gts171 “harvesht”
Gives me a shiny coat.
01-01 Leslie Sarony – His Master’s Voice B2714 – Don’t Be Cruel To A Vegetabuel (1928)
— when you eat brussels sprouts, you’re depriving a cabbage of her young.
01-02 2Minute Minor – Back In Our Day 02 – Veggie Tales (2021)
— unnannounced, in rough draft this show looked like something would have to be cut, but instead had over a minute extra time, so here’s your fave childhood memory, now metallicized.
01-03 The Beach Boys – Smiley Smile 102 – Vegetables (1967)
— i blame drugs.
01-04 The Arrogant Worms – Russell’s Shorts 02 – Carrot Juice Is Murder (1994)
— combination of arrogance and Canadian anger, leads to violence. But they do have a point: veggies can’t even run away like animals.
01-05 The Ramones – Subterranean Jungle 206 – Everytime I Eat Vegetables It Makes Me Think Of You (1983)
— lyrics hard to make out, because Ramones, but I think she’s trapped in a loony bin in East Berlin.
01-06 Fiona Boyes – Ramblified 10 – Turnip Patch (2023)
— awlright, awlright, I’m a gittin’, don’t shoot. Your own fault for having tasty turnip.
01-07 The Nutones – Combo 127 – Beans ‘n’ Greens (1957)
— streetcorner a-capella, pure. When they croon “meat” they’re not really talking about meat, but you figured that out.
02-01 The JBs – People 607 – Pass The Peas (1972)
— James Brown’s band, turns out pretty good without the Godfather.
02-02 Jim Bunkley – George Henry Bussey / Jim Bunkley 203 – Them Greasy Greens (1968)
— a halvsies album released on Revival Records in ’68, then on Rounder Records a few years later, date of original recording unknown.
02-03 NRBQ – You Gotta Be Loose 13 – Mule In The Corn (1998)
— this farm is a multishambles.
02-04 Saxie Dowell & Hal Kemp And His Orchestra – Victor 25722 – Swingin’ In The Corn (1937)
— the heart of this show, even Grandpa Ebenezer is kickin’ the gong when crops come in.
02-05 Johnny Cash – The Fabulous Johnny Cash 204 – Pickin’ Time (1958)
— take care of ’em shoes, they ARE gonna last you ’til next harvest.
02-06 Uncle Bonsai – The Inessential Uncle Bonsai 11 – A Lonely Grain Of Corn (1992)
— UB has an album of this title, but this tune taken from broadcast: WFMT in Chicago, 1985-11-24.
02-07 The Kentucky Colonels – Newport Folk Festival, Newport RI – Shuckin’ The Corn (1964)
— still a while before Dylan caused an insurrection at Newport.
02-08 Bob Davie – Bally 1004 – Corn Poem (1956)
— carnival music played on the ‘planksichord’, and nobody seems to know what that instrument is today. Bally, famous as a maker of pinball tables, didn’t release many records, but the ones they did are oddities. This plays like a bastard child of Heart And Soul & Chopsticks who just won a goldfish which’ll die in a week.
03-01 Irving Aaronson And His Commanders – Victor 20117 – What! No Spinach? (1926)
— hard to tell, but drums here done by Fuzzy White, later an actor in Western movies. Aaronson himself later became musical director for MGM.
03-02 Julia Lee And Her Boy Friends – Capitol 15367 – I Didn’t Like It The First Time (The Spinach Song) (1949)
— had another song about spinach that turned out to be not about spinach but about marijahoopty. Julia’s song isn’t really about spinach either.
03-03 Meredith Patterson & Jeffry Denman – Face The Music (2007 Encores Cast Recording) 15 – I Say It’s Spinach (And The Hell With It) (2007)
— originally from a musical by Irving Berlin in 1932, this from a 2007 revival.
03-04 Shirley Temple & Jack Haley & Alice Faye – Poor Little Rich Girl OST – You Gotta Eat Your Spinach Baby (1936)
— the fellow bullying poor Shirley here would befriend Judy Garland as The Tin Man three years later. But don’t blame Jack, his Canadian sailor father died in a shipwreck off New England in 1898, before Jack was born.
03-05 Sugar Chile Robinson – Capitol F1386 – I’ll Eat My Spinach (1951)
— it never works, telling a kid they’ll go to bed without supper, if supper is spinach.
04-01 DeZurik Sisters – Peach Pickin’ Time In Georgia
— from a radio transcription. Also billed as The Cackle Sisters, they rose to fame in the middle of Minnesota in a true farm family band, with Pops on fiddle. The Sisters only recorded 6 sides on three 78rpm’s, but were favorites on radio.
04-02 Imperial Swing Orchestra – Stay Hot 15 – Pickin’ The Cabbage (2000)
— a 10-piece from Detroit, and five of those pieces are brass.
04-03 Saul T. Peter – MPBTD 105 – She Sits Among The Cabbages And Peas (1957)
— say his name out loud, you’ll get it. Most of this album is Faye Richmonde, the naughty songstress who is also on the album cover with her boobs out.
04-04 Maggie Jones – Columbia 14063-D – Anybody Here Want To Try My Cabbage (1925)
— not really singing about cabbage, but that trumpet is whole organic.
04-05 Molls – Molls 01 – Hot Cabbage (2011)
— up to the boiling point in Japan.
04-06 Washboard Sam & His Washboard Band – Bluebird 34-0705 – Good Old Cabbage Greens (1943)
— Bluebird was founded as a response to record sales plumetting during the Great Depression, giving folks access to lower-cost discs. After that, the label found continued success with music in styles aimed at poor folks.
05-01 multi – The Vegetable Man 10″ Project (2003)
— a true oddity, the Italian label Oggetti Volanti Non Identificati put out a call for bands to cover the Syd Barrett tune. 60 bands submitted songs, this is only 10 seconds of each song, but taken from the appropriate spot in each song: earlier snipetts come from earlier in the song, e.g. This is a 10-inch record, blank on the other side. If you care to, you can look up all sixty bands, only recognized 2 of the band names myself.
05-02 Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets – 2022-11-01 The Centre, Vancouver, BC 106 – Vegetable Man (2022)
— in the chit-chat about this song (cut out here), Nick Mason explains how Pink Floyd had hoped that this Syd Barrett song would be the single which would launch their career to radio success. Unfortunately the BBC banned the tune. Pink Floyd did okay later on anyway.
05-03 Fillmore Slim – The Legend Of Fillmore Slim 10 – Vegetable Man (2007)
— scorching slapper banger blues.
06-01 Paul Shelasky & His Musical Zombies – Rutabaga 101 – Rutabaga Boogie (1974)
— no they don’t grow on bushes, vines nor trees. Note the rhyme of “gas” with “nose”.
06-02 Citi Zeni – Eat Your Salad (2022)
— this was Latvia’s entry for the Eurovision song contest in 2022. Didn’t expect to have bleeps in a tune about salad.
06-03 The Driving Stupid – Kr 0116 – Horror Asparagus Stories (1966)
— Jersey boys who set out for Hollywood after school in 1966. They failed to crack the big time, by Summer’s end of 1966 they’re back in school where they belong. Only released this one single, their unreleased album finally got out onto CD in 2002 and, at last, on vinyl in 2021. Betting this is the only time you will ever hear the refrain “spleen, spleen, elephant spleen.”
06-04 Dr. West’s Medicine Show Junk Band – A-Go-Go 100 – The Eggplant That Ate Chicago (1966)
— this is a group made by Norman Greenbaum, later a 1-hitter with “Spirit In The Sky” but this effort fell flat. That’s Bonnie Lee Wallach on the kazoo, and Evan Engbar plays… the ’49 Buick Bumper.
06-05 Masami Tsuchiya – 101 – Rice Music (1982)
— yes it’s true, Masami married his cat named Holmes in 2017. Not sure if the cat is named after Sherlock or John.
… and a bonus track…
07-01 Will Bradley And His Orchestra – Columbia 35707 – Celery Stalks At Midnight (1940)
— to lead off a spooky October!