R.J.'s Latest Arrival

Artist: R.J.'s Latest Arrival

LP: R.J.'s Latest Arrival

Song: "Swing Low"

[ listen ]

Song: "Baby I'm Sorry"

[ listen ]

The guy's name is R.J. who owns and operates Daybreak Records over in Fremont. The store has a 'New Arrivals' section for LPs they've just put out for sale, but I've always thought the section ought to be called "R.J.'s Latest Arrivals."

 

[ R.J.'s Latest Arrival ]

Exuma

Artist: Exuma

LP: Reincarnation

Song: "Brown Girl"

[ listen ]

Song: "Metastophaliese"

[ listen ]

Song: "Pay Me What You Owe Me"

[ listen ]

 

Exuma (aka. Tony McKay or, originally, Macrfarlane Gregory Anthony Mackey) is my favorite new discovery! Born on Cat Island in The Bahamas in 1942, McKay went to New York City to study architecture when he was 17. He promptly ran out of money and, according to Wikipedia, some friends gave him an old guitar and McKay began performing in Greenwich Village clubs alongside the likes of Bob Dylan, Barbra Streisand, Richie Havens, and others. 

 

McKay had moved to New Orleans by the 1980s and performed regularly there at nighttime hotspots in the French Quarter. In the mid-1990s he lived for a time in Colorado, reportedly inspired by the area's peacefulness. As for posterity, Wikipedia says "McKay fathered many children..." which makes it sound like he's fathered so many that nobody's been able to keep track! Shout-out and thanks to my sister Chas for the birthday money that led me to the record store (as if there's not already a well-worn path) where I found Exuma's 1973 "Life" LP, which, in turn, inspired me to obtain this 1972 LP from seller Riffs-Ahoy on Discogs. It arrived yesterday! 

 

[ Tony McKay: February 18, 1942 — January 15, 1997 ]

Wilson Simonal

Artist: Wilson Simonal

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

[ listen ]

Song: "Muchacha"
[ listen ]

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 ]

Charles Aznavour [1924-2018]

Artist: Charles Aznavour

LP: Charles Aznavour Canta en Español, Volumen 2
Song: "Isabelle"
[ listen ]

Song: "Si Tu Me Llevas"
[ listen ]

I was bummed a few days ago to read that Charles Aznavour had died earlier this month, at the age of 94. Born in France of Armenian immigrant parents, Charles' birth name was Shahnour Vaghinag Aznavourian, which admittedly doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. With a career in music and film spanning over 70 years, Aznavour was one of the most popular performers in the history of France. People sometimes called him the French Frank Sinatra! Charles wrote more than 1,000 songs during his career, and he claims to be one of the first to write about controversial subjects like homosexuality, referring to his lovely/sad 1972 song "What Makes a Man?" Also, he often performed with Liza Minnelli, which is pretty gay too.

I was a little surprised to discover that I don't actually own any French-language records by this international legend—only one where he sings in English and two on which he's singing in Español. Here are a couple of songs from one of the latter. (I chose this one because he's smoking on the cover, so he at least looks really French even if he's not actually singing that way.) Click here to find everything you've ever wanted to know about the life and career of Snr Aznavour, and read his New York Times obituary here. And then go here for a photo of Charles when he was very young.

Charles Aznavour

[ May 22, 1924 — October 1, 2018 ]

We will miss you, Charles.

Mystic

Artist: Mystic

LP: 7" single

Song: "Disco Love Affair"
[ listen ]

The next morning I stopped in at Wah Wah Records, which turned out to be right next door to Discos Edison's, where I'd been the night before. Wah Wah is a terrific little shop packed to the gills with music. They've got an excellent selection of used disco-funk-R&B 45s, so I focused my attention there for the 90 minutes I had before heading out to my 2pm guided audio tour of La Sagrada Familia. 

I pulled quite a few gems out of their bins, including this "Disco Love Affair" from 1977. (What other type of love affair is there?) There's not much info about Mystic on the web, and Discogs shows only one other single from the group—a futuristic one also released in 1977. I evidently had the 'auto focus' feature turned off when I snapped my pics of Wah Wah, but you still get the idea.

[ Wah Wah Records — Barcelona, Spain ]

Dick Biondi and The Teenagers

Artist: Dick Biondi and The Teenagers

LP: Dick Biondi's Favorites...

Song: "The Teenager"
[ listen ]

Song: "The Teenage Mind"
[ listen ]

The older I get, the more baffled I am by the incomprehensible behaviors and attitudes of the teenagers of today. Thank god I've got this Dick Biondi record to explain them all to me.

[ Dick Biondi and The Teenagers ]

Dolly Dots

Artist: Dolly Dots

LP: Dolly Dots

Song: "(They Are) Rollerskating"
[ listen ]

Song: "Moviestar"
[ listen ]

This 1979 Dolly Dots record is one of the things I found at Rocade Musikk in Bergen, Norway earlier this year. The Dolly Dots have come up with one of the best album covers I've ever seen! They're all on roller-skates, apparently skating through outer-space, and they've named themselves "Dolly Dots," for heavens sake. I was certain I'd struck roller-disco gold. (Rocade doesn't have a listening station, so I was judging books entirely by their covers.) 

At the height of their popularity in The Netherlands and Belgium and Turkey and Japan, Dolly Dots had their own television show, there were Barbie dolls fashioned after each of the Dots, and you could reportedly even paste Dolly Dots wallpaper upon your bedroom walls (of course no one's actually dared to post photographic evidence of this online). But the music. What about the music? Well...to be honest, it's like what you'd expect if you were to put on a soundtrack for a sloppy, half-baked off-Broadway GREASE impersonation set at a 1958 post-sock-hop slumber party, replete with lots of jazz hands, pillow fights, and jumping on the mattress. But on roller-skates! This record is fucking awful.

[ Dolly Dots ]

Skeeter Davis

Artist: Skeeter Davis

LP: I'll Sing You a Song and Harmonize Too

Song: "Set Him Free"
[ listen ]

Song: "Let Those Brown Eyes Smile at Me"
[ listen ]

This 1960 release was country star Skeeter Davis' first solo LP after her singing partner, Betty Jack, died in a car wreck in the summer of 1953. "I'll Sing You a Song and Harmonize Too" spawned three singles, two of which were hits. "Set Him Free" peaked at #5 on the country singles chart in 1959, while "Am I That Easy to Forget," went to #11 in 1960. You can read more about the record here. 

For some reason the stereo on the album doesn't record right when I make an mp3. I had to choose between loud violins/judge voice and quiet Skeeter, or full-sounding Skeeter and Chet Atkins' guitar, but with the strings and the judge whispering in the background. I went full Skeeter. It all sounds normal on the stereo in my living room.

[ Skeeter Davis: December 30, 1931 — September 19, 2004 ]

Doris Day

Artist: Doris Day

LP: You'll Never Walk Alone

Song: "I Need Thee Every Hour" 
[ listen ]

Song: "Scarlet Ribbons" 
[ listen ]

I bet Doris Day often gets asked to sing at her Sunday morning church service in Carmel. It's hardly fair to all the other would-be singers in the congregation. The planning committee: "Okay, we need a musical selection for next Sunday's service. We've asked Doris Day to sing "I Need Thee Every Hour" again, but Betty McPherson says she's also got a number prepared that she'd like to present...so let's take a vote." Doris' version of "I Need Thee Every Hour" from her 1962 religiously-themed LP is especially nice when she pulls a Patti Page and starts harmonizing with herself. 

And then "Scarlet Ribbons" is terrific for all sorts of different reasons. The premise of the song is that, after overhearing her daughter's quiet prayer-request for some scarlet ribbons (for her hair), the girl's mother flies into a frenzied panic and goes out roaming the streets all night trying to find some (clearly, the girl is not accustomed to having to go without; the song doesn't indicate what consequences the poor mother suffered the last time her darling daughter didn't get exactly what she wanted, but it's implied by the all-night ribbon hunt that it was bad, real bad). But mom is too late! All the streets are empty and all the stores are closed. (I can just see the mom in a fur coat, banging on the glass doors of Woolworth's at 2:30 in the morning and screaming at the janitor: "Open up, you! I need some goddam ribbons! Scarlet ones! They're for my daughter's hair!") The mother, dejected, finally goes home when the sun starts coming up. When she peeks into her daughter's bedroom, she finds it's full of scarlet ribbons! Not just some scarlet ribbons, but "a gay profusion," so I think we can assume we're talking over-the-top drag-queen amounts of ribbons here. 

I'm fascinated by the troubling message of this song! "I'm sorry God wasn't able to save Grandma, Peggy, but if you pray real hard, you may get some ribbons!" God and his wacky priorities.

Another thing I like about the song is that Doris sings, "If I live to be 200..." She's nearly halfway there, since today is her 92nd birthday! Go here to listen to a warm birthday greeting from one of the loveliest ladies around.

[ Happy Birthday, Doris Day! ]