Were the Village People Still Hot in 1980? Also, a Automotive Interview, The Folks Back Home in 1951, Some Dutch Folk Singing, Two Sermons and a Hodgepodge Like No Other

Belated Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrated it! 

Right off the bat, I'm going to thank reader Chad - who has commented a few times - for publicizing my blog to something called radiodiscussions.com/, and ended up soliciting a few comments which he reposted at the end of this post, on which they were originally commented on that other site. They are a bit long to repost here, but have a look at the comments on that page. At the end of the comment, either Chad or the person who responded to him - I can't quite tell which, but I think it was Chad - asked for more sermon recordings, and a ways down there in this post, I have offered up exactly that. 

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I'm going to start with something I just find.... weird. I have a handful of tapes featuring episodes of something called "The Robert W. Morgan Special of the Week". I featured his program on the group "Chicago" in a post very early this year, and wrote about the host, and the show, at that time. 

As you will hear, this offering is a rebroadcast of an earlier "Special of the Week", originally from 1979, and it aired as part of a series of "Best Of" episodes, in January of 1980. What I find weird is that, for the kick-off episode of that "Best Of" series, they chose an episode about... The Village People. 

Unlike the stars of the other "Specials" I have found, which tended to be about acts with a long history and tons of hits, The Village People had a total of three US pop hits, two of them top ten, and if you want to throw in the dance charts, another couple of hits. Plus, by January of 1980, whether fair or not, The Village People had become yesterday's news, and Top 40 poison, for a wide swath of that format's listening audience, at least in the U.S., where this program aired. The release of and horrendous reception to their film a few months later would drive this point home further. It just seems terrifically odd to me that Robert W. Morgan would start a victory lap of sorts with a show honoring a very minor recording act which already was past its sell-by date. 

Download: Robert W Morgan's 'The Best of the Special of the Week - Featuring The Village People - 1-6-80, WRBR, South Bend, IN

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As I've mentioned far too many times to link here, I obtained some media tapes many, many years ago, which contain the raw sound recordings of many a TV program, tapes I've shared here and at the (now late and lamented) WFMU blog. And some of those posts have featured interviews from the 1960's Howard K. Smith show. The following is another of those, but in this case, Don Dixon is doing the interview (perhaps Smith was on vacation), with someone named John Keats (a common enough name that I've been unable to figure out who this particular Keats was), about new car models, American car buying habits, traffic patterns and related subject. Mr. Keats would have liked to see city dwellers stop driving cars - as he seems to have done - and causing so much traffic. 

One humorous moment comes near the end. As is always the case on these tapes, the director filmed one way (towards the interviewee) and then, afterwards, filmed the interviewer over the interviewee's shoulder to get shots of the questions being asked, after the fact. Mr. Keats, apparently not understanding this, starts answering a question he has already answered, before being told that no, he doesn't need to actually respond any more. 

Download: Don Dixon Interviews John Keats for the Howard K Smith Show

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This next one is a rather unusual selection, both because it seems to simply be an album of songs that someone recorded and also because it may very well be available elsewhere. As such, I've sat on it for literally years before choosing to share it. In the end, I've settled on two reasons to go ahead and share it. 1.) I enjoy it, and 2.) I am utterly unable to confirm that this particular set of songs is available online or on record/CD anywhere. And I've looked. 

It's a short group of songs - perhaps it was a ten inch album - by Bob Davidse, a Flemish host, singer and guitarist who I believe is singing in Dutch here (that Wikipedia link is in Dutch). The key word in the title of this collection - Volksliederen - has translated both to "Folk Songs" and "National Anthems" in various searches. I'm thinking "Folk Songs" is more accurate. Various sites also indicate - not surprisingly, that Davidse also sang South African songs, so perhaps some of this is in Afrikaans. Maybe someone out there will tell me and other readers.

Download: Bob Davidse - Volksliederen Met Bob Davidse

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Here's the tape box, so you can have all the song titles, and also in case any of you would like to do more digging than I've done: 

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Now for something really weird. Every now and then I will share a tape that has a changing series of recordings on it, often in the course of less than ten minutes. Typically, these tapes, which I call Hodgepodges, have at least a somewhat clear history to them - someone who recorded over a previous recording, but not completely, or who recorded several short unrelated items over the same section of tape. 

This one, however, mystifies me. Here's the tape box: 

Okay, so at some point this tape contained eleven commercials for Kodak and Kodak products. And there are remnants of those ads heard here. But the off-center pasting of the contents sheet onto the tape box is telling, if accidental. There are few tapes as off kilter as this one. 

After a split second bit of... something, we hear some testing of volume as utilized in the playing of a few instruments. This is interrupted by most of one ad and the start of a PSA, the latter of which stops and starts, before the volume tests resume. Then there is more of the same PSA and some more ads, just a moment of the sound tests. There follows a brief excerpt from "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon" and another episode from some film-noir style narration. This gives way to portions of three of the Kodak ads, in quick succession and none of them complete (although the third appears to be nearly whole) - these are the 8th, 9th and 11th listed ads above, I think. 

After a short difficult to hear section, we hear the first and second of the eleven listed ads, complete, and part of the third one. Then Rod McKuen narrates one of his poems (and I vomit a bit into my mouth), we hear one second of another Kodak ad, and then Rod McKuen sings a bit (Kill Me Now!), and then we hear most of the 60 second Kodak disco ad and all of the 30 second Kodak disco ad. Then there is MORE of Sgt. Preston which suddenly segues into some other sort of drama - for the last 80 seconds or so - featuring a Scottish character and a narrator talking about Halloween night. 

Then it's over. A fascinating listen

Download: A Most Unusual Hodgepodge

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Here's another genre of tape I really enjoy - although I have little insight into how much my audience enjoys it. It's the home recording of people sitting around chatting and playing and singing music. And the older and more old timey the feel the better. Here's part of the tape box from this one: 

So this goes all the way back to the week before Christmas, 1951, just under 74 years ago, although part of it seems to perhaps date from April 8th of that year, as well. I don't have a lot to say here - just an enjoyable 45 minutes with Glenn, Nora, Bill and Bessie. 

Download: Conversations and Singing at Home, 12-20-51

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And now, because Chad - or his correspondent - requested a sermon, here are two, heard as preached by someone named Leonard, the second of which is from 1967. Perhaps they are both from 1967. I can't put my hands on the tape box just now, but presumably it told me - at the time I digitized this - that it was made in Madison Wisconsin. I have not listened to these recently, so I am not going to give a summary, but rather, will just let those of you who are interested, have a listen: 

Download: Unknown ("Leonard") - Two Sermons in Madison, WI, Mid 1960's

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And here's a very short reel. 58 seconds worth, in fact, and it's a radio ad - undated - for the world's toughest rodeo, which was coming to St. Paul very soon, at the time of this ad. The very uncreatively named "Ad Market Productions Inc." created this particular radio ad. 

Download: Ad Market Productions, Inc. - World's Toughest Rodeo, St Paul

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Two Sets of Radio Commercials, A Demonstration in Mono, A Couple of Guitarists, and a Whole Lotta Union Carbide Phone Calls

 Happy New Year, everyone, 

I'm going to start off with a version of what I wrote on my other blog a week or so ago: 

It's been more than three weeks since I've posted, and I suspect that there will be only this one post this month. I'm absolutely Captain ADHD, and thrive on keeping ridiculously busy - I'm pretty nuts when I don't have too much to do - but this last month has just swept my legs out from under me, with a couple of brief but intense illnesses, end of the year madness and work demands. I hope and intend to be back to two posts a month in February. 

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Before I get to this post's features, I want to make reference to a few comments. But first, I want to acknowledge and just generally thank those of you who have written recently with supportive, thankful and/or appreciative comments about the site in general. Those are all deeply appreciated and give me the encouragement to keep up what I do here. Thank you.  

Some specific comments that you may have missed and which shed light on things I've posted. Regarding this post, someone wrote in: 

Re: WEAM. Based on the references to a back-to-school contest and a daytime high of 84, it would appear to be from late August 1963. Specifically the week of August 23, based on the song positions on this survey matching.

http://las-solanas.com/arsa/survey.php?sv=143773

Regarding what is currently my most recent past post, "Snoopy" made the following observation, one which is very similar to something I almost wrote myself, regarding "oldies": 

Back then, 15 year old music was considered Oldies. Maybe I'm just curmudgeonly but if you played 10 songs from 2009 and 10 songs from 2024, I wouldn't be able to tell one from another. 

I would also like to refer you to this post, about which (in the comments) Eric Paddon has added a great deal of information, specifically about the WOR segment, including the specific dates of those recordings. There is too much text to copy and paste here without bogging things down, but it's very much worth reading. Thanks, as always, Eric. 

There have been a lot more, and I am quoting here (and below) from comments that are as much as six months old. That's how far behind I've gotten. I'm gonna try to be more up-to-date, going forward. 

Anyway, and finally, two frequent commenters, each of whom has his own collection of rare recordings, posted about new "old" finds that each of them has shared. 

Kyle writes: I have found a Christmas home recording from the 1950s

And "OldRadios" has uploaded a radio "Laugh-in" type show called "Funny Birds" to his site at archive.org

In the case of both Kyle and OldRadios, clicking on their names will show you further postings, including more old audio. 

Thanks, guys! 

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Okay, I'm going to start with two fairly wonderful (well, with a significant exception) advertising demo reels. The first one is from Chuck Blore and Don Richman Incorporated, a company headed by two men who seem to be considered legendary in the radio advertising field - look each of them up online. 

This tape has fifteen ads, the last of which is that "significant exception" to the wonderfulness that I just mentioned. That last one is more like a hard slap upside the head. Here's the tape box: 

Download: Chuck Blore and Don Richman Incorporated - Advertising Demo Reel

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The second advertising reel - almost exactly the same length as the first - comes from Don Piestrup, who you can also find online but who does not appear to have been nearly the "name" talent that the above two gentlemen were, although there still exists a Big Band which plays his music. 

This tape features 13 ads, and the box also helpfully guides us in what we're going to hear here: 

Download: Don Piestrup - Advertising Demo Reel

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Here's the rather esoteric front cover of the tape box: 

And the side: 

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Here's something a little different. I have shared several Stereo Demonstration tapes here - in the early days of stereo sound - which debuted on reel tape nearly two years before it became a reality on records - tape recorder companies produced demonstration reels to show off their wondrous machines and the spacious sounds they could produce. 

But before that, tape recorder manufactures also wanted to demonstrate the wonders of reel tape. And so there are some (although apparently not as many) monaural demonstration tapes out there. And this is one of them. It's from the Omegatape company. Side one of the tape provides excerpts from some of the pre-recorded tapes the company currently was offering. 

But then, on side two, there is a series of test tones to be used in some way for head alignment, then a timing test to see if your machine is running at exactly the right speed. (Either this recording was itself flawed or my machine runs slightly fast - which I don't think is the case - as the blips go by in about 58 1/2 seconds.) Highlights from more Omegatape offerings finish off the reel. 

Download: Omegatape Monaural Demonstration and Test Tape

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Here is a booklet which came with the tape: 

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Here is about 21 minutes of what I've called "A Couple of Guitarists Fooling Around and Duetting". See if you don't think that title is accurate. And sufficient as an introduction.

Download: A Couple of Guitarists Fooling Around and Duetting

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Robert W. Morgan was a hugely popular radio dj and personality from the late 1960's until shortly before his death in 1998. For a while in the late 1970's, he produced a syndicated program titled "Special of the Week". How the word "Special" was defined in terms of a program which apparently ran in a regular timeslot once a week is a mystery to me, but anyway, I came across a tape containing more than half of his episode about the band Chicago, and I thought I'd share it here. 

For all of his talk about the band's Jazz-Rock roots and status, Morgan plays precious little here of the Chicago material which falls within that genre. Perhaps it was featured in the earlier part of the program, which isn't captured here. But then again, that would have been the point at which to mention it, not while largely playing tripe such as "Saturday in the Park" and "Just You 'N Me". 

This particular broadcast was aired on WRBR, South Bend, IN, during a fundraising event for St. Jude's Hospital for Children, and there are a few cutaways for information about that event, during the broadcast. 

Download: Robert W Morgan's Special of the Week, Featuring Chicago - 11-16-80 - WRBR, South Bend, IN

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Okay, here is a tape most of you might skip over entirely but others may find weirdly fascinating. It comes from a 10 inch reel, one which only had a small amount of tape on it. But that small amount of tape contained over 100 minutes of recordings, because it was recorded at the rarely encountered speed of 15/16th of an inch per second. 

You know when you see those movies or videos in which a reel to reel machine is barely moving in the background, presumably recording the goings-on in that location? Well, those may be going at 15/16ths or even slower. And that's what we have here. 

These are calls made by and received by a couple of men who were manning the phone at some sort of business hub for Union Carbide. As someone mentions well into the recording, the company had recently installed a recording system which engaged every time the phone was picked up, whether it was for call out or a call in. 

And so, we have all manner of calls into and from the field, as well as, at one point, a call to the wife of one of the men manning the phone, as well as a few other contacts. I won't pretend to have ANY idea what it is that is being discussed - a lot of numbers, percentages, levels and such are thrown about, and a good number of people are attempted to be reached, or call back, or whatever. 

It can be sort of mesmerizing. I did not listen to this all in one sitting, and can't imagine doing so, but the entire recording is fascinating in its own way, a slice of life from an extremely specific time and place, and an unusual glimpse of some people doing some very specific jobs, the likes of which most of us know nothing about. 

(By the way, the first few calls are VERY soft, but the volume increases substantially, to a normal listening level, just after the one minute point. There are a few soft moments later in the recording, as well)

Download: Union Carbide Phone Calls

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And finally, the "Very Short Reel" for this post. This three minute segment comes from a tape wherein the rest of the recordings were exceptionally poorly recorded radio broadcasts, and I mean exceptionally poor to the point of being unlistenable (and I'll listen to just about anything on a tape) and unintelligible. 

I've called this "A Short Conversation At Home", and in it, a man records (and talks to) what sounds like a considerably older woman. Extremely innocuous conversations follow (well, except for one statement about a girl who is prettier than Gail). Then, after the machine is stopped and re-started, she is told not to whine, and then talks about what a nice voice she's been told she has, except that "it sure don't sound like it on that". My assumption is that she had just listened to the previous segment. My assumption is that she'd never heard her own voice recorded, prior to that moment. 

Unknown: A Short Conversation At Home

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Some 1961 BBC Musical Programs, Norman Rockwell, Erskine Hawkins, Music and Images, and Entertainment from Margie

I am desperately late in posting this time around - it's been three full weeks since the last post. I was hoping to get to some comments, but I just want to get this up and to y'all. Today's post is largely made up of the contents of two very different reels of tape, one from England and one from Chicago.

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From England, I have what I consider to be a simply wonderful collection of nighttime radio music shows from the BBC in 1961, each of them quite a bit different from the others. 

First up on the reel is a show which came about because of the fad, just around that time in Britain, for Trad Jazz, Dixieland under another name. There's a great movie out there called "It's Trad, Dad", and the famous Cavern in Liverpool was originally a Trad Den which allowed rockers like The Beatles to play lunchtime shows. 

Note that, half way through this 52 show, the program segues into "Pick of the Pops" with Alan Freeman. As Trad Jazz faded in popularity, "Pick of the Pops" became its own show, and a big hit with the kids. 

Download: Trad Tavern, Spring, 1961

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Next up is "The Starlight Room", which presents another batch of Jazz, and featuring, in this episode, Dakota Staton and Woody Herman, the latter also being interviewed on the show. The opening moments here are rather poor sound quality, but it quickly improves. 

Download: The Starlight Room (BBC Program)

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And finally, a show which truly demonstrates how very different radio (and the world itself I suppose) was in 1961. Host Sandy MacPherson took letters from listeners and welcomed each of them into his "club", honoring their requests along with a few details at times about those listeners, and responding to those requests either with songs from records, or - and this is where things truly seem ancient - playing songs for them live... on his theatre pipe organ. How quaint. That's the word for it. Quaint. 

Download: Sandy's Club (BBC Program)

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And now for something completely different. I have dozens of tapes which once belonged to a collector of radio and (especially) TV sound, from the late '50's and well into the '60's. Most of these tapes are meticulously numbered and have detailed information about what is contained on them. I have excerpted many of these tapes before - they tend to have very dry material (lectures, speeches) interspersed with more interesting material (live performances, interviews, tv specials), and that's the case with today's tape. One side had the radiation demonstration I featured last time, followed by a recording of a broadcast of a movie, while the other side contained a documentary on the life and works of Michelangelo, sandwiched in between two other segments that I found much more interesting, the latter of which was followed by another very interesting, if short segment, which was not mentioned on the box at all (something that is very unusual for tapes from this person's collection. 

This happens to be tape number 100 in the series. I continue to slowly work my way through them. 

Anyway, that second side of the tape starts with this fragment of an interview with Norman Rockwell, conducted by what sounds like a teenage girl: 

Download: Brief Interview with Norman Rockwell

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Then comes Michelangelo, and then comes a rather fascinating recording, and it's another one which shows how much media (in this case, television) has changed since the early 1960's. If I've deduced this correctly, "Patterns in Music", recorded from a Chicago TV station around Christmastime some year, was nothing more than music off of records, played while still images from photos were shown on the screen. Narration is offered, before and after each piece of music, talking about the photos and tying the pieces together with each other and with the photos. On this episode, the theme was various colors. 

Download: "Patterns in Music" - Undated Chicago .Area Television Music and Photos Program

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When the person recording stopped the machine, the end of a previously recorded segment was left - not mentioned on the tape box. I've identified this as a brief interview with Erskine Hawkins, but what's left actually starts with promotion for Joe somebody (I can't make out the last name) who was appearing locally - at the Thruway Motel (!), and then suddenly we're treated to an Erskine Hawkins track and then the last two minutes are, indeed, a few moments with Mr. Hawkins. A bit confusing, but that's what it seems to be. 

Download: Brief Fragment of an Interview with Erskine Hawkins

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Even after all this time, I have only a basic idea in some cases of what people coming to this site will be thrilled to hear and what will get passed over. There may be very little, or great interest in the contents of the above sets of recordings for example. 

I do, however, recognize that the next recording is not going to be for everyone, and that it won't even be close. But.... I just love this kid. Here we have a child named Margie who is entertaining herself (and later, is joined by her sister or perhaps a friend), by singing a vast repertoire of songs, reciting a bit of a play she was in at school, and demonstrating her rudimentary skills on the piano. 

She is pretty much tone deaf, but clearly would have no idea of this, and her abilities on the piano amount to little more than one note at a time. But she is HAVING SUCH A GREAT TIME. And she clearly envisions herself entertaining some unseen audience on the other end of the microphone. I love her little asides, like when she puts the microphone down to play piano and says "goodbye" to it, when she apologizes for not knowing which book her piano piece is in, and when she asks for a round of applause for... herself. And then, nearly two-thirds of the way through, she gets to really famous song, sung complete with an inexplicable (slight) accent. 

Again, I adore this girl, and this is probably my favorite new-to-me tapes that I've heard this year. To be honest, that's probably because she reminds me of... me at that age, except that I wasn't tone deaf. This sounds remarkably like the tapes I made of myself around that age, only far more entertaining. 

Download: Margie Sings, Plays Piano and Talks

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Finally, a "very short reel". This is a complete cheat, as the segment below is an excerpt from a four hour tape, but I really want to get this posted!

I have a group of tapes that someone made off of an Indiana radio station around 1979-1980. They contain episodes of American Top 40, an end of the year countdown, and other programming from a couple of local stations. Contained on at least two of them are episodes of Robert W. Morgan with "The Special of the Week", hour long episodes, heavy on the interviews, looking at a then-popular act. The two I've listened to so far covered the careers of George Benson and The Who. Your mileage may vary, but I have zero interest in the George Benson, and I enjoy perhaps six tracks in the entire career of The Who. So these were not interesting shows to listen to for me. 

But I did enjoy the introduction to the episode on The Who, less for Morgan's reworking of Abbott and Costello (although it's worth hearing), than for the fake letter that he used to set up the bit, specifically the name of the fake letter writer. Here is the segment that led off The Special of the Week featuring The Who. 

Download: Robert W Morgan - Who's On First

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Oh, and The Who were hardly the first groups to record a concept album. The Almanac Singers (featuring Pete Seeger) made several of them in the 1940's, including albums encouraging the US to stay out of World War II and collections of songs in the support of Unions), and Frank Sinatra had a few in the 1950's, as well. The "Manhattan Tower" album and its sequels and imitators come to mind, too.