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
Musea Zine 