Spitball Army

Electricity courses into the house, waking after a four day nap: the AC vent yawns, ceiling fans stretch, the refrigerator groans.

Card is titled: “SYLACAUGA MOTEL, Sylacauga, Alabama.”

Printed on back of postcard:

Sylacauga Motel
65 Rooms – 65 Tiled Baths
Sylacauga, Alabama

Publishing information: “L.L. Cook Co., Post Cards, Milwaukee.”

This card was enclosed with a Silver Seas CD that I purchased online through Daniel Tashian’s website.  There is no postmark or address on the card itself.

Text of written message:

Thank you for your support!
XO
D.T.

At one of my former jobs in the music-selling business, we used to listen to new releases and re-issues in the office when they were sent to us from record labels. One such package contained a remastered CD edition of Jesus Christ Superstar, and I jumped past the latest Drivin N Cryin and Shawn Colvin discs to spin this gem from my youth. Working away at my desk, papers spread around me, probably with “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” pouring out of the speakers, I was focused and blissfully so, until a co-worker strode through the door, noticed what was playing, and hastily replaced JC Superstar with some half-hearted new release by Terence Trent D’Arby or some other artist that we’ve all already forgotten.

“We don’t listen to Broadway shows in here,” he stated with the authority of the terminally hip.

I think that Broadway musicals get a terrifically unfair rap these days, mostly by uneducated and fearful people whose only context for them is their perceived glorification by the gay community. They probably don’t realize that a very large percentage of popular songs in the first half of the twentieth century began life on the stage of a theatre.

In my childhood home, my parents balanced out the musical spectrum by adding classic country albums (Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, for instance, from my father) and classic Broadway musicals (Camelot, The Sound of Music, from Mom) to the family collection. To me, the standards of musical theatre are every bit as essential to a well-rounded musical palette as are songs from the Grand Old Opry, or The Beatles, or Beethoven.

Here are some of my favorites.

Approximate playing time: 77 minutes.

1. “Something’s Coming” from West Side Story (1957)
2. “I Got Lost in His Arms” from Annie Get Your Gun (1949)
3. “I Whistle a Happy Tune” from The King and I (1951)
4. “Gary, Indiana” from The Music Man (1958)
5. “I’m an Ordinary Man” from My Fair Lady (1956)
6. “It’s a Perfect Relationship” from Bells Are Ringing (1956)
7. “Sorry-Grateful” from Company (1970)
8. “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” from Jesus Christ Superstar (1970)
9. “The Heather on the Hill” from Brigadoon (1947)
10. “If I Loved You” from Carousel (191947)
11. “Then You May Take Me to the Fair” from Camelot (1960)
12. “Impossible / It’s Possible” from Cinderella (1957)
13. “The Hostess with the Mostes’ on the Ball” from Call Me Madam (1950)
14. “Some People” from Gypsy (1959)
15. “What a Waste” from Wonderful Town (1958)
16. “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid” from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962)
17. “I Can Cook, Too” from On the Town (1959)
18. “Too Darn Hot” from Kiss Me, Kate (1949)
19. “I Cain’t Say No” from Oklahoma! (1943)
20. “Some Enchanted Evening” from South Pacific (1949)
21. “I Guess I’ll Miss the Man” from Pippin (1972)
22. “Ol’ Man River” from Show Boat (1962)
23. “The Flesh Failures (Let the Sunshine In)” from Hair (1968)

The late Michael Jeter pays homage to the great Ethel Merman (who is amply represented in this playlist) in Terry Gilliam’s 1991 The Fisher King:

[Letter postmarked on 6 September 1941 at 9:30 a.m. at Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Addressed to Miss Crystal K., Berwyn, Ilinois. Return addressed to Geo. B., State Police, Greensburg, Pennsylvania.]

Greensburg, Pa.
September 5, 1941

Dear Crystal:

     Received your post-card from Marshalltown. Thanks for remembering me. I suppose that from now on, I will rate only a postal card. Since I did not receive the photo you were going to send me, I believe that you don’t intend to send it, or do you intend to keep me waiting until you have another taken – when you are 21 (twenty-one).

     How is the steady doing? I was wondering at times (many times) if he was the one and only or ??? –

     How is your Grandmother and Ma & Dad? Long time since I heard from either one. Don’t forget to extend my best wishes to them all. –

     Tony has been transferred to Orlando in Florida and for the past two weeks he has been in Los Angeles. I suppose that you have heard from him.

     He told me that he was going to visit with his old army friend Alex Lovy, a cartoonist who works for the Seven Dwarfs or somethin’. – Anyway, I hope you all are enjoying the best of health and are having loads of fun. – How’s Captain Joe doin’? One of the men from the Turnpike Detail stopped in last week and he was telling me about some persons from Berwyn, Illinois, being slightly injured in an auto accident on the Turnpike. – I don’t remember the names.

     I miss your letters, Crystal; can’t you write more often? – Someday, I am going to show up sort of unexpected, like I did last time – then, I hope you will be home by yourself.

     I was up home for 12 days and I got back to Greensburg on the 29th. Our Rodeo took place on the tenth the 30th, and there were about 20,000 people present. I didn’t even get to see the Rodeo as I had to guard payrolls in the morning and afternoon.

     About my vacation, I was really undecided as to where to go, considering your invitation, which was very hard to resist. Believe me, I thought it over plenty, and since you didn’t say whether or not you would go out with me and show me around a bit, the only thing I could figure was that your time was entirely taken up. So, I’m still wondering. –

     Please write soon and tell me about your vacation in Marshalltown.

Sincerely,
George –

He’s been without power for days, complaining. At work, people buy flashlights, tarps and chain saws from him. Now he feels lucky.

Post-tornado, people shop for replacement storage sheds; clerk diverts their attention from the crumpled one in the parking lot.

[Postcard picturing Wyalusing Rock, Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania. Postmarked on 18 August 1941 at 6:30 p.m.at Plymouth, Pennsylvania. Addressed to Miss Crystal K., Berwyn, Ilinois.]

     Came home on the 16th. Tony was here and left Sunday P.M. for Florida via auto. I was looking over some of his snap-shots and came across a number of you – you little goil. I may take a trip out your way before returning to work, but that is only a possibility.

Write and let me know how you are doing, as I always enjoy receiving a letter from you. – Best wishes to your Mother & Dad & Grandma –

Geo.

The blurb on the back of the postcard reads:

Wyalusing Rock in Sullivan Trail: Famous Indian outlook with a sheer drop of 600 feet to the Susquehanna River.

The rocky river bank is dotted with “Do Not Remove Fossils” signs. He slips three stones into his shoe and struggles not to limp.

Card is titled: “Reproduction of One of the First Pilgrim Houses.”

Printed on back of postcard:

This Replica of an early Pilgrim House is the beginning of a project by Plimouth Plantation, Inc., to build a complete village of Pilgrim Houses as they existed in the early days of the Pilgrims in Plymouth.

Publishing information: “All Rights Reserved, Plimouth Plantation, Inc., Plymouth, Mass. / Memorial Card by Plimouth Plantation, Inc. / Photo by Randall W. Abbott, Plymouth, Mass. / Litho, Leyden Press, Plymouth, Mass.”

Today’s playlist was inspired by the events of 27 April 2011.

Approximate playing time: 75 minutes.

1. Bob Dorough  “Daybreak in Alabama”  (1958)
2. Ed Harcourt  “The Storm Is Coming”  (2004)
3. The Kinks  “Stormy Sky”  (1977)
4. Calexico  “Fractured Air (Tornado Watch)”  (2008)
5. Talking Heads  “Listening Wind”  (1980)
6. Ed Harcourt  “Rain”  (2006)
7. Judy Garland and other cast members of The Wizard of Oz  “It’s a Twister, It’s a Twister!”  (1939)
8. Kronos Quartet  “The Storm”  (1999)
9. Doves  “The Storm”  (2005)
10. Ed Harcourt  “Whirlwind in D Minor”  (2006)
11. The Sons of the Pioneers  “Wind”  (1951)
12. Drive-By Truckers  “Tornadoes”  (2004)
13. Joseph Arthur  “Electrical Storm”  (2006)
14. Billy Bragg & Wilco  “Black Wind Blowing”  (2000)
15. Fleetwood Mac  “Storms”  (1979)
16. Frank Sinatra  “Ill Wind (You’re Blowin’ Me No Good)”  (1955)
17. Neko Case  “This Tornado Loves You”  (2009)
18. Elsie Carlisle  “The Clouds Will Soon Roll By”  (1932)
19. Isaac Hayes  “The Storm Is Over”  (1976)

[audio:Fred_FM_playlist_051511.mp3]
Some notes on the songs:

• I guess I knew this all along, but that Ed Harcourt fellow sure does write a lot of songs featuring dark themes and bad weather metaphors (Don’t read that in the wrong way: I’m not saying that his metaphors are poorly written). Two of them made their way onto this playlist. I also included his grungy cover of The Beatles’ “Rain,” with its relentless pounding rhythm that reminded me of our recent bad weather episode.
• The Kronos Quartet’s performance of Philip Glass’ “The Storm” is from Glass’ score for the Tod Browning film version of Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi. It is a terrific score that works so well in the film because that 1931 production has very little dialogue.
• The Drive-By Truckers “Tornadoes” is included here by the suggestion of my friend, Chelsea Biondolillo.
• There is at least one moment during this playlist that gives me solid chills each time I hear it, and I’ve listened through a few times. It occurs right after the Wizard of Oz track as the Kronos Quartet begin their attack in “The Storm.” I’m immediately reminded of the wind howling and the sound of tree limbs cracking outside my living room window that morning (the same sounds are conjured by the opening of Ed Harcourt’s “The Storm Is Coming”). I hope anyone listening to this playlist isn’t traumatized or feels that this is an exercise in tastelessness. More importantly, I hope that no one thinks that, by making such a list, I am in any way making light of the event. I am not.