Any time any of my music friends start preaching the Gospel of Vinyl -- how it's so rich and pure and the only way to listen to music, blah blah blah -- I say "humbug!" Why stop at vinyl records? Let's go all the way and bring back the wax, or even the tin cylinder!
Actually cylinder recordings, popularized by some guy named Thomas Edison, don't always ound that great. But the good folks at the UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive have done a great job of collecting and in some cases, cleaning up the sound on these ancient recordings, though a few still are marred by scratches that sound like an Army marching over a field of potato chips.
From the first recordings made on tinfoil in 1877 to the last produced on celluloid in 1929, cylinders spanned a half-century of technological development in sound recording. As documents of American cultural history and musical style, cylinders serve as an audible witness to the sounds and songs through which typical audiences first encountered the recorded human voice. And for those living at the turn of the 20th century, the most likely source of recorded sound on cylinders would have been Thomas Alva Edison's crowning achievement, the phonograph. Edison wasn't the only one in the sound recording business in the first decades of the 20th century; several companies with a great number of recording artists, in addition to the purveyors of the burgeoning disc format, all competed in the nascent musical marketplace. Still, more than any other figure of his time, Edison and the phonograph became synonymous with the cylinder medium. ... Nonetheless, Edison's story is heavily dependent on the stories of numerous musical figures and sound recording technological developments emblematic of the period, and it is our hope that we have fairly represented them here.
This site has hundreds, if not thousands of digital recordings of cylinders from all over the world. Below is a small sample of four songs I like recorded between 1906 and 1920.
For reasons unknown to me, the UCSB folks won't let you embed their songs, so I found versions that are on good old YouTube. But click the links to find out more about these songs, and by all means explore this site.
This coming Sunday, June 19, will mark the third anniversary of the death of
Slim Whitman, a man some think of merely as a third or fourth tier country/pop
singer, best known for pioneering the "As-Seen-on-TV" record ads that
filled up the late-night television commercialscape in the '70s and '80s. Slim
and Boxcar Willie had to have been the Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf of this
bizarre little universe.
Here's a classic. As The Firesign Theatre's
Don G. Ovanni
would say, "If you asked for this in a store, they'd think you were CRAZY!"
But it's not that aspect of the man from Tampa's brilliant career for which I
want to honor him today. It's for his indispensable role in stopping the
great Martian attack of 1996.
This scene from a documentary I found on YouTube tells the story.
So thank you Slim Whitman for defeating the Martian menace. The Earth will
never forget!
We'll remember you!
(from Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses)
UPDATE 2024: I just stumbled upon a video of one of my favorite country
singers, Nick Shoulders singing a song to keep the Martians away!
Sunday, June 12, 2016 KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M. 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell Webcasting! 101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org
Here's the playlist
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Look in the Mirror by Gregg Turner
Rock a Go-Go by Alien Space Kitchen
Don't Stop to Dance by Reverend Beat-Man
Crawl Through Your Hair by New Mystery Girl
Never Enough Girls by The Sloths
Radio Danger by Skull Control
Not Going Home by He Who Cannot Be Named
Problems by Sex Pistols
Fire Spirit by The Gun Club
Shut Up by The Monks
Taxi Driver by The Rodeo Carburettor
Budokan Tape Try (Set Tapes High) by The Boredoms
Drowning Sex Hogs II TV Party Tonight by Black Flag
I Couldn't Spell !!*@! By Roy Loney & The Young Fresh Fellows Morning After Blues by Andre Williams
New York City by The Fleshtones
Dirty Traveler by Lonesome Shack
Work by Lou Reed & John Cale
Mr. Soul by The Pierced Arrows
Sold by Sulphur City
Oh Honey Baby Doll by Bloodshot Bill
No Confidence by Simon Stokes
I Got Your Number by The Sonics
Summertime Blues by Horror Deluxe
Right/Wrong by Night Beats
Strangers by San Antonio Kid
Don't Be Taken In by Miriam
Conjure Child by Tony Joe White
Hiawatha by Laurie Anderson
Love & Mercy by Brian Wilson
Evil Will Prevail / Bad Days by Flaming Lips
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, June 10, 2016 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens
Trucks, Tractors and Trains by The Dirt Daubers
Closing Time by The Pleasure Barons
Jibber Jabber by The Supersuckers
Granny's Got the Baby ('cause Mama's Doing Time) by Trailer Radio
Slipknot by Al Scorch
I Will Never Change, So Why Don't You? By Howard Kalish
Too Much Fun by Commander Cody & The Lost Planet Airmen
Word to the Wise by Bill Kirchen with Dan Hicks
My Rifle, My Pony and Me by Dean Martin & Ricky Nelson
Begging to You by Cyndi Lauper
Funnel of Love by Wanda Jackson & The Cramps
I Never Will Marry by Loretta Lynn
Old Chunk of Coal by Billy Joe Shaver
A Dime at a Time by Dallas Wayne
Let's Invite Them Over by Southern Culture on the Skids
Plastic Love by The Riptones
All Around You by Sturgill Simpson
Why Don't You Love Me Like You Used to Do by Tom Jones
Sam's Place by Buck Owens
Cool Rockin' Loretta by Joe Ely
Get It On Down the Road by Danny Barnes
The Golden Triangle by The Austin Lounge Lizards
South of The River by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Barely Legal by Jim Stringer
I Wanna Be Momma'd by Robbie Fulks
Sinner's Blues by Alex Maryol
Raise a Ruckus by Josh White
I Wish I Was Back in Vegas by Stevie Tombstone
Painted Horse River by Kell Robertson
Hard Livin' (Comes Easy to Me) by Red Eye Gravy
World of Fools by David Bromberg
The Virginian by Neko Case
Crazy for Me by Jaime Michaels CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican June 10, 2016
I’ve always had a soft spot for Cyndi Lauper.
I was intrigued that a year after it was released, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” was still a top selection for Juárez strippers (or so I’ve been told). I dug the fact that she got pro-wrestling great Captain Lou Albano to play her dad in the video for that song. I thought it was cool that she got the title for her hit album She’s So Unusual from a song by Helen Kane (who many believe inspired the voice of Betty Boop) and that she sang, uncredited, the theme song of Pee-wee’s Playhouse in Kane’s Boopish style.
And I’ve long forgiven her for the demon-haunted nightmares I endured for months after hearing her dance remix of “She Bop” on speakers bigger than my car in an Amarillo disco while in an enhanced state of consciousness.
But beyond all that wacky stuff, Lauper has one amazing voice. I probably didn’t realize that until I saw her perform an incredible version of her hit “Time After Time” on TV back in the mid-1980s on a Patti LaBelle television special.
Lauper starts off singing on top of a piano. But by the second verse LaBelle comes in to harmonize and embellish. The two play with the chorus, harmonize, shout the lyrics at each other, and end about five minutes later on a whisper. I saw this again on YouTube last week for the first time since it aired. It’s even better than I remembered.
But I have to admit, I lost track of Cyndi Lauper. Every so often I heard about her latest attempted comeback, but I didn’t hear anything all that enticing. In fact I hadn’t sat down and listened to an entire Lauper album since her heyday.
Until recently.
Just a few weeks ago she released a country album called Detour. Yes, there’s our Cyndi Lauper in a prim, black, long-sleeved dress in a motorcycle sidecar, clutching her hat in one hand and an old suitcase in another. She looks like a 1880s schoolmarm heading out west where John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart can fight over her.
And yes, this is real, steel-and-fiddle, hard-core-honky-tonk music with crackerjack Nashville cats and guest stars including Emmylou Harris, Vince Gill, Alison Krauss, and Willie Nelson.
She romps through C & W chestnuts like “I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart”; “Heartaches by the Number”; Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn’s “You’re the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly” (sung here with Gill); and the Wanda Jackson hit “Funnel of Love” (though my favorite version of this song is the one Jackson recorded with The Cramps a few years ago).
And, to her credit, Lauper doesn’t adopt any fake hick drawl. You still can hear the Noo Yawk in her.
There are a couple of tunes here on which she really shines. She nails the sadness of Skeeter Davis’ early ’60s hit “The End of the World.” (Web of Synchronicity: Davis was married to Joey Spampinato, formerly of NRBQ, a band that did a song about Captain Lou Albano! Coincidence?)
And even better is a little-known Marty Robbins song called “Begging to You.” If I had a beer, there would be a tear in it after this one. No, this isn’t essential country music, and it’s probably just a crazy little detour in her career. But it’s great to listen to Lauper again.
Lauper is scheduled to perform in Albuquerque at the Sandia Resort and Casino Amphitheater on Sept. 17.
Also recommended
* Full Circle by Loretta Lynn. This album, Lynn’s first in a dozen years, is a bittersweet triumph. She’s in her early eighties now, and we’ve lost way too many country giants of her generation in recent years, most recently Merle Haggard.
The first time I played this record all the way through, a morbid thought crossed my mind. Is this Lynn’s last one? Maybe that had something to do with the final song, the slow, acoustic “Lay Me Down,” which she sings with fellow octogenarian Willie Nelson. The refrain is “I’ll be at peace when they lay me down.”
I almost wanted to scream, “Nooooooooo!!!”
The good news: Her voice sounds as strong, clear, and spunky as ever. Could it be Pro Tools or some other studio trick? Who knows? I’m going to choose to believe not. If any of you cynics out there know anything different, do us all a favor and keep your yap shut.
Speaking of modern studio tricks, unlike her previous album, the Jack White-produced Van Lear Rose, there’s little in the way of fancy recording wizardry on Full Circle. The producers — Lynn’s daughter Patsy Lynn Russell and Johnny Cash’s son John Carter Cash — wisely keep the emphasis on Lynn’s voice and the songs.
And it’s a splendid selection of tunes. There are re-recordings of Loretta Lynn songs, including the proto-feminist “Fist City,” one of her late-’60s hits, and “Whispering Sea,” a country waltz that’s not one of her best-known numbers but is the first song she ever wrote.
A couple are countrified pop tunes, like “Band of Gold” and Doris Day’s “Secret Love”; some are Carter Family classics (“I Never Will Marry” and “Black Jack David,” which traces its roots to a traditional Scottish folk song); and there’s a bluegrassy take on “In the Pines.”
My favorite on this album is “Everything It Takes,” an “other woman” song that might have been a country hit 50 years ago, except Lynn wrote it fairly recently with Todd Snider. Elvis Costello sings harmonies.
And besides that devastating closing number, there are a couple of other meditations on Smiling Sgt. Death. These are “Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven” and “Who’s Gonna Miss Me?”
Stop torturing us, Loretta!
Video time!
Here's Cyndi Lauper performing a live version of an old Ray Price hit:
If only The Cramps could join her ...
Here is that duet of "Time After Time " on the 1985 Patti LaBelle TV special
