Some Rare Monty Python, More Australian Shortwave, Mr. Handy and a REALLY Long Tape Few Are Likely to Listen To

Hello everyone, 

I hope you've had a wonderful summer, unless you're in the Southern Hemisphere (like some of the people featured today), in which case I hope you start to have a swell spring soon.

Today I have something I believe to be quite rare. Although I can find a few dozen places online where this recording is referenced, I have been unable to find anywhere that this actual recording is posted or otherwise available. I may have missed something, in which case perhaps this is not as rare as I thought, but even if so, I'm making it available more readily here, I hope, and for free. 

This comes from one of my own home recorded reels, which I am slowly going through to find out their contents. And I've worked my way up to tapes made in 1976, the year I turned 16, and more to the point, perhaps 18 months after my mother and I became extremely early American converts to Monty Python (as I explained partway through this extremely long post). This is, specifically, a recording of the troupe's appearance on the King Biscuit radio show, in May of 1976. 

This performance is from the same series of shows (and same venue, of course) as was released on the "Live at City Center" album that also came out in 1976, with two significant differences. First, it is a different performance - this probably amounts to the most minor of changes from the released album (I haven't compared them), but it is a different show. And second, and perhaps more importantly, it contains a very humorous and self-depreciating introduction from John Cleese. 

I hope that all Python fans enjoy this recording. 

Download: Monty Python's Flying Circus Live - On King Biscuit Flower Hour - 5-9-76

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The other recording on the same tape is less rare. It's an appearance of some of the troupe on "The Mike Douglas Show" that same week in May of 1976. There is a video of part of this appearance on YouTube. It is not the entire segment heard below, and it is in poor video and audio quality, but it is there. This, on the other hand, is the entire appearance, obviously without video but with much better sound quality (although my mom chimes in at one point to explain what's happening). 

Unfortunately, a good part of the visit is taken up with clips from the show and from the movie they were promoting ("The Holy Grail"), presumably to help the squares who watched Mike Douglas get an idea of what and who the Monty Python trouble was. Doubly unfortunate, John Cleese and Graham Chapman - the heart and soul of the troupe, in my opinion, are not present for the interview (Eric Idle isn't there either, but he was always - by far - the weak link of the troupe, for me, anyway). 

Download: Monty Python's Flying Circus Promote "The Holy Grail" On the Mike Douglas Show, 5-14-76

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~~

Somewhere along the line I managed to acquire a whole bunch of someone's tapes of Australian shortwave broadcasts from the 1960's and 1970's. My un-listened-to tapes in my basement have gotten jumbled around several times over the years, so a lot of collections which were once stacked all in one place are now scattered amongst the stacks down there. And so it is that this week, I found yet another tape of Australian shortwave recordings. The recordings only include the day of the week and the date, not the year, but based on those days and dates, and the contents of the broadcasts, I am surmising the first of these to be from September of 1968 and the other to be from nearly exactly two years later. 

The 1968 recording starts off difficult to hear and grows progressively worse - this is not an easy to listen to tape - such are the vagaries of listening to short wave broadcasts. The 1970 tape is considerably clearer in sound quality. 

Download: Australian Shortwave, 9-23-68

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Download: Australian Shortwave, 9-12-70

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~~

Okay, now here's a segment that perhaps only the masochistic among you might listen to. But I listened to all five hours plus of it, so I'll be damned if I'm not going to do something with it. But it is tedious and endless. 

I don't know what exactly was going on here, but what seems to be small group of friends/acquaintances spend nearly four and a half hours (in the first segment), singing songs, some of them multiple times during that length of time, accompanied by a few musicians. A lot of these are old, old songs, some of them probably fairly recent to whenever this was recorded. At one point, there is a lengthy break for what sounds like a meal, and it becomes clear that there are also a few children present. For a good period of time there is no singing and the soft conversations are hard to pick up at time. Then it's back to the singing, which is followed at the end by some goodbyes and final conversations. Enjoy? 

Download: A Group of People Sing a Lot of Songs (and Talk a Lot) for a Really Long Time

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When that segment ends, the tape immediately reverts to what was being erased by that lengthy recording, and that was, MORE recordings seemingly featuring the same people, or at least a similar gang of folks. There seem to be two recordings here, of differing sound quality, and they make up another 40 minutes plus of the same sort of things heard in the other, longer segment, including a lot of the same songs. 

I'm not even going to speculate as to what the event was or who these people are/were. I'm just glad I wasn't there. 

Download: A Few More (Much Shorter) Segments with the Same People

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~~

Well, after that heavy and unappetizing meal, how about some lovely dessert. Our "Very Short Reel" features a radio announcer trying - and most of the time failing - to record a few ads for an apparently legendary and much loved business in Springfield, Ohio, "Mr. Handy", complete with hard-sell backing music. This business just closed five months ago, after 45 years in business

Download: Unknown - Recording Mr. Handy Commercials

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~~

And finally, a mint on your pillow for getting all the way through this post. This doesn't really qualify as a "Very Short Reel", even though it's only 66 seconds long; it was pulled out of a 75 minute tape of (mostly) classical music recorded off of the radio at some point in the 1950's, probably the early 1950's. I faded in and faded out this segment, which was buried deep in the second side of this tape. It is simply a moment that made me laugh, and I decided to excerpt it here and share it with you. What's are the call letters of that station, do you say? And that's all I'll say. 

Download: A Humorous Moment

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A Tribute to an Old Friend, Stereo Demonstration, Brainwashing, Mood Music, Carla and Linda, and More!

I would like to start today's post with a bit of a tribute. It was shortly before I finished my last post, on Easter Sunday, that I learned that an old friend of mine had died in his sleep on the overnight going into Easter. I'll just refer to him Mako, as that's what all of us called him. He died after at least ten years of failing health, a period during which he lived in a nursing home, and unfortunately, I think I spoke to him only once, during that period, and didn't see him at all. 

I first met Mako when I was around 19 and he was around 13. He was unusually smart and witty for an early teen, and had broad and deep interests in many things. I remember arguing and discussing a variety of political issues with him a few years later, when we were, respectively, about 21 and 15 (what I had known and thought about any such issues at age 15 would have fit into a thimble). He was a self described "raconteur and bon vivant", and rarely has anyone described himself more accurately. He could speak extemporaneously about nearly any subject, and was rarely less than fascinating to be with.

I've written from time to time about the parties featuring improvised and planned comedy and music, which I was one of the driving forces behind, and which were held from 1983 until 1991, and again from 2004 until 2016 (and which perhaps will start up again!). Mako was a central part of these from the beginning. One of the things I've found myself quite good at is coming up with comedic concepts (and even character names) which I am unable to pull off myself, but for which I can often successfully figure out who else might make the idea "work". So it was at the first of these parties, when I suggested that Mako host an improved, fake revival meeting as a man with the old south in his bones, "The Reverend Billy Joe Bob Leghorn". It was a magnificent 20 minutes. He was all of 17 at the time. Mako and I were in and out of each other's lives between the late 1980's and the early 2010's, and when we were in touch, he attended these parties, and always played a central role when he was there. 

Eight years later, in 1991, it was, as it turns out, the last such party for 13 years, and Mako was again present. It was the smallest attended of these parties ever - only about eight of us there - but one of the best. As I sometimes did, I wrote a lengthy fake newscast, riffing off the stories of the day and simply playing with language to make jokes. I also usually wrote a few other things for my friends to read, as part of the newscast. This party occurred not long after the Clarence Thomas / Anita Hill story was in the news, and in response, I wrote what I think is one of the funniest bits of comedy I ever composed, a veritable string of double entendres about the matter. However, as good as it was, in Mako's hands, it became exponentially greater. He did a perfect job, and made it far funnier than I could of, or than anyone else I knew could of. I asked him simply to perform it in that same character, The Reverend Billy Joe Bob Leghorn. He took it and ran with it. It turned out to be the third and last time he would inhabit that faux preacher. 

This recording even fits with the theme of this site. All but the first two parties are preserved on videotape, so there is video of this performance. But being that I am a person who treasures high quality recordings, ALL of the parties have also been captured in reel to reel tape. 

That was sort of a long story, but Mako is worth it, and a lot more. Maybe someday I'll post his attempt (also my idea) to host a talk show parody, as the lead in "Mahatma!: The Mahatma Gandhi Show", from a 1985 party, or the other talk show parody he hosted (an idea cooked up by my younger child and me), in the persona of Mothra Bunsen, host of "Mothra Bunsen's Neck-Slappin' Good Time Hour" (maybe you had to be there...). But for now, here is his masterpiece - a rendition of a script I wrote called "The Missionary Position": 

Download: Mako (As the Rev Billy Joe Bob Leghorn) - The Missionary Position

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I'm ever so glad I got to know Mako, and that I had the opportunity to introduce him to so many others, who got to know him through the aforementioned parties. He brightened my life every time I was with him. 

~~

A short introduction for this next piece. Here is yet another of those Stereo Demonstration tapes which came with the newest of stereo tape recorders, in the years when such technology was new, roughly 1957 to 1961. You'll even get to hear "The Ceremony of the Keys". I'm sure the narrator, with his cultured English accent, was chosen for just the sort of style and finesse such a voice brings to mind when hearing such a demonstration. Interestingly enough, this tape did not come to me in its original box, and unlike every other demonstration tape I've heard, the narration doesn't seem to be promoting a specific brand of tape machine or record label's releases. This is quite unusual. But regardless, I don't know who produced this tape!

Download: A Journey Into Sound - Stereo Demonstration Tape

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Nearly 14 years ago, at WFMU's blog, I posted an interview with Edward Hunter, the man who coined the English language version of the term "Brainwashing". Today, I have another recording of Mr. Hunter, a lengthy speech given in Port Washington, New York. And that's all I have to say about it. 

Download: Edward Hunter - Speech on Brainwashing in Port Washington, New York

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~~

This next tape, as you can see from this scan of part of the tape box, is labeled "Mood Music for Motion Pix": 

And I'm going to share it just as it plays off the reel, and identified under that title. And for more than 30 of its 40 plus minutes, I believe that's exactly what it is. But the first ten minutes don't really fit the description, nor do they seem of a piece with the rest of the tape. That section all seems to be its own segment, and I also think it is an example of what today would be called "World Music", and I'm not even going to hazard a guess as to what part of the world it is from. 

The rest really does sound like maybe someone compiled it for use with home movies or perhaps an amateur film, or perhaps even something else. 

Download: Mood Music for Motion Pix

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Here, maybe this will help. These four sheets of paper were contained within the box, stapled together in the order I've scanned them here. They certainly purport, I think, to describe in detail what's heard on this tape. But I can't match these various notes together in any way that makes sense, to the sounds heard on the tape. Perhaps some smart person (or people) out there can figure it out and educate me. 

~~

Now, here's a tape featuring sisters Carla and Linda, singing a wide variety of music. It's dated from December of 1959, and February and May of 1960. Not surprisingly, the early parts of the tape are dominated by Christian and/or Christmas songs (not all of the latter being of a religious nature), but then the rest of the tape is filled with everything from nonsense songs to folk songs and even a pair of songs from the German opera Hansel and Gretel, as well as some re-written Mozart. 

Along the way, the girls' father interviews them a few times, and we learn that for Linda's 1960 birthday party, the family went to Fanny's Famous Restaurant, which was a legendary spot on the north side of Evanston, IL, well known for its unique salad dressing and unique spin on spaghetti, giving us a good idea of where these girls were growing up. 

I figure these girls are somewhere close to 70 years old now. 

Download: Carla and Linda - Singing and Talking, December, 1959 to May, 1960

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~~

And now, here's something I've wanted to do for a while. I have no idea if it will popular or not, but if you're of a mind to, please tell me. I'm simply going to share both sides of a home recorded variety reel - a tape which appears to all come from the same person or family, which contains a variety of different types of recordings made around the house, live as they lived, or off of the radio or records, or, as on the first side, perhaps by someone who carted their recorder to a singing lesson or performance. I do not know anything about the people heard on this tape, aside from some names which crop up on the second side. 

The first side is about a dozen minutes shorter than the second side because the opening musical performances were recorded at 15 IPS while the rest of the tape was recorded at 7 1/2 IPS. The names of the files explain very well what is contained on each side. 

Again, let me know if you're interested in more of this sort of "slice of someone's life" thing. 

Download: A Home Recorded Variety Reel, Side 1 - A Soprano Rehearses, Pop Songs, Trumpet Practice, Talking and Singing

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Download: A Home Recorded Variety Reel, Side 2 - Home Recordings and Radio Broadcasts - Piano, Hawaiian Songs, A Soprano On the Air, A Bit of Talking

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~~

And now it's time for our "Very Short Reel". This is all that was recorded on a full, 1200 foot reel of tape - the rest was never used. I think it's self explanatory. 

Download: "Not Plugged In"

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"JANITOR" - Two Hours of Silliness! - Plus a Jamboree and a Birthday Conference Call

Greetings!

I have not alluded to this in any way before today, but the things I have posted to this site, and the majority of what I posted to my "reel to reel catacombs" series at WFMU, tended to be things I came across in my ongoing purchasing and perusal of tapes - things I had heard recently, or had actively put aside for use on this site later. There were major exceptions - things I had owned for years, and which I knew I had to share, such as the Merigail Moreland material, some of the "voice talent" advertising compilations and the Larry Taylor tapes - but mostly I've been putting aside things as I heard them and populated this site with items I had put into my "digitize" stack - relative recent "finds". 

However, for some time, I've thought that I really needed to dig into the large number of tapes I collected during the 20 years before I started blogging for WFMU, because there are dozens of wonderful finds there, which have gone unheard outside of my home, things I heard before I had any way to share them on a large scale. 

So starting today, I'm going to try to share at least one of those tapes per post. For the most part, these should be quite stellar items, as they were the tapes I "kept" during the years when I was able to pick over my choices at the late, lamented ALS Mammoth Music Mart (i.e. it was easier to look at tapes and see which ones seemed promising, than it is on eBay...). 

So....

So it was that, last week, I went looking for a tape I recalled hearing perhaps 25-30 years ago, which I had labeled "JANITOR". After listening to this tape anew, and at the risk of underselling it, I think it's actually a somewhat inauspicious debut for this new phase of my site, as the tape is not quite as engaging or entertaining as I recalled. And yet....

And yet, it's a singularly weird and idiosyncratic recording, a solid two hours plus of a few friends performing skit after skit, sketches and fake funny phone calls and tons of low and fairly-low humor. The folks who made this tape clearly spent a lot of time on it, and that someone gave it up, and that it found it's way into my hands is remarkable. I suspect there's a considerable amount of "You Hadda Be There" to this - and having myself been part of dozens of recordings that I adore, where you probably "Hadda Be There", I can appreciate the tape for that aspect, too. And these people are having a good time, which is often worth hearing just for itself.

While the tape box gave no hint of its contents, inside the box was a ridiculously detailed list on a small, yellowing piece of paper. Side one is their presentation of "JANITOR: Going Places and Picking Up Things", and it is documented simply enough with eight bullet points, describing eight sketches heard on the side. Here is part of that document: 

But the other side of the tape is identified, starting on the flip side of the same piece of paper, is given the title "Laughs, etc.". Part of this side of the paper is in pencil, and is hard to read, but most of it is written in pen, and that side of the paper identifies over twenty sketches/bits. Here is that side of the paper. 

What's more, the first side of the paper, doesn't simply contain those few segments labeled "Janitor". Upside down from those listings, it contains the rest of the contents of side two, with over 30 separate bits documented. Here is what that side looks like from that orientation (please note the "Janitor" material (as scanned above) documented upside down at the bottom):

That's 50-plus bits in just over an hour. I have not separated out the two sides, and this download/play option features the entire 125 minutes of both "Janitor" and "Laughs, etc.". There is a 40 second gap at the 62 1/2 minute point, and that's where side one ends and side two begins. 

When is this from? Well the tape box is the pretty much standard Scotch mid-'50's design, so my guess is, mid to late 1950's. But that's just a guess. 

Download: "Janitor" and other Silliness

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Next, here's a neat little Audio Verite recording, made at some point in the 1962 or 1963 at a Boy Scout Jamboree, in Raymond Maine at Camp William Hinds. Among other things, you'll hear a song in tribute to the camp, a conversation with a visitor from Sweden, some more songs (almost group shouts, really), a performance of an old-style ballad of the "Dasterdly Dan/Helpless Maiden" genre, and a bit of a badge-awarding ceremony.

Download: Boy Scout Jamboree at Camp William Hinds, Raymond, Maine

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From a few years later on down the line - August of 1966 to be exact - comes something unique and very much of its day and age - essentially, the equivalent of a Zoom call in 1966. For here we have a group of friends offering happy birthday and best wishes to their friend Paul, on a conference call. Here's the tape box: 

Paul's not actually on the call - the call was done in advance, in order to send the tape to Paul on his birthday as a surprise. (And not only Paul - everyone was to get a copy!) 

And OH, the work that went into this! The person who set this up (Howard) is heard first calling the "conference call" operator and giving all of the phone numbers for the call, and when the call is to be made, a process which takes the nearly the first quarter of this 30 minute tape. Then there's the actual connection being made for the call, and finally, after nearly 8 1/2 minutes of audio, the conference call begins. From there on out, it's largely what you'd expect, and again, not terribly unlike a zoom call with everyone's cameras being turned off. A short bit from someone who couldn't be on the conference call is heard at the end. I hope Paul appreciated this. 

Download: A Conference Call for Paul's Birthday, 8-22-66

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And finally, our "Very Short Reel" for the day. This three inch reel (which is barely 1/5th full of tape) has a box labeled as follows: 

Okay, so I'm guessing that's "Welch's" as in the Fruit Juice company, rather than "WELCHS", but what is that second word? "ARCHIES"? "ARCHLES"? ARCH1e3"? I dunno. But what the tape contains is some uninspired production music, a piece of less than a minute, utilizing blues chords, complete with count in, applause and whooping at the end as if the participants think they just did something really special, and the briefest moment of conversation before the tape cuts off. A cute, and intriguing 40 or so feet of recording tape.  

Download: "WELCHS"

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A Nice Little Variety Tape from 1953

Good day, everyone,

Before I do anything else - I truly want to thank all of you who commented about my recent computer issue and near loss of a huge amount of sound files. Thanks for the thoughts, support, stories, etc. I really appreciate it.

~~

And second - for those of you who don't peruse my other blog where I already posted this - I want to share with you a video that I made. Early in the shutdown, my church asked for happy videos - anything under two minutes - to send out to the congregation while we were alomst all spending lots of time at home.

My thought was to perform one of my favorite Ragtime pieces, a song I learned, by rote, off of an album when I was perhaps 16 or 17. As I say in the clip, I'm a sloppy pianist, but I make up for that in enthusiasm. And I've been forgetting to link to this client for two months now, so here it is. An added bonus (?) you get to see my charming visage and the rest of me, too. Click the link for the video!

A Ragtime Nightmare

~~

Today, I have something interesting and a bit different. Early on in this blog, I tended to just include the contents of one tape, or maybe two, before branching out and trying to give a varied picture of my collection, especially as I was only posting every 2-3 weeks.

Today, I'm returning to the original format, in a sense, but still offering a variety of types of recordings. Because today, I have the entire contents of a five inch reel, all of which was recorded between March of 1953 and May of 1953, in total, well over two hours worth of material - about 68 minutes per side. And there is a significant amount of variety - a school presentation, two birthday recordings, three recordings of visits with friends, and portions of three different television programs.

Now, I initially was only going to share the second side of this tape, because, you see, I previously shared the first side over four years ago, on this same site. But in reading that post, I found that I made several mistakes (I must not have had the tape box at hand at that moment), particular in mis-identifying the year of the recordings, but my editing of it was suspect, too.

Plus, I thought it would be nice to share the entire tape as it plays off the reel. So I hope you don't mind a few reruns. If you've already heard the first side, in that earlier post, you can jump down to the little squiggle, which is where the second side starts.

I will share the segments in the order in which they appear on the tape, and be briefer than usual in my introductions.

First off, and the longest segment on the tape, is a presentation given at a school. I suspect the teacher's name was Miss Olson, or Miss Olsen, but the tape box (see bottom of post) says Miss Ohlson, so that's what I've named the track. This was a sixth grade presentation on China, in May of 1953, a very interesting time indeed to be studying and presenting on China, although much of this is about history, not current events. The woman introduced at the start of this segment is almost certainly part of the family which recorded this entire tape.

Download: Miss Ohlson's Sixth Graders' Presentation on China, March, 1953
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Next, we segue into a recording of a birthday gathering. If you've ever wanted to know what 13 and 14 year olds talked about (at least, with an adult present) in 1953, here's your chance to find out. Because here is Wayne's 14th birthday luncheon, a spaghetti meal on March 21, 1953.

Download: Wayne's 14th Birthday Spaghetti Luncheon, March 21, 1953
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It seems that Wayne had a younger brother, Peter, who also had a birthday in March, as the tape then moves directly to Peter's 12th birthday party. It seems extremely likely that, having been 11 and 12 that school year, he was part of Miss Ohlson's class, and likely the reason their presentation was recorded. Here's the relatively brief recording from Peter's birthday.

Download: Peter's 12th Birthday, March 1953
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The first side ends with a recording of about ten minutes featuring a recording of a visit from what presumably were some friends, identified on the label as "The Pettit's and The Blair's". Here is that segment.

Download: Visit with the Pettit's and the Blair's - March, 1953
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The second side starts with the second longest segment, labeled on the tape as "At the Epley's". This segment starts with a somewhat harder to make out conversation which I believe is about, and in response to, a slide show that everyone is watching. The tape box seems to also say "Talent Bridge" or "Jalent Bridge", so maybe they are viewing slides that tie into that writing, which I may be reading incorrectly.

This segues into some general conversation, and then there is some piano playing. Here is the segment:

Download: At the Epley's - Watching Slides, Chatting and Playing the Piano
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Next up is something completely different and I'm guessing fairly rare. It's about 15 minutes of excerpts from an episode of Ed Sullivan's "Toast of the Town" - a quick web search identified this as being from March 29, 1953. I will let you discover its contents and charms.

Download: Toast of the Town - March 29, 1953 - Excerpts
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This is followed immediately by what I'm guessing is an even rarer segment (although much less interesting to me), ten minutes from "The Fred Waring Show" - according to the box, this is from April of 1953, meaning they erased some other material from March 29th, as that date pops back up at the end of the tape. Here is the Waring segment, which contains several songs - however, it's labeled as "The Palms" on the box:

Download: Short Excerpt from "The Fred Waring Show", April, 1953
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As we near the end of the tape, there is this brief segment identified on the box as "The Aishton's", in May of 1953, and which the tape itself makes clear is a recording of a visit with the Arthur Aishton and his family. Much is made of the accent of a child present, which is repeatedly described as a "Chicago accent". I have lived in the immediate vicinity of Chicago my entire life, and worked in the city for the last 27 years, and have never heard anything remotely like the speech pattern identified here spoken by a native....

Download: A Visit with the Arthur Aishton Family
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Finally, we have the remnants of what was originally after that Ed Sullivan recording - a nightly newscast, or at least just over seven minutes thereof. Several news stories here date this broadcast to 3/29/53, so this must have been recorded on that date, then erased with the 13 minutes of Fred Waring and the Aishton's.
Here's how the tape ends:

Download: Portion of a 3/29/53 Newscast
Play:

~~

I hope you enjoyed this little trip through two months or so of 1953 in the life of one family, their friends, their classmates and their television set.

The very short reels and the Scotch Tape Box series will return next month. Before that, the third weekend in June marks something very special for me, so next weekend, I will be sharing a post unlike anything I've shared here before, the likes of which is unlikely to be repeated.

Oh, and here's the tape box for the reel that you just listened to:

VIntage Top 40, Military Corn Flakes, Some Silliness and Prize Fights

ANNOUNCEMENT!!! ANNOUNCEMENT!!! ANNOUNCEMENT!!! 

I have four disparate selections from the archives today, but first, I wanted to do a little promotion: 

Some of you own, or are aware of my "The Many Moods of Bob" collection, an album of comic songs which I put together in the late '90's, and which went up online on the Happy Puppy label several years later. Well, since that time, I have continued to write and record both comic and serious songs, although a lot more of the former, recording them whenever I had enough time. And now, after 19 years, this 19 track album is available. It's called "A Few More Plans". 

There's a wide variety of material - songs set to psychedelic style, calypso, jazz, rhumba, gospel, and much more, all featuring my style of humor and songwriting. Three of them have been featured on the Dr. Demento show in recent years. Mostly, it's me: my voice and my keyboard (and a few other instruments in places), but a few tracks feature family members and a friend.

Mixed in are four instrumentals. One of these - the title track - is a fairly insane trip through sound which wouldn't be out of place as the accompaniment to a silent movie. The other three instrumentals are simply revved up versions of songs I've been playing forever. There's also a remake of a beloved, very obscure commercial (of all things), a remake of a song-poem, and a rendition of a song my brother once dreamed, during a nightmare, more than 50 years ago. 

I have been writing and recording songs - serious and decidedly not so - since I was 16 years old, and I believe that, as a set of material, this is by far the best project I've ever produced in those 40-some years, and I would love it if you'd have a listen. It's located here: 

https://bobpurse.bandcamp.com/releases

You can listen to all the songs for free on the site, and read the lengthy notes attached to each song (under "lyrics" - there was no other way to do it), and if you'd be so kind as to buy it (which allows the download of the material and all the notes and the front and back covers), it's only two dollars.

One more thing: I'm not really on social media, for a variety of reasons, and I would very much like it if  - on the chance that you enjoy the material - you'd consider putting up links to my project on whichever of these sites you are part of. If you choose to do that, I'd really appreciate it. 

~~

First up, and probably the most appealing to the largest number of readers/listeners out there, is a lovely 20 minute blast of vintage top 40 programming from early 1961, at WCOL, Columbus, Ohio. I never get tired of this stuff. 

Download: WCOL, Columbus, Ohio, Winter, 1961

Play:

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Next up, a truly bizarre little story from a woman, recounting a story from basic training that I've dubbed "Kerosene Corn Flakes". The story is told more than once, for some reason, and rather than edit it down, I've decided to share the entire seven minute segment, which came to me on a three inch reel of tape, not marked as to its contents. 

Download: Unknown - Kerosene Corn Flakes

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I've just noticed that each of my segments for the week, in order, is shorter than the previous one. In this case, we have a group of friends just goofing around and being silly. There are brief renditions of at least three songs here, the latest of which is from 1964, which may help date the tape. I actually wish there was more of this, but it's only three minutes long. And that's all I know about it! 

Download: Unknown - Three Minutes of Silliness 

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And finally, as promised, the second installment of my "very short tapes" feature. I got a few bits of feedback on this, and it looks like there might be significant interest in this. Again, I pulled one from the middle of the pile, at random, and got two promos for the 1996 Tyson-Holyfield fight, along with the other fights on the card. This was not the "Don't Go Biting My Ear" fight, which was the following year - it was the first match-up. 

Download: Two Tyson-Holyfield Promos

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A Party in 1959 Becomes a Party in 1960

I have two New Year related items for you today.

Almost six months ago, I shared a tape I titled "A Party in 1959", speculating on that date based on the music heard throughout. I have now come across a second tape from what sounds like the same party, and the contents of that tape, and the writing on the box (seen above), make it clear that this was indeed a party in 1959, specifically, a party held on December 31st, 1959, into January 1st, 1960.

And so, here is the remainder of what was recorded of that party, just in time for your own New Year's Eve celebrations. If anything, this is more raucous than the first half of the tape, which I suppose is to be expected as a party moves past the midnight hour, as this recording does just before the ten minute mark.

So listen in, and imagine yourself in your late teens, experiencing the first few minutes of the 1960's, as they happened.

Download: A Party in 1959-60, Part Two
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Jumping forward 24 years, here are excerpts from an otherwise stultifying recording of WRCQ's New Year's Eve/New Year's Day broadcast of a syndicated program of big band music (which was followed by the in house presentation of the same genre), which someone recorded for about four hours, on December 31st, 1983, into January 1st, 1984. I have excised almost all of the music, and left portions of two newscasts, which were also on the tape. For some reason, they ended the show at 11 PM, rather than at midnight, with the playing of Auld Lang Syne. and that's where the tape begins. Then there is another edit after the 11 PM news, followed by the lead in to the 1 AM news, and about four minutes of that broadcast. Not the most scintillating item in my collection, but a good tie in for this day before New Year's Eve, 2017.

Download: WRCQ on New Year's Eve, 1983 and New Year's Day, 1984
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A Party in 1959

Today, for your dining and dancing pleasure, an hour or so of tape to help you imagine that you are at a party, probably involving mostly young people - although there are certainly adults present, as well - in what I'm guessing was 1959.

The tape is dominated by the records chosen to be played nearly throughout, records which largely come from the mid to late 1950's, with none, as far as I heard, which came from after 1959, hence the date. But there are some other sounds here - conversations, shouts, laughs, etc., to reward those who choose to listen all the way through. (By the way, the loud noise heard at the start ends within the first 30 seconds.)

So sit back, pretend you have a houseful of teenagers, imagine that we have an actual President in Washington (Eisenhower, in this case), and that none of these young people are going to know what hit them, when the next 5-7 years are done with them.

Download: A Party in 1959
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Greetings to a Soldier in Korea

Here's a tape which is a lot of fun, as well as touching at times, and just generally a snapshot of its time and place.

It seems to be a group of family and friends sending good wishes to a man (named John)who is stationed in Korea. As there's no date anywhere on the box or within the contents of the recording, it's not clear if this is during the "police action", or after it, but it does sound like the revelers had expected their friend John to be home by the date of this recording, and that this hadn't happened.

Reading between the lines, it seems at least possible that some of those involved thought John would be present at this gathering, and when John couldn't be there, they made a tape for him instead, even though it also sounds like he was still due back in a matter of days - at one point it sounds like he's only coming back on a brief leave.

The tape is boisterous at times - particularly the first several minutes, during which some reveling adults interact while, I'm guessing, enjoying some adult beverages. That's fun, but the most interesting part for me comes when some children start to talk to John at about 16:30, starting (briefly) with a very excited small child, and then an older child who talks for a few minutes.

After too few minutes of that, a more sedate adult follows with more narration about life and times. If the earlier speakers were a bit too sloshy, this guy is so dry as to appear to be reading his report, something he acknowledges and tries to correct at one point. Then there's about five sweet minutes of talk before and after a meal, with the kids chiming in here and there. I love the one kid trying to mimic everything that is said.

A couple of more serious (and older sounding) relatives follow - this section of the tape is marred by some damaged tape and a section which seems to have been edited out, via a splice (perhaps more damaged tape). And then, just as yet another person is coming in to speak, the tape runs out (although again, it's certainly possible that there was originally more tape here.

Please enjoy this little moment in time.

Download: Family and Friends: A Tape for a Soldier in Korea
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Just a Group of Guys Seeing the Old Year Out in 1958

Here's something pretty special, I think.

What we have here are a group of young men - four or five of them, I think, joking around, singing, telling stories and generally just watching the last few minutes of the year tick away, in 1958.

The tape is just over 30 minutes long. I initially had derisively considered titling this post with a phrase having to do with "a bunch of jamokes", but quickly decided that that was complete unfair. I think, instead, that this tape just reflects a different, more innocent time (for lack of a better word). I don't know at what point a New Year's Eve tape would have ceased even the possibility of sounding like this, but I doubt anything found from even the late '60's or early '70's would have the feel of this tape. It's very much of a particular time period in America. Or so it seems to me.

After some introductory comments - the names of the participants are mentioned, but are both slurred and, in some cases, covered up by other noises - there is some fairly awful piano and harmonica playing. If you want to skip this fairly painful bit of noise, it ends at about 4:20, although if you do that, you'll miss some Lawrence Welk references and fart jokes (which I supposed are not mutually exclusive).

The flounder around for a bit, before one guy does his Ed Sullivan impression, another guy talks repeatedly way too loudly into the microphone, and they stumble into a version of a Christmas Carol. Several references to then-current commercials and other cultural touchstones of the moment also float by.

Then, at the nine minute mark, we get to the meat of the tape - a bunch of stories, both true-life and, mostly, fairy tales. One guy starts by telling a story that happened at a drive-in theatre, followed by another car story.

Then we get a lengthy rendition of "Little Red Riding Hood". There's not really much of a payoff - although the storyteller clearly thinks he's on a roll, repeatedly telling his peers to shut up. But what he lacks in originality, he more than makes up for with enthusiasm.

Then the whole group gets into the act, doing a group performance of "Little Red Riding Hood", interrupted many times by product slogans, other asides and general silliness. For my money, this is the best section of the tape.

The story ends suddenly, and incompletely, and now it's 11:45 PM - an updated version of Hansel and Gretel - involving a Corvette and marijuana - is attempted, but the overlap with the original story is minimal, and what's more, the tape is running out. An end to the story is quickly constructed.

We never reach 1959, but we do hear the very end of what these young man had been erasing, which plays on the very last few feet of tape - it's "Alvin's Harmonica" by David Seville and the Chipmunk. (Interestingly, it appears that this record came out in the last days of 1958, so whenever it was recorded, it must have been brand new.)

ENJOY!!!!

Download: A Group of Friends - December 31, 1958
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It's 1952: Bob Bowfinger Leaves for the Army

Anytime I have the chance to buy a reel to reel tape with paper backing (as opposed to the various plastic backings which have been around since at least the early 1950's), I jump at the chance, and I am usually quick to see if the tape contains what such a backing suggests - a tape recorded during the dawn of the reel-to-reel era, more or less from just after World War II through the point that paper reels were phased out, in the early '50's. Presumably, this was due to the fact that they tore so easily, and perhaps because there tends to be white noise behind recordings made on paper reels. Why this is, I don't know. My guess is that people chose the winning format with their wallets, and that paper backing went away.

Anyway, that excitement was present with today's 3 inch reel of paper-backed reel, which contains a friend (and his mother) bidding farewell to one of their own, a fellow named Bob Bowfinger, on May 6th, 1952, as he prepares to leave for the army.

The tape is six minutes long, and simply captures a few moments in time. Bob's lost his voice a bit, but is able to talk about a movie they've just been to see, and chats with his friend's mother for a moment.

The last third of the tape contains someone singing "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen", for a small audience, followed by someone reciting a prayer. Whether or not this was recorded at the same gathering as the Bowfinger segment, or is in any way connected to it, I have no idea.

Please enjoy this tape, sounding remarkably fine for having been recorded nearly 64 years ago.

Download: 5/6/52: Bob Bowfinger Leaves for the Army
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