RARE & WEIRD Brown-Forman Distillers 1970 INDUSTRIAL MUSICAL - Raymond Scott
$
75
Favourite Auctions
To save auctions to your favourites, please login
If you don't have an account, please register
Description
If you've seen "Bathtubs Over Broadway" or read "Everything's Coming Up Profits," you know that private pressing "industrial musical" souvenir albums are some of the rarest and weirdest records in existence. These motivational musicals were only for dealers, salesmen, distributors and other industry insiders at sales meetings and conventions, and the souvenir vinyl records were not available to the public. And many of these shows boasted outstanding music and performances along with the bizarre corporate subject matter.
I'm the collector and historian profiled in the documentary "Bathtubs Over Broadway," and the co-author of "Everything's Coming Up Profits - The Golden Age of Industrial Musicals." I'm thinning out my stash of duplicates, and offering an assortment of records that range from the scarce, to the very rare, to the "you'll probably never encounter this again."
This 1970 Brown-Forman Distillers hundredth anniversary show has a few standout features. The music was composed by Raymond Scott, renowned composer and bandleader whose sprightly compositions were added by Carl Stalling to over 120 Warner Bros. Loony Tunes and Merry Melodies cartoons, and whose experiments with electronic music opened new fields of innovation. This was Scott's last commercial work, according to Raymond Scott historian Irwin Chusid.
The lyrics are by Dick Stern, and vocals are provided by students of the University of Louisville -- an unusual departure from the Broadway crowd that often populated industrial shows.
And the songs themselves? A puzzling but often endearing mish-mash, with a wide range of styles befitting the show's hundred year historical overview. "Paddlin' Wheels" is a rolicking country hoe-down, while "Louisville Today" is a now-sounds-of-today instrumental number with electric guitar and organ. "Bourbon, Bourbon" gets down to business on the topic you'd expect ("Bourbon is a friend of man, other drinks are also-ran"), while "Make Mine Kentucky and "To My Louisville" are stately and contemplative. "Great Men In Town" sounds the most like a Broadway show tune, while "Speak Low, Speak Easy," about revenuers chasing moonshiners, sounds the most like Scott's work that's been immortalized in cartoons.
This copy has a clean sharp cover with just a little wear on the back, and fine clean vinyl that plays excellently with the occasional pop or click.
An interesting and unusual record that belongs in your growing collection of industrial shows, or in your collection of Raymond Scott music, or in your collection of distillery and whiskey ephemera!
Check out my other listings for many more killer examples of this deliciously strange and secret slice of American musical and corporate history, as well as an assortment of other miscellaneous weird records from my hoard.
Buyers of multiple records get a break on shipping charges.
price rating
