December, 2007
Space camp
A low-budget, rip-off album of the cult movie and Jane Fonda embarrassment “Barbarella” performed by “The Young Lovers”. “The Hit Songs of the The Wild Movie & Other Way Out Themes.” Turns out to be quite funky and hip, especially the sexadelic cut “The Black Queen’s Beads” which DJ’s picked up on at the turn of the twenty-first century. Pretty cool cover too!
Dear God
Remember Eddie Albert? Green Acres (1965-1971) but also memorable as Cybil Sheppard’s dad in “The Heartbreak Kid” and as the warden in “The Longest Yard”. Anyway, he was always religious and made lots of corny records like this one. But the cover of this one caught our eye.
Hot wax
“Chispa Candela” On the rare Miami Records label. This one’s a beauty. Right off the front of a classic men’s mag from the fifties.
Open your mind
LSD on Pixie Records. (1966) Written and narrated by Dr. Timothy Leary, PhD., former Harvard psychologist and Messiah of the LSD cult…” “…in Mexico in 1960, I ate seven of the sacred mushrooms of Mexico and within a half hour was spun into a psychological laboratory two billion years old which laughed at my pretentions at predicted knowledge…”
Monkey see, monkey do
“Monkeying Around ” With Bill Gallus. “Gargatuan Gags for Big Town Jungle Dwellers”. A StereoODDITIES Images in Sound Live Comedy Album.
Satelite of love
“A memento of the “Better Homes For a Better America campaign on NBC radio from ALCOA.” Music from Monitor records. Check out the super space-age, bachelor pad turntable! Futuristic furniture from the late fifties. This industrial design, hi-fi console looks like a piece of modern art.
Herd on Mars
“Men From Mars” (And women are from Venus) This is Woody Herman and his Orchestra (featuring the “Third Herd”) on Verve. This was released in mono in 1958 then re-released in stereo in 1963 at “Hey, Heard the Herd?”. But the cover was a classic! ( I don’t know who the guy on the cover is, but I think I have another album with his picture on it)
Numbering the Herman Herds was never easy but the leader himself named his early 50s group as the Third Herd. Although lacking the precision of the Four Brothers band and the raw excitement of the First Herd, the new band was capable of swinging superbly. As before, Herman had no difficulty in attracting top-flight musicians, including Red Rodney, Urbie Green, Kai Winding, Richie Kamuca, Bill Perkins, Monty Budwig and Jake Hanna. Of particular importance to the band at this time (and for the next few years) was Nat Pierce, who not only played piano but also wrote many fine arrangements and acted as straw boss. The times were hostile to big bands, however, and by the mid-50s Herman was working in comparative obscurity. Members of the band, who then included Bill Berry, Bobby Lamb, Kamuca, Budwig and Harris, wryly described this particular Herman group as the “un-Herd”. Towards the end of the decade Herman was still fighting against the tide, but was doing it with some of the best available musicians: Cohn, Sims, Don Lanphere, Bob Brookmeyer, Pierce, Kamuca, Perkins and Med Flory.