Oscar Brand: Bawdy Songs & Backroom Ballads Volume 4

Review # 69
Artist: Oscar Brand
Title: Bawdy Songs and Backroom Ballads Volume 4
Format: LP
Label: Audio Fidelity
Year: 1957
Songs: 14





So, after triumphantly moving on to "C" records, I found this sitting in my pile of records I hadn't actually listened to yet. I've had this for a while and it should have been reviewed before now, but it's very appropriate that this is review number 69, because this is a record of dirty, prurient songs. Being an enthusiast of old folk music, I picked this up out of a dollar bin, never having heard of Oscar Brand but curious about these ditties. Brand was a Canadian born folk singer who specialized in some of the less family-friendly folk music of Europe and America, so much so that he released at least four volumes of these forgotten and filthy tunes.

I sort of thought this record wasn't going to be any good, but I was mostly wrong. This record is a fun compendium of old-time songs about illicit sex. Some of them are sort of subtle (emphasis on "sort of") like "Two Maidens" and "Basket of Oysters" (you can guess what that one's about), while others are so graphic that they couldn't be played on the radio without significant censorship. These songs really put the lie to the idea that modern forms like rap and hard rock have made music a corrupting influence. With several of the tracks on this record dating back to 1607, it is quite clear that raunchy songs are nothing new. Many of these songs have familiar tunes that might have you absent-mindedly tapping your foot before realizing this is not the song from your childhood (i.e. "Cindy," "The Wayward Boy," and "The Money Rolls In," the latter of which is sung to the tune of "My Bonnie" but deals with prostitution and related matters). The record also contains a song called "Sweet Violets," which turns out to be a forerunner of the 1940s novelty hit "Shaving Cream," with mostly similar verses and choruses that replace the "shhhhaving cream, be nice and clean, shave every day and you'll always look keen" with "sweet violets, sweeter than all the roses."

The actual performances of these songs are pretty ok. Brand and his accompanist Dave Sear are both competent guitarists/banjo players and sing these tunes with the gusto that songs like these really require to work. The one place where it sort of falls apart is with the accents. Brand does an ok Scotsman--good enough that I initially found myself wondering if he was actuallyScottishf. But his English accent, on embarrassing display throughout "Don't Call Me," a British soldier song, is just laughably bad. Every time he sings "Cor, blimey!" I cringe.  He would have been much better off to just sing these with his natural accent, or failing that, skip the British songs, because he just sounds silly.

Overall though, this is a pretty fascinating and fun look at the scandalous side of folk music, if you are interested in that sort of thing.

The only song from this record I could find streaming is one of the tamer ones, "The Wayward Boy." Enjoy!

Total songs listened: 850

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Christmas with the Chipmunks

Review # 57
Artist: Alvin and the Chipmunks
Title: Christmas with the Chipmunks
Format: LP
Label: Liberty Records
Year: 1962
Songs: 12




Long before computer animated chipmunks were singing Lady Gaga songs in endless, terrible film sequels, Alvin, Simon, Theodore, and Dave Seville were already holiday favorites in America. The Chipmunks first Christmas LP was a tremendously successful record, for a novelty act. Its best known track "The Chipmunk Song" (better known in some circles as "Christmas Don't Be Late" or simply "that songs where Alvin wants a hula hoop") was the Chipmunks' only #1 single, and won three Grammy awards (best comedy record, best children's record, and best engineering on a non-classical record) in 1958. The record has sold hundreds of thousands of copies and has been reissued and repackaged numerous times in multiple formats. Beloved by many as a piece of classic kitsch and maligned by others as a shrill, corny irritation, Christmas with the Chipmunks may be the best known novelty record of all time.

Readers who have been with this blog since the beginning may have by now noted that I have an awful lot of Chipmunks LPs, so it should come as no surprise that I like this record. I love kitcshy, silly, novelty music, and if you are like me in that respect, Christmas with the Chipmunks is just ridiculous upbeat fun all the way through. As was the case in Urban Chipmunk, this record sees Dave Seville trying to make the rambunctious chipmunks toe the line as a respectable singing group, while our rodent friends (and especially Alvin) have other ideas. Alvin's penchant for turning the songs' lyrics into dramatic monologues repeatedly gets him in trouble for "over-acting," with Dave frequently admonishing Alvin and co. to "just sing!" This conflict arises right away on the song's opening number "Here Comes Santa Claus," and continues to be an issue on "Over the River and Through the Woods" and "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas." Why Dave puts up with the chipmunks is unclear. After so many conflicts like this, and given the debatable merits of the chipmunks' vocal abilities, one is left wondering why Dave carries on trying to make them a proper musical act.

Unlike other Chipmunk records, this album sees Dave playing a more active role in singing the songs himself. He takes the lead on "Silver Bells" and sings "White Christmas" entirely on his own, aside from a conversation with Alvin in which he bemoans the lack of snow this year. Rest assured, Dave's sorrow is short lived, as Alvin chimes in at the end of the song to alert him to some festive precipitation. This record also features a cameo from none other than Rudolph (the red-nosed reindeer) who sings the song about himself in the first person. The voice is a clear imitation of the Rankin & Bass Christmas special, and sounds in particular like the part of the story in which Rudolph is trying to cover his embarrassing nose with a piece of clay and constantly sounds like he has a cold.

Probably the best known track on this record is the aforementioned "Chipmunk Song." This is both the only original song on the record, and the one in which Dave (aka Ross Bagdasarian) makes the greatest effort to actually differentiate his voice as he performs each of the three chipmunk voices. My record player has a 16 rpm setting (although I've never seen a record that plays at this speed), and it's fun to play this song at that speed, because you can hear three tracks of Dave, talking and singing very slowly and trying to make his voice sound like three different voices, in combination with the "real" Dave voice, which slowed to half speed sounds like some terrible beast. My friend referred to this as the "Three Dave Seville's and a Bear" version of the song. While this song is one I like to hear at normal speed at least once every December, having the vinyl gives me the added benefit hearing what the Chipmunks' voices sounded like when Dave/Ross actually recorded them.

If by some unlikely chance you haven't heard "The Chipmunk Song" before, you can listen to it here, complete with old, cheap children's animation that shows you what shenanigans our rodent friends got up to while recording this unlikely number one hit.


Total songs listened: 719

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Urban Chipmunk

Review # 8
Artist: Alvin and the Chipmunks
Title: Urban Chipmunk
Format: LP
Label: RCA
Year: 1981
Songs: 10





Urban Chipmunk sees us crossing the 100 song line for this blog, and also, thankfully, concludes our chipmunk reviews (until Christmas...). 1981's Urban Chipmunk was our rodent friends' first foray into country music, coming, oddly enough, between Chipmunk Punk and Chipmunk Rock. It shares several features with Chipmunk Rock: illustrations for each song, grumpy appearances by Dave Seville, and the weird little skits. This one opens with the Chipmunks performing John Denver's "Thank God I'm a Country Boy." At the end of the song, Dave yells at the chipmunks to go to bed, because it's two o'clock in the morning. Now, it's reasonable to ask what Alvin & Co. are doing playing country music at 2am, but Dave's frustration is perhaps even more understandable on examination of the illustration for this song. We see the chipmunks in their living room.  Alvin stands on the couch wearing his black cowboy hat, singing and playing a fiddle, while Simon and Theodore, also in country apparel, dance on the floor.  There are pieces of hay or straw strewn about, and there are several chickens, some pigs, and and a cow in the room. Dave looks on in dismay.

Now, if memory serves, the chipmunks were based out of New York City, so how they got these animals into the apartment at all is a mystery.  But if this is the scene Dave walked in on at 2am, one can hardly blame him for his frustration, which grows over the course of the record as Alvin and friends more and more flagrantly disregard the correct lyrics of the country hits this record is made up of, replacing them with their own lyrics about chipmunks (i.e. "Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to be Cowboys Chipmunks."

Other highlights include a royally botched performance of "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song" with the song's author Larry Butler trying to coach the chipmunks through the lyrics of the chorus, and Alvin's odd and inter-species marriage proposal to country singer Brenda Lee in "Made for Each Other." Here we see Alvin trying to convince Brenda of his country cred by suggesting he'll show up to court her wearing collard greens, but to no avail. "You're a chipmunk, I'm a lady. We don't have much in common," Lee sings as she rebuffs Alvin's proposal. "I'm a country girl. I think I'm better suited to a big strong country man." Yikes.

I've had enough of reviewing chipmunks records, and we're about to switch gears in dramatic fashion.

Total songs listened: 101

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipmunk Rock

Review # 7
Artist: Alvin and the Chipmunks
Title: Chipmunk Rock
Format: LP
Label: RCA
Year: 1982
Songs: 10



I didn't actually expect there to be much difference between this and Chipmunk Punk in terms of my overall enjoyment, but I must say, Chipmunk Rock is a better record. The production on the music is actually noticeably better, and Alvin and the boys' vocals are a little less shrill. Versions of Devo's "Whip it" and Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" were actually kind of rockin,' likewise with their cover of "Jessie's Girl." Mostly, this record is early 80s hits, as performed by Alvin and the Chipmunks, and it's sort of fun.

What stands out on this record , however, is less the music than the other stuff. This gate fold LP opens up to reveal a picture illustrating each song, and some of these are really quite bizarre. The picture that goes along with "Betty Davis Eyes" features the chipmunks hanging out with seven Betty Davises (Betty Davi?) and looking uncomfortable.  "Heartbreaker" features a picture of Alvin talking on the phone, next to several labeled volumes of black books, his walls covered with pictures of women admirers (human, not chipmunk). It's just weird. There are also some amusing skits on the record.  It begins with the chipmunks singing some barbershop music, as they were apt to do back in the 1960s.  Dave tells them he's going out for a bit, and to keep practicing. He tells them they are not to play any rock 'n roll while he's gone. The record concludes with his return, and the chipmunks abruptly switch back to the same barbershop song so as not to be caught in the act of playing rock music. Even more entertaining is the skit that precedes their cover of "Leader of the Pack," which sees our chipmunk friends conflicted about whether or not to perform a "girl's song." Simon and Theodore attempt to make Alvin wear a wig to sing this song, asking him, "haven't you ever heard of a chippette?" Alvin is initially resistant, but eventually ends up participating in the chipmunks' drag number. Oddly though, the "leader of the pack" is renamed Alvin in the song ("is that Alvin's ring you're wearing?"), which means that what we have going on here is Alvin in drag singing a love song about himself in which he describes his own death in a tragic motorcycle accident. Try not to think too hard about it. It's just confusing.

Devo fans: check out The Chipmunks version of "Whip It"

Total songs listened so far: 91

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipmunk Punk

Review # 5
Artist: Alvin and the Chipmunks*
Title: Chipmunk Punk
Format: LP
Label: Excelsior
Year: 1980
Songs: 9




I can't remember which punk documentary it was in, or who was talking, but at least one prominent musician from the early days of the scene said, and I'm paraphrasing, "When this came out, I knew punk was over." I've never subscribed to the notion that punk died with the Sex Pistols or whatever, but the release of this record was certainly a sign that, to paraphrase Crass, the system had stolen the proverbial sting from the tail of the first wave of punk. Chipmunk Punk signified that the trappings of punk had become very comodifiable and non-threatening to a large segment of the population. The cover, as you can see, depicts those lovable rodents in a dirty alley, with graffiti they are presumably responsible for. Alvin sports spiky hair and a safety pin, while Theodore rocks a skinny, mod-style tie. Punk had become something you could safely market as a cartoon or novelty record.

Or so it seemed.  While the image here is certainly evocative of punk rock cliches, the music really isn't. This record includes covers of Linda Rondstadt, Billy Joel, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Knack, Queen, and, as close to actual punk as the Chipmunks can muster, The Cars and Blondie. Actual punk music, it would appear, was still too controversial for the chipmunks. By 1980, you'd think they could have at least managed Devo and the Ramones, maybe even the Clash, but really, Linda Rondstadt? I know that for a minute, the big record labels were trying to market everything they could as punk, but give me a break.

Oh well. Ultimately, this a piece of pop-culture cheese that's fun to bust out every once in a while, but the cover is better than the music. I actually had this framed on my wall for a bit, making it ever-present but never-heard. It's that good of a listen.

Want to hear a sample? Here's "My Sharona."

Total songs listened: 61

*Some Chipmunks records credit simply "The Chipmunks" as the artist, while others credit "Alvin and the Chipmunks." In order to keep all my Chipmunks records together (oh yes, there are more), I file them all under "A." But the discerning Chipmunks fan may note  that this particular record actually belongs under "C."