Sunday, February 18, 2007

2 unrelated 45s about Boston



Pastrami Melted "hello boston" How a record like this got made even in the 70s is beyond me. Described as "pop psych" The singer warbles about leaving SF on a motorbike and somehow ends up in boston. I would hope, he got attacked once he got here especially after declaring "hello boston, I'm Johnny Appleseed" and working in a rhyme with "tangerine" later. Maybe that helped pave the way for the Flaming Lips song 30 years later.... The music is reminiscnet of what you would hear in a Dirty Harry or Deathwish movie when the Bronson/Eastwood rolled, disgusted, into the hippie bar and a bunch of stoned hippie actors were wailinga away on stage pretending to be a band. I always hope "psych" records will sound like blue cheer or the 13th floor elevators. Unfortunately, they often sound like this. Metromedia records

Next up Alvin Cash and the Registars on Mar-V-lous covering "Boston Monkey" (by Otis Redding? at least he had a more popular version) Upbeat with a JR Walker style sax. Lyrically, this is my kind of song. Nothing over a 3rd grade reading level. Andre Williams played a part in the early days at Mar-v-Lous where he spent time when on the outs with Berry Gordy. Small World. Killer single. I think J.Geils covered it on a live record, but don't let that scare you away.

Somedays when your out buying records themes start to appear, you find a bunch of records on folkways, or a bunch of reords from one city, or in the case 45s about Boston. Though outside of the word Boston in the title, they don't have much in common.

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