OREGON: DIRTY NW
PENNSYLVANIA: CLEAN BUT
MEAN-------------------------------------------
Can I get a free catalog(ue), or what?
Kicked Around - The Ad-Libs(I've tried an experiment:
I'm writing two blogs simultaneously, so that you will have shorter posts, and more of them. We'll see if this works.
They are opposed twins, so we'll call them Romulus and Remus.
One was posted a few days back, this one today.)
The Above: another nearly randomly selected old CD, one of a growing number from Pennsylvania's own "Collectables Records", who reissue stuff only BenG has heard of.
I'm going to mail away, at Box 35, Narberth PA, 19072, for the free catalog, and see if this label is still in business: I'll post the results. The copyright on the CD in front of me is from a decade ago, so we shall see.
Originally, the songs on this CD,
"The Ad-Libs and Friends" were on the Red Bird and Blue Cat labels.
I got this on a recent buying binge at
AKA Music in Old City, next to the bookstore that
throws out books every recycling day, around midnight.
This practice of recycling their 'never gonna sells' is what produced the immensely popular "Philadelphia's Most Eligible Bachelorettes" magazine/pamphlet/catalog/ephemerus.
Hard to select an appropriately summery song off this CD; not for lack, but rather because of a surplus, a surfeit, a surprising number of happy, clappy jems.
I mean, how to choose between "Ooh Wee Oh Gee", "Gee Baby Gee", "Merry Christmas Baby", "The Boy from New York City", "Sugar Boy", and "Iko Iko"?
With awesome music comes awesome responsibility, I've been known to say.
The initial attempt was to select the uppermost summerishly one, because part of how I am opposing Oregon and Pennsylvania here is that it so often rains in Oregon, and is sunny in Pennsylvania. ALWAYS. (This is not the very most interesting, or accurate, distinction: that's why I made other distinctions too.)
Summery like flask-flip-flops:
But then I decided to give up on that task- so many so summery songs!- it would be like selecting my VERY BEST BLOG EVER, which, since all are
s o ! g o o d,
would be a task for a Deified Romulus.
Instead, you get this
minimal bidness,
Beyonce-style riddim,
lil' flex of a track.
Dense chiming little percussion, an utterly purified bassline, no fluff there.
This one gets honors for those reasons, and also because it musically has the most in common with the last post (though still not much), and is a bit of a surprise, innit? You know what the rest of the disc sounds like- doo wop. This is the oddball of the disc, and when in doubt, "Even or Odd?", we go with odd.
So maybe this battle should be about whether, now that I have more time for new-music magazines and more inclination to be on the internet (the internet was avoiding me before),
would you care to have more "new now" bands like Salem, or stick to the "old odd" tracks like "Kicked Around"?This blog ain't a democracy- that leads to chaos, naturally and inevitably- but it is a bit of a Republic. (Remember your 'lessons' from last time about Machiavelli?)
Which means that you, the plebs, the common unwashed uncouth unknown -but not unknowing- masses, do get some say. At the least I am curious what motivates and gratifies you, so that I can better
control you. (halfsies kiddies)
THUS SPEAKS YOUR DICTATOR: I COMMAND YOU TO SPEAK
in the comments.
