The Real Pros: Ballad of a Broken Down Power Line (Cinema Records)
Song-poems -of which this is a particularly “good” example- have been around nearly as long as the music industry itself. In the early 20th century you could send your lyrics to a publisher, one of whose hired stable of (usually) hack musicians would instantly produce a banal melody “fitting” said lyric, and voila -sheet music with which to bore and bewilder your friends. By the late 50s the practice had evolved, with the customer receiving his/her song in the form of a 45, usually pressed in tiny quantities (you could order as few as ten). Needless to say, most song-poems are, therefore, rare, making this the perfect moment to point out that “rare” is not the same thing as “desirable”. The vast majority of song-poems are bad in every way: sentimental/inane/cliched lyrics, indifferent music, poor production. However… not every budding songwriter, it turns out, was sane.
Some song-poems are also sonically interesting, most notably those for which Rodd Keith -the Brian Wilson of the genre- composed the music. This isn’t one of his productions.
Years ago I was lucky enough to stumble upon an entire box of these strange creatures. I’ll be posting the dozen best over the next few weeks.
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