Records I Heard Today

I got a box of 45s at a garage sale last Saturday. For the most part, they didn't have sleeves. Yet they weren't in uniformly terrible condition (some were). Some buffed up pretty nice.

The best record in the box, in my opinion, was a Buddy Holly and the Crickets one (Brunswick, "Oh Boy"). But there were other good ones, some country ones (for the most part), and a few rock ones that were good.

I got a Slim Whitman Imperial 45 ("Indian Love Call"), and that record is very noisy. Not that it's beat, but it seems to be a pressing issue. Like they did a really poor job making it.

I wanted to just mention the ones I heard today, which I also made MP3s of.

Bobby Bare - Detroit City; Ernest Tubb - Another Story; Jim Reeves - This Is It; Jody Reynolds - Endless Sleep. I had never heard this record, even though it made it to #5 in the '50s. I see he has lots of songs at Amazon, so it's kind of weird that I'm not familiar with him. I believe I've seen the name a time or two over the years. But that's it. It's a cool song, and the flip, "Tight Carpis" is cool too. In the box there were two copies of this record, the U.S. Demon Records issue as well as an English pressing on London Records. I recorded the London one. The "Endless Sleep" has an interesting story, with the guy's girlfriend in the sea, apparently dead, and he seems to get the call to come join her in her endless sleep. But then he finds her and things turn out OK.

Some miscellaneous country 45s, including artists, Johnny and Jack, Johnny and Jonie Mosby, Kitty Wells; a cool Nat Stuckey record "Sweet Thang/Paralyze My Mind." I really like "Paralyze My Mind"; a Red Sovine 45 "I Didn't Jump the Fence" (this one is slightly off center so I never could get a perfect recording of it.); Stonewall Jackson "B.J. the D.J." (in bad shape, a fairly crappy song. I heard it just once, but the story seems to be a kid who goes to be a disk jockey, he never gets enough sleep, and he ends up in a fatal accident. Ha ha.)

Tab Hunter "Young Love/Red Sails in the Sunset." The word "turgid" comes to mind. What a horrible record. Lifeless; Tammy Wynette "Soakin' Wet,"(this is the B side, which I like better than the A side. Her tears are always dry, but her heart is soakin' wet. What a wild idea!); "Back In School Again" by Timmie "Oh Yeah" Rogers (this one is badly warped but playable. Again, I like the flip side better, "I've Got a Dog Who Loves Me." That's a wild one. His dog loves him but his woman don't. He thinks about feeding her dog food instead of steak.)

Minnie Pearl "Giddyup Go-Answer." This is an "answer" song to another record I got in the box, Red Sovine's "Giddyup Go." I believe it was written by the same guy, at least half the writing team, Tom T. Hall. "Giddyup Go" is a ridiculous song (to me), about an idiot who's so devoted to truck driving that he's on the road for six years at a time (LOL). He has a wife and kid at home. The kid named dad's truck "Giddyup Go." The man shows up after six years and his wife and kid are gone. The next time he sees his kid, it's a surprise, because he's all grown up with a truck of his own, called "Giddyup Go."

Minnie Pearl's answer song tells the story from the other angle. The Mom was sick, that's why she left their home, to go to a drier climate. She didn't leave a trace, for whatever reason, then settled in Phoenix. Years passed. Then the son was to be a truck driver, so he left town. The narrator is there "just now" as the glad reunion of father and son from "Giddyup Go" is described from her perspective.