Today, from my vast collection of tapes which come from the world of advertising, is a set of musical productions, many of which seem to fall somewhere between advertising and things which were, perhaps "on the road" to becoming advertising. Most, but not all, are just about a minute long. Many feature variations on the same melody - perhaps someone out there recognizes it. The last few tapes also feature the repeats of a melody - a different one!
This is a 22 1/2 minute reel which came in a box simply labeled "Radio Commercials". Here is what you'll hear.
1.) A guitar led instrumental, which leads into some wordless vocals for its second half.
2.) A lengthy ad about the Buxton company, and it's leather products. This is a medley of songs, nearly all set to tunes belonging to the pop songs from the late 1960's. Given that every tune here was a hit by the end of 1969, my guess is that this is from around that period. But where would this have been used - it's about 3 1/2 minutes long! Was this from an industrial show?
3.) A jazzy instrumental.
4.) A flute-led, Latin tinged instrumental, on essentially the same tune as above.
5.) A laid-back guitar/piano solo number.
6.) A horn driven jazz-pop thang.
7.) A mid-tempo samba instrumental
8.) Another light Latin thing with xylophone.
9.) A rooty-toot 1920's pastiche.
10.) A small combo, Dixieland number. This one is nearly two minutes long.
11.) Another jazzy, trumpet led number.
12.) Ibid. This one, again, is almost two minutes long, and features the same melody.
13.) The same melody again, in yet another setting.
14. ) A Dixieland number, which seems to have been recorded off of a record, unless I'm mistaken.
15.) A "beautiful music" setting, led by trombone and guitar. This is also one of the longer ones.
16.) A similar "beautiful music" setting of the same tune as the previous track, and again, a long one.
Does anyone have any insight into what these, varied length music beds would have been for. Enough of them are far too long to be for commercials. And what is that lengthy Buxton thing doing mixed in?
Download: Unknown - An Unusual Set of Music Beds and An Ad
Play:
As an extra treat, here's a short bit of tape from another reel. It's another music bed, in this case, a cute, hoedown flavored thing, a lot more fun, to my ears, than any of the 15 instrumental tracks above. After it's over, there is a separate little tag, which may or may not be for the same ad, and then, just a moment of whatever the hoedown music was erasing, something featuring a lovely vibraphone.
Download: Unknown - Unidentified Hoedown Music
Play:
Turn on the reel to reel tape recorder. Take the tape out of the box. Put the empty reel on the right spindle, and the full reel on the left spindle. Wind the tape through the mechanisms - including the pinch rollers, the capstan and the rest. The tape is pressed against the heads and moves at a certain number of inches per second. Start the machine. And sometimes... if you're lucky... magic comes spilling out of the speakers. That magic is what I hope to share here.
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
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I enjoyed the hoedown a lot, and also dug the intro bossa nova thing a lot. The lyrics for the Buxton industrial cracked me up, too. thanks!
ReplyDeleteSomething seems rotten in my part of Denmark... Player won't load, download won't work.
ReplyDeleteAll A-OK & working properly, now. Thanx, Bob.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThanks again, Bob. I do enjoy your eclectic archives :)