Sunday, December 26, 2010

rodd keith & friends - house of japan



"Thomas J. Guygax Sr., late of Springfield, Missouri, is credited as lyricist of 10 known song-poem recordings, all cut either by MSR Records or their subsidiary label, Songuild, and each a standout for its broken-field appropriation of accepted English syntax. While poetic license is always conceded to the artist, Guygax consistently goes one better by seeming to ignore the meanings of words altogether or, at least, the order that gives them meaning."
- Phil Milstein, American Song-Poem Music Archives

In case you've managed to avoid song-poems up to now, these creations set lyrics submitted by everyday citizens to music written and recorded by in-house song mill hacks who could plow through an alarming number of tunes in the space of an afternoon. Each budding lyricist would pay good money to hear their own feeble  or heroic musings on an actual vinyl record which could of course become an enormous incredible worldwide hit. Or so the ads in Popular Mechanics, Modern Romance and Sensational Detective Tru-Crime Cases claimed.

Rodd Keith (aka Rod Rogers, Ron Davis, John Dough, Lindon Bridges...) is the acknowledged auteur of the song-poem scene, making songs out of the words, then producing himself performing his own arrangements of them for MSR and a handful of similar labels in the Los Angeles area, throwing himself into the endeavor with great passion and imagination more often than not. A termite Brian Wilson at his beloved Chamberlin, he layers its wobbly proto-Mellotron blurs into a very personal wall of sound, delivering the customers' lyrics in a loopy adenoidal croon that makes you believe every word. Armed with prodigious amounts of stimulants and psychedelics, Keith could dive into backwards universes like Tahiti and emerge with crazy alchemies that verge on genius.

Even when less committed song sharks are running the show, you've still got Aunt Gert's oddball lyrics to puzzle over, like Let's Lay It On The Line or Lady Off Pedestal At Notre Dame. Then there's Thomas J. Guygax, represented here by During Evening and Yonder.
    "Although by the also,
      To have differed with yearly and all known dearly
      Throughout and among, we use preferred
      By the also of having choicefully."

                                                       - At The Time
If only we could follow the late wordsmith through a typical day, as he made a bank deposit, asked his wife for a favorite sandwich, told the dog to get off the couch.

Interested parties should check out WFMU, where mp3s from Phil Milstein's deactivated song-poem archive are available once again. The ASPMA site is still a great resource for insightful commentary, discographies, even the words to ten more Guygax song-poems, including unanthologized ones like Yearly Secure, A Pet Pigeon, Paradise Pudding and Shellbager.

Further info on all songs and performers are included in download. Enjoy.

rodd keith & friends
house of japan
song-poem compilation


01 House Of Japan 3.29
02 Cool It, Baby 2.52
03 There Was A Time Ago 2.18
04 Gloria 2.23
05 Sawdust 2.38
06 Hot Pants And Leather Boots That Shine 2.24
07 During Evening 2.03
08 She Knows How To Do The Doo De Doo 2.10
09 Dot 2.44
10 Boppin' In Flip Flops 2.05
11 Merry-Go-Down 3.10
12 Big Weekend 2.55
13 Unspeakable Love 3.18
14 Get Down And Wiggle It A Little 2.12
15 Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Potassium 3.02
16 Mary's Launderette 2.42
17 Whisper To Me 2.28
18 Oh That Zipper! 1.52
19 Reseda 3.34
20 Adventure 2.52
21 Lady Off Pedestal At Notre Dame 2.16
22 Let's Lay It On The Line 2.26
23 We Are The Men Counting Sheep 2.07
24 Darling, Don't Put Your Hands On Me 1.47
25 The Pink, Pink Lady Of Malibu 2.41
26 Stars Love 2.08
27 Keep Those Hopes Up 2.22
28 Lucky Vegas Gamblin' Man 2.16
29 Yonder 2.26
30 Tahiti 2.52
31 The Ballad Of Juan Rio 2.47

"Not everyone is against you. Not completely."
- Keep Those Hopes Up

cd/mp3 downloads

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

guinee an xii - pleins feux sur les artistes du peuple



Myriam Makeba's Quintette Guineen were all Balladins 'drafted' by President Sekou Touré, who offered the international star asylum including band after her marriage to activist Stokely Carmichael sank her career in the States.

bembeya jazz / balla et ses balladins / keletigui et ses tambourinis with kouyate sory kandia / myriam makeba et son quintette guineen
guinee an xii - pleins feux sur les artistes du peuple
syliphone slp 21 (1970)

01 Sama (Balladins) 4.25
02 Beni Ibara (Bembeya) 3.50
03 Tara (Keletigui) 5.25
04 I Phin Dlela (Myriam Makeba) 4.50
05 Kadeya Deya (Myriam Makeba) 3.24
06 Teningbe (Balladins) 4.50
07 La Guinee (Bembeya) 4.50
08 Kelemagnin (Balladins) 5.20

vinyl @320

guinee an xi - les rendez-vous annuel des grands



Cover shot finds Sékou Diabaté 'Diamond Fingers' of Bembeya Jazz in an ethno-psychedelic moment.

bembeya jazz / balla et ses balladins / keletigui et ses tambourinis

guinee an x
i - les rendez-vous annuel des grands
syliphone slp 15 (1969)

01 Alalake (Bembeya) 4.02
02 Limania (Balladins) 4.44
03 Toubaka (Keletigui) 5.05
04 Boiro (Bembeya) 4.02
05 Manghoya (Keletigui) 6.10
06 Fatoumata (Bembeya) 3.50
07 Sara 70 (Balladins) 10.00

vinyl @320

guinee an x - grand tierce musical



Guinee An X celebrates ten years of Sekou Touré et la Républic with exclusive tracks from Guinea's top Orchestres Nationaux. Syliphone anniversary anthologies X, XI and XII were followed by seven annual singles collections - Discotheque 70 thru 76.

bembeya jazz / balla et ses balladins / keletigui et ses tambourinis
guinee an x - grand tierce musical
syliphone slp 8 (1968)

01 Soundiata (Keletigui) 5.50
02 Diaraby (Balladins) 6.10
03 Republique de Guinee (Bembeya) 5.10
04 Djoute Wassa (Keletigui) 3.25
05 P.D.G. (Balladins) 4.50
06 Armee Guineenne (Bembeya) 3.55
07 Sara (Balladins) 6.20
08 Beyla (Bembeya) 6.55

vinyl @320

Saturday, May 29, 2010

greg copeland - revenge will come



The ballad of the reluctant troubadour. Copeland became a published songwriter around 1967 along with Orange County high school pals Jackson Browne and Steve Noonan, hitting paydirt with the latter when the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band covered their Buy For Me The Rain. Eventually, Browne, who says watching Copeland write songs inspired him to start writing his own, secured his mentor a record deal with Geffen, producing this 1982 debut in the bargain. But the left-leaning Copeland's disinclination to capitalize on his good fortune, refusing to appear in public to promote himself, led him to sign on as a paralegal at a good-hearted friend's law firm, eventually becoming a lawyer himself. He released his follow-up album, the bleak and wondrous Diana & James, in 2008, a mere quarter century after the first, and is apparently hard at work on a third. Good things come to those who wait. And wait.

greg copeland
revenge will come
geffen records ghs 2010 (1982)
01 Used 3.04
02 Starting Place 3.14
03 Full Cleveland 2.27
04 Eagleston 3.17
05 That'll Never Be The Same 4.58
06 Richard Hill 4.59
07 At The Warfield 3.33
08 Wrong Highway 2.49
09 El Salvador 3.38
10 Revenge Will Come 4.38

Distance and boredom, dragging you down
Nowhere to go but an Air Force town
Nowhere to heal these feelings in you
Nowhere to hide when the medicine came through
Fire on the water, fear in the land
Gather ye children, the time is at hand
Any ten dollar bill and you can fly like the dove
From Eagleston, Texas, to somewhere you love

In his own words.

vinyl @320

Thursday, March 4, 2010

quartetto italiano - complete music for string quartet by webern



Maready of The High Ponytail is responsible for my pulling out this chestnut. He's determined to get us all to listen to more classical music. Check out his post of Robert Craft's complete Webern box from 1959, which Columbia probably deleted shortly thereafter.

quartetto italiano
complete music for string quartet by webern
philips 6500 105 (holland)

01 Slow Movement For String Quartet (1905)
02 String Quartet (1905)
03 Five Movements For String Quartet, Op. 5
04 Six Bagatelles For String Quartet, Op. 9
05 String Quartet, Op. 28

Paolo Borciani / Elisa Pegreffi / Piero Farulli / Franco Rossi

vinyl @320

holy modal rounders - alleged in their own time



"It wasn't until 1970 that we started Rounder Records but one of the reasons for the name was the Holy Modal Rounders. It was they who introduced us to Charlie Poole. Since we started, 'Rounders On Rounder' was one of the things we wanted to do the most. Another is a Ramblin' Jack Elliott record. It gets kind of confusing when both sets of Rounders are together since everybody's talking about the Rounders but it's not always clear about which set. We wanted to do a Stampfel and Weber album but Robin was there and he wrote Euphoria and was legendary, and Peter brought friend Luke Faust up and it grew and grew. Weber was kind of out of it most of the time, unfortunately. Well, it's finally here. We don't have much else to say right now, at least about this."
- The Rounder Collective

holy modal rounders
alleged in their own time
vscd-137 (japan)
originally rounder 3004 (1975)

01 Low Down Dog
02 Don't Seem Right
03 New Reuben's Train
04 Voodoo Queen Marie
05 Chitlin' Cookin' Time In Cheatham County
06 Nova
07 Sally In The Alley
08 She's More To Be Pitied
09 Rocky Road
10 Across The Alley From The Alamo
11 Synergy
12 Red Rocking Chair
13 Random Canyon
14 Monday Morning
15 Shoot That Turkey Buzzard

Peter Stampfel / Steve Weber / Luke Faust / Robin Remailly / Antonia (who sings Voodoo Queen Marie)

cd @320