Happy Post Valentine Day!
I have five disparate tapes for you today, as the title of the post may indicate.
First up is what strikes me as a fairly low-rent superhero parody, called "Pantywaist!". It's somewhat along the lines of "Chickenman", which some of you may be familiar with, but with none of the wit or style of that creation. (Based on the opening lines, this may actually be a parody of that parody.) Plus, it makes frequent use of Stan Freberg's yell from the start of "The Yellow Rose of Texas", without permission, I'm sure, but even more so, without any apparent reason.
These particular episodes ran on college radio station WNUR, out of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. It's not clear to me if someone at WNUR created these, or if they were syndicated. I've been unable to find out anything about this program online.
This is offered up mostly as a curiosity piece - interesting, and certainly unimaginably rare, and with a few fun moments, but... not very good.
Download: "Pantywaist!" - Three Episodes from WNUR, Evanston
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From a different world entirely comes an almost painfully sweet tape, utterly guileless, in which a grandfather records a series of nursery rhymes and stories for his granddaughter, Jean Ellen, to be sent to her on her first birthday. Grandpa's choices are rather esoteric at times, to say the least, starting with a version of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" that I've certainly never heard - in fact, aside from the tune of that song, I've never heard ANY of this material before.
There follows a very darling audio letter from Grandpa to the baby. His light accent (not sure where it marks him as being from) adds to the sweetness of the entire tape.
The second half of this 16 minute tape is actually a fairly standard audio letter from Grandpa (and a bit from Grandma) to the adults in Jean Ellen's home, a section which, for whatever reason, becomes steadily softer and softer until the tape runs out, just before Grandpa appears to have been ready to wrap things up.
This is one of my favorite recent discoveries.
Download: A Tape for Jean Ellen, on Her First Birthday, From Grandpa
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And now, here is yet another audio letter from our friend in Japan, in this case from late October of 1968. I remain unclear if this person was just a student, or was in some way also a soldier, and if not, what he was doing in Japan. If anyone has any guesses or insights, I'd love to hear them.
By this point, our young man in Japan had been taking to recording music in the right channel while talking on the left channel. I find this quite distracting, especially on a couple of the tapes where the music is louder than his voice (which is not the case here), but mostly, it's distracting to me because it tends to be fairly horrid 1960's MOR drivel. I mean, for God's sake, when he made this tape, "Hey Jude" was the number one record around the world, and he's treating us to the likes of The Lettermen.
Download: Audio Letter from a Student-Soldier in Japan, 10/20/68
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For what it's worth, here is the tape box for this tape. Most of the writing is worn away, but you can see the postmark:
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And now, let's drop in on the Miller Clan, at some unknown time, date and place, who are enjoying their third reunion. The audio record of this shindig is mighty short, almost short enough to be a "very short reel", because, as you will hear, after a few voices are recorded, no one really wants to talk much.
Download: The Third Reunion of the Miller Clan
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And here's something that will be familiar to anyone who grew up being able to hear the clear channel of WLS, Chicago, the Big 89, across the 40-some states where their signal could be heard, back when they were a rock and roll powerhouse. And if you haven't heard it, you've heard it referenced and parodied.
I present to you today's "Very Short Reel". Here, in all its glory, is an original SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY ad for US 30 Drag Strip!
Download: US 30 Drag Strip Ad
Play:
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