Mills Brothers - Famous Barber Shop Ballads Vol. 1

Here's one I digitized for Mom and Dad: Eight close harmony cuts from 1949 on this Decca 10". Cuts! Barber shop! See what I just did there?

You Tell Me Your Dream, I'll Tell You Mine
Sweet Adeline
My Gal Sal
Just a Dream of You, Dear
Meet Me Tonight In Dreamland
Can't You Hear Me Callin', Caroline
Way Down Home
When You Were Sweet Sixteen

LP audio & art

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.

Daydreaming for Children

Previously released as When I Grow Up I Want To Be A... on Golden Records in 1968. Not sure what year this re-titled edition debuted. Through the reveries of a child wondering what it will do when it grows up, Daydreaming for Children offers a catalogue of misapprehensions guaranteed to set your young one on the road to lifelong disillusionment with the career of his or her choosing. In the movie They Live, all media are saturated with subliminal messages telling us how to live our consumerist lives; if you'd like to know what's been playing secretly underneath our national anthem for the last 40 years, skip to "Undecided".

Circus Clown
T.V. Cowboy
Sailor
Postman
Drummer
Candystore Owner
Fireman
Jockey
Dentist
Astronaut
Weatherman
Lifeguard
Traffic Cop
Submarine Steerer
Farmer
Balloon Seller
Ball Player
Magician
Fisherman
Golfer
Undecided

LP art & audio

Ralph Platt & Lorin Whitney: The Birds Sing His Praise

Organist Lorin Whitney and whistler Ralph Platt perform an album of pious Christian dirges so lugubrious they practically go all the way around and turn giddy. Made famous by the Firesign Theatre, who created so many dearly beloved batshit radio performances using this record as underscore. Grab your copy of Marching to Shibboleth, cue up "I Walked Today Where Jesus Walked", and do your own karaoke version of "$100 Ben"! (This is actually Volume One, released in 1958. There was a Volume Two, and you can bet your Aunt Esther's hymnal I'll be posting that one too at some later date.)

I Walked Today Where Jesus Walked
The Child of a King
The Glory of His Presence
Why Should He Love Me So
Dearer Than All
It Is Well with My Soul
I Love to Tell the Story
I Have Been Alone With Jesus
Jesus Alone
Cleanse Me
I Am Amazed
I Will Pilot Thee

LP audio & art

Various Artists: Voices of the Angels

 

Double-LP spoken word collection of Los Angeles artists circa 1982.

SIDE A

Charles Bukowski: Jam

Miles Ciletti: Five Block Walk

Garth Evans, Lisa Bloom: Brentwood Fever

Dennis Cooper: Hello In There

Velvert Turner- L.A.

Cotton: Interview With The Outerview Of Whose View

Bobby Issacson: Scene Two Take Four Granted

Pleasant Gehman: Hard To Have

Cole Ynda: Manslaughter

Dennis Duck: Jody F. 29

Danielle Sybil: The Smog Pocket

Dennis Dragon: 25 Years At The Same Spot

Drew Steele: Progress

The Miller Bros.: Dog Shit Bay

Scott Goddard: Goy Boy

Madeline Ridley: The Valley Doesn’t Exist Anymore

Ivan E. Roth: Mission Control Calling

Russ Parr: Big Black Car

Dan Phillips, David Scott – Twisting & Kissing

Walter E. Hurst: Legal Rap

Smith

Wanda Coleman: Where I Live

SIDE B

The Marina Swingers: Casualfornia

Louie Lista: Albino Watermelon

Dave Alvin: Jayne Mansfield

Tequila Mockingbird: MacArthur Park / Punk View

Walter Lacey: Meatrack Man

Tuff Muffin: Beach Rebuttal

Little Girls

Monica, Harvey, Cecelia: Demo Tape Hustle a.k.a. Total Blue Book d.b.a. Corned Beef On White, Mayo On The Side, Large Milk

Smith Here

Bruce Gary: West San Fernando Valley Kid

Lanny Waggoner: Pico And Figueroa

Toulouse Engelhardt, Jeff Brough: Counter-Attack Action By Space Specialists / Oceanea

Kari Krome: Love Butchers

Sally and the Surf Tones: Jump Into A Sea Of Blondes / Harvey Robert Kubernik, Jill Amanda Martin: Jam

Gary Stewart: Mar Vista Man Speaks

Eugene Daniel: Talisman

Leah Komaiko: Watching Jeff Surf At The Beach

Charles Dukowski: SWA Manifesto (A Work In Progress)

Stella: Stray Pop With The Surf Punks, June 3, 1980

Robert “Frizz” Fuller: Hills Of Covina

Ned Wreck Featuring Elmer Conovitch: Bad In Bed

Tubesteak of Malibu: Pier Observation

SIDE C

Danny Sugerman: Night Games

Barbara Linkevitch: Devil Moon

Jerry Dreva – L.A. Art Scene

Jane Bond & The Undercovermen: Rodney On The Roq

Diana Waggoner: Calle de los Virgines

Richard Meltzer: Wednesday Is A Day For Baldies

Jody Taylor Worth of Blow Up: We’re So Cool (Excerpt)

Bobby Abrams: Sunshine Woman

Thank You

Reese, Nova, Senac: N.E.L.A.

Rosemary Renee Patronette, Margaret Rochlin: Bus Stop Van Nuys Blvd.

Chris D.: Absinthe History

Marina Del Rey- Mud

Gustave Ridley: On Rodeo Drive

Harriet Rochlin: In The English Dept.

Mary Lou Ynda: Performance Art

Harvey Kubernik, Doug Moody: Block Booking Studio Time On A Superman Level/No Car Rock

Cheryl Smith: Sure

Blake Xolton: Tantric Boogie

Dave Alvin: National City

Phast Phreddie: Zombies In Chinatown

SIDE D

Geza X: Another Grand Illusion Shot To Hell

Bill Noland: Kalimba

Smith

Paul Body: Pink And Black

Joanna Spock Dean: No Middle Initial

Dr. Frank Stranges: Excerpt From Phenomenon 7.7

BPeople: Making Petrified Conditions Dance

Ed Smith: Off Hollywood Blvd; 1978/Fantasy World

Gerardo Velazquez, Bill Cline, Edward Stapleton: Aztec Dilemma

Gerardo Velazquez, Bill Cline, Edward Stapleton: Embryo & Placenta

Gerardo Velazquez, Bill Cline, Edward Stapleton: Quick View Of A Chemo-Bicameral Suburban Urchin

Gerardo Velazquez, Bill Cline, Edward Stapleton: Falsetto Boy

Gerardo Velazquez, Bill Cline, Edward Stapleton: Abduction

Scott Goddard: Playing Electronic Games In Pacoima With Heavy Pinball Damage

Wanda Coleman: Angel Baby

Shredder: A Portion Of The Flipside Magazine Editorial #29

Patrick Joseph Di Puccio: The Forgotten Land

Jill Amanda Martin: 90024

Harvey Robert Kubernik: Queen Of Angels Product

Kim Vincent Fowley: Hollywood Trash

LP audio & art

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.

四川省涼山彝族自治州文工團演唱(奏)的節目 - 社會主義道路最寬廣 (The Cultural Troupe of the Liangshan Yi Nationality Autonomous Chou: The Socialist Road Is the Broadest of All)

The road is broad. The teeth are white. The record is 10".

庆祝翻身奴隶协会成立 (Celebrating the Founding of the Emancipated Serfs Association)
凉山好 (Liangshan Is a Splendid Place)
彝蒙翻身調 (Emancipation Melody of the Yi People)
人民公社瓦吉瓦麻額 (The People's Communes Are Really Good)
水輪泵在歌唱 (Song of the Water Pump)
丰收調 (Bumper Harvest Melody)
社会主义道路最寬广 (The Socialist Road Is the Broadest of All)
馬儿呦! 你快快跑 (Gallop Faster, My Steed)
送肥上山去 (Carrying Manure Up the Mountainside)
涼山真是瓦吉瓦 (Liangshan Is Really Good)
知識青年來彝家 (Young Intellectuals Come to the Home of the Yi People)
瓦吉瓦 (How Good!)

Album audio & art

Dick Hyman: The Age of Electronicus

Let's boogie. Dick conveniently forgot that Krautrock didn't exist yet with his tribal/sludge/techno stunner "Kolumbo"; "Give It Up or Turn It Loose" has a mid-tempo electronica groove that strongly presages LCD Soundsystem; "Alfie" is as sublime in its effervescence as a sunrise seen from orbit; and he can't help himself with his Bach-by-way-of-Walter-Carlos take on "Both Sides Now".

[PLEASE NOTE that several of these tracks retain the slight background crackle of vintage vinyl. If you've seen a close-up of the waveform of a single click and compared it to a sawtooth wave from a vintage synth, you'll know why I'm reticent to do automatic click removal on this record.]

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Give It Up Or Turn It Loose
Blackbird
Aquarius
Green Onions
Kolumbo
Time Is Tight
Alfie
Both Sides Now

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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.

Space Is So Startling

They’re dynamic! They’re vivacious! They’re pointing at stuff! They’re insisting that space, which we know is almost 100% empty, is in fact startling! With a cover like this you’d think surely there must be some primo, Gemini-era sci-fi WTF inside to satisfy your collecting dollar. Um, no. An original stage musical from the Kennedy years, this magical LP tells the story of, so yeah let's move on to the speaking roles: there’s the Dreaming Boy, the Space Singer, Mr. Nod (bringer of magic dust), and there’s Mom and Dad and Uncle Jim and some Beatniks and Commies and Astronauts and Squatters. Now come with me to page 982 of the big dictionary on the plinth in the library, where we see that one of the definitions of “character” is “thing in the play that reads the lines”. Mission accomplished! This is a story, in the sense that some things happen, and there are characters, vis. a bunch of straw men whose function is to preach the authors’ views, namely that all you squatters should shut the fuck up and get a job, and all you dirty Red Chinese and Rooskies should get religion.

So who blew the head of A&R at Philips to get this slag in the record bins? Why, God, of course, in the form of Moral Re-Armament, a conservative Christian movement / political action committee active in the years after WWII. The MRA was founded by Frank Buchman, and Peter Howard, co-author of this play, was Buchman's disciple and autobiographer. Probably written specifically to launch the MRA’s new "activity center" in Odawara, Japan in October 1962, Space Is So Startling moved on to stagings in Berlin and London before landing in Boston prior to an expected Broadway run (it, um, never made it to Broadway).

A stale loaf of terrible lyrics, leaden tunes, one-dimensional dramaturgy, and WASP proselytizing, only briefly studded with juicy olives of Bulldada ("WE'RE the baskets!" is one great line, which only loses its force when you realize they're saying "basket" because God-fearing Americans don't say "bastard"), this should be listened to once in search of goofy shit to sample for your next hip-hop joint and then copied to a flash drive and left in your car.

With thanks to the late Peter Bergman, who opened an episode of the Firesign Theatre’s “Radio Hour Hour” radio series with this record in 1970; and to Doug Wellman, who played enough of it on recent episodes of his show "Puzzling Evidence" that I could finally identify it.

POSTSCRIPT: The Raleigh, N.C. Register quoted Peter Howard in 1962 describing the play as "the beginning of an ideological offensive to capture the initiative" from Red China. And did China counterattack with their OWN terrible propaganda records? I'M GLAD YOU ASKED THAT. Coming soon to this blog: not one but three Cultural Revolution-era hit platters from the China Record Company.

Introduction / Sleep On!
Millions of Years Ago
Why Worry? / It Would Help A Lot To Squat!
A Sort of Uncle
Any Moment Now
So Comes Their Sleep!
We've Got to Be First / God Is In Our Cities
What Do the Eyes of the Millions Seek?
Have You a Place for Me Up There?
Sportsmen of the World
If Only
Neighbours Are Neighbours / Space Is So Startling
What We Need Is An End to Anti
Where's That Basket?
Do You See What I See?
One Plus One Can Yet Make One
Peace Be Upon You
It Works!
Finale: The World Can Be One Family / Space Is So Startling

LP art & audio
 

Jack Douglas (With the Original Cast) Recorded Live at the Bon Soir

The author of My Brother Was An Only Child and Never Trust a Naked Bus Driver does stand-up (alone), plays a snare drum (to the death), and beats City Hall (by turning the cannon around). Douglas was a primary influence on Steve Martin and a regular fill-in host on The Jack Paar Show, but his voice is more or less forgotten today, though his many autobiographical works of non-fiction survive (Shut Up and Eat Your Snowshoes; The Neighbors Are Scaring My Wolf; etc. etc.). Full of Douglas' classic brand of aggressive surrealism and Dada transitions, this album dates from a time when the popular comedy LP itself was just a widdle biddy thing in diapers and the average nightclubber was not the hell prepared for a heaping helping of WTF like Jack.

LP audio & art

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.

"Jack Douglas is to a drum what the guillotine was to Marie Antoinette." - Mitch Miller

(Quote and photo from A Funny Thing Happened To Me On My Way To The Grave. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1962)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: Lewis Carroll / Cyril Ritchard / Alec Wilder / New York Woodwind Quintet

Tony award-winning Cyril Ritchard - beloved to kids of the Eisenhower era as a risible Captain Hook opposite Mary Martin in the stage version of Peter Pan - narrates the complete classic by Lewis Carroll. Alec Wilder provides a suite of songs and musical interludes. Their rendition of "Beautiful Soup" will somehow make your day complete. This deluxe original 4-LP set on Riverside was released in 1957 in a 1"-thick box complete with a facsimile edition of the 1865 first edition of Alice.

Prologue
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII

LP audio & art

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.

A Boy Named Charlie Brown: Selections from the Soundtrack

Unlike any LP or CD release connected with the first Peanuts feature film, this record contains a treasure chest of incidental music from the movie, including the intoxicating waltz "Snoopy on Ice". Jazz both upbeat and melancholy from Vince Guaraldi and John Scott Trotter.

A Boy Named Charlie Brown
Cloud Dreams
Charlie Brown and His All-Stars
We Lost Again
Blue Charlie Brown
Time to Go to School
I Only Dread One Day at a Time
Failure Face
By Golly I’ll Show ’Em
Class Champion
“I” Before “E”
School Spelling Bee
Champion Charlie Brown
Start Boning Up on Your Spelling, Charlie Brown
You’ll Either Be a Hero…or a Goat
Bus Station
Bus Wheel Blues
Do Piano Players Make a Lot of Money
I’ve Got to Get My Blanket Back
Big City
Snoopy on Ice
Found Blanket
National Spelling Bee
B-E-A-G-E-L
Bus Wheel Blues
Homecoming
I’m Never Going to School Again
Welcome Home, Charlie Brown
A Boy Named Charlie Brown

LP audio & art

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.

Laurie Anderson: The Interview from the Film Soundtrack to Home of the Brave

There is no voice-over intro or outro on any of the segments, so we encourage that you play this at home while reading out loud the copy printed on the back of the jacket to give the program an “in-house” produced feel. For (my station) in (my town), this is (my name) speaking.

Language Is a Virus / White Lily / Late Show
Talk Normal / Smoke Rings
Sharkey's Night / Radar / Langue D'Amour
Kokoku / Sharkey's Day / Credit Racket

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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.

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore: The Clean Tapes

An excellent "best of" collection from 1978 released in Australia, or possibly New Zealand, sampling the cream of Cook & Moore's many Decca LPs and scarce 45s. Anyone coming to the boys for the first time should start here. Yes, sorry, perhaps I should have posted this first. Damn.

The Newsreel Overture
The Music Teacher
Tramponuns
Lovely Lady of the Roses
Dud and Pete on Sex
Isn’t She a Sweetie
The Real Stuff
Aversion Therapy
Father and Son
Lengths
Goodbyee

LP audio & art

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.

National Lampoon: The Official National Lampoon Stereo Test and Demonstration Record

One of the lost National Lampoon albums from the their prolific mid-seventies heyday, maybe this 1974 LP was executed better in the packaging than in the voice direction. Features Chevy Chase and John Belushi.

Introduction to Side One

Test: Voice

Test: Balance

Demonstration: Several Parameters

Demonstration: Separation

Demonstration: Frequency Response

Test: Unmodulated Grooves

Special Service

Test: End of Side One

Introduction to Side Two

Test: Realism

Test: Resistance Accuracy

Test: Phasing

Test: Exaggeration

Test: Listener

The Punishment Band

Conclusion

LP audio & art

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.

National Lampoon: Good-bye Pop

Most of the not-ready-for-primetime players in an album paying murderous tribute to all the golden Pop trends of 1975, including the Blaxsploitation "Kung Fu Christmas", the prog-to-infinity "Art Rock Suite", the poignant tribute to female empowerment "I'm a Woman", plus Bob Dylan doing reggae and Christopher Guest's C&W session man tribute "The B Side of Love". Featuring Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Dan Akroyd, Harold Ramis, and John Belushi. I have no idea why this brilliant album hasn't been rereleased in full, unless they're ashamed that Neil Young didn't follow their prediction and die at age 30.

Good-bye Pop
The Mel Brewer Show
Kung Fu Christmas
A History of the Beatles
The B Side of Love
I'm a Woman
A History of Neil Young
Southern California Brings Me Down
Art Rock Suite
The Return of Don Fields
Down to Jamaica
Goodbye Ron, Mel and Pop

Album audio & art

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.

Steve Martin: The Steve Martin Radio Show

Interview with Steve Martin to coincide with the release of A Wild and Crazy Guy. Lots of great background into his process that he later expanded on in his autobiography Born Standing Up. Pro tip: If you find yourself on a plane sitting next to Steve, don't pull out your phone and ask him to recite his old routines for you.

Album audio & art

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.