Paul Winter: A Winter's Tale

 

Saul Wineman was born in Los Angeles in 1923, grew up in Detroit, and went to University of Michigan where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in philosophy, and was also introduced to student radio. His first pro job in radio was DJ at WXYZ 1270-AM in Detroit in 1952, where he started using the show biz name Paul Winter. He played records and wrote and recorded his own skits, and held the job straight through 1964. This, Paul's only LP, was recorded for Washington, D.C. label Offbeat Records in 1957. For the next twenty years, as his daughter Lisa Friedman said in his obituary, he had one foot in academia and one foot in broadcasting: "When he was solely a performer, he was an adjunct professor, and when he was solely a professor he was an adjunct performer." Between stints teaching humanities at Detroit's Wayne State University, he hosted the talk show "The Paul Winter Show" on WEEI 590-AM Boston from June 1964 to May 1965; he hosted the same show on both WTAK 1090-AM Detroit and WKBD-TV Detroit Channel 50 from May to November 1966; he did it again on WTAK from May to June 1969; and he did it one more time on WJR 760-AM Detroit from May 1972 to November 1973.

The songs on this album riff on much the same topics you'll see in early Feiffer cartoons, so prepare to be rocketed back into the Eisenhower administration and its fixations on vitamins, the computer threat, Tennessee Williams, the Commies, and the Bomb. There are good tunes and good satire, and maybe it isn't as funny/sick as Tom Lehrer, but then again the song "Ballad of Orval Faubus (Little Orvy)" sounds like it was recorded in response to some news item from 2020. Among the songs guaranteed to turn your head is "Stalin Met Trotsky in Hell" which contains a line so good it needs to be sample yesterday if not sooner: "Hoy boy, diddle diddle doy / Who's got time for hoi polloi? / When in doubt, don't refute him / Simply aim, simply shoot him".

Tired Blood
Automation Blues
Film Clip
Stalin Met Trotsky in Hell
Good Bishop Berkely
Toptoon (The D.J.)
Actor's Studio (Tempo di Tennessee)
Ballad of Orval Faubus (Little Orvy)
Team Man
Hollywood Hot Stuff
All Hail
Sing a Song of Schopenhauer
Had It
Fallout

Album audio & artwork

 

Press clippings:

1957-10-20 Detroit Free Press pg2TV
1958-06-01 Detroit Free Press pg06TV
1964-08-19 Boston Globe pg10
1964-10-27 Boston Globe pg12
1966-05-12 Detroit Free Press pg6B
1967-01-04 Detroit Free Press pg4C
1968-09-05 Detroit Free Press pg12D
1968-09-13 Detroit Free Press pg5C
2000-09-23 Detroit Free Press pg17C

DISCLAIMER: To the best of my knowledge, this work is out of print and not available for purchase in any format. If you are the artist and are planning a reissue, please let me know and I’ll remove it from the blog. Also please get in touch if you’ve lost your art &/or sound masters and would like to talk with me about my restoration work.