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"Placenta Preview", with The Green County Boys (MP3's)

Back in April of 2007, during the second 365 project, The ToD was nice enough to share an interesting album by a group of doctors from the Ozarks, who called themselves The Greene County Boys. Some time later, I was able to acquire copies of the two other albums by this group. One of them, titled "Borborygmi", was also part of 365 days, by the equally nice Mr. Fab, and that can be found here. To round out the set, I thought I'd let everyone in on the wonders of the Green County Boys album "Placenta Preview". 

Everything I know about this album, which isn't much, comes from the paper insert which was included in the sleeve (a scan is below). The sleeve itself (also scanned, below), is just a generic blue through and through, and the album label has nothing more than the album title and side markings. 

The songs, by the way, run virtually right into the next track in most cases. This is why most tracks stop abruptly, with very little time for empty surface noise before the next track (a la "Sgt. Pepper", an album this collection will never again be compared with). And a few tracks (such as "Halitosis") seem to start mid-phrase from the pianist.

To my ears, the album is hit and miss, more miss than hit, with a few truly cringeworthy bits of singing, as well. For example, although I am pleased to have been introduced to the term "Aciphidity Bag" (also known as an Acifidity Bag), the last note sung on that song is amazingly awful. My favorite here, by a wide margin - most likely because of the peppy calypso setting - is "Pass-a No Gas". 

1.) The Greene County Boys – A Toast to the Doctors (MP3)

2.) The Greene County Boys – A Doctor Ain’t Got a Friend (MP3)

3.) The Greene County Boys – It Must Be a Virus (MP3)

4.) The Greene County Boys – Thanks for the Referral (MP3)

5.) The Greene County Boys – AFL-CIO-AMA (MP3)

6.) The Greene County Boys – T he Doctors’ PR Man (MP3)

7.) The Greene County Boys – I Married an Aciphidity Bag (MP3)

8.) The Greene County Boys – Halitosis Beats No Breath At All (MP3)

9.) The Greene County Boys – Pass-a No Gas (MP3)

10.) The Greene County Boys – A Doctor Needs a Wife (MP3)

11.) The Greene County Boys – Here’s to the Doctor (MP3)

Album Cover (JPG)  |  Album Label (JPG)  |  Album Insert (JPG)

"Tee & Vee Crosley in Television-Land Comics" (1951)

"In the following pages,  you will learn of the exciting adventures of two typical American youngsters, TEE and VEE CROSLEY in "Television-Land". We hope you will enjoy them but only as a prelude to the even more exciting and fascinating adventures you will enjoy when you have Crosley Television and Crosley Kitchen Appliances."

Indeed - what red-blooded American youngster could resist that pitch? Thus begins today's comic book excavation into a particularly dark and strange corner of 'corporate' comics, usually free magazines designed to instruct or sell products or both. This book is a really messed-up example of this type of advertising and goes deeper in the confidence in its own power of persuasion than anyone who reads it now will believe. The pitch within is not just HARD sell - it goes many an extra mile to hammer its points home over and over in the context of a cute funny animal kiddie comic book world populated with an excess of appliances and characters obsessed with gadgets and features of same.

Herein is a confusing mixture - were the children this was apparently aimed at really expected to be interested in the relentless intrusions of Crosley products for their post-war suburban home? Enough that they would nag Mom and Pop about said merchandise, using the comic book as a spiced-up candy-coated catalog / script to convince them and soften them up to the virtues of all things CROSLEY? It is indeed a very sick and desperate ploy, and one which I doubt really worked very well. On the plus side, though, the art and package itself is professional and attractive, clearly by a studio that already knew how to produce slick kiddie comics; and the interactive 'game / toy' feature pages are particularly well-done and look like they would be a lot of fun to actually cut out and assemble and play with.

Come along with Tee and Vee, our brother and sister protagonists, as they explore the excitement (and not in a dream sequence, either!) of the magical world built by Crosley. It's all right after the jump!

Dow Brewery, Brewers of Dow Ale: Bob Hahn Radio Commercial Presentation Reel # 4 (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 54) (MP3's)

Over the past two months, I have shared the contents of two tapes, from a group of four reel to reel tapes I recently purchased, sampler reels of the work of Canadian ad-man Bob Hahn. Volume Three of the tapes contains just two ads, in multiple minor variations, and one of those two ads is represented on Tape Four, so aside from two versions of one track, I've skipped over the third reel. Today, the fourth and final reel. There are seven ads and five other fragments on this tape, and all but the last of those twelve tracks are for the products of the Dow Brewery. 

The Dow Brewery did not survive with its good name intact for much longer after these 1961 ads, as you can read about here. 

The tracks on this tape are divided into similar ads for different markets. First there is a square dance track, one for Canadian stations and one for American stations. Aside from minor cosmetic differences, these two mainly differ in that in Canada, "Dow Brings Out the Best in Cheer", while in America, "Dow Brings Out the Best in Beer". There's a sociological research paper waiting to be written within the decision to alter those words for the differing market.There is also an isolation track of the advertising tag line. 

This is followed by two ads featuring harmonica orchestras. Both are heard with vocals in English, then in French versions (which amount to the instrumental harmonica tracks, with voiceover in French at the end. The moment at about 18 seconds into the second ad (in both languages' ads) is one of the weirder things I've heard in an ad from this era. In the English ad, it's startling; in the French ad, it makes no sense whatsoever. 

These are followed by more excerpted sections of the square dance ads - I'm not clear on the use of the two short end pieces which I've grouped together as the 9th item here (the "wild tag" listed as the 11th track is identical to the 8th track, and is not included). Finally comes the only non-Dow ad of the reel, which is for Parliament Cigarettes.  

At the end, I've included the only ads which were unique to reel three. These are American and Canadian versions of an ad for Kingsbeer. The differences here are all in the second verse - the American version focuses on the brewing and the taste of the beer, while the Canadian version repeats the first verse heard in both versions. 

Here, dear readers and listeners, the Bob Hahn Presentation Reel, Volume 4: 

TRACKS REMOVED AT REQUEST OF COPYRIGHT HOLDER