Jack Oh By Gee, By Juv
With humble pride, Harlequin announces the most exciting and significantevent in modern Slicker Herritage since Scott Corbett discoveredthe only extant pressing of the alternate take of Siam on JavaneseBluebird; and here, taken direct (well, almost) from the 1949 Sunday afternoontransmissions (American Forces Network, Munich) received on a Pye 4-valveradio-set and recorded on five and ten inch acetate-on-aluminium discssupplied by Will Day Electrics of Lisle Street, Red Light District, LondonW1, you will find preserved the finest moments of "CORN'S A-POPPIN'": SpikeJones and his greatest band in their peak performances.
With the exception of the appetising pear-drop aroma of freshly-mintedacetate, these 40-year-old ten-shilling platters are rescued in their entirety,held together with string, subjected to modern state-of-the-art electronics,ground up nice, rechanneled from ear to ear, enriched with vitamins, thoroughlymixed and poured into this everlasting indestructible Compact Disc.
And now, after a rapid search for the spot on the dial - ah!that's the one! - we hang over to Sgt. Russ Thompson as he introduces "CORN'SA-POPPIN'" starring Lindley Armstrong Jones and his City Slickers, at large,unstoppable, at 344m, 271m, 547m and 93.8m.
"Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives Me" provides an up-tempo kick-offto the shenanigans: a 'twenties jazz tune usually identified with the NewOrleans Rhythm Kings, and played here, with interpolations by Dick Morgan,in the regular format of piano-player Paul Leu's stack arrangements.
Jack Oh By Gee, By Juv
The magic of astute editing now transports our ten checkered andpolka dotted poltergeists to the icy banks of the you-know-where; so thatreed virtuoso and Howdy-Doody replica Jack "Golly" Gollobith (inthe role of Wayne King, the Waltz King) can unwind his Selmer cock-eyedfloogle-horn, and, fortified with a shot of Schubert's unfinished Fith,pull the rug out from under the chilly waters before Icky Morganand the Snake-Pit Symphony Orchestra blasts out an "improvement"on their 1945 RCA Victor treatment that Johann Strauss had to wait 95 cottonpickin'years to hear.
First of four guest spots in this notable selection is Alec Templeton,the blind British pianist-composer, world-famous for his Bach-orientedpastisches. Let his performance, a masterpiece of impromptu versatility,speak for itself.
Franky Little now sweeps the soundstage clear of bubble-gumwrappers, and permits Spike Jones to proclaim the glamorous Doodle Weaver,who comes on strong with his Oscar-nominated peroration of "Wabbits, Wabbits,Wabbits" and for an encore, white-jacketed attendants gently usher himfrom the microphone to make way for a rousing interlude by the Slickers,sounding like the Tennessee Tooters, and playing "By the BeautifulSea" (aficionados, keep your ears well pinned back for the sinisterinfluections of the middle eight).
July the Fourth is celebrated with burnt cork and Slingerlandtambourines in the Darktown Slickers' Minstrel Show: a revival ofa great American Institution notable for its well-rehearsed spontaneity.In quick succession, from left to right, Joe Colvin sliphorns asample of "Lassus Trombone" (once known as "Molasses Trombone" - thankyou, Mr. Mirtle), vocalists Jay Meyer and Cal Brown(who nets a royalty from Lifebouy), Freddy Morgan and his fingering,and itinerant medicine man, the Good Doctor Horatio Q. Birtbath,peddling his own elixir or laughter (a dollar a bottle, going cheap). "Ihaven't enjoyed myself so much since I was an egg," he confessed afterwards.
First waxed in '46 for RCA Victor, "I Dream of Brownie with theLight Blue Jeans" still makes up in spit for what it lacks on polish. Thisis the Full-harmonic version with a reinforced finale that was just a hairtoo long to fit on a ten-inch 78-disc. The only American ever to be knightedfor his services to music, Sir Frederick Gas, temporarily hangsup his camel-hair brushes to reveal a further facet to his multi-talentedpersona as he gives a new dimension to the original Sol Meyerlaugh-lyric. (Don't you just love this guy?). A show-stopper andanother high-octane Gas classic, showcasing the Szigeti of the Sadivariusat his sorrowful best. Five Stars.
Gas
(H)Air on G-string
You are now requested to spare a polite shudder as Hallowe'enis celebrated in an atmosphere of Grand Guignol, intensified by a rip-saw-teardownexecution of Sam Coslow's wistful ballad "My Old Flame":and now Sir Frederick emerges into the green spotlight carrying(gulp!) a human head; and now he becomes The Beast with Five Fingers (fromthe motion picture of the same name)! And now - it's all for the benefitand delight of honoured parton Chester Gould, creator of Dick Tracy,both seated in Row B. Your goose-bumps have scarcely diminished when adouble whammy is supplied by the guest appearance of the plasma-splatteredOriginal - still reeking from the Warner Bros film set - and thegreat Peter Lorre enacts an Inner Sanctum spoof aided andabetted by the Maestro and Dorothy Shay. "Ghoulish," agree DeucesDean and Simon.
For all the zealots who agree that Slicker Jazz can't occur oftenenough "The Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabama" to prepare you for asix-month overdue St. Valentine's Day Massacre: a satanic burlesque ofFritz Rotter's "Ich küsse Ihre Hand, Madame" that overshadowsthe commercial release in vigour, but with that cringe-making punchline tactfully replaced (who accused Jones, S., of lapses of taste?).
"Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone" swings con amoreand that's sufficient recommendation.
The man who brought the Steinway to his knees, modest FrancisCraig, allows Spike to do most of the talking for him, as befitsa man who haunted the airwaves via his two Hit-Parade Decca releases: "NearYou" and the one we've got here. Bob Lamm is the vocalist.
As the show segues into December, a cosy fireside medley spotlightsguests The Three Suns - the accordion-oriented trio with more smilesthan five Lawrence Welks, and the former Paul Pendarves warblerthat became a Hill-Billy star, Dorothy Shay.
The year 1948 is wrapped up by the Slickers in a lively live-performanceof "Happy New Year" and Dorothy slips in a plug for Lucky Strike.Sgt. Russ Thompson signs off the broadcast as he splices in the StandardTranscription Other Orchestra version of "When Yuba Plays the Rhumba onthe Tuba" - that's Clyde Hurley taking the trumpet solo. Fade toblack.
Issuing this stuff on a Compact Disc in this format is boundto ensure that the Mirtle switchboard will be jammed for many monthsto come. ("Who played What? - And When? - And Where?") You like? Then getyour CD player switched on for Harlequin's forthcoming sequel "THE RETURNOF THE SON OF THE GHOST OF CORN'S A-POPPIN'" skedded for early 1996.
Note from the page-owner: I never found that 1996 album...You?