WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Stanford's Spring Sing '68: "The Rights of Spring" (MP3's)

First, I wanted to point out to anyone who read my previous post, about the mysterious rock and roll songs, thall ALL of them have been identified. The updated post can be found here. And now, on with the countdown: 

I was lucky enough to come across this album last year, the locally produced soundtrack to a show held at Stanford in 1968, and titled "Spring Sing: 'The Rights of Spring'". In different ways, this album is entertaining, eye-opening and not much short of astonishing. 

I was only seven in the spring of 1968, but with the history I'm aware of, it seems likely to me that, aside from perhaps the first three weeks of that season, it was not a very happy, lighthearted spring season. No doubt the murder of Dr. King on April 4 of that year more than took the wind out of the country's sails. 

And yet here we have the recorded evidence of a celebratory college show, held at Stanford that Spring. My strong guess is that it took place after Dr. King's death and most likely after the most extreme of the reactions and fallout from that event (given that most schools hold an even of this type close to the end of the semester), and if that's the case, I find the lighthearted nature of much of this material more than a little surprising. The bottom line is that I found myself listening to this album just short of shocked at how little it seems to reflect the issues of the day. 

Well, now, not all issues. The first track, "We've Got Trouble" contains some biting words about the privilege of being White, and makes several jabs at this and related issues, so clearly the problems of the day were not unknown to these young people. 

The other issue touched on, though, in several tracks, is the relationship between the sexes on campus. While the soon-to-be coming of co-ed dorms is excitedly mentioned multiple times, I was more taken with the tracks which casually, with attempted good humor and complete acceptance, make light of the possibility of co-eds getting drunk and being taken advantage of, or just in general the question of when and how will the lovely young lady get home. And this occurs without critical comment in songs by both men and women's groups on the album. Looked at through today's lens, I can't imagine that these songs would have made it into the show in these forms, or that if they somehow did, heads wouldn't have rolled the next day. 

That's not to say that this album is a horror of unabashed sexism and cluelessness, just that nearly half the time, there seems to be only one thought on the performers' minds, and it is expressed in a way that I don't think would fly today. There are plenty of nice moments, funny moments and enjoyable musical moments here. On the other hand, there are a few straight numbers, uniformly dull and uninspired (one is labeled "Renditions of Simon and Garfunkel", but could have just as well be labeled "Sounds of Silence" as that's all it is). 

A few other notes: The track "My Lord and Master" is the second track on side two, as indicated on the label, and not the fourth track, as indicated on the cover. And there is no mention of the little speech the ends the album, on the cover or the label. What's odd here is that the person speaking seems to be introducing the next act as he finishes speaking, except that.... that's where the album ends! 

1.) Jordan/El Capitan – We've Got Trouble (MP3)

2.) Business School – Goodnight Little Girl/I Should Have Known Better/ Goin’ to Live with God (MP3)

3.) Lathrop - The Simple Joys (MP3)

4.) Delta Upsilon - Renditions of Simon & Garfunkel (MP3)

5.) Alpha Delta Phi – I've Been Waiting For Spring (MP3)

6.) Fremont - Getting the Cure (MP3)

7.) Soto - My Lord and Master (MP3)

8.) Kappa Sigma/Roth - The Wrongs of Spring (MP3)

9.) Roble - Death of the Roble Dollie (MP3)

10.) El Toro - Conception of Stanford (Blown By the Winds of Freedom (MP3)

11.) Unknown - Announcement at End of Album (MP3)

Here are the covers and the labels: 

Stanford Label A-Side (JPG)  |  Stanford Label B-Side (JPG)  

Stanford Front Cover (JPG)  |  Stanford Back Cover (JPG)  |  Stanford Back Cover Close Up (JPG)

Comments can be sent to bobpurse@gmail.com

Ode To Mary Jo (MP3)

  

Marvin Solley  -  Ode To Mary Jo

 On July 18, 1969, Mary Jo Kopechne left a Martha's Vineyard party with Senator Ted Kennedy, who piloted  his Oldsmobile 88 off the side of a nearby bridge and into the water below.  He managed to escape, but Kopechne drowned in the car.  In an act of indefensible cowardice, Kennedy fled the scene and did not get around  contacting the police until 10AM the next morning.

It's somewhat amazing, but people were still recording songs about the event 11 years later.  Well, maybe not people in general, but Marvin Solley.  Solley ratchets up the intensity factor by beginning his song with sound effects of a car skidding out of control and plunging into the water.

A few other songs about this tragedy can be heard in previous BOTB posts.

Six Killer Dancehall Vids from the Early '90s

Lately for my radio show I've just been picking through FMU's massive LP collection for hours and hours.  Very labor intensive, but I've found a lot of amazing stuff, and a surprising amount of dancehall from the late '80s onward.  Snagga is this fella I found who does a mean Snagglepuss impression with some killer keyboard presets and drum sounds.  And there began my youtube K-hole...But let me start with my favorite - I've watched Natty Dread (on the top right) at least 25 times this past week.

More videos below...

Silver Bridge Disaster - Part 4 (MP3)

Yep, it's time for another dispatch about the Silver Bridge disaster.  I really never intended to do four of these, but somehow I keep finding additional 45s about this terrible event, and I'm contractually obligated to share 'em all with you, so here we go again.  Incidentally, parts 1, 2 and 3 can be found at the linked numbers in this sentence.

Lowell Varney & Jim Horn  -  The Silver Bridge

In case you're new to this tragic story, the Silver Bridge spanned the Ohio River between Kanuaga, Ohio and Point Pleasant, West Virginia from 1928 until December 15, 1967 when it collapsed and fell into the icy waters below.  The catastrophe, which happened during the busy afternoon rush hour, cost 46 people their lives.

The tragedy was the inspiration for a number of topical records; I'm up to nine at this point and I have a feeling that the well's pretty close to dry at this point.  The disc we're focused on today comes from the REM label, a Lexington, Kentucky outfit that took its name from the initials of owner Robert E. Mooney, who also produced this piece.

Wallenda On The Highwire (MP3)

Bobby Atkins  -  Wallenda On The Highwire  (2:17)

Country music, along with its close cousin bluegrass, has a long and well-documented history as being a vehicle for musical tributes to people and events in news.  Topical songs like this one, recorded just after high wire walker Karl Wallenda fell to his death in Puerto Rico in 1978, often document events from personal perspectives that don't always make it into the history books.  I feel like I'm not going too far out on a limb if I proclaim this to be the world's only bluegrass Karl Wallenda tribute 45. 

The name Wallenda has been cropping up in a lot of recent news stories due to the fact that Karl's grandson, Nik Wallenda, will attempt on Friday to be the first person to cross the brink of Niagara Falls on a high wire.  Others have crossed the river gorge on a wire, but not at the brink - always downriver.  ABC will broadcast the stunt on live television but insists, over Wallenda's objections, that he wear a body harness to prevent his death should he fall. 

According to the Associated Press, ABC has determined that legal liability considerations prohibit the network from footing any of the astonomical bills associated with Wallenda's preparations, permits, and materials, such as the 7-ton two-inch thick cable purchased to span the gorge.  Wallenda's set up a donation page over at Indiegogo to help defray the stunt's spiralling costs, so kick in a few bucks and help the guy out.

The Thresher (MP3)

  

Jim Richardson, Jr.  -  The Thresher  (2:14)

On April 10, 1963 the USS Thresher, an American nuclear-powered attack submarine sank while doing dive tests in the Atlantic Ocean 200 miles off the coast of Cape Cod.  Following a power failure, the submarine imploded at crush depth resulting in the deaths of all 129 men on board.

Jim Richardson, Jr. was not the only one to head into the recording studio to memorialize the tragedy.  Phil Ochs recorded an entirely different song called The Thresher for his 1964 Elektra LP All The News That's Fit To Sing. And Abner Jay, an idiosyncratic folk / blues singer from Fitzgerald, Georgia who described himself as "the last southern black minstrel" also recorded yet another song with the same title.

Little Rose Marie (MP3)

   

Bill Woods  -  Little Rose Marie  (2:43)

I should probably warn you, this is a sad and disturbing story.  Little Rose Marie, a record by Bill Woods, one of the founders of the legendary Bakersfield music scene, memorializes six-year-old Rose Marie Riddle, brutally raped and murdered at the hands of Richard Arlen Lindsey and his wife, Dixie.

According to court documents, while driving through Kern County on the afternoon of January 12, 1961, Lindsey told his wife, 7 months pregnant at the time, that he wanted a little girl for sexual purposes.  They drove into the Shafter labor camp, about 20 miles northwest of Bakersfield, and Dixie spoke to some children playing outside, saying that she wanted to hire someone to clean up her house.  No doubt money's tight in a labor camp so one of the kids went into a nearby house and returned with young Rose Marie, who unfortunately got into the car with the Lindseys.

Ode To Spade (MP3)

    

Tommy Graham  -  Ode To Spade  (2:14)

If you believe the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture, pioneering western swing band leader Spade Cooley was born on this day in 1910.  Plenty of other web sources list Cooley's birthdate as December 17, 1910, though, and I'm not sure who to believe.  Regardless of exactly when his birthday is, it's a fine day to share with you this tribute 45.

Cooley enjoyed a long and prosperous career in radio, films, television, records and live performances, but remains quite notorious for the fact that he was convicted of murder in the first degree for the extremely brutal slaying of his wife Ella Mae in 1961, following which he received a life sentence. 

Ode To Spade is Tommy Graham's Spade Cooley tribute disc, released shortly after Cooley's fatal heart attack on November 23, 1969 following a performance.  The show, performed during a 72-hour jail furlough, was held at the Oakland Auditorium, now known as the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, which was recently in national news when members of Occupy Oakland attempted to take over the long vacant building and use it for their headquarters.  Graham and Cooley were both inmates at the Vacaville Medical Center, and became friends while incarcerated.

For the most detailed and extensive report on the rise and fall of Spade Cooley, I highly recommend John Marr's Murder Can Be Fun #19, available for a mere $2 plus a modest $1 shipping charge.  The Michael McMahon illustration above appears there, and it can also be found in an issue of Lowest Common Denominator, the former house organ of WFMU.

The Ballad Of Caryl Chessman (MP3s)

     

Ronnie Hawkins  -  The Ballad Of Caryl Chessman (Let Him Live, Let Him Live, Let Him Live)

Hoyle Miller  -  Twelve Years On Death Row

Country Johnny Mathis  -  Caryl Chessman

In July 1948, Caryl Chessman, also known as "The Red Light Bandit," was sentenced to die in the California gas chamber after being convicted on 17 charges of robbery, kidnapping and rape.  Chessman's residence on death row was somewhat anomalous in that his crimes did not involve the taking of a life.  However, the fact that he was convicted of kidnapping with bodily harm enabled the state of California to charge him with the violation of the Federal Kidnapping Act (sometimes referred to as the Little Lindbergh Law), which was regarded as a capital offense.

The Music We Would Be Playing, if We Were Playing Music

Besides being WFMU’s first callerless call-in show, Thunk Tank rarely features music. Every week we go through the new CDs that have come into the station, and find a few we like, and bring them into the studio, and then don’t play them. If we were playing music, though, right now we would be playing a lot of banda, a style of brass-heavy oompah music from the Mexican state of Sinaloa—also home of the pointy boots!

 

But that's tribal music, not banda. Banda instrumentation includes accordions, tubas, sousaphones, slide trombones, clarinets, and a drum with no kick pedal and a manual hi-hat. Diligent viewing of Mun2 TV has convinced Bronwyn that banda songs are mostly about fat pizza delivery guys who get beautiful girls, and young busboys who get beautiful girls, and school janitors with beautiful janitress girlfriends who can’t stop looking at the high school girls.

more videos beneath the fold...

The Tale Of Floyd Collins (MP3)

The Tale Of Floyd Collins comes to us from Arkansas native Ronnie Hawkins, who found success and fame after following Conway Twitty's advice and relocating to Canada.

In 1960, several decades after the fact, Hawkins, a cousin of rockabilly pioneer Dale Hawkins, released this topical song about the 1925 death of cave explorer Floyd Collins who became trapped 55 feet underground in what is now part of Mammoth Cave National Park just outside of Cave City, Kentucky.  Collins got stuck while exploring and though rescue teams worked around the clock to try to save him, they were ulimately unsuccessful and after 14 hellish days Collins succumbed to exposure, thirst and starvation.

Ronnie Hawkins  -  The Tale Of Floyd Collins  (3:03)

Elvis To KLF: The Train I Ride Is Sixteen Coaches Long

Life with a three-year-old can find you focusing on on forms and representations of transportation you wouldn't otherwise. Trains, for example, hold a particular resonance with the developing mind that challenge their relative rarity compared to cars and airplanes. We've found ourselves meeting constant demands for all things trains by discovering the online world of obsessive documentarians of all things locomotive. Watching this narration-and-music-free modern footage of old-fashioned steam engines has caused us to consider the sensual impact the advent of train travel would have on the rural blues men who would incorporate the sound of trains into their music and use the eeire whistle of the coming train as a metaphor for all great changes in life, love and death.

Springhill Mine Explosion (MP3)

Jack Kingston  -  Springhill Mine Explosion  (3:01)

On November 1, 1956 disaster struck the Dominion Coal Company's Springhill, Nova Scotia mine when a powerline ignited some coal dust 5,500 feet below the ground, trapping over 100 miners in the deep tunnels below the Earth's surface.  Eighty-eight of the trapped miners were eventually rescued, but 39 workers died in the tragedy.  Google map

JFK - The Greatest Of All (MP3)

 

Lee Roy Abernathy  -  John F. Kennedy The Greatest Of All 

Next week, of course, will mark the anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assasination on November 22, 1963 in Dallas.  Here is one of the many topical tribute songs about the death of the President, this one from my hometown of Atlanta.  Lee Roy Abernathy, who delivers the recitation on this 45, was a prolific gospel artist from Cartersville, Georgia.

Abernathy, who apparently liked cutting topical tunes, also recorded campaign songs for FDR and Eugene Talmadge, Georgia's governor from 1933 to 1937 and again from 1941 to 1943.  And in 1947, Abernathy released The Burning Of The Winecoff Hotel which detailed the nation's deadliest hotel fire ever.

Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for Kennedy's murder inside the Texas Theatre, located at 231 West Jefferson Boulevard in Dallas' Oak Cliff neighborhood.  On the anniversary of Kennedy's death, the theatre will commemorate the occasion by hosting "JFK Day" and playing the same films that were running on the day of the assassination (War Is Hell and Cry Of Battle), along with some other thematic offerings.  More details on the event can be found on the Dallas Observer's Unfair Park blog.

 

The Fairbanks Flood (MP3)

Ted Harris  -  The Fairbanks Flood  (2:10)

In early-mid August 1967, heavier than normal rains caused the Chena and LIttle Chena Rivers to overflow their banks and flood "The Golden Heart City" of Fairbanks, Alaska.

The event was documented by Ted Harris on this 45rpm record.  The photos below were taken by Life magazine photographer Ralph Crane.

     

Gary Gilmore's Last Request (MP3)

The Sundowns  -  Gilmore's Last Request

Today's topical song is all about an extremely highly publicized execution in Utah.  On January 17, 1977 the state of Utah executed convicted murderer Gary Gilmore, marking the first time a prisoner the United States had been executed since 1967, when the state of Colorado put Luis Jose Monge to death.  Monge's death was followed by an unofficial moratorium on capital punishment that gained formal legal backing in 1972 when the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Furman v. Georgia brought all death penalty sentences to a temporary halt.

Because Gilmore was the first prisoner to be executed after this extended hiatus, his case drew considerable press attention both domestically and internationally.  Adding to the public's fascination with the case was the fact that Gilmore essentially agreed with the verdict and hastened his own death by refusing to appeal his sentence.  Referring to his death sentence, Gilmore said laconically, "It's been sanctioned by the courts and I accept that."

"Gilmore's Last Request" refers to Gilmore's wish to see his death sentence carried out swiftly, a desire from which he never wavered.  Given the choice of death by hanging or firing squad, Gilmore chose the latter.  Reportedly, his last words were "Let's do it."

Although the Sundowns failed to find commercial success with their Gilmore song, over in the UK the Adverts managed to make a pretty sizeable hit of one of their own songs about the case, "Gary Gilmore's Eyes."  Recorded not long after Gilmore's execution, the song refers to the fact that Gilmore was an organ donor and is told from the point of view of the recipient of the murderer's eyes.

  

More recently, the Pine Valley Cosmonauts, fronted by Jon Langford of the Mekons and the Waco Brothers, recorded a version of Gary Gilmore's Eyes in a rockin' country vein for The Executioner's Last Songs, a 2002 release on the Bloodshot label.

The Fate Of Mary Jo Kopechne (MP3)

   

Reuben Ware  -  The Fate Of Mary Jo Kopechne  (3:51)

Today marks the 42nd anniversary of the death of Mary Jo Kopechne.  On July 18, 1969, Kopechne left a party with Senator Ted Kennedy who piloted  his Oldsmobile 88 off the side of a nearby bridge and into the water below.  He managed to escape, but Kopechne drowned in the car.  In an act of indefensible cowardice, Kennedy fled the scene and did not get around  contacting the police until 10AM the next morning.

A couple of years back, I posted two other songs about the incident at the Chappaquidick bridge.

Southern California Earthquake (1971) - MP3

    

Jimmy Bryant  -  Southern California Earthquake

Jimmy Bryant's Southern California Earthquake tells the story of the February 9, 1971 San Fernando earthquake, also commonly known as the Sylmar earthquake due to the fact that the city of Sylmar was the location of some of the quake's most intense damage.

What makes this release a bit more interesting than most topical records detailing various disasters is that it was written and recorded by one country music's most spectacular guitarists ever, Jimmy Bryant.  Bryant made a name for himself playing guitar in various country and hillbilly bands on the Los Angeles bar circuit in the early 1950s.  This led to his status as a sought-after session musician, one who cut some of his most memorable work playing alongside the great steel guitarist Speedy West.

As for the Sylmar earthquake, it was, as are most earthquakes in heavily populated areas, a complete disaster.  Sixty-five people lost their lives, but hundreds of thousands of residents of the San Fernando Valley suffered the disruption of electricity, telephone service, gas, and water.  According to one source, one-third of all buildings in the San Fernando Valley were damaged by the quake and thirty schools were so badly damaged they had to be demolished and rebuilt.

The documentary video below, sadly plagued by egregious re-enactment scenes, memorably describes the quake as "shaking most of Southern California like an angry parent shaking a screaming child." Now there's a phrase I'll wager you won't hear again any time soon.

A Tribute To Stringbean (MP3s)

       

If David Akeman (better known as Stringbean) and his wife Estelle hadn't been brutally murdered in November 1973, Hee-Haw's laconic banjo-playing funnyman would be celebrating his 96th birthday on Friday, June 17.  Upon returning home from one of Stringbean's regular appearances on the Grand Ole Opry, the couple was confronted by a pair of money hungry losers at their modest home in Ridgetop, Tennessee, about 20 miles north of Nashville.  The criminals in question, two ne'er-do-well cousins named Doug and John Brown, had heard rumors about Stringbean's having a large stash of greenbacks hidden in his house. Kliph Nesteroff beat me to this story by several years, so I highly recommend his extremely detailed piece on Stringbean elsewhere on Beware Of The Blog.

The cash eventually surfaced in 1996 over two decades after the tragic murders, when $20,000, almost completely shredded by time and rodents, was found behind a brick in the home's chimney. 

Bobby Land - Banjo Man (A Tribute To Stringbean) (3:03)

Gary Revel - Little Did We Know (The Ballad Of Stringbean) (3:29)

Sam Bush  -  The Ballad Of Stringbean And Estelle  (4:45)  The story of the Akemans' demise continues to resonate.  This Sam Bush song was released in 2009.

Stringbean  -  Big Ball In Nashville  (1:48)

Big Ball In Nashville, String's banjo-flavored version of the western swing standard Big Ball In Cowtown, was released on the Starday label in the mid 1960s.  I'd scan the 45's label for you, but I can't seem to remember exactly where I put the record.

Above: a recent picture of Stringbean's home.

The Grand Island Tornado (MP3)

   

Bob Ayres  -  Grand Island Tornado

Friday will mark the thirty-first anniversary of the Grand Island Tornado outbreak, which pummeled the town of Grand Island, Nebraska on the night of June 3, 1980.  Although the tornadoes in Grand Island were not as extraordinarily lethal as some of those seen in the U.S. recently, they nevertheless wrecked large parts of the town and claimed five lives, while injuring an additional 200 people.

Shortly afterwards, Bob Ayres headed into the recording studio and laid down this lugubrious ballad to offer some first-hand documentation of the tragic event.