A Real Pro

While every record I've ever seen on the Cinema label features a generic group called "The Real Pros", most of these records actually feature the usual suspects from the Los Angeles song-poem world - Rodd Keith, Dick Kent, Bobbi Blake and the rest. Actual, REAL pros. But it's the earliest Cinema releases that fascinate me. While containing that same group name, these actually feature what appears to be a one-man-band, or at least a single keyboardist and a singer. The keyboard is one of those ubiquitous early '70's models that the family down the street always had in their living room. They had pre-programmed drum tracks, and if you pushed down a couple of keys at the left end, you had a chord background for your song. More talented pianists could actually use the drumbeats and play an entire left-and-right handed song. For a moment, anyway, these keyboards seem to have been acceptable for use on major label record releases - at least if the sparkling review that Billboard gave to Robin Gibb's embarrassingly amateur first album (which has this sort of keyboard all over it), in 1970, can be believed. I've even noted what I believe to be one of these keyboards on a Leonard Cohen album or two. Whoever played on these early Cinema releases knew how to get the most out of the limited machinery, as evidenced by the uniquely weird "Deep Freeze Mama", and the downright wonderful "I'm Having My First Heartbreak". But my real question is: who was the singer on these records? It appears to be the same guy on all of them, or at least a few guys with the same vocal qualities. I don't think I've ever heard it on any other label's song poems. Despite his sort of loungy qualities, I tend to enjoy this singer. All that is a long set up to yet another Astronaut record, "Handful of Moon Dust", one whose lyrics are unusual in that they are from the point of view of a homesick Astronaut, who is glad to be back on Mother Earth. 

Download: The Real Pros - Handful of Moon Dust

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The opening to the flip side "Until You Change Your Ways" sounds particularly like a few tracks on that Robin Gibb record I referenced. I don't have much more to say about this offering, aside from noting that both of these sides bear a production credit to "Quimby, Jr.", which I don't think I've noticed on Cinema records before, although I now see that it's on at least a few other early records from the label. Does this mean that the label was initially linked to the legendary Tropical label, run by Robert Quimby? There's nothing on the song-poem website to suggest this, but still, ooh, it makes me wonder.... 

Download: The Real Pros: Until You Change Your Ways

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Rod Rogers: Ladies Man

Today, another marvelous pairing on the Film City label, from the pen of Walter York, and the genuis of Rodd Keith, as Rod Rogers. The better of the two is "Sixteen Sweethearts Later", in which we hear of a love affair interrupted by not one fling, not a few flings, but SIXTEEN relationships, certainly more than most people can claim in a lifetime. This performance contains a wonderful Chamberlin solo which is pretty much a perfect example of the typical Rodd Keith keyboard solo, particularly the musical figure at about the 1:09 point, which crops up again and again and again on his records.\

Download: Rod Rogers with the Swinging Strings - Sixteen Sweethearts Later

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The flip side, featuring a nice Rod/Rodd duet vocal, as well as more wonderful Chamberlinning, is "Instant Love". I sure do love this sound!

Download: Rod Rogers with the Swinging Strings - Instant Love

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Does He Sound Angry?

Linford Haughton was angry. Yes, despite having one of the all time cool names - one which would absolutely keep me from getting angry, just by thinking about - he was angry. He put his thoughts to paper, named them "Darling, You Make Me Angry", and sent them in to the Sterling house of Song Poems. But I ask you, did Norm Burns - whose singing I adore, but still - express anything approaching anger in his reading of Mr. Haughton's outburst? I think not:

Download: Norm Burns - Darling, You Make Me Angry

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On the flip side, we have the sad tale of a man who has been left "Always Alone":

Download: Norm Burns - Always Alone

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Dimples!

Computer problems have delayed today's feature long enough, so I'm not going to type a lot and add to the delay. Suffice it to say that it's another great, winning Tin Pan Alley entry from Phil Celia, with that early rock and roll sound that he was not really all that suited for, singing about a girl nicknamed "Dimples"! 

Download: Phil Celia - Dimples

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From the flip side, here's a more middle-of-the-road offering, "The Prairie Wind":

Download: Phil Celia - The Prairie Wind

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Cara Mia

I sure do love Cara Stewart. Admittedly, her records nearly all sound fairly similar, each of them being structured along one of about three or four templates, but each of those are such great templates, with Lee Hudson usually playing a low-rent Les Paul to her sultry Mary Ford. Today's offering has the fairly ridiculous title, "What Time Does the Last Moon Leave?", and it appeared on the little known "Advance Records" label. 

Download: Cara Stewart with Lee Hudson Orch. - What Time Does the Next Moon Leave?

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You might be fascinated to learn that, based on an ad in Billboard that the author of these two songs took out, this record dates not to the 1950's or even the 1960's, but some time in late 1970 or early 1971. It was, says the ad "very apropos for the moon shot" (the first of which, of course, had been 18 months earlier, a time delay which is actually quite "timely", in terms of how quickly song-poem musicians keep up with trends). The flip side is more of the same, in terms of the sound, and is titled "My Ladder of Dreams".

Download: Cara Stewart with Lee Hudson Orch. - My Ladder of Dreams

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Hobby Horse Round-Up

"Charming" is not a word that I use very much. And it certainly isn't a word that I'd use to describe very many song-poems. But there are a few, and exhibit A may be today's feature, Gene Marshall's performance of "Hobby Horse Round-Up". These are genuinely sweet, whimsical words, set to a fairly appropriate backing, with a particularly well selected bass line. I could always do without that God-awful synth that they were using by this point, and Gene reads the melody wrong early in the performance, but these are minor complaints. It's actually a tribute to Gene Marshall and the other song-poem singers, that they so rarely flubbed a word or a melody, since they were very likely seeing these words and music for the first and only time, upon singing them. And his warm, sweet vocal here fits the lyrics well. A winner. 

Download: Gene Marshall - Hobby Horse Round-Up

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Now, onto the flip side, where we find the deeply odd "Riders of the Purple Sky", complete with disco beat (I dig the drumming at about 1:35), Clavinet, and inscructable lyrics, wherein the riders are actually of several Purple Things (sage, sky, day), and it seems that far more is being imparted than 100 seconds could possibly contain. What's it all about, Gene? What's it all about, Priscilla? Another winner!

Download: Gene Marshall - Riders of the Purple Sky

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Every Boy He Knows

It seemed like it was about time for some Sammy Marshall, so just in time, I came up with today's feature, which appeared on the very rare Lydian Records label. This is the only record I've ever seen on Lydian, and it's the only one listed in the Lydian Records discography at AS/PMA. Please note that this record, "Every Boy I Know", features what someone has determined to be "The Nashville Sound". While this is technically true (Lydian was provided with its tracks, like dozens of other tiny labels, by the Globe Records song-poem factory, based in Nashville), I can't imagine anyone actually thinking that either side of this record represented any "sound" that a music fan would think was associated with Nashville. 

Download: Sammy Marshall with Orchestra and Chorus - Every Boy I Know

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The flip side is "It's a Long Time (Now It's Too Late)", which features a lyric that I admittedly cannot comprehend. Most lines seem to be pining for a lost (or never had) love, while the third line of the song indicates that his loved one is with him. By the way, the cruddy sound is from the pressing, not from my turntable or other sound equipment.

Download: Sammy Marshall with Orchestra and Chorus - It's a Long Time (Now It's Too Late)

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For Labor Day

What better way to pay tribute to the working men and women of our country and world on Labor Day (well, America's Labor Day, anyway) than with a look at one of those jobs which is so indispensable that its practitioners can't even get Labor Day off - the Policemen and Policewomen of our cities, towns and villages. The song is "We Proudly Hail Our Police". And what better man to do it than Frank Perry, who is woefully under-represented among the listings of song-poems to be had. And what better accompaniment than the that fabulous band "The 'Big Action Sound'", which is nothing more than the ol' Chamberlain! 

Download: Frank Perry and the "Big Action Sound" - We Proudly Hail Our Police

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The AS/PMA website has this record as being from the early '70's, which seems fairly amazing. I'm assuming that this comes from some sort of listing in a trade publication or an ad in the same, since the AS/PMA folks didn't know the artist for either side of the record. Their dates tend to be correct, though. On the flip side, we have the Chamberlain man himself, Rodd Keith, in his guise as Rod Rivers, also with the fictional "Big Action Sound", on a less than stellar effort, "To Love". The lyrics here get positively circular, and more than a bit hard to follow:

Download: Rod Rivers and the "Big Action Sound" - To Love

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He Never Wins

Don't let the slinky piano opening figure fool you - it's not going to be some slinky, sexy, mysterious record, although the band seems to think this was a possibility. And the words to the song ("But I Never Win") here and there, suggest what might have been (although other lines are true clunkers). But then, the folks at Sterling assigned the track to the style-challenged Gary Roberts, and we end up with a quintessential song-poem record. 

Download: Gary Roberts - But I Never Win

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Ponderous is the word for the flip side, "Man on the Moon", handled by Shelly Stuart, who has not been featured on this site before. She did some good records for Sterling, although this isn't one of them. The song posits that the space program, and the landing on the moon, were the handiwork of God, rather than NASA, which seems to me quite a shortchanging of the scientists, astronauts and others who managed to achieve what they did in so short a time. We'll dedicate this to the Shuttle program, which ended earlier this summer.

Download: Shelley Stuart - Man on the Moon

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Oh, Go Not Yet!!!

Before I get to this week's feature, I wanted to alert you that I've just posted a non-song-poem offering from the Film City label - a vanity record which almost certainly features Rodd Keith on the Chamberlain, and a deeply odd record it is, too, to the WFMU blog, here. And now, on with the countdown: Today, our attention turns back to the throaty, appealing vocals of Ellen Wayne, songstress for the Tin Pan Alley label. Here's an early '60's effort, with appropriately jazzy backing, a 95 second length, and a just-short-of-ridiculous title, "Go Not Yet, Oh, Go Not Yet". This is another sound I just can't get enough of! 

Download: Ellen Wayne - Go Not Yet, Oh, Go Not Yet

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  On the flip side, we hear "(I'm) The Clown", and if anyone can tell me how the addition of parethesis helps that title (rather than just calling it "I'm the Clown"), I'd be very appreciative:

Download: Ellen Wayne - (I'm) The Clown

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In Elvis' Memory

Another "Elvis Week" in Memphis (marking the anniversary of his death) is upon us, and what better way to pay tribute than with a Song-Poem. And like the last Elvis tribute record shared here (early last year), this one is by those Cinema Record stalwarts, The Real Pros. The title of this record "The Memory of Elvis Presley", seems to me to indicate that Elvis had a heretofore unmentioned talent for remembering things, and the first line of the song "Elvis did so much to help the poor", is unproven, as far as I know, and pretty much leaves me baffled. And that last rhyme, as the song is fading out, has to be heard to be believed. Try it out for a spin! 

Download: The Real Pros - The Memory of Elvis Presley

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About that B-Side, “We Got the Blues”... Well, I find it pretty much unlistenable. Oh, and if you’re going to make a song with “Blues” in the title, it would nice to set it to a musical style that at least has some semblance of the blues, rather than a generic, badly recorded dance track with a predictable major/minor progression, and a solo section that doesn't really bother to include a solo. However, your mileage may vary:

Download: The Real Pros - We Got the Blues

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Chariots of the Gods

Time is exceptionally short this week, as I head off to a fabulous all-weekend-long activity, so I'm just going to offer today's Bobbi Blake feature, which also, unfortunately, features the absolutely terrible sound and pressing quality that MSR was noted for, at this time. Here's "Chariots of the Gods": 

Download: Bobbi Blake - Chariots of the Gods

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And a sad story indeed, is heard in this flipside, "Dear Sister":

Download: Bobbi Blake - Dear Sister

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