I participated in a CD exchange with about a half dozen folks, presumably with a Halloweenish theme. Most of the folks have their own blogs, and most of the CDs came so close to Halloween that I didn’t have time to give them a decent listen. I figure that the bloggers can comment on their own work. (I found a lot to recommend on Greg’s, Kelly’s, Lefty’s and especially Gordon’s discs.) I WAS fascinated that Gordon and Gilbert both picked William Shatner, Gordon and I both picked CCR, and Lefty and I both picked the Rolling Stones and Howlin’ Wolf, but they were different cuts. Kelly and I both picked Thriller by Michael Jackson, but mine was just the extended rap.
But the one CD that continues to command my attention (OK, to haunt me) is the one from this guy Gilbert. I couldn’t read his last name on the envelope, and I tossed his address after I sent a copy of my CD to him.
NAME: Gilbert
BLOG NAME: none that I’m aware of
NAME OF CD: Cowboys horror mix: Be very afraid
NUMBER OF CUTS: 23
RUNNING TIME: 1:19 (that’s one hour, 19 minutes)
COVER ART: Photograph of Barbra Streisand, who does not appear on the album
SONG LIST:
1. Spiders and Snakes- Jim Stafford
2. Boomshakalaka-Dumb and Dumber song (by Apache Indian, I have read)
3. I Play Chicken with the Train-Cowboy Troy
4. I Believe I Can Fly-William Hung
5. Peanut Butter and Jelly Time-Buckwheat Boyz
6. Run, Joey, Run-David Geddes
7. It’s a Small World After All-from Disney
8. No, No, No-Yoko Ono
9. We Built This City-Starship
10. Men in Black-Will Smith
11. Spice Up Your Life-Spice Girls
12. Hooked on a Feeling-David Hasselhoff
13. Macarena-Los Del Rio
14. I Wanna Sex You Up-William Shatner
15. Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades-Timbuk 3
16. Enter Sandman-Pat Boone
17. Disco Duck-Rick Dees
18. Achy Breaky Heart-Billy Ray Cyrus
19. Mr. Roboto-Styx
20. Common People-William Shatner
21. Mr. Jaws-from the Dr. Demento Collection (probably Dickie Goodman)
22. Da Da Da-Trio
23. Dueling Banjos-Lester Flatts & Earl Scruggs
ALREADY REVIEWED BY: Cut #4 has bee (see below)
GENERAL THOUGHTS: I get it, I GET it, Gilbert. These songs are all so bad, they’re scary. Well, it’s more of a mixed bag for me.
THINGS I PARTICULARLY LOVED: 8, 23. Then there are those innocuous dumb songs (e.g., 1, 15). 3 is sorta funny, as is 20.
ON THE OTHER HAND:
9- I’m quoted in an article entitled ALL THOSE BAD SONGS SAY SO MUCH (May 12, 2004 ALBANY Times Union):
“The WORST song ever, worse than `Honey,’ worse than `Having My Baby’ (is) `The Men in My Little Girl’s Life,’ by Mike Douglas. It went to 6 in ’66 (see the 666, sign of the Antichrist?) Of course, [that was] way before the MTV/VH1 era, for which `We Bilked This City Outta Rock ‘n’ Roll’ is a pretty good choice.” (Roger Green, Albany)
That latter reference was to the FantaCo parody, Sold Out #1, one of the two comic books I ever co-wrote. The comic read: “We bilked this city on black and whites”. So my disdain for the Starship track runs ver-r-ry deep, maybe because the root group (Jefferson Airplane) was so removed from that corporate rock sound.
12 is a perfectly good song by B.J. Thomas (#5, 1969), turned into that “oo-ga-cha-ka” song by Blue Swede (#1, 1974). Naturally, Mr. Baywatch picked the Swedish version to cover.
13, 18-I don’t do any cult dances; that includes the chicken dance, the electric slide and these two.
17- ’nuff said
And most particularly, 4: Lefty threatened to punch Gil out over this song. Gordon seconded that emotion. And these are peaceful guys!
I should say that on a scale of 1 to 1000, with 1000 being the angelic choir, and 1 being a jackhammer waking you up in the middle of the night in the next room, this is probably a 2, only because the instrumentalists, unlike the fallen Idol candidate, is in tune.
OFFICE FRIENDLY: If you don’t mind your ears bleeding occasionally
ONLY VAGUELY RELATED: Mr. Jaws is a descendent of that music pastiche started back in 1956 with The Flying Saucer, which, for some reason, I find that I own on a beat-up 45.
