Before I get to this week's multitude of items, I wanted to encourage folks to have another look at my last post, specifically the comments. I will not repeat them here, but reader/listener Kyle, who I mentioned in that post, has again linked to some interesting sounds which have been posted by others, particularly at the site at finnley.audio. There are also two comments shedding a bit more light on singer Malcolm Dodds, who's demo of a song was featured in that point.
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Okay, so I'm going to start with something perhaps a little esoteric and which comes in four parts, but with this posting, I want to acknowledge a great gift I have been given, as well as offer thanks for a previous, similar (if smaller gift). For there is a dedicated reader/listener out there named Charles, who has now, on two occasions, come across a stash of interesting reels, bought them, and then sent them to me (free of charge!), for my perusal and enjoyment.
The first batch - which I think was between ten and twenty tapes - came my way over 18 months ago, and had been the property of, as Charles said, "a now deceased sound engineer at WABC-TV". I have featured at least a couple of these tapes here, including that Japanese language material I posted last month. But many of the tapes are still sitting where I put them upon their arrival, waiting to be heard. Such is the volume of tapes that I have. A very belated public THANK YOU to Charles for those.
Charles has not gone at least one better. Perhaps 15 better, perhaps 100 better. I'll have a better idea after I listen to more of the tapes. Because he has purchased, and sent me, dozens of tapes which belonged to a late composer by the name of David Hollister. You can read about him here. Not only that, he has put me in touch with the relative who inherited and who sold him these tapes. She has more tapes, which she is willing to share with me, as long as I make MP3's of them, and she authorized me to share what I find on the tapes.
So it is that I grabbed a tape off the top of the batch at random and gave it a spin on the ol' reel to reel spindles. I found its contents absolutely fascinating, and hope you will, as well, although I acknolwege, again, that the word esoteric comes to mind. But hopefully I am wrong about that.
The tape box made it clear that the tape contained two different potential soundtracks for a film called "Organism" made by Hilary Harris. On the first side was what was apparently an original composition, using a variety of common and uncommon instruments (see the box, below). On the second side was a different conception for the soundtrack, a collage of existing electronic music, composed by a variety of composers. Both were created during the last week of January, 1975, one week apart. Here is the box:
The finished film, which is just over 19 minutes long (a bit longer than each of these proposed soundtracks, can be found in a few different places online, including this one.
Here are the two soundtracks:
Download: David Hollister - First Tape for Hilary Harris' Film 'Organism' - 1-24-75
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Download: David Hollister - Second Tape for Hilary Harris' Film 'Organism' - 1-30-75
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After the second of these, there was a brief section of microphone tests and piano playing, which I am assuming - perhaps incorrectly - also feature the composer, David Hollister. I am including this brief segment, and the one following it, for completion sake.
Download: (Presumably) David Hollister - Microphone Tests and Piano Playing
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Following that, and until near the end of the reel, is heard the last several minutes of a live performance of an orchestral work, complete with applause at the end. The rest of it had clearly been erased by the material above. Again, I'm assuming this is a work by the same composer, but I could certainly be wrong. Perhaps if so, someone knows what this very interesting piece of music is. The odd part is that, early on in this fragment, someone cut into one channel to insert a few moments of two very familiar pieces of music, one being about as classic of a pop hit as you can get, and the other being a well-known moment of classical music, heard twice, first at a different speed as the live performance, to boot. After those two interruptions, the live performance is heard without further interference.
Download: Fragment of a Performance of an Orchestral Work, Presumably by David Hollister
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Thank you so very much, Charles. This is beyond kind and thoughtful and I am immensely grateful. Tomorrow is my birthday - it'll be "When I'm 64" - and this was a wonderful gift, despite not having been intended as such.
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Here's the sort of thing that always appeals to a good percentage of readers of this site - a Demo Reel from a DJ. In this case, he's Lance Shepherd, and I've been unable to find out much of anything. He had clearly, around the time of the excerpt shared here, worked in a variety of genres, and as he tells someone named Mike, to whom he directs some comments at the end, he really wanted to "get back into rock". Here's hoping he did.
Download: Lance Shepherd - Demo Reel
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Here's a real oddity (or, if you prefer, a reel oddity), or at least it strikes me that way. When Canada Dry wanted to introduce their new soda pop, Sports Cola, in 1968, they turned to that well known pitchman.... Wally Cox. Now I grew up loving Wally Cox (Hollywood Squares, Underdog, and, for an earlier generation, Mr. Peepers), but he doesn't strike me as having had the greatest of sales-pitch voices or personality. But perhaps that was the joke.
I am also amused by the sales pitch connected with this product, which was that it has virtually no caffeine. I somehow doubt that would be a big draw today.
Anyway, in this 30 plus minute recording, Wally and his cohorts go through an inordinate amount of takes to get the ad just right. Of course, we're only hearing the sound - maybe someone kept doing something wrong visually. But the ad isn't particularly well written. Actually, the ad copy for the first section - which they work on for about ten minutes (!) - is some of the worst I've ever heard. But again, maybe they were going for comic effect. But the sheer number of takes here is mind-numbing.
You can find a couple of Wally Cox' Sports Cola ads (not this one), here.
If you'd like to invest 45 seconds in a little more homework, type in Wally Cox Best Friend into Google and see who was Wally's best friend, who was also the person was who considered Wally his best friend (and who, after Wally's death kept Wally's ashes with him for the rest of his life). It is not who you might expect.
Download: Wally Cox Records a Commercial for Canada Dry Sports Cola
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I've done a whole lot of typing about the items I've shared so far, so I'm going to dial it back for the last three. Here is a couple, living in Europe, who returned from a vacation, and described their experiences for posterity in an audio diary. I have featured this couple before, in other tapes made during their travels across other parts of Europe, but this one seems to have been made upon their return home.
Download: Reflections on Our Trips to Paris and Munich, 1968
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On a three inch reel, recorded at the slow speed of 1 7/8 IPS, I discovered recordings which were largely of a 1968 episode of The Smother's Brother's Comedy Hour. Sandwiched into the middle of these recordings, however, was the polar opposite of that show, politically, entertainment-wise and just about any other way you might want to look at it. It was a promotional piece about George Wallace and his 1968 Presidential Campaign, followed by a segment of one of Wallace's speeches. Then it was back to the Smothers Brothers. Here is that segment.
Download: George Wallace Promo and Segment of a Speech, Summer, 1968
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And now for the "Very Short Reel" for this post. This reel, at over six minutes, stretches my concept of what "Very Short" is by more than a minute, but I've been wanting to share it, and I don't have anything else as good as this, and under five minutes, ready to go.
Anyway, here is a small group playing a short instrumental Irish piece, and then a woman sings a song identified as "The Spinning Wheel", but I found the lyrics here listed as being "Spinning Song", so that's what I named the file (although I now see that there are other performances and sites where the song is called "Spinning Wheel"). The woman's name might be said, right before the name of the song, but whatever it is that the guy says, I can't make it out.
Both performances are in front of a small audience who respond enthusiastically at the end of each piece. Their appreciation is quite well earned.
Download: A Short Instrumental Irish Piece and a Woman Sings '"Spinning Song"
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