This one's got it all in my opinion.....multitrack recording by one person playing a LOT of instruments (with various degrees of success), a vanity label, an unintentionally crass subtitle, a slightly out-of-tune piano, and several dorky songs (Anatomy Rag, I'm So in Love with Mable, You Pick a Rib) sung really badly.
We've met Dr. Harley Frey on this blog before, on the very rip-roaring Crusty Crumbs record, Dixieland music performed by a group of doctors and other professionals from Lafayette, Indiana. Here, Harley correctly assumes his own talents alone are enough to fill an entire album--he multi-tracks himself on piano, organ vocals, trombone, bass, drums, guitar et al.....and the results are stunning, to say the least.
The sax breaks alone are worth the $3 I spent on this one (yes, I will admit it was purchased for the subtitle "A record of a man playing with himself", I have the maturity of an eight year old kid). If I ever needed to be anesthetized when Dr. Frey was still alive, I would have sought him out, just to hear him sing the "stimulate my dendrites" line from "Anatomy Rag" to me as I drifted off into oblivion.
Here's Harley or Here - Performed, recorded, and produced by Harley Frey
RPC Record Publications Company, Camden NJ
3 comments:
aaahooooga....i like this ever so much...
what a find! loved the organ bits on "Little Rock Getaway" (thought most people try to get away from Little Rock), enjoyed "I'm So In Love w/ Mabel" for the followup lyric, "I could lift a concrete table." is that really necessary?
also, that's a pretty m*cked up version of "The Entertainer" and Harley's rendition of "Yellow Bird" actually had me playing with myself at work! (rapping my knuckles on the desk in time, I mean.)
anyway, thanks!
I could just frame the little pic on the back. Thanks!
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