A couple of song-poems for you today which I hope that most
of you will not have heard before. They come from my collection and I have not ripped them nor
blogged about them before, so the chances are pretty good that, although they
were released over 40 years ago, they will be ‘fresh’ to you.
Starting today, and for the next three Fridays, I shall be
sitting in for DJ Jan Turkenburg, hosting three, two-hour specials. If you wish
to join me the show starts at 7pm (BST) or 2pm (EDT), but you can also stream
it at your convenience: https://wfmu.org/playlists/WR
Today’s show (3 July) is a space-themed special, featuring
mostly-instrumental music (although I have thrown a Geoff Goddard vocal and a
song-poem 45 into the mix) from the 50s and 60s. The following week I am hosting
a two-hour audio documentary dedicated to the marvellous Mrs. Miller and, on 17
July, a two-hour song-poem special, featuring several discs from my own
collection that have not been heard before.
Including this one.
Issued by Columbine record in February 1977, these two cuts
come from one of the many four-track EPs issued by the company. Perhaps not as
well known as Preview, Halmark or MSR, Columbine was, in fact, one of the most
productive of all the song-poem labels, issuing hundreds of 45s, EPs and
albums, and more through its’ associated labels Century 21, Hollywood Artists
and others.
Both of today’s tracks come from Ralph Lowe, one of the
busiest of all song-poem stylists, and both are fairly self-explanatory. The wonderfully-titled
What's It All About - Our Bicentennial Year actually arrived a few
months too late to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the founding
of the country we now call the United States, and John F. Kennedy was a
late addition – by a good decade at least – to the countless tributes to the
assassinated President.
Ralph Lowe, the lounge singer from hell, is one of my
favourite song-poem performers, along with Halmark’s Bob Storm and the
ubiquitous Rodd Keith, of course. For years he was Columbine’s go-to guy for
anything out of the ordinary; Kay Weaver usually got the mopey, dull country or
Christian rubbish but it was Ralph who got the mangled and the mad, off-the-wall
nonsense like the brilliant I’m The Cat or The Lottery Freak. And
these two of course. He was Columbine’s Gene Marshall – until, of course, they brought
Gene Marshall into the stable: Marshall (real name Gene Merlino) recorded for
Columbine under the name John Muir.
Anyway, here are both What's It All About - Our
Bicentennial Year, penned by Wilhelmina McClellan and, from the pen of
Michael McDonald (no, not THAT Michael McDonald) John F. Kennedy.
Enjoy!
Download Bicentennial HERE
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