I'm A Ding Dong Daddy From Dumas

Here's a song we used to sing around my house, for some reason. But with this one Louis Armstrong says, "You oughta see me do my stuff," and we used to sing "You oughta see me do my thing."

To me, wherever this song entered my consciousness is in the shrouded memories of the past, which I don't remember because they are so shrouded. Maybe it was on an old cartoon. We used to hear the song "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby?" on a cartoon and thought it was pretty funny. Also memorable.

Any of that old stuff. There was another one I was thinking of, like "Mama Don't Allow No..." although that's usually a country type of song. But it seems like I heard an R&B version of it just recently. "We don't care what Mama don't allow, we're going to pick our git-tar any old how!"

Check out the video above. The guy who made that video has numerous others, some obscure old 78 rpm records that are treasures.

Bonnie Bramlett Albums

I listened and recorded two Bonnie Bramlett albums tonight, LPs.

I've never really paid any attention to her. I remember seeing the old Delaney and Bonnie and Friends albums, and hearing their hit, but that's about it.

But tonight I was looking through my albums, which I've gotten here, there, and everywhere -- thrift stores, garage sales, etc. -- and there were a couple of hers.

I read about them on All Music and they seemed to rate fairly well. These are "It's Time" and "Lady's Choice," which are albums in sequence, in that order of release. I don't know where I got them or how many years it might've been ago. But they're both promo releases and in really good condition.

Anyway, they're quite enjoyable to hear. The All Music people give "Lady's Choice" some demerits for the song selection and the duets. But I guess my ear isn't as jaded as musical experts. I enjoyed it quite a bit. When they said she turned it over to these other singers, I didn't realize it was duets. Until I saw the liner notes.

Good stuff.

The Class of '57

I'm listening to a very great old song by the Statler Brothers, "The Class of '57."

I'm a little more wistful about this song as time goes on and the various individuals named in this song are aging. Time marches on. "Tommy's selling used cars, Nancy's fixing hair." Tommy and Nancy are probably retired by now. Maybe dead.

But a lot of the class of '57 are still out there. My parents were from the class of '52, and my mom is still doing well. She's been doing some work in her town with the class records from the old school, photographs, etc. And she has something to do with my late father's classmates, keeping in touch, sort of.

We were out at the cemetery a week and a half ago, and I saw the grave of some classmates, friends of my parents. They have their picture engraved on the tombstone. They were from the class of '52, but this particular couple got married secretly in '51, and, according to mom, they would've been kicked out of school if they knew they were married. So good for them for keeping it a secret. But now it's on their tombstone -- their wedding date in '51 -- blaring it out to any school officials who might also be buried nearby.

I might've met this couple in my life but don't remember them personally. Just heard about them numerous times over the years, what they and my parents used to do, where they hung out.

So they were only five years older than the Class of '57.

If you're out there ... anyone from the Class of '57 .... (or '50, '51, '52, '53, '54, '55, '56, '58, '59) ... All the best to you! Keep going! And God bless you!

Moon Mullican's Problem With Pork Chops

I got a record by Moon Mullican the other day and was just listening to it. "I'll Sail My Ship Alone / Seven Days to Rock," King 45-5172 from 1959.

I looked up the record, since "Seven Days to Rock" is pretty cool, a rockabilly song. This site says he had a problem with teen record buyers, since Moon was bald and portly.

But the sentence I love is this:

On New Year's Eve 1966, he resolved to cut down on pork chops but died the following day.

But look on the bright side. It couldn't have made that much difference if he was eating pork chops or not. At least it couldn't have made much difference if he would've cut down on them a week before.

Charles Laughton Records

I got a copy of this record at a garage sale today, 50 big cents for a nice double LP, Capitol Records, 1962, Charles Laughton, "The Story-Teller...A Session With Charles Laughton."

It was in very nice condition, as spoken word records tend to be.

It's catalog number is TBO 1650.

What a nice album. I actually listened to the whole thing. You might not think a guy reading from books on stage would be that interesting, but it held my attention.

It seems significant that he reads from "The Dharma Bums" by Jack Kerouac. Even though I was alive in 1962, my tastes in literature at the time ran more toward Popeye and Olive Oyl. I hadn't heard of anything else. So I don't know precisely what they were saying about Kerouac in '62. But Laughton seems like he's breaking the folks in, mentioning that Kerouac has been called a beatnik, but he attributes to him the same Spirit that moved in the builders and patrons of the Chartres Cathedral and the writer of Psalm 104.

He tells a nice story about Chartres Cathedral, how he met a guy there who knew all about it, the ins and outs. And how they shared so many special moments looking at the stained glass at various times of the day. Then how they got together 25 years later, and the guy was like, "Where you been for 25 years?"

Side 2 is a reading from "Julius Caesar" by Shakespeare. It's the scene where Brutus gives an address to the people, to be followed by Mark Antony. So we get to hear, with Laughton's superb reading, how Antony turns the people's opinion of Brutus and the other "honorable men."

Side 3 features a reading from "Major Barbara" by Shaw and a reading from Plato's "The Phaedrus." The latter piece touches on "sex," and it's cute to hear the audience tittering. Good thing Beavis and Butt-head weren't there.

Side 4 gives the story from the Bible's book of Daniel of "The Fiery Furnace." Laughton pronounces Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over and over, as the text speaks of them frequently by name. It's an excellent reading. I was looking along in the Bible, and also with "Julius Caesar," and Laughton leaves out some bits, probably to move it along.

The side continues with a letter from an artist about God and prayer to school children, the artist being Carl Milles. Then the last cut is a cute story called "Waculla Springs Story," of an old guy in Florida who tricks the tourists into thinking he can tell fish what to do. At first it seems like he has them trained to jump, to swim in formation, and an alligator to launch out from the shore on command. But Laughton, fascinated, keeps coming on the guy's boat excursion and finds out the tricks. He explains to the man that he, too, is "a story-teller."

Laughton seems like a very charming person. Very smart.

Live Tweeting: "Nancy Wilson -- Gentle Is My Love"

NANCY WILSON - I will be Live Tweeting the LP "Gentle Is My Love" by Nancy Wilson. It's Capitol Stereo (ST 2351), two sides of course...

I just got this record today at Goodwill. I looked at it last night and didn't get it. I didn't have any money but I could've borrowed some.

It seemed like it looked a little scratchy but nothing terrible. Anyway I put it back, then went back today expecting it to still be there.

I got it. 50 big cents. The cover is extremely nice and the record isn't bad at all. I cleaned it and recorded it to MP3. It's on my iPod.

I like Nancy Wilson but I don't see her records around like I used to. I probably have 6 or 7 different ones.

One other proviso: I don't know much about music, like I can't use a bunch of musical terms, ballad, notes, falsetto runs, all that...

So it will be short & sweet, the general theme & sense of a song as we progress through it. I barely have any followers so it's no big deal.

I don't what would happen to a guy with 12,000 followers if he Live Tweeted an entire album. They'd probably run screaming.

OK, enough prologue. On with the album. 6 songs on side 1, 5 songs on side 2.

The album is full of romantic melodies, an entire album of romantic tempos. It's a fairly blue sounding record, crystal clear, but moody.

I heard it from the other room while it was recording. It sounded like late night listening, the lights low, a nice bachelor's lounge.

1) Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me) - The liner notes say this is a masterful study in desolation. I love the description.

Soft, moody, wondering, going where destiny leads. No star to guide me, no one beside me, I'll go on my way, darkness will hide me.

But maybe tomorrow I'll find what I'm after, throw off sorrow. With you. But who can I turn to if you turn away.

That's a very pretty song. I'm almost sorry she has the hope of happiness, because I want desolation to be desolate, no bright side.

That might be a little heavy though for a song. She's going for her share of laughter, yet it's there, What if YOU turn away? (He won't.)

2) There Will Never Be Another You. Lighter, breezier right off the bat. (So beautiful fidelity to the recording.)

There'll be other nights like this, other experiences she'll know as the seasons pass, but there'll never be another you. Nice theme.

Very lavish orchestration in the middle. It's like listening to a super CD. Nancy's voice comes back to dream a million dreams. Lovely.

[Live Tweeting the Nancy Wilson LP from 1965 "Gentle Is My Love" - Song 3 coming, "If Love Is Good To Me"

Spring will come, grass will grow, brooks will hum with melted snow, if love is good to me.

Good things will happen, always with skies of blue. "As long as Mother Nature makes you love me." Kind of a stair-step, building song.

Everything depends on you, my dear. It will ALL be if love is good to me. I don't know this song but it's lovely.

The arrangements have strings, a touch of brass and reeds, and an easy but ever-present rhythm. -- from the liner notes.

Next is song 4, side 1: "My One and Only Love." Notes: She warmly spreads her mystic vocal charms over the haunting melody.

The touch of your hand is like heaven, a heaven I've never known. Everything about the lover is transformative, making her heart sing.

You appear in all your splendor, my one and only love. "Mystic charms" is actually part of the lyric, "your lips so warm and tender."

Every song on this album so far is beautifully lush. Listening to Nancy Wilson would make even Jethro Bodine seem classy.

Next, the 5th song: "Funnier Than Funny". I heard this one a while ago. It's more playful.

Notes say "On the sunny side, you'll find yourself delighting in the subtlety of FUNNIER THAN FUNNY..."

Everything is "funnier than funny." Memories can bring happiness by pleasures they impart. It's funny how they captivate your heart.

How you and I can share a kiss, then talk of funny things like this is very funny, funnier than funny. Excellent romantic, playful song.

Really concerns the wonders of love.

Next, the 6th song on the LP, the last song of side 1, "More."

Starts with an evocative strings section and single horn.

Oh, this is the "More than the greatest love the world has ever known" song. If it's the one I'm thinking of. It sounds a little familiar.

More than you'll ever know, my arms long to hold you so. A pretty romantic song of yearning, wow.

Waking, sleeping, laughing, weeping. -- "Far beyond forever you'll be mine." -- "I know I've never lived before..."

Stunning with the horn coming back in. "No one else could love you more."

Time to flip the album. Side 2, Song 1, "Gentle Is My Love." The title song to the album.

He's sweet and tender, not at all like you. So there's some comparison of lovers. "So gentle is my love," meaning HE, her love, is gentle.

He's not demanding. (So her ex must've been a monster to get a song like this."

You made me feel I was owned by you, while you could do what you wanted to. Now I have someone who belongs to me, etc.

This isn't what I expected. Kind of a tough sentiment: You suck, but he's great.

He's not like you. We don't need orchestration for a song like this, but maybe a honky tonk combo and a sputtering Nancy Wilson!

Definitely "Gentle Is My Love" is the worst song on the record so far. Hard to believe it is the title song. The title evokes better!

OK, continuing with Side 2. That was definitely a downer. I'll try to press on but I'm disappointed. Let me collect my thoughts here...whoa.

Song 8 is "At Long Last Love." The notes say "She ushers in dream time with two very familiar love songs done more slowly and...

meaningfully than ever before..." MORE was the 1st one, and AT LONG LAST LOVE the 2nd. --- So we're ushering in dream time again...

At Long Last Love - Is it an earthquake or simply a shock? Is it the good turtle soup or merely the mock? Is it a cocktail, this feeling?

OR....is it the REAL McCOY, meaning is it "At Long Last Love"? Very exploratory song, expansive thoughts, wondering, examining love...

Definitely we're back in the realm of the great romantic sound here. Enough strings in the orchestra to fly a million kites. Beautiful...

Next is the 9th song, "Time After Time." I wonder how many songs have this title. This is NOT the Cyndi Lauper song, of course...

Time after time, I tell myself that I'm so lucky to be loving you. So lucky to be the one you run to see in the evening ...

This is a reflective song, reminiscing on the benefits of the love we've shared. With "Time after time" you've heard me say I was lucky.

This is a great romantic song to celebrate an anniversary. It would make him or her cry. Or at least give you a special kiss afterwards.

I like it.

Next, the 10th song (out of 11), "If Ever I Would Leave You."

Starts with the title. "It wouldn't be in summer, seeing you in summer I never would go..." I've heard this song before somewhere.

I think it'll be I'll never leave you now, then, anytime.

If I'd ever leave you it couldn't be in autumn, how I'd leave in autumn I'd never know...

This song gives the idea of leaving you but then knows it can't be done. Like saying "I don't like you ... I LOVE YOU."

So it's a good romantic track, for all seasons. Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring ... then it's all recapitulated at the end.

Never could I leave you AT ALL. Good sentiment. I don't know about that though. Why are you even contemplating leaving me?

NOW, our last song, Number 11. Guess they couldn't come up with a 12th song to round out the album. 6 one side, 5 the other. Chintzy.

You want better balance than that, 6 and 6, an even number, not 11. Why'd they do that? Just to save on royalties? C'mon.

But it's been a long time back, 1965 thereabouts, and chances are it's too late to make it right, so we'll accept it, have to, there's 11.

Number 11: "When He Makes Music." From notes: "To close this superb album...the very dramatic WHEN HE MAKES MUSIC....

A fitting choice, for the tune's lyric captures the feeling Nancy's incomparable performances bestir in songwriter and listener alike...

Love the horn, swelling orchestra. It is more dramatic. "All he has to do is say hello, and that's the sweetest melody I know..."

The sound of angels singing soft and low...when he makes music. The vocals are more searching, hesitant, reaching, lots of feeling.

The lyric speaks of a symphony beginning, and the orchestra swells there. Then a million violins, enunciated by swelling violins. Beautiful.

He makes music only I can hear. -- Very nice, the sense that her beloved is hers alone and that's the way it should be..."

You wonder sometime how people fall in love, what they see in the other person. But it's music only they can hear.

I'm definitely tone deaf about some of the people I see, like walking through Wal-Mart, like How'd THOSE two ever get together?

But that's Mother Nature, composing her symphonies in the many bodies produced, attracted and attracting with "music only he/she can hear."

This is a very nice album. The overall tone is reflective, often prolonging whatever sentiment is being expressed, making it expressive.

Each song is excellent, except for the sub-par "Gentle Is My Love." That song was a downer and shall forever remain one, no redeeming it.

This has been a Live Tweeting of the NANCY WILSON LP, "Gentle Is My Love." Nancy's beautiful and a beautiful singer. Sing on, Nancy!

Cab Calloway - Pasta Handouts

Minnie the Moocher eats Martha the Goocher.

Speaking of "Minnie the Moocher," I listened to an LP compilation of Cab Calloway records, the oldest ones. I made MP3s out of it. Meaning I had to take out a few pops and clicks, which is funny. Why funny? Because the record itself had used old 78 rpm records and the liner notes says the engineers removed "the many ticks and pops which were sometimes present in the original material." Then there were the new ticks and pops on this record. So I have a couple generations of ticks in my hands.

This LP was put out by Bandstand Records, No. 7124. It is called "Cab Calloway and his Famous Band - The Beginning 1930/1934. I like the cover artwork, which is by Kirk De Grazia. Kirk also engineered it with Cecil Spiller. And Kirk wrote the liner notes. Kirk must not like rock 'n' roll, since he says:

[Cab] possessed a voice of remarkable range and his diction was impeccable. That's more than you can say about most of the rotten-roll singers shouting their garbage today.

Excuse me? We're that worried about diction? And as cool as Cab Calloway sounds, and he does sound quite cool, I didn't hear anything on these tracks that made me howl at the moon with my best howling diction. He was great, but big deal. A lot of people are great in their own way. So I don't know exactly who Kirk was talking about there, but he obviously went overboard.

But, all that aside, there's some interesting stuff here. I like the discographical information, which is not as complete as it could be. More on that later. One thing I noticed right away, though, there's a problem with the "Minnie the Moocher" track. There's some kind of wavering, a flub on a word. Right where he says "Minnie had a heart as big as a [whale]. Whale has some kind of recording screw-up, I'm assuming on this particular release. Either that or Cab's diction was slightly off that day.

On the discographical information, I said it wasn't as complete as it could be. On my copy the original owner wrote in the original record labels and numbers and, apparently, even the master numbers of his records. That's very cool. On one track, "Got A Darn Good Reason Now," he put "BR 4936 (1st Record)." BR stands for Brunswick.

The Twelfeth Of Never

I had to look it up how you spell twelfth. I knew it was that or thelvth, but there's definitely an F sound in it. It's not a word I spell very often, so I haven't got it on the tip of my brain.

It's the twelfth of the month but not the twelfth of never.

I've got that song playing right now ... Johnny Mathis. How long will he love you? Until the twelfth of never, he'll still be loving you. And that's a long, long time.

All Pooped Out

I love listening to Yogi Yorgesson (Harry Stewart) but I don't have a systematic way of doing it. I don't have any CD collections, which would be ideal. I have a handful of 45s and this one 78.

The 78 I have on my iPod but the others are in boxes. And by handful, I mean less than 10, so it's far from anything.

I made an MP3 of his "Grandma" song but it's still unprocessed, untagged, etc. This 78, "All Pooped Out" backed with "Square Dance Hulda," is a great one.

My dad did a very minor Scandihoovian accent, talking about some of our cousins from Wisconsin, "Yohnny Yohnson."

Yogi's record is S & G 3010. He used to give the girls the eye, but now he just wants another piece of pie. He's all pooped out when it comes to girls but not food. He could dance the polka like a yumping yack.

Harry Stewart sounds like a genius to me. Or at least someone very insightful and clever. His records tell some fun things about human nature.

Willipus Wallipus

I have an old record that's one of my favorites from childhood. It's from 1953 and broken. It has lots of surface noise.

It is the story of Willipus Wallipus and how he got in lots of trouble. This story has him releasing the brakes of a car and running into a chicken coop. He learns his lesson, I hope, that Mom and Dad know best.

The record is on Cricket Records. The label says "Sung by Cousin Cricket." It is record number C-42B. Sold by Pickwick Sales Corp., New York.

The flip side's label is almost all gone. It's title has the phrase "Could Not Swim" in it, probably someone "Who" Could Not Swim. Performers' names are missing except for Toni Waiman and an orchestra.

An Old Defective Album

I ran across this album at a thrift store, still sealed. I was hoping it would have some "Party Song" lyrics like some of the other records I've had. Semi-racy stuff with lots of double entendres.

It didn't look overly promising in that regard, just going by the titles, such as "I Love You Waltz," "Old Grey Mare Polka," "Astronaut Polka," and "Turkey In The Straw," among others.

The only thing that suggested possibly some oo-la-la was the picture of the lady and the caption, "If I had my way, I would ? all day." With a question mark in there like that. But the caption relates to the first song, the "I Love You Waltz," in which they say "I love you" in various languages, English, Russian, and Polish.

You can see it's by Norm Dombrowski and the Happy Notes. Norm, the leader of the group, was also the drummer. They also had Ronald Gruna, trumpet and bass guitar; Irvin Kovalski, trumpet and guitar; John Hobson, bass guitar; Dave Wanta, concertina and guitar; and Bob Organiscak, sax and clarinet.

It's polka style music. I've only listened to the first couple of songs.

OK, I said this album was sealed, which is true. But when I opened it, it was defective. A little crumb of something stuck on the record and intrinsically part of the vinyl, either as it originally was or it's eaten in there after all these years. It might, might play through that section. I don't know.

It's something, though -- this album's been in someone's collection all these years, unopened, then ends up in a thrift store, and all these years it's had a secret flaw. Its imperfection -- its original sin -- has been exposed!

The record was put out by Gold Records, Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

I'm Gonna Be A Wheel Someday

I'm singing the Fats Domino song today, "I'm Gonna Be A Wheel Someday" -- I've got it stuck in my mind, which is weird because I haven't heard it for over two weeks.

I don't know all the words but it's theme, I think, is the fact that someday I'm gonna be a wheel and then I won't want you. That's the song. Boy meets girl. Girl loves boy. Boy becomes wheel. Boy dumps girl.

You can cry, cry, cry, cry, cry ... (and here's where I don't know the words, but I'm filling them in anyway, and maybe they're right) ... and sigh, sigh, sigh, sigh, sigh, but that's no way on earth to win my heart.

I was a garage sale two weeks ago yesterday and got a CD that has this song on it, "The Best of Fats Domino, Vol. 1 - My Blue Heaven" from the Legendary Masters series. And beyond that I was at a record store early to mid-May and got a 45 rpm record of the same song, Imperial 5606. On the record "someday" is two words. The flip side is "I Want To Walk You Home." (I want to walk you home, but if you wait till I'm a wheel, I'll give you a ride.)

Nostalgia

Maybe I'm in the mood for thinking of old times. I'm getting old enough to remember the past.

Once upon a time we had a nostalgia craze. We need a resurgence of nostalgia. Maybe we have it, we just don't call it that anymore. We have retro, throwback, and vintage.

Nostalgia fever hit the nation, I'm thinking around the year 1972. It was noted for Deco typefaces, something like the Broadway typeface that is on lots of computers. And a few others. It was a time -- maybe going along in some way with the "That's Entertainment" movies.

But I definitely remember seeing the word "nostalgia" back then all the time, a lot more than you see it now. Magazines covered it. Old movies were shown more often.

And, not coincidentally, that was when the whole "collectibles" and "collector's item" boom took off. Which led me to speak those immortal words, "If it's really a collector's item you don't need to put the phrase 'collector's item' on it. Collectors will know."

You may remember when Stevie Wonder's "Songs In The Key Of Life" album came out it had printed on the front "Collector's Album." I was at a flea market and this idiot dealer had records for sale. Let's say they were $1 each, just to make a point. This guy had the Stevie album like five or 10 times the price. I asked him why. He said because it was a "Collector's Album," since it said right on the front! I asked him why it was a collector's album and he said, "I don't know. Maybe he died or something."

Kiss

I like hearing the random conversations of people. I have a little mp3 recorder, and I had it with me, but I never have it on at the right time. So I miss a few gems that are amusing as well as typical. Sometimes they're typical and sometimes they once were typical. The snippet I heard today is definitely from a dying genre of snippets, which is the old music critic who doesn't like all this new fangled stuff.

I went to a thrift store -- different town from where I live -- and I noticed they had a bin of LPs in a different place than they used to. But I couldn't immediately look at them because there was an old guy going through them. And anyway my main interest is looking at the CDs, since, to me LPs are secondary these days, and they don't usually have any especially good ones, and there's not usually any hurry because very few people are looking for them, at least for the exact same ones that I'm likely to buy. So let the old guy look.

I did my thing, went through the CDs, went through the books, then came back toward the cash register. The old guy was with the checkout lady, and he must be a regular, because something he said indicated that he'd found some others he liked. He was friendly. Then he started commenting on the other LPs he left behind that they were just "noise." He used that word and exacerbated his criticism, repeating it in a harsher way. But he had found some good ones!

Then I heard him say -- this snippet is very close to an actual quote -- that "a few years ago there was a group that painted their face and..." (Essentially recorded a lot of noise, with their image being everything and the content nothing worth having.) The checkout lady immediately said, "Kiss," which he then remembered as being correct. He started saying something about having his old turntable and sticking with the good music they used to have, etc.

But I was going through the albums by now and Kiss wasn't in there, nor was there much in the way of rock records at all. There was the usual array of religious albums, both the famous and the locally produced. There was some Ray Anthony, some albums from that era, which seems to me like that might be up the guy's alley. And other than that I don't remember any, just average, typical stuff like you always see in LP bins. I think there literally was a copy of Herb Alpert's "Whipped Cream" album. I say literally because it's really not an official thrift store LP bin without that album! That's a good album, but usually the copies they have at thrift stores are junked out.

As it turned out -- no big surprise -- there wasn't anything in the bin for me.

OK, what did the guy find that was so great? I didn't see what was in his stack. But he had maybe up to six or seven LPs, or five, and the top one was one of the "Sing Along With Mitch Miller" albums, the yellow one that I believe has a fold out cover. I've seen it over the years quite a few times. It's hard to believe this old guy with his old record player wouldn't already have that one! Or maybe he wore it out.