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Roger Answers Your Questions, Eclipse and Uthaclena

My long-standing rejection of polygamy has largely based on the sense that it is much more likely to have aspects of exploitation that is even greater than a relationship between two people.

Eclipse, who I have visited through ABC Wednesday, asks:
Regarding the “music playing in the head” I’ve just thought….Have you ever try to write poetry?
Would you?

Before I answer that question, I’ll answer a question you didn’t ask.

When I was roughly 15 to about 23, I had made some effort to try to write songs. I should rephrase; I wasn’t TRYING so much as tunes and lyrics came to me. I kept them in a notebook, which, unfortunately, I’ve since lost.

But as I think back on them, most of them weren’t very good. Oh, a couple of them might have potential in the right setting. And one, in particular, isn’t bad at all but expresses values I no longer have: David Lee Roth should have recorded it. But most of them, I recognize, are cribbed in the way George Harrison unintentionally purloined He’s So Fine for My Sweet Lord. Because I literally grew up with music, I feel I can clear-mindedly evaluate them.

I had a girlfriend in the late 1970s who was a published poet. I would attend some of the poetry workshops she helped organize. Naturally, I decided to try to write some poems myself. But I just never got a feel for it, what was good, what was schlock, what was “honest”. When I go to the poetry sites, such as yours, I can only comment on what resonates with me. But writing poetry again would be like blogging in Ukrainian; it’s too foreign. So commenting on poetry tends to fall into the “I don’t know if it’s good, but I know when it resonates” philosophy. And even when it does, I don’t always have the language to comment. “Good” or “nice” seems lackluster.
***
Uthaclena, who I’ve only known for 39 3/4 years, so I can say, “Dude, it’s been seven months since you blogged; WRITE something!”, poses this:
Anything? Okay, how about a sociopolitical-philosophical question. You’ve supported marriage equality (“Gay Marriage”), how do you feel about alternative marital arrangements like polygamy, polyandry, or group marriages? Should they be considered for legal legitimacy? The former, of course, was tried by the Mormons and is by no means unusual or “untraditional” in many international cultures. Just curious.

My long-standing rejection of polygamy has largely based on the sense that it is much more likely to have aspects of exploitation that are even greater than in a relationship between two people. The few modern examples in this country seem to bear that out. I assume, but frankly don’t know, that it’s true re polyandry as well.

This means, by logical extension, that I should favor group marriage since it would seem to be more equitable. That I don’t probably has something to do with my basic conventionality. Or maybe it’s because I think it’s just too messy societally when dealing with children, property, and the like. Guess I’m just an old-fashioned guy.
***
I’m still taking your questions here, so have at it.

W is for Warner Brothers Loss Leaders

Someone gave me this album after someone else died, saying he would have wanted me to have it.

Back in the 1970s, when I was a poor college student, I would occasionally indulge my desire to purchase a new record album. When I’d buy one of James Taylor or Bonnie Raitt or the Doobie Brothers or Seals and Crofts – yes, Seals and Crofts – the record would come with an inner sleeve that would promise an eclectic set of music, a double LP, for only $2, postpaid, from the Warner Brothers roster of artists; the single albums were just $1. Eventually, I was so intrigued that I bought one, liked it, then bought another, and another…so that, to this day, I still possess most of them.

Rather than describe all three dozen of them, 31 of which I own, I’ll refer you to this essay by Charles Hill and his roster of albums. Chaz also links to The 30 Days Out blog’s history of these discs.

I will make brief mention of some of the albums, highlighting my personal history or a notable track. The ones I do not own are in italics.

1969
THE 1969 WARNER/REPRISE SONGBOOK (Warner Bros. PRO 331)
Like several of the early albums, at least one side was dominated by Frank Zappa and his musical allies. But also featured the Everly Brothers. Eclectic.
THE 1969 WARNER/REPRISE RECORD SHOW (PRO 336)
Subtitled “Son of Songbook”, it has one EXTRAORDINARY soul ballad by Lorraine Ellison called Stay with Me. Read about it here and listen to it here.
OCTOBER 10, 1969 (PRO 351)
Chaz wrote: “A single-disc slipped into the mix while Warners was trying to decide if the doubles would sell.” By the time I was buying these albums, this disc was no longer listed.
1970

THE BIG BALL (PRO 358)
SCHLAGERS! (PRO 359)
Chaz: “Showcasing some Warners tracks that might conceivably get MOR airplay.” (MOR means Middle of the Road,” the title of a future package.)
ZAPPÉD (PRO 368)
“A single disc featuring acts on Frank Zappa’s Bizarre/Straight labels,” that I actually tried to order, but it must have been sold out.
LOONEY TUNES & MERRIE MELODIES (PRO 423)
The only triple-disc set in the series, which cost $3 in the day, but I never bought it. Someone gave me this album after someone else died, saying he would have wanted me to have it. Subsequently, I’ve lost the middle record, which contained Side 2 and Side 5. But I still have Side 6, which is an unusually spiritual, even religious platter. The last song: Turley Richards: I Heard the Voice of Jesus.

1971
NON-DAIRY CREAMER (PRO 443)
Another single disc, and one I never actually ordered. I may have requested Zapped and gotten this.
HOT PLATTERS (PRO 474)
TOGETHER (PRO 486)
The last of the single-disc samplers, and I have no idea how WB sent it to me since I never specifically ordered it.

1972
THE WHOLE BURBANK CATALOG (PRO 512)
“First set to credit Barry Hansen (Dr. Demento) for assemblage and annotation.” Not every subsequent album was annotated by him, but he was singularly entertaining when he did. Now, this was the point where the albums really became fun. There were radio spots for Sgt Preston of the Yukon or Inner Scantum inserted. Just before Arlo Guthrie’s Ukulele Lady, there’d be a snippet of a version recorded a half-century earlier.
MIDDLE OF THE ROAD (PRO 525)
“Just like it sounds.” Even features Frank Sinatra.
BURBANK (PRO 529)
Features the 57-second Voter Registration Rag by Arlo Guthrie, which I cannot find.
THE DAYS OF WINE AND VINYL (PRO 540)

1973
APPETIZERS (PRO 569)
Included Martin Mull: Licks off of Records.
ALL SINGING, ALL TALKING, ALL ROCKING (PRO 573)
“Features sound bites from Warner Bros. movies,” which made it probably my favorite album of the bunch.

1974

HARD GOODS (PRO 583)
This collection has at least two rarities: War Song by Neil Young and Graham Nash, which was on a B-side of a Young single, but then “unreleased in any other format until June 2009, when it was finally released…on a box set by Neil Young called The Archives Vol. 1 1963–1972.”
Immediately after that is The ’68 Nixon by Denver, Boise, and Johnson, which you can hear and read about here. Yes, the Denver is John Denver, who went on to some commercial success.
PEACHES (PRO 588)
“A compilation of tracks from the Georgia-based Capricorn label, then distributed by Warners,” which I don’t have and never saw offered until years later.
DEEP EAR (PRO 591, 1974)

1975
THE FORCE (PRO 596)
By this time, I was buying them as soon as I saw them advertised.
ALL MEAT (PRO 604)
“‘Not a speck of cereal,’ insists Frank Zappa.
PEACHES, VOL. 2 (PRO 605)
“A second collection from Capricorn Records, which I haven’t seen.”
I DIDN’T KNOW THEY STILL MADE RECORDS LIKE THIS (PRO 608)
“Back to the middle of the road.”
THE WORKS (PRO 610)
The rarity here was The Beach Boys: Child of Winter, which was a single that showed up in a Beach Boys collection more than two decades later.

1976
SUPERGROUP (PRO 630)
THE PEOPLE’S RECORD (PRO 645)

1977
COOK BOOK (PRO 660)
“Focusing on Warners’ black acts.” I have no idea how I got this album. I may have sent WB money and said “Anything else in the vaults?”
WB in the 1960s was not a label with lots of black artists. Someone quipped that their only soul artist was comedian Bill Cosby. But by the 1970s, the label made a concerted effort to change that. I must admit that I loved the fact that the album had a trio of Beatles covers in a row: Randy Crawford- Don’t Let Me Down; Roy Redmond- Good Day Sunshine, and New Birth- The Long and Winding Road.
LIMO (PRO 691)

1978
COLLECTUS INTERRUPTUS (PRO A-726)
“Twenty-Six Earbinding Songs of Unique Delight, Derring-Do, Heartbreak, Scandal, and Lurid Sensation”.
With Soft and Wet, probably the first Prince I owned.
PUMPING VINYL (PRO A-773)
As a musical eclectic, I tend to eschew labels. That’s why my favorite song in this collection is Funkadelic: Who Says a Funk Band Can’t Play Rock?

1979
A LA CARTE (PRO A-794)
The song I tended to overplay here was Gibson Brothers: Cuba
MONSTERS (PRO A-796)

1980

ECLIPSE (PRO 828)
“A new price: 2 LPs for $3.” Still a bargain.
MUSIC WITH 58 MUSICIANS, VOLUME 1 (PRO 850)
“Issued to mark the German jazz label ECM’s distribution deal with Warner Bros., this set, billed as ‘An International Array of Innovative Jazz Music and Performers,’… Roger Green found this one for me.”
Well, yeah, I did, actually. And Charles added me to his “beyond the call of duty” list. As far as I know, there was never a Volume 2.
TROUBLEMAKERS (PRO A-857)
“This is as punk as Burbank would get.”
Marianne Faithfull: Broken English.

1995
LOSS LEADERS REVISITED (PRO-CD-7955
“A limited-edition CD (3500 copies) with retro-cool; not properly a Loss Leader, since it was given away, but it caps the series with panache.”
I’d never heard of this until I read about it.

These are more underplayed vinyl, records I listened to a LOT in the day, but less since I got the first CD player. Still, I now have a turntable, so they can provide me with additional hours of pleasure.

ABC Wednesday – Round 8

Song: Passing Through

Pete Seeger learned ‘Passing Through’ and sang it throughout Henry Wallace’s 1948 presidential campaign.

I was listening to my favorite podcast not hosted by Arthur. It is a music podcast, which should be no surprise. The second tune in the set was a song called Passing Through. I went to the website to see to whom it was attributed as the original artist of the song, and it said, Leonard Cohen. I said to myself – I often talk to myself – “There is NO WAY that song was originally done by Leonard Cohen.”

My certitude came from the fact that my late father used to sing that song when he performed in my hometown of Binghamton back in the 1960s. While I didn’t know all of the specific origins, I did know that his song selection was established in the late 1950s and early 1960s from albums by people such as Woody Guthrie, Harry Belafonte, Odetta and Pete Seeger. Cohen came into prominence as a singer/songwriter later in the 1960s.

I thought maybe it was a song by Guthrie, whose Worried Man/Ain’t Gonna Be Treated This Way medley caught me unawares when I heard the musical Woody Guthrie’s American Song caught me unawares when I heard it at Capital Rep theater a couple of years after my father died.

But in fact, it was Seeger who initially popularized Passing Through. Reading this account about songwriter Dick Blakeslee: “In late 1947 or early 1948, he and Dick Crolley sent a home-cut disc of their compositions to People’s Songs in New York. Blakeslee’s ‘Passing Through’ was chosen for publication. Pete Seeger learned the song and sang it throughout Henry Wallace’s 1948 presidential campaign. Today, ‘Passing Through’ remains an enduring folk standard.” You can hear Cisco Houston’s early take and Leonard Cohen’s 1973 version of the song here.

My father did a wicked imitation of FDR as he spoke/sang “One world must come”, then sang “from World War II”. My sister Leslie and I would join my father on the chorus of Passing Through when we performed with him in the latter part of the 1960s. My father did not sing the added-on Lincoln verse.

Passing through, passing through,
Sometimes happy, sometimes blue.
Glad that I ran into you;
Tell the people that you saw me passing through.

V is for Venus

Speaking of which, author John Gray made a whole cottage industry of the notion that men are from Mars and women are from Venus.

Venus is a planet, the second one from our sun; it is roughly the same size as the Earth, with a diameter of 12,100km, about 1040km smaller in diameter than our planet. After the moon, it is generally the brightest object in the night sky.

The planet is named after a goddess, specifically the Roman goddess of love and beauty, who is the equivalent of the Greek goddess Aphrodite and whose myths are largely shared.

There are four songs that start with the word Venus that charted on the US pop charts between 1955 and 2000.

Venus by Frankie Avalon, which went to #1 in 1959. I did not know that a disco version of this same song by Avalon went to #46 in 1976.
Venus in Blue Jeans by Jimmy Clayton, which reached #7 in 1962.
Venus by Shocking Blue went to #1 in 1970; the cover version by Bananarama also went to #1, in 1986.
Finally, Venus & Mars Rock Show by Wings – that would be one of Paul McCartney’s groups – went to #12 in 1975.

Speaking of Venus and Mars, author John Gray made a whole cottage industry of the notion that men are from Mars and women are from Venus. “John’s books have sold over 50 million copies in 50 different languages. His groundbreaking book…was the best-selling book of the 1990s. It launched his Mars Venus book series that forever changed the way men and women view their relationships.” (Feel free to discuss; I thought Gray’s message was a bit oversimplistic.)

Finally, there is the Venus flytrap. Antithetical to the goddess’ message of love, it is a carnivorous plant – see it in action! – which is native only in the Carolinas in the United States, though transplanted elsewhere around the world. Audrey II is a giant Venus flytrap that starred in various iterations of Little Shop of Horrors.

Oddly, there was a fictional radio disc jockey on the TV show called WKRP in Cincinnati with the pseudonym of Venus Flytrap, played by Tim Reid. Watch Venus Explains the Atom.

ABC Wednesday – Round 8

Summer Songs QUESTION

I HATE it when two or even three songs are counted as a song.

Entertainment Weekly did one of those lists of summer songs, again. Some radio station has the full 100 list, with video links to most of them.

The * indicates the ones that came to me on the list.

100. ”STAY (I MISSED YOU)” (1994)
Lisa Loeb
99. ”TENNESSEE” (1992)
Arrested Development
98. ”WE’RE AN AMERICAN BAND” (1973)
Grand Funk Railroad
97. ”RADAR LOVE” (1974)
Golden Earring
96. ”THE LOVE YOU SAVE” (1970)
The Jackson 5
95. ”DANCING IN THE DARK” (1984)
Bruce Springsteen
94. ”FUNKYTOWN” (1980)
Lipps Inc.
93. ”YAKETY YAK” (1958)
The Coasters
92. ”SUMMERTIME, SUMMERTIME” (1958)
The Jamies
91. ”GANGSTER’S PARADISE” (1995)
Coolio
90. ”KISS FROM A ROSE” (1995)
Seal
89. ”MACHO MAN” (1978)
The Village People
88. ”MY CHERIE AMOUR” (1969)
Stevie Wonder
87. ”WATERLOO” (1974)
ABBA
86. ”SUMMERTIME” (1991)
D.J. Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince
85. ”THE END OF THE INNOCENCE” (1989)
Don Henley
84. ”SAN FRANCISCO (BE SURE TO WEAR FLOWERS IN YOUR HAIR)” (1967)
Scott McKenzie
83. ”MY LOVE” (2006)
Justin Timberlake
82. ”UNDER THE BRIDGE” (1992)
Red Hot Chili Peppers
81. ”HOT IN HERRE” (2002)
Nelly
80. ”WILD THING” (1966)
The Troggs
79. ”HOT BLOODED” (1978)
Foreigner
78. ”TAKIN’ CARE OF BUSINESS” (1974)
Bachman-Turner Overdrive
77. ”LIVIN LA VIDA LOCA” (1999)
Ricky Martin
76. ”DON’T YOU WANT ME” (1982)
Human League
75. ”TELL ME SOMETHING GOOD” (1974)
Rufus
74. ”WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT” (1984)
Tina Turner
73. ”THIS LOVE” (2004)
Maroon 5
72. ”(THEY LONG TO BE) CLOSE TO YOU” (1970)
The Carpenters
71. ”A WHITER SHADE OF PALE” (1967)
Procol Harum
70. ”LET’S GET IT ON” (1973)
Marvin Gaye
69. ”VACATION” (1982)
The Go-Go’s
68. ”MO MONEY, MO PROBLEMS” (1997)
Notorious B.I.G. (featuring Mase, Puff Daddy)
67. ”LITTLE RED CORVETTE” (1982)
Prince
66. ”WE ARE FAMILY” (1979)
Sister Sledge
65. ”FOOLED AROUND AND FELL IN LOVE” (1976)
Elvin Bishop
64 ”KODACHROME” (1973)
Paul Simon
63. ”WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO” (1964)
The Supremes
62. ”SEA OF LOVE” (1959)
Phil Phillips with the Twilights
61. ”THE LOCO-MOTION” (1962)
Little Eva
60. ”UMBRELLA” (2007)
Rihanna
59. ”CAN’T TAKE MY EYES OFF YOU” (1967)
Frankie Valli
58. ”ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE” (1967)
The Beatles
57. ”YOU BELONG WITH ME” (2009)
Taylor Swift
56. ”SMOOTH” (1999)
Santana, featuring Rob Thomas
55. ”SEALED WITH A KISS” (1962)
Brian Hyland
54. ”PHILADELPHIA FREEDOM” (1975)
Elton John
53. ”THE LETTER” (1967)
The Box Tops
52. ”HOLLABACK GIRL” (2005)
Gwen Stefani
51. ”SLEDGEHAMMER” (1986)
Peter Gabriel
50. ”YOU SHOULD BE DANCING” (1976)
Bee Gees
49. ”TAKE IT EASY” (1972)
The Eagles
48. ”(WE’RE GONNA) ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK” (1955)
Bill Haley & His Comets
47. ”CRAZY IN LOVE” (2003)
Beyoncé & Jay-Z
46. ”LIVE AND LET DIE” (1973)
Paul McCartney and Wings
45. ”I GOT YOU BABE” (1965)
Sonny and Cher
44. ”DON’T BE CRUEL”/”HOUND DOG” (1956)
Elvis Presley
43. ”GREEN ONIONS” (1962)
Booker T. & the MG’s
42. ”SUNSHINE SUPERMAN” (1966)
Donovan
41. ”GOOD TIMES” (1979)
Chic
40. ”GRAZING IN THE GRASS” (1968)
Hugh Masakela
39. ”GROOVIN”’ (1967)
The Rascals
38. ”FOREVER” (2008)
Chris Brown
37. ”STAND BY ME” (1961)
Ben E. King
36. ”RAMBLIN’ MAN” (1973)
The Allman Brothers Band
35. ”I DON’T WANT TO MISS A THING” (1998)
Aerosmith
34. ”MY SHARONA” (1979)
The Knack
33. ”MISS YOU” (1978)
Rolling Stones
32. ”WATERFALLS” (1995)
TLC
31. ”CRUEL SUMMER” (1984)
Bananarama
30. ”ALL I WANNA DO” (1994)
Sheryl Crow
29. ”THE TWIST”/”LET’S TWIST AGAIN” (1960/61)
Chubby Checker
28. ”BORN TO BE WILD” (1968)
Steppenwolf
27. ”YOU’RE THE ONE THAT I WANT”/”SUMMER NIGHTS” (1978)
John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John
”GREASE” (1978)
Frankie Valli
26. ”LIKE A ROLLING STONE” (1965)
Bob Dylan
25. ”DON’T GO BREAKING MY HEART” (1976)
Elton John and Kiki Dee
24. ”CALIFORNIA LOVE” (1996)
Tupac Shakur and Dr. Dre
23. ”EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE” (1983)
The Police
22. ”WOULDN’T IT BE NICE” (1966)
The Beach Boys
21. ”WIPEOUT” (1963)
The Surfaris
20. ”CRAZY” (2006)
Gnarls Barkley
19. ”A HARD DAY’S NIGHT” (1964)
The Beatles
18. ”MAGGIE MAY” (1971)
Rod Stewart
17. ”IN THE SUMMERTIME” (1970)
Mungo Jerry
16. ”THE MESSAGE” (1982)
Grand Master Flash & the Furious Five
15. ”I GET AROUND” (1964)
The Beach Boys
14. ”HEY YA” (2003)
OutKast
13. ”ROCK THE BOAT” (1974)
The Hues Corporation
12. ”SUMMERTIME BLUES” (1958)
Eddie Cochran
11. ”(I CAN’T GET NO) SATISFACTION” (1965)
The Rolling Stones
10. ”HOT FUN IN THE SUMMERTIME” (1969)
Sly & the Family Stone
9. ”BORDERLINE” (1984)
Madonna
8. ”DANCING IN THE STREET” (1964)
Martha and the Vandellas
7. ”CALIFORNIA GURLS” (2010)
Katy Perry feat. Snoop Dogg
6. ”LIGHT MY FIRE” (1967)
The Doors
5. ”UNDER THE BOARDWALK” (1964)
The Drifters
4. ”HEAT WAVE” (1963)
Martha and the Vandellas
3. ”SCHOOL’S OUT” (1972)
Alice Cooper
2. ”CALIFORNIA GIRLS” (1965)
The Beach Boys
*1. ”SUMMER IN THE CITY” (1966)
The Lovin’ Spoonful

Incidentally, I HATE it when two or even three songs are counted as a song.

Surely, some of the ones I didn’t think of should also be on the list. But there are some that just mystify me, even though they came out in the summer.

BEATLES: A Hard Day’s Night was a hit in the summer of ’64, but so were lots of other songs. All You Need Is Love ditto for ’67. Here Comes the Sun or Good Day Sunshine feels more thematically valid.
BEACH BOYS: I Get Around and California Girls are good choices, but Wouldn’t It Be Nice? All of those surf and cars songs seem more appropriate, such as Surfer Girl, 409, Surfin’ USA, even Good Vibrations.

Then there are the songs that were missed:

Summer Breeze-Seals & Crofts
Palisades Park- Freddie Cannon
Sunny Afternoon-the Kinks
A Summer Song-Chad & Jeremy
Walkin’ on Sunshine-Katrina & the Waves
Up on the Roof-the Drifters

Others made cases for Boys of Summer or All She Wants To Do Is Dance_Don Henley, Summer Fling-k.d. lang, Afternoon Delight-Starlight Vocal Band, Summer of ’69-Bryan Adams, some country and reggae songs, and the entire oeuvre of Jimmy Buffett.

What songs would you add to or delete from the list?