Cool and Strange Music! Magazine - 06 - Aug 1997-Nov 1997

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Publisher/ Ec/itor: Dana Countryman Layout anti Design: The Same Guy Executive At/visor: Keith 8. Ellis Proolreatler: Tricia Meier Printing Services: Consolitlatetl Press Seattle, WA "'"'

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Special thanks to the following OOOL folks for making the SIXTH Issue of our JSTRAJ/'16£ magaziiie another ZIPPY suooess!...

Don Pierson • Lou Smith Jim Horan •Toby Hardman Sean Berry •The King Family Jack Fetterman • Shannon Starr J.R. Williams • Tricia Meier • Wayno Frank Davis • Jeff Morris • Keith Ellis Sixth Issue!• August '97 ·November '97

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countless other TV and radio shows. Several of our songs were played on The Doctor Well, it's time for another issue and I this time I thought I'd fill you in on your editor's Demento Show and we had the good fortune to have Doctor Demento and "Weird' Al musical background, so you'd understand my perspective on this weird and wacky Yankovic come to our show. We even got to hang out with them after our shows! music interest of mine. I've always loved music. Some of my earliest memories are Acouple of my favorite memories of our group are having dinner with Judd Hirsch memorizing the words to the TV theme songs of 'My Mother The Car' and and Clevon Little in San Francisco, and appearing on Arlene Francis' radio show live "Superchicken'!! from Sardi's in New York City. Other guests on that show were Bert Parks and In high school, I taught myself piano and guitar and started writing songs, heavily Menudo ... what a combination! influenced by The Beatles, who I still remain in awe of. In 1974, shortly after high After 6 years of touring, living in hotel rooms, having 7 members come and go, we school, I helped form a band, The Sparklers. We had an all-Beatie repertoire, but to finally called it quits. Having been the keep up with the times, we added afew leader, arranger, songwriter and mansongs by, you guessed it.. .. Wings! Our ager, I just got weary and needed to rest. entire career consisted of two perforDoing The Amazing Pink Things was an mances for the military brats at a deacincredible experience. We entertained tivated Air Force base in Michigan. We thousands of people, who would line up were not a hit. around the block to see our shows, and In 1975, I moved to Hollywood, Caliwould dress up in pink clothes to be in fornia to 'make it big' in songwriting. Unaudiences. It was a great feeling to our my fortunately, severe shyness cramped make people laugh, and Iwouldn't trade style and the world never knew my brilthose amazing experiences for anything. liant musical genius!(?) Three and ahalf So many great things came out of years later, I moved back home to Sedoing that group, but the best thing for attle, bringing boxes and boxes of used me was meeting my wife,Tricia,who was records, which were cheap and plentiour 7th and final replacement member. ful in Hollywood. We were married shortly after the group In 1979, repulsed by Disco music, I disbanded, and recently celebrated our rebelled against the current pop trends 6th wedding anniversary. and started a Big Band-style vocal Now, instead of making wacky and group, The Swingaires. We specialized unusual music, I get to write about it, plan in Swing Era tunes, sung in authentic 4interviews, assign writers to articles, and part harmony, a la' The Manhattan reach all of you! I'm really enjoying hearTransfer.The highlight of our career was ing from all of you, and the response I've playing a New Year's Eve gig at the gotten about the magazine has been downtown Reno Holiday Inn, and getvery rewarding. Best of all, I get to spend ting sprayed with champagne at midnight The Amazing Pink Things, circa 1989 time with my family, stay off the road, and by drunken partiers who kept asking for Clockwise from top le~ : Bob Overman, enjoy all the great, unusual music from Elvis songs! Nobodyknewwhat to do with Ta.mi Martin, Dana Countryman, Tricia Meler the past and present. us, and eventually we broke up. Oh, and by the way, I still keep my hand in live music with the jazz vocal group that I next set up an 8-track recording studio in my house, and spent the next 5 years Tricia and I started 4 years ago. We have 5 members and are called Moonlight Exwriting and recording extensively. In 1985, with my friend Bob Kaiser, I formed a compress. We perform for conventions, private parties and our semi-regular gig at a Seedy vocal group called The Amazing Pink Things. This group was actually pretty darn attle hotel. successful, although you've probably never heard of us! We started as a cabaret act Anyway, I hope this little 'musical history of my life' has been somewhat interesting and consisted of 2men and 2women. I provided the taped musical backup, playing all to you. For what it's worth, now you know a little about my musical past. Cool and the instruments, and we sang live to our "canned' orchestra. Strange Music! Magazine is just the latest chapter, and I'm glad for all your support and Our 90-minute show consisted of spoofs of American Pop culture, and included an enthusiasm! 11 -minute medley of TV themes (this was before the TeeVee Toons albums, and the ongoing interest in TV themes.) We performed a lot of wacky and irreverent songs, as And now... on with the magazine! well as that TV medley which we did complete with costumes and props, including a ftying, plastic Starship Enterprise! We toured all over the West Coast, plopped down in San Francisco for 6 months, and eventually ended up in Hollywood, where we made two appearances on an early -Dana Countryman, Editor/Publisher version of The Arsenio Hall Show. We also had the good fortune to appear with Crystal Gayle as her opening act, as well as making appearances on the A&E Network and

And Strange Music!" Sixth Issue! •August 97 ·November '97 f,oo/ -------=Magazine 1

lE1"1"ERS

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Letters ofaCool nd 'Strange Nature! ...:===============:""•

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We invite you to write in with your thoughts and ideas! Send your letters to:

COOL AND STRANGE MUSIC! MAGAZINE, Letters Dept. PO Box 8501 Everett, WA USA 98201 It you request lt, we will be happy to print your full (non -bu s lna ss)

address and phone number 1! you'd like other readers to contact you.

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Good Morning, Mr. Countryman, I caught your 'zines 4 & 5 yesterday, and I really dug W 'em. I enjoyed the Jack Mudurian article, and the Louis t- Prima scoop was very informative. What yanked me t- the hardest, though, was the Hasil Adkins story. My W Gawd, I laughed out loud in my office. The V.P. heard ~ me all the way down the hall! It was okay, though, he's the one who let me read his Cool 'n Strange. Anyway, 6'I here's your very positive feedback, and keep on keepin' on. Oh, one more thing , you know the Yma Sumac ~ W website? There's a cover for her Virgenes Del Sol on t- there, straight from Peru. I helped do that! The same t- V.P. is a big Yma fan, and he has the CD, so I did some ~ computer magick and we got it to the site. Neat, huh? Just thought I'd toot me own horn. And yours. Take care! .,. -Stacy in San Jose (via E-Mail) ~

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Thanks Stacy, Thanks for your feedback, I'm glad Wilhelm Murg's article on Hasil was a hit with you. {I thought it was pretty dam great, myself.) The Yma Suma web site is incredible, and I commend you for your work on it! {I encourage all readers to get on the Web and check it out. {http:llwww.accesscom.com/-pclsumac.htm) The Webmaster, Don Pierson, is a friend of the magazine, so tell him the Cool And Strange Music! Magazine sent you.) Hello Dana, I just sent off a check to renew my subscription to "Cool and Strange Music." I thought I should send you a note to let you know how much I appreciate your magazine. It's the preferred subway reading of late! I was just on the Basta website and they offered a link to your site that failed on me, by the way. I am very interested to see what you guys are putting up on the web. How is it going? Articles by the likes of Ferrante and Teicher, Brother Cleve, Irwin, and on and on .... ! I am thrilled you exist! By the way, I was 'shocked' that a supposedly cool NYC record store had not heard of your magazine. I asked them if they had the "Sex-0-Rama" CD and their jaws dropped when i pulled out your magazine to show them the ad. (They thought I was bullshitting them!. .. errr... how could they not know about something like ' Sex-0-Rama"? ... must not exist!) They wrote down your address, so if you hear from them, you can have a chuckle! They never saw anything like it! -Jack Fetterman New York, NY (http://www.inhi-fi.com)

Hi Jack, Thanks for writing, and thanks for the compliments. I'm afraid there's so much more I'd like to add to our website, but there never seems to be enough time to do it! Our 'Sounds" page is still uncompleted, and I'd like to have our first 2 issues available on the Web page, since they are permanently out of print. One of these days, I'll find time! Thanks for the plug for the magazine to your record store friends. And you're right, there really ISN'T anything else quite like it! Greetings, You should have already received my subscription reorder check and I am looking forward to another year of Cool and Strange finds in my mailbox. The point I called to make is about the Fun With Records article by Wilhelm Murg. I'm sure you've already been besieged by subscribers on this point already, but I need to get this off my chest. Locking grooves are not what he describes. They are a track that ends by merging back into itself after one rotation . It can and does occur anywhere on the album. I own several records that have this feature to include one that every song ends in a lock track and has to be moved ahead manually. The function he describes is a sort of skipping that has near

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Sixth Issue!• August '97 ·November '97

of would have assumed that you would have caught this. Until next time, Mark Rafter Portland, OR

Hi Mark, Thanks for bring the "multiple lock track" phenomenon to both Wilhelm's and my attention. I must admit that I've only been aware of a repeating groove at the end of an LP The prime example of course, it the Beatles' British LP version of 'Sgt. Pepper', where there is a repeating groove near the label. And I do believe that everything I've ever read definitely refers to it as a "locking groove". Thanks for sharing the info with us! Dear Dana, After reading #4, I feel ready for a subscription on your interesting magazine. I must say a lot of things have improved since issue #1 - congratulations! The editorial stuff was excellent, but I was also happy to note that the world's greatest Elvis imitator (Eilert Pilarm) was featured in an ad on page 35. Eilert is from my hometown (Orskoldsvik), which is very small and in the north of Sweden. Did you know that he actually changed his real name to Eilert Pilarm only to get the same initials as Elvis? He works as caretaker at a factory, lives with his parents but rocks like .. .well, nothing you ever heard before. I saw him perfonn live in front of a stunned audience at a TV show which was broadcasted live for television a couple of years ago, and people didn't really know how to react to his show. Not only was he out of tune, but also out of rhythm and a knowledge of the English language. A lot of the so called 'serious' music listeners over here of course put him down, but on the other hand - what on you expect when ordinary people are confronted with something truly original and unique? Anyway - Eilert is sincere and also a very kind person. All the best to you and your family - looking forward to hearing from you! Best, Tommy Apelquist, Goteborg, SWEDEN

Hi Tommy, I'm always glad to hear from our Swedish friends! Yes, you're right - we have come a long way since our #1 issue. I occasionally pull a copy of that out and look it over. The look and direction of the magazine has really improved, in my opinion, too! Thanks for the compliments! Hey, Eilert Pi/arm sounds like somebody we should have an article on! Dear Cool, Strange, Weird, Exotic, Easy people, Hello there, how are you? May I introduce myself? My name is Marco, I'm 27 years old and I live in the Netherlands (Europe). I am a collector of, well. .. Cool and Strange Music. Some of my favorite artists are Les Baxter, Esquivel, Andre' Popp, Enoch Light and Raymond Scott. I also like spoken word records, promotional records, strange conversations and all sorts of other weird stuff. In fact, I write a column called WEIRD! for a Dutch music llll.34

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And Strange Musicr CAJol --------Magazine

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by Dr. Zomb's Stereo Obscura Editor's Note: Since I've been trading compilation tapes with a lot of people, I've noticed a certain trend. Many of the comps made from friends' strange record collections have one thing in common; they usually include at least one cut by the Christian ventriloquist doll, Little Marcy! It struck me that the world was waiting to find out more about this adult lady with the 'little girl' voice, and with a little detective work, I tracked down a phone number and address for her. I have my own "Little Marcy" story to tell; when I was in the second grade in Harrisburg, Oregon, my mom and dad gave me a Little Marcy album which I played all the time. One day, my mom took me a local church to hear Little Marcy perform! I don't remember much about the performance, except that "Big" Marcy's lips moved, quite obviously, whenever Little Marcy "sang". Big Marcy, herself, pointed this out to the audience, saying that she was just "singing along"!! After the concert, my mom dragged me by the hand to the front of the church where I came face to face with both Marcy's. I remember being very embarrassed by the moment, and I also recall that Big Marcy seemed very quiet, shy and didn't have much to say to me. Seeing Dr. Zomb's photo of "Happyland Express", (which I'd totally forgotten how the cover looked!), it brought it all back to me again! Suddenly, it was 1962 again and I was 6 years old, and sitting in my room, - Dana Countryman, Editor playing Little Marcy's record over and over and over....

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ell, it all started with an innocent letter to Cool And Strange Music! Magazine in which I asked, semi-rhetorically, "Just how many Little Marcy records are there, anyway?" Editor, Dana Countryman responded with an invitation to do an article/interview with her, as we had both heard she was residing in the Eugene, Oregon area. Being the ardent appreciator of all things vinyl and unusual that I am, I rose to the challenge and sometime later when Dana reached me with Marcy Tigner's phone number and address, I knew it was time for Dr. lamb's Stereo Obscurato get to work! (Dr. lamb's Stereo Obscura is the name of my strange music radio show, and also the name I deejay under when I perform in clubs here in Portland, Oregon.) Last June, circumstances fell into place putting my wife, our 8-month old boy Julian, and myself in Salem for a couple days, and Julian and I had lot of time to kill while my wife was otherwise occupied. Eugene was only an hour away, so I called up the Tigner residence and soon was on the line with the unmistakable voice known to anyone who has heard her records! Yes, she has anaturally high, girlish voice even in her (I assume) late 60's. It is exaggerated a bit for the "Little Marcy" character, but not much. At any rate, we arranged a meeting and one morning I showed up with Julian at awell-kept medium sized house near ashopping mall, on the outskirts of Eugene. Marcy's husband Everett met us outside and brought lllll~·

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MARCY AND LITTLE MARCY

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us into their family room records. Always the prowhere we sat beneath their mater, Everett thought of "wall of fame," awall covered Marcy's "undesirable" childwith autographed photos of like voice, and they went back many celetJrities and politi- into Whitney's studio. Accians as well as plaques and companied by Whitney on the awards that Little Marcy has great Robert Morton pipe orreceived over the years. I am gan, she sang "Jesus Loves unable to present the inter- Me" as a sort of demo. Everview in the typical format, as ett then "beat the sidewalks" Marcy is quite shy and as she with this recording. put it "not much of atalker." Her husband did most of the talking and Cornerstone Records signed her, and Marcy recorded "Happy basically went through her history for her, which I'll try to recount Day Express," the first of several LPs on Cornerstone. Finally, she here. was able to use her unique voice, and she began singing as well as Born in Wichita, Kansas to religious parents, as a child Marcy playing tromtJone in her church shows. People who had heard her studied piano and later developed the desire to do something in the records often requested that she sing in this voice, out she always field of Christian music. After hearing r - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - , felt abit odd and uncomfortable bea young man play gospel songs on ing an adult on stage, singing in a the trombone , she decided she child's voice. Soon after, Marcy met wanted to make the trombone her inVonda Van Dyke, (Miss America of strument. Before long, she received a 1965) when they appeared together trombone from her aunt and began in a film, "Teenage Diary." Vonda learning to play. Eventually, she tiewas an accomplished ventriloquist, came accomplished enough as ateen- ' and it was she who suggested that ager to win first place in many state a ventriloquist's dummy as being and national contests. At the same the perfect vehicle for Marcy's time that her trombone career was devoice. This is when "Little" Marcy veloping, she tried voice lessons. Unwas developed. fortunately, her girlish voice worked Marcy taught herself ventriloagainst her attempts to become a sequism from the book, 'VENTRILOrious singer. Her third and final voice QUISM FOR FUN AND PROFIT' tJy teacher (an Italian opera singer) threw Paul Winchell. Much later, she com- " her hands up in the air saying, "You pleted the cartoon and dialect~ sound like a child! You're just wast,..., courses atthe Mel Blanc School 018 ing your time and money!" Voice and Commercials! (I was~ Discouraged, Marcy went back to the trombone. Eventually, shown her diploma!) She started her career with a crude doll, buts she had the opportunity to record an altJum of her tromtJone music, soon had the "Marcy" doll made, that we see on most of her record fil accompanied tJy Lorin Whitney, famed sacred organist and owner of covers. It was made by the man who made "Mortimer Snerd" and~ the Whitney Recording Stu- "Charlie McCarthy" for fa~ dios in Glendale, California. mous ventriloquist, Edgar . 't!!.8 ··~ ~ (Thisiswheremanyofthere- Bergen. This.is "the" Little ~ ligious LPs that we've all run Marcy doll which (although a · w•TK '?iJ ~ across in thriftstores, were little worse for wear) still ex~ originally recorded.) It was at ists today! ·····- ···---- ~ this time that her husband, "It was as expensive as ------Everett overheard some having a tJaby in a hospital, record executives mention but you didn't have to feed it!" ~ that they were looking for a Everett recalled. o child to record children's If you look at the earli-

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est LPs, the doll is billed only Marcy doll, with a flexi-disc as "Marcy", but later, when the and a puzzle of Little Marcy! doll really became a bigger (The Tigner's were a little part of the act, the name concerned about giving dolls "Little Marcy" is used. At this to my boy, but I assured them point, Marcy's career really he wouldn't be adversely aftook off and she began re- fected!) I also had an LP aucording several albums a tographed which I had year. Everett was West Coast brought, and was given a 7" representative for Tyndale EP that was only sent out to House Publishers (who pub- friends and never sold; it inlish the Living Bible), and he asked to be transferred to Los Angeles cludes the song "Shake Me, I Rattle." to enable the two Marcy's to be .-----------. --------,...- --...... Then the high point of the nearer the recording studios. morning occurred as Marcy sat They ended up living in ahousmy baby son, Julian on the sofa ing development owned by next to her and Little Marcy. Lawrence Welk. Marcy toured Julian held Little Marcy's hand across the country several times and she sang some of "Jesus playing churches and doing ocLoves Me" to him. It was capcasional TV shows, including tured for posterity with my little one with Pat Robertson. She tape recorder, and I photoalso did a5-day aweek TV show graphed them as well. It was sort on a local channel after moving of thrilling in a way to see and back to Oregon, but eventually hear this woman doing her act stopped doing the show as it in her own home with my son. took up too much of her time. He seemed to like it fine, and the There was also an album and a Tigner's got a kick out of him. commercial produced with So there you have it--evSmokey The Bear (whose voice erything you ever wanted to was provided by Jackson know about the prolific, sacred Weaver). ventriloquist. Oh yeah, she isn't These days, her life has exactly sure, but she says she quieted down. She no longer put out 35-40 records! I'd like records or tours, and her only to thank Reverend Chuck Linville performances are occasional of Our Lady of Eternal Combusones at her own church , and a lion Church, Portland, Oregon, yearly appearance at a religious bookstore in Salem, Oregon. She for the loan of his sizable (22) collection of Litt!~ Marcy LPs to comperforms there at Christmas time, something she has done for 37 bine with my collection (15) to be photographed for this article. I'd years running. The children also like to thank the Tigner's, who saw her in the early of course, for their time and years are now bringing their hospitality. They are fine folks own children to the shows, and very sincere about what Marcy says. they do . Before we concluded our visit with Marcy, Little -© 1997 Dr. Zomb's Marcy and Everett Tigner, I Stereo Obscura was given one of her albums, some little books for Julian as well as a boxed Little

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Exotica, Bachelor Pad and just plain W~l~" music on CD! Theremin &Moog rarities• Les Baxter &Martin Denny rarities Rare Yma Sumac• Elizabeth Waldo's Sacred Rites Jayne Mansfle/d Busts Up Las Vegas • Julie London • Tina Louise '50s babes on Japanese CD: (Ann-Margret, Abbe Lane, more) Sex Kittens In Hi-Fi • B.J. Snowden's "Life in the USA &Canada"

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a mail-order-only special order & search service 530 14th St., #9, San Francisco, CA 94103 (41 5) 864-8222 [email protected] fax: (415) 864-7222

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TED: WAN INDU$TRIAl.$HOW$ Collector seeking souvenir records from company conventions, with original songs designed to entertain, educate, and motivate the sales force. I have examples from GE, IBM, Exxon, Ford, Coke, Westinghouse, Seagram, J.C. Penney, Xerox, Pepsi, Woolworth, and many more. Have duplicates of some for trade. Anxious to find examples I don't have yet! See my article in this issue for a much more long-winded explanation! S : T E " E 'VCIUl\IG 161 E. 91st St., #4C New York, NY 10128 (212) 996-1611 •fax (212) 410-5222 e-mail: [email protected]

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Living Stereo imports (Esquivel, Cugat, Perez Prado, Three Suns, more) Jungle Exotica • Las Vegas Grind• Patty Waters • Mrs. Miller • Shaggs "The Ta lent Show" • Jack Mudurian • Lucia Pamela • Del Rubio Triplets Charles Manson • David Koresh • People's Temple • The Sensous Black Woman (cass. only)• Joselito (Spanish, insanely passionate, only 6years old!) Zacherly • Harvey Sid Fishe~s Astrology Songs • Queer to the Core Anton LaVey• Celebrity Vocals Books (Hollywood Hi-Fi, Goldmine)

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OPTIGANECOLOGY

~ loo.u ~T m~nTll S IN.i:~mous 0PTIC~l D1sc-PL~VING o~G~N 1

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bout ten years ago I first became aware of the existence of the Mattel Optigan. In an article on the past and fu ture of synthesizers that appeared in Keyboard Magazine, there was a brief reference to this unique disc-playing organ, and it stuck in my mind for years as it was the first time I had ever seen the word "cheesy" used to describe a musical instrument. Aside from that brief reference, though, I never ran across any more substantial information about the machine. I discovered that Devo and Tom Waits had used them, but could never pickout the sounds on their recordings. 1had always wanted to find one myself, but given the odd nature of the instrument I just assumed that very few were made and by now they had all been collected by collectors (or dutifully carted off to the dump by non-post-modernists). So I never bothered to make an active sea rch - I just figured that if I ever found one it would probably be in some thrift store somewhere waiting to be revived. The Opligan was a kind of home organ made by the Opligan Corporation (a subsidiary of Mattel) in the early '70s.It was set up like most home organs ofthe period - a small right-hand keyboard for melodic parts with buttons on the left for various chords, accompaniments and rhyth ms. At the time, all organs produced their sounds electrically or electronically with tubes or transistors. The Optigan was different in that its sounds were scanned from LP-sized celluloid discs whi ch contained the graphic waveforms of real instruments. These recordings were encoded in concentric looping rings using the same technology as film soundtracks. (Remember that sequ ence in fant asia whe re th e "soundtrack" makes a cameo?) As the film runs, a light is projected through the soundtracks and is picked up on the other side by a photoreceptor. The voltage is periodically varied depending on how much light reaches the receptor, and after being amplified this voltage is converted into audible sound by the speakers. The word "Optigan" stands for "Optical Organ." Optigan discs have 57 rings of soundtrack. These provide recordings ofreal musicians playing riffs, chord patterns and other effects. (37 of the tracks are reserved for the melodic keyboard sound itself-a

different recording for each note.) So when you wa nt to play a bossa nova, you don'tget those wimpy little pop-pop-chink-chink electronic sounds-you actually hea r a live combo backing you up! The problem is that you only have a limited numberofchords to choose from- C, D. E, f, G, A and Bb major, plus th eir parallel minor and diminished co unterparts. Oh, and the sound quality is horrible! Tec hnica lly speaking, th e Optigan was a primitive sampler. Historically, it has its precedents with the Chamberlin and Mellotron, two tape- playbac k instruments from the '50s and '60s. (Remember the "fl utes" at the beginning of "Straw berry fi elds forever"? Th ey came from a Mellotron.) These instruments were mostly considered "professional,"and hence cost-prohibitive. The beauty ofthe Optigan lies in ils utterly poor quality and low price. Today an Optiga n can be had for under $50, whereas a Mellotron can easily set you back$2000! Mattel marketed the Optigan as something of an adult toy, the sound quality was simply notgood enough for professional use. They sold mostly through stores like Sears and JC Penny and were relatively inexpensive about $200 to $400 depending on which ofthe six models you c:: 0 chose. They came ~ with a "Starter Set"of 8 fo ur discs, and extra J2 ,!,? discs were marketed I like record albums, "' Cl.. each one foc using £ on a differentstyleof E _g music. Official Opti.9 "' ga n music books _g a. were also avai lable ~ to help you make the mostout ofthe minimal talent you ))))..

Sixth Issue! •August '97 · November '97

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C:OOI And Strange Musicr -------Magazine

probably had ifyou had bought an Optigan in the firs t place! My current involvement with the instrument began in February of '95 while I was visi ting fri ends in San Francisco. I make it a habit whenever l run across an organ in a thrift store to at least have a glance at it. The one at the main Salvation Army store in Oakland was pretty ugly- plain brow n with not very many buttons on it. But then l noticed the little"Optiga n" insign ia above the keyboard. Hav ing never actually seen one before, I had always imagined the Optigan to be a small, portable keyboa rd more like a Casiolone- after all, it was made by a toy company My fi rst impression was that maybe this was just one specific model aimed al people who preferred an ugly console-type thing sitting in their living room. I turned il on and instan tly fell in love with the scratchy organ sound that came out. The chord buttons played repetitive little riffs with a piano and bass, and the drum buttons played grungy hip-hop loops. The tem po control seemed pretty ludicrous to me, because speeding up the tempo also caused the pitch to go up. After all, it was just a recording being sped up,just like playing a record on th e wrong RPM setting! Al this poin t, l didn't reali ze that you could change the disc, I didn't see any slot to put them in. I just assumed that this was a version of the Optigan that had only one disc permanently installed. Ididn't mind that, though, I loved what l hea rd! The price was $52, definitely chea p enough to justify th e diffi culty of hauli ng it home to San Diego. As we crammed it in the car, a panel below the keyboard swung open and revea led a disc storage compartment and the slot for playing them! The smile on my face grew, as I perused the six discs that minecamewith-"PopPiano PlusGui tar", "Movin"', "Big Organ And Drums", "Latin feve r", "Gu ita r In 3/4 Ti me" and "Rock N' Rhythm". l couldn't wait to get home and try them out. After an 8-hour drive and some diffi culty wres tling the thin g in to my living room, l was ready to rock! The first thi ns you notice about the Opliga n (if you have any imagination at all) is how malleable this technology was. You can do all sorts of things wi th the discs to sabotage the sound, put them in upside down, put several in at once, manually stop and sta rt them with you r hands (for record scratch effects), press all the buttons at once, and so on. Mos t of the

disc spi ns constantly, the sounds just keep looping around and around. So the keyboa rd so un ds ca n't have a beginning and end perse. The drums and acco mp a nim e nts keep loopingas well if you want to start on the dow nbea t, yo u have to keep watching this little flashing metro nome th at The op+ical ,rooves of an Opti,an disc bli nks red at the beginning of each bar. Since any sound could be encoded on the discs, the orga ns are actually pretty nice- big Hammond B3's and Doors-y Vox Con ti nentals.The drums are often pretty beefy sounding as well, with good solid thumpi ng kick drums. Given the limi ted freq uency range of the Optigan, the rest of the accompaniment instruments usuall y sound kind of cla ustro phobic, but again that's pa rt of the sick charm of the instrument. Some of the discs even have non-musical sound effects (such asapplause or howling monkeys) on th em. You wo ul d thi nk that, since th e discs are not played by physical contact, there would be no pops or scratches such as on vinyl records. But this is not the case. ti ny scratches on the discs ca use irregular de fractions of light which in turn end up soundingexactly like record scratches! You get the weird feeli ng that you're listening to some old Lawrence Welk record, but you can actua ll y control where the music goes! After my initial, breathless experience with the Optigan, Iimmediately began a long and winding quest for more discs, more information, and yes, more Optigans. Istarted at the library, where Iwas ab le to dig upa few bri ef articles in industry-related magazines of the time period. After turning up a couple more discs at a local thrift, I bega n an all-out campaign to seek out anything and everything Optigan related. I looked up every organ warehouse l could find across the USA and called most of them. Most of the time l just got the telephone eq uivalent of a blank stare, and on the odd chance that I found someo ne who knew what l was ta lking about, I usually got laughed at or even chided for implying tha t their establishment would even have such a thing lying around! Even tually I began lo have some success. A couple of my phone calls turned up Opliga ns wi thin relatively easy reach. With them came more discs, which suggested a strategy- lo find more discs, it's much sim pler to simply hun t down the Optigans themselves and take whichever discs they came with. My telephone campaign turned up at least one in teresting con-

OPTG1N

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sounds that were recorded for the key boa rd section are different kinds ofsustained organs.Since the

f,00/ And Strange Musict Sixth Issue!•August '97 ·November '97 ------~ Magazine

tact. Kasch e Orga n Service in Florida was the only place that still advertised Optigan parts and repair. I had several talks with Mr. Kasche, and he had many interesting anecdotes about the "old days" of the Optigan, but his service and disc prices were a bit too high for meat the time. Icontinued my quest for cheapOptigan stuff... Oddly enough, it was about this time that I started to run into Optigans by chance. I had put a lot of time, money and effort into my telephone ca mpaign only to have an Optigan turn up at the thrift store nearest to my house! Also, a friend running a want-ad for old synthesizers turned up an organ repairman who was not listed in the phone book. He had two Optigans, a whole cache of discs, and even an Optigan Service Manual! This manual provided me with much information, including the names of a handful of Optigan's technicians. Eventuall y I was able to track down and interview one of these gentlemen! The va rious Optiga n catalogs that I had obtained by this poin t revealed that there were 40 discs in tota l. I drooled over such titles as "Polynesian Village" and "Singing Rhythm"(featuring actual human voices!). And while I had by now obtained multiple copies of many of the more mundane discs, most of the provocative titles continued to elude me fo r months. Eventually my search led me to the Internet. A friend tipped me off abou t an Optigan homepage! It was a fairly minimal affair, but contained the essential facts. I ended up contributing some information to that si te, which led me to eventually start my own Optigan home page (http://www.pilot.com/ optigan). Since then, there have been a few other Optigan sites on the web, but l can say without boasting that my site has the most exha ustive information. Inevitably. my efforts also led to an Optigan-based band, called Op/iganally Yours. This duo consists of myselfon Optigan and Rob Crow on voca ls and guitar. We started recording original songs and playing at parties and eventually signed on with Carso Records to release "Spotlight On Optiganally Yours."This album has recently received rave reviews in cmj, NME, Keyboard and other well-respected publications. The high point of my Optigan experience, however, happened in the summer of '96 when I received an e-mail out of the blue from a man named Mike LeOoux. Mike claimed to have been Optigan's "musical director." J-l eexplained thathe had been in chargeofproducingthestudio sessions, building th e disc-making equipment, and crea ting the discs!I thought it was a joke, but after talking to him on the phone for a few hours, I was convinced that he was for real. What's more, he told me tha t he still had all ofthe original master tapes in his garage!! I really frea ked out. Eventually. I went lo see him at his home in Orange County, and he very generously donated all 40 hours' worth of master reels to my cause! Most of this material is studio outtakes of sessions that never made it into production. Archiving all of the reels onto DAT was an interesting yet painful experience. Imagine listening to a huge battle-ofthe-bands where no so ngs are allowed- on ly endless jamming on chord changes! I'm still in recovery. .. After all I've been through with the Optiga n, I've still yet to own a completesetofdiscs.Thereare ten that continue to elude me. And even though Iown about twelve Optigans, there are still two models I've yet to come across. But I'm quite sa tisfied with my conquest. I've raised Optigan awareness worldwide. Now Isuppose I ought to sit back and let others join the hunt. The next time you pass an ugly brown plastic orga n in a thrift store, you'd better look twice ... To order your copy of "Spotlight On Optiganally Yours," send $12.00 (post paid) to:Cargo/Headhunter, Attn: Mailorder, 4901-©1997 Pea Hicks 906 Morena Blvd ., San Diego, CA, 92117-3432

00000

And whi le you're waiting for your CD to arrive, check out THE REALM O' THE OPTIGAN at http://www.pilot.com/optigan

Sixth Issue!• August '97 ·November '97

C:OOI And Strange Musicr - - - - - - - Magazine

How to turn on your CD player MARTIN DENNY Quiet Village/The Enchanted Sea "... sultry rhythms of jungle exotica"

MEL HENKE'S La Dolce Henke ''The musical equivalent of a Playboy magazine" - David Garland, WNYC "Amazing" - Incredibly Strange Music

It's time you and your CD player got a hold of something a little exciting. So tonight, unwrap these saucy platters and ad~ some spice to your moving parts.

May we also recommend: LES BAXTER Que Mango! "Guaranteed to make you both happy and horny"

- Paper WALTER WANDERLEY Samba Swing! "Swmgmg organ-fed sambas for poolside gtrl-watchmg "

For a free catalogue, please write

~~Records

104 W. 29th Street 4th floor Box T New York NY 10001

© 1997 Caroline Records, Inc.

http:/ /www.scamp-records. com

Cool And Strange Musicr Silth Issue!• August '97 ·November '97 -------=Magazine

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is

And Strange Music!"' Sixth Issue!• August '97 ·November '97 f,oo/ -----=- Maaazine

*THIS ISSUE'S SPOTLIGHT OD* Andre' Popp· Delirium In Hi·Fi Basta - 30-90312 This is one of th e great, littleknown gems of record e d sound . Released in the U.S.

Various Artists · Toon Tunes Kid Rhino · R2 72752 That's right, 50 - co unt em! -

dition ("Here I come to save th e dayl") when he debuted on Saturday Night Live. But grandest of all is the in credibl e "Woody Woodpecker Show"

cartoon themes on one com-

arrangement that's replete with some anonymous

pact disk and unlike that Sat-

Andro id Sister choir happily chirping Woody's not-

urday Morning Toons com-

so-veiled threat of cranial head-boring: "And it's nothing to him, on the tiniest whim, to peck a few

under the name "Elsa Pop·

pilation that had Gen X

ping and her Pi x ieland Band ", (a wry pun on the

from picking the lint balls off

grunge acts taking time out

Broadwa y show name ,

their Cardigan sweaters to show that they're, like,

"Hell-zapoppin"'), this Columbia LP got little attention w hen originally re leased in 1957. Finally released on CD in 1993 by the Netherland's BASTA,

down with shows that first aired whe n th ey we re still chowin' down Placenta Helper™ in their mother's wombs, these are the real McCoys/ Ain't

the recording has gained a growing cult status with musicians, producers, and diehard connoisseurs

nothing like th e real thing, honey, and this stuff, especially the earli er material, is class musician-

of great, unusual mu sic. Brilliantly co nce ive d and

execu ted during th e e arl y da ys of "Hi-Fi Sound", French-born Andre' Popp imaginative ly and play-

holes in your head!" Lush stuff. By the time the count gets up to the '90s, the compilers have obviously lost interest, for they lum p in anything th ey've got lying around, readily avai lable stuff like Conjunction Junction (avai lable in its own complete CD set), Captain Plan et, Ren & Stimpy, Rugrats, Animoniacs {again , available in a whole series of

CDs) and Tee nag e Mutant Ninja Turtle material. But, all in all, a pretty good collection of unadulterated po p culture a s it wa s originally heard. - Tom Warner

fully pioneered new recording tech niques in the

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productio n of this album. He tinkered with sounds, such a s reco rdin g a trombone, a nd playing it back at tw ice the speed it was re co rd ed at. He a lso

Xavier Cugat • Cugie-a-Go-Go Varese Sarabando • VSD-5790 This CD co mp iles 16-tracks

scored an entire track for the orchestra , sons vo·

from fo ur of Xa vier Cugat's

cal, then had a singer memorize th e words and music BACKWARDS (!), then played th e track backwards while the sing er song backwards. He then played the whole thing FORWARDS. What he achieved wa s an effect nothing short of amazing, a voice that simply fades in , with bizarre starts

last albums, all record ed for the Decca label. The Decca recordings didn't ha ve th e panache that made the prior Mercury period of Cugat record ing s un iversa l favorites among Cugists, but

and stops. Th e sa me effect could be done now,

they are worthy on their own merits. Th ese song s

with digital technology, but achieving this effect in the '50s is akin to building a wash ing machine out of paper clips! The Beatles and their e ngineers

ship all arou nd . If your lobes a re currently attuned

are circa mid-60s, and veer towa rd s the "discotheque" genre. The Latin-with-a-twinge-of-modness sou nd supplies mu ch o f its distinction and appeal.

wo uld pick up w here Popp's experiments left off,

to the lounge, exotica or Raymond Scott mu sic re-

The cover to the CD is a reworking of Cugat's Bang

but even they never tried this backwards vocals technique. Popp successfully ta kes 12 tunes (none of w hich he wrote), presents orchestral versions and totally turns th em in side out. Credit for restoring this phenom enal recording mu st go to Dutch bass player Gert-Jan Blom and BASTA. Blom fou nd an o ld copy of the LP in an Amste rd a m flea market, fell in love with the music and amazingly ac-

vivals, it'll certainly behoove ya to groove yer CD player to some of these timeless arrange ments, especially the pre-Hanna Barbe ra-schlock stuff (21 of th e 50 tracks here are owned by Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.). Hey, I'll sing a lo ng as happily as the nex t vidiot lo theme so ngs fr om Th e Flintstones, Banana Splits, Speed Racer, George Of The Jung le or The Jetsons, but that's all fairly

Bang LP, which I'd consider one of the most wonderful album covers ever devised. I have few objectio ns to old covers being reworked for compilotions, but th e designers just butchered poo r "Bang Bang". It's bad eno ugh it had to be shrunk to 39% of its for me r size, but they had to eat into 20% of it with a black border overlay. Plus, th ey blanked ou t th e original "explosio ns" with lazier, more lim-

quired the master tape from Paris where it was

mainstream stuff that's been available in va riou s

ited color palettes ,and pla stered on new snooze-

recorded. With e ngin eer Emile Elsen, they pains-

co mp ilations for quite some time. No, what I like

inducing typography. They miraculously made this

tak ingly and nervously transferred th e deteriorat-

here are th e themes from Popeye, Tom

& Jerry,

masterpiece look ki nda ugly. You may, however,

ing acetate tape o nto o digital Betamax machine. The tap e was in such bad shape, that it was literall y di si nteg ratin g a s it rolled past the tapehe ads. It could be played only once, and fortunately for us all, it has been beautifully and perfectly trans-

Casper the Friendly Ghost, Howdy Doody, Underdog, Beany & Cecil, th e almost Calypso-like beat of everyone's favorite g iant robot, G igantor, and the nearly forgotten big dog/crafty cat action adventures of my childhood faves Ruff & Ready. And

not share my trauma, especially if you 're not familior with the origina l in all its glo ry. Get past th e cove r a rtwork though, and you 'll find so me highly enjoyable liner notes by co mpilatio n co-producer Doug Frisby, and some pretty nifty mu sic. The ex-

ferred and restored. I unhesitatingly recommend th is recording, so do yourself a favor and search

where else can you hear the original "Mighty Mouse Theme" - to this day I can't hea r it without

plosive Samba-Au-Go-Go versio n of Mancini's "Charade" is worth the price of admi ssion alon e,

it out!

thinking of Andy Kaufman's hilarious one-line ren-

_Dave Peterson

and "Goldfinger" and "Thunderbolt" )))11~•39

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POJ~, 'OJ~. 'OJ~. 'OJ~, 'OJ~. 'OJ~. 'OJ~ , 'OJ~, 'OJ~ , 'OJ~. 'OJ~. 'OJ~. 'OJ '\~ Sixth Issue! •August 97 ·November '97 Cool And Strange Musi~r i 9 1

- - - - - - - - - - - Magazine

~'THE LOST WORLD~~ OF IMDV.tTRIAI.

.raow.r 6g,SbatL 1/D~

hortly ofter joining the Lefferman writing staff in 1990, I was put in sored original musicals at an astonishing rate. Armies of composers, performcharge of a comedy piece called "Dave's Record Collection." For a ers, directors, musicians, and choreographers were kept busy entertaining salescouple of years I picked up odd exercise records, lame kids' records, men at conventions, and motivating them to sell, sell, sell. All this took place hypnosis records, and so on, but it wasn't until 1992 that I found away from the public eye . And usually, when the last note of the show died something that would change my life. Aviewer sent in an alaway, if was gone forever; a Broadway-level spectacle with the lifespan of a bum called "Go Fly AKite." It was a sou· ~--:;;;;;;;::--......:m::.::a::.:y.:.:.;fly. But occasionally, the company would spring for a recordvenir album-two discs!-of a 1966 Gening session and a few hundred souveeral Electric Power Utility Executives Connir discs would be pressed. They were ference, with original songs about the mailed to people who'd offended the electric power industry by some guys convention, often with a note from the named John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Walter company president saying something Marks. Laughable, of course, but acfulike "I hope this souvenir recording will ally not badly done. We didn 't even end bring back pleasant memories of our reup using if, and I set if aside and forgot cent sales conference." about if. As you can imagine, most such Over the next year of scouring records did not get a lot of play. If "Bob used vinyl stores in New York City, Idis· Salesman" did harbor pleasant memories covered a few more records in a simiof the sales conference, they probably lar vein. "My Insurance Man." "Diesel centered around an open bar, rather than Dazzle. " "Put Yourself In Their some half-remembered musical propaShoes"-the 1979 Exxon Retailers ganda. And so, most industrial show albums Convention show. Irealized that Ihad languished in near-mint condition at the margins of the fomily music library, until the beginnings of a strange collection on my hands-and that a lot of the g they were hauled off to a thrift shop or music was preffy damn good . I was ~ garage sale or used record store . Or, walking around singing about die§' heaven forbid , the dump! It's every sel trucks and insurance sales and ; collector's nightmare to think about such a electric power distribution. I figured I could channel this enthu0 scenario, but with these records especially, siasm one al two ways: I could quit comedy and actually try selling the diesel the affrifion rate must have been high. trucks and insurance, or I could become one of the planet's few collectors of I said that the music was often preffy damn good, and I wasn't kidding . industrial shows. I guess you know which way I went. Over the last few years These companies had the bucks fa hire some real talent. Raymond Scoff is well I've learned a lot about a world that almost nobody knows existed. known to many readers of Cool & Strange Music! Magazine, but few have ever From shortly after World War II until the 80's, corporate America spanheard his shaw for Brown-Farman Distillers. Remember that GE show that I

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GJol And Strange Music!® ------~ Magazine

Sixth Issue! •August '97 ·November '9 7

mentioned? If turns out that John Kander and Fred Ebb also wrote "Cabaret," "Chicago, " and the new musical "Steel Pier." As for their collaborator Walter Marks, he's perhaps best known for the song "I've Goffa Be Me." Do the names Sheldon Hornick and Jerry Bock ring a bell? I'd never heard of them until I found their 1959 Ford Tractor show, "Music From Ford-i-fy Your Future," but a few years later they wrote "Fiddler On The Roof." Suddenly these thrift shop orphans are worth some real money. Broadway collectors have been known to pay th ree figures for "Go Fly AKite" on the rare occasion that one surloces, but I have the only copy of the Hornick/ Bock tractor show that I've ever heard of. What do I hear for an opening bid, ladies and gentlemen? Ahundred dollars? Athousand? Remember, it's got a very peppy song about the Select-0-Speed transmission!(Forgef if, I ain't sellin'.) Composers aren 't the only big names you'll find on these records. Industrials were a great way for fledgling performers fo pay the rent and gain experience, and some of these hopefuls event ually became stars. I have a Listerine show from the mid-60's fea turing David Hartman and Loreffa Swif. Mrs. Brady herself, Florence Henderson, had a • -""-"'!!"'-.;..... steady gig doing new model introduc tion shows for the '58, '59, and '60 Oldsmobiles. Hal Linden was in several mid-60's shows., and a yo ung Valerie Harper was in the cast of "Go Fly AKite." I've heard a rumor that a then-unknown Barbra Streisand once auditioned for an industrial show but didn 't make if. Her voice just didn 't have the right "industrial show feel. " Thanks fo databases on the World Wide Web, I've been able to frock down many of the composers and performers. Sometimes it's been as simple as just looking them up in the Manhaffan white pages. The typ ical reaction when I explain what I want to talk about is "Well, I'll be darned." Nobody has ever asked them about their industrial work before. They're a great source of information, as well as tapes of previously unknown shows. And I get fo say with all sincerity, "I'm o Ion of your work," so everyone ends up happy. I can only hope that thirty years from now, someone might track me down fo gush about some project I'd long since lorgoffen . Even with help from the composers and performers, it's nof an easy collection to build . Since industrial show souvenir records were always pressed in such limited quantifies, most record dealers ha ven't ever seen them. The few that have run info examples have generally passed them by, thinking they're nof salable. Some aficionados of weird vinyl have one or two they've

found by accident, but other than myself I know of only a couple other serious collectors. That may be all that the laws of supply and demand can sustain. And now, af the risk of dangerously increasing the demand, I'd like fo resort to a hackneyed device favored by my employer and present my Top Ten Favorite Industrial Shows. Here we go, in something close fo a meaningful order: l. "Diesel Dazzle," a 1966 show for the Detroit Diesel Engine Division of General Motors. Music by Honk Beebe, lyrics by Bill Heyer, the creative team I consider the industrial show gold standard. The cast includes Hal Linden and David Hartman, with none other than Dick Hyman on piano . Brassy, fingersnapping tunes with clever lyrics about diesel engines ond trucks, engine rebuilding, and the wonderful opportunities available fo the aggressive Detroit Diesel man . One of af least nine beautifully-crafted Beebe/ Heyer industrials fo be recorded. Has there ever been a more perfect title?

2. "The Bathrooms Are Coming!", o 1969 American-Standard show. Music and lyrics by Sid Siegel. An . eye-popping cover houses a cornucopia of maddeningly catchy songs about bathrooms and bathtubs, from the emotional "My Bathroom (Is APrivate Kind Of Place)" to educational product-specific songs like "The Ultra-Bath" and the rockin ' "Spectra 70." The show's premise involved a phony Greek goddess named Femme who was called upon by the women of 1969 to lead the light for "bathroom revolufion "-fo replace the ugly, inconvenient bathrooms of yesteryear with the latest innovations from American-Sf an· dard. Afabulous period piece. 3. "the shape of tomorrow," (all lower case leffers intentional!) which, as the back of the jacket explains, is "Amusical introduction to 1958 Westinghouse appliances." Music by John Wyman , lyrics by Herb Kanzell. Wacky, informa tion-packed songs about the restyled ranges, refrigerators, etc., sprinkled with actually funny comedy . The front cover has a striking design, and the back contains corporate happy-speak as well as pictures of the cast, which included Martyn Green, a well-known Gilbert & Sullivan actor. Another

Sixth Issue! •August '97 ·November '97

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cast member, Buff Shurr, told me he turned down a part in the original "West Side Story" because he got to perform in and choreogroph "the shape of tomorrow." 4. "My Insurance Man," a 196B Continental Insurance show. Music by Robert We Dyck, lyrics by Arnold Midlash. Even insurance salesmen deserve their own musical, and this show made the profession seem exciting and noble. To quote the title track, "He serves all coverage needs, that's why he succeeds-"my insurance man"-is that what they call you?" Other standout numbers are the go-go "Taxes and Money" and an insurance salesman's spoken tribute to his secretary, "Dear Miss Smith." Only three cast members, but they carry it off with panache. 5. "Put Yourself In Their Shoes," the 1979 Exxon Retailers Convention. Music by Ted Simons, lyrics by John Allen. By the early BO's the golden age of industrials was starting lo dim, as pre-recorded and recyclable multi-media became a cheaper alternative, but 1979 saw several big shows make if onto vinyl, with Exxon's being the best. Outstanding tracks include the hard-driving "Exxon Dealer's Wife" and the bizarre "False Start," which begins as an absurdly rah-rah corporate anthem and suddenly jangles to a discordant, screaming halt-a self-consciously ironic attitude unthinkable a decade earlier. 6. "Got To lnvestigote Silicones," GE Silicone Products Department, 1973. Another amazing Hank Beebe/Bill Heyer effort, with perhaps the most arcane subject matter of any industrial show I've found . The record contains material from the ninecity live show as well os songs from a film that was screened during the show. The pinnacle is the six-minute masterpiece "The Answer," in which the three cast members plus Mr. Heyer plunge headlong through an exhaustive musical listing of every industrial application for silicones. Unbelievable. 7. ''The Music From Ford-i-fy Your Future," the 1959 Ford Tractor show by Sheldon Hornick and Jerry Bock that Idescribed earlier. Mr. Hornick was amused to hear that his partner's name was misspelled as "Brock." A one-sided disc with only 4 songs, but they're all pretty strong, and the cover is o lot of fun . Ford recorded several of their tractor musicolsthe Soviets must have been jeolous. But only in America could you have a lyric like "Turn your tractors and

implements to a bumper crop-of dollars and cents!" B. "Go Fly AKite," the 1966 GE Power Utility Executives Conference show I also de scribed earlier, with music by John Kander ond Walter Marks and lyrics by Fred Ebb and Walter Marks. Asentimental favorite with a couple of fine songs, my favorite being a song about Power Distribution Management, "PDM Can Do." Two records, which is very unusual, and the gatefold cover contains plenty of photos and information about the plot of the show. 9. "Sing ASang Of Sewing," a 1960 show for Singer Sewing Machines, with music and lyrics by Michael Brown . The energetic Mr. Brown wrote, performed in, and directed several other industrials in the 60's, including big shows for J.C. Penney and Woolworth. His Singer show includes a suave title track, a near-frightening number called "We Don't Sew," and the joyous resolution "We're So So Happy (To Be Sew-Sew-Sewing At Home)." Acuddly change of pace from shows about heavy machinery and power systems. 10. "The Grip Of Leadership," Coca-Cola's 75 1h anniversary show from 1961, with music and lyrics by Wilson Stone . Mr. Stone was another prolific industrial composer, with shows for Ford Tractor, VW, Cessna, Chevrolet, and Xerox to his credit. The Coke show is notable for its themes of strangulation and control, both on the cover and in songs like "Packaging And Pricing," which imagines these two concepts as a pair of pliers with which to squeeze the competition. It's the "real thing," all right. This only scratches the surface. There's much more cool and strange industrial music out there. The trouble is finding it. Now that your appetite is whelled, what to do? There is one CD, "Product Music" (reviewed in issue #1), with a few of these songs on if, but even that's hard to find. I hope one day to produce an anthology of my own, perhaps under the banner of "Dave's Record Collection." Nothing would please me more thon to gel wider recognition for this all-but-unknown genre-music that you and I were never supposed to hear in the first place. 'Til then, I'll keep searching the vinyl haystacks for industrial needles-and by the way, do you need any insurance or diesel engines? - © 1997 Steve Young

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GJol And Strange Music!" Sixth Issue!• August '97 ·November '97 ------~ Magazi11e

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ft Wu.H~'-M /,f(IR(; alloween is cel ebrated with garish costum es, demonic images, bla zing scatologic al pranks, questionable eatable s, and ra mpant vandalism . Is it any wo nder th at roc k'n'roll wo uld embrace it in song7 Along with the famous monste r roc k' n'ro ll chart-busters, other reco rdings are dug out of th e vaults around th e end of October, such as haunted house sound effects records and atmospheric horror movi e sound tracks . These recordings have becom e as much a part of th e festiviti es as t he screams of children run ning away fro m the weird guy down t he bl ock who owns his own gorilla suit. By the tim e rock'n'roll came along in the mid-l 950 s, Cold war paranoi a and nuclear t hreats had mutate d in to a new wave of celluloid invad ers. Am ericans were speeding to the drive-in s t o by appall ed by th e giant mutant ants in THEM! the McCarthy-e sque red nigh tmare of INVADERS FROM MARS, and 3D threats from outer sp ace, like th e diving-helmet dom ed gorill a, "Ro-man," in ROBOT MONSTER. Dracula, Fran ken stein and their fa mo us m o nst er friends couldn 't get work in Hollywood, but t hey

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der, the li d would pop open to reveal the origina l Goth ic rocker, the high priest of R&B Horror, Scream in ' Jay Hawkins and his silent partner Henry, the human sku ll. (Hawkins later rep licated these scenes in the film AMER lCAN HOT WAX.) Screamin' Jay blurred the line between dance music and manster movies . Actua ll y, Scream in' Jay's alcoho lism blurred t he entire early rock'n'ro ll era to him. In th e record ing sess ion th at produced his classic vers ion of "I Put a Spel l on You" (Oke h Records, 1956,) Jay got so stewed that he blacked out in the middle of it. Blessed with a strong baritone vo ice (kind of like Pau l Robeson after a few swigs of "Mad Dog ,") and some of t he loosest lips to ever be recorded (good for babbling like a crazy man,) Hawkins created a series of bizarre si ng les that have become the Necronomicon of rock'n 'horror. There was t he story about an angry devi l ru nn ing amok "Little Demon"; Hawkins ' spasmodic, jowl-shak in' love song "Frenzy"; the zombie-b lues "(She Put The) Wamee (On Me)" ; The rite of something-or-other descri be d in "Feast Of The Mau Mau"; his ode ~!S S{D~K!CK, ~rn~v to echoing schizophrenia "I Hear

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Voices" ; and the Martin-Denny-hav...._ Ts recipe for "Alligator Wine." Scream in' Jay has released a mountain of recordings over the last four decades, but his style is so wild that he doesn't need the Hoodoo, nor the hooch, anymore. He now has full control of his demons ; he can turn ANY song into a bizarre musical experience. In the early '60s, Scream in' Jay went into selfimposed exile in Hawaii(!) Even though there was no heir-apparent to his voodoo lifestyle, some performers released one -s hot monster hits in the wake of his departure. The best compilation of these songs is the unsung 1990 DCC release MONSTER ROCK'N'ROLL SHOW. The disc is loaded with original ear-mauling radio commerc ials for such passion pit classics like THE THING THAT COULDN'T DIE, THEAMAZING COLOSSAL MAN, IT CONQUERED THE WORLD and the Tura Santana, grade-Z epic, ASTRO-ZOMBIES ("watch living organs ripped from the bodies of voluptuous females, as beating hearts and throbbing brains are transplantedl") Some of the all-time classic monster songs are in eluded on the CD, such as Bobby "Boris " Pickett's famous homage to Boris Karloff, "Monster Mash," The Johnny Otis Show's "Castin' My Spell," and Johnn y Fuller's "Haunted House" (which is more entertaining thanJumpin' Gene Simmons' hit version , but lacks the ax- murd ering country soul of Has ii Adkins' rendition.) MONSTER ROCK'N'ROLL SHOW also includes some great rarities. There's Bo D1ddley's "Bo Meet The Monster," 1n which Mr. Diddley investigates an alien crash (k ind of like THE X-FILES meets Marvin The Martian with a Bo D1ddley beat,) only to return home to discover that the alien made off with his woman

(" I hollered 'OOOHHH-OOOHHH!'") The Revels ease in with the stunning "Midnight Stroll" (originally released as "Dead Man's Stroll," before the record company censors saw the label), about zomb ies grooving out of the cemetery; it has the coolest laughing ghoul/saxophone duet ever committed to wax . One of the rarest tracks on the disc is the theme song to GREEN SLIME, an inane 1969 film about American astronauts (played by actors who had less

personality than the marionettes in THUNDERBIRD SIX) , battling one-eyed monsters (who look like Sigmund The Sea-Monster's cousins) , in Outer Space. Apparently, someone figured a mind bending theme song would help promote this turkey. The song begins with a Moog synthesizer blasting-off for the heavens, as sitar twangs and psychedelic blues riffs set the stage for some of the most overwrought sou l grunting to ever appear in a film without an X-rating. In an attempt to market the film to mind -a ltering hippies, the songwriter Sherry Gaden borrowed Jim Morrison's patented William Blake/ Aldous Huxleyinspired imagery for this song about

little green monsters ; "Open the door, you'll find the secret, to find the answer is to keep it, you 'll believe it when you find, SOMETHIN' SCREAM IN' 'CROSS YOUR MIND! GRE-EN SLIME!" The song was released as a single in the U.S. You need this co1 There is no single col lection, in any format, that contains ALL the classic Halloween hits ; there are just too many spooky songs out there to fit on one CD. MONSTER ROCK'N'ROLL SHOW'S nearest competitor is Rhino's ELVIRA PRESENTS HAUNTED HITS. Only two recordings appear on both discs ; "Monster Mash" and Sheb Wooley's "The Purple People Eater." The highlight of the Elvira disc is Th e Five Blobs' crew cut/cocktail theme to the 1958 camp classic THE BLOB, penned by the young Burt Bacharach (long before he called up his psychic friend, Dionne Warwick.) Unfortunately, there are some great Halloween hits in Rhino's catalogue that are not on this collection . (Editor's Note :

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\ Th e same songs mentioned on ELVIRA PRESENTS HAUNTED HITS, except ''The Blob", are on ELVIRA PRESENTS VINYL MACA- , BRE (illustrated on the next page.) Two of the best Halloween classics are on DR. DEMENTO PRESENTS THE GREATEST NOVELTY RECORDS OF ALL \ TIME VOL. 4: THE l 970'S. Und er the pseudonym "Possum," the San Diego lounge group Rose & The Arrangement created one of the wildest singles of all time ; their tribute to the fictitious fright classic "The Cockroach That Ate Cincin nat1." This slice of Grand Gu1gnol non- ' sense 1s a pun -filled narrative extolling the virtues of the 1mag1nary creature feature. With a sound effect on virtu ally every line, there are enough noises 1n this two-m inute recording to fill a 1111•

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Punk/New Wave, Hardcore/Noise, 60's/70's Soul/Funk, R'n'B, R'n'R, French &O's Pop, &O's Beat, &O's Psych, Latin, Soundtracks, Ska, Surf, Exotica, Jazz, . .... Easy listening, New Independent Releases. ;,:

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Courtney Bambeck: Let's start by asking you, how did you get into collecting weird music? Ed Kaz!: Sheer boredom I guess. I mean like, what else is there to do around here? (Looks out window at a backhoe plowing under yet another pile of discarded clam shells.) To me, there is nothing more fascinating than find ing stuff that someone may have spent their life savings to create, only to have it discarded on a curb somewhere. For me, nothing beats the thrill of finding a really cool and/or strange record; they are square-foot works of ART. CB: Well let's take a loo k at some of yo ur recent finds. What's THIS record all about? EK!: Here's a fascinating little musical anomaly: Father Ralph Attanasio- the "Hood lum Priest" of Paterson NJ-put out this single, I guess in the late '50s . And what else would you expect a priest from Paterson NJ to do but a CALYPSO TUNE! CB: [Laughing] ZIM BOOM BA! I thought it was gonna be some sort of Louis Prima knockoff. EK!: Nope, on ZIM BOOM BA, Father Ralph is deftly navigating the Banana Boat. It's on Jo-Dan records, and as far as I know it's the only thing he ever released. However the sleeve contains

information on his national and INTER-national Fan Club. I vaguely remember seeing a film based on his life. Any readers recall this particular singing Padre? CB : I just LOVE this cover. Psychedelic POLKA anyone?

EK! : Yeah. I like to co ll it POLKA-DELI CJ Ain 't it the coolest? This is LOTS OF LOVE AND PEACEby Happy Louie, Julcia and The Boys CB : Hm mm. An a lte rnate ti tle could have been SGT. KE ILBASA. .. EK!: [Laughing] I think the liner notes say it all: "It's the beg in ning of a new trend- a polka that not on ly tickles your toes but warms you r heart to yo ur brother .. -" When I bought it I was expecti ng accordions mixed in w ith sitars {Ravski Shanker? ) but it's pretty much yer basic stra ight Polish hop stuff. I was somewhat disappointed, but I guess Progressive Polka is still an uncharted territory. CB : I don't think we need that. EK! : The following year Happy Lou ie we nt back to basics w ith THE PLAID ALBUM, then ran off with a Ukrainian conceptua l artist named Joko Onoszewisz. CB: Not really! EK!: Not really. CB: MUSIC TO BREAK ANY MOOD: Dick Schory's New Percussion Ensemble .... EK!: This was touted as America's first "bang-along record". There were enough

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r----------------------------------, percussionists on this record to make Carlos Santana roll over dead. Here's just a PARTIAL listing of the instruments: Castanets, Temple Blocks, Police Whistle, six tuned Rhythm Logs .... CB: SIX TUNED RHYTHM LOGS? EK!: Yep. Now THERE'S an odd profession: Rhythm Log Tuner. It's quite a chaotic little record. They don't make 'em like that anymore, Courtney. CB: No, I can't remember the last time I heard a good Rhythm Log solo. [Picks up next record and makes whistling sound.) Va Va Va Voom! EK!: You're tellin' me! This is one of my all time faves . It's called AMERICA'S TOP TUNES. I can just imagine the impulsive shopper of the fifties spotting thi s and saying "Look Helen! It's 'America's Top Tunes!' Stagger Lee! Charlie Brown! We simply MUST own this record!" Not to mention the fact that there's a cute (teenaged?) babe gracing the cover ... .

CB: ... only to bring it home and .. . EK!: ... discover that while the record may in fact be called "America's Top Tunes", they ain't hearing Lloyd Price or The Coasters-instead they're treated to "foremost vocalists and instrumentalists" The HiTones, or Frank Gray and the Hi-Tones, or Earl Swope and the HiTones! There was A TON of that "sound alike group" stuff going on in those days. CB: I guess nobody ever read the fine print back then. EK! : Nope. All they saw was The Babe, and she closed the sale. CB: I've seen this one before. Frank Fontain e: SONGS I SING ON THE JACKIE GLEASON SHOW .. EK! : This one can be found in just about EVERY flea market in the Western World, usually next to Vaughn Meader's FIRST FAMILY. Seems like everyone is desperately trying to get rid of both of them. Frank Fontaine was the beloved(?) "Crazy Guggenheim" on the Jackie Gleason show, who lived "in the back" at Joe the Barte nder's place . I mean like, what was HIS deal? Was he a drunk or was he just braindamaged? One thing was for sure: he was fairly GROTESQUE, what with the stammering and the spitting and the cross eyes! But it was an honest livi ng, so I don't begrudge him for that. And after he completed his shtick with Joe (Gleason), he would always miraculously break from character and croon a straight heartfelt version of "Daddy's Little Girl" or "That Old Gang of Mine." It was

everyone's cue to head for the Frigidaire. CB: I guess you could say Fontaine was a major influence on Jim Nabors School of Musical Schizo's? EK! : Yeah . But I think that after Jim, this particular mu sical genre came to an end. [Ed and Courtney bow their heads in silent, hopeful prayer.] CB : [Reads from liner notes) " .. .. From World War II up to the present, this is Hogan's Heroes. Guys from various parts of the world brought together in a concentration camp, where they've found the perfect way to pass the time-singing songs. So, sing on with "THE BEST OF WORLD WAR//!" EK!: Thi s is SUCH a winner. I mean, WHO was the brilliant executive who came up with THIS idea? The absolute highlight is Robert "LeBeau" Clary doing a groovy DISCOTEQUE version of "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree." But let's not forget "Shoo Shoo Baby" performed by Ivan Dixon. I paid an entire quarter for this record . It was laying underneath a set of valve covers. CB: SING! WITH YOUNG AMERICA! I LOVE this cover ! ! ! EK!: Now THAT'S a party! Unfortunately, {or maybe fortunately?) a different record was inside-some sort of Salvation Army Band thing- but anyway, SING! was released on WORD {nope, there's not a single rap artist to be found in our roster) Records from Waco Texas! CB: WACO?!?!? EK!: Yep. Some of WORD's other artists included the blind, whistling virtuoso Fred Lowrey {now THERE'S a niche morket), J .T. Adams and The Men of Texas {must have been a LARGE recording studio), The Korean Orphan Choir, Thurlow Spurr and The Spurrlows, ond .... CB: Don Lonie? EK! : Yes! DON LONIE TALKS AGAIN [Reads from liner notes] "..... and teenagers res pond to the wit and wisdom of America's Number One high school assembly speaker. In an "off the cuff" manner, Don

Lonie establishes a rapport with his audience that enables him to communicate so effectively with that special segment of society called teens."

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CB: Actually I think that Don may have done more to CONTRIBUTE to the youth revolt of the '60s. [Ex pressi ng mock horror.] Someone STOP HIM before he TALKS AGAIN! CB: FABULOUS HARMONICA BY THE YAMA YAMA MAN "4tlntltm."

EK!: EXACTLY. Lo Toyo anyone? [snickers] On this record Burt's quadruple-tracked vocals are surrounded by a stellar cast of . studio musicians, no doubt thinking about the paycheck. OK so his si nging ain't quite there, but the jumpsuit RULES, doesn't it? CB: Sheesh. Wa lter Brennan: 'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE

???

CHRISTMAS... BACK HOME This is actually his SECOND release. That means his first record mu st have actually sold a few copies . For the pop-cultu re impai red in our audie nce, Walter Brennan was a

EK!: (laughing) Really! Who the Heck is TH IS guy? Any Y.Y.M . fons out there? I'll say one thing: That Varna Yama Man has the HUGEST

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instrument l' VE ever seen! Courtney! Quit swooning! CB: And while we're on the topic of "instruments" I feel

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EK!: Yes. If this particular cover is any indication, it's a safe bet that AL Harmonica! probably got most of the groupies . CB: WOWSERS! Chad Everett: BABE MAGNET! [giggles] EK!: Or perhaps, Chad

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Everett: The DRY LOOK! I always felt that Everett shou ld have been detained by the authorities for the illegal use of a b low dryer. .. Just LOOK at that HAIR ! The album is entitled ALL STRUNG OUT, but I think it could easily have been ca lled ALL STRUNG OUT (Of Tune!) . [cues up the Chad version of "Ain't No Sun shine"] CB: I get your point Ed . [hits "reject"] Moving right along ..... Oh my God . Burt Reynolds: ASK ME W HAT I

AM. EK! : Well Burt, we can tell you what you AIN'T! And that's anything even remotely resem bling a singer ! This mm; 11i.7flOUlS came out in '73 . I literally plucked it out of the in-laws' garbage can! They were probably too embarrassed to sell it at a yard sale . [Laughter] It's a country album, produced by none other than Bobby Go ldsboro . CB: Those who can't sing, ... sing COUNTRY.

vete ran character acto r and TV star with a memorable voca l delivery-sounding sorta li ke a slightly less agitated

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TV fome, a visio nary(?) record executive had the great(?) idea of capturing Brennan on vinyl. Th e g lorious result was OLD RIVERS and it's sequel: CHRISTMAS ... BACK HOME. And guess what? BOTH records have recently been re-released on ONE CD! Now AT LAST you can hear that syrupy sweet chorus combined with Walter's sandpaper voice in all its digitally remastered glory! And the holidays wi ll NEVER be the same ... [Drops needle on "Oh Come All Ye Faithf ul" ] CB: [Wincing] You wouldn't happen to have the phone numbe r for Farm Aid wou ld ya? I want my donation back. EK! : He re's one of my all-time favorite covers. [Effecting a Sinatraesque voice], "Those were the days my friend ." [Sighs] That look on Dino's face is absolutely ;~~ · PRICELESS . On the back it says, "A babe in the arms is worth two in the phonebook." I believe it was Thoreau who first said that ... CB: And how about that DAME! She looks like she just escaped from the I DIG CHICKS record. How the heck did women get their hair to do that back then? EK!: I don 't know. I think they baked it or something. One of these days I'm gon na get past the cove r and actually listen to the record! CB: Well Ed, it looks as though we' re running out of space. Thanks for sharing your coll ection with our Cool & Stra nge readers! Any final thoughts? EK! : Why yes, Courtney, I urge EVERYONE to observe th e RIAA curve when listening

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to your records. I simply cannot stress that enough. You just never know when an inspector from the Record Industry of America might come to your door. CB: Thanks, Edmund. EKI: You're welcome Courtney. Now where's my HUG? CB: Sheesh.

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· © 1997 Courtney Bombeck

Courtney Bombeck is a. self-styled. Riot Grrl Mom who cites "Lost In Spa.ce", "The Ma.rtia.n Hop", a.nd. Betty Crocker a.sher prime cultura.I influences. Her hobbies include bungee-jumping off the hood. of her ca.r, a.nd. collecting empty ma.rga.rine conta.iners. Currently sepa.ra.ted. from Ea.r l P eter son, Michiga.n's "Singing Cowboy", Cou r tney is ma.king pla.ns to go undergroun d. should. there ever be a. Pipkins reunion. E-mail ED KAZI:

&..ETTERS (CNd. FUllt Pg. 5) "'

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magazine. Maybe I'll write something for you one day. Recently, a friend send me a xeroxed copy of issue #4 of your magazine. And guess what: This is the maga· zine that I've been WAITING for! It's great! I have en· closed $25 for a subscription. Please start my subscrip· tion with ISSUE.#5. By the way: I'm always looking for contacts with other collectors who want to trade tapes and infonnation. If you know anybody who is inter· ested .... Thafs all for now. I hope to hear from you very

soon. "'

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Best wishes from Marco Kalnenek Junostraat 16 6446 RG Brunssum The Netherlands

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Hi Marco, I've printed your address for potential tape-traders to " ' bombard you wffh cassette tapes! Let me know how it Ge goes... W Glad you like my magazine. We really seem to be gel· ::: ting a lot of fans in The Netherlands lately! I guess Neth· W erlanders must be tuned into our same frequency. .. Any· ,.J way. it's good to hear from you, and by the way. of the artists you mentioned, we are planning an article on Andre' Popp for a future issue. I recommend that all of ~. .our readers rush out and get his CDs immediately!! .

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Dear Cool and Strangers, Hear are some pictures of my favorite belly dancing records, embossed in a halo of light reflected off my Sears Silvertone amp, which I picked up in a fiea mar· ket for 50 bucks (and it works!). These strange quar· ries of novelty·ar· tifacts of the col· l ective - c o n· sumer-uncon · scious have be· come a staple in the diet of those who long for the absolute, the infi· nite and the vari· ety of life (and lis· tening) . Having found many of my ' cool and strangeys" in the hidden nook (of thrift, of fiea , of garage sale ... etc) I feel com· pelled to call to your attention the 8-track. In all its subtle, useless and somewhat primitive design, it is sti ll "strange". Beyond this I have enclosed a picture of one that can certainly be classified as ' cool' (at least in your book) and hard to find on any medium. I'm referring to THE HAPPY MOOG· Harry Breuer and Jean Jacques Perrey. Congratulations on successfully tapping into the cool & strange habit of being COOL & STRANGE. Listener extraordinare, Brett Becker Kansas City, KS

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C.ool And Strange Musicr Sixth Issue! •August '97 ·November '97 -------Magazine

Hi Brett, Like you, I've found some of my greatest musical treasures in thrift shops and swap meets! It really started for me big-time in about 1988, when I picked up a copy of Dave Harris' LP DINNER MUSIC FOR A PACK OF HUNGRY CANNIBALS for a buck in a thrift shop. I bought it purely for the buxom and bizarre babes on cover, but quickly fell in in love with the music (all com· posed by Raymond Scott). I've had several other 'land· mark' discoveries, and look forward to finding more gems.

Howdee ... You asked for response .. so here is some response ... this issue, along with all the other issues .. .is wonderful. .. no complaints at all ... except that I wish you came out weekly. You have a wonderful blend of music styles, and some very good info and pleasant reading. My wife is screaming for me to get off the computer, so I hope that this will do ... you really are doing a great job .. Thanks from ... Larry Farber Sweden Hi Larry, Thanks a lot for your kind words. But I have to tell you, it's hard enough to put out our magazine quarterly! It's an incredible amount of work to tie it all together, so I can't imagine doing it even bi-monthly!! (Well, maybe someday. ..) All of us here )))}. 4 0

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WE CARRY A S'l'OCI< OF LP RECORDS AS COOL AS OUR NAME I W6 TAI(£ GREAT PRJDS IN OUR

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M y fascination with Wayne Newton began in early 1980. I was sitting in my grandmother's living room in Mt. Savage, Maryland, watching The Merv Griffin Show with my Dad. This is when he had a nighttime show. (Merv Griffin, that is, not my Dad.) Merv introduced "my friend, who's going to sing his new hit single, "Years," Wayne Newton. " Dad said something like, "We ll, it's been 'years' since Wayne Newton HAD a hit singlel" He may have also said something about Wayne singing like a girl. That's all I remember about that / odd father-son-bonding-throughWayne Newton jokes night 17 years ago, but a seed was planted that would eventually grow to full-blown fascination . (Incidentally, "Years " did scrape its way up to Number 35 on the pop charts.) Wayne Newton popped into my life again a few years later, when then Secretary of the Interior, James Watt ./ axed aJuly 4th Beach Boys concert on Washington D.c.'s Mall since he thought the Boys would attract the "wrong element." Watt's idea of a replacement? Mr. Wayne Newton himself. Ironically, the Beach Boys

now it's obvious that Wayne Newton at any point in his career is cooler than the Beach Boys have been since 1970. "Kokomo" or "Danke Schoen"?You make the call. It was during college, a time of new experiences, that the complete World Of Wayne Newton began to unfold for me. The thing is, I don 't really remember how or why th is happened . I just know that I began to pick up Wayne Newton albums at flea markets and from the dollar boxes at the Book Trader, a legendary used book and record store on South Street in Philadelphia. I was encouraged in these pursuits by a friend who gave me a copy of the only Wayne LP that was still in print at the time, The Best

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And Strange Musi~r fAJol - - - - - " " - M a g a z i ne

Of course, when I would listen to albums like Wayne Newton Sings Hit Songs or the classic Best Of.. ., I'd laugh to myself and to anyone else who would listen. After all, who could take Wayne's hyperkinetic versions of tunes like "Wives and Lovers, " "Shangri-La" and "Call Me Irresponsible " seriously? But then a weird thing happened.

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(or at least that creepy Mike Love) had been longtime supporters of Watt's boss, Ronald Reagan . Anyway, since Watt's move seemed so anti-rock' n'roll, I was angry about it, but

Sixth Issue! •August '97 ·November '97

Of Wayne Newton.

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The Song itself that put me most faithfully on The Path Of Wayne . It just hit me like the proverbial ton o' bricks one day that the songwriting, arrangement, production and performance of "Danke Schoen" all kick serious ass and take names. Listen to it sometime. Listen without prejudice. You 'll see what I mean. It's got strings , it's got horns, it starts out slow and quiet, then builds up to an amazing crescendo, before

While I still thought Wayne was just good, campy fun, I also started to actually like the man and his mus ic. It might have been because of his appearance in that awful Andrew "Dice" Clay movie and its accompanying Billy Idol video ; or because of the way he handled himself in various interviews that I watched faithfully on shows like Donahue and Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous; or maybe it was because not only does Ferris Buel ler lip-sync to "Danke Schoen" on his famous Day Off, but also that various other characters in the movie can be heard humming the very same tune prior to the parade scene. Ultimately though, it is simplyJl!I~!!!!~:!==~::::

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ending the way it began. And don't forget those lyrics, which tell an intriguing story, both through traditional narrative and through what's left out: "You tore your dress/What a mess!/ I confess/That's not all." Danke SchOen without a doubt, one of my top 20 favorite songs of all time. After my "Danke Schoen " revelation, my pursu it of Wayne Newton albums hit high gear, and not just in the Philadelphia area. While at least eig ht of the 25 Wayne albums I own came from the Book Trader boxes, I've also picked up vintage Wayne in Norfolk , Virginia ; New Orleans, Louisiana (the seminal Wayne Newton in Person!, which I bought for nine bucks in the French Quarter). I basically did two things during my first visit to The Big Easy in 1988: got hel lacious ly drunk on hurricanes at Pat O'Brien's and bought Wayne Newton In Person!. And not in that order either. Kansas City, Missouri (the autobiograp hi cal concept LP, How I Got This Way); and San Antonio, Texas (The Long And Winding Road, a good ex ample of Wayne's attempts to record a hip, "mature" album while in his twenties). Back here in Philadelp hia, I picked up the star-shaped, pieture disk single, "You Step ped Into My Life" (a Bee Gees-penned disco tune), at Third Street Jazz and the Summer Wind LP at the Wooden Shoe, an anarchist bookstore in Center City. (Take it from me: if you want to experience worlds colliding, buy a Wayne Newton album for a buck 11

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And Strange Music!" l:ool ------Magazine

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on your lunch hour in an anarchist bookstore. You'll be glad you did.) I think the apex of my love of Wayne had to be the night my wife Donna and I, then just on our third date, went to see Mr. Newton live onstage at Donald Trump's fabulous Taj Mahal in Atlantic City in 1991. Wayne gave us all a show that was just the epitome of Newtonosity, singing "Danke Schoen" complete with its original sassy, brassy arrangement; the classic "Bessie The Heifer, The Queen Of All The Cows", that he sang on a Lucy Show once; and telling lots of jokes invalving the names of certain small towns in Pennsylvania's Amish country (I'll give you a hinHhe towns are names Blue Balls, Intercourse and Paradise-now you can figure out the jokes) . Man, oh man what a night, and to top it off, I won 136 semolians at the roulette table! Interestingly, I married intoafamilywithaWayneNewton story of their own. It seems that, when he was a boy, Donna 's brother Michael scrimped and saved to buy his grandmother a holiday present, Wayne Newton's Christmas album. On Christmas Day, Gramm opened the gift and, apparently hoping for a nice sweater, said, "Oh I'll look great wearing this!" But the album became afamily favorite and has been played every holiday season since. On hearing this story, I knew Donna and I were meant to be. For the most part, my admiration for Wayne Newton is harmless, although to celebrate his birthday in 1989, I did make a now-lost tape, mixing my personal best of Wayne tunes with comments from various interviews I'd videotaped. The tape culminated in a l 5-minute-long montage I called "Revolution # Wayne". Like John Lennon's notorious musique concrete experiment from

which its title is paraphrased, "Revol ution # Wayne" featured bits of music and dialogue looped over and over, the highlight of which was Wayne incessantly repeating the mantra: "They're having parades and burning effigies of Wayne Newton." OK, so maybe I didn't have much to do in 1989, but I swear to you , I'm better now. The only sicker thing I've ever committed to audio tape is the 90-minute compilation of Telly Savalas songs I recorded a week or so after the Man Who Was Kojak shuffled off this mortal coil. These days, it's getting harder and harder to find Wayne albums I don't have (although Newton said on Donahue that he had released over 80 LPs) and, honestly, I don't always look as hard as I used to. It is still my policy, though , that if I see a Wayne album I don 't have and it costs a buck or less, I buy it (the album I bought in New Orleans was the except ion to this price rule). I saw the soundtrack to a Wayne television special for four bucks at a flea market once, but held out until I found it somewhere else for just a dollar. Why Wayne, you ask? I've asked that myself--after al l, it could've beenJackJones, Engelbert, Bob Goulet... They're all OK and I'm also a big Tom Jones fan, but Wayne is the Lounge Singer I Love Best. I love Wayne Newton, and if I ever get a chance to meet him, I'll say, "Hiya Wayne! Danke Schoen for all the great music!"

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fJJol And Strange Musicr Sixth Issue! •August '97 ·November '97 - - - - - - = M a g a z i ne

. Cid CV1 . Cid CV1 . Cid CV1 . Cid CV1. Cid CV1 . Cid CV1 . Cid CTJ1 . Cid CTJ1 . Cid CTJ1 . CuJ CTJ1 . Cul CTJ1 . Cul CO,. ~"~ e CD REVIEWS brawling 1n1erna1iona1 world af sleazy-listening. B ....

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a re also es pecially a lluring . Neithe r definitive "go-

Billed as "a sensual homage to the most raunchy, e rotic film music from the vaults of Italian '60s and ?Os cinema," it' s much more than the titillating come-on one would think. Though one song does

Various Artists • Bend ltf 1.992 /EJ(ofka Presents Football a fa Carte Pele• 2CD Hee hee .. . guilty pleasure

go" nor defini tive Cugie, but a solid collection

fe atur e a woman mouthing little more than

time! I don't even know what

that accurate ly re presents th e best o f his last days as a recordin g artist. An enjoyable way to enhance 40-minute blocks of you r life .- Michae l David Toth

"sex uall...sex uoll. .. sexuall" for over 5 minutes, whi le the ascending and descending notes seem to aurally mimic the effect of an orgasm, don't ex-

to call this, but it is a lot of fun . It plays like a camp tape put together by some over-

pect to hear 60 minutes of some Mediterranean Donna Summers moaning "Love to love you, baby"

the-top soccer fan . "I'll trample anyone to see my fi>

over a blunt, pounding bass and foot-peda l beat. No, this album won't appeal to the Frat boys downing microbrews and chomping on big-ass cigars while watching the latest Dirty Debutantes porno. This is Italian sex film fare and, as such, it's every bit a s stylish a s their suits, their shoes and their cars (like the Alfa Romeo GT 2000 pictured on the front cover and CD gatefold). The first two cuts establish a carefree, dare we say, even decadent atmosphere with spiffy uplempo rhythms driven along by a nonsensical seal singing style similar to that found in the otherwordly choruses of Esquivel. Thus Roberto Pregadio's "lena Sequence" from the 1972 thrille r II Sorrso Delta lena (Smile Before Death) has Edda Dell' Orso spryly spouting "Achoo-choo-choo-choo-choo-chicky-choochoo-choo" (or is it "Doot-doot-doot-doot-dootdoot-dooty-doot-doot-doot"? ), while Franco De G e mini's "Cheops and Nefertiti" from 1971 's Si Puo Fare M ollo Con Selfe Donne counters with a ditzy diva doling out delightful "Debba-debbade bba-da's" over sprightly incidental music that's ideal for a Mentos commercial. But the standout track is clearly "Piacere Sequence'~ another Pregadio ge m (though confusingly attributed in the track listing lo Te o Usuelli), again featuring the

vorite teaml" to quote the first sang on the disc. The disc alternates sound clips from play-by-play broadcasts and records by and abo ulsoccer players around the world. A large portion is not even in English, but somehow it all creates a picture of people having a lot of fun at something they're passionate about. Forget production values; the booklet was thrown together in no ~me, the records

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Cordell Jackson · Live in Chicago Bughouse Records · 0003 Cord e ll Jackson started reco rding ro ck'n'roll music around th e sam e time that a snee ring kid , nam ed Elvi s,

wa s busy try ing to grow his first pubic hair. Now, after half a ce ntury of obscurity, the le ge ndary qu een of rock'n'ro ll guita r is waging a successful media blitz to w in recogniti on of

he r ri g htful place in music history. She's bee n inducte d into The Sm ithsonian Institution and The Ha rd Rock Cafe Archives a s a lege nda ry guitarist. Thi s 1995 so lo a ppe a ra nce, LIVE IN CHICAGO, shows that even time cannot repress the ja ilbate enthusiasm of her early recordings. Though various ga dgets and sound boxes have turned

three-cho rd garage bands into stadium he adl iners, Cord e ll plays gu ita r the wa y G od meant for it to be; direct, with nothing but a $6 guitar cord

between her ax and he r am p. This purist approach gives a fo rceful, ro ugh-hewn e dg e lo the instrume nta l pieces that a pp ear on thi s disc; "M emphi s

Moon Rock," "The Blues Cha ser," "Knockin' Sixty," "Tie d Up," "Jo hnny Ca sh Train," "Antsy" {written in 1940 1) and her more recent M TV tun es, 11 Ba s-

ket Boll Man," and "The Split." These pieces sou nd like everyth ing fro m o ut of contro l rocka billy to indu stri a l p syche de lia, a ll cip he red thro ug h Cordell's bl urry hands. Someone asked her lo sing

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loved) ... but I love ill Soccer players trying lo sing, a stadium full of fans singing the Beatles, and then ... The World Cup Waltzl I th ink I'll have to gel the other 3 discs in their "catalog": Bend Ill 91 (Pele 1CD, £9); The Exotic Beatles (Pele 3 CD, £ 1 O); and Flair 1989 (Pele 4, £9). Check or MO payable to Exotica. Exotica, 49 Belvoir Road, London SE22 OQY. (Postage and Packing said to be included in price; but it probably wouldn't hurt to ask if that includes overseas sh ipments.) The Vernons Football Pools Girls singing "We love the Beatles" is going lo be on my next comp lapel - Craig Andersen

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Sex.aama • Sex-D-Rama Ogllo Records • OGL 89105-2 I'm really g lad to see a CD like this come out. Some of the most amazing music can

For thi s engagement, a nd wh ile her voice is Fine,

that's taken from the 1971 sex-thriller Alla Ricerca Del Piacere (Amuck}. This is the aforementioned 5-minule opus featuring the heartfelt lyrical pleas

be found on vintage porn films . If you don't believe me, listen and watch any of the

it's can't ho ld a ca ndle lo th e metal sto rm of he r fran tic slrum mi n, (few thin gs of this e a rth can!) For-

o f 11 sexuall. .. sex uall. .. sexuall" and "again!.. . againl. .. againl" dubbed over a suggestive

early Gerard Damiano films . Stock music never sounded ~o good. First we had

tuna tely, twelve of the seventee n tracks included

backbe al. The re's a method to the rhythm and it's definitely not approved by The Vatican. Elsewhere,

"Vampyros lesbos", then the excellent "Schulmadchen Report". Now we have "Sex-0-

he re a re g ui ta r attacks. Corde ll is still in pea k form a l the age of 7 4 (!) Obviously, she's not going to retire until they pry tha t so lid-bo dy Hagstro m o ut of her cold blue han ds; I pity th e foo l who trie s. - W ilhe lm Murg

Bo ssa Beat" stretches the

Rama", a collection of the best music from the top

basso nova format with an arresting guitar-organ riff that evo kes an electronic duckcall, while his

adult films of the '70s and '80s. The only differ· ence being that these are skillfully crafted re-cre-

olbum-closing "Omar Khayyan " is the kind of hip-

ations, not the original recordings. But don't let

Various Artists • Beat At Cinecitta Crippled Dick Hot Wax Records • 033 O nce again, those de lightfull y d ecad e nt Krauts at Crip pled Dick ha ve put to-

shaking brass sass that the bikini-and psychedelic bodypaint-clad Goldie Hawn used to frug lo on laugh-In . So much for th e lunage ... friends, Romans and countrymen need not lend ju st their ears, there's a fe a st for the eyes here as wel l. Going by the luridly colored, swimming-in-flesh lobby card

that scare you off. According lo the liner notes, "The original recordings were carefully duplicated using vintage instruments and recording techniques in an effort to closely duplicate the classic sound." And they manage lo pull it off. You'll find disco beats, funky grooves, wah-wah guitars and even

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used are well-worn (and one presumes well-

vo cal loin-stirrings of Ms. Dell' Orso (who knows a good moan a s well as th e next Neapolitan sexpot)

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pix and movie poster reproductions included in

Moog synthesizer thrown in for good measure. It

fil m so undtra ck, a "coming" tre nd for discerning countd own -to- th e- Mill e nnium hipste rs e ag e r lo move beyond the by now allloo-famil iar cha-cha-cha/zu-zu-lu confines of Ultra

th e co mpre hensive 24-page CD booklet, the films these tracks are taken from are well-worth looking into. Be at At Cinecitta is the true score, the best pick-up, the sure thing . This is the one ta take home, fella s. It's no freak: you can even introduce

sort of reminds me of a stripped down version of the Sound Gallery series. Aside from a few limp tracks, this CD will please most of you out there especially if you rememberthe films. This is an area that still remains virtually untapped for

Lounge and to discover what's out there in the big,

it to momma.

very creative music. Includes an intro- ))).... 4.2

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SixthIssue!• August 197 ·November '97 C'10I And Strange Music!" - - - - - - - - - Magazine

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