Here is a question to remember for the WFMU record fair, next month: Do you buy that $100 record of quality end to end, or buy another person's "junk" if the price is right? On Coffee Break For Heroes And Villains, Noah played the New Seekers "Free To Be You, Free To Be Me," next to children's music from the Smurfs--yes, the cartoon, and then Millie Small. You would probably never play the Smurfs on its own, unless you have a tot in the house. But Noah uses the high voices to make a record most adult collectors would not touch work as music.
Conversely, some music written for kids works amazingly for adults. Listen to "Pinball Number Song" recorded by The Pointer Sisters for Sesame Street in the early 1970's. The piece, played by Small Change on Nickel And Dime Radio, is made to teach pre-schoolers to count, but is still top rate jazz-funk. "Inside Outside Upside Down" is from Josie And The Pussycats and was played by Joe McGasko on Surface Noise. The track is not as edgy as "Pinball Number Song," (but neither is most music) but works as well as any bubble gum, or even a girl group song of the era, and sheds light on how television was interpreting and packaging 1960's youth culture.
Collectors often bypass the same dozen or so artists in every dollar bin search. On Toothpick Rhythm, 
Betsy Nichols played "The Blizzard" by Jim Reeves during the New Year's storm of 2010-11. An orphan record you would otherwise never hear is used for free form radio to react to an outside event. Evan "Funk" Davies played "I Was Made To Love Her" as sung by Tom Jones next to "Thunder Island" by Jay Ferguson. Dad's lounge music works as rock when played in this context.
Why dont you get your web to put up the WFMU Record Firs info somewhere visible? It is Oct 18 and nothing on the Web at all about 2011 due next week.
Posted by: Anthony | October 18, 2011 at 05:08 PM