Page 30 - The Gluckman Occasional Number Eleven

Music Hall Memories (Polyp Productions 012). These old songs,
recorded anew by Gus Gazzler and the Tailpipes, might have stirred
fond memories in the old folks’ homes of a bygone era. But what are
we moderns to make of “Boris the Bare-handed Plumber”, “When I
Spilled my Kava-kava on her Lava-lava”, “She Tried to Coochy-Coo
Me by the Shores of Gitche Gumee” and “I’m in Love with a Cross-
eyed Phlebotomist”? And what of today’s cultural distaste for
anything smacking of ethnic humor? Ned Nerdle and Bertha D.
Blooze do their best to render the lyrics with a light touch, but their
post-modern snark is difficult to hide. Wait for this one to land in the
bargain bins.

Original Hits: Manny Shagetz & his Orchestra (Mezz Records
732). Not well-known outside Paramus, New Jersey, in its heyday this
jazz-inflected dance band made a series of 78-rpm records sold
mainly in furniture stores and bus stations. According to the liner
notes, it took months of searching junk stores, rummage sales and
recycling centers to find the last remaining copies of these discs. Yet
it cannot be said the same effort went into restoring the music: hiss
and pop interfere with the clarinet and high-hat cymbal, and several
tracks are almost unlistenable. Here, for perhaps the last time, are
renditions of “Jostlin’ with Jocelyn”, “The Ax-grinders’ Ball”, “When
that Combo Plays the Mambo”, “Two Thoughts with but a Single
Mind”, “Squeezin’ the Turnip” and “Dentistry in Rhythm”. For the
moldy-fig enthusiasts only—“Hits” is more than a little hyperbolic!

Jukebox Oldies, Vol. 137 (Pandora Box 86-9931) This latest
offering of barrel-bottom scrapings from the vaults of Pandora (now
a subsidiary of Guangzhou Industries, LLC) offers few surprises and
little nostalgia to those hoary fans bathing in the bathos of the salad
days of rock and roll. Few remember Tonelle Paynter, whose
plaintive “Forever and Eternity, Too” barely registered on the charts
in 1957. The Rioteens made a lot of noise with “Death-trap
Dragster”, and the Solip Sisters’ (Mimi and Sylphie) attempt at doo-
wop (“Upsy-daisy! Boom-boom-boom!”) is pathetic in retrospect. Of
historic note, however, is an early Christian rock band, The Rhythm
Methodists, doing “Honest to God”. It is unfortunately followed by
an alternate take of “Devil Taught Me How” by Scarlet Hays, vamp
of the psychedelic guitar. Two-and-a-half stars for the remastering.