Howdy Folks! Check out my Atomic Age Vinyl Finds! If there are copyright issues or a problem with any post, just contact me and I will make corrections. I'm here to have fun and hope you will share in my process of discovery!
The Colors Of My Rainbow
Joe Wayman
Good Apple MK87-733
1978
Here we have a record that I think was made for the youth market, but yet at times, the recording seems too adult for the kiddies The track titled Urple Purple takes a journey to the dark side of the color purple.
I listen to a ton of records up here in The Atomic Attic. I find myself becoming complacent listening to the same old stuff even though most of my finds are great fun. I realize that I'm stuck in a rut because every now and then I'll pop a record onto the turntable that surprises me and makes me smile above and beyond. This is one of those records. From the somewhat spooky cover painting by Al Blaustein to the fact that the album was produced by Creed Taylor (who made two great records I have in the collection, Shock and Panic Son Of Shock) to the outer space sound made by the Ondioline, this is a great space age album.
The Ondioline is played on each track by Winding along with Claus Ogerman, Billy Byers and Charles Calello.
Gently Swingin'
Earl Grant
Decca Records DL 74937
1968
This album seems like a rush job for Decca. Many tracks are total lounge in nature and play almost as if Grant and the band didn't have the time to practice as a group.
Other tracks, including the one advertised on the jacket, Alfie, play as if they were recorded for another project.
None-the-less, in the mix, you get a few good Grant covers, the fun cheesecake cover and lounge tracks that dish up a nice 60s vibe.
After Midnight
Ray Stanley Singers And Orchestra
Power - Apple Honey Vocal Series
Here's an obscure budget album featuring crazy and misleading cover. From the song titles and group name I knew this had to be an easy listening group vocal project... and it is. But the cover suggests some sort of James Bond/Big Game Hunter vibe... There are no secret agent taxidermy tracks on the wax.
Dinner Music For A Pack Of Hungry Cannibals
Dave Harris And The Powerhouse Five
All Selections Composed by Raymond Scott
Decca Records DL 4113
1961
From the back cover: Raymond Scott, the brilliantly unorthodox composer, carved a formidable career out of searching for, and finding new sounds in music. In this unique album, tenor-saxophonist Dave Harris – who, as featured soloist with the original Raymond Scott Quintet, played a key role in the success of the group – recreates some of the fabulous, wild and wonderful sounds so closely associated with the remarkable Mr. Scott.
Says Mr. Harris: "With recordings full of overworked formulas and cliches, I felt the music scene could stand a breath of fresh air. We have recorded these tunes with a new flexibility. We've made them swing and still haven't sacrificed any of the intricacies and nuances of the original compositions.
The titles, for the most part, are lucidly self-explanatory. There are exceptions, however.
Dinner Music For A Pack Of Hungry Cannibals, opening the album with the beat of tom toms, is just that. Power House, with its whirring conveyors, throbbing dynamos, and interwoven themes, suggests, as one might expect, the power of motion. Wreckless Night On Board An Ocean Liner is a festive potpourri of poppy champagne, the rushing sea and wind, and uninhibited revelry.
Our Happy Farmer, on the other hand, tends to be somewhat more whimsical than agricultural. The Boy Scout In Switzerland, who is quite obviously lost in the Alps, is confronted not with yodeling, but with trumpet, sax and clarinet. In An Eighteen Century Drawing Room is characteristically equipped with chamber music ensemble and Mozart theme, but fraught with surprises. The Toy Trumpet, in its turn, forgets for a magnificent instant that it is only a toy.
And, back to the obvious, Minuet In Jazz is quite precisely what one might expect to hear... had Igance Jan Paderewski been born in Hollywood. Twilight In Turkey is something of a tone poem; a portrait in camel caravan, snake charmer and sloe-eyed dancing girl – with a few broadly comic interludes. A Siberian Sleigh Ride is, quite simply, a Siberian sleigh ride, except that it occasionally isn't. The Penguin song is about as intimate a relationship as you'll ever have with one. And War Dance For Wooden Indians... well, you'll have to come to your own conclusions about this one.
"Dinner Music For A Pack Of Hungry Cannibals" is one part Dave Harris' salute to Raymond Scott and his music, and one part the most imaginative, entertaining collection of music you've ever heard.
Dinner Music For A Pack Of Hungry Cannibals
In An Eighteenth Century Drawing Room
Siberian Sleigh Ride
Wreckless Night Aboard An Ocean Liner
Minuet In Jazz
Twilight In Turkey
Power House
The Toy Trumpet
The Penguin
Boy Scott In Switzerland
The Happy Farmer
War Dance For Wooden Indians
