More MP3-making:
December 18, 2013:
Took a break from the Nonesuch music and recorded an album that’s entitled either “Peter and the Wolf” or “Favorite Children’s Stories,” depending which label you believe, by the Rocking Horse Players and Orchestra. It’s six stories — well, five stories and an idiotic song — combining music and recitation.
They’re pretty lame, really.
The stories are “Peter and the Wolf,” “The Golden Goose,” “The Brave Tin Soldier” (which they consistently call “The Brave Tin Soldiers” on the sleeve, for no discernible reason), “The Elves and the Shoemaker,” and “The Three Billy Goats Gruff.” The album closes with a piece of idiocy called “Ozzie the Ostrich,” a song which manages to be inaccurate, misleading, and downright stupid while apparently attempting to be educational — it claims that no one knows where the ostrich lays his eggs, for example.
There are other minor stupidities here and there, such as the actress reading the part of the shoemaker’s wife not knowing how to pronounce “waistcoat,” but it’s mostly a reasonably professional production.
Oddly, it has no copyright notice or other legalities, and I know enough pre-1976 copyright law (it’s from 1966) to know that means it’s in the public domain, whether deliberately or not.
I don’t think I ever played it; it was a yard sale acquisition, and by the time I got it the kids were probably too old for it.
It’s got a moderate amount of surface noise, but no serious problems.
That leaves two more children’s records. Or four, depending on how you look at it.
December 20, 2013:
“Puff the Magic Dragon and Other Songs Children Request,” by the Richard Wolfe Children’s Chorus. 1967, and pretty much what the title says, with classics like “On Top of Spaghetti” and “The Little White Duck.” I got this at a yard sale for fifty cents (the price is still on it) circa 1988-1990, and if I remember correctly I bought it to prove to Kiri that “John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmitt” was a real song and not something I’d made up.
We played the first side once, so she could hear that song. I’m pretty sure we never played the second side at all, or either side again.
It’s kinda scratched up; it took two tries to get a complete, non-skipping version of the title track, though the rest made it in a single pass. It’s scratched, though, more than worn, so it’s more listenable than some others I’ve dealt with — between scratches it’s still clear. And except for the skips in the first track none of the scratches are all that bad, there are just a lot of them.
It’s also really short; both sides together only come to maybe 25 minutes. [I’ve noticed this was a recurring theme — I seem to have complained any time an album had a playing time under 35 minutes.]
The liner notes are unfortunate; someone was trying to be hip and failing: “Puff.. is ‘the most’ with the young set now.”
Anyway, it’s a decent collection of kid songs, sung by a children’s chorus that’s decent and doesn’t try too hard.
December 25, 2013: [Yes, I did one on Christmas Day.]
“The Majesty of the Luneburg Organ,” Prof. Michael Schneider playing J.S. Bach.
I think this was the first classical album I ever owned; it’s from the late 1960s. Well, this edition– the original recording was 1958, this is a re-release. I bought it new.
It’s got some minor wear and surface noise, but is mostly fine.