Un-Note-Able

Today, a couple of racks from a 1977 album that was recently brought to my attention by the head honcho at Sheena’s Jungle Room, and former host of the Music For Maniacs blog, Mr. Fab. And I’m so glad he did, because it is rather marvellous!

 

The Note-Ables were a polka band that probably hailed from St Paul, Minnesota. Neither of their albums give much of a clue as to where the four men – brothers (or possibly cousins) Jeff and Craig Dahlberg, Ken Trombley and Tom Johnson - originated from, but the labels on their debut mention KNOF, a studio facility in Minnesota that specialised in Christian and polka recordings. Jim Reynolds, who engineered both albums, was chief engineer at KNOF before setting up his own studio, Custom, nearby.

 

That first album - Meet the Note-Ables ­– is entirely instrumental, featuring 14 polkas and waltzes. It was recorded in September 1976 which dates the release of this second effort, Flipside, to 1977 at the earliest (not 1974 as Discogs would have you believe).

 

And my goodness, what a record Flipside is. The Note-Ables were desperate to prove that the four of them were capable of more than imitating Lawrence Welk at local hootenannies and shindigs: the notes on the reverse of their debut state that their polka and waltz repertoire made up ‘just a fraction of the many songs and styles of music the Note-Ables produce. Polka, Waltz, Fox Trot, Country Western, Swing, Rock – ALL done in their own special sound.’

 

And what a special sound it is – assuming the word ‘special’ is being used here in the same sense as we might have referred to a certain place of learning as a ‘special school’. Flipside consists of 13 tracks, the majority covers of popular standards, all played by a band who have more in common with the Shaggs than the Stones. Clearly recorded in one take, perhaps in an effort to capture the excitement of a live Note-Ables concert, it finds the band stumbling – like blind men in a particularly crowded subway station – through inept, out-of-tune versions of popular standards including several written by or popularised by the Beatles (Roll Over Beethoven, She Loves You, I Saw Her Standing There and Can’t Buy Me Love) as well as two originals written by Jeff Dahlberg, Lost and Found and Love’s Not Always Kind, a song that features the kind of trumpet break that makes you want to set fire to all of your Tijuana Brass albums.

 

Flipside is truly mesmerising, it’s little wonder that Mr fab refers to the act as the ‘Note -UNables’, but the whole process must have proved a bit too much for the lads, as after destroying ten pop and country favourites they suddenly perform an about-face and switch back to accordion-led dance music, a genre in which they are clearly more comfortable.

 

Here are a couple of tracks from the brilliant Flipside, the Note-Ables’ supremely ham-fisted attempt at the Chuck Berry classic Roll Over Beethoven, and the equally delightful She Loves You. You can find the whole album on YouTube should you so wish.

 

Enjoy!

 

Download Beethoven HERE

Download Loves HERE