Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Ask Mr. Music by Jerry Osborne

FOR THE WEEK OF FEBRUARY 14, 2011


DEAR JERRY: I have both the Original 1964 Buena Vista Soundtrack LP for “Mary Poppins” (BVS-4026) and a 45 rpm single (F-434), both featuring Julie Andrews, Dick Van d**e, and the Pearlies.

“Super-cali-fragil-istic-expi-ali-docious” is on the LP and the single, and is hyphenated on both. I have also seen it on other records without hyphens.

I bring this up because “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” with its 34 letters, is widely regarded as the longest word in a song title. But, even with one hyphen, let alone six, I don't think it qualifies as just one word.

If it doesn't count, then what would be the new longest word used in a title?
—Jackie Woodside, Eugene, Ore.


DEAR JACKIE: For this purpose, any concern over hyphenation is moot.

Even the records from Disney's Buena Vista show this title both ways.

FYI: This music and film subsidiary gets it name from the street in Burbank that is home to the Disney studios (500 S. Buena Vista St.).

Interestingly, the single you mention does read “Super-cali-fragil-istic-expi-ali-docious,” but the picture sleeve for that same record has “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” in huge letters on the front.

The clincher is seeing songwriter and music publisher representative, Broadcast Music, Incorporated (BMI), giving the legal title as “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” (BMI Work #1433285).

It clearly qualifies as one word.

Now comes my Perry Mason moment.

There is a co-champion in this event, another one-word, hyphenless, 34-letter title. One of just four tracks on Isaac Hayes' first LP, the Gold Record award-winning “Hot Buttered Soul” (Enterprise 1001), is “Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic.”

Nowthatisreallyquiteamouthful!

When issued in 1969, the mainstream music industry was stunned seeing a pop (not jazz or classical) album with over 45 minutes comprised by just four selections. Those contents and running times are: (Side 1) “Walk on By” (12:02); “Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic” (9:36); (Side 2) “One Woman” (5:08); and the protracted “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” (18:42), the first 8:38 being an introductory narrative.

To get the radio play that generates lucrative singles sales, edited versions of “Walk on By” (4:33) and “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” (6:46) were coupled as Enterprise 9003. Both sides became Top 30 hits.


DEAR JERRY: From one of your January columns I learned that Conqueror was a discount line of records made for sale at Sears & Roebuck stores. I think I have one of those.

We no longer have a phonograph, but packed away amongst a bunch of records is a Conqueror 78, with red labels, titled “M & O Blues.” I have never understood what “M & O” stands for, though one blues collector thinks it is means Mine & Oil.

Do you know?
—Sonny Sherman, Detroit


DEAR SONNY: Yes, and if it's been awhile since you last laid eyes on “M & O Blues” (Champion 50023), it is understandable how Conqueror could be confused with Champion.

Both names begin with C, both have red labels with a similar layout and design, and both were of lower quality materials made for sale at a reduced cost.

“M&O Blues,” by Willie Brown, refers specifically to the Mobile & Ohio Railroad (1848-1940), which originally ran between Mobile, Ala. and the Ohio River, near Cairo, Ill. It did not serve the state of Ohio.

The first verse makes it clear: “I'm gonna catch that M 'n' O, I'm goin' way down south … gonna build me a mansion out on Decatur Hill.” No mention is made of a mine or refinery.

The Champion single, issued in 1935, is actually a budget line reissue of Paramount 13090, made in 1930. Both have “Future Blues” for the B-side.

Does “packed away” mean stored in an attic or basement, or perhaps a safe deposit box? I hope it's the latter.

That's because the current value of Champion 50023 is $8,000 to $12,000. And you can double that for the Paramount original!


IZ ZAT SO? If a $20,000” price tag on Paramount 13090 is an eye-opener, even more might be paid for either of the other two Paramount singles by Willie Brown.

One came before and one after “M & O Blues”: “Grandma Blues”/“Sorry Blues” (13001) and “Kickin' in My Sleep Blues”/“Window Blues” (13099). All are from the class of 1930.

By all accounts these two should exist; however, we have yet to confirm a copy of either.

In an appropriate auction, a hammer price of $30,000 to $50,000 would not be surprising.

Got one lying around that you don't need?


Jerry Osborne answers as many questions as possible through this column. Write Jerry at: Box 255, Port Townsend, WA 98368 E-mail: jpo@olympus.net  Visit his Web site: www.jerryosborne.com .

All values quoted in this column are for near-mint condition.

Copyright 2010 Osborne Enterprises- Reprinted By Permission




Moby To Release New Album 'Destroyed' In May

Yesterday, I blogged about Moby's new project and have since heard from Sheryl at Mute.com and she provides us with more detail about the release:



MOBY DESTROYED

NEW ALBUM AND PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK OUT MAY 17, 2011

FREE DIGITAL EP – BE THE ONE – FEATURING SONGS FROM DESTROYED

DOWNLOAD ON MOBY.COM www.moby.com/



DESTROYED ART AND MUSIC LAUNCH EVENTS

May 9th - National Geographic ‘Music on…Photography’ – Washington D.C.

May 11th – Clic Gallery Art Opening and Book Launch– NYC

May 12th – Brooklyn Museum ‘Discussion with Moby’ – Brooklyn


PHOTOGRAPHY + MULTIMEDIA EXHIBIT IN NYC AT CLIC

MAY 12 – JUNE 26


PERFORMANCES AT BOTH SXSW 2011 AND ULTRA MUSIC FESTIVAL MIAMI

Moby and Mute are pleased to announce details of Destroyed, a new album and book of photography set for release on May 17, 2011. Destroyed the album will be available in CD, vinyl, and digital formats and will be included with the Destroyed book of photography. Published by Damiani/D.A.P, the book is 128 pages and features 55 photographs taken by Moby all over the world.

To celebrate the new album and his ninth studio LP, Moby is making a free digital EP available featuring three songs from Destroyed. Additionally, Moby also directed three short films to accompany each track. Visit moby.com http://www.moby.com/  to download and view the videos.

Destroyed takes us behind the scenes on an international journey with Moby, introducing us to the strange and disconcerting life of touring that is often not exposed; the time spent isolated in anonymous, mundane spaces like hotel rooms, airports, and backstage waiting areas. These experiences are juxtaposed with moments and places of intense beauty in the world and the excitement and connection with audiences. From the absurdly empty to the absurdly full, Moby captures the universal situation that so many musicians and artists undergo living nomadic lives. The combination of the album and book of photography, created while touring, provides an intimate look at Moby’s world and his creative process.

Songs on Destroyed were written by Moby mostly late at night, in hotel rooms around the world when cities had gone to bed and the insomnia that worldwide travel can induce fueled his need to create. A soundtrack for empty cities at 2 A.M., Destroyed fluctuates with nocturnal feelings of anxious isolation and comfort in quiet solitude. The result is a 15-track collection that conflates the atmospheric and the disconcerting with the enveloping and beautiful – a record rich in the kind of melodies that are lodged in the brain by stealth rather than with a bludgeon. Destroyed is an album that changes and evolves, exploring time, expectation, and ultimately the tension it creates.

Destroyed was produced by Moby and mixed by Ken Thomas (Sigur Ros, M83) on old analog equipment and mixed on a 1972 Neve analog mixing desk from Abbey Road. A cohesive body of work, Destroyed is to be listened to in its entirety and, preferably, as it was made; late at night when your city has gone to sleep.

Moby has been taking pictures as long as he’s been making music, or ever since he was nine years old when his uncle presented him with an A Nikon F camera. To this day Moby carries a camera wherever he goes. “Touring is all contrasts and strangeness, and that’s what I’m trying to convey in these pictures.” The title and front cover of Destroyed, both album and book, is the product of Moby’s keen photographer eye. The eye-catching image depicts the final part of an LED security warning: Unattended luggage will be destroyed, which Moby snapped as it flashed up, one word at time, in a deserted hallway at New York’s La Guardia airport.

Events will be held in select cities to debut music and exhibit prints from Destroyed. National Geographic will host the first event on May 9th called, ‘Music on…Photography’, which is a National Geographic Music Live multi-media series featuring renowned personalities in the music world as they share their view of the planet from behind the camera lens. The event will be held in Washington D.C. at National Geographic Live

Clic Gallery in New York City will host “Destroyed: Photographs by Moby”, an exhibition that will run from May 12th through June 26th, featuring photos and multimedia work from Destroyed. On May 11th, the book will launch simultaneously with the exhibit opening and will include a book signing. The following night on May 12th at Brooklyn Museum, Moby will present and discuss his photographs, in addition to signing copies of Destroyed. Additional exhibitions and events will be scheduled in the U.S., including Kopeikin Gallery in Los Angeles in September, and throughout Europe this summer in conjunction with his concert tour.

Moby will appear at SXSW 2011 in Austin this March at several events to be announced. He’ll also DJ during the Ultra Music festival in Miami on March 27.





Vinyl Record News & Notes, Did You Know?

ELECTRIC BOYS: New Album Details Revealed

The reunited original ELECTRIC BOYS lineup — Franco Santunione (guitar), Andy Christell (bass), Niklas Sigevall (drums) and Conny Bloom (guitar, vocals) — will release its first album since 1992 called "And Them Boys Done Swang" on April 6 via Supernova Records, a division of the Cosmos Music Group. The CD will be made available in Japan on March 16 through JVC with three

Read more at Blabbermouth









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Septicflesh - New Album Cover Art Revealed

Season Of Mist press release

Septicflesh's upcoming album 'The Great Mass' is set to hit the stores on April 18th (one day later in North America). It is time to unveil the cover artwork of the album's jewel case edition, designed by Seth Siro Anton himself:

Seth explains: "This is a small fragment of the artwork that will dress the new artistic experiment of Septicflesh, The Great Mass. It is a small part of an occult machine made from marble and flesh, fantasy and reality, order and chaos. A great machine composed from the blasphemous union of strange figures, creations of Man, the creator of the gods and demons. Their grotesque purpose will be revealed soon, when all the cover editions of the new album will be presented and will be combined together... Let the great self-cannibalistic symposium begin."

The Greek demons' new opus will be available in the following formats:


- CD + Blu-ray Digipak
- Collector's book including 2 CDs + Blu-ray
- 12" gatefold LP
- CD jewel case
- Digital download

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Tengwar Posts New Album "The Halfling Forth Shall Stand" Art


Argentina based folk metal band Tengwar has posted the cover artwork online for the band's upcoming album "The Halfling Forth Shall Stand."  The band also commented on the album and artwork:

"The Halfling Forth Shall Stand is the first part of a conceptual work concerning the matters of J.R.R. Tolkien's famous trilogy. More than an hour of mighty Celtic and Medieval rooted folk metal in an astonishing epic trip along the realms of Middle-Earth.

"Front Cover artwork by Kris Verwimp (Arkona, Suidakra, etc), desing by Valgorth The Hammmerblaze (Lost Horizon, Black Majesty, Skiltron, etc). Original Logo by Adrián Gutiérrez/Thorvi Fairstone.

"Rise your horn up! Let your axe and sword be sharpened! Come and join the fellowship!"

The track listing for the album is as follows:

1. Return of the Shadow
2. A Long Expected Fading
3. The Halfling's Rise
4. War Begins
5. Marching South
6. Snow and Defeat
7. The Password
8. A Dwarf Sings in The Dark
9. Fire and Shadow Defied
10. The Pilgrim's Gone
11. In the Land of the Golden Trees
12. Farewell
13. The Swan
14. Uruks
15. The Bearer's Choice

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Last Chance To Reason Announces New Album "Level 2" Details


Last Chance To Reason has announced April 12th as the North American release date for the band's Prosthetic Records debut, "Level 2."

The Augusta, Maine based metal sextet will hit the road in February for the band's first Canadian run of dates and will then meet up with the legendary Atheist. The band will also be appearing at this year's New England Metal and Hardcore Festival in Worcester, MA on April 16.

Last Chance To Reason teamed up with producer Jamie King (Between the Buried and Me) to create the album, which draws influences from the 70's prog of King Crimson and Yes, composers Steve Reich and Schoenberg, as well as prog-metal masters Opeth, Dream Theater, and Cynic.







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Appetite for Bargains: Slash Auctions His ‘Stuff’

Michael Wright

Ever dreamed about living the rock star life? Driving the rock star ride? Wearing the rock star threads? Well, now’s your chance. Velvet Revolver guitar hero Slash is teaming up with Julien’s Auctions to sell everything from a muscle car to guitars to, yes, his trademark top hat.

Read the rest at Gibson.com









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Backstage in South Florida

Backstage: A Music Obsessive's Collection

By Lee Zimmerman

​Music vet and New Times scribe Lee Zimmerman shares stories of memorable rock 'n' roll encounters that took place in our local environs. This week: The haunted hoarder.

This column requires that I clean out the cobwebs of my memory, as well as the dust that's gathered on the albums, photos and memorabilia that clutter up my music room. It's there that I find my own fortress of solitude amidst floor to ceiling shelves jutting out at unlikely angles to accommodate stacks of CDs and vinyl albums that otherwise would have no home. It's a large room, mind you -- approximately 500 square feet to be accurate -- but after years of fixating on collecting, I've simply overrun its parameters.

Read more about a fellow record collector at blogs.browardpalmbeach.com

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Album artwork: Crazy, colorful sleeves from Thailand’s musical past

Paradise Bangkok DJs Chris Menist and Maft Sai dig into their massive Thai record collection to prove that in Thailand, you can’t judge an album by its cover

By Chris Menist

Before coming to Thailand, when it came to digging for vinyl I found that you generally could judge a book by its cover.

Record sleeves from Europe and the United States would by and large give a clue as to the music inside, utilizing graphics, a natty dress sense by the musicians on the front, or even some of the song titles to hint at the style and direction of the music contained within.

Additional information could be gleaned from the label the music was on, as well as the musicians and/or the producer involved.

Coming to Thailand changed all that for me.....

Read more: Album artwork: Crazy, colorful sleeves from Thailand’s musical past | CNNGo.com

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Lost Highway to Release Ryan Adams’ Love Is Hell, Whiskeytown’s Pneumonia on Vinyl

Given Ryan Adams’ affinity for releasing music on vinyl, you might think that all the popular albums from his discography are readily available in the superior analog format, but there are actually a few that are rather hard (or impossible) to come by. Enter Lost Highway’s 10th Anniversary clear vinyl celebration, in which Adams’ former label will release a slew of LPs

Read more at TwentyFourBit.com

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The Strokes, Arcade Fire, Robert Plant and his Band of Joy and the reunited Buffalo Springfield are just some of the acts announced to play this year’s Bonnaroo festival.

Manchester, Tennessee’s Bonnaroo Festival recruited 2010 lineup member Conan O’Brien to announce the 2011 lineup, moments ago, for this summer’s June 9-12 event



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and in my neck of the woods:

Rock Fest 2011 Lineup Includes Rob Zombie, Def Leppard, Kid Rock

Rob Zombie, Def Leppard, Kid Rock and Avenged Sevenfold will all headline Rock Fest in Cadott, Wis. The four-day fest kicks off July 14 and runs through July 17. Other bands scheduled to perform include Slaughter, Cinderella, Three Days Grace, Rock Sugar, Saliva, Skillet, Hinder, My Darkest Days, Sick Puppies, Chevelle, Seether, Jackyl, Tesla and Heart. More bands will be added.

This is the 18th year for the event. It is presented by Chippewa Valley Music Festivals. General admission, VIP and camping packages are available.

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Did You Know?

more stuff everybody should know...

While performing her duties as queen, Cleopatra sometimes wore a fake beard.  Cool, chicks with beards!

When young and impoverished, Pablo Picasso kept warm by burning his own paintings.

Turkey's often look up at the sky during a rainstorm. Unfortunately some have been known to drown as a result.

There is no mention of Adam and Eve eating an apple in the Bible.  And next you'll tell me that the ark was fake as well....

The slogan on New Hampshire license plates is 'Live Free or Die'. These license plates are manufactured by prisoners in the state prison in Concord.   Well two out of three ain't bad (they are going to live and they are going to die - too late for that freedom thing....)

The Phillips-head screwdriver was invented in Oregon.

The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan."  Shit, I though it was fast food joint....

The largest eggs in the world are laid by a shark.

and in music history today:

In 1963, the Beatles saw their second release, "Please Please Me", reach the top of the UK singles chart. No one seemed to care that during one verse, John and Paul can clearly be heard singing different words.

In 1964, the Beatles appear for the second week in a row on The Ed Sullivan Show, with an estimated audience of 70 million watching.

In 1971 - The Rolling Stones were sued by the Hell's Angels who say that their privacy was invaded by showing the fatal attack at Altamont in the documentary Gimme Shelter.

In 1991, The Simpsons were at #1 on the U.K. singles chart with “Do The Bartman.” The song was written by Michael Jackson and Bryan Lorenand. The Simpsons became the first cartoon characters to make #1 since the Archies’ hit “Sugar, Sugar” in 1969

Birthday wishes to Andy Taylor (1961) of Duran Duran!