The Return of Lance Shepard, A Soldier in Germany, 1951 Up and Down the Dial, Rehearsing Some Songs and 1981 MOR Radio

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!

I have a media-heavy posting this time around, with three of the six items containing material that was on the radio airwaves at some point, and nothing remotely connected to ghosts or goblins.  

Deejay demo tapes seem to be pretty popular, so I'll start with one of those. I seem to have picked up multiple tapes from the collection of the well traveled Lance Shepard (AKA Bill Brown), at some point, and have shared one of his reels before. Here is another one, from that bicentennial summer (and at least for some of it, if not all of it, from that bicentennial day) of 1976, from a town that already existed in 1776, Waterbury, Connecticut, "Supermusic C-O", otherwise known as WWCO. Here's about twelve minutes of nearly 40 year old, "scoped" Lance Shepard.

Download: Lance Shepard Demo Reel from 1240 Supeemusic C-O, Waterbury, Connecticut, July, 1976

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For those who like audio letters, here's one that I found particularly interesting. It's from a soldier stationed in Germany (with his family), recorded off and on for three months. At the start, the tape is nicely dated to March of 1970, as the soldier mentions that year's NIT and NCAA basketball finals having occurred that day. Later, his son joins him. By the end of the tape, he has learned that he is being sent to Vietnam, but has a lengthy break in between, during which he will be returning to the states, during which time he will be finding and buying a house for his family, as they will not be going with him. 

Download: Audio Letter from a Soldier in Germany, Recorded from March to June, 1970

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Here's part of the tape box: 

I have at least one other tape of this soldier - let me know if you are interested in hearing that one. 

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I've labeled the next one "Media Hodgepodge, circa October, 1951". It begins with a couple of Country & Western numbers. These are "Rainbow in My Heart", and, after a moment of a commercial (which is then cut), an upbeat, accordion driven version of (of all things) "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". Then we get a bit of an ad for Royal Pudding, before the recording switches to "The Camel Caravan" starring Vaughn Monroe. The songs chosen for this program include a thoroughly awful of "The World is Waiting for the Sunrise". (As an aside, I will never, ever, understand the appeal of Vaughn Monroe's voice.)

At just after the ten minute point, the real hodgepodge begins. We hear the end of a spoken word ad then a sung good morning jingle, then the station is changed repeatedly. We repeatedly hear moments of the masterful - perfect - version of "The World is Waiting for the Sunrise" by Les Paul and Mary Ford, a weather forecast (it's October 17th), what seem to be part of two different newscasts and a community events calendar fading in and out (as well as, briefly, yet another song). A Freddy Martin record is introduced and we momentarily hear two songs at once, before the final section, featuring a man with the moralistic fervor of the typical anti-communists of the day. When he all the terrible things that always occur whenever forms of socialism are in place, I have to wonder if he had any idea about the ways that many of the Native American tribes lived before the Europeans arrived. But maybe that's just me. 

Download: Media Hodgepodge, circa October, 1951

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For those of you who enjoy men rehearsing arias and songs, here is a man rehearsing arias and songs. It's called "A Man Rehearses Arias and Songs". I hope that makes things clear enough. 

Download: A Man Rehearses Arias and Songs

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And now, the good news is I have a nice, long musical aircheck from an American radio station. The bad news is that's from 1981 - not the best year for rock and roll, if you ask me, and what's worse, it's not from a rock and roll station. It's from an Adult Contemporary station. BORING!!! But it's a complete recording of over two hours, with commercials and newscasts and DJ patter intact. The station was in South Bend, Indiana and was called WTHQ (it's now WNSN). The ongoing discussion of whether the space shuttle would launch, as mentioned throughout these two-plus hours, very definitely dates this tape to November 4th of that year, as does the segment about how Guy Fawkes Day is coming up the following day. That's almost exactly 44 years ago! Here's that tape. 

Download: WTHQ, South Bend, IN, 11-4-81

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And as (almost) always, here's a very short reel. This is all that was on this particular 1200 foot reel, one which came housed in a VERY early Scotch design box - the type sold around 1951-52, but the recording cannot be from before 1956 or so, as that's when the latter of the two songs heard premiered.  The songs are sung by a woman, a cappella. That slightly "newer" song is "Around the World" from the film of a similar title, and is heard first, after which are some warblings of "Many a New Day" from "Oklahoma". All in just under four minutes. 

Download: A Couple of A Cappella Show Tunes

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All About the Grand Canyon, The NWB Show (Whatever That Was), A Life Insurance Speech (OOO, Pinch Me!), A Singer Rehearses, A Couple Celebrates and More

I have a bunch of comments, observations and insights that have been received recently, that I planned to start off this post with, but I've been working on this one for five days and want to get it posted. But I thank everyone who has written in, and I will get to them next time. 

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Let's start with a reel made, presumably, by a teacher. It sounds like she was in the Phoenix area, and she opens the tape by explaining why she wants to show local students a film about The Grand Canyon - some of them have never seen it and may not even know much about it. There follows her narration for the film, accompanied by a musical score. This being audio only, we can't see it, of course. I hope all readers out there have had a chance to see it. 

Download: Grand Canyon Film Introduction and Narration

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And here, for your dining and dancing pleasure, are the some folks, also in Phoenix, heard on the tape for ten minutes after the Grand Canyon narration, sitting around and chatting about all manner of things. Conversations about a few government programs and issues, including Head Start, as well as a mention of the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, pretty effectively date this to the mid 1960's, and no earlier than late 1965. 

Download: Conversation In Arizona Circa Mid 1960's (After the Grand Canyon Film Narration)

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This next tape comes in a box that looks like this: 

And that is all I know about it. This is a neat little tape. It contains a series of relatively short songs, sung by a few men and a few women, accompanied by piano, each track "banded", that is, separated by white leader tape. This is pretty clearly a recording of songs from some sort of performance, but this is not the performance - this is probably a demo or a studio rendition of the show. There are also a few very short tracks - sound effects here, a commercial there. There are a few rough places in the tape, where he jams a bit and/or where there are splices which cut out a moment of sound. I have no idea what this is. Anyone out there have any idea? 

Download: Dub of NWB Show, 10-20-59 - For Club Page (Final Tape)

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Perhaps you would prefer, though, to listen to a 28 minute speech from roughly 53 years ago, given by Tony Cortellessa, to the Franklin Life Insurance Company. If so, BOY ARE YOU IN LUCK!!!:

Download: Tony Cortellessa Speaks to the Franklin Life Insurance Company, 9-11-72

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Here is someone named Eve - I think so, anyway, doing a variety of stage-musical-type songs, including some from the show "Oliver!". The tape box is written on sort of haphazardly. I don't know if that says "Eve Many Songs" or "Eve <her last name> Songs. I think it's "many".

What do you think? And let me know if you want to hear more of people rehearsing songs (or less, for that matter). I have quite a few.

Download: Eve Practices Several Songs with Piano - January 30

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This next one is labeled like this: 

That's a mouthful, and rather than offering comments, I'll let you experience its charms, whatever you find (or don't find) them to be. One warning - after a really quiet section, the tape suddenly gets REALLY LOUD at 21:15. Be prepared. 

Download: Johnson-Mort Wedding Anniversaries, November 5, 1960, at the Miller Home

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And now it's time for our "Acetate of the Month". In this month's episode, Joan records a song ("Always in My Heart") for her absent husband Edward (with Gladys on piano) and then talks to him about how much he is missed. Someone named Jean then sends her love to Tom (who was apparently with Edward). Nothing was written on this acetate so I can't really tell you anything more about it. 

Download: Black and Silver Metal Acetate - Joan Sings a Song for Her Husband and Talks

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Today's "Very Short Reel" is actually another excerpt, which is a cheat, but I really wanted to share this segment. 

First, a little story. When I was little, we had a miniature player piano thingee. I don't quite remember how big it was, or what happened to it, but it had genuine (little) player piano rolls and they really did make it play the way a full sized one does - it was almost more like a music box, due to its size. 

In case you don't know how player piano rolls work, they have spots on the sheet of paper which correspond to all 88 keys on the piano, and there is a hole punched for every note that is to be played. I believe they were made by someone actually playing the piano attached to a machine that would poke the holes, and then additional holes would often be made to add embellishments. There are piano rolls "cut" by Scott Joplin which contain embellishments that render performances that no single pianist could actually ever play. 

As you might imagine, tearing extra holes in the piano roll results in extra notes being played. And, in fact, one of our little piano rolls developed a large tear near the center but off to one side a bit, right near the start of the piece. When you fed that one into the machine, it played the first five seconds or so of the piece, then about 20 keys all slammed their tones, not quite together, but roughly the way you might think a piano falling over might sound. It was quite humorous. 

So anyway.... I found a tape someone made in 1953, capturing a series of player piano rolls fed through their player piano, interspersed with what were, even then, ancient 78 RPM releases. And two of the piano rolls clearly had the same issue as the one we owned. 

What you'll hear here is the woman who introduces all of the rolls and 78's on the tape, introducing the next piano roll, and then the entire roll - well most of it: it would appear that the end of it was damaged and then, most likely, torn off completely before the piece ends. You can hear the woman giggle a little as the odd sounds retreat. I laughed out loud. There is just something devastatingly hilarious about the way it shudders to a stop after such musical eloquence, to that point, as if an actual pianist had been playing and suddenly dropped dead, mid phrase. 

A man then speaks briefly about the wonderful weather they are having - exactly 72 years ago tomorrow, as I post this (wow). Then the woman introduces another piano roll, and THAT one is damaged a few seconds into the song, then is fine from that point on. This second one sounds just like the piano roll we had, with a moment of good music, a few moments of complete mayhem, and then the rest of it is normal again. I've faded it after the goofy part. I hope this makes you laugh as much as it does me. Every... single... time. 

Download: Short Excerpt from a Tape of Piano Roll (with comments on the Weather) - 10-18-53

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