This Earth Day will see the remix’s release,
Please help me! I wrote this song in 1976. The recording I made got the attention of the record company guy (me at the time), who got my message. I want the message to get out to everyone. I didn’t perform it because I thought it was an obvious sentiment. I’m now too old to want promote this song live or on social media, ergo I NEED YOUR HELP.
A BRIEF HISTORY:
I was walking through an exhibit of player pianos in 1975 and saw a one-man-band playing “Stars and Stripes Forever” by John Philip Sousa. It was so cool! I recorded it with Glen Kolotkin. I wrote a ditty incorporating a nursery rhyme about being kind to web-footed friends in my duck voice. I was helped by Jon Sargent of Purple Earthquake , who arranged the vocals and Tommy Dunbar, Rubinoos, who added electric guitar in the “Pete” tradition of working with Beserkley band members.
The song was released in 1976 to coincide with the America’s 200th birthday. I never toured, I was not an act.. After the recording paid for itself, I stopped working the song. I felt the premise of the song was so obvious and forgot about it until
IT GOT ERIC DIN’S ATTENTION.
THE SONG GOT ERIC DIN’S (another record company guy) ATTENTION.
Says Din: “We’re excited to get this timely remix out to the streaming services on Earth Day 2022. I was surprised to learn Pete did the “duck” vocals himself, and when I read the lyrics, this suddenly became more than a novelty song for me. It’s an unexpected environmental anthem, and we’re proud to release it on Berkeley Cat Records.
I made the original video with Calvin West, drawings by Trimla Rose, and I posted it on Youtube.
Here’s a magnificent recording of Duke Ellington’s orchestra performing “Louisiana.” Back then there was no such thing as an overdub, much less any auto-tune or fancy editing software. Heck, you even had to mix the record while you were playing it into one mic! These cats could play for real. What a joy to hear such craft and art, delivered with humor and heart.
Recorded shortly before Charley Patton’s death, “Mind Reader Blues” is a song he performed with his common-law wife, Bertha Lee. In her magnificent voice, Lee scolds Patton for his womanizing even as he lovingly accompanies her on guitar. The lyrics are auto-biographical: “I remember a day when I were livin’ at Lula town, I remember a day when I were livin’ at Lula town, my man did so many wrong things ’til I had to leave the town.” Bertha Lee hailed from Lula, Mississippi, and Patton lived there with her for a time. What exactly he did so they had to leave, one can only wonder! This is a clean transfer from 78RPM platter from 1934.
This great performance of the instrumental Roaring 20’s romp, “Toodles,” by Edison Recording Artist, the Charleston 7, stands the test of time on this MP3 from the original Edison Disc. You may recognize a theme or two from this piece, which were later borrowed by the Looney Tunes gang for Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck cartoons! Step into the Wayback Machine in your finest flapper apparel, and dance the Charleston to this high energy combo!
Born in January of 1900 in Allatoona, Georgia, Clayton McMichen had his great success recording with Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers and Hometown Boys, and also as a solo artist. His solo effort performance of “Grave In The Pines” is a starkly sweet and sincere lament to a fallen love. McMichen performed regularly in Louisville, Kentucky until retiring in 1955, and later returning to the stage at the Newport Folk Festival in 1964.
The Paul Whiteman Orchestra famously pushed the boundaries of jazz by incorporating classical orchestration into big band arrangements. Whiteman commissioned and debuted George Gershwin’s groundbreaking “Rhapsody In Blue” in 1924, and his symphonic jazz style influenced many greats who followed – including Miles Davis, Gil Evans and later Winton Marsalis. Here’s an early recording by Paul Whiteman Orchestra – the classic horn player anthem, “Doo Wacka Doo.”
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