Memorial Day at MY(P)WHAE, Part 1

Click here for zip file: Memorial Day 2008, Part 1.

PLAYLIST

IKE, MR. PRESIDENT--Fred Waring and The Pennsylvanians, 1952.
MAMIE--Fred Waring and The Pennsylvanians, 1952.
AMERICAN SALUTE (Gould)--United States Air Force Band, 1969.
A SALUTE TO THE ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES--Same, 1969.
RODGER YOUNG (Loesser)--Merv Griffin, 1963.
GOODBYE, SUE--Perry Como w. Mixed Chorus, 1943.
DER FUEHRER'S FACE--Arthur Fields, 1942.
WE MUST BE VIGILANT--Chico Marx Orch., v: Ziggy Lane, 1942.
BUGLE CALL RAG--Victor Military Band, 1916.



Lee

WFMU revises its Christian-comedy history a little

Well, it's a great day for Internet pop culture scholarship. More than a year after presenting a somewhat flawed piece on the history of Christian comedy/stand-up comedy, WFMU has discovered Jerry Jordan's 1975 big hit, Phone Call from God. Given enough time, their research dept. might discover that Jordan also recorded it for his own label two years earlier. That 1973 version was featured at this very blog a while back.

At any rate, 'FMU's earlier, epic piece had everything starting in 1976 with fundie con artist and alleged Christian comic Mike Warnke(!). Now the date's been bumped back a year. This is good. Now, all 'FMU has to do is discover the earlier, 1973 Phone Call from God and then stumble across the 1970 Wendy Bagwell mega-hit Here Come the Rattlesnakes. At which point, they'll be six years wiser. Then they can progress backwards to the Sixties.

Let us pray:

Heavenly Father, help WFMU find Here Come the Rattlesnakes and the pre-hit Phone Call from God version. And inspire them, O God, to listen to Bob Harrington and a host of other evangelical comics of the Sixties and to consider such Fifties novelty pieces as It's in the Book and such old-timey numbers as The Preacher and the Bear. Guide them gently to the truth, O Lord, and teach them to respect it when they find it. That'll be the hard part, but you are God, and you can do everything. Except lower our gas prices, apparently. In your Holy name we pray; Amen.


Pastor Lee

Another year older

So, I went to my profile to change my age to 51, and it had already been done. Either I'd updated it recently (and forgot about it), or Blogger has my birth date information. That must be it.

(Theremin: Oooooo-weeeee-oooooo)

Anyway, today is the day I enter the second year of my sixth decade, which is what happens when one turns 51. How counterintuitive is that?

But think about it--when we turn, say, thirty, we've already clocked thirty years. Meaning that we're starting our FOURTH decade. Ditto for fifty. And we're always a year ahead of ourselves in the singles column, as well--the moment we turn one, we're starting our second year, and so on.

And we thought aging was enough of a bummer already....

Having a good Birthday. Two tuxedo-cat Birthday cards, both awesome, and nice, spring-like weather. (Pollen? Well, yeah. Some.) Soon, I'll be driving over to pick up my foster mom, Bev, who is nicely recovering from gall bladder surgery. Surgery went well (though her g.b. was a little worse than her surgeon had thought), and she's completely un-doped at this point. Her painkiller drip had her in another time zone, but she's off of it. The miracles of short recovery time in our modern age.

Here on (at) the farm(house), all the cats are present and accounted for.

A healthy foster mom, a full roster o' cats, nice weather, and another year older. It all adds up to a fine, fine Birthday.

Lee

Great Stuff--Hillbilly Heaven, Get Back, The Warbler's Serenade, more!

And what a great bunch of great stuff--major label 78s, cheap label 78s, major and cheap label LPs, Get Back on an Avant Records 45, a cut-price version of Autumn Leaves, and, oh, so much more. (What? You expect mediocre great stuff from this blog?)

The transfers are all mine, and two of my three 78 rpm transfers--Arthur Pryor's Band from 1925, and Roy Acuff from 1946, came out very well, I think. The third, a Shifting, Whispering Sands cover that no one will confuse with Billy Vaughn, is from a noisy Big 4 Hits EP, and even it sounds adequate. I outdone myself. I mean, muhself. Oh, and if it sounds like a small section is missing from the third strain of The Warbler's Serenade, it is. I had to delete a noisy portion thereof, though you pretty much have to know where I did it to detect the exact location of the splice. And I'm not telling. (Nyah!)

Sorry. I got carried away.

As far as I know, harpist Robert Maxwell's terrific version of Ay, Ay, Ay is from 1946. Somehow, I'd tracked down the date, and I included it in the track info. And, as ever, that part of the track info isn't showing up. I wish I could figure out why not. Did I say something that offended that particular field? ("Hey, you stupid field!")

Al Caiola's very fine version of A Hard Day's Night is from his very fine Tuff Guitar LP. Eddie Dean's classic Hillbilly Heaven was ripped from a 33 1/3 EP put out by Starday under some funky, TV-offer-sounding name. Apparently, the song was written shortly after Hank Williams' death, but a number of country stars are noted in advance of their passing--including the late, great Eddy Arnold.

Of course, nowadays we'd call it Country and Western Heaven.

Rock and Roll Music and At The Hop are two of my favorite Waldorf Musical Hall label r&r covers--chintzy, but incredibly fun (though Hop could have used an instrumental break). The dime-store cover of Roger Williams' Autumn Leaves is the kind of thing I live to find. Don't miss the final, unintended major-against-minor chord. As my piano teacher would likely respond (where he here), "Ouch!"

Click here to reach the zip file: Great Stuff

STUFFLIST

THE SHIFTING, WHISPERING SANDS--Art Rouse (Big 4 Hits 74)
GET BACK--No Artist Listed (Avant Records)
AT THE HOP--Hal Willis and the Woodchuckers, 1958.
THE RARE BREED (John Williams)--Sammy Kaye O., 1966.
ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC--Hollis Haribson, 1958.
AUTUMN LEAVES--No Artist Listed ("An Hour of Tops in Pops," Royale 1389N)
A HARD DAY'S NIGHT--Al Caiola, 1965.
AY, AY, AY--Robert Maxwell, 1946?
A MILLION BUCKS (Johnny Williams)--Andre Previn, 1966.
THE WARBLER'S SERENADE--Arthur Pryor's Band, 1925. From Victor 78.
THAT GLORY LAND TRAIN--Roy Acuff & His Smoky Mt. Boys, 1946. From 78.
HILLBILLY HEAVEN (Hal Southern-Eddie Dean)--Eddie Dean



Lee

Sunday morning gospel: The Boone Family--The Family Who Prays (1973)

Okay, so it's Monday morning--I'm a little late today. I mean, yesterday. I've been allergied-out worse than I can ever remember. And, forgive me if this is a repeat announcement, but our big city newspaper wrote that the pollen counts this year have been as much as fifty times higher than last year!

That's flat-out ridiculous, but what can I do expect complain? (Ahhhh-chooo!!!) Well, sneeze. There's that.

So, we have The Boone Family with the First Nashville Jesus Band from either 1972 or 1973. The label says '72, the jacket says '73. What do I know? I'm just the poster.

I've been hoping for this one to show up for a while, and all because of one track--He Will Set Your Fields on Fire. I just had to know what a Pat Boone version would sound like, and it turns out to be just fine. Other well-known gospel numbers include Gloryland March, Dust on the Bible, Stuart Hamblen's delightful The Lord Is Counting on You, and Albert Brumley's I'll Meet You in the Morning. Boone was born to sing gospel, Leethinks.

Wife Shirley Boone joins Pat on Old Fashioned Singing, and Debby (You Light Up My Life) Boone provides the child's voice on Help Me Understand, a wonderfully corny Hank Williams original. Slick, smooth, and totally honest--a Sunday treat for your Monday.

Click to reach zip file: Boone Family--The Family Who Prays.

PRAYLIST

Gloryland March
How Can You Refuse Him Now?
Dust on the Bible
Old Fashioned Singing
Bubbling in My Soul
The Family Who Prays
Help Me Understand
The Lord Is Counting on You
I'll Meet You in the Morning
Thank God
Old Country Church
He Will Set Your Fields on Fire


Lee