Eva-Tone Soudsheets. Flexi discs. Black gold. Texas tea. Oil, that is. Wait a minute....
Wrong intro--sorry. Anyway, three Eva-Tone Soundsheets, also known as flexi discs, and two of them are titled The Christmas Story, though neither are related to the famous 1983 film, which I have to confess I don't like. That's a kind of treason, I realize, but I can't help it--the flick does nothing for me. Partly, it's my dislike of the whole Garrison Keillor style of storytelling--though, of course, this movie is the work of Jean Shepherd, not Keillor. I find stuff like this mostly pointless cliche, with too little relationship to real life. It's true that we remember the past through a distorted lens, filtering out stuff and modifying our memories. But comedy doesn't work for me when it distorts reality past a certain point, when it forces real life to conform to received notions and urban legends. Comedy works best when it's grounded in actual life, when it comments on real things. It can use absurdity as a device, but there should always be a point.
So I'm being a Grinch here, but I do have three cool holiday flexi discs to share--all repeats, I think, but in very improved rips. The first A Christmas Story is the finest offering by far--I'd say "by light years," but I think that's an incorrect usage. No, wait a minute--it's not. It's a distance measurement. Hooray! Google search to the instant rescue! "Light years" is only wrong when used as a time measurement. So I'm covered.
Today's first A Christmas Story utilizes magnificent 18th-century choral music by William Billings, all superbly rendered. Billings, far as I know, is now recognized as our (the United States') first major composer, despite the fact he was kind of a critical joke for some time, all because of his lack of proper training. "Wrong" four-part harmonies abound, with "open" perfect intervals (perfect fifths, mainly, which are simply inverted perfect fourths), but his genius cam be heard in every bar, and the Sacred Harp sound only adds to the power of his passages, imo. This flexi disc is a masterpiece, and last time, I dated it to around the mid-1970s, which I was able to do because I apparently had some literature that went with it. Wish I could find the literature. I used lighter tracking and my "hi fi" stylus this time, and the improvement is very noticeable.
The Little Drummer Boy, Harry Simeone's stealing of Katherine K. Davis' Carol of the Drum, is an all-time lesson in how little copyright law matters in the music biz--at least before people starting suing over three notes being the same ("You stole my tonic, supertonic, and mediant!), or two songs which both use "the" in the title. (I do think My Sweet Lord was a steal, though. An unconscious one.) This is from McDonald's, but not the fat-food chain. It looks 1970s from the booklet and label art, and the flexi disc is less flat than usual, so I had to pour on the de-rumble filter. There's also a tiny little bent spot (maybe the reason for the lack of flatness) which translates in audio terms into periodic thumping, even with light tracking. But you need to hear this one. You don't know why, but you just do.
The closing A Christmas Story is a reading from Luke over some moderately bombastic music by Marc Rose, Radio Cinema, St. Petersburg, FL (I'm quoting the label). I'm too lazy to Google "Radio Cinema," but be my guest. This has an effective mood, even if it's just a gospel reading over some off-in-the-distance background. I like the feel of it, and the text is cool, of course.
Thus completes the trio of flexis. And typing "trio of flexis" has been a dream of mine for some time. For almost a minute now, since the moment I thought of it.
Hear the first selection, if not the other two. It may be the best item I've posted this season.
DOWNLOAD: Eva-Tone Christmas
The Christmas Story (Music by Wm. Billings, Arr. by Leonard Van Camp)--The Concert Chorale, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. Leonard Van Camp, Director.
The Little Drummer Boy (Katherine K. Davis)--McDonald's (not the fast food chain)
The Christmas Story--Stu Metz, Narrator. Music composed and produced by Marc Rose Radio Cinema, St. Petersburg, FL.
Lee
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