To quote Charlie Brown, "I can't stand it!"

The requests are picking up again. The worst time is Christmas, of course, when people write me for entire LPs. Halloween's a bear, too. I spell out my reposting policy (which is no reposts) in my intro, and I write the occasional post explaining that I barely have time to put out this blog, let alone fulfill requests. And that MY(P)WHAE is a blog, not a music service. And that I have bandwidth limitations. And so on, and so forth.

And some people still pay no attention. They liken the Internet to a gumball machine that dispenses items for free--a gumball machine with a menu, no less. "I've been looking all over for such-and-such a track, and I finally located it at your site, but the link is broken. Can you, etc.?"

At which point, I can ignore the request, tell the requester to read the intro, or give a lecture in which I explain that I don't have the time to answer requests and that it's not polite to expect me to give of my time and material for nothing.

Which won't stop the requests, of course.

Anyway, for the love of common sense, can the folks who ask for Merv Griffin's House of Horrors, Otto Cesana's stuff, Gordon Jenkins' Crescent City Blues, and the like PLEASE consider the following radical suggestions? List follows:

Check out eBay. A pristine copy of the Merv record in question just went for $9.99. How about them big bucks? Not too long ago, a copy went without a bid. The record can be had, folks.

Otto Cesana's LPs show up on 'Bay all the time, and they show up at thrifts, in used record stores, and who knows where else. Try and ye shall find. I got my one and only Cesana LP at a flea market for fifty cents. It can be gotten. We're not talking about Jesus' tomb.

Crescent City Blues appeared on the LP Seven Dreams. Again, look for a copy--you'll find it. We're talking thrift stores, used record shops (where Gordon's albums and singles provide entire planetary bodies for dust mites), White Elephant Sales, church basements. The day that Gordon Jenkins' stuff becomes rare, it's time to worry. That's almost like a world without any Decca Bing Crosby 78s.

I've spent years and years digging up stuff that rarely shows up, and here I am getting requests for easily-found music. It's totally weird. You'd think I'd get pleas to repost the rarer material, but I guess not.

Anyway--thrifts stores, flea markets, used record shops, antique malls, book stores. Places like that. They're an amazing source for amazing stuff.

Thrifts are the source for more than half of what I stick up at this blog. If can find these things, so can you.

This does not apply to most of you fine folks, of course. Just the gimme-gimme personalities who drive me to tranquilizers.

Now we'll see the requests go down. (They won't....)

Lee

Christian comedy, a history--Part 8: Fringe #1 hits, and more funny songs and stand-up

Dan McBride, M.R.E.

The article that inspired this series was penned by one Kliph Nesteroff/Shecky Grey.

Claims Nesteroff/Grey, "The point of the article is: Christian stand up comedy used to be a fringe entity but over time it has turned into a big business. And this is the history of this business."

So there. Actually, the history is longer and more complicated than his survey lets on. As we will continue to prove.

(As I've noted before, Nesteroff's piece dispenses with a consistent subject after the first paragraph or so, which makes the piece a little difficult to respond to. For instance, the "stand up" qualifier comes and goes--many of the author's claims concern "Christian comedy," which is an awfully broad category. Because he swaps the two very different subjects at random, and sans logic, we have every right to assume that his piece is about Christian comedy, per se.

So, Christian comedy a "fringe entity"? Why, sure. So very fringe that Rosemary Clooney and Stuart Hamblen both had big hits in 1954 with their versions of Hamblen's own This Ole House, by now a Christian comedy standard. And we won't even talk about Christian pop tunes in general, the fringest of all fringes, unless you count The Rosary, Bless This House, It's No Secret, How Great Thou Art, I Believe, He, Open Up Your Heart, et al.

Clooney's recording made it to the top of the Billboard charts; Hamblen's was a top-selling country disc. (Many thanks to the two readers who shared these with the blog):

This Ole House (Hamblen)--Rosemary Clooney, 1954.

This Ole House (Hamblen)--Stuart Hamblen, 1954

Fast-forward to the early 1960s and another humorous gospel number--Wendy Bagwell and the Sunliters' Willie McNeil, which tells the story of a church-averse husband cleverly converted by his wife. Ingeniously converted, in fact:

Willie McNeil--Wendy Bagwell and the Sunliters, early 1960s. From LP.

Of course, less than a decade later, Bagwell recorded the Christian comedy mega-hit Here Come the Rattlesnakes, which I will repost for this post ("repost for this post"??):

Here Come the Rattlesnakes--Wendy Bagwell, 1970. From Canaan LP This, That and the Other.

And Bagwell's classic track provides a nice lead-in to the Lewis Family's Fried Chicken Revival, recorded live in 1976. It seems that, six years after Bagwell's big hit, and 54 years after Homer Rodeheaver's 1922 Rainbow recording of Brighten the Corner Where You Are (see Part 1 of this survey), Christian concert-goers were still in the mood for faith-based laughter:

Fried Chicken Revival--The Lewis Family, 1976. From cassette.

And I'm almost positive that Little Roy was standing when he gave that skit. I speak from experience--I was lucky enough to see the group in person about ten years ago. Such super-nice folks, and what master entertainers.

Now for a listen to Kentucky comic Tim Stivers (of the Barbershop quartet The Club House Four), who recorded these three skits for the 1972 LP This Ole Boy!

Three Untitled Routines by Tim Stivers, 1972. From LP This Ole Boy!

Tim wasn't a Christian comic, per se, but I think we can safely apply that label to Dan McBride, pastor and M.RE. (Mighty Religious Entertainer), whose circa-1968 LP Tiptoe Through the Tithers gives an interesting portrait of pre-Reagan-era conservative values in the Southern Baptist church. Materialism is clearly a sin; it inspires preachers to dilute (or avoid) the True Word if that means more dough in the collection plate. This theme shows up throughout the album, but the title track says it the most cleverly:

Tiptoe Through the Tithers--Dan McBride, circa 1968. From LP of same name.

I just love the wordplay in that one. And I have to wonder, in regard to this track and many of the others, if McBride was deliberately modifying the source material to avoid copyright-infringement issues.

Dunno.

Anyway, in this number (a parody of Red River Valley) McBride sticks it to congregants who stick it to ministers who don't stick to the gospel. (And I'm sticking to that sentence):

The Pastor's Parting Song--Dan McBride, circa 1968.

This next one is really dated--image, if you can, a critique of too much entertainment in the church service. Dan had no idea what was coming. Tunes are Country Gardens and the Chopin-derived I'm Always Chasing Rainbows:

The Music Minister/Sour Notes--Dan McBride, circa 1968.

Next, Downtown, which the liner notes describe as "a 'take-off' on downtown churches as refuges from the suburbs." The tune is, well, Downtown. If the spoken part sounds like Christian stand-up, keep in mind that it can't be. Mike Warnke invented the category, remember:

Downtown--Dan McBride, circa 1968.

And what can we expect in the way of feminist sentiment? None at all? That is correct. The attitude toward women is friendly but, um, just a tad condescending. Don't miss the final "a-women":

Leave It to the Ladies--Dan McBride, circa 1968.

At which point the women in the audience got up and left. (Just kidding--they laughed and applauded. Don't ask me....)

On this next one, Dan tries to have it both ways. Christians have a duty to tithe, you see, but churches are nagging (or exploiting) their members by insisting they do so. Ohhhh-kay.

Note the laughter that follows from the line, "You can put your offering on your credit card." Kind of dates the performance a little, no?

Come to Church and Give Your Money--Dan McBride, circa 1968.

Well, it's been a little over a month since I started this series, and so far I've found quite a number of Christian comedy sides, two of them going back to the 1920s. There are likely many more interesting titles crying out to be found.

Lee

Fab sounds for Thursday morning!

The Invasion--Buchanan and Greenfield (1964). From Novel label 45.

I Ain't No Beatle--No artist credited (Modern Sound 1008).

Pop Hates the Beatles (Sherman-Busch)--Allan Sherman, 1964. From LP.

Rocky Racoon--New Vinton County Frogwhompers. From 45.


















Lee

Shellac attack for Wednesday!!

Wow. I've been to the new-and-improved Box.net any number of times, and I'm always greeted with a "Welcome to..." message.

I just take each modification/improvement/innovation in stride, hoping I can still find the functions and that they still work. What's weird is that both Box and Blogger have gone back to requiring my e-mail address for my username, and neither site stores the information anymore. They had been saving it, so I'm not ready to blame my browser for the problem. Besides, I have to live with my browser, so I don't want to be badmouthing it.

Same bit, same time. It's a conspiracy, I tell you.

Just kidding. It's one of them thar co-inky-dinks.

Our 78s for today are repeats, but they sound so much better than before (on account of my new, 78-curve-containing preamp). Morton Gould's Beyond the Blue Horizon, in particular, sounds way better. I recently posted the "old" file, so, if you wish, you can do an audio compare-and-contrast with this new EQ. Of course, you'd have to be as big a nerd as I to even consider doing so.

I've been giving both a year of 1946 and 1947 for the Gould (but never at the same time), but I've settled on 1946, since that's the year printed inside the album. In spite of the fact that the label contains 1947 numbers. That just means the recordings were issued months after they were made. (We collectors know such useless things.) The track sounds more hi-fi than ever, and tracks weren't supposed to sound like that in 1947. But they diiiiiiid.

I have much useless knowledge to impart. Come, let me be your guide.

The Bigtime recording is the only blog premiere in the batch--it's a self-made Audiodisc label recording from who knows when. My guess is that the guy on the recording is rehearsing an anecdote to present in church. Not sure. His name is written on the label, but I don't want to violate his privacy--after all, he had no idea his disc would end up on a blog.

No other clues--just the name. Which might not even be the author's--could be the previous owner's. No way of telling.

Enjoy. Listen and grow. Embrace the Euterpean muse. But don't get too fresh.

Eccentric Rag (Robinson)--Oriole Orchestra, 1924. From Brunswick 78.

Best Ever Medley--One Step--Paul Whiteman and His Ambassador Orch., 1920. From 12" Victor 78. (Cool arrangement--and it's by Whiteman himself!)

Beyond the Blue Horizon--Morton Gould and His Orch., 1946. From 12" Columbia 78.

On the Streets of Cairo--Art Hickman's Orchestra, 1919. From Columbia 78.

Taxi (Kaufman)--Waldorf-Astoria Dance Orchestra, 1919. From Columbia 78.

Bigtime--Anecdote recorded on a 10" 78 rpm Audiodisc disc.

Down By the Old Mill Stream--Brunswick Quartette, 1911. From Columbia 78.




Lee

My email is back

My email link, that is. For some reason, Blogger had stopped showing it on my profile page, but it's baaaaaack. My apologies to those who have looked in vain for my email address. I wasn't hiding it--something must have happened when I switched to "new" Blogger.

I've also stuck in up in the intro--"HartsfeldatAlltel.net"

Only, of course, you'll want to use @.

As I type this, the sounds of the Battle of Gettysburg are echoing in my ears. It's an aural illusion, of course--a result of staring too long at that truer-than-life depiction of the battle (see last post).



Lee

The Battle of Gettysburg

99 cents at Goodwill. Someone had gotten it for 22 cents less at Twin Fair. Made in Hong Kong, and I'm guessing late Seventies. Isn't it wonderfully tacky?

I love the way it captures all the drama and action of that awful standoff. Wow--it's almost like having been there. (Choke, cough!) I must be allergic to the gunsmoke of that era....

"And you... was there!"--Bob and Ray.

It had been several weeks since I visited this particular Goodwill, located in a nearby village. The young check-out clerk said I just missed a four-for-a-dollar sale--dang. But I was in time for the two-for-a-dollar sale. She said the things aren't selling, unlike the CDs, which disappear from the shelf right away (poltergeists?).

She asked if I was buying my stack of LPs for the music or for the "decorations" (jackets). The music, I said. Lots of people buy them for the art, apparently. Why not, I guess.

Do I have a record player? Yes, I said. "That's cool."

This isn't the first time a young clerk (I'm 49, for sake of reference) has taken such an interest in older media like vinyl. Which makes it all the weirder when Boomer-era thrift clerks stare in puzzlement at Boomer-era things like LPs and cassettes. I'm always expecting them to say, "What is this for?" Me: "It's a record. It has sound on it." Clerk: "I don't hear anything. It must be broken."

Seriously, I've noticed this phenomenon many a time--people old enough to know about vinyl and shellac discs but, from all appearances, totally unfamiliar with them. It's a mystery.

Of course, when the famous Battle of Gettysburg (stunningly depicted above) took place, sound recordings were fourteen or fifteen years away. Thus, we don't have Abe's voice preserved for prosperity.

I say "prosperity," because if you had a recording of Abe, you could get some serious bucks for it. I think I've just invented the next eBay scam (unless someone beat me to it, which is highly possible).

"VOICE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN--GOOD CONDITION FOR AGE--ON GETTYSBURG LABEL CYLINDER--PHOTO NOT AVAILABLE."


Lee