom that the conversation related actually happened. 

Download: Bob Storm - Our Anniversary

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The rest of the disc does not meet the standard set by the opener, and I don't have much to say about them. "Pretty Little Girl" comes next, and like "Anniversary" it is based on one of the most common Halmark backing tracks. I will say that, had I come across this track on a early 1950's 78, I would have believed it was a (poor) attempt at making a hit record, which is something that I can't say about most Halmark records (or most song-poems, but particularly not most Halmark records). The melody, for one thing, holds together pretty dang well, comparatively speaking. The problem (well, one problem) is that this record probably came out some time in the mid 1970's. 

Oh, and I literally just heard in my head that this backing track might well have been created for a version of "Who's Sorry Now". Have a listen, and see what you think!

Download: Bob Storm - Pretty Little Girl

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~~

Flipping this precious disc over, we hear yet a THIRD of the most common Halmark backing tracks, this time accompanying the song "One and Only"

Download: Bob Storm - One and Only

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The EP finishes up with "My Mother's Lullaby". Here we have a slightly less frequently used backing track, one which approximately no one would associate with the word "Lullaby". This is one of those songs that uses all the letters in the song to offer words that spell out "Mother", and how they apply to mother. This is not, in my opinion, handled well by the lyricists, nor is it a song-style that suggest a "lullaby" any more than the jazzy backing track does. 

The melody chosen here puts a real strain on ol' Bob's pipes here, too, especially as he sings the words "the ease with which you show your love", a phrase which just rolls of the tongue, and which is, of course, exceptionally well suited for use in a melodic song. 

Download: Bob Storm - My Mother's Lullaby

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 And now, a couple of cut-ups. Just so you know, whether you like these, hate 'em or are somewhere in between, I think I'm getting to the end of those which are presentable. Although I have about seven 90 minute cassettes full of these things, most of them are not worth hearing all the way through. I've been trying to give you the cream of the crop. Not sure how many more from that category are left. 

Anyway, first up, I have another appetizer. What you'll hear below is me fooling around with an American Top 40 broadcast in which Duran Duran had the number one song with "The Reflex". "The Reflex" is one of only two Duran Duran songs that I really enjoy, and by far my favorite. I really love the work with edited within the track, and the wild melody of the bridge. And that's what I played with here. There are two sections, the first making fun of all that editing that's within the song, and the second, playing with the band's name: 

Download: Fooling Around with Casey Kasem and "The Reflex"

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And here's something a bit more substantial. I've already shared one cut up of Walter Brennan's "Old Rivers" - not even a month ago - but I made at least a half-dozen attempts to do something funny with that record, as a story song, particularly one which is spoken, lends itself to what I was doing about a perfectly as anything can. Plus, "Old Rivers" is a wonderful record, and it's fun to play around with records I love. So this is a different cut-up of "Old Rivers than the one I previous shared here. 

As you'll hear, near the end of this track, I made great use of a Jack Brickhouse "History of the Chicago Cubs" record. 

Oh, and this one is free of four letter words (well, unless you count "fart"), although there are still at least one phrase here which might not be safe for work. 

Download: Walter Brennan - Old Rivers
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Sammy Rocks Again!

Two Sammy Marshall songs and two cut-ups! What more could you ask for?!?!?!

It's Rockin' Sammy Time! Although Sammy Marshall's career in the song-poem world was dominated by ballads, I think he really shines on upbeat tunes, and most of the relatively few early '60's rockers he sang on I find very enjoyable. 

This one is no exception. It's called "See Watcha Do To Me", and definitely shows a twist influence, as do many of Sammy's rock-and-roll numbers. I also discern the influence of the earliest soul records on the introductory instrumental, although this doesn't last. (Billboard magazine gave this record three stars (under the heading "moderate sales potential") in November of 1962, nicely dating this release for us.)

I really dig Sammy's vocal performance here, and on similar releases. He had a deeply appealing pleading tone, which he put to excellent use in singing these lyrics, attaining that quality of sounding like he was fully experiencing the feelings of the fabulously named song-poet, Dusty Tribble (as seen here, his name was actually Fredric Tribble, and he composed the song "Hoop Tee Doopsie", which I desperately want to hear).

This is a really fun one...

Download: Sammy Marshall - See Watcha Do To Me

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(Please also note the two songs in that copyright book just after "Hoop Tee Doopsie", a double entry for something called "HOOPA LOOPA HOOPA LOOPA DOOPA". I'd pay to hear that song.)

The flip side is Sammy and the Globe band (for that is where the tracks on this Roxie release came from) in bland ballad titled "My House is Your House". Sammy offers a typically strong vocal, but there is not much here for him (or the rest of the band) to hang his hat on, just a sentimental love song, again offered up by that most Dusty of Tribbles. 

Download: Sammy Marshall - My House is Your House

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It's cut-up time again, and today I have a very brief appetizer and then a mangling of one of my favorite tracks ever. 

First, a tiny little bit of fun with the Bee Gees song "Spirits (Having Flown)", the title track of their 1979 hit album. I don't think it's necessary to know this song to enjoy the brief joke that I played with it, but I will encourage anyone who hasn't heard it to go to YouTube (or whatever) and listen, as I consider it far and away the best track they ever recorded. Gorgeous nearly beyond belief. 

Here's that 10 second cut-up. 

Download: The Bee Gees - Spirits (Having Flown) (cut-up)

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Now for the main course (see what I did there, Bee Gees fans?). The Limeliters released an album in 1962, containing a concert that they did with a chorus of junior high kids, titled "Through Children's Eyes". I consider it to be one of the three best albums ever made, by anyone. My favorite track from the album - and, in fact, one of my half-dozen favorite individual tracks ever, is on that album, a version of Malvina Reynolds' "Morningtown Ride". The simple chorus of that song may be my favorite melody ever written. Nearly 60 years since I first heard it as a preschooler, the track still usually makes me a bit teary. 

Anyway, it was only a matter of time before I chopped that recording up. You should really hear this song, anyway, but it probably is also helpful to hear it before listening to the cut-up. You can find a posting of the track here. 

And here is what I did with it (this is a composite of two cut-ups I did with the track, circa 1984 or so). This has a single four letter word in there somewhere, and a body part reference, so perhaps it's not safe for work. 

Download: The Limeliters - Morningtown Ride (cut-up)

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Clean Living, with Gary Roberts

You have my solid vow, oh song-poem fans, that any time I come to be in possession of a Gary Roberts record, I will share it with you. His vacuous, artless style remains a fascination to me, and I'll get to the newest acquisition in The Gary Roberts Story (as well as some more cut-up material) in just a moment. 

But first, I want to bring your attention to a previously unknown song-poem label and Rodd Keith release on that label, discovered by my pal Stu, who comments here often, and who frequents various websites dedicated to documenting the world of the 45 RPM record. He has found a posting for a song by one "Ward Lowe" on the Empala label. Both sides are on youtube, but the posting on 45cat.com helpfully has both of those postings embedded in with the rest of the 45's information, and the first one posted, at least, is quite nice. You can find that posting, and those songs, here. Thanks, Stu!

And now, without further ado: 

Both sides of today's Gary Roberts feature were written by the same song-poet, but "Because of You" is by far the stronger of the two. This is a paean to clean living, from someone who apparently partook in just about every drug-related vice, up until today. The best thing is that we get a rundown of all of the temptations he might face, and what he's going to do, instead, now. 

No, I take that back. The best thing might be the peppy, oompah based backing track, featuring the simplest of piano, bass and drums, accompanied by a guitarist who seems to think he's in a different song, one that perhaps is being played in double time. Then, of course, there is Gary's homely vocal, lacking in anything one might call "style" or "polish", as usual. 

Download: Gary Roberts - Because of You

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I cannot, alas, work up the same enthusiasm for the flip side, "Memory Lane". Given that the same song-poet wrote both of these songs, and that they both have the ring of first-person authenticity about them, there's at least a chance that the writer was expressing things from his own life. And if that's the case, it would appear that his newfound sobriety was not enough to keep his gal by his side, based on the lyrics of this song. 

All that said, this is a tedious song and performance. It goes on nearly four minutes, and seems even longer. Unlike Gary's late predecessor, Norm Burns, and others, such as Rodd Keith and Cara Stewart, I get no sense of any connection between Gary's vocals and the meaning of what he's singing. I sort of doubt that improvement in that area would help in a song as bland as this, but it couldn't hurt, and it just isn't there. 

Download: Gary Roberts - Memory Lane

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~~~

And now for my cut-up of the week. 

This time around, it's not exactly a cut-up, but rather a deliberate butchering and reworking. And therein lies a short story. 

When I was little, my parents were wise enough to buy me (and my brother - six years older), the complete set of Science related albums, titled "Ballads for the Age of Science", which had been released in 1959, and features such performers as Marais and Miranda and Tom Glazer, among others. 

These albums are pretty darn wonderful, but just about completely forgotten today. If you are familiar with this collection at all, it may be because of a thoroughly unnecessary cover version of "Why Does the Sun Shine" (originally done by Tom Glazer) by They Might Be Giants (my advice - go listen to the original). 

Anyway, there were two tracks I was particularly fond of, one from an album of Experiment Songs by Dorothy Collins, which was about rainbows, and one by Tom Glazer from an album of Weather Songs, titled "What is Climate". Like many, if not most of the tracks on these albums, there is both a spoken section and a song. I'm only concerned with the spoken section today. Here is a link to that track, which you'll want to hear before I share anything else. 

My brother and I discovered that, if we played with the needle while this track was playing, pulling it back across the grooves (and damaging the record in the process) we could make Tom Glazer say: 

"What causes a desert climate? Hot Dry Air! What causes the Hot Dry Air? Hot Dry Air! What causes the Hot Dry Air? Hot Dry Air! What causes the Hot Dry Air? Hot Dry Air!"

ad infinitum. Great fun. 

When I was frequently doing cut-ups, back in the '80's, I thought I'd recreate this moment, and play with the track some more. I made this little bit (using my beat up version of the album): 

Download: Hot Dry Air (cut-up)

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Then, over last Christmas break, I decided to spend some time doing something I'd had it in mind to do for at least ten years. That is, make a version of this material with a dance beat, again playing around with the spoken word section (this time taken from the pristine version of the track found online). The result, while not quite a "cut-up" as I've been defining them is, I hope quite enjoyable: 

Download: Tom Glazer - What is Climate? (rearranged by Bob)

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My Favorite New Song-Poem Purchase This Year

Hey, there, Hi there, Ho there, you're as welcome as can be!

Let's get right to it: 

If you've read this site (and my posts at WFMU), you may be aware that I am a devotee of the music of the Caribbean, as well as the larger world of Latin music, circa the 1930's to the 1950's, particularly the Calypso music of Trinidad (and the somewhat faux Calypso that became a fad in the US during the 1950's), which I consider the best sub-genre of popular music ever devised by humankind. . 

Given that fact, there's no doubt that I would have jumped at the chance to snap up today's offering, once a partial sound file of it appeared on eBay. "That's the Life For Me!" appeared on the Tin Pan Alley, one of the few labels which (at the time, anyway, 1958 or so), was making an ongoing attempt to make their releases match the music styles of the day. 

Thus we have a lovely, lilting and energetic island sound backing up Jimmy Dee, who only made two documented records for the label, pretty much back to back. The percussionists here deserve special praise, driving the track along, but the guitarist is doing some really nice things, too, especially in the solo section. Jimmy Dee does a fine job, offering up a fairly passionate vocal. I'd say he's emulating Jackie Wilson, except that at the time this record was cut, Wilson probably only had one single out. But he's in the style, for sure. 

Download: Jimmy Dee - That's the Life For Me!

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The flip side is "You Mean All the World to Me". I continue to hear Jackie Wilson-esque vocal stylings from Jimmy Dee, but they seem pretty over-the-top on this very, very slow number. Your mileage may vary, but this just doesn't do anything for me at all. 

Download: Jimmy Dee - You Mean the World to Me

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~~

And now it's time for our "cut-up" of the week. Previous posts have explained this feature enough that I hope I don't need to explain further. 

Anyway, today's offering is, I think, the most recent "cut-up" I've made (although I'll share something I did this year, which is not quite in the same genre, soon). It's not really "recent" - it's from 2015 - but I haven't done any since. 

It's an overhaul of the great Beatles' track "Norwegian Wood". As compared to the "cut-ups" I did in the early and mid 1980's, this one benefited fully from the excellent sound editing software I have now, compared with the cassette recorder pause button I had then. 

Multiple friends have said it's the best thing I've done in this area, mostly (or entirely) because of the way I fooled around with the sitar segments (and not so much the drop-ins heard throughout the vocal). But I think the whole thing is way above my average, and it's one of my favorites. 

A caveat: This is an extremely rude and off-color sound file. It is loaded with four letter words and other "blue" imagery. It is probably as foul-mouthed as anything I've ever done in a cut-up. If you're likely to be offended, maybe you should skip it, and it's absolutely not safe for work. 

On the other hand, those instrumental passages may just make you laugh out loud. 

Download: The Beatles - Norwegian Wood (cut-up)

Play:

It Happened to Norm

Howdy, 

I'm going to do something I've mostly avoided doing today, and I'll get to that in a moment, but first, I want to thank the folks who have congratulated me on the new job - I really appreciate it - and also shout out to long time reader Jeff, who offered his first comment last week, and a very nice one, as well. I do like to respond to these things in e-mail, but I understand why many people choose not to attach their e-mail addresses to blog comments. 

And now: 

~~

The thing I tend not to do here, is sharing records which are already on YouTube. When I find something worth sharing, I always check before making MP3's, and if the record is easily available, I put it aside and choose something else. 

But today, I found that I really enjoyed one side of a 45 which is not available elsewhere, even though its flipside is, indeed, on YouTube, so I'm making an exception, which I'm sure I'll do again at some point. 

The side in question is by Norm Burns and the Satellites, except it's actually by Norm Burns and the "Satelites", which, spoken in English, might be pronounced "Sait Lights". A quick perusal of  the AS/PMA website shows this to have been the second documented release featuring the Satellites, a group name which would recur many times on the label, so it seems entirely possible to me that someone didn't know how to spell the word, and that shortly after this release, the spelling error was corrected. However, without seeing all of the records, that would be hard to prove. 

Anyway, the song in question is "It Happened Once Again", and here we again have Norm in supper club mode, offering up a strong, emotion-laden vocal over midtempo backing. And for the second time in a few weeks, I find myself hearing an almost Rodd Keith-esque backing arrangement, throughout the record, but specifically on the bridge sections, where Norm sings in unison with the backup singers before they offer harmony "oooh's". The lyrics are at least a few steps above the typical song-poem offering, too. 

Play: Norm Burns at the Satelites  - It's Happened Once Again

Play: 

~~

It's the flip side of "Happened" which is on YouTube, and it's a good one, too, "Hey! Hey! Lover". We're in the same key and almost the same tempo here, and yet the song is entirely different. This is punchier, and Norm gives the very different style of lyrics and very different approach. Again, the vocal arrangement (especially the "oh yeahs!") remind me of something Rodd Keith would have done.  The over-the-top reverb is all Sterling, though, and I love it. 

Play: Norm Burns at the Satelites  - Hey! Hey! Lover

Play:

~~

And another cut-up. Again, I encourage occasional readers to look at posts from late January and February for an explanation of what's going on here. 

Last time around, I started with a Queen appetizer, a very short pause-button special which got a ton of plays and downloads, so here again, I'll start with another Queen appetizer, another arrangement of the very same song, "We Will Rock You". In this case, I took the sections before and after the vocals and used the pause button to eliminate every other beat. That's what you'll hear in the first 20 seconds here, and it gave the piece a square dance feel that cracks me up. Even the solo sounds like there's a barnyard hoedown going on. For the last ten seconds or so, I rearranged the solo again, using the pause button (on and off) every half beat, giving the solo even more of a square dance feel. 

Download: Queen - We Will Rock You (pause button)

Play:

For the main dish, here's something much more obscure, although it was a huge hit in its day (1962). It's the much beloved character actor Walter Brennan and his top five hit, "Old Rivers". A story song always will lend itself to my cut-up style, and if it's spoken word, that works even better. I must have played around with this record at least a half dozen times, during my years of doing cut-ups. If you haven't heard the record, and want to be familiar with it before listening to the cut-up, it is available here. 

And again, I'll have to provide the warning that this is not safe for work, due to the inclusion of several off-color words. 

Download: Walter Brennan - Old Rivers

Play:

The Earnestness and Directness of Early Cinema Records

Howdy!

First up, I'd like to refer back to last week's post. For those who saw it before my friend Stu did, it's worth a look in the comments, as there is a link to a photo of the actual address where the song-poet for the second shared song lived. A second commenter has added details about the property. And what's more, my pal Darryl Bullock (of World's Worst Records fame) has commented on the publishing dates for the two songs, which are, remarkably, from 12 years apart. 

Also, a frequent e-mail correspondent, Tyler, pointed out that I was wrong when I said I'd never heard the backing track on the second track before. It is featured in this post, from 2015, as well. Thanks, everyone!

~~

As mentioned last time around, I am now gainfully employed again, and as such, it has been an enormously busy few weeks, and looks to remain so for the near future. I will likely not have the time to be as verbose about what I'm sharing for awhile, which might well be a relief to some readers. So I may be sort of brief at times. 

~~

A caveat right up front: this record is beat to hell, and sounds it. 

 As I've mentioned - probably too many times - I am a big fan of the brief period of the Cinema label (roughly 1971 to some point in 1973) before the standard Preview/MSR people took over as the house band, always credited as "The Real Pros". During that early 24 months or so, many of the releases featured a solo male (whose voice I love) with one of those do it yourself console organs. A few others feature a female singer with an appealing ache in her voice, often with a bit more varied backing than the solo male. 

I often find those releases captivating in a particular way that most other song poems and song poem label's work are not. The two singers I refer to have an honesty, earnestness and directness (no doubt amplified by the simple arrangements of the songs) that stands out for me. Like few other song-poem singers, aside from Rodd Keith, they each have the ability to make the song sound like they are singing about their own lives, and that they mean every word. 

Today, we have the female singer I've just mentioned. And while I am surely not claiming greatness  here (or anything near it), for even the better of the two tracks - "I Cried and Cried" - I am saying that the singing connects with me, and the homeliness of it, in all of its girl-singing-in-her-living-room-in-1972 glory is very appealing to me. If you're not with me, at the very least, imagine what early '70's Tin Pan Alley, or God help us, what Halmark would have done with this lyric. Cinema did right by this song-poet and her direct, deeply felt lyric. 

Download: The Real Pros - I Cried and Cried

Play:

~~

The flip side, "To My Love", also features the warm vocals of the female singer heard above, to considerably less effect, although she still sounds like she means it. The whole thing is padded by about 45 seconds of a tremendously dull instrumental section. Also, while the lyrics are just as earnest as those on the flip, they are also considerably less interesting (to me, at least - maybe amateur lyrics of heartache are just more interesting to me amateur lyrics expressing being happily in love).

Download: The Real Pros - To My Love

Play:

~~

And now, yet another cut-up. Please see previous posts, going back to late January, for more information as to what I'm talking about. 

I have mostly been sharing things I did with a cassette recorder and multiple inputs, back in the period 1981-85, when I was in my early to mid 20's, but today, I have a cut-up I did with considerably better equipment, some twenty years later, in the mid 2000's. It's a nicely reworked version of Buzz-Buzz-Buzz, a terrific - no, absolutely essential - rock and roll record by The Hollywood Flames, from my single favorite year for popular music, 1957. If you haven't heard the song, it would help to know how it sounds before experiencing this cut-up. You can hear it here. 

There are a couple of mildly off-color words here but mostly, it's just silly. 

Download: The Hollywood Flames - Buzz-Buzz-Buzz (cut-up)

Play:

The Shortest Halmark Release Ever?

 Hello, everybody, hello!

Before I get started with today's items, I wanted to share that I have again been invited to be part of a podcast. It's the same show - Ephemeral - which has featured elements of my collection four times in the past, and has had me on, as an interviewee, three of those times. 

This time around, I am sharing the world of the Star Ads. Those of you who have been with me since the WFMU days, or the 2003 365 days project before that, might remember the Star Ads, but in case you don't know what I'm talking about, I have shared excerpts from them here and here. 

The new podcast, which features several more , previously unshared Star Ads, can be heard at: 

https://www.ephemeral.show/episode/star-ads

~~

I would also like to share that, as of this coming Monday, I will again be gainfully employed. Thanks to everyone who chimed in with encouragement and/or condolences regarding the loss of my previous job. 

~~

And now, a Halmark release that I found very interesting!

First, this is one of the comparatively few Halmark discs which names the singer, and what's more, it gets the singer right on both sides. This really is the vocalist most often identified as "Bob Storm" (of those which do feature performers' names, multiple Halmark releases have the wrong singer named on them). 

But more to the point, this is, by a significant degree, the shortest Halmark release I've ever come across. Halmark tracks tend to be lengthier than their song-poem compatriots from other labels, usually at or beyond three minutes, and regularly stretching to - and far beyond - four minutes. They often also seem to go on longer than those on other labels, but that's another story. 

But the lengths of both tracks on this release add up to less than four minutes and fifteen seconds. The longer of the two - "Goodness Can Still Prevail" - is just 2:09. 

"Goodness Can Still Prevail" seems to have been an exercise in rhyming for the song-poet, as he threw in a bunch of words that end in the "Ale" or "Ail". That made me laugh. Bob Storm certainly Bob Storms it up, offering his most unctuous vocal style, to entertain us. 

One last note: the absolutely cruddy sound quality that permeates the much of this track is from the record and not from anything I did in turning it into an MP3. That Halmark sold such a poor product, which sounds like it was recorded on damaged recording tape, says a lot about them.

Download: Bob Storm - Goodness Can Still Prevail

Play:

The flip side, "Fallin' Tears", stands out for me, in that I don't recall ever hearing this backing track before, on a Halmark release. Additionally, it certainly sounds like a track which was created for a specific hit song, as we've discovered to be the case for multiple other Halmark tracks. If there is another Halmark release in circulation this backing track - one I find more pleasant than most of what they used - please remind/inform me of it. 

It's also worth noting that the lyrics here are fairly direct, simple but effective, and not at all like many of the overwrought efforts that frequently found their way to Halmark's storefront. 

This track lasts just 124 seconds, and I'm having a hard time recalling a shorter Halmark track. 

Oh, and see below, after the label scan....

Download: Bob Storm - Fallin' Tears

Play:

The song-poet in this case was apparently quite happy with his creation and with Halmark's work with it. As seen below, from the 45 sleeve, he stamped it with his name and address, and in another spot on the sleeve, offered a signed copy to someone named Ethel. 

And here's a quick update: please see the comments for a link that my pal Stu offered, to a Google Maps view of that very address.

~~~

And now, it's time for a couple more Cut-Ups. Please see previous posts, going back to the end of January, for an explanation of these tapes, which I made in the early '80's, while in my early 20's. I have two of them today. 

First up, a very, very short example, which is more of a "fun with the pause button" example than a true "cut-up". For here we have what I've called "We Will Rock You (Sliced and Diced)", 20 seconds of the first measure of that Queen classic, rearranged radically and somewhat violently. Hopefully, this will make you laugh. 

Download: Queen - We Will Rock You (Sliced and Diced)

Play:

And then there is this rearrangement of the opening track from my choice as the greatest album ever made, The Beatles' "Abbey Road". I've indicated, in the track name, that this is a "composite" version of "Come Together", and that's because I cut-up that track twice, in quick succession, way back when, and while neither of them was funny enough to share on its own, they each had some great moments, so I have combined the best of each of them into one single cut-up. 

The inserts here rely heavily on excerpts from Monty Python albums, and also - as very many of my cut-ups did - ridiculous things said by Gary Owens on his wonderful show "Soundtrack of the '60's", which was in production at that time. 

Oh, and there are two four letter words mixed in here, along with at least one loud expression of another word not often said in polite company. 

Download: The Beatles - Come Together (cut-up)

Play:

A question: are people enjoying these? Should I continue to share them?