The Voices of Walter Schumann

Artist: The Voices of Walter Schumann

LP: Christmas Is In the Air! [10" EP]

Song: Side Two: "Wonderful Counselor/Wolcum Yole/Mary, Mary/Winter Wonderland/Adeste Fidelis/Finale"

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There's Christmas In the Air! ...though of course it's been in the aisles at Fred Meyer since the middle of October. According to the notes on the back of this 1951 10" EP, "In creating this album, (Walter) attained an inspired objective in his brilliant career...to assemble and rehearse a group of the finest male and female voices...not for days or weeks, but for years." For some reason that brings this movie to mind, and I can't help but wonder how many wives Walter had, and how many children called him "daddy." Plus you'd think that after rehearsing for years they'd be able to come up with enough material for a full-length LP, and not just a measly 10" record, lovely though it is. Go here to find out what famous TV show theme Walter Schumann composed, and which mesmerizing classic 1950s thriller he scored.

[ The Face of Walter Schumann: October 8, 1913 — August 21, 1958 ]

Tina Turner

Artist: Tina Turner

LP: 7" single
Song: "Break Every Rule"

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Happy 80th birthday to Tina Turner! No one wore denim quite like Tina did in the late 1980s. This title track to her sixth LP was not one of her hits, peaking at #75 on the US charts in May of 1987, when she would have been about 48 years old and I was just about to graduate from high school. You can read all about Tina Turner here.  

 

[Tina Turner ]

Ars Nova

Artist: Ars Nova

LP: Ars Nova

Song: "Pavan For My Lady"

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Here's a nice November-sounding bit of music for today. Ars Nova evidently split up after making this one record in 1968. They reformed with a mostly different cast and released one more record, in 1969, and then disbanded again. I had the good fortune to find both LPs at Georgetown Records this past Wednesday, my one and only day off during the week. You can read more about Ars Nova on Wikipedia here.

Queen City Kids

Artist: Queen City Kids

LP: Queen City Kids

Song: "Kids World"

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From Regina, Saskatchewan, these four guys met in high school and called their group Cambridge before changing their name and releasing this self-titled album in Canada in 1981. It's like the Queen City Kids took everything they loved about hard rock music—the relentlessly driving and screaming guitars, the growling vocals—and then multiplied them by three before putting them on this record. It's fantastic.You can read more about the Queen City Kids here.

Black Fighting Men in Vietnam

Artist: Black Fighting Men Recorded Live In Vietnam

LP: Guess Who's Coming Home

Side One

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Side Two

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Guess Who's Coming Home. It isn't Sidney Poitier. Here's a different sort of Motown Sound from 1972 that I found at Daybreak Records a few weeks ago. It's fascinating that the record is presented as a warning to America that thousands of black men who have been trained in combat and who are handy with weapons will soon be returning to the USA and demanding their equality. At the same time, it's depressing to see what little progress in race relations we've made as a country over the past 45 years. We still can't get past the color of peoples' skin when deciding how to treat them, and are basically in the same place now as we were then. 

I was hoping to get this posted on Veteran's Day, but unfortunately I'm a few minutes late. Happy Veteran's Day to all those who have served, putting their lives on the line and into the indelicate hands of those deciding when and where and how the USA will go to war.

Diamanda Galas

Artist: Diamanda Galas

LP: Saint of the Pit

Song: "E Ξeaóy Me"

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Happy Halloween, everyone! Unfortunately, like Halloween candy, you'll have to wait til the sun goes down to get the link. Sendspace isn't loading right now. I think today I'll dress up as a mailman.

 [ Diamanda Galas ]

Talking Heads

Artist: Talking Heads

LP: 7" single
Song: "Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town"

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I started collecting 45s in early 1982, when I was 12, visiting the Yakima record stores regularly to see what they had that was new. Usually, a new single might have a 'limited-edition' picture sleeve when it first came out, but then after a while it would be sold with the plain company sleeve, or a generic white paper sleeve, instead. The Yakima stores usually carried only the top 60 hits, so singles that didn't chart, or that didn't chart high enough to reach the top 60, didn't often turn up in my town. 

At some point in 1983 or 1984 I started visiting Tower Records in Seattle when my family (or my church group) made trips to the big city over the mountains. Sometimes if my dad was traveling to Seattle for business, I'd give him a short list of singles and he'd stop by Tower to pick them up for me. That's how I ended up with a copy of Echo & the Bunnymen's "Bring On the Dancing Horses," which didn't make it onto the charts in the USA.

Tower Records had everything! They had singles displayed on their new release wall that hadn't cracked the top 100, but were still available for the very few who were interested. It was at Tower that I really built my collection of not-very-popular new save singles of the early-to-mid 1980s that I continue adding to today. 

Still, even with the plentiful bounty my young self found at Tower, I couldn't help but think of all the 7" treasures I'd missed. Imagine if I'd begun visiting Tower Records in 1977 instead! Over the past 35 years of crate-digging I've come across nice copies of some of the singles released during the 1977-to-1983 time period (by Devo, Blondie, the B-52s, etc.) but there were still some that were released briefly and that nobody bought, and that I still had never laid eyes upon. Talking Heads is one of my favorite groups that released several such singles. But now, thanks to the Internet in general and to Discogs in particular, releases like "Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town" from 1977 are included my collection! You can find the complete Talking Heads discography on Wikipedia here.

[ Talking Heads ]

Wilson Simonal

Artist: Wilson Simonal

LP: Alegria, Alegria - Vol. 3
Song: "Mustang Color Sangre"

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Song: "Muchacha"
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I carted off an exciting haul of vinyl from Beats and Bohos last week on my way home from breakfast in Edmonds with my old college chum, John, and his wife and their cute young daughter. Included in my bounty was this 1969 LP from Brazilian artist Wilson Simonal. According to Wikipedia, Simonal, who has been dead for nearly twenty years, was mostly unknown outside of South America. I can't speak for the rest of my continent, but this week he's certainly been a hot item on the playlist at a particular one-bedroom apartment in Seattle!

[ Wilson Simonal: February 23, 1938 — June 25, 2000 ]