Various Artists - Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol (Unofficial Soundtrack)

[I've been writing the doggone post off and on for over two years now... could never seem to find a time to finish it before the holiday, so I kept holding it over. Finally time to put this one to bed!]

It’s that time of year again - time to me to settle in on cold winter evenings and enjoy one of the many, many holiday movies, cartoons, specials and extravaganzas dedicated to and associated with the Christmas season... with a few exceptions, as noted below.

My Christmas go-to shows have always included the old Rankin-Bass stop-motion animation specials that I first saw as a kid and still enjoy to this day - not only the early ones like Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (a timeless classic) and Frosty The Snowman, but later productions like Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town and The Year Without A Santa Claus (which presented the immortal Heat Miser and Cold Miser) (I'm not a big fan of their '60s special The Little Drummer Boy, however - probably because the title character in the story is such a mopey, whiny little bitch...). And of course, A Charlie Brown Christmas rates high on the holiday "must-see" list.

In regards to longer-form holiday narratives (i.e., Christmas movies), I personally have never had much use for or interest in the plethora of holiday movies that the Hallmark Channel inundates the airwaves with every year - in my mind, they all seem to have the same basic plot: cold, spiritless, workaholic guy/girl gets into a situation that removes him/her from the hectic, unfeeling city/palace/posh life to a more warm and rustic location, where gradually he/she finds love, happiness, and the true spirit and magic of Christmas dwelling in the hearts and lives of the people he/she is thrust upon and made to interact with. It's the same old formula, time and time again (summed up in this this hilarious (but spot-on) article from a few years ago, "Every 2020 Hallmark Christmas Movie Has One of Twelve Plots"). That hasn't stopped Hallmark from cranking these cliched flicks out over and over - I read somewhere recently that the channel was releasing FORTY-TWO "new" ones this year along alone, on top of the thirty-one premieres last year, and the scores of others released in the years prior to that.

Lord have mercy. Enough already!

The period films I like during this time of year are things like the original Miracle on 34th Street from 1947 (were you aware that this movie not only was nominated for Best Picture at that year's Academy Awards, but Edmund Gwenn, who played Santa Claus, won Best Supporting Actor?) and the immortal It's A Wonderful Life. And I've recently gotten into another classic Hollywood musical, White Christmas with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye; it's fairly enjoyable, although I still cringe inwardly during the scenes when the duo fondly reminisce in song about the "good ol' minstrel show days"...

But for me, the holiday story that stands the test of time over and over again is Charles Dickens' archetypal yuletide yarn A Christmas Carol. There have been seemingly dozens of versions of this tale committed to film, starring the likes of Reginald Owen, Alastair Sim, Albert Finney, George C. Scott, etc., etc. All of these takes have their proponents, and rightfully so; Dickens' story is so well-written, that it's almost impossible to make a bad movie of it. But if you were to watch just one Christmas Carol this year, which would it be?

In my mind, a good case could be made for — believe it or not — Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol, starring the voice of Jim Backus as the comically myopic Quincy Magoo. Not merely a superior musical version, it is a pioneer among animated Christmas traditions. Before Charlie Brown, before the Grinch, and even before Rudolph, Magoo was the go-to Christmas special everyone watched. In fact, it is considered the FIRST animated holiday television special.

But before we go into the show itself, let's start with a not-so-brief history of the production arm that ended up producing this classic.

United Productions of America (UPA) origins began at the Walt Disney studio in the late 1930s and early 1940s. During that time, as Disney expanded into feature films beginning with Snow White, he rapidly expanded his staff with young art school graduates who were generally more progressive and artistically aware than the older, more established, but generally less academically trained bullpen of Disney animators. This led to a schism between the "anti-art", "we owe Walt for where we are" old-timers and the change-oriented, Depression-era molded newcomers who had fewer stars in their eyes about Walt's influence and importance.

This schism came to a head during the infamous Disney animators' strike in the spring of 1941, a result of Disney's resistance to the progressive employees' attempt to form a union. Walt responded to the strike by firing many of his animators (although he eventually was pressured into reinstating some of them and recognizing the new union, the Screen Cartoonists Guild). Many of these fired employees found new positions with other studios (for instance, Frank Tashlin was given creative control of the Screen Gems studio and hired practically his entire staff off of the Disney picket line) or struck out on their own, doing freelance work (safety filmstrips and the like) for industrial corporations.

Shortly after their voluntary exodus from the studio, two former Disneyites, Zach Schwartz (then at Screen Gems) and David Hilberman (with Graphic Films), began renting a small space in a Los Angeles warehouse where they could paint in their spare time. Another former Disney colleague of theirs, Stephen Bosustow, was working in design at Hughes Aircraft. Bosustow convinced his superiors at Hughes to commission a filmstrip on safety, and he brought the idea to Graphic Films - but Graphic turned the job down. Hilberman then talked his way into doing the job with his partner Schwartz, and the resulting product was well-received by the corporation. The three men then formed a loose partnership, calling themselves Industrial Film & Poster Service, and began seeking other production work.

Around that time, the United Auto Workers (UAW) began considering sponsoring a pro-Roosevelt campaign film in the run-up to the 1944 general election. The union got in touch with the Screen Cartoonists Guild, and members of that organization put together a storyboard and began shopping it around to various studio animation production houses. But due to its political content, no major studio would touch it. As a last resort, the unions approached Schwartz, Bosustow and Hilberman's tiny shop to see if they could handle the job. They were awarded the contract for the film, called Hell Bent For Election, in January 1944, with the caveat that it be completed by that August, just six months away.

Overnight, their little warehouse hideaway became a beehive of activity, as all of the trio's friends and professional colleagues heard about what they were doing and ran to help - some working their regular jobs in animation during the day, then spending all night moonlighting on this exciting project. Most of them worked for free, including director Chuck Jones, musician Earl Robinson and lyricist "Yip" Harburg (of The Wizard Of Oz fame). The resulting film was stylish, modern, and a bold move away from "Disney-style" animation. It was also a great success with the UAW. Here it is:

After Hell Bent For Election, the little studio began receiving steady commissions for work on industrial and government films and slides, and started building a full-time staff of animators (including names revered in cartoon history to this day, including John Hubley, Bobe Cannon and Bill Hurtz). It was also around this time that it was decided that the name of the company should change from Industrial Film & Poster Service to United Productions of America, or UPA for short. The new concern was established as a three-way partnership, with Schwartz, Hilberman and Bosustow all owning equal shares. However, by 1946, the partners had a falling out, resulting in Schwartz and Hilberman selling out their interests in the company, making Bosustow initially the sole, then later (as he parceled out shares to key staff) majority shareholder in UPA.

It was also in the late 1940s that UPA took over Columbia Pictures animation duties out from under Screen Gems; Columbia had been dissatisfied for years with the Screen Gems product and was looking to make a change, provided that UPA continue using the studio's signature characters, the Fox and Crow. The new cartoon studio produced two releases with the characters: 1948's Robin Hoodlum and 1949's The Magic Fluke. Both were well received by Columbia, and both were nominated for Oscars for Best Short Subject (Cartoons) in subsequent years. But UPA wanted to get away from "funny animal" cartoons and begin creating its own characters. In the spring of 1949, they proposed a story that Columbia reluctantly accepted, only because the short had an animal in it, as well as a human character. The cartoon was titled Ragtime Bear, released in September 1949, and the star of the film was the curmudgeonly, near-sighted Mr. Magoo, featuring the voice of character actor Jim Backus:

Mr. Magoo was UPA's first successful series (six more Magoos were rapidly produced in the following year), but the film that made the studio a household word and put them in the forefront of the "animation as art" movement was Gerald McBoing Boing, released in January 1951.

With Gerald McBoing Boing, UPA made a clean break from Disney-style animation, and reviewers and the public noticed and approved. From a Time magazine piece in February 1951:

"Everything about the film is simple but highly stylized: bold line drawings, understated motion, striking color and airy design in the spirit of modern poster art, caricatured movements and backgrounds as well as figures... In his own way, [little Gerald's] 'Boing!' may prove as resounding as the first peep out of Mickey Mouse."

Gerald won similar raves from newspapers, highbrow critics and film trade reporters. And that spring, the cartoon won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Subject, UPA's first Oscar.

The praise and popular success the studio received for Gerald McBoing Boing and the early Magoo cartoons carried through for several years, and kept UPA a dynamic and financially-viable concern. Columbia increased their budget per short by more than 25 percent, to almost $35,000 each, an amount that UPA sorely needed; the firm was run by artists committed to putting a quality product up on screen. Few UPA staff members were budget-oriented; they were film-oriented. As such, the extra money was used to refine and enhance what seemed to outsiders to be "simple" drawings and "limited" animation, but didn't lead to any increased profitability in the company.

However, this approach led to some remarkable releases in the mid-1950s, including a delicate adaptation of Ludwig Bemelmans' popular children's story Madeline (1952); the amazing Rooty Toot Toot (also in 1952; still one of the best-known and remembered UPA cartoons); a faithful reproduction of James Thurber's distinctive drawing style for 1953's A Unicorn In The Garden; and a striking and disturbing version of Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart, also in 1953 (I remember seeing this one in junior high school English class, and it made a deep impression on me at the time). The Magoo series, however, was the studio's bread and butter, and UPA continued to churn out shorts featuring the character (while also toning down/softening much of his cantankerous ways), in the last half of that decade producing six to eight Magoo shorts a year. Despite the increase in volume, these cartoons did not lack for quality; in fact, two Magoo shorts - When Magoo Flew in 1954 and Magoo's Puddle Jumper in 1956 - both won Academy Awards in their respective years.

UPA established a satellite studio in New York in the early 1950s to handle exclusively commercial and nontheatrical work, and initially it was very successful, as businesses were eager to work with an Academy Award-winning company. The commercial studio's biggest triumph was the Bert & Harry Piel beer commercial campaign, featuring the voices of radio greats Bob & Ray. The New York office was so successful, in fact, that much of its profits were siphoned off to keep the theatrical division of UPA afloat (seems that that $35,000 budget increase from Columbia still wasn't covering costs).

However, by the late 1950s, the wheels were starting to come off of at UPA. In 1956, CBS Television commissioned The Gerald McBoing Boing Show, the very first Saturday morning program made especially for network TV. By agreeing to it, the studio committed to producing much more animation than had ever been put out at any one time, and required an immediate hiring frenzy. The resulting show, a mixture of old UPA cartoons and new bits, came off as disjointed, 'soft' and generally unfunny, but it managed to air for two years before CBS pulled the plug. It was also around this period that the New York office, inundated by competition for commercial work, closed its doors, shortly after an ambitious but poorly-conceived London branch was established and also failed within a year.

1958 was also the year work began on a Magoo feature film. There had been talk regarding an animated feature ever since the early award-winning years at the studio, but Columbia would not commit to financing any of UPA's ideas, which included adaptations of Gilbert & Sullivan's HMS Pinafore, Ben Jonson's Volpone, and/or Cervantes' Don Quixote (all of which, frankly, were probably too highbrow for Columbia executives to understand or grasp). Finally that year, Columbia provided the funds to animate a version of The Arabian Nights. Production of 1001 Arabian Nights did not go smoothly - the director quarreled with Bosustow and quit, resulting in a frantic search for a viable replacement (the job went to Disney veteran Jack Kinney). And there were issues with the story - Mr. Magoo's character was sort of shoehorned into the tale of Aladdin, and he comes off as inconsequential and tangential. The film was released in late 1959 to lackluster reviews and tepid box office, and failed to recoup back Columbia's investment.

By the time of the feature film's release, many of the main/founding staff of UPA had by then left the company to create their own studios, including Format Films (future producers of The Alvin Show) and Jay Ward Productions (producers of the hilarious Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons for television). Bosustow saw the handwriting on the wall, and in 1960 he sold his controlling interest in UPA and rights to all characters to producer Henry G. Saperstein.

Saperstein was a longtime cinema owner/operator who had branched out into tie-in/licensed of merchandising of Western TV characters like Wyatt Earp and Roy Rogers, and entertainment personalities such as Rosemary Clooney, The Three Stooges and Elvis Presley. As such, he showed little concern or regard for the artistic pretensions and commitment to perfection of the old UPA; he was just interested in utilizing the remaining staff to churn out as much product as possible, milking the studio's established characters and his animators' talents for all they were worth. Saperstein quickly entered the TV market, producing a Mr. Magoo series for NBC in late 1960 and a syndicated Dick Tracy series in early 1961. The studio cranked out more than 125 episodes of each program over the next two years, destroying the last vestiges of UPA's once renowned reputation for quality - these shows made the contemporary Hanna-Barbera product look lavish by comparison.

But Saperstein and UPA still made one last stab at repairing/retaining their artistic mojo with critics and the public. The studio prepared two major releases for late 1962.  The first, Gay Purr-ee, a tale of a feline's adventures in Paris in the late 19th century and featuring the voices of Judy Garland and Robert Goulet, was released to theaters on December 17th of that year. The very next day, the second production, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, made its television debut on NBC. While Gay Purr-ee was critically savaged for both its animation style and story (one magazine's review felt that the film's subject matter was too sophisticated for an animated film, drily noting that its target audience seemed to be "the fey four-year-old of recherché taste") and an outright box-office failure, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol was immediately hailed as a classic, a reputation which has lived on to this day.

The following is excepted from a 2012 New York Times article celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the venerable program:

At the time [of its debut] “Magoo” was a big enough event to warrant extensive and positive media coverage. As soon as it was over Walt Disney telephoned Mr. Orgel [the show's producer] to tell him, “Not only is this generation going to watch it, but your children, your children’s children and your children’s children’s children will watch this show.”...

“It has the quality of a cozy quilt,” said Adam Abraham, author of When Magoo Flew: The Rise and Fall of Animation Studio UPA (Wesleyan University Press). “It’s like figurines of your imagination playing out a very familiar story against a dreamlike Victorian design.”

“Magoo” is hardly definitive Dickens. Much of the original tale, especially the entire subplot of Scrooge’s relationship with his nephew, Fred, was cut to fit the 60-minute running time. For no apparent reason the Ghost of Christmas Present precedes the Ghost of Christmas Past.

“Magoo” also offers a curious framing device whereby the whole story is treated as a Broadway production, with Magoo as an actor portraying Scrooge. The producer, Lee Orgel, feared that audiences wouldn’t accept Magoo being plucked out of his cartoon context and plopped into the 19th century without explanation. In retrospect this concern seems absurd. But the result is still good enough to have lasted 50 years.

Alas, the success of the Magoo special wasn't enough to save UPA. Saperstein gradually wound down animation production during the 1960s, finally shuttering the cartoon studio in 1970, and he also sold off the studio library of films (which shrewdly retaining the rights to Magoo, Gerald McBoing-Boing and other characters). The studio then entered into a partnership with Toho Co., Ltd. of Japan, and for the following decade helped distribute the firm's "Giant Monster" movies in the States. After Saperstein died in 1998, his family sold off what remained of UPA two years later. Thus closed the saga of a once-innovative and ground-breaking studio.

Throughout the 1960s, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol was a network staple, appearing on NBC every year until 1969. The show then entered syndication, and for the next couple of decades you had to bbe lucky enough to catch it on one of your local stations... That's how I came upon the program - I was browsing the stations as a kid one December, stumbled across it, and was immediately charmed, so much so that for every year afterward, I made an effort to track down when and where the cartoon would be played. The show moved to cable TV in the '90s. However, to mark the program's golden anniversary, NBC presented it in 2012, its first prime-time network appearance in decades.

A lot of the greatness inherent in Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol lies in the excellent songs created for the show by the celebrated Broadway composers and lyricists Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, who between them provided the music for the stage hits Carnival!, Gypsy, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Funny Girl, and penned such classics as "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", "Everything's Coming Up Roses", "(How Much Is) That Doggie In The Window?" and "If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked A Cake". Again, from the NYT 2012 article:

The magic of “Magoo” begins with rich songs by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill. “Ringle Ringle,” a celebration of money, and “The Lord’s Bright Blessing,” about the true meaning of Christmas, might easily have worked for a live-action staging.

“Styne and Merrill really understood the characters and brought them to the surface,” said Darrell Van Citters, author of “Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol: The Making of the First Animated Christmas Special” (Oxberry Press).

One song in particular underscores this mature sensibility: “Winter Was Warm,” the lament of Scrooge’s former love, Belle, over how he lost her to his pursuit of wealth. Mr. Van Citters calls this number “the story’s emotional core.”

The showstopping number “We’re Despicable,” a grotesque march of the human maggots who plunder the dead Scrooge’s estate, features goofy lyrics like “We’re reprehensible/We’ll steal your pen/And pencible.”

(For years, it was rumored that the song "People" from the musical Funny Girl, a huge hit for production star Barbra Streisand in 1964, was originally written by Styne and Merrill for inclusion in Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. But both composers denied this in their memoirs.)

The music in Magoo... is SO superb, in fact, that it's somewhat surprising that no official soundtrack was ever released by any label. These songs by the two honored composers were slated to be lost Christmas classics, appearing only during rare broadcasts of the program. But in 2010, intrepid individuals released bootleg copies of tunes from the show. It wasn't done in a technically sophisticated manner; they basically just copied the overall narrative/soundtrack into audio and separated/sequenced the tracks. Still, it's nice to have this music available.

So here for your holiday listening pleasure is Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, the unofficial soundtrack of the now sisty-two year old(!) program. Enjoy some woofle-berry cake and razzleberry dressing this holiday with your family and friends! And, as always, let me know what you think.

God bless you, every one! Expect more to come here in 2025.

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Various Artists - The Year Without A Santa Claus (Unofficial Soundtrack)

 

Can you BELIEVE this TV Christmas special is FIFTY YEARS OLD today?  Out of all the holiday specials released by producers Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass from the early '60s to the late '80, this show is, in my opinion, part of the great triumvirate of classic Rankin/Bass productions, along with 1964's Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer and 1969's Frosty The Snowman.  When I was young, I always looked forward to seeing this one the most (to be honest, I always found Frosty to be a little annoying, as the main character seemed borderline mentally impaired - and having Jimmy Durante as the narrator seemed sort of an odd choice to me...  Rudolph is redeemed by the presence of the great Yukon Cornelius and the Burl Ives snowman character).

This program is chock-full of beloved scenes and songs... probably none more memorable than the outstanding Snow Miser introduction and song, performed by the great Dick Shawn::

 

(that little cymbal 'stinger' that plays as Snow Miser sits in his chair has ALWAYS had a special place in my heart!)

Not to be outdone by his brother Heat Miser's entrance:  

I was going to put together a longer, more detailed writeup regarding this show's golden anniversary... (un)fortunately, People Magazine already beat me to it - I can add nothing further to this story, located here.

Unlike a couple of other Rankin/Bass Christmas specials (including Frosty, Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town, and 'Twas The Night Before Christmas), no official soundtrack for this program was ever produced.  However, over the years, a number of bootleg versions of the tunes from this show, culled from the audio track, have been released.  Here's the lineup of songs provided here:

1. Leroy Anderson - Sleigh Ride (Instrumental)

2. The Wee Winter Singers - The Year Without A Santa Claus

3. Shirley Booth - I Could Be Santa Claus
4. Ron Marshall & Mickey Rooney - I Believe In Santa Claus
5. Ron Marshall (ft. The Wee Winter Singers) - It’s Gonna Snow Right Here In Dixie
6. Dick Shawn - The Snow Miser Song
7. George S. Irving - The Heat Miser Song
8. Christine Winter - Blue Christmas
9. The Wee Winter Singers - Here Comes Santa Claus

10. Mickey Rooney – There'll Be No Year Without A Santa Claus

11. The Wee Winter Singers - The Year Without A Santa Claus

So here for your listening pleasure is the unofficial soundtrack to The Year Without A Santa Claus, originally released in 1974.  Enjoy, and as always, let me know what you think.

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The Grateful Dead - American Beauty: The Angel's Share

 

Since I did this during last year's Day Of The Dead, I suppose I'll try to make this an annual thing now, and continue posting some hard-to-find Grateful Dead here on this date. 

To commemorate the day, her for your listening pleasure is American Beauty: The Angel's Share, like all of the other "Angel's Share" discs, a digital-only release of alt mixes, outtakes and demos from The Grateful Dead's classic album.  I'm a lazy man, so for a more detailed description of this release, I'm taking the liberty of utilizing the Discogs.com write-up, rather than my own words; all credit for the following goes to them and that site:

American Beauty: The Angel's Share brings together never-before-heard studio recordings compiled from dozens of recently discovered 16-track reels. It includes multiple outtakes for several album tracks along with demos for every song on the album (except “Box Of Rain”) plus one for “To Lay Me Down,” which was later included on Jerry Garcia’s first solo album, Garcia. All 10 demos are available today for streaming and digital download with the full 56-track American Beauty: The Angel's Share to be released as a digital exclusive on October 15, shortly before the 50th anniversary of the album’s original release date: November 1, 1970.

Like its predecessor, the latest incarnation of The Angel’s Share was made possible by the tireless work of engineer Brian Kehew and archivist Mike Johnson who – operating under the supervision of Grateful Dead legacy manager David Lemieux – spent countless hours compiling and piecing the reels together to create this revelatory experience.

American Beauty: The Angel's Share opens with 10 demos that were recorded in August 1970 at Pacific High Recording Studio, the same place the band recorded Workingman’s Dead just a few months earlier. While fans are accustomed to hearing songs evolve through the band’s live recordings, this installment of The Angel’s Share offers them a rare opportunity to hear songs like “Ripple” (then titled “Hand Me Down”) grow from its first demo into the final version.

The vast remainder of The Angel’s Share features a mix of partial and complete takes from these sessions including multiple takes of “Friend Of The Devil,” “Ripple” and Pigpen’s “Operator,” an alternate mix of “Truckin’” and a different version of “Candyman.” These intimate in-studio performances are interspersed with conversations that make it feel like you’re in the studio with the band (Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and Bob Weir) along with producer Stephen Barncard and engineer Phil Sawyer.

The Angel’s Share is rounded out with an acoustic mix of “Box Of Rain” and a version of “Attics Of My Life” that spotlights Garcia alone on electric guitar, both newly mixed from the band’s recording sessions for the album later that summer at Wally Heider Recording

That's that - here you go.  Enjoy the day, have a listen, and as always, let me know what you think.  Happy November 2nd!!

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Disney - Chilling, Thrilling Sounds Of The Haunted House (1964 & 1979)

 

 

A few memories and vignettes from past Halloweens in my life:

*********

...When I was ten, my younger sister and I were walking back home through the wooded area between our home, a townhouse in Arundel Estates, the Navy officer housing across the street from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and the officer's apartment housing in nearby Perry Circle.  It was late afternoon on Halloween with dusk and the time for trick-or-treats rapidly approaching, with an orange glow from the setting sun brightening the sky, and the air was full of anticipation for the activities to come that night. The residents in Perry Circle used to deck out each apartment foyer with fun, spooky regalia, and we could already hear the recorded "scary" sounds of cackling witches and moaning ghosts floating through the air as we stomped through the leaves, eager to get home so we could get our costumes on. As we walked, I turned to my sister and said, "Hey Syd - guess what?"

"What?", she answered.

"It's HALLOWEEN!!!", I screamed joyously, and we laughed and screamed together as we ran down the hill.

While innocuous as that passing remark was at the time, we always remembered it... and every Halloween since then over the past fifty years, the holiday hasn't passed where one of us, either in person, over the phone or via text, will greet the day by contacting each other and repeating that phrase - "It's HALLOWEEN!!!" It's a silly "tradition" between us, I know - but we've never forgotten it. It's a reminder to us of just how great and thrilling this date was when we were kids.

*********

...When I first moved to New Zealand in the early '90s, Halloween was still an all-but unknown holiday, celebrated chiefly by American expats and their families. At that time, it was almost unthinkable for Kiwi kids to go door-to-door that night, looking for treats. But I held out hope and kept with the ritual, buying candy my first year there and having it ready by the door in case someone came knocking (like every other American military family in Christchurch, I lived out in town like a local, renting a place in Casebrook).  But my first Halloween there, I had no visitors.  It was somewhat disappointing, but I hoped that the activity would eventually catch on.

During my second October 31st there, I once again purchased candy, and again had it ready to pass out, should someone stop by. A hour or some passed by that night, and again I had no nighttime visitors.  However, at around 6:30 pm, just as I was about to give up, there was a ringing at my door. I opened it to find a little Kiwi boy and girl, no more than seven or eight years old, standing shyly and somewhat shame-facedly on my stoop.  Neither of them were wearing any sort of costume; they stood there in street clothes.

"Hello, sir," the boy began. "We're awfully sorry to bother you... but, you see, in America, they have a thing on this night called -"

I cut him off instantly, happily shouting "TRICK-OR-TREATERS!  FINALLY!  WOO-HOO!!!" I'm sure my yelling initially scared the living bejesus out of them... but they quickly recovered, glad that they had come to the house of someone who knew why they were there!  We all laughed together, and I piled candy into their waiting sacks and sent them merrily on their way. Thus ended my first real Halloween in New Zealand... Nowadays, the holiday is well-established in the country, and on this night the crowds of kids roaming neighborhoods seeking candy in many ways resembles the same activity back in the States... thank goodness.

*********

...Halloweens in my early/middle teens in Massachusetts were always interesting times. After the candy was gathered and deposited safely at home, the later evenings of October 31st were unofficially the times when scores got settled, power struggles culminated and lines and alliances were redrawn between the kids in our suburban neighborhoods on the South Shore.  In many ways, it was open adolescent "warfare", a toned-down version of the Castellammarese War, but without casualties and between youngsters.  

Guys would prepare for Halloween weeks in advance, burying cartons of eggs in the woods to rot and use as projectiles... hoarding firecrackers and cherry bombs... and filling old Christmas tree lights with paint to throw at opposing parties.  During that post-trick-or-treat period, the sequence of events was that your respective group/gang would meet up, load up with these things, then start roaming the area, seeking out opposing groups to battle in the streets and in the woods.  I know that, in some ways, it sounds sort of mean-spirited, street thuggy and semi-deliquent-y... but believe me when I say it was all done for fun, by suburban teens/pre-teens with time on their hands.  I distinctly recall standing on a low hill overlooking the town near the end of one of those nights, and in all directions hearing the bang/pop and occasional flash of fireworks in every direction, and the distant roars of gangs of kids "battling" all over the place.  For me at that time, that was the definitive sound of Halloween.

*********

I don't have any long-winded story in relation to these album offerings.  I dug both of these up a few years ago while searching for Halloween-related music and sound effects.  Disney released these records under the exact same name fifteen years apart. The first half of the 1964 release is clearly geared to a younger audience (ages three through eight), with the tracks presented in a Disneyesque storybook manner by a narrator, Ms. Laura Olsher (whose other claim to fame was participating in voice work for Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, one of the first animated holiday specials, playing Mrs. Cratchit).  The second half dispenses with that story-time tone, and just provides the expected "spooky" holiday sounds (thunder, explosions, space alien sounds, etc.).  The original liner notes and insert for this release (initially issued on vinyl) included notes and suggestions on how to host a "scary" holiday party; it was all very wholesome and of-its-time.

The 1979 version of this record is simply straight-ahead 'haunted house" sound effects - shrieks, groans, wind and torture devices.  Here's the reverse side of the album with track details:

So, here you are - two superb holiday releases, both on Disneyland Records put out in their respective years, that I hope will set the tone for your Halloween festivities tonight and in the future, and help you and yours create the sort of lasting memories of this date that I still cherish and hold.

Have a happy and delightfully frightening Halloween!

Please use the email link below to contact me, and I will reply with the download link(s) ASAP:

• Various Artists - Chilling, Thrilling Sounds Of The Haunted House (1964): Send Email
• Various Artists - Chilling, Thrilling Sounds Of The Haunted House (1979): Send Email

More Mary Hansen (Stereolab) Obscurities

I was in the casino last weekend to play a little poker and make a couple of bets on the NFL playoff games scheduled for that weekend. The place I go has a huge sports book, with multiple giant screens covering a vast back wall, showing every current game (football, college and pro basketball, hockey, etc.) being played at that particular time on various broadcast networks.

As I was walking in to the space to place my bet at one of the automated machines (go Kansas City!), I was jolted when I suddenly heard Stereolab's "Lo Boob Oscillator" blasting at top volume all around me. Now, Stereolab isn't generally what you'd expect to hear coming out of a casino's music system... so needless to say, I was momentarily confused, as I couldn't immediately place the source. Then I looked up and one of the display screens, and saw it was running the following commercial for Hotels.com:

I couldn't believe it - a huge corporation choosing to set their ad to a tune by a band that I'll wager the vast majority of Middle American viewers had never heard of, and one of my favorite songs of all time, as I've related in a previous posting here! Now, I'm not overly superstitious... but I took that out-of-the-blue Stereolab encounter as a good omen... as it turned out to be. I not only won my football bet that night, but also came away with a solid win at the hold 'em tables.

As I've detailed time and again here, I adore Stereolab, and over the years have managed to gather up pretty much all of their recorded output as a group (or "Groop", if you will), both albums and singles, along with many of the band collaborations and individual member side projects. In the past, I've posted a couple of these harder-to-find releases here earlier, including the Rose, My Rocket-Brain! tour EP from 2004 and the Eaten Horizons Or The Electrocution Of Rock art-house release from 2007.

I was ecstatic when they reformed in 2019 after a ten-year hiatus, and went running like a bastard to their show at Boston's Royale back in September of that year, a couple of months before COVID hit (damn, hard to believe that show was THAT long ago...). The concert was superb, and even with the long break, they didn't seem to have missed a beat (and yes, they played "Lo Boob Oscillator"). But seeing the group up on stage that night once again made me wistful for the presence of Mary Hansen, their late percussionist, keyboardist and background vocalist, who died in 2002. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Mary brought an ineffable quality to Stereolab's music:

Hansen's voice was the perfect complement to Sadier's; their singing styles and vocal range were very similar . . . but different enough to add nuance and color to many of the band's songs.

So, in the wake of a previous request for these items from an intrepid blog visitor, I thought I'd post a few more releases I have that feature Mary's work.

• Europa 51 - Abstractions

Over the years, Stereolab's drummer Andy Ramsay has been the catalyst behind an number of the band's experimental singles/EPs, offshoots and collaborations, Either with his bandmates or working independently, Ramsay has appeared on, written for or arranged releases with artists as diverse as The High Llamas, Ui, Wire, The Charlatans, Add N to (X), and many, many more. In the past, I've featured some of his work here on this blog. But this release was probably his most eclectic.

Named after Roberto Rossellini's early '50s Italian film starring Ingrid Bergman, Europa 51’s lone album, Abstractions, is the work of Ramsay and fellow Stereolab member Simon Johns, also featuring Mary Hansen, High Llamas members Dominic Murcott and John Bennett, jazz bass player Simon Thorpe and classical harpist Celine Saout. The album was a hybrid project that combined styles like lounge, jazz, bluegrass, and folk. While this album sounds somewhat like Stereolab from time to time, in many ways it goes far beyond anything The Groop had ever done - unfortunately, with somewhat uneven results. Mary's vocals are featured on tracks 4 through 7 ("Voyeurism", "Three Steps In The Sun", "Golden Age Of Gameshows" and "Free Range Corona"), and are lovely as always. But be sure to check out the entire album - it may not all be to your taste, but you will definitely find sounds that pique your interest.

• Splitting the Atom - Splitting The Atom EP:

Another Ramsay one-off, a short-lived project with Stereolab's sound engineer Simon Holliday and Peter Kember, a.k.a. Sonic Boom (Spaceman 3, Spectrum, etc.). Only 2,500 copies of this EP were pressed for release on black vinyl, making it one of the rarest Stereolab-related discs. Mary Hansen added vocals to one track here.

Trivia: "Monkey Brain" (vinyl pops and all) was later used as the soundtrack to a short film/digital video called "four" by Man and Martin, described as "four whole minutes of pulsating thought muesli, ultra-violet and ultra-compact bulletproof adventures for ages four years and above" (Man and Martin is graphic designer, sculptor and AppleMacintosh convert Andy Martin). "four" premiered at the onedotzero2 digital film festival at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London in May 1998. Here it is, if you'd like to see it:

• Various Artists - Spooky Sounds Of Now:

An ostensibly Halloween-themed compilation CD - plus a very cool comic collection in book form ("Spooky Tales", subtitled 'Spirit Summoning Stories', edited by Mark Baines) - all housed in a lidded box. In addition to inclusions from alternative heavy hitters such as Jad Fair, Yo La Tengo and The High Llamas, this release also includes a short track by Blips, "Blip^/Blip~", featuring Stereolab's Tim Gane and Mary along with Sonic Boom once again. It sounds a lot like what was released on the Turn On side project, also released that year - hard to tell if it was an outtake from that session or not. No matter - it's a pretty good tune.

Here's the full track list:

1. Dymaxion - The Haunted Radio
2. Blips - Blip^/Blip~
3. Jad Fair & Jason Willett - Werewolf of London Town
4. Two Dollar Guitar - The Lonliest Monk
5. Herald - It's Under The Waltzers
6. Kooljerk - Mailor Jeune
7. Mount Vernon Arts Lab - Scooby Don't
8. Cylinder - Red Moss
9. Pink Kross - Spooky Dooky
10. Mystery Dick - Screambirds
11. Amplifier - Cat Whisker
12. The Yummy Fur - Saturday Night Mo-Mo
13. Dick Johnson - Vertigo
14. Angel Corpus Christi - Clown Sex
15. Project Dark - Full Length Mirror
16. G. Mack - Red Moss [Frame Trigger]
17. the Dramatics - Hallucination of a Deranged Mind [Inspired by Coffin Joe]
18. Yo La Tengo - 3D
19. Supermalprodelica - L'etat De Grace
20. High Llamas - Spool to Spool
21. Will Prentice - Singing Floorboards

• Alternative 3 - Original Soundtrack Recording:

In June of 1977, England's Anglia Television aired a documentary called 'Alternative 3' on its weekly Science Report program. The episode was presented as a factual expose, in that the show's investigators had found evidence that life on Earth was soon to be doomed to extinction from global warming, and the two superpowers of that time (Russia and the United States) had been secretly working together for decades to terraform and eventually

colonize the Moon and Mars with selected superior humans - leaving the rest of us here on this planet to die off when the inevitable end came. The show detailed what appeared to be a global 'brain drain', with scientists, engineers and other highly skilled technicians and thinkers from all over the world seemingly disappearing or dying - but, in the course of the program's investigation, finding that they all had been recruited for the interplanetary program, and sequestered at a secret base to work on it. 'Alternative 3' was filled with interviews with authoritative personnel and film footage showing the level and scope of work on this secret plan up to the present day.

Within minutes of its airing, network and government phone lines were inundated with thousands of calls from jolted viewers, demanding more information on this all-too-real effort. Needless to say, 'Alternative 3' was all just a big hoax, a spoof of similarly styled conspiracy documentaries from that period. It was originally planned to air on April 1st (April Fool's Day) of that year, in order to drive that point home, but due to production issues was not broadcast until June 20.

Needless to say, it freaked a whole lot of people out, in the same manner that Orson Welles' radio broadcast of War Of The Worlds caused mass hysteria almost forty years earlier. Although Anglia Television and the show's producers freely and readily admitted that it was fake, the basic points and premises of 'Alternative 3' live on to this day in various forms in other global cabal/UFO/extraterrestrial conspiracy theories.

The score for the 1977 broadcast was composed by no less than Brian Eno, who subsequently released a portion of it on his 1978 album Music For Films. And in 2001, a collective of musicians (including Stereolab, Add N to (X), Richard Thomas and others, all recording under the Alternative 3 moniker) recorded and released an 'alternative' version of the film score, allegedly for a feature film on the hoax that was scheduled for release that same year (I didn't find any evidence that this movie was ever produced or released, however).

This album is promoted on the label's website as "Super fried electronic madness. Long lost sessions mostly recorded at the Centre of Sound in London plus some dubs done at the ‘labs studio, stretched and twisted into dense and filmic slices of electronica." Can't really argue with any of that description!

 

So here for your listening pleasure is a smorgasbord of Stereolab's Mary Hansen-related ephemera:

• Europa 51 - Abstractions, released by London-based experimental music label Lo Recordings in 2003;
• Splitting the Atom - Splitting The Atom EP, put out on Stereolab's own Duophonic Super 45s label in 1997;
• The Spooky Sounds Of Now compilation, launched by Scottish independent label Vesuvius Records, also in 1997; and
• Alternative 3 - Original Soundtrack Recording, another Lo Recordings release, put out on April 30th, 2001

Have a listen and once again contemplate and revel in the artistry of the late, lamented vocalist, who left this world way too soon - you are still missed, Mary, by multitudes of music fans.

And as always, let me know what you think.

Please use the email link below to contact me, and I will reply with the download link(s) ASAP:

• Europa 51 - Abstractions: Send Email
• Splitting The Atom - Spiltting The Atom EP: Send Email
• Various Artists - Spooky Sounds Of Now: Send Email
• Alternative 3 - Original Soundtrack Recording: Send Email

Vince Guaraldi - A Charlie Brown Christmas (Super Deluxe Edition)

A Charlie Brown Christmas - what else need be said about this beloved perennial holiday favorite?  I mentioned in an earlier post what an unexpected smash hit the initial airing of this program was in 1965, and how the soundtrack is not only one of the top ten best-selling Christmas albums of all time, but also the second-best selling jazz album of all time (behind Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue) (It was also voted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2007, and in 2012 added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant").  Any other superlatives I can present here will do little to convey the near-universal adoration of this program and its music, with many of its original Vince Guaraldi compositions (including "Christmas Time Is Here"and "Skating") becoming popular holiday standards.

The soundtrack album was originally released on Fantasy Records in December 1965.  In 2022, Craft Recordings, which now owns the legacy Fantasy label, issued a four-disc deluxe edition of this album, featuring a new stereo mix (remastered from the original 3-track and 2-track sources), the original 1965 stereo mix, and up to 50 previously unreleased outtakes from five separate recording sessions conducted by Guaraldi and his group at various locations in California in the fall of 1965. Here's the song lineup by disc:

 Disc 1 - New and Original Stereo Mix

1     O Tannenbaum (2022 Stereo Mix)
2     What Child Is This (2022 Stereo Mix)
3     My Little Drum (2022 Stereo Mix)
4     Linus and Lucy (2022 Stereo Mix)
5     Christmas Time Is Here (Instrumental / 2022 Stereo Mix)
6     Christmas Time Is Here (Vocal / 2022 Stereo Mix)
7     Skating (2022 Stereo Mix)
8     Hark, the Herald Angels Sing (2022 Stereo Mix)
9     Christmas Is Coming (2022 Stereo Mix)
10     Fur Elise (2022 Stereo Mix)
11     The Christmas Song (2022 Stereo Mix)
12     A Charlie Brown Christmas (Original Stereo Mix)
13     O Tannenbaum (Original Stereo Mix)
14     What Child Is This (Original Stereo Mix)
15     My Little Drum (Original Stereo Mix)
16     Linus and Lucy (Original Stereo Mix)
17     Christmas Time Is Here (Instrumental / Original Stereo Mix)
18     Christmas Time Is Here (Vocal / Original Stereo Mix)
19     Skating (Original Stereo Mix)
20     Hark, the Herald Angels Sing (Original Stereo Mix)
21     Christmas Is Coming (Original Stereo Mix)
22     Fur Elise (Original Stereo Mix)
23     The Christmas Song (Original Stereo Mix)

 Disc 2 - The Recording Sessions (September 17, 1965)

1     Christmas Is Coming (#1, Take 1)
2     Christmas Is Coming (#1, Take 2)
3     Christmas Is Coming (#1, Take 3)
4     Christmas Is Coming (#1, Takes 4-5)
5     Christmas Is Coming (#1, Take 6)
6     Christmas Is Coming (#1, Take 7)
7     Christmas Time Is Here (Instrumental) (#2, Takes 1-2)
8     Christmas Time Is Here (Instrumental) (#2, Take 3)
9     Skating (Unnumbered)
10     Skating (#3, Takes 1-2)
11     Skating (#3, Take 3)
12     Skating (#3, Takes 4-6)
13     Skating (#3, Take 7)
14     Linus and Lucy (#4, Take 1)
15     Christmas Is Coming (#5, Take 1)
16     Christmas Is Coming (#5, Take 2)
17     Christmas Is Coming (#5, Take 3)
18     Christmas Is Coming (#5, Take 4)
19     Christmas Time Is Here (Instrumental) (#6, Take 1)
20     Christmas Time Is Here (Instrumental) (#6, Take 2)

 Disc 3 - The Recording Sessions (September 21-22, 1965_Unknown Session Date)

1     Christmas Is Coming (#1, Take 1)
2     Christmas Is Coming (#1, Take 2)
3     Christmas Is Coming (#1, Take 3)
4     Christmas Is Coming (#1, Takes 4-6)
5     Christmas Is Coming (#1, Take 7)
6     O Tannenbaum (#2, Take 1)
7     O Tannenbaum (#2, Take 2)
8     O Tannenbaum (#2, Takes 3-4)
9     O Tannenbaum (#2, Take 5)
10     Jingle Bells (#3, Takes 1-4)
11     Goin' Out of My Head (Unnumbered)
12     Christmas Time Is Here (Instrumental) (#6, Take 3)
13     Skating (#7, Take 1)
14     Skating (#7, Take 2)
15     FÜR Elise (Takes 1-2)
16     Christmas Time Is Here (Vocal) (#1, Take 1)
17     Christmas Time Is Here (Vocal) (#1, Takes 2-3)
18     Christmas Time Is Here (Vocal) (#1, Take 4)
19     Christmas Time Is Here (Vocal) (#1, Take 5)
20     Christmas Time Is Here (Vocal) (Rehearsal)
21     Christmas Time Is Here (Vocal) (#1, Take 6)
22     Christmas Time Is Here (Vocal) (#1, Take 7)

 Disc 4 - The Recording Sessions (October 28, 1965)

1     Greensleeves (Take 1)
2     Greensleeves (Takes 2-4)
3     Greensleeves (Take 5)
4     Greensleeves (Take 6)
5     Greensleeves (Take 7)
6     Greensleeves (Take 8)
7     Greensleeves (Takes 9-10)
8     Greensleeves (Take 11)
9     Greensleeves (Take 12)
10     The Christmas Song (Take 1)
11     The Christmas Song (Takes 2-3)
12     The Christmas Song (Takes 4-7)
13     The Christmas Song (Take 8)
14     The Christmas Song (Take 9)
15     The Christmas Song (Take 10)
16     The Christmas Song (Take 11)

Hearing the session recordings, it's almost like you're there in the studio with Guaraldi & Co., as the musicians work through their arrangements.  For me, it's a fascinating view of the development of a classic work!

So here for your holiday pleasure is the expanded Deluxe edition of the A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack, originally released on Fantasy in late 1965, and rereleased on Craft Recordings on August 22nd, 2022.  Enjoy, and as always, let me know what you think.  Merry Christmas!

Please use the email link below to contact me, and I will reply with the download link(s) ASAP:

Send Email

The Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead: The Angel's Share

 

This being the Day Of The Dead, I figured why not commemorate the day by posting some Grateful Dead?  I don't have any especial love for GD... but that hasn't stopped me from collecting hundreds of hours of their recordings over the years.  They're an essential American band, and as such deserve honor and respect - even from an obsessive music collector like myself!

Here's Workingman's Dead: The Angel's Share, a digital-only 2020 release of studio rehearsals and outtakes from The Grateful Dead's classic and celebrated 1970 album.  I don't have much else to say about it here, but Rolling Stone magazine had plenty to comment upon regarding it when this album was put out three years ago; here's their write-up, if you're interested.  

This is for all the Deadheads out there, and music fans in general.  Have a listen, and let me know what you think.  Happy November 2nd!

Please use the email link below to contact me, and I will reply with the download link(s) ASAP:

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