Big List Add Ons 7 and 8 2023

Big List Update 7 2023 And 8 2023

Most unexpected song: Bobbie Gentry dance number and song, "You’re Number One Fan!"

Most unexpected jazz Piano Talent – NatKing Cole (any. Of his songs with his jazz trio.

Best Guitar and Voice Demo: Paul McCarney and Cilia Black, "Step Inside Love."

Best Thumb Strumming, Wes Montgomery, "Impressions", by John Coltrane.

Best "Chelsea Morning’, song by Joni Mitchell.

Always Makes Me Happy, song, Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66, "Pretty World!"

The Perfect Doo Wop single, Tymes, "So much in Love" / "Wonderful Wonderful!"

Best Elton John Cover, "Love Song", composed by Lesley
Duncan.

Best First Take Vocal, Frank Sinatra, "Im A Fool To Want You."

Best Vocal Come On, or, How can a harpsichord be so sexy? Come On-a My House, by Rosemary Clooney.

Halloween Dance Classic, "Monster Mash", Bobby Boris Pickett.

Iconic Fun with Spelling Hands, "YMCA". The Village People.

The Saddest Song, Peggy Lee, sings Lieber / Stoller’s song, "Is That All There is?"

Why Didn’t Someone Tell Me About … Paul Humphrey, And His Cool Aid Chemists, "Cool Aid" or "sack Full of Dreams"

How Did We Miss This Classic Hit, "Romeo is Bleeding." Hall and Oates.

American Blues Psychedelic Sixties Classic That Nobody Remembers, "7:30 Guided Tour."

Best Sitcom Theme Song, Rock Update, Joan Jett, "Love is All Around."

Best Rock n Roll song from the Year I was Born, 1949, Jimmy Preston and His Presonaires, "Rock This Joint"

Best Buzz Buzz, Astrid Gilberto, "The Telephone. Song."

Best Version of Little Latin Lupe Lu, Lisa Beat E l Bugardi.

Best Collins Kids 1957 Rockabilly, "Hop, Skip, and Jump!"

Three Songs that Every 60’s combo Learned, "Louie Louie", The Kingsmen, "House of the Rising Sun", The Animals, "Gloria," Them.Big List Update 7 20023 And 8 2023

Most unexpected song: Bobbie Gentry dance number and song, "You’re Number One Fan!"

Most unexpected jazz Piano Talent – NatKing Cole (any. Of his songs with his jazz trio.

Best Guitar and Voice Demo: Paul McCarney and Cilia Black, "Step Inside Love."

Best Thumb Strumming, Wes Montgomery, "Impressions", by John Coltrane.

Best "Chelsea Morning’, song by Joni Mitchell.

Always Makes Me Happy, song, Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66, "Pretty World!"

The Perfect Doo Wop single, Tymes, "So much in Love" / "Wonderful Wonderful!"

Best Elton John Cover, "Love Song", composed by Lesley
Duncan.

Best First Take Vocal, Frank Sinatra, "Im A Fool To Want You."

Best Vocal Come On, or, How can a harpsichord be so sexy? Come On-a My House, by Rosemary Clooney.

Halloween Dance Classic, "Monster Mash", Bobby Boris Pickett.

Iconic Fun with Spelling Hands, "YMCA". The Village People.

The Saddest Song, Peggy Lee, sings Lieber / Stoller’s song, "Is That All There is?"

Why Didn’t Someone Tell Me About … Paul Humphrey, And His Cool Aid Chemists, "Cool Aid" or "sack Full of Dreams"

How Did We Miss This Classic Hit, "Romeo is Bleeding." Hall and Oates.

American Blues Psychedelic Sixties Classic That Nobody Remembers, "7:30 Guided Tour."

Best Sitcom Theme Song, Rock Update, Joan Jett, "Love is All Around."

Best Rock n Roll song from the Year I was Born, 1949, Jimmy Preston and His Presonaires, "Rock This Joint"

Best Buzz Buzz, Astrid Gilberto, "The Telephone. Song."

Best Version of Little Latin Lupe Lu, Lisa Beat E l Bugardi.

Best Collins Kids 1957 Rockabilly, "Hop, Skip, and Jump!"

Three Songs that Every 60’s combo Learned, "Louie Louie", The Kingsmen, "House of the Rising Sun", The Animals, "Gloria," Them.

A Little Incident

A Little Incident

(A Musea version of the Lu Hsun short story in poem form)

Six years have gone by as so many winks of an eye
Since I came to the capital from my provincial village.
During that time there have many times occurred
Those celebrated events known as “Affairs of State,”
A great number of which I was privy to.
Yet my heart seems not to be affected by them
And recollecting them only increases my ill temper
And causes me to like people less and less
as the day wears out.

But one little incident is deep with meaning
And to this day I am unable to forget it.

It was a winter day in the sixth year of the Republic.
A strong northerly wind blew in bitter cold.
To make my living, I had to be up early.
On my way I encountered scarcely anyone.
And only after much difficulty was I able to find
And hire a rickshaw to take me to the South Gate.
After a while, the wind slowed its fury.
The streets were now free of loose dirt.
The puller picked up speed and ran quickly.
As we neared the gate, someone ran in front of us,
Got entangled in the big wheels, and tumbled to the ground.
A woman with streaks of white in her hair
Who wore ragged clothes, had darted suddenly
From the side of the street directly in front of us.
My puller had turned to swerve out of the way,
But her tattered jacket, unbuttoned and fluttering
In the wind caught the shaft, and, lucky for her,
The puller stopped quickly enough or she would h ave been thrown
Head over heels and seriously injured.

We came to a halt. The woman remained on all fours.
I did not think that she had been hurt.
No one else had seen the collision.
It irritated me that the puller was lingering
And prepared to get himself involved in complications.
It would delay and prolong my journey. I’d be late.
But he either didn’t hear me or he didn’t care
Because he put down the shafts and gently helped
The old woman to her feet supporting her in his arms.
“Are you alright?” “I am hurt.”

I thought to myself “I saw you fall
And it was not that rough. How can you be hurt?
And the rickshaw driver is making problems for himself.
So let him find his way out of this mess.”

But the puller didn’t hesitate after the old woman said
She was injured. Still holding her arm,
He walked her forward, ahead a police station.
No one stood outside, so he guided her through the gate.

As they passed I experienced a sharp sensation.
I do not know why but at that moment
It suddenly seemed to me that this dust-covered figure
Loomed enormous and larger the further
He walked until finally
I had to lift my head to follow him further.

At the same time I felt a pressure on my body
Which came like a shove from his direction.
It seemed to push through me and out of me
All the littleness under my fur-lined gown.
I grew weak, my vitality was spent
As though my blood had frozen in me.
I sat motionless, stunned and dazed,
Until I saw an officer emerge from the station.

Then I got down from the rickshaw to meet him.
“Get another rickshaw,” the officer advised me.
“This man can’t pull anymore.”
Without thinking, I thrust my hand in my pocket
And pulled out a big fistfull of coppers.
“Give the fellow these,” I told the policeman.

The wind now ceased entirely
But the street was still quiet and deserted.
I questioned myself as I walked along.
Why did you give the money? Was it some kind of reward?
And who was I, after the way I behaved,
To pass judgment upon the rickshaw driver?
I stood there unable to answer my conscious.

Even now that experience burns in my memory.
I recall it often with pain and effort.
The drama of the political and military events
Of all those years are to me like the classics
I read in childhood and quickly forgot.
Now, I can’t even recite half a line.
But always, standing before my eyes,
Purging me with shame, impelling me to improve,
Invigorating my hope and courage; I re-enact
This little incident – each detail distinct
And clear as that day when all this happened.

[based on the Edgar Snow translation]

Fifty Years Ago, or The Ballad of John and Martha

FIFTY YEARS AGO , or The BALLAD of JOHN and MARTHA

This is a convoluted story about a MYSTERY TAPE. – with link and 2 photos!

George Gimarc has quite a bio in music. Here is a quote from his Wikipedia entry:

George Douglas Gimarc (born 1957) is an American disc jockey, record and radio program producer and author based in Texas and is in the Texas Radio Hall of Fame. He is known for his extensive and
authoritative knowledge about the classic rock radio format, recorded music in general, and specifically the era of punk rock. His broadcast programs have been heard in various formats in the US, Canada, Europe and New Zealand, via licensed stations and unlicensed pirate radio transmitters.

Through the years I have contacted him a few times about my music so we know each other. Then on August 6th, he emailed me with this message:
This is a sampler of an unlabeled tape found among the debris of Sellers Recording Studio. Is this collection of songs you?

He had added a link that had a sampler of the songs from a longer tape.

I listened … and went back 50 years. The technical sound was very very good, the instrumentation was simple and direct, but the straightforward voice was different and could have been me, or someone else …. I listened some more.

Then a few phrases popped up – that were definitely me – the lyrics of mine back then, were very specific so that I began to notice phrases that I had labored over during the making of this music – my first rock opera – John and Martha, a 5 act illustrated short story. I made it a point that each song would move the love story forward, so there was little wasted lyrics. The recording was made in the early 1970s when I had just gotten out of NTSU and moved to Dallas.

The Beatles album Sgt. Pepper had inspired me to connect my songs into a story. John and Martha was my first major illustrated short story. As I worked on it, the story began to evolve and included everything a short story would have: action, romance, some character development, and a plot. This recording was my first studio recording made somewhere between 1973-77.  I sang all four parts

Gimarc had found the boxes in storage on the Texas gulf coast. There was water damage on most of them. See the photo he sent me of a typical box.

He had rescued them just in time. They were soon to be destroyed as trash. Some tapes were completely ruined, some were playable. My tape was in its own individual box; but that had disintegrated from the weather and water damage. Remarkably the tape was in good condition. Whatever identification there had been though, was on the box that had disintegrated. There were no markings of any kind on the tape itself. Gimarc got the boxes of tapes back to Dallas and began to investigate.

Gimarc is not only a music collector; he has also issued certain albums of the treasures he has unearthed. Perhaps the most noteworthy include the Grammy award winning album, of previously unknown live recordings of Hank Williams from 1950 called The Garden Spot Programs; and Glen Campbell Sings for the King, a collection of demos for Elvis Presley sung by Glen Campbell!!! These collections of rarities are ongoing projects, and he tells me, more are on the way. I encourage readers to follow up on these historical releases.

Now back to the boxes of tapes and what was found inside them. He said most of the tapes were corporate ads of varying originality, lots of radio promos, and some assorted music like mine.

When it came to the mystery tape, he said that he had asked his friends and music contacts if anyone could identify the singer or the songs. Finally he found one that said it might be me, because he seemed to recall one of my 3 – VERY OBSCURE – how in the world anyone would remember – 45 singles that had two cuts from my John and Martha rock opera!

DESK CLERK/ OTHERS LIKE YOU. 1978. Two songs from my cast recording of John and Martha. I sang the uptempo song Desk Clerk, and Joy Tarver sang the ballad, Others LIke You. The main cast was Martha, sung by Karen Bella (a notable singer, composer in her own write – hear her on youtube!) and John, sung by me. This 45 was from a later version of John And Martha that had a 4 person cast. (See photo).

Those of you, patiently waiting, to hear this tape of the full recording of JOHN AND MARTHA will have to wait longer. We’ve decided to hold out a bit on that! But for those wanting to hear a sampler of the recovered tape; here is the link:

MYSTERY TAPE, JOHN AND MARTHA SAMPLER, by TOM HENDRICKS.
The 9 minute sampler file can be found at:
http://hunkasaurus.com/MysteryBand.mp3

Will you ever hear the entire first recording of John and Martha? Will you ever hear the later cast version of John and Martha? Who knows, we may have to wait 50 more years and see if it pops up again!!!

Tom Hendricks

Two photos

Two photos
Box of rescued tapes

Desk Clerk / Others Like You, 1978 , 45 rpm.

image 1

image 2

Mystery Photo

Has something to do with seventies music, radio personality George Gimarc, and John and Martha.