300 LPs make a great stocking stuffer!

The ARChive Holiday Record + CD Sale is a success so far with plenty of folks shoppin’ n’ boppin.’

Still plenty of tasty vinyl and CDs left.  300 LPs make a great stocking stuffer!  So come on down and tell your friends.  Join the fun.  Support the ARC.  Everyday, 11-6, from now until Sunday Dec 20.  Thanks to all who have already visited or donated materials for the sale.    B.

ARChive of Contemporary Music
54 White Street  New York City, 10013
3 blocks South of Canal between Church + Broadway
Take the #1 train to Franklin St, or any train to Canal
tel : 212-226-6967          e : arcmusic@inch.com
http://www.arcmusic.org              blog: http://arcmusic.wordpress.com

Sale Almost Here!

Dave Clark – Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay

We know the world has lost its moral compass when Gandhi chotskis hit the auction block.  Further proof is when former rockstars ask for a favor, on a quick turnaround, and than stiff you.  No we won’t go into ALL the folks who don’t pay their bills, knowing that ARC is too small to ever sue anyone, but here’s the latest.   We were asked to send a scan the cover of “Coast to Coast” (Epic, USA, LN 24128, Mono, [1965]) by Dave’s office.  We did it in a few hours, sent the scan, sent the bill.  A month later, nada.  We recontact and they say they sent by wire transfer.  We send them a copy of our banks transactions, proving it was never received.  They say well, it’s OUR problem.

So Dave.  I know times are tough.  You may not have the $100.  Sad.  Buy hey, when you wanted the scan we did it quickly, expertly, on faith.  That was our responsibility.  Your responsibility is to pay.  So despite the brazen stance in front of the US map, Dave Clark is no friend of America!  From the Stamp Act to the Dave Clark unpaid bill, it’s the same old story…

Holiday Record + CD Sale

We hope you can all vist the ARC and drop by for our
Holiday Record + CD Sale

THIS YEAR we feature 92.6% new stock (sold off everything left over last year to Lebanon!)

So there will be :  tons of JAZZ (so many large collections came in this year)  – our regular overstock of punk + new wave discs – Great world music CDs – many 7″ sinles (rare A-squared singles included) -  60s Gary Grimshaw ROCK posters – copies of the B.George discography VOLUME -  much new Classical (including 78s) – plus the always wonderful yard sale items of vintage housewares and clothes!

All in all over 15,000 items
- CDs, LPs, cassettes, books, posters, laserdiscs, DVDs + videos

You can get a whole CD for the price of downloading a song!

ARChive of Contemporary Music / 54 White St, NYC,10013
(212) 226-6967 / arcmusic@inch.com / www.arcmusic.org

SAT DEC 6 – SUN DEC 14  EVERYDAY : 11am-6pm
3 blocks south of Canal, between Church and Broadway
Subway : 1 to Franklin Street – or ANY train to Canal.

You can join the ARC and attend our pre-sale party on Thursday Dec. 4,
beginning @ 6pm.  We offer drinks and food and first dibbs on all the recordings!

Happy 105th Birthday “Whistling Girl”

Today, the stars aligned while I was alphabetizing the “J” section of the ARChive’s collection of 78 rpm records – a small collection here of about 8,000.  Tucked in between the Harry James and the James Johnson was a runty nine-inch record on Zon-O-Phone.  I pulled it out to take a closer look.  The cut: George W. Johnson’s “Whistling Girl,” Zon-O-Phone, C 5852.  More intriguing, however, was this sticker on the back dates the record to this day in 1903.  That’s 105 years ago boys and girls!

We’re not sure if this is the date the record was released or the date Victor bought Zon-O-Phone’s assets (probably the latter), but maybe more interesting that the synchronicity of the find is that George W. Johnson was one of the first African-American recording artists and was cutting records back when that meant singing the same song over and over into a horn. Unfortunately, however, his recorded legacy was relatively limited. He’s most famous for two songs, “The Laughing Coon” and “The Whistling Coon.”  “Whistling Girl” was another opportunity for him to show off his fantastic whistling skills.  (These last two link to recordings of Johnson’s songs by S.H. Dudley, the recording alias of Victor Records employee Samuel H. Rous who simply seems to be riding on Johnson’s coattails.)

There’s lots more on George W. Johnson in Tim Brooks and Richard Spottswoods history of African-Americans and the birth of the recording industry, Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919.

– Jessica Thompson

PS: Today is her last day for a while, folks, and we’re all sad — DTN

The Whole World In His Hands

Watching the Dems wonderful halftime show in the stadium last night there was a little aside that was fascinating.  The starting point was the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have A Dream” speech in Washington DC.   Margaret Warner, a  PBS commentator, is married to John R. Reilly, former Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission during the Kennedy admin., and chief strategists in the 1984 presidential campaign of Walter F. Mondale.  It turns out that the government was a bit worried about criticism, as well as inflammatory rhetoric stirring up the crowd and maybe leading to violence on August 28, 1963.

So Reilly’s job was to play Mahalia Jackson’s “He Has the Whole World In His Hands” at the first sign of any messy free speech he found objectionable.  He could override the soundsystem and blast the song when necessary.

So how did this work?  Was he huddled behind the masses, or the second Doric column to the left, or maybe behind Mr. Lincoln himself, with a trembling hand on the tonearm, ever-ready to needle drop?  45 or LP version?  Was the song on tape?  Did he yearn to sing, “He’s got everybody here in His hands”?  Did he know the song did not emerge from the  African-American spiritual tradition, but was written by Obie Philpot, an American Indian?  Was there a royalty agreement in place?

It’s a mystery to me and off the online radar.  We know Marian Anderson sang the song live at the rally, so maybe it was her version at the ready?   And Mahalia heself sang  “I Been ‘Buked and I Been Scorned,” right before Dr. King gave his speech.   We sent Margaret Warner an inquiry and maybe we can find out some more details on how petty, how primitive, how hands-on the most powerful nation on earth can be.

We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Badges!

Unable to push through a “Cross Dressing” or edible “Trans-fat” merit badge last fall the Los Angeles Boy Scouts (50,000 strong) have approved the “Respect Copyrights” patch, sponsored by the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America).

Antenna up about exactly what sponsorship means, especially as scouts are encouraged to mount MPAA software Parent File Scan on their home machine to detect downloads, legal and otherwise. The guide to earning this badge proffers: “There are peer to peer groups who offer legal downloads and those who offer illegal downloads. Make a list of both. Suggest ways to detect peer to peer software like the MPAA Parent File Scan.”

We have e-mailed the scouts to ask how many surveillance forays have been mounted and badgewinners there are, and will duly report. At least the Girl Scouts mean cookies when they say cookies, and promoted domestic tranquility recently when they made Dolly Parton an honorary scout for life! Sadly, Boy Scouts threatened to counter with a “Hooters” badge.

7″ Songscape:

“Boy Scout Troop” by Judy Thomas. (ABC, seven inch 45rpm, 10990,1967)
“I’m Girl Scoutin,’” by The Intruders, (GAMBLE seven inch 45rpm, 4009, 1970)
“My Lover Is A Boy Scout,” by The Charmettes.  (MALA, seven inch 45rpm, 491, 1964)

Then there’s the comedy riff seven-incher – “The Boy Scout” by the unfunny Allen and Rossi (MERCURY, 72378, 1965)

All our Singles are Worthless Now?

As you may know the ARC was the reciepient of one of the best solid rock collections in the USA when Jeep Holland gave us his record collection. Jeep was also the mastermind behind A2 (squared) records our of Ann Arbor (A squared), as both he and I (B-squared) went to the UofM there.

Today ACE Records / Big Beat released the definitive collection of Jeeps efforts, A2 (of Course) # CDWIKD 274, on CD. Here you’ll find “historic recordings by luminaries MC5, Thyme, Scot Richard Case and Frost, plus the rarely-heard Prime Movers, with a young Iggy Pop on lead vocals.”

The thorough and nice Alec Palao put it all together, and he had a long look at our holdings – and was kind enough to thank Freddie and B, although we could provide nothing new to his exhaustive survey.

But our sale is still on and if you want the the original A2 singles by the Frost, Thyme or MC5, come on down – we’re here until Sunday.

The Latest Sect

This just in : Today, 5/22/2008, the N Y Times posts a story on Acrassicauda, the (only?) Iraqi Heavy Metal band, who just happen to be named after a species of black scorpion. There’s a new documentary about them and their love of insects…

Wanna watch? or watch another video?

As a kid, in Ohio, in the 60s, in the garage, I was one of many who preferred the Stones to the Beatles, and the twistymouth charms of singing “My. My. My. Like the spider to the fly, jump right ahead in my web” to any handholding lyric by those cheery entomologists. Otherbugwise, Spike Jones’ version of the Rimsky-Korsakov beething was great. And yes, I liked the Crickets, but it would be a while before I learned to love Spiders from Mars.

But now hear this; Jason E. Bond, who probably had a band in the 60s, is a biologist at East Carolina University who named a newly discovered trapdoor spider, Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi – a name with a fake Greek ju-jitsu ring to it, but in honor of his favorite musician all the same.

So, in honor of Youngi, who we lovi, and eschewing away all other itsy bitsys, like Flea, Adam Ant, WASP, Iron Butterfly, The Honey Bees, The Fleas, Honey & the Bees, The Spiders, Halo of Flies, The Bugs, The Buggs, The Butterflys, The Bee Gees, Steel Caterpillar, Insect Surfers, Praying Mantis, The Fire Flies, Lord Flea, Lord Fly, J.W. Grasshopper & Butterfly, Celi Bee, Tarantula, the Tarantulas, The Insect Trust, Spider Webb, the Termites, Scorpion, Blowfly, and Spider John Koerner, accept our humble discography of arachno-centric seven-inch singles.

• Ballad Of Spider John, WILLIS ALAN RAMSEY, SHELTER, 7324, 1972
• Big Widow Spider, BILLY JACK HALE, D, 1216, 1961
• Black Spider, ROCKHEART JOHNSON, RCA, 1947-5136, 1953
• Black Widow Spider, BIG BROTHER & HOLDING COMPANY, COLUMBIA, 45502, 1971
• Black Widow Spider, DAMON FOX, CRIMSON, 1013, 1967
• Black Widow Spider, SANFORD CLARK, LHI, 1203, 1968
• Black Widow Spider Blues, LOWELL FULSON, SWINGTIME, 115, 19??
• Black Widow Spider, LOWELL FULSON, SWINGTIME, 308, 1952
• Black Widow Spider Woman, JACK HAMMER, MILESTONE, 2001, 1959
• Boris The Spider, JOEY COVINGTON, ORIGINAL, SOUND, 1967
• Boris The Spider, The CORDS, LAURIE, 3403, 1967
• Church Of The Poison Spider, DAVID HALLYDAY, SCOTTI BR, 07299, 1987
• Inky Dinky Spider, AIMABLE, SCEPTER, 12134, 1966
• Itsy Bitsy Spider (The), CARLY SIMON, ARISTA, 9525, 1986
• Me And My Spider, The REVERES, VALIANT, 196041, 1964
• Mean Red Spider, MUDDY WATERS, ARISTOCRAT, 1307, 1949
• Redback Spider, BROWNSVILLE STATION, BIG, TREE, 1972
• Return Of The Spiders, ALICE COOPER, WARNER, 7398, 1970
• Rubber Spiders In Coffee, Tommy HUTTON & KIDS BAND, MASTERVIEW, 102, 19??
• Spider, LIMMIE & FAMILY COOKING, AVCO, 4602, 1972
• Spider, HERBIE HANCOCK, COLUMBIA, 10563, 1977
• Spider, The DE MIRES, LUNAR, 519, 1959
• Spider, The LEAPING FLAMES, MAH, S, 1961
• Spider, CLODAGH RODGERS, RCA, 1947-9779, 1969
• Spider, The ELLINGTONS, RCA, 10528, 1975
• Spider, The STARLINERS, NO-NEE, 101, 19??
• Spider And The Fly, SAL RAIMONDI, CORAL, 62282, 1961
• Spider And Fly, JIMMY THOMASON, KING, 1085, 1952
• The Spider, AMOS MILBURN JR., SHALIMAR, 106, 1963
• The Spider, GENE NASH, JOSIE, 826, 1957
• The Spider, DOC BAGBY, GONE, 5087, 1960
• The Spider, JOE MORRIS, ATLANTIC, 859, 1949
• The Spider, The MARVELIERS, JOANY, 4439, 19??
• The Spider And The Fly, BANKS, ARTE & TELLERS, IMPERIAL, 5788, 1961
• The Spider And The Fly, BOBBY HART, BAMBOO, 507, 1961
• The Spider And The Fly, RAMBLIN JIMMIE DOLAN, CAPITOL, 1487, 1951
• The Spider And The Fly, STAN KENTON, CAPITOL, 1616, 1951
• The Spider And The Fly, The MONOCLES, CHICORY, 407, 1967
• The Spider And The Fly, BOBBY CHRISTIAN, WING, 2102, 1958
• The Spider And The Fly, LINDA JEAN, FAYETTE, 1628, 1965
• The Spider And The Fly, VON RUDEN, IVANHOE, 503, 1970
• The Spider And The Fly, TRAVIS & BOB, MERCURY, 71866, 1961
• Spider In My Stew, BUSTER BENTON, JEWEL, 842, 1974
• Spider In My Stew, BUSTER BROWN, RONN, 105, 19??
• Spider Man, HERO, LIFESONG, 45004, 1976
• Spider Man, FREDDIE McCOY, PRESTIGE, 398, 1966
• Spider Man, WILL POWER, PRIVATE, STOCK, 1975
• The Spider Song (Inky Dinky Spider), The KIDS NEXT DOOR, FOUR, CORNERS, 1965
• Spider Walk (The), JOHNNY DARROW, SUE, 738, 1961
• Spider’s Web, MAURICE KING & WOLVERINES, OKEH, 6800, 1951
• Spider’s Web, TAB SMITH, UNITED, 195, 1957
• Spider’s Webb, JAY JOHNSON, NEW, JAZZ, 19??
• Spider Web, TINY BRADSHAW, KING, 4727, 1954
• Spider Woman (Novela Das Nove), WALLY BADAROU, ISLAND, 99530, 1986
• Spider Woman, WALLY BADAROU, VISUAL ARTS, 99557, 1986
• Spiders, OZZY OSBOURNE, CBS ASSOC, 04318, 84
• Spiders And Snakes, JIM STAFFORD, M-G-M, 14648, 73
• Spooky Spider, The BUDDIES, SWAN, 194073, 1961
• Theme From Spider Man, The WEB SPINNERS, BUDDAH, 327, 1972
• What’s The Name Of This Funk, Spiderman, RAMSEY LEWIS, COLUMBIA, 10235, 1975

Oh, and there’s just so much more, like Tom Paxton’s “There’s A Spider On the Floor” or the debut single “Itzy Bitzy Spider” by Aqua (called Joyspeed at the time), “The Spider” by Eon and both Townes Van Zandt and Say Anything have a ditty called “Spider Song.”

Ps – Back on de bug track, don’t ignore the whirligig beetle, who’s very fond of sunglasses, aka Orectochilus orbisonorum.

United Airlines Lacks Musical Sensitivity

As you know, we live in the least developed country of the so-called developed nations. I write this from the San Francisco airport. I fly domestically, maybe, twice a year. I fly internationally 4 or 5 times a year. I have NEVER had a flight delayed in Europe or Asia, and I have never once, in 10 years, taken off on time in the USA. And UNITED is the worst. Everytime. Two hours delay so far and counting. And I hate them.

BUT, if you are lucky enough to loose your mind at the United Domestic Terminal, there is a wonderful Exhibit of Catalinaware – pottery made in the Arts and Craft / Art Deco style on that tourist isle, from about 1927. This is the ONLY accredited art museum in an American airport. And certainly you have the hours to wile away if you fly United. (who I hate).

The Catalina Collector’s Blog < http://catalinacollectors.org/blog/gallery > says this is the largest exhibition of the material every mounted. So why talk about this in a music blog that hates United Airlines?

Well because of the photo of that gal a-playin’ her flower pots! They are playing ‘tuneful pottery’ in 1932 on the “Island of Romance.” And that’s about all I know.

So the hunt begins to find out more.

For an existing soundtrack, Singles-wise, consider
• The Four Preps, “Twenty-Six Miles (Santa Catalina).” Capitol, 3845, 1957 – this was an actual hit the following year.
• The Four Jokers. “Catalina Leana.” Apollo, 1163, 1950
• The Four Jokers. “We Met In Catalina.” Crystalette,730, 1959.
• Jan Garber Orchestra. “Catalina Bounce.” Capitol, 15468, 1949.
• Gordon Jenkins. “Santa Catalina.” Decca, 27031, 1950.
• The Commanders. “Cat From Catalina.” Decca, 29485, 1950.
• Bert Kaempfert. “Catalina.” Decca, 30866, 1959
• Tret Fure. “Catalina.” MCA, 40029, 1973.
• Freddy Martin. “Santa Catalina.” RCA, 47-3780. 1950.
• Nancy Sherman, Joan Van Armen. “Catalina Honeymoon.” Wanderlust, 1109, 1959.
Orchestra Mambo Rico. “Mambo Con Catalina.” Capitol, 15681, 1950 – this is the one I’m looking for!

There is also another exhibition titled, “30th Anniversary San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival” in another terminal but no one seems to know where that terminal is, and it seems missing from the airport map at the United Terminal, and did I mention I hate United?