New Year's Eve in July, Some Music Shows from 1958, and a Brief Mish-Mash

Greetings!  Today's offerings come from a far smaller number of tapes than usual, but within those tapes, primarily from the first one, there is a total of over five hours of material here. 

But first, a couple of comments. 

Reader/listener Kyle has again identified a site which contains a lot of information on the history of multitrack recordings, and the writer's history with sound on sound and later methods. It has a few home recording examples in the second part. You can find that site and those recordings here.

And then I also want to thank "Snoopy" and another anonymous poster, who both chimed in with appreciation for, and information about, respectively, the avant-garde music and the DJ tape by Lance Shepard, and their comments can be found at the end of that post, here. And Eric Paddon, who can always be counted on to offer up some interesting and relevant history on media recordings, added some thoughts to the Today Show tape I shared last time around. 

Thanks, everyone, as always!

~~

I was going to save the following tape for a New Year's Eve post, but I realized that I have too many countdown tapes to save all of them for one post. So instead of Christmas in July, this will be New Year's Even in July, complete with part of a nationally syndicated countdown of the top hits of 1980, as heard on WRBR in South Bend, Indiana.

Unfortunately, this is not the entire countdown, but it is the more than four hours of it that could fit on a 2400 foot tape at 3 3/4 IPS. Doubly unfortunately, most of the commercials are cut out. And triply unfortunately, this production, from some organization called Opus, and titled Opus 80, is an adult contemporary (or "soft rock") version of the top hits of 1980. So there is a LOT of dross among the occasional excellent record, more than even would have been the case in a general Top 40 look at the hits of 1980, and a lot of songs heard here would not have been anywhere near a top 100 from Billboard's main pop chart. 

To choose one example, Al Stewart's "Midnight Rocks" scores on this countdown - nationally, on the Billboard all format Hot 100, it got only to number 24 in its actual chart run, not nearly big enough to be one of the biggest 100 hits of the year.  There are a bunch of vacuous quotes and brief interviews throughout. 

Here's the side of that box: 

A small portion (about an hour) of this very countdown is available elsewhere online, but I couldn't find that anything further of it is out there, so I thought I'd share what I have. 

Download: Opus 80 - A Countdown of the Soft Rock Hits of 1980, 12-31-80 WRBR-FM, South Bend, IN - One Section.mp3

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Download: Opus 80 - A Countdown of the Soft Rock Hits of 1980, 12-31-80 WRBR-FM, South Bend, IN – Another Section.mp3

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And now, a step backwards of 22 years (or more) to a show centered around a singer named Patrice Munsel. This comes from the fellow named Charles that I wrote about at a bit more length in this post (sorry about linking to it twice). This is not from the same batch related to the composer that I wrote about there, it's from a previous set of tapes he sent me, which I am also glad to be able to share at this time. 

I'd never heard of Patrice Munsel, but you can read about her show here, and from there you can link and read about her. In short, she was an operatic soprano whose husband worked in TV and got her a show. As you'll hear, the show was a mix of Ms. Munsel singing on her own, guest performers and comedy sketches. As you can see on the tape box, below, this tape contains two such episodes from April of 1958, one of them loosely Easter themed. These are not the entire shows - commercials are cut, for one thing, but even accounting for a few minutes of commercials, the two episodes heard here add up to about 30 minutes, which was the actual length of a single show, at the time. So these are excerpts. 

Download: The Patrice Munsel Show - 4-4-58

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Download: The Patrice Munsel Show - 4-18-58

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On the other side of the tape, there are more excerpts, this time from "The Patti Page Show". Patti Page I have heard of and am familiar with. However, while the tape box says these recordings are from 1958 - and they could well have been made that year - the show actually aired in 1956 and 1957, with reruns airing a year later. These are recordings of those reruns. "Including the final show", with Patti's comments making clear that she did not expect it to be her final show. 

Download: The Patti Page Show, Excerpts from 1958 Including Final Show

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And now, a very short reel. The name of this file makes clear what is on it - a series of short recordings all heard back to back on the same reel of tape. What I tend to refer to as a "Hodgepodge". The most interesting and entertaining thing here is the brief segment of the brilliant Bob and Ray at the beginning - unfortunately the start of the routine is missing, but its easy enough to figure out what's going on. That recording is from NBC's "Monitor", on which Bob and Ray were regulars, for a time. The rest of the tape is sort of hit and miss - a bit of piano, a bit of a speech and an NBC promo. 

Download: Short Hodgepodge - Bob and Ray on "Monitor", Piano, Speech Segment, NBC Promo

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Some Great 1960's Top Forty Radio Jingles, a 1955 Supper Club, The Today Show, More Shortwave, Baby-O, Available Postcards, and Shoving Off

 Let's start today's post with what I'm almost certain will be the most well-received of the several items I'm sharing. This is a reel of tape which contains just under an hour of Top 40 radio jingles, with a few bits of radio production music thrown in. There are multiple stations represented here, and all of this material seems to date to the mid 1960's. See how many hit records you can identify which were being copied - just short of copywrite infringement, and sometimes well over that line - within some of these jingles. 

The stations will become apparent quite quickly, and there are several minutes of jingles from each station. At least some of this material comes from the magnificent PAMS corporation in Texas (there's a brief PAMS jingle about five minutes in), and I wouldn't be surprised if all of it does.  

Download: An Hour of Top 40 Radio Jingles

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Here is the part of the tape box which has information as to the tape's contents, although I think the sides were reversed by the time it came to me, as it starts with WABC. 

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Almost exactly a year ago, I featured a husband and wife team - Ann and Len Nash - who appeared at a supper club, and who promoted their appearances at that club - and the club itself - on radio station KNPT, all of which took place in Newport Oregon. Today, I have two more of these fifteen minute programs for you. As with the first offering, these are from 1955, although in this case, they are not specifically dated. 

Download: Ann and Len Nash from the Hi-Tide Supper Club, Newport, Oregon, Some Time in 1955, on KNPT

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This particular tape box had a slightly damaged insert containing all of the details of these two shows: 

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With politics in the news nowadays seemingly every day of the year, it always seems like a good time to share something politics related. And so, herewith, a self-explanatory lengthy title for a short segment from a January, 1963 edition of "The Today Show"

Download: Two Segments of The Today Show, 1-14-63 - Arthur Schlesinger Interview, Two Senators Preview State of the Union

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Periodically, I have shared parts of the large collection of shortwave recordings, most of them of Australian programming, which I picked up... somewhere, at some point. I've shared most of it, at this point, but have a few tapes left. I held off on this because the quality is fairly poor, then near the end becomes abysmal, but I thought I should share it, since there is an audience for these recordings. The newscast heard here makes it clear (specifically, the golf results, among other stories) that at least part of this tape is from the second week of March, 1968. 

Download: Even More Australian Shortwave

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And now, here are a couple of folks, identified on the tape box as "A. Quinn and Blonde" making several attempts to record a song called "Baby-O", and dated 1958. I think this scan of the back of the tape box is just barely readable. 

Incidentally, this tape was part of the enormous haul I made decades ago, of what turned out to the tapes belonging to (and largely featuring) Larry Taylor, tapes which I have featured here and here, and which also included the amazing "Dora Hall in Memphis" tapes, which I excerpted in my final post at WFMU. A. Quinn is (I think, based on other tapes I'm remembering from this collection) Art Quinn (and certainly not Anthony Quinn), but other than that, I couldn't tell you anything about him. 

There are some entertaining moments here.

Download: A. Quinn and Blonde - Baby-O - Several Takes, Summer, 1958

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How about an Acetate of the Month?!??! Both sides of today's acetate are shared here, and this is what it looks like: 

And in fact, that's what we have. A man who is "shoving off" for the Navy, spending both sides of the record "talking to Irene". Irene is his wife and he also has an infant daughter. At certain points, this is a remarkably touching recording. Let's hope he came back safely. 

Download: Philco Safety Record Acetate - Shoving Off - Talking To Irene, 3-23-44, Side One

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Download: Philco Safety Record Acetate - Shoving Off - Talking To Irene, 3-23-44, Side Two

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And now it's time for our "Very Short Reel" of the post. I have this little segment identified as "Sally Everett Discusses Available Postcards", and beyond that, I can't tell you a thing about it. Maybe someone out there will do a little digging and discern who it was she was working for, and where these postcards were being sold. 

Download: Sally Everett Discusses Available Postcards

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Some Esoteric Short Film Music, A Hopeful Rock DJ, Paris and Munich, George Wallace Campaigns and Wally Cox Sells a Soft Drink

Before I get to this week's multitude of items, I wanted to encourage folks to have another look at my last post, specifically the comments. I will not repeat them here, but reader/listener Kyle, who I mentioned in that post, has again linked to some interesting sounds which have been posted by others, particularly at the site at finnley.audio. There are also two comments shedding a bit more light on singer Malcolm Dodds, who's demo of a song was featured in that point. 

~~

Okay, so I'm going to start with something perhaps a little esoteric and which comes in four parts, but with this posting, I want to acknowledge a great gift I have been given, as well as offer thanks for a previous, similar (if smaller gift). For there is a dedicated reader/listener out there named Charles, who has now, on two occasions, come across a stash of interesting reels, bought them, and then sent them to me (free of charge!), for my perusal and enjoyment. 

The first batch - which I think was between ten and twenty tapes - came my way over 18 months ago, and had been the property of, as Charles said, "a now deceased sound engineer at WABC-TV". I have featured at least a couple of these tapes here, including that Japanese language material I posted last month. But many of the tapes are still sitting where I put them upon their arrival, waiting to be heard. Such is the volume of tapes that I have. A very belated public THANK YOU to Charles for those. 

Charles has not gone at least one better. Perhaps 15 better, perhaps 100 better. I'll have a better idea after I listen to more of the tapes. Because he has purchased, and sent me, dozens of tapes which belonged to a late composer by the name of David Hollister. You can read about him here. Not only that, he has put me in touch with the relative who inherited and who sold him these tapes. She has more tapes, which she is willing to share with me, as long as I make MP3's of them, and she authorized me to share what I find on the tapes. 

So it is that I grabbed a tape off the top of the batch at random and gave it a spin on the ol' reel to reel spindles. I found its contents absolutely fascinating, and hope you will, as well, although I acknolwege, again, that the word esoteric comes to mind. But hopefully I am wrong about that. 

The tape box made it clear that the tape contained two different potential soundtracks for a film called "Organism" made by Hilary Harris. On the first side was what was apparently an original composition, using a variety of common and uncommon instruments (see the box, below). On the second side was a different conception for the soundtrack, a collage of existing electronic music, composed by a variety of composers. Both were created during the last week of January, 1975, one week apart. Here is the box:  

The finished film, which is just over 19 minutes long (a bit longer than each of these proposed soundtracks, can be found in a few different places online, including this one.

Here are the two soundtracks: 

Download: David Hollister - First Tape for Hilary Harris' Film 'Organism' - 1-24-75

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Download: David Hollister - Second Tape for Hilary Harris' Film 'Organism' - 1-30-75

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After the second of these, there was a brief section of microphone tests and piano playing, which I am assuming - perhaps incorrectly - also feature the composer, David Hollister. I am including this  brief segment, and the one following it, for completion sake. 

Download:  (Presumably) David Hollister - Microphone Tests and Piano Playing

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Following that, and until near the end of the reel, is heard the last several minutes of a live performance of an orchestral work, complete with applause at the end. The rest of it had clearly been erased by the material above. Again, I'm assuming this is a work by the same composer, but I could certainly be wrong. Perhaps if so, someone knows what this very interesting piece of music is. The odd part is that, early on in this fragment, someone cut into one channel to insert a few moments of two very familiar pieces of music, one being about as classic of a pop hit as you can get, and the other being a well-known moment of classical music, heard twice, first at a different speed as the live performance, to boot. After those two interruptions, the live performance is heard without further interference. 

Download:   Fragment of a Performance of an Orchestral Work, Presumably by David Hollister

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Thank you so very much, Charles. This is beyond kind and thoughtful and I am immensely grateful. Tomorrow is my birthday - it'll be "When I'm 64" - and this was a wonderful gift, despite not having been intended as such. 

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Here's the sort of thing that always appeals to a good percentage of readers of this site - a Demo Reel from a DJ. In this case, he's Lance Shepherd, and I've been unable to find out much of anything. He had clearly, around the time of the excerpt shared here, worked in a variety of genres, and as he tells someone named Mike, to whom he directs some comments at the end, he really wanted to "get back into rock". Here's hoping he did. 

Download: Lance Shepherd - Demo Reel

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Here's a real oddity (or, if you prefer, a reel oddity), or at least it strikes me that way. When Canada Dry wanted to introduce their new soda pop, Sports Cola, in 1968, they turned to that well known pitchman.... Wally Cox. Now I grew up loving Wally Cox (Hollywood Squares, Underdog, and, for an earlier generation, Mr. Peepers), but he doesn't strike me as having had the greatest of sales-pitch voices or personality. But perhaps that was the joke. 

I am also amused by the sales pitch connected with this product, which was that it has virtually no caffeine. I somehow doubt that would be a big draw today. 

Anyway, in this 30 plus minute recording, Wally and his cohorts go through an inordinate amount of takes to get the ad just right. Of course, we're only hearing the sound - maybe someone kept doing something wrong visually. But the ad isn't particularly well written. Actually, the ad copy for the first section - which they work on for about ten minutes (!) - is some of the worst I've ever  heard. But again, maybe they were going for comic effect. But the sheer number of takes here is mind-numbing. 

You can find a couple of Wally Cox' Sports Cola ads (not this one), here.

If you'd like to invest 45 seconds in a little more homework, type in Wally Cox Best Friend into Google and see who was Wally's best friend, who was also the person was who considered Wally his best friend (and who, after Wally's death kept Wally's ashes with him for the rest of his life). It is not who you might expect. 

Download: Wally Cox Records a Commercial for Canada Dry Sports Cola

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I've done a whole lot of typing about the items I've shared so far, so I'm going to dial it back for the last three. Here is a couple, living in Europe, who returned from a vacation, and described their experiences for posterity in an audio diary. I have featured this couple before, in other tapes made during their travels across other parts of Europe, but this one seems to have been made upon their return home.

Download: Reflections on Our Trips to Paris and Munich, 1968

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On a three inch reel, recorded at the slow speed of 1 7/8 IPS, I discovered recordings which were largely of a 1968 episode of The Smother's Brother's Comedy Hour. Sandwiched into the middle of these recordings, however, was the polar opposite of that show, politically, entertainment-wise and just about any other way you might want to look at it. It was a promotional piece about George Wallace and his 1968 Presidential Campaign, followed by a segment of one of Wallace's speeches. Then it was back to the Smothers Brothers. Here is that segment. 

Download: George Wallace Promo and Segment of a Speech, Summer, 1968

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And now for the "Very Short Reel" for this post. This reel, at over six minutes, stretches my concept of what "Very Short" is by more than a minute, but I've been wanting to share it, and I don't have anything else as good as this, and under five minutes, ready to go.

Anyway, here is a small group playing a short instrumental Irish piece, and then a woman sings a song identified as "The Spinning Wheel", but I found the lyrics here listed as being "Spinning Song", so that's what I named the file (although I now see that there are other performances and sites where the song is called "Spinning Wheel"). The woman's name might be said, right before the name of the song, but whatever it is that the guy says, I can't make it out. 

Both performances are in front of a small audience who respond enthusiastically at the end of each piece. Their appreciation is quite well earned. 

Download: A Short Instrumental Irish Piece and a Woman Sings '"Spinning Song"

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Bob Hope's Murder, A 75 Year Old Mix Tape, A Lot More Jack Eigen, The Irish in America, 1970's Folkies, Cheesiness from a Night Club and "Whatever Happened"?

Okay. so I have a bit more time today to do a little housekeeping. 

First, I would like to direct you to the posting of the four hours of Gary Owens, where a commenter named Kyle has written a few comments in which he links to some interesting audio that he owns, on YouTube. 

Second, thanks to the anonymous poster who let me know I'd failed to upload the scan of the sheet from the Asian television recording. I attached it, and it's there now. Thanks to another anonymous poster regarding the same scan, who told me that the writing refers to a Japanese historical drama, Shishi no Jidai, which aired in 1980. That's almost certainly the part of the tape I didn't share, and which came after what was pretty clearly some sort of variety show. 

And finally, thanks to MackdaddyG for some kind words of great support, and to Eric Carlson, who wrote, regarding the short tape of Erskine Hawkins (in a couple of separate comments):

The beginning of the Erskine Hawkins tape is a talk with singer and pianist Joe Boatner who arranged the song Amour Secret with the Royal Ink Spots released on the Montreal based Rusticana label in 1961. When the Saints was the flip side of Amour Secret also arranged by Joe Boatner.

For only $5 per person you could "ring in the New Year" of 1962 at the Imperial Dining Room of the Thruway Motel in Albany, New York, with both Erskine Hawkins and His Orchestra and The Ink Spots with Joe Bottner as spelled in the advertisement in the December 17, 1961, Albany Times-Union.

Really, thanks to everyone who takes the time to listen and read, and extra thanks to those who comment. 

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Warning, rant ahead. Feel free to skip forward two paragraphs if you're not interested. I hope I don't aggravate those I just thanked...

But do you want to know a secret? I consider myself a connoisseur of comedy. I own hundreds and hundreds of comedy albums, I have written comedy pieces and performed both written and improvised comedy. I write funny songs. From about the age of eight or nine and until I left home and got married, I went to sleep every single night listening to one of several dozen of my favorite comedy albums playing on my turntable.  

I don't "get" Bob Hope. I seriously don't understand what there is to "get". I consider him one of many "anti-comedians", people who makes life less humorous by their presence, and in their failed attempts to be funny. I have been exposed to his "humor" for most of my nearly 64 years, and yet have never once having cracked a smile, let along laughed, at anything he ever said. I aggressively don't get it. I find myself constitutionally incapable of sharing a Bob Hope rarity without mentioning that. Not that you asked....

However, your mileage may very much vary, and even more regardless, many out there may really enjoy hearing the sort of cornball humor that passed for big budget TV special entertainment in the mid-1960's. And so, herewith I will share this recording of a TV special that Bob Hope and the folks at NBC produced in October of 1966, titled "Murder at NBC" and featuring, per IMDB, a veritable who's who of comedic talent of that era (of varying quality, to be sure), including Milton Berle, Don Adams, Red Buttons, Johnny Carson, Jack Carter, Bill Cosby, Jimmy Durante, Don Rickles, Rowan and Martin, Jonathan Winters and more. 

But is it funny? Not to me, anyway. Not for a second. This sort of show is exactly is why the 1970's versions of George Carlin and Richard Pryor had to happen. And why the Monty Python's Flying Circus really had to happen.  

Download: Bob Hope's "Murder At NBC" - 10-19-66

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This next 32 minute slice of reel to reel is more interesting for what it is than for what it contains. For this may be one of the earliest examples ever made of what's long since become known as the Mix Tape. This recording exists on a paper-backed reel, of the sort only produced from around 1947 until about 1951. What's more, it appears on a reel manufactured by what I've come to understand was the first brand to market reel tape to the general public, Soundmirror (by The Brush Development Company). What's more, this particular tape box is, I believe, that company's first design. So the tape itself is perhaps 77 years old or so. Here is the tape box: 

On the tape, a man provides someone with a series of musical performances, most from records (including a couple which have skips) and at least one from the radio. My guess is that this recording was made before 1950, meaning it is at least 75 years old. Maybe someone out there can identify the specific records heard and either confirm that is possible, based on their release dates, or rule it out. 

Anyway, since 78s and Acetates generally could only fit about 4-5 minutes of material to a side, and since wire recorders were a brief niche method of recording, I have to guess that this is one of the earliest "mix tapes" you're ever going to hear. Enjoy!

Download: A 75 Year Old Mix Tape

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And here's the lineup, from the back of the box: 

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I had a request for more Jack Eigen, and as I have literally dozens of hours of the man's work, I am happy to oblige. I wrote about him at length in this post. If you want to hear more, than simply click on his name in the labels at the bottom of this post (or put "Jack Eigen" in the search bar at upper left (this will not work on a cell phone)). Either way will bring up all of the previous Eigen posts. 

Download: Jack Eigen - The Jack Eigen Show, Volume Five

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I have a ton of recordings from various television productions, many of which I've shared over the years, including some featuring Howard K. Smith, as this one does. And on the box, it specifies that this was a "Rangertone Sync" interview. I guess the "Rangertone Sync" is a method by which a reel to reel recording is automatically synchronized with the film/video being made at the same time. Here he is speaking with Mr. Farley about the Irish in America

Download: Howard K Smith - Rangertone Sync - Interview About Irish in America with Mr. Farley

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The next tape is nothing more or less than a few people singing together, performing songs that I researched a bit and found were recorded, respectively, by Dan Fogelberg and Linda Ronstadt. 

Download: Unknown Folkies Sing Dan Fogelberg and Linda Ronstadt Songs 

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Back when I was posting at WFMU, I shared a few tapes feature a Chicago musician named Larry Taylor. This link will take you to the second of those posts, which itself contains a link to the first one, In my final post at WFMU, I shared some amazing excerpts from Larry Taylor's work with everyone's
favorite Solo Cup Magnate's wife (and notable person of limited singing talent), Dora Hall. 

The dozens of Larry Taylor tapes that I acquired in the late 1980's also contained multiple tapes featuring a local nightclub entertainer named Rocco Greco, who presumably was a friend of Mr. Taylor. These are uniformly cheesy and interminable, at least to my ears. I once even found a locally produced 45 RPM single, complete with cheesy picture sleeve, released by Mr. Greco. 

I recently came across a tape which seemed to be separate in my collection from the Larry Taylor tapes, but I'm almost certain it started out in that batch, and that the performer heard for most of this recording is, indeed, Rocco Greco. 

Oh, and here is his obituary, which curiously does not mention his work (although the memorial comments do). 

Download: Some 1962 Night Club Type Entertainment, Possibly Featuring Rocco Greco

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And finally, our "Very Short Reel". Here is someone named "Malcolm Dodds", with what was almost certainly a demo reel of one of his performances, a song called "Whatever Happened". 

Download: Malcolm Dodds - Whatever Happened

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Some 1961 BBC Musical Programs, Norman Rockwell, Erskine Hawkins, Music and Images, and Entertainment from Margie

I am desperately late in posting this time around - it's been three full weeks since the last post. I was hoping to get to some comments, but I just want to get this up and to y'all. Today's post is largely made up of the contents of two very different reels of tape, one from England and one from Chicago.

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From England, I have what I consider to be a simply wonderful collection of nighttime radio music shows from the BBC in 1961, each of them quite a bit different from the others. 

First up on the reel is a show which came about because of the fad, just around that time in Britain, for Trad Jazz, Dixieland under another name. There's a great movie out there called "It's Trad, Dad", and the famous Cavern in Liverpool was originally a Trad Den which allowed rockers like The Beatles to play lunchtime shows. 

Note that, half way through this 52 show, the program segues into "Pick of the Pops" with Alan Freeman. As Trad Jazz faded in popularity, "Pick of the Pops" became its own show, and a big hit with the kids. 

Download: Trad Tavern, Spring, 1961

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Next up is "The Starlight Room", which presents another batch of Jazz, and featuring, in this episode, Dakota Staton and Woody Herman, the latter also being interviewed on the show. The opening moments here are rather poor sound quality, but it quickly improves. 

Download: The Starlight Room (BBC Program)

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And finally, a show which truly demonstrates how very different radio (and the world itself I suppose) was in 1961. Host Sandy MacPherson took letters from listeners and welcomed each of them into his "club", honoring their requests along with a few details at times about those listeners, and responding to those requests either with songs from records, or - and this is where things truly seem ancient - playing songs for them live... on his theatre pipe organ. How quaint. That's the word for it. Quaint. 

Download: Sandy's Club (BBC Program)

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And now for something completely different. I have dozens of tapes which once belonged to a collector of radio and (especially) TV sound, from the late '50's and well into the '60's. Most of these tapes are meticulously numbered and have detailed information about what is contained on them. I have excerpted many of these tapes before - they tend to have very dry material (lectures, speeches) interspersed with more interesting material (live performances, interviews, tv specials), and that's the case with today's tape. One side had the radiation demonstration I featured last time, followed by a recording of a broadcast of a movie, while the other side contained a documentary on the life and works of Michelangelo, sandwiched in between two other segments that I found much more interesting, the latter of which was followed by another very interesting, if short segment, which was not mentioned on the box at all (something that is very unusual for tapes from this person's collection. 

This happens to be tape number 100 in the series. I continue to slowly work my way through them. 

Anyway, that second side of the tape starts with this fragment of an interview with Norman Rockwell, conducted by what sounds like a teenage girl: 

Download: Brief Interview with Norman Rockwell

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Then comes Michelangelo, and then comes a rather fascinating recording, and it's another one which shows how much media (in this case, television) has changed since the early 1960's. If I've deduced this correctly, "Patterns in Music", recorded from a Chicago TV station around Christmastime some year, was nothing more than music off of records, played while still images from photos were shown on the screen. Narration is offered, before and after each piece of music, talking about the photos and tying the pieces together with each other and with the photos. On this episode, the theme was various colors. 

Download: "Patterns in Music" - Undated Chicago .Area Television Music and Photos Program

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When the person recording stopped the machine, the end of a previously recorded segment was left - not mentioned on the tape box. I've identified this as a brief interview with Erskine Hawkins, but what's left actually starts with promotion for Joe somebody (I can't make out the last name) who was appearing locally - at the Thruway Motel (!), and then suddenly we're treated to an Erskine Hawkins track and then the last two minutes are, indeed, a few moments with Mr. Hawkins. A bit confusing, but that's what it seems to be. 

Download: Brief Fragment of an Interview with Erskine Hawkins

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Even after all this time, I have only a basic idea in some cases of what people coming to this site will be thrilled to hear and what will get passed over. There may be very little, or great interest in the contents of the above sets of recordings for example. 

I do, however, recognize that the next recording is not going to be for everyone, and that it won't even be close. But.... I just love this kid. Here we have a child named Margie who is entertaining herself (and later, is joined by her sister or perhaps a friend), by singing a vast repertoire of songs, reciting a bit of a play she was in at school, and demonstrating her rudimentary skills on the piano. 

She is pretty much tone deaf, but clearly would have no idea of this, and her abilities on the piano amount to little more than one note at a time. But she is HAVING SUCH A GREAT TIME. And she clearly envisions herself entertaining some unseen audience on the other end of the microphone. I love her little asides, like when she puts the microphone down to play piano and says "goodbye" to it, when she apologizes for not knowing which book her piano piece is in, and when she asks for a round of applause for... herself. And then, nearly two-thirds of the way through, she gets to really famous song, sung complete with an inexplicable (slight) accent. 

Again, I adore this girl, and this is probably my favorite new-to-me tapes that I've heard this year. To be honest, that's probably because she reminds me of... me at that age, except that I wasn't tone deaf. This sounds remarkably like the tapes I made of myself around that age, only far more entertaining. 

Download: Margie Sings, Plays Piano and Talks

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Finally, a "very short reel". This is a complete cheat, as the segment below is an excerpt from a four hour tape, but I really want to get this posted!

I have a group of tapes that someone made off of an Indiana radio station around 1979-1980. They contain episodes of American Top 40, an end of the year countdown, and other programming from a couple of local stations. Contained on at least two of them are episodes of Robert W. Morgan with "The Special of the Week", hour long episodes, heavy on the interviews, looking at a then-popular act. The two I've listened to so far covered the careers of George Benson and The Who. Your mileage may vary, but I have zero interest in the George Benson, and I enjoy perhaps six tracks in the entire career of The Who. So these were not interesting shows to listen to for me. 

But I did enjoy the introduction to the episode on The Who, less for Morgan's reworking of Abbott and Costello (although it's worth hearing), than for the fake letter that he used to set up the bit, specifically the name of the fake letter writer. Here is the segment that led off The Special of the Week featuring The Who. 

Download: Robert W Morgan - Who's On First

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Oh, and The Who were hardly the first groups to record a concept album. The Almanac Singers (featuring Pete Seeger) made several of them in the 1940's, including albums encouraging the US to stay out of World War II and collections of songs in the support of Unions), and Frank Sinatra had a few in the 1950's, as well. The "Manhattan Tower" album and its sequels and imitators come to mind, too.

Lots of Unknowns! Radiation and Calculator Demonstrations, Some Asian Television, Letters From and To Howard, Hoagy Carmichael, Safety & More

A bit of housekeeping to start: 

Thanks for all the comments on the Gary Owens tape. That's a keeper. Thanks also for the guesses as to the purpose of the "Mood Music", as well as the observation that they made have been recorded from acetates. Also, I'm informed that the anonymous "Journey Into Sound" that I posted is a famous album which was featured on a seminal hip-hop track. I had no idea. 

And with regard to the fragment of Illinois Basketball that I featured a month ago, during March Madness, Eric Carlson offered this: 

Very appropriate basketball recording as George Wilson of the winning Marshall High team went on to the University of Cincinnati which twice won the NCAA championship and just missed by two points a third in his time there. He was also on the 1964 Olympics gold winning US basketball team. He passed away last summer.

Thanks for all the comments. They consistently make my day and help make this project worthwhile. 

~~

There has always been a sense of mystery to some of the things I post here. I regularly attribute the performance or speaking heard on tapes to "unknown" or "unknown (this) or (that)", and now and then someone is able to chime in and give a name or a title to that unknown person or people. 

For today's post, it struck me that, by chance, most of the items I was choosing feature someone (or a group of people) that I cannot identify at all. There are exceptions, but this group of items is sort of dominated by those unknowns. 

If anyone is able to identify anyone heard on ANY of these items, I'm going to guess it's most likely that the man heard on this first piece of tape will be the one who gets identified. It's a peculiar bit of tape, listed on the box as being "Radiation - G.E. Class". See?: 

I suppose this might be Mr. Wizard - the presence of an adolescent assistant makes that more likely, I guess. But if that's the case, why doesn't it say "Mr. Wizard" (who had his own show), and not "Radiation - G.E. Class". And I checked - G.E. was not Mr. Wizard's sponsor. Regardless, it's an interesting little piece of tape, and I hope neither of the participants was harmed by radiation exposure!

Download: Unknown - General Electric Class on Radiation

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Now here's something I can hardly give you any information about at all, but maybe someone out there can decipher the piece of paper from the box, scanned below, or can understand the language here and tell us all what this is. I'm guessing this is a Japanese program, but if not, it is certainly a broadcast containing speaking and singing in some Asian language. I suspect this is a variety show. 

The rest of the tape was also in what appears to be the same language, and was almost certainly a recording of a television broadcast of a movie, but this section, at the beginning of the reel, was separated by two minute-long segments of white noise, before and after it. Then followed the movie broadcast. 

Here it is!

Download: Unknown - Unknown Asian Show

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Here's the card. The material above was on the side marked "B" (the A side was a very badly recorded concert)

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Here's a tape that doesn't fit the general theme (and again, this wasn't pre-planned, just something I noticed about almost everything I grabbed). And I could have sworn I shared this fun little tape years and years ago, but I can find no record of actually having done so. If it is somewhere out there, on this site or WFMU, maybe someone can let me know. 

Anyway, this is a direct line-in tape of a show that was broadcast at some point on the radio, a children's show hosted by someone named Larry Payne, titled "Safety Quiz". This show, as you'll hear, from schools in the Lenawee County area of Michigan, with this particular episode coming from a school in Hudson, MI. And I think that's all I need to say. 

Download: Larry Payne and Kids - Safety Quiz

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Now here's someone who is only slightly less unknown. His name is (or was) Howard, and in this Audio Letter - the beginning of which was erased, so it starts mid-thought - he makes some comments about being in the Armed Forces, and issues he is facing, and then goes on to discuss some of his favorite recent records. He then further goes on to share some of those records. This includes the fact that he is particularly taken with Louis Jordan's new style, and compares and contrasts Jordan's previous style and a somewhat more recent record, from 1952. However, other records he plays, including "Unchained Melody", pretty well date this actual letter and sharing of music to 1955. The sound quality is less than pristine here, but it's still worth a listen. 

Download: Howard Sends an Audio Letter About Being in the Armed Forces, Then Shares a Few Records

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On the flip side of this same tape is a brief audio letter back to Howard. It sounds like the recipients of the above tape responded to him using the same tape. The sound quality is decidedly better, and the lengthy is just about half of that of the above and this one is dated, confirming the 1955. As is so often the case on these early audio letters, there is considerable discussion of the actual recording of a tape and tape machines in general, before moving on to more general subjects. Another man speaks for a few minutes, and then the first man tests the microphone and sings a bit. Then it's over. 

Download: Brief Audio Letter to Howard, 7-24-55

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AND NOW!!!!

For all of you who have been waiting to hear a tape recording of a presentation in which a man demonstrates the wonders of a Mechanical Calculator - and I KNOW you're out there - here is just what you've been waiting for! This tape even has the benefit of having some interference by another recording at another speed, for the first 30 seconds or so. I'm sure I've made your day. You're welcome. 

Download: Unknown - Demonstrating a Mechanical Calculator

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Now it's time for our "Acetate of the Month". And this one keeps up the general theme of "lack of information". I again know nothing about this record, aside from that it was an unlabeled Audiodisc acetate, recorded at 33 1/3 RPM (which is fairly unusual for the acetates in my collection - most are 78s), and that it features a man with a British accent offering two bits of commentary, one called "A Cognac in the Morning", and the other, "The Gentle Art of Croquet":  

Download: Audiodisc Acetate - English Man Speaking - A Cognac In the Morning

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Download: Audiodisc Acetate - English Man Speaking - The Gentle Art of Croquet

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And finally, our "Very Short Reel" for this posting. And yet again, I've chosen something which has an air of mystery about it, in this case, the entire thing is a mystery. This short tape (just under three minutes) contains an unidentified woman singing a pompous, pretentious song, one which is also unidentified. She is singing to God about all the failings of man, and beseeching the Lord to.... well, I'm actually not sure what she is asking for.... The performance is full of spoken word segments, and the whole thing sounds like nothing so much as a Halmark label song-poem, the likes of which I have featured many times on my other blog - here are my Halmark label posts. 

Maybe someone out there knows who this is, and perhaps even the backstory. Whoever the people behind this are, they did manage to make a recording that does have something Godlike above it: It's Godawful. 

Download: Unknown Singer - Unknown Song

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A Tribute to an Old Friend, Stereo Demonstration, Brainwashing, Mood Music, Carla and Linda, and More!

I would like to start today's post with a bit of a tribute. It was shortly before I finished my last post, on Easter Sunday, that I learned that an old friend of mine had died in his sleep on the overnight going into Easter. I'll just refer to him Mako, as that's what all of us called him. He died after at least ten years of failing health, a period during which he lived in a nursing home, and unfortunately, I think I spoke to him only once, during that period, and didn't see him at all. 

I first met Mako when I was around 19 and he was around 13. He was unusually smart and witty for an early teen, and had broad and deep interests in many things. I remember arguing and discussing a variety of political issues with him a few years later, when we were, respectively, about 21 and 15 (what I had known and thought about any such issues at age 15 would have fit into a thimble). He was a self described "raconteur and bon vivant", and rarely has anyone described himself more accurately. He could speak extemporaneously about nearly any subject, and was rarely less than fascinating to be with.

I've written from time to time about the parties featuring improvised and planned comedy and music, which I was one of the driving forces behind, and which were held from 1983 until 1991, and again from 2004 until 2016 (and which perhaps will start up again!). Mako was a central part of these from the beginning. One of the things I've found myself quite good at is coming up with comedic concepts (and even character names) which I am unable to pull off myself, but for which I can often successfully figure out who else might make the idea "work". So it was at the first of these parties, when I suggested that Mako host an improved, fake revival meeting as a man with the old south in his bones, "The Reverend Billy Joe Bob Leghorn". It was a magnificent 20 minutes. He was all of 17 at the time. Mako and I were in and out of each other's lives between the late 1980's and the early 2010's, and when we were in touch, he attended these parties, and always played a central role when he was there. 

Eight years later, in 1991, it was, as it turns out, the last such party for 13 years, and Mako was again present. It was the smallest attended of these parties ever - only about eight of us there - but one of the best. As I sometimes did, I wrote a lengthy fake newscast, riffing off the stories of the day and simply playing with language to make jokes. I also usually wrote a few other things for my friends to read, as part of the newscast. This party occurred not long after the Clarence Thomas / Anita Hill story was in the news, and in response, I wrote what I think is one of the funniest bits of comedy I ever composed, a veritable string of double entendres about the matter. However, as good as it was, in Mako's hands, it became exponentially greater. He did a perfect job, and made it far funnier than I could of, or than anyone else I knew could of. I asked him simply to perform it in that same character, The Reverend Billy Joe Bob Leghorn. He took it and ran with it. It turned out to be the third and last time he would inhabit that faux preacher. 

This recording even fits with the theme of this site. All but the first two parties are preserved on videotape, so there is video of this performance. But being that I am a person who treasures high quality recordings, ALL of the parties have also been captured in reel to reel tape. 

That was sort of a long story, but Mako is worth it, and a lot more. Maybe someday I'll post his attempt (also my idea) to host a talk show parody, as the lead in "Mahatma!: The Mahatma Gandhi Show", from a 1985 party, or the other talk show parody he hosted (an idea cooked up by my younger child and me), in the persona of Mothra Bunsen, host of "Mothra Bunsen's Neck-Slappin' Good Time Hour" (maybe you had to be there...). But for now, here is his masterpiece - a rendition of a script I wrote called "The Missionary Position": 

Download: Mako (As the Rev Billy Joe Bob Leghorn) - The Missionary Position

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I'm ever so glad I got to know Mako, and that I had the opportunity to introduce him to so many others, who got to know him through the aforementioned parties. He brightened my life every time I was with him. 

~~

A short introduction for this next piece. Here is yet another of those Stereo Demonstration tapes which came with the newest of stereo tape recorders, in the years when such technology was new, roughly 1957 to 1961. You'll even get to hear "The Ceremony of the Keys". I'm sure the narrator, with his cultured English accent, was chosen for just the sort of style and finesse such a voice brings to mind when hearing such a demonstration. Interestingly enough, this tape did not come to me in its original box, and unlike every other demonstration tape I've heard, the narration doesn't seem to be promoting a specific brand of tape machine or record label's releases. This is quite unusual. But regardless, I don't know who produced this tape!

Download: A Journey Into Sound - Stereo Demonstration Tape

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Nearly 14 years ago, at WFMU's blog, I posted an interview with Edward Hunter, the man who coined the English language version of the term "Brainwashing". Today, I have another recording of Mr. Hunter, a lengthy speech given in Port Washington, New York. And that's all I have to say about it. 

Download: Edward Hunter - Speech on Brainwashing in Port Washington, New York

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This next tape, as you can see from this scan of part of the tape box, is labeled "Mood Music for Motion Pix": 

And I'm going to share it just as it plays off the reel, and identified under that title. And for more than 30 of its 40 plus minutes, I believe that's exactly what it is. But the first ten minutes don't really fit the description, nor do they seem of a piece with the rest of the tape. That section all seems to be its own segment, and I also think it is an example of what today would be called "World Music", and I'm not even going to hazard a guess as to what part of the world it is from. 

The rest really does sound like maybe someone compiled it for use with home movies or perhaps an amateur film, or perhaps even something else. 

Download: Mood Music for Motion Pix

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Here, maybe this will help. These four sheets of paper were contained within the box, stapled together in the order I've scanned them here. They certainly purport, I think, to describe in detail what's heard on this tape. But I can't match these various notes together in any way that makes sense, to the sounds heard on the tape. Perhaps some smart person (or people) out there can figure it out and educate me. 

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Now, here's a tape featuring sisters Carla and Linda, singing a wide variety of music. It's dated from December of 1959, and February and May of 1960. Not surprisingly, the early parts of the tape are dominated by Christian and/or Christmas songs (not all of the latter being of a religious nature), but then the rest of the tape is filled with everything from nonsense songs to folk songs and even a pair of songs from the German opera Hansel and Gretel, as well as some re-written Mozart. 

Along the way, the girls' father interviews them a few times, and we learn that for Linda's 1960 birthday party, the family went to Fanny's Famous Restaurant, which was a legendary spot on the north side of Evanston, IL, well known for its unique salad dressing and unique spin on spaghetti, giving us a good idea of where these girls were growing up. 

I figure these girls are somewhere close to 70 years old now. 

Download: Carla and Linda - Singing and Talking, December, 1959 to May, 1960

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And now, here's something I've wanted to do for a while. I have no idea if it will popular or not, but if you're of a mind to, please tell me. I'm simply going to share both sides of a home recorded variety reel - a tape which appears to all come from the same person or family, which contains a variety of different types of recordings made around the house, live as they lived, or off of the radio or records, or, as on the first side, perhaps by someone who carted their recorder to a singing lesson or performance. I do not know anything about the people heard on this tape, aside from some names which crop up on the second side. 

The first side is about a dozen minutes shorter than the second side because the opening musical performances were recorded at 15 IPS while the rest of the tape was recorded at 7 1/2 IPS. The names of the files explain very well what is contained on each side. 

Again, let me know if you're interested in more of this sort of "slice of someone's life" thing. 

Download: A Home Recorded Variety Reel, Side 1 - A Soprano Rehearses, Pop Songs, Trumpet Practice, Talking and Singing

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Download: A Home Recorded Variety Reel, Side 2 - Home Recordings and Radio Broadcasts - Piano, Hawaiian Songs, A Soprano On the Air, A Bit of Talking

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And now it's time for our "Very Short Reel". This is all that was recorded on a full, 1200 foot reel of tape - the rest was never used. I think it's self explanatory. 

Download: "Not Plugged In"

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