About This Blog!

Our beloved Spock is featured in the header photo, taken in 1979. These are some of my LPs, themed compilations, and the like.

ALL LINKS 2015 & LATER SHOULD BE ACTIVE. If you find a dead FileFactory link, or for any other correspondence, send me an email; Blogger comments do not allow me to send YOU a reply. That’s msuperfan1956@gmail.com


Monday, December 22, 2014

The Swingle Singers Christmas Album



I picked this up a decade or so ago at a random pawn shop.  Since I cannot find this particular album commercially available anywhere, I felt free to share it with you.

The Swingle Singers have been around since 1962 in various combinations; the group was founded under Ward Swingle.

1)  Sleigh Ride
2) A Visit from St Nicholas
3) Coventry Carol
4)  I Believe in Father Christmas
5)  Il est ne le Divin Enfant / Petit Papa Noel
6)  White Christmas
7)  Carol Medley
8)  Audete Gaudete
9) Frosty the Snowman
10)  Christmas Song
11)  Rockin' Rudolph
12) Christmas Medley:
  Winter Wonderland
  Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town
  Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

13)  Twelve Days of Christmas
14)  Silent Night

This is a fine album of great renditions of Christmas songs.

Merry Christmas!

See you January 5th.


Thursday, December 18, 2014

MA-83 - 45s & Favorites, Disc 16


Here are some more of my favorite songs, from when the 45 rpm record was how you heard new songs (on your AM radio of course).


01. Taxman (Take 11) - The Beatles (2:31)
02. I Talk to the Wind - King Crimson (6:08)  1969
03. In a Broken Dream - Python Lee Jackson (3:39)  1970
04. One Monkey Don't Stop No Show - Honey Cone (3:45)  1971
05. Hurting Each Other - Carpenters (2:48)  1971
06. Watching the River Flow - Bob Dylan (3:34)  1971
07. Chapel of Love - Bette Midler (2:43)  1972
08. When My Baby's Beside Me - Big Star (3:22)  1972
09. Comic Book Heroes - I'm Your Superman - Rick Springfield (3:39)  1973
10. Sister Mary Elephant - Cheech & Chong (3:34)  1973
11. Wild Tales - Graham Nash (2:13)  1973
12. Who Do You Think You Are - Jigsaw (2:57)  1974
13. To Each His Own - Faith, Hope & Charity (5:18)  1975
14. Howzat! - Sherbet (3:45)  1976
15. Hold On -  Ian Gomm (2:59)  1978
16. Rock Lobster (DB Records version) - The B-52's (4:38)  1978
17. Kitty - Racey (3:21)  1979
18. Fish Heads - Barnes & Barnes (2:25)  1980
19. Eaten by the Monster of Love - Sparks (2:59)  1982
20. Earthquake Song - The Little Girls (2:38)  1983
21. The Real End - Rickie Lee Jones (5:02)  1984
22. Sgt  Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) - A Day in the Life -  Big Daddy (4:56)  1992


With a few added treasures, for fun.  I hope you get a smile from some of 'em, too!


Track 13, "To Each His Own," is a perfect statement of individual rights, right up there with the Magna Carta.  If only those "know-betters" in the snooty ruling class took those lyrics to heart!


 

Monday, December 15, 2014

Fine and Refined


From a label called Intersound comes this restrained yet jolly, happy yet buttoned-up collection of traditional Christmas music.

1)  The First Noel   
2)  God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
3)  Oh Holy Night   
4)  Jingle Bells
5)  Away In A Manger   
6)  Joy To The World
7)  Angels We Have Heard On High   
8)  Born On Earth The Divine Child
9)  I Saw Three Ships   
10)  O Little Town Of Bethlehem
11)  Little Drummer Boy   
12)  White Christmas
13)  Lo, How A Rose E're Blooming   
14)  O Tannenbaum
15)  Ave Maria   
16)  Fantasia On Greensleeves
17)  On Christmas Night   
18)  It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
19)  O Come All Ye Faithful   
20)  Silent Night
21)  When A Child Is Born   
22)  How Brightly Shone The Morning Star
23)  Adeste Fideles   
24)  Hallelujah Chorus

There are a few straight instrumentals, some with a tenor solo, and some choir performances.

Be Merry!


Thursday, December 11, 2014

MA-25 - Over Reaction: Songs in a Nuclear Vein


Another in the series of assemblies of highly charged music.


1 - Hydrogen Bomb     Al Rex   1959
2 - The H-Bomb's Thunder  John Brunner  1959
3 - Walking On The Ground  Sheldon Allman   1960
4 - Standing on the Outside of Your Shelter  Shel Silverstein  1962
5 - Doomsday The Shirelles 1964
6 - Atom Ant TV Theme 1965
7 - Testing the Bomb Shel Silverstein 1965
8 - Who's Next Tom Lehrer 1965
9 - Apeman The Kinks 1970
10 - We Got the Neutron Bomb The Weirdos 1976
11 - Bombers (Single Version) Gary Numan / Tubeway Army 1978
12 - Save The World George Harrison 1981
13 - Going Under Devo 1981
14 - It's a Mistake Men At Work 1983
15 - Armageddon Planet P Project 1983
16 - Distant Early Warning Rush 1984
17 - P.O.E Adam Ant 1985
18 - Common Ground Goanna 1985
19 - Lucky The Dead Milkmen 1985
20 - Put Down That Weapon Midnight Oil 1987
21 - Luftwaffe Flashlight Brown 2000
22 - Nuclear Blues Seismic Anamoly 2003
23 - Iranian Uranium Robert Lund 2006
24 - We're Gonna Drop The Atom Bomb Turbonegro 2007
25 - Atom Ant   Theme Remix Cartoon Network Groovies 2008
26 - Nuclear Disaster The Fresh and Onlys 2009


There are some real items of note here:

Track Three is a solemn plea to the people of the world to wise up and save the world from destroying itself.  A noble sentiment!  But the problem with songs like this (and a nearly identical approach in Track Twelve by ex-Fab Guy G Harrison) is the basic "conceit" (in the literary use of that term).  This conceit or pretense is a self-deception, a viewpoint that if only everybody else would sit down and listen to the simple truths expounded by the singer, then suddenly the mental clouds would part.  The songs' listeners would shake their heads as if from a daze and say, "Of course!  We too are custodians of this delicate planet!  All our selfish concerns with power and self-importance are as nought.  We abjure such ego-centric notions and hereby vow to let you, o wise singer, dictate the provinces of world government from now on."

Hey, clueless people (the song performers)!  If you do not pre-suppose the fact of original sin (in practice or theology), you are living in a blissful world of ignorance about the reality of human behavior.  Sadly, people choose most anything over helpful behaviors like: thinking ahead or charity or consideration for others.  These selfish types who wouldn't mind having glowing fishes (as long as they can have the next size of TV) --  a typical characterization by anti-science types -- are not going to be reformed by your earnest head-shaking.

More fun are songs like Track Five, a great often-neglected song by the Shirelles.  "I thought the world would end in a burst of nuclear fire," they tell us.  "But if you broke my heart, that would be just as bad."  It's just a great little lyrical parallel.

Track 23 is another sardonic look at reality.  If certain overly radical types get the ability to wreak destruction on their enemies, I bet they have a few in their camp who'd like to  melt the enemy down.  It's a pretty cute idea, using an arrangement and melody from a certain great classic musical.

Anyway, have a listen and glow with satisfaction.