February 9th Potpourri: Joe Gerossi, His Friends, and More!

I see by the calendar that it's February 9th. This marks the 56th anniversary of the Beatles' first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show - can you believe it?

And as I have no particular theme for today's posts, I'll label it a potpourri.

But first - as some of you know, I also write a blog which is largely about the wholly American side-show to the music industry known as song-poems. And I am happy to announce that I have been invited to be part of yet another podcast, this one focusing on 25 of my own personal favorite song-poem and song-poem related records. This has been in the works for over six months, and the podcaster, Brian Kramp, and I finally did the interview late in January. The podcast can be heard here and here, and if you want to see the list of songs, it can be found here (the list is in reverse order, from 25 up, with a section near the top of a handful of song-poem related discs (which are not actually song poems). It's all explained in the show.

But let's get back to the reel to reel thang:

My prime offering for the day is something of a potpourri all on its own. And while I found it strangely entertaining, I can certainly understand if others tire of it quickly, or even gradually. It's a home recording (well, at least parts of it seem to have been recorded in a barber shop, actually), featuring a handful of people speaking, complicated at times by both a.) repeated decisions to erase existing recordings, often mid-sentence, and b.) even more so a poorly functioning reel to reel machine.

The dominant speaker for much of the tape is a barber named Joe Gerossi, who seems to have fashioned himself as something of a dry wit, and you can decide for yourself how accurate that is. After a bit of speaking, we get to hear some homey (and homely) music for the next eight minutes or so, although a short discussion of how long a soldier has to be stay in the army pops up near the end.

After a moment with a small child, Mr. Gerossi interviews a client of his barbershop, then we enter a lengthy section where he attempt to interact with a Myna Bird, with virtually no success. The disorienting thing here - and which makes it sort of fascinating to me - is that he is recording over a previous attempt to do the same sort of recording, and it would appear that his machine wasn't working well, because the old recording is bleeding through, sort of like a fun-house mirror version of what we're listening to. It also helps that every now and then the speed of the recording falters. There is also, regrettably, some harmonica playing here and there. A very odd segment.

Then, at about the 24 minute mark, another voice takes over, not identified, doing some extremely ineffective sounding fast-speak hypnotism. And again, this is rendered fairly disorienting because Joe and his monologues about the Myna are three-quarters erased but still audible behind much of this five minute portion.

Someone sings "Chantilly Lace" (perhaps dating this tape to 1958?) and then Mr. Gerossi returns, getting a couple of responses from the Myna Bird, but not much. All too soon (or perhaps far too late) the tape ends just beyond the 32 minute mark.

Download: Joe Gerossi and Friends - Various Recordings
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Switching gears so severely as to be essentially in a completely different type of vehicle, here's a short hunk of tape containing multiple attempts at getting some opening and closing music JUST right, for a show called "Stars in Action", which multiple sources tell me aired on CBS during the 1958-59 TV season. It was, oddly, a program of repeats of a CBS show from earlier in the decade, shown under this new title, and part of CBS' fall lineup for 1958. I wonder if that's been done before or since.

These largely sound interchangeable to me - in fact, these sound canned, rather than live - but clearly they had something specific in mind. My favorite moment is the little moment of confusion and slight laughter at about 3:03.

Download: CBS Film Services - "Stars in Action", Main and End Titles
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Next up, more Beautiful Music. Last month's posting of some vintage elevator music programming got a few responses, and by chance, I happened across another tape of the same sort of thing a few days after posting that segment. In this case, it's from a then-hugely popular station, WCLR here in Chicago, which sometimes called itself "W-Clear". This reel - both sides of a 1200 foot tape are heard - seems to be from the very earliest days of January, 1972, based on a few of the references to college football and the business stories of 1971, among other things. The most interesting parts of this for me are the breaks for commercials and business (and other) news. There is a brief break at the change of tape sides, and at least one other spot where the person recording this material turned the machine off and back on again, missing a short bit of the broadcast.

Download: WCLR, Chicago - Beautiful Music Circa January, 1972, Side One
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Download: WCLR, Chicago - Beautiful Music Circa January, 1972, Side Two
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And finally, it's time to enjoy another of my myriad "Very Short Reels". Here's a 1998 ad for Ed Schmidt's Used Car Superstore, in Perryburg, Ohio, an ad titled "Regional Used Car Selloff". This aired on station WBUZ, which was a station in nearby (and tiny) Delta, Ohio at the time.

Download: Ed Schmidt - Regional Used Car Selloff
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