Halfway There

[willowisp]

Several years ago I posted about a mix tape I had received from blackgryphon decades ago. I've also mentioned it on Facebook. For those just joining us, here's a brief rundown:

The tape included two full albums and some miscellanea. The two full albums were Carmen Miranda's Ghost by Leslie Fish and Vince Emery Presents: The Funniest Computer Songs, both of which are long out of print with virtually no hope of re-release. Because the tape I was recording to was not as long as the original, I had to drop some of the songs. For a very long time I thought the tape was lost, but I found it recently. Sadly, our tape to mp3 converter is incompatible with our current computers, so the tape is sitting in our safe until I stop waffling and procure a new one.

Fast forward to today, when I saw callicrates' post of a current meme going around -- one that begged for a reference to a song from Carmen Miranda's Ghost. I searched on Google hoping to find the lyrics, but I was happily stunned to see the song show up on YouTube. It turns out that someone had scanned in the whole album (This links to the first song, but YouTube will show the rest of the songs). Not only can I listen to it, but I can finally hear the songs I had left off! This is enough to make me actually haunt YouTube, which I have largely avoided up until now.

Alas Vince Emery's album has not (Yet) received the same treatment, but I can hope.

Comments

[mdlbear]

Several of the songs from the Vince Emery album are on my CD, "Coffee, Computers, and Song!" http://steve.savitzky.net/Coffee_Computers_and_Song/

[willowisp.livejournal.com]

I need to dig up my copy of that -- it came just when a whole bunch of stuff imploded, so I didn't listen to it right away.

[willowisp.livejournal.com]

Actually, as I looked at the track list, I remembered four other songs on the original tape, three of which made it onto my copy. One was "The Little Computing Machine" by you, sung by a woman with an accordion accompaniment; "Rocket Rider's Prayer" by you and sung by you; "The Wizard" by Golden Bough; and an instrumental which I always figured, for some reason, was also by them. Has there ever been an album on which those songs appeared together, or was the person who made the original just a fan of both Golden Bough and you?

Interesting (At least to me) notes:

The tune to "The Little Computing Machine" always brought to mind a woman who used to dress up in traditional garb and sing at a local craft bazaar, selling LPs and/or tapes (This was a very long time ago).

"Rocket Rider's Prayer" was my favorite of the funny songs.

Your mention of Golden Bough as the inspiration for "The Little Computing Machine" was what jarred my memory about "The Wizard" and the instrumental. I had tracked "The Wizard" down at some point, but kept forgetting the name of the band. Until you mentioned it.

[mdlbear]

"The Little Computing Machine" is TTTO "The Black Velvet Band", which Golden Bough perform. And in fact it was written, or at least started, while they were performing it in a pub. I believe they sang it at a Bayfilk shortly after it was written, and a couple of times thereafter. The recording you had was undoubtedly from one of those occasions; most likely off one of the Bayfilk tapes.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

So help me, I think $HOUSEMATE has a copy of that computer songs tape... somewhere. I have a few songs digitized from it, I do believe, from some years back.

[willowisp.livejournal.com]

Oh cool! Which songs? And do you think he'd be willing to make a copy of and/or part with the original if he could find it?

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

Do It Yourself
Engineer's Rap
I Built a Better Model than the One at Data General
Please, Mr. Compatibility
Stuck Here
Threes
S-100 Bus

I'll ask about even finding that tape. I recall I didn't care for the rest enough to digitize them - or if I did, I didn't put the files where I'd be likely to play them.

[willowisp.livejournal.com]

Oooooh, four of those made it onto my tape, and I remember "Threes" though I didn't record it at the time since I didn't know what a dog and pony show was.

I've recently watched my early _Animaniacs_, so the version of "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General" I've had running around my head randomly switches between "I Built a Better Model <...>" and "I Am the Very Model of a Cartoon Individual." This isn't necessarily a bad thing.

[mdlbear]

"Stuck Here" was written by me, but performed on the Vince Emery tape by Frank Hayes without proper credit. You can find the lyrics and one of my own performances at Stuck Here...