Don-O is the very busy culture-vulture who slipped us "Ultimate Ultimate Xanadu" last year, a sampling of the numerous cover versions of songs from the 1980 musical film "Xanadu". A film I still have not seen (the likes of Olivia Newton-John and ELO barely budge my interest-meter), but Don-O makes an interesting point in the debut ish of his new 'zine "Space-Age Ashtray" that "Xanadu" fits snuggly into the world of classic Las Vegas and mid-century Space-Age/tiki culture, the sort of stuff that sends my interest-meter skyrocketing. So, hmm...
He's back with 20 more "Xanadu" soundtrack covers ranging from solo acoustic to full-blown disco orchestrations. Along they way we encounter: an a capella choir, Marie Osmond and Andy Gibb, an Asian language cover, lo-fi live recordings, no-fi grungy rock, lots of Broadway-style warbling, and a vocal choir singing a medley of ELO hits, not all from "Xanadu." Take a hit of ultimate Xanax! Er, I mean:
When legendary outsider oddball Tiny Tim was experiencing his late '60s fluke mainstream popularity, some low-level record company weasels dug up on old tape of Tiny singing classic old childrens and novelty songs and Tin Pan Alley standards, and for some reason decided to add some silly crowd sound effects. Tiny's voice certainly improved in the years following this recording. So Tiny never considered this part of his official discography, but there's still some good stuff here. Look at that song list - come on, don't you wanna hear a ukulele-strumming Tiny singing "On The Good Ship Lollipop" in his otherworldly falsetto? 'Course you do!
UPDATE: Despite repeated tries, I could not get the Zippyshare file to work, so I've moved the file to Box. Let me know if you-all still have any problems, prefer Box to Zippyshare (or other free sharing methods?) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Continuing our survey of songs from the hippie era that are similar to the surreal, psychedelic humor of the Bonzo Dog Band (git yer Vol. 1 here)...
Count Otto Black made many contributions to this batch of dog meat, so continued woofs of thanks to him. Vol. 1 was more from me, the more obvious stuff - albums that I'd had for ages (Cream, Pink Floyd, etc.), but the Count really dug deep for things like the irrational international obscurities that perhaps never washed up on our shores during their initial release.
01 Duke Ellington - C Jam Blues [the otherwise thorough "Songs The Bonzos Taught Us" compilation did not include this 1942 basis for the Bonzos' "The Intro and The Outro"] 02 Dudley Moore - Psychedelic Baby 03 Stackridge - Do the Stanley [a non-LP single, this one from 1973 - my fave tune from these eclectic Brits] 04 Erkey Grant & The Eerwigs - I Can't Get Enough Of You [wish I could find some info on the loonies who released this 45, their one and only record] 05 The Purple Gang - The Sheik [this band's singer wore a mask, and claimed to be an actual wizard] 06 Liverpool Scene - Bat Poem [poets poet-isizing over rock; this bunch somewhat transmogrified into the Scaffold:] 07 Scaffold - Lily the Pink [this big UK hit featured Paul McCartney's brother Mike McGear; was a cleaned-up version of a filthy old drinking song] 08 Les Sauterelles - Where Have All The Flowers Gone [a Swiss piss-take on Pete Seeger's folk hit] 09 Os Mutantes - Chao de Estrelas [yes, the Brazilian 'Tropicalia' legends] 10 The Deviants - Garbage [a college radio show I'd listen to in the '80s would play this; was mighty surprised to learn how old it was: from these British anarchists' 1967 debut] 11 Tritons - Rock Around The Clock [continuing our world tour with some Italians...] 12 Grobschnitt - Sahara [...and Germans...] 13 Giles,Giles & Fripp - The Saga Of Rodney Toady - Part 1 [precursor to King Crimson...hold up, Robert Fripp had a sense of humor?!] 14 Giles,Giles & Fripp - She Is Loaded 15 Brian Eno - Dead Finks Don't Talk [this one often gets tagged a Bryan Ferry satire, but I dunno, sounds a bit Viv Stanshell-ish to me] 16 Roxy Music - Hula Kula [this loopy mock-Hawaiian instro was a non-LP 1973 b-side written by Phil Manzanera] 17 Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias - Follow the Guru [the hippie's often-shallow infatuation with/appropriation of Indian culture was just begging to be satirized] 18 Doggerel Bank - Finale [more poetry rock, from '73] 19 Quicksilver Messenger Service - Happy Trails [another antique cover: 'singing cowboy' Roy Rogers' theme, recorded by these San Franciscans in '68] "Dada for now..."
I have obviously fallen off my new-post-every-few-days schedule, but yes, I'm still alive (and well), and have been receiving your always-appreciated emails, musics, DVDs, etc. There's no shortage of material for this here web-log. Guess I've been too busy watching TV... How did I not see this before?! A recent live version of the greatest song ever about animal homosexuality is up on Vimeo:
You know that Mr. Will Grove-White is the right kind of people since he's a member of the mighty Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. But brilliantly performing the Beach Boys on nose flutes, and no other instruments?! One can only bow down: "We're not worthy!"
And here's your WTF? of the day: a nine-minute long concert, also on Vimeo, by an Odd-stralian named, er, Dumbshit: DUMBSHIT live 4/24/15 Our source for all good things Down Under, Buttress O'Kneel, has played with Mr. Dumbshit a few times, and even after having been an acquaintance of him for a good decade or so, is still a bit perplexed by his, shall we say, lack of regard for traditional musical standards. How self-aware is he? One wonders "...if he is and just doesn't care, or if he's kidding, or if he's doing some kinda meta-kidding-outsider combo... he normally plays some weird indian stringed instrument, this is the first time i've seen him play a casio - adds a whole other element. with classic songs like "my housemate's a fuckwit" and "exposing myself to the moon", he's always fun to watch."
While it's still Black History Month, let's explore the outrageously offensive genre of minstrel show/black stereotype musics known as 'coon songs.' Hugely popular during the early decades of sound recording and then wiped from the culture like they never existed, coon songs nevertheless produced not only the recording industry's first black stars, but some of the first hit singles ever. Minstrel shows in general led to vaudeville, the root of modern American show biz. And yet Al Jolson's blackface performance of "Mammy" in the ground-breaking film "The Jazz Singer" is probably the only experience most people have had with this genre. I have enough recordings (songs and comedy skits) to fill up 2 or 3 disks, but that would make even a Grand Kleagle of the KKK's head explode. I've whittled it down to this representative selection of the history of the genre - from the pre-master disk era of he late 1800s when, incredibly, a mass of recording cylinders had to be set up to record each performance individually (so the poor singer had to sing the damn song over and over) up to the genre's apparent demise in the 1920s, the era of the "Great Migration." Black Americans started moving from the rural South, transforming the culture of Northern cities like New York (hence, the "Harlem Renaissance") and Chicago. With the Jazz Age in full swing in the Twenties, the old stereotypes of country bumpkins pining for them good ol' plantation days were no longer too convincing (not that they ever were.) You'll notice a subtle transformation as time progresses, from the mocking humor of "All Coons Look Alike To Me" to sympathetic songs about children, or "pickaninnies." Coon songs were becoming uncool, and believe it or not, these sentimental ballads were considered to be positive coon songs, written to counteract the cruelty of earlier songs. Hey, they meant well.... How popular were these songs? I can't find a single book specifically dedicated to the subject, but "From Edison to Marconi: The First 30 years of Recorded Music" has a whopping 6 page index. They're not all that awful. Some songs, like "Pullman Porters' Parade" salute America's black railroad workers, and "Nigger Blues" really is an early blues tune. Some certainly have musical value. George W. Johnson's records were fun and funny, and that's apart from their massive historical value - he was the first black singing star, thus paving the way for everyone from Robert Johnson to Nat King Cole to Michael Jackson. (You can't condemn him for these songs. It was the 1800s, what choice did he have?!) And "Bake Dat Chicken Pie" is, once you get past the reprehensible lyrics, a great tune, especially the way the intertwined vocals suggest Dixieland jazz. I felt weird about liking this song 'til I heard that Lenny Bruce was also a fan, and would play and sing along with the record in his act. I am vindicated! Er, maybe...honestly, snickering really is the most appropriate response to the amazing ridiculousness of these songs. Here's a party game: try to listen to "Ma Pickaninny Babe" without laughing. And let's contemplate this truly bizarre fact: black minstrel performers wore blackface. A Treasury of Beloved Coon Songs 01 George W Johnson -The Laughing Coon (1898) 02 George W Johnson - The Whistling Coon (1896) 03 Dan W. Quinn - At A Georgia Camp Meeting (1898) 04 Arthur Collins with Vess L Ossman-All Coons Look Alike to Me (1902) 05 Billy Golden - An evening with the minstrels (aka I'm a Nigger That's Living High) (1903) 06 Ada Jones - If the Man in the Moon Were a Coon (1907) 07 Arthur Collins & Byron G. Harlan - Bake Dat Chicken Pie
08 Arthur Collins - dixie dan (1908) 09 Polk Miller the Old South Quartet-Watermelon Party (1909) 10 Ada Jones - You'se just a little nigger, still youse mine, all mine (1910) 11 Golden and Hughes - Darktown Poets (1911) 12 Elsie Baker - Pickaninny's lullaby (1912) 13 Walter Van Brunt - Hear the pickaninny band (1913) 14 Al Jolson - Pullman Porters' Parade (1913) 15 Golden and Hughes - Darktown Eccentricities (1913) 16 Will Oakland - Ma Pickaninny Babe (1914) 17 Olive Kline/ Elsie Baker /Margaret Dunlap - Go to Sleep My Dusky Baby (to the tune of 'Humoresque') (1916) 18 American Quartet - Darktown Strutters Ball (1918) (the one song that survived the coon song era, this became an oft-covered standard, sung by everyone from Ella Fitzgerald on down) 19 Al Bernard - Nigger blues (1919) 20 Crescent Trio - Pickaninny blues (1920) 21 Margaret A. Freer - Pickaninny Rose (1921)
Thanks to the Archeophone label, and the UCSB Cylinder Digitization Project for some of these; there's more HERE and HERE. And then there's THIS album. But I leave all those to the truly dedicated scholars.
I could give some background on these videos...but why bother? They won't make any more sense if I did. So I'm just gonna hit you with three of the greatest, most incredibly WTF-iest things I've seen/heard lately. Prepare to question your sanity!
#1:
#2 (thanks to maniac Francis C for passing this one on to us):
Bongos in the Congo! Apes in the jungle! Tikis, cannibals, and witch doctors! Grown men making tropical bird calls! Sound familiar? But this ain't no jazzy Martin Denny-style exotica for grown-ups' cocktail parties. No, my teen-age hoodlum friends, this sampler of exotic rock (rock-xotica?) + relevant soundbites marks this blogs' return to weekend-starting sleazy-listening sounds from the Golden Age of Cool. As with the first collection that kicked off this on-again/off-again project, many of these tracks were recorded off my vinyl, songs that hopefully have not been featured on similar comps like the "Jungle Exotica" series. My records are in various states of preservation, so I did track down some digital replacements when available. But most of this is out-of-print wax whose occasional pops and cracks can be thought of as the crunching of jungle undergrowth beneath the furious feet of Watusi exotic dancers (in all senses of the phrase). Ingredients: surf rock, doo-wop, rhythm 'n' blues, novelties, some actual ethnic peoples, movie clips, radio ads, excerpts from a record meant to accompany a slideshow or filmstrip about the Congo, Africa (unfortunately, it did not contain the visuals), and some loungey things, but with a backbeat. There are a few well-known hit-makers here like Eartha Kitt, the Dave Clark Five, and Santo & Johnny, but as these records are from the gloriously unself-conscious pre-rock critic era*, many of these artists have been lost to the mists of history. Voodoo Dance Doll - an M4M Collection.zip 01 congo slideshow- weekend dance 02 Mel Taylor & The Magics - Bongo Rock 03 The Vistas - Tiki Twist 04 Leni Okehu and his Surfboarders - Hawaiian People Eater 05 Eartha Kitt - Honolulu Rock And Roll 06 congo slideshow - superstition dance 07 Muvva Hubbard & the Stompers Congo Mombo 08 "Alligator Man" 09 The Dave Clark Five - Chaquita 10 The Pyramids - Koko Joe 11 "100 Percent Gorilla" 12 The Rocking Vickers - I Go Ape 13 Billy Mure - Tabu 14 congo slideshow - witch doctor 15 Werner Hass - Oh-ee-oh-ah-ah 16 Dick Dale & The Del-Tones - Jungle Fever 17 Jerry & Mel - Cannibal stew 18 "Zombie Island Massacre" - Zombie Attacks Honeymooners 19 congo slideshow - drumming 20 Mel Taylor & The Magics - Drums A Go-Go 21 Thurl Ravenscroft - Dr Geek From Tanganyika 22 Buddy Morrow And His Orchestra - One-Two-Three-Kick (The Original Conga) pt1. 23 Roger Craig - Song of India 24 The Fugitives - Human Jungle 25 Bela's "Jungle Hell" 26 Roy Estrada and The Rocketeers-Jungle Dreams Part 2 27 Busby Lewis - Jerk 28 Susan King-Drum Rhythm 29 Yngve stoor - Hula Rock 30 Perez Prado - Cuban Rock 31 Leni Okehu and his Surfboarders - Hawaiian Rock 32 Freddy Cannon - Everybody Monkey 33 Johnny and Santo - Caravan 34 congo slideshow - watusi 35 Big Walter and the Thunderbirds _ Watusie Freeze part 1 36 "shrunken heads" ad 37 Buddy Morrow And His Orchestra - One-Two-Three-Kick (The Original Conga) pt2 38 Marti Barris - Ahbe Casabe 39 Sandy Nelson - Casbah Thanks to Count Otto for the Rockin' Vicars! *Cartoonist/record collector Robert Crumb has described the early rock he really liked as "proletariat," and indeed, there may be some class-ism behind the critical dismissal of so much rock prior to the mid-'60s: once rock scrubbed off all of that honky-tonk/ghetto stank and adopted such middle-class, college-educated features as "poetic" lyrics and classical European influences, then it finally merited the status of High Art. But of course, the music wasn't really improved so much as it simply changed - from fun, funny, energetic, sexy, and atmospheric to...not as much. Rock didn't get better, it just moved to the suburbs.
By request, the "Soft, Safe and Sanitized" collection is back on line. DJ Useo, when not creating mashups, or blogging and podcasting, scours the internet for strange and silly song stuff, as featured in his previous collections, "Music For Maniacs Tribute," and "Fun Music." And here's his latest 'n' greatest, exclusively for us, and hence, you: Nugglets vol. 1 This is the sound of new millennium DIY bedroom-producer kooks operating blissfully free of any illusions of "makin' it in the music biz," with many tracks downloaded from the old MP3.com. Apart from boasting one of the greatest album covers ever, this disreputable collection also features Dr Demento-ready novelty songs, odd experiments, youngsters screwing around, a "Death Metal Alphabet" lesson, a 36-second Dylan parody about a dead squirrel, a musical saw, some actual catchy tunes, and inexplicable sounds from folks in various states of mental health. Plus! Not just one, but two techno-polkas. Worth it for the DJ My Ass track alone, the kind of spazzy nonsense that the internet was created for.
Zoogz Toozday returns with some re-up requests: the sick punk/jazz/prog of Zoogz Rifts' "Amputees In Limbo," "Island of Living Puke," and "Torment" are all back on-line. And if that still isn't enough scatological humor for ya, plug your nose and dive into this: TOILET TIDBITS courtesy of reader Duke Kola, who sounds like a pretty cool grandpa. He writes: "I made this mix (with a couple of changes) a few years back for my pre-teen grandson. Never fails to bring a few smiles to my face regardless of how many times I listen." Now this may seem like a somewhat dubious concept for a mix, but if you're gonna sing about such stuff, you've got to have: a) a sense of humor, and b) a lack of inhibitions, both of which are sterling qualities for an artist to possess. Not to mention the fact that you've pretty much thrown all commercial potential and radio play hopes out the window once you've gone down this path, another admirable move. And this is indeed a very entertaining listen, more so than I was expecting. I personally would have added the Bonzo Dog Band's "The Strain," but I'm sure we all have our favorites. ----------------------------------- 01. Amsterdam Dog Shit Blues - Mojo Nixon 02. Caca De Vaca - Joe 'King' Carrasco 03. Snake Bit and Can't Shit - Root Boy Slim 04. Constipation Blues - Screamin' Jay Hawkins 05. Somebody Just Poop - Goofy 06. Somebody Farted - Bobby Jimmy 07. Fart - Breetles 08. I Can't Stop Farting - The Queers 09. Old Fart At Play - Captain Beefheart 10. The Phantom Windbreaker - Red Bovine 11. Pissin' In The Wind - Ernie Payne 12. Pissin' On Your Steps - Del the Funky Homosapien 13. Wee Wee - Abner Jay 14. Piss On the Wall - J. Geils Band 15. Urine Your Out - Prehistoric Cavemen 16. The Thing From Uranus - Sloppy Seconds 17. Shit Don't Stink - TMA 18. Shit For Brains - Nervous Eaters 19. Bag of Shit - Sean Price 20. Shit Can Happen - D12 21. Shaving Cream - Byron Lee 22. Disco Defecation - Flash Bouyancy 23. The Slurf Song - Holy Modal Rounders 24. When the Shit Hits the Fan - Circle Jerks 25. Piece of Crap - Neil Young 26. My Shit's Fucked Up - Warren Zevon 27. Why Does It Hurt When I Pee - Pancho and Sancho 28. I Ain't Gonna Piss in No Jar - Mojo Nixon 29. Don't Eat the Yellow Snow - Frank Zappa
The recent news about the passing of actress Marcia Strassman payed little heed to her short, strange music career. She recorded a few singles in the late '60s, including one of my all-time fave examples of...what's a word for something that you know is awful, but love it just the same? Maybe there isn't one. (Let's invent one!) Whatever it is, that's what Strassman's "The Flower Children" is. This 1967 Uni records 45, one of those only-in-the-'60s odes to the counter-culture, was one of the last gasps of the big-hair, lushly produced girl-group sounds. Soon the flat-haired, acoustic guitar strumming singer-songwriters would take over. But not before Mrs. Kotter sang the hell out of this ridiculous number, redeeming it thru her passion and sincerity (and a great arrangement). It was a hit in California, if nowhere else. The equally ludicrous follow-up, "The Groovy World of Jack and Jill," similarly has a swell pseudo-Phil Spector sound. And, really, I like all of her records (tho surprisingly, a Kim Fowley production ["Stargazer"] is a bit of a dud.) How can you not like such choice lines as: "My toys are all dead, but my friend is here/nothing is wrong with me" (from the song "Self-Analysis"). Even more tragic than her early death from cancer - the fact that her frog-voiced "Welcome Back Kotter" co-star John Travolta was the one with the far more successful musical career. A great record like "The Flower Children" languishes in obscurity, while that execrable "Grease" soundtrack lives on. Won't someone please think of the children?! Marcia Strassman - Singles (1967-68) 1. The Flower Children 2. Out Of The Picture 3. The Groovy World of Jack and Jill 3. The Flower Shop 4. Self-Analysis 5. Stargazer This isn't a complete discography. I am missing one of her songs: "Flower Shop." Anyone, anyone..? Mega-thanks to super-reader Holly for supplying not only the missing song, but higher-bitrate copies of the other songs AND the artwork!
Rockin' soul, surf, lounge, jazz, comedy, novelties, outsider oddities, movie ads and dialogue clips...hey kids, it's a '50s/'60s lowbrow All Hallow's Eve! Inc. dusty vinyl corpses robbed from my tomb, er, record closet, that I attached electrodes to and ripped to mp3. Featuring such creatures as: Mort Garson on the Moog; schoolkids singing about stealing trick-or-treaters' candy bags; a song-poem called "Vampire Husband;" Lon Chaney Jr "singing" the theme to the classic cult film "Spider Baby;" a James Brown rip-off; visits to Japan (The Golden Cups) and France; two different songs called "Surfin' Hearse," and jazz drummer Philly Joe Jones doing a goofy Dracula bit inspired by Lenny Bruce. And then you've got Bobby Christian's infamous "The Spider and the Fly," described by Lenny "Nuggets" Kaye as the most demented record ever made. (And who am I to disagree?) The BAT Pack 01 "Horror of the Zombies" 02 Guy Marks (as Bela) - Begin the Beguine 03 Lon Chaney - Song From Spider Baby 04 "bloodbeast" 05 Bobby Christian and the Allen Sisters - The Spider and the Fly 06 Richard Rome - Ghost a go go 07 The Quads - Surfin' Hearse 08 Jan and Dean -Surfin' Hearse 09 "Lady Frankenstein" 10 Serge Gainsbourg - Docteur Jekyll & Mister Hyde 11 Helen O'Connell - Witchcraft 12 Bela LaGoldstein - Old Boris 13 the Ventures - Exploration in Terror 14 "Dr.Tarr's Torture Dungeon" 15 Arthur Prysock - (I Don't Stand) A Ghost of a Chance 16 Alvino Rey - The Bat 17 "Brain that Wouldn't Die" 18 Little Tibia and the Fibulas - The Mummy 19 Happy Monsters - Clap Your Tentacles 20 The Golden Cups - Spooky 21 Jack Marshall - The Teen-Age Surfing Vampire 22 The Ramrods - (Ghost) Riders in the Sky 23 "Bloody Pit of Horror" 24 Nancy Dupree with Ghetto Reality students - Bag Snatchin' 25 Mort Garson as The Blobs - Son of Blob 26 Shelley Stuart & The Five Stars - Vampire Husband 27 Cre-shells - Dracula 28 "Frenzy of Blood" 29 Philly Joe Jones - Blues for Dracula 30 Guy Marks (as Boris) - Don't Take Your Love From Me (FANGS a lot to Count Otto for a couple of these. Art by Shag.)
All music that isn't classical, jazz or ethnic/folk is 'pop', meaning 'popular.' Except when it isn't. Here are some new releases you should run out and buy (and some not-so-new ones that I slept on) that have everything a pop song should have: brevity, melodic vocals, toe-tappin' beats, clean production, energy...heck, even danceability. Everything except actual popularity. Mostly these are tuneful tunes sporting very funny, clever lyrics (perhaps too witty for the masses), with a kouple of kooky kovers thrown in.
1. ac00perw - "Smells Like Teens": Nirvana re-imagined as sleazy Steely Dan-type '70s soft-rock. 2. Iggy Pop - "Monster Men (les zinzins de l'espace)": In 1997, The Iggster sang the theme song to a French kid's cartoon show called "Space Goofs;" how punk is that?! 3. Jens Lekman - "A Higher Power": great bad rhymes, from this Scandanavian's 2004 album entitled (speaking of Iggy) "When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog." 4. Larry Gallagher - "I'm Sorry for What My People Did to Your People": wickedly funny Tom Lehrer-esque satire, from the album "Can I Go Now?" 5. Maya Beiser - "Back In Black": from the new album "Uncovered" of massed overdubbed cellos playing instrumental versions of rock and blues hits; I'm not really sure why this exists. Dig the video of her cello-riffic cover of Led Zeps' "Kashmir" below. 6. One And Seven Eighths - "Pegasus (The Camping Waltz)": Most tracks on their album "Modern Camping Songs" are real nice ambient/abstract electro instros, but this brilliant novelty is the best thing that Viv Stanshell never did. 7. O-Type - "Stupido": New vinyl re-issue of this MX-80 Sound spin-off sounds like a lot of other '80s noise rockers, until the vocalist starts channeling a panoply of fascinating, horrific characters, e.g.: the hapless protagonist of this song, rendered in a 'retarded guy' voice at once funny and disturbing. 8. Sid Ozalid - "Elephant in a Sack": Frequent contributor Count Otto Black slipped us these short, silly tracks from one of his fellow Scotsmen, an oddball known more for poetry than music; from"Songs & Stories From a Suitcase", the 1982 EP by Sid Ozalid & His Legendary All-Stars. 9. Sid Ozalid - "My Tortoise Can Burst Into Flames" 10. Sid Ozalid - "This is the Story of the Missing Jacket" 11. Twink The Toy Piano Band - _{ ·_ U _· }_: The latest from the master of toy-tronica has a cute album cover/title ("Critter Club"), cute tarot-like cards of animals, cute song titles (all typographic symbols), but a decidedly more mature sound; the large supporting cast features a number of horn players, giving excellent tunes like this one an almost jazz feel. They grow so fast!
Hey, it's this blogs' 10th anniversary in a couple of weeks! What are we doing? Where's the party at? I have no time to plan anything, but I'll show up. Heck, I'll bring the beer. By request I've re-upped lots moreZoogz Rift than you can stand, not necessarily in hi-fi.
Bernie Green only made a few albums as bandleader, but they are eccentric indeed. The fact that one of them was done in association with "Mad" magazine should tell you something. This release isn't really Space-Age Pop, swing, or exotica, nor are we exactly in Spike Jones novelty territory either. I don't know what to call it - big-band circus music, maybe? RIYL: orchestral Raymond Scott, or Carl Stalling. The exciting percussion-fest "Railroad Train Samba" shares album space with the self-explanatory "Saxophobia," the ambitious (and quite insane) "Concerto For Calliope," and a cartoonish version of the Cuban standard "The Peanut Vendor." Perhaps fearing that this was indeed more than his listeners could stand, Green cools out with some low-key easy-listeners ("Summer," "Idyl") that aren't at all funny or eccentric, tho I do dig the noir mood of "Caesar's Soliloquy."
Speaking of Rodney Bingenheimer, had a very lovely request to re-up our hypothetical, theoretical "Rodney On The ROQ Vol 4" comp. Judging by the number of hits it has received, it appears to be one of this blog's most popular posts. (Don't forget, there's also a Vol 5.) And now to continue our exploration of The Golden Age of Sleaze, witness this 1958 album:
Kay Martin was not only a topless model, but a lounge performer. The perfect woman?! Dig the kooky cover of "Blue Moon" a la The Champs' "Tequila," the rockabilly rumbler (with unexpected three-part harmonies towards the end) "I Ain't Mad At 'Chu," and a version of Gershwin's "Summertime" that sports the new-and-improved lyrics: "Your daddy's a flip and your mommy's a gasser." If you were expecting something more Rusty Warren-ish and ribald, you may be surprised by such dark, weird, atmospheric gems as "The Heel," "Johnny Guitar" and the self-explanatory "Swamp Girl." When she tries to play it straight on standards like "Sentimental Journey," it isn't too interesting - she sings better than you'd expect, but not that well. Her enthusiastic Body Guards (rock that accordion!) chime in from time to time. Kay Martin And Her Body Guards
A1
Fever
A2
Blue Moon
A3
Big Mamou
A4
Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man
A5
Sentimental Journey
A6
I Ain't Mad At 'Chu
B1
The Heel
B2
Summertime
B3
Swamp Girl
B4
I Got It Bad
B5
Johnny Guitar
B6
Baby, Did You Hear
Two of her other albums are available elsewhere on the intar-webs, one on WFMU's Beware of the Blog, and her christmas album is out there somewhere, don't remember where.
