Skip Martin's Scheherajazz

This packs a punch! 

It first caught my eye by the va-va-voom cover art; then the idea of the Rimsky-Korsakov "chestnut" being shaken around in the hands of a 1950s-version of a jazz band.

So I picked it up, and boy howdy.  It always packs a punch.  Kind of like the old Hawaiian Punch commercials.  Or, the scenes in old TV shows where a hysterical person is calmed by one slap to the face.  They shake their head and say, "Thanks! I needed that."

The performers are the "Video All-Stars."

Some info about Skip Martin is here.  And here's a forum by jazz enthusiasts telling all sort of technical details about it.

I just think it's a lot of fun.  So give it a try.

 

MA-18 - Goin' Fission!: Pop & Rock with a Long Half-Life

Oh, the joys of clip art!  I hope my combination of elements has created a wistful whole.

Yup, it's an early entry in my series of compilations of pop, country, rock, (etc ... ) music about nuclear war, nuclear anxiety, and better living through radioactivity.

1    Jesus Is the First Line of Defense     Pilgrim Travellers   1951

2   Atomic Kisses       Earney Vandagriff       1955

3   Hydrogen Bomb       The Laurels      1961

4   The War Drags On       Mick Softley    1965

5   Atom and Evil       General Electric    1966

6   Please Don't Drop That H-Bomb on Me Country Joe & The Fish 1967

7 Wooden Ships Jefferson Airplane 1969

8 Political Science Randy Newman 1972

9 Nuclear Babies Oingo Boingo 1980

10 Let's All Make a Bomb Heaven 17 1981

11 Run Like a Villain Iggy Pop 1982

12 World Suicide Defuser   1983

13 Uranium Rock The Cramps    1983

14 Surfin' USSR Ray Stevens    1988

15 The Bomb Lifesavers Underground 1992

16 Atomic Power Uncle Tupelo 1994

17 The Bomb Inside the Bomb We Are Scientists 2002

18 Nuclear Blues Frances Plante-Scott 2004

19 Bomb.Repeat.Bomb.1954 Ted Leo and the Pharmacists    2007

20 Atomic Bomb Brian Butler    2008

21 Atom and Evil Heaven and Hell 2009

22 Atom Bomb Blues The Naptown Jug Busters 2009

Well, I hope this Berlin Wall of Noise edifies you as much as me.

See you next week!

Everything You Always Wanted to Hear on the Moog* *But Were Afraid to Ask!

This LP first came out in  1967 an attempted cash-in on the brave new possibilities of synthesized music.  The title was a riff on a popular book Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex ... But Were Afraid to Ask.  This book's title later inspired a Woody Allen movie, too.

The artists credited are Andrew Kazdin and Thomas Z Shephard, but I don't know how much of their involvement was Hands On or (alternatively) Supervisory.


Here are the tracks:

1- España – Chabrier

2 - Malaguena - Lecuona

3 - Prelude To Act I; Habanera; Introduction To Act I (Les Toréadors) From "Carmen" - Bizet

4 - Bolero - Ravel

 It's a fun artifact, similar in some ways to early Tomita.  Sometimes the artist seems more interested in throwing in a funny or cute sound effect to replace an instrument, that he is in giving a straight musical performance.

But it's great fun, especially if you remember those early electronic-music days.

Now you know!

 

Spectacular Movies ... IN SPACE!

Here's another mystery cassette of "covers" of sci-fi themes, here performed by "The London Philharmonic and Cinema Sound Stage Orchestra with Synthesizers."

01 - ET Main Theme

02 - Star Trek Theme

03 - Superman Theme

04 - Planet of the Apes Theme

05 - Battle of the Planets

06 - Theme “2001”- Also Sprach Zarathustra

07 - Close Encounters

08 - Tron Theme and Actions

09 -  Star Wars End Title

If you can stand the excitement -- here your chance!

  

"Believe Me, If All These Endearing Young Charms ..."

This is from a cassette released by Nonesuch records in 1984.

It's a great "Irish" performance of some great "aulde Irische" music.  Just before 1810, Irish poet, entertainer, singer, and songwriter Thomas Moore collected for publication a great mound of Irish songs on love, drinking, and war -- the great subjects of Irish culture,  at least in the popular opinion.

His collections are generally known as "Moore's Irish Melodies."  This album is a selection.  Here's a list page of all of them, with lyrics.

I love these performances.  The singing is by turns lilting and bellowing.  The only instrumental accompaniment is a piano that is tuned, but sounds very old and frayed.  These are the songs:

01 - The Minstrel Boy

02 - Silent, O Moyle, Be the Roar of Thy Waters

03 - When in Death I Shall Calm  Recline

04 - Here We Dwell

05 - Lesbia Hath a Beaming Eye

06 - The Dirge / How Oft Has the Banshee Cried

07 - While Gazing on the Moon’s Light

08 - What the Bee Is to the Flow’ret

09 - Believe Me, If All These Endearing Young Charms

10 - The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls

11 - How Dear to Me the Hour When Daylight Dies

12 - Oh! Doubt Me Not

13 - At the Mid-Hour of the Night

14 - It Is Not the Tear at This Moment Shed

15 - Fill the Bumper Fair

16 - Planxty Johnstone / Captain Magan

17 - My Gentle Harp

18 - ’Tis the Last Rose of Summer

 Don't be afraid to let your emotions show, just so they are true ... affection, compassion, loyalty, devotion.  Do you show them with your friends and family?  I hope so!

Listen for yourself.