I Like Yellow Things: MSR Madness

Song-Poem Insanity at WFMU's Beware Of The Blog. But what happened to the song-poem archive?

"WFMU is happy to be the official host for the final two volumes of CD releases from the American Song Poem Music Archives. Prepared for release back in the late 1990s, for various reasons these two albums have been sitting on curator Phil Milstein's shelf ... until now.

Here are Phil's long-awaited collections, titled, respectively, I Like Yellow Things: MSR Madness Vol. 5 and Rat A Tat Tat, America: MSR Madness Vol. 6. Each album features full-color cover artwork by legendary cartoonists Peter Bagge (vol. 5) and Rick Altergott (vol. 6).  Together, these two volumes collect 56 of the best and weirdest song-poems that emerged from America's "send in your lyrics" musical factories. Back in the day, non-musicians mailed in their addled and/or eloquent poetry (often scribbled on sandwich bags or cocktail napkins), and for a small fee, a song was created out their poetic detritus. The concept is nothing new - there have been numerous anthologies of song poems (and even a film about the phenomenon), so many in fact that you have to wonder just how much good material there is. These collections answer that questions - tons of it, especially if you keep an open mind and you're as receptive to the strangeness of the genre as you are to the pained emotion and the historical insight they often provide.

There are some real gems here, including Burmese Land and Octopus Woman, Please Let Me Go, both favorites from Irwin Chusid's and Michelle Boule's Incorrect Music show. My own favorite here is technically not a song poem (because writer and singer are the same person), but it still fits - William Arpaia's magnificent Listen, Mister Hat. Like many song poem collections, there a batch of excellent anti-hippy musical diatribes (Till Death Do Us Part, sung by Heroin herself, Smoke It - The Pot  and The Doing Of Our Thing) And several others - My Daddy He Died in 1969, Stay Where You Are, Green Fingernails and Gretchen's New Dish - all testify to the continued richness of the song  poem genre. And that's just on Volume Five! So get started downloading, and listen! Special thanks to Phil Milstein, Irwin Chusid and Otis Fodder."

I Like Yellow Things - MSR Madness Volume Five

01. Bobbi Blake: I Like Yellow Things
02. Jim Lea: The Doing Of Our Thing
03. Dick Kent: Times About
04. Roger Bonnette: The Hell With You (home version)
05. Shelley Stuart & The Five Stars: Vampire Husband
06. Cara Stewart: Song Of The Burmese Land
07. Ron Davis: It's A Mystery Called Love
08. Gene Marshall: Evelyn Christmas
09. Buddy Raye: Feeling Beside Myself
10. Kay Weaver: Woman's Liberation
11. Gene Marshall: Shake Your Good Stuff
12. Norman Burns: Stay Where You Are
13. Dick Kent: Octopus Woman Please Let Me Go
14. uncredited: My Daddy He Died In 1969
15. Gene Marshall: Green Fingernails
16. Wm. H. Arpaia & The Jerrymanders: Listen, Mister Hat
17. Ralph Lowe: My Silent Thoughts
18. The Downtowners: I Love Lovely Chinese Gal
19. Betty Bond: Till Death Do Us Part
20. Bill Joy: The Messer Round
21. Dick Kent: Gretchen's New Dish
22. uncredited: My Hamburger Baby
23. Gene Marshall: Prayer For Jamey
24. Milford Perkins: Jerry The Butcher Man
25. Dick Kent: The Sailor's Anthem
26. Rodd Keith: My Twin And I
27. Bobbi Blake: Good
28. Gene Marshall: Smoke It - The Pot
29. Terry: Something In The Night
Cover Art, Tray Art, and CD Booklet for Volume Five (pdf document)

Producer: PHIL MILSTEIN | Cover art: PETER BAGGE | Rerecording engineer: ERIK LINDGREN | Digital mastering: ALAN LOWE ARCHIVING | THANKS TO: Tom Ardolino, Peter Bagge, Dave Brown, Irwin Chusid, Dan Clowes, Byron Coley, Michael Cudahy, Nicholas Cudahy, Esther Curry, Lili Dwight, Ellery Eskelin, Brian Gordon, David Greenberger, Erik Lindgren, Bob Purse, Wayne Rogers and Jim Shaw.

Rat a Tat Tat, America: MSR Madness Volume Six

(Right-click on the song title to download the MP3s)

01. Sammy Marshall & The Party Crashers: Rock And Roll Boogie Beat
02. Rodd Rogers: Dreams Of Love
03. Stan Beard & The Swinging Strings: Snobows
04. Rodd Keith: Let's Go Savage, You And I
05. Bill Joy: Bored Can't Cope Want Out
06. Kay Weaver: Astrouniverse
07. uncredited: Pinch Me
08. Dick Kent: One Soul Love
09. Norm Burns & Singers: Wow We Wow
10. Rodd Keith: My Pipe Yellow Dream
11. The Real Pros: It's You, Cherokee Lou
12. Rick Kershaw: Flying Information
13. Randy Rudolph: Ho, I Got To Find You Baby
14. Teri & The MSR Singers: I've Found My True Love
15. Milford Perkins: The Duck Egg Walk
16. William LeBlanc: A Hall Of Fame Award
17. uncredited: This World Is In A Hell Of A Fix.
18. The Real Pros: Rain On The Roof
19. Dick Kent: Rat A Tat Tat, America
20. Stich Stampfel & The Singing Strings: If I Could Only See Your Face
21. Nita Craig: I Have A Number
22. Rave-Ons: A Mellow Sweet Sixteen
23. The Real Pros: Teenage Queen
24. Milford Perkins: Amtrack Eagle
25. Gary Roberts & The Five Stars: Minni-Ha-Cha
26. Teri Summers & The Librettos: Season's Greetings
27. Teri & The Librettos: The Evening Is Approaching

Cover Art, Tray Art, and CD Booklet for Volume Six (pdf document)

Producer: PHIL MILSTEIN | Cover art: RICK ALTERGOTT | Rerecording engineer: ERIK LINDGREN | Digital mastering: ALAN LOWE ARCHIVING | THANKS TO: Barry Alfonso, Rick Altergott, Tom Ardolino, Don Bolles, Byron Coley, Nicholas Cudahy, Lili Dwight, Ellery Eskelin, Richard Franke, Aram Heller, Reed Lappin, Erik Lindgren, Ethel Milstein, Bob Purse, Jim Shaw and Gregg Turkington.

Comments

[kasimir]

unbelievable! thankx!!!

[Tom K]

Cool stuff. Is the song-poem movie Off The Charts any good? Hilariously, IMDB suggests that if you like it you should see Titanic. Hmmmm. By the way, I just discovered the ASPMA website is still out there, at www.songpoemmusic.com.

[Andrew]

I miss the ASPMA.com website, too. Any idea if/when it'll be resurrected?

[bacon]

is the link for "something in the night" messed up or is it just on my end? :\

[bacon]

is the link for "something in the night" messed up or is it just on my end? :\