My Brother's Demo Tape, Rocketing Rhythms, Linda Grows Up, A Florida Aircheck, Bob and Reuben, Partying at the Firm, and an Exceptionally Bad Break-In

Hello everyone, 

I really do intend to return to twice a month posting on this site, and hope to begin that in November. I've just been extremely busy, have been out of town a bit and quite honestly am just a bit unnerved to sign into my google account (which is where I write this blog) and other accounts on my main computer, the one where I have to do most of the work on this site, after my recent hacking experience. But I think everything is secure now. Here's hoping.  

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I wanted to start off with something that is very special to me, and that I sort of forgot that I had until last month. I have mentioned before that my brother Bill was a professional musician, a field he left behind in his 50's for a variety of reasons. But right out of the box, at around age 20, he started getting work writing, arranging and singing on commercials in his hometown at the time, Miami. And by age 21, he had a short demo reel of the various ads and jingles he had worked on. 

Oddly enough, a few of these are for Chicago area businesses, including the radio station jingle that starts off the tape (but which was obviously then recycled for use by another station in Miami). I would also guarantee that's Bill on the trumpet (or perhaps it's a flugelhorn) on a couple of the ads. A couple of the instrumental segments were made, if I recall correctly, for a "Supermarket Sweep" type show.0 

Most of the vocal cuts on this tape feature Bill's then-future wife, who he had met not long before these ads were made, and who became well known for a very short period at the end of the decade. I am choosing not to name her here, because of the inexcusable things she did that ended their marriage after nearly 25 years. 

Sadly, my brother, now age 72, has been suffering from frontotemporal dementia since at least 2022, and possibly longer, and is in the latter stages of this disease in a memory care facility. I'm sure I will pull together a tribute to him - especially the years we joyously spent recording together during childhood, at some future point. 

Download: Bill's Commercial Demo Reel, Circa 1975

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I came across a very interesting tape in my collection last month, a tape containing multiple episodes - variously hosted by two different deejays - of a show called "Rocketing Rhythms". This show featured the hits of the day, in what I found to be a very idiosyncratic style. The songs aren't played based on chart position, although that week's chart positions of most of the tunes is mentioned. They are more or less at random, with song in the current top ten being played along side songs in the 60's of the chart and even songs debuting that week. The show is dated 3/14/61, and the chart being used is the Cash Box chart, which I have confirmed with the chart of 3/11/61 as found on this magnificent site, which is truly one of the best sites ever put up onto the internet. 

The host of this episode is Jack Brown. Other episodes on the same tape are hosted by Darryl Drier (I have no idea if I'm spelling that correctly - I couldn't find anything out about him). This is a great little time capsule. 

Download: Armed Forces Radio - Jack Brown's Rocketing Rhythms, 3-14-61

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Here's the inside of the tape box with all of the dates of the shows available: 

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I thought this next tape was very sweet and worth sharing. Linda was born at the end of 1950, and around her eighth birthday, her father recorded her playing a few simple piano pieces and singing "Silent Night". And then, for the next four years (well, 1/1/63 filling in for December of 1962), he recorded her again, showing her increasing abilities, and at one point, her early efforts on clarinet and console organ. It's a minor pleasure, to be sure, but exactly the sort of thing I am always very pleased to fine on a reel. 

Download: Linda Plays and Sings as She Grows Up, 1958-1963

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I also recently found that I have three tapes in my collection that feature someone named Paul Deen, I've labeled these "Airchecks", but I'm not at all sure that they aren't manufactured - fake - airchecks, meant to show off his abilities, both as a deejay and in the songs he mixed together in his playlist. There is a WDLV jingle mixed in there, so maybe this is real, but something about the whole thing sounds canned to me. I'll share the others later, unless someone begs me not to. 

Download: Paul Deen Aircheck # 1 on WDLV, Stereo 59, Panama City, FL

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This was in the box: 

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I don't know who Bob and Reuben are (or were), but here they are, according to the tape box, with a bit of rehearsing and then a live performance. And that's all I know. 

Download: Bob and Reuben Rehearse and then Play Live

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Here are both sides of a small reel of tape that nonetheless holds quite a bit of sound. It was recorded at the slow speed of 1 7/8 IPS. One side contains what sounds to me like a variety show or talent show, the contents of which suggest to me that it involved the employees of a legal organization. The flip side is labeled "Firm Party, 12/5/74" and no doubt, that's what it is. 

Download: Some Sort of Variety Show - Possibly Put On By a Legal Organization

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Download: "Firm Party, 12-5-74"

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Before I sign off with an awful "Very Short Reel", I wanted to throw a bone to all of you who have been clamoring for some lectures from the General Services Administration, particularly those who are insistent that I share the lecture - number nine in the Fat Absorption in Disease series, it seems - on Medium Chain Triglycerides. Well, folks, here's your long distance dedication: 

Download: General Services Administration - Fat Absorption in Disease - Lecture Nine - Medium Chain Triglyceride

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Finally, a Very Short Reel™. 

And a Very Long and Unnecessary Rant©. Feel free to speak to the sound file. 

I really can't stand Break-In Records. Those are the alleged comedy 45s, pioneered by Buchanan and Goodman in 1956, where a series of questions are answered by clips from current hit songs. I don't think they take any particular talent - with the lyrics already available, the material writes itself. "ooh, Elton John is singing 'I'm a Bitch'.... what question can I ask to have that be the answer. Ecch. 

I find it much funnier to use existing songs and replace the words with words from other songs or from spoken word records, in sort of a musical Mad Libs creation, with totally unexpected replacements and in which you never know what's coming next. I heard them from a few friends who were doing them when I was around 20, started doing them myself, and have subsequently come across others who do them, each person with his or her own style. I find these to often be very creative and usually funny. 

No Break-In record has ever made me laugh. Many of what I call "Cut-Ups", done by me and by others, I find hysterical. For a while I was featuring my own work in this area on my other blog, and the one I think may be best of all can be heard, if you're interested, in this post. If you enjoy that, do a search within that blog for "Cut-Ups" and you'll find a bunch more. 

Anyway, I'm sure not a single reader/listener cares, and you'll therefore be happy to hear that my Break-In rant is over. But here's a new rant. If I find Break-Ins exceptionally mindless, and the making of them frightfully easy, and I surely do, I can barely find words to describe my thoughts on a Break-In where the creator can't even pull off the simple task at hand - one which is completely devoid of anything where I can say "yeah, someone who likes break-ins would find that funny". And I found exactly that sort of Break-In on a tape recently. This was no doubt made not long after the Beatles landed on American soil, as it utilizes, almost exclusively, the album (and a mangled album it is, too), "Meet the Beatles". Here, for your dining and dancing pleasure, is Richard McAllen with his creation. Don't bust a gut. 

Download: Richard McAllen - An Awful Attempt at a Break-In, Mostly Using "Meet the Beatles"

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