Fidelisharium

Thu - August 10, 2006

Dreams By The Dozen (For Men Only) - Walter Scharf

JEAN - Illusive, poetic and romantic.
Creative, mythical but never frantic.

DEBBIE - Harmonious, "regular," so pulsating.
Even tempered for osculating.

RITA - Exotic, mysterious, fascinating.
Exotic, impulsive, intoxicating.

MARY - Silky, soft-spoken, pleasant and mild.
Smooth, unruffled, sophisticated styled.

JOAN - Wholesome, blooming, vigorous, aspiring.
Tempting, wistful, alluring, inspiring.

VICKI - Mature, brimming, refined, complete.
Enduring, accomplished and always neat.

KATHERINE - Buoyant, nimble, light-hearted, airy.
Cheerful, blithe, extraordinary.

TONI - Piquant, stimulating, animated.
Enthusiasm, passion, unabated.

VIRGINIA - Calm, peaceful, amicable, composed.
Restful, contented, heaven enclosed.

PATRICIA - Unfettered, direct. natural. eager.
Generous. fearless, a major-leaguer.

BECKY - Stately. proud, fiery. brave.
Delightful, dazzling. joyous, a rave

ALICE - Frolicsome, jubilant. triumphant. flushed.
Rejoicing, happiness, laughter unhushed

It's not all in the mind... the way dream-girls with the same name are most always the same type.

Think about it for a moment. How many dreams named Mary have you known? One? Two? Twenty-two? How many named Jean or Joan or Vicki?

Each name, singularly, denotes a certain set of characteristics a dream of one personalized model that suits your sweet deliriums. I don't mean a sameness right down to the colorings or up to the coltishness. I do mean a sort of describable denomination.

For in 90% of the cases . . . dream-girls fit the frame of their name.

Su-u-u-u-re they do.

Dream of one girl you know intimately. (Admit intimacy with more than one and it's foolhardy or braggadocio.)

Now dream of her namesake in the public eye or some you've known casually. (However pleasurable it is . . . please keep your dreams on the subject we're discussing.)

You immortalize the make-up of your original model. The namesakes merely mirror the ideal. None are ever unpretty. You half-develop a dream of pastelled perfection. The dreamname fits the mold you hold. Or else the dream you know so intimately synthetically synchronized her lace-fringed traits to the tempo of the name. However the recipe is rigged, the dream has the same sweet taste.

I'll prove it to you. Put palette and paint before an artist. Say: "Katherine" or "Virgina." From his mental dark-room will come a snapshot of the pattern of all Katherines or all Virginias.

The same game is played with music . . . for music is concerned with the combination of sounds with a view to the expression of thought and feeling. In the mood to brood, musically that is, Walter Scharf dreams delightfully of damsels. Here are his tasty twelve. . . his DREAMS BY THE DOZEN as they appear.

Walter Scharf, who composed and conducted these vignettes, collected the characteristics of each dream along a background built on beauty.

He was born in New York City. August 1. 1910. He studied music at New York University in 1929. In 1931 he was Kate Smith's accompanist, then joined Rudy Vallee as arrangeraccompanist.

In 1935 Vallee made a picture at Warner's. Walter Scharf signed a two-year contract there as a result of the picture. He was at 20th Century Fox from 1936 through 1940 . . . arranged all the musicals produced by Darryl Zanuck. . . "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "You Can't Have Everything." "Sally. Irene and Mary," "Lillian Russell."

Walter went to Paramount in '41 as arranger-composer. He worked on such films as: "Birth Of The Blues," "Louisiana Purchase," "Holiday Inn," "Star-Spangled Rhythm," etc. 1942 1946, he headed the Music Department at Republic Studios, where he composed and directed the scores for "In Old Oklahoma," "The Prodigal's Mother," "The Cheaters," "I've Always Loved You," "Love, Honor and Goodbye."

At Universal-International, Walter Scharf composed 19 pictures including "Casbah," "The Saxon Charm," "Take One False Step," "Yes, Sir, That's My Baby." For RKO he did "Two Tickets To Broadway" and "The French Line." He scored and directed the music for "Hans Christian Anderson"; composed and directed: "Live It Up," "Three Ring Circus," "You're Never Too Young," "Artists and Models," the last four Martin & Lewis pictures and "The Birds And The Bees" with George Gobel.

At NBC Walter was musical director of the Phil Harris-Alice Faye Radio Show for 8 years. In 1954 did the Texaco TV Show with Donald O'Connor. His most recent picture assignments include: "Hollywood or Bust," "Three Violent People," "Bundle of Joy" with Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, and "The Joker" with Frank Sinatra and an untitled picture with Jane Russell.

During the past 20-odd years as composer, arranger and director, Walter Scharf has been nominated for the Academy Award 9 times. In 1955 he was nominated for the TV Emmy Award for the Texaco Show and won the Radio Life Award in 1947. Walter won the Musical Courier Award in 1946 for "I've Always Loved You," the life of Leopold Godowsky.

Walter Scharf is now working on his 208th motion picture. He, therefore, is neither foolhardy nor braggadocious when he states, musically, that he knows many girls with the same names very well.

Shakespeare wrote: "What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." He made sense.

But he might also have written: "Same name . . . same dame some of the times."

FOR MEN ONLY: These DREAMS BY THE DOZEN are Walter Scharf's.

You can dream your own. If the name of your intimate friend is in this dreamy dozen, add your knowledge plus your autograph and make this a personalized gift. Use the space provided on the front cover and say the things only you can say to complete the description.

If her name is not included, pick out the melody that fits your dream and select your own adjectives.

You're on your own . .

But, in the name of Love, tiptoe cautiously to the roof of the world. .

Piano Solos Played by: HARRY SUKMAN (pronounced Sookman)

Download: dreams.zip (23meg mono mp3)

Posted at 10:13 AM

Fri - August 4, 2006

Oscar Plays Western Hits - Oscar Young

Here's one I didn't hold out much hope for when I found it - a Hong Kong musician doing covers of themes from Westerns. However, it turns out to be pretty good.

There's the sound effects between each track using synthesisers for wind and gun shots and recordings of horses galloping and neighing, there's a fair dose of Morricone and there's the arrangements themselves which are inventive and varied and well played - even a little drum machine on one!. The inclusion of Midnight Cowboy is an amusing anomaly. Unfortunately this is a fairly worn record but I've cleaned the tracks up as best I can.

Given that this is Oscar vol. 28 I'd be interested to hear what genres he's had a go at on volumes one through 27.

Download: oscar.zip (53meg)

Posted at 08:38 PM

Fri - July 21, 2006

Galactic Classics - VC-People

VC-People aka Klaus Netzle aka Claude Larson attacks the popular classics from his electronic studio with touches of Moroder, Telex, etc. This would have been recorded late '70's early '80's and so is a bit more contemporary sounding than the usual Moog Plays Classics sound of the switched-on era.

The tracks on this lp segue into each other so that is how I've presented them here - two non-stop 18 minute mixes.

A:
Gipsy Dance
Disco Rigoletto
E-L-I-Z-A
Mr. Boccherini's Minuetto
Hoffman's Fairy Tale

B:
I'm A Turk
Bird Catcher
Seraglio Hijack
Tales from The Vienna Woods
Cancan From Orpheus In The Underground

Download: vcpeople.zip (50meg)

Posted at 10:07 PM

Mon - June 26, 2006

Green & Yellow (side 2) - Varig Brazilian Airlines

For all you patient people here is side 2 of the Varig Brazilian Airlines album.

Download: Varig2.zip

Posted at 01:51 PM

Thu - June 15, 2006

Green & Yellow - Varig Brazilian Airlines

This delightful album from 1969 introduces the instruments and rhythms of Brazilian music in a record released for tourists by Varig Brazilian Airlines. The "Samba" (voiced by Rodrigo R de Moraes) narrates the album with examples of the major percussion instruments and then examples of the multitude of variations on the samba beat. This share contains the first side of the lp only which features the narration - side two contains instrumental tracks. Oh yes, and soccer does get a mention!!

Download: varig.zip

Posted at 09:19 PM

Wed - June 7, 2006

What You Can Learn From The Kinsey Report - Dr. Murray Banks

I think I might just leave it up to the good doctor to explain.

Download: Kinsey.zip

Posted at 09:36 AM

Thu - June 1, 2006

Strings Afire In Spain - The Clebanoff Strings

Some years ago I sent a copy of this album to someone who contacted me from the USA. He is an engine driver on the Santa Fe Railroad and whenever I listen to this recording I imagine him thundering through the night in charge of some massive goods train with Clebanoff's thrilling arrangement of Misirlou blasting through the cabin. Massive reverb, swags of percussion, huge unison arrangements of strings and brass, deft touches of guitar and w-i-d-e stereo - 34 minutes of EXCITEMENT!.

Download: clebanoff.zip

Posted at 07:39 PM

Wed - May 24, 2006

Songs Of The Caribbean - Geoffrey Holder And His Trinidad Hummingbirds

Mid fifties Riverside "World Folk Music Series" release of Geoffrey Holder's first recordings as a singer. The download includes a hi-res scan of the back cover with extensive notes about the performance and recordings. Holder went on to become a celebrated dancer, choreographer, film actor, theatre director and painter. Read a brief biography here .

Download: holder.zip

Posted at 05:35 PM

Sat - May 13, 2006

Yamaha Superstar! - Koichi Oki

This great Yamaha Electone Organ demonstration record is ubiquitous in Melbourne Op shops due to the fact that the organ maestro Koichi Oki toured here to promote the EX-42 in the early seventies. I think the record must have been given away free to anyone who attended the demonstrations (at the Camberwell Civic Centre if I remember correctly) as there used to be so many copies around.

Koichi Oki gives every stop, pedal and flip-switch a super workout on these tracks and plays with a wild inventiveness at times. Light My Fire and Summer In Shima are tracks that have turned up on compilations and been sampled at times (The Avalanches are guilty here I believe) but there are plenty of other gems for those who can overcome their natural aversion to the long maligned genre of keyboard demonstration discs.

Download: koichi.zip

Posted at 10:35 AM

Thu - May 4, 2006

Erotheque - Les Vibrations, Nathalie, Andrea, Nichole, Christine and Serge

I really can't find out much about this album released on EMI (my pressing is Greek) but it is an interesting addition to the "moan and groan" genre. The performances are credited to Les Vibrations, Nathalie, Andrea, Nichole, Christine and Serge - whether that is THE Serge I can't say but the credit is on Gainsbourg's Je Taime Moi Non Plus so it's possible.

In any case there's nice sparse guitar, drum machine and wordless vocals with lots of whispering and other more intimate sounds on reworkings of favourite themes like Emmanuelle and some equally enjoyable originals.

Download: Erotheque.zip

Posted at 10:02 AM

Jackpot - Sir Victor Uwaifo And His Titibitis Of Africa

Curried Jazz - The Indo-British Ensemble

Rhythms from the Orient - Omar Khorshid and his guitar

The Innermost Limits Of Pure Fun - Farm

getBlogName();

Some album shares from the stacks around my feet.