Tin Pan Alley

I fear this may well be a post that my co-blogging, punk loving, country twanging, Ford fiesta driving, software testing co-blogger Peter will label as 'educational'. Being poorly educated myself, and in the business of educating poorly, I shall attempt to inform little, make spelling mistakes and riddle the thing with historical inaccuracies.

So, to New York and Tin Pan Alley, allegedly so called as the cacophony of noise created by so many music publishing houses being lumped together created a noise not unlike the sound of pans being hit.. The Bowery Boys are a couple of camp sounding podcasters who produce highly entertaining podcasts on New York history. They are free and regularly get me to work and back, transporting me from the sweaty hell hole of the Santiago metro to Pennsylvania Station, the slum of the Five Points or this week Tin Pan Alley (actually from December of last year).

Geographically speaking Tin Pan Alley doesn't actually exist. It was an area on West 28th Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues, which is now part of the Flatiron district. What we are talking about is the birth of the sheet music business, and songwriters and publishers touting their wares to artists as a way of spreading and popularising their songs. Of course, at the time, music was live. You had no way of listening in another way, so in order to make their money the publishing companies produced sheet music (often sold in department stores). Aspiring songwriters would try and sell their songs to the houses, who would probably pay them off with a one-off fee, or if they were any good they would employ them on contract to knock out song after song. Big stars would often be simply given a good song, as when they embarked on a tour they might spread its popularity across the nation and lead to a million copies of the sheet music being sold.  

The Tin Pan Alley heydey was really about 1885 to 1910, when the companies started to move out of the district, although wireless and movies then came along, then records, and finally rock n'roll kicked it to death. This era produced many songs still recognised and played today (Take me Out to the Ball Game, for example), as well as host of well known song writing names - George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Fats Waller, Cole Porter and Scott Joplin. You can read more of the history here or see how the place is threatened with re-development here.

So, here we go with the tunes. The brothers Gibb with Irving Berlin's Alexander's Ragtime Band (he also wrote White Christmas).


Here are the moptops with a version of the Yellen & Ager song Aint She Sweet.



And finally, everyones favourite mobster with the Donaldson & Whiting My Blue Heaven.

Revolver

Revolver was my CD of choice, driving my car too and fro from MOT place. It tried to lighten my mood and in a way I guess it did.
Let me be honest here, you may have noticed that I dont hold the revered albums up there that I should, the ones that make the lists I tend to think are ok, and so Revolver was picked from the shelf and an opinion formed very very quickly, christ, moddy shit from The Beatles.
Its good isn't it, it's a bloody good album and I really didn't realise it, it's superb, you can really see where Oasis got their sound, and when was it released, what 66? Really ahead of it's time, Tomorrow Never Knows could be The Chemical Brothers, certainly ther Chemical Brothers owe the drums on Tomorrow Never Knows a bit of a debt.
The only real downsides are Yellow Submarine and Harrisons efforts, and although this review is brief, I cant really tell you much about Revolver, but as this started out as a 4, it is a generous 9 out of 10.



She Said She Said by The Beatles

Yellow Submarine

You would think that THIS close to the end of the B's it would be foolish to take a break from my trip through my loosely alphabeticised CD albums. I haven't. Wednesday I had a second copy of Blink 182's self titled album, it was excellent second time round, and then I had Dude Ranch also by Blink 182, and for some reason my over fussy car stereo wouldn't play it, I suspect it would have been a 9, it contains Josie and Dammit, which I love but as it wouldn't play, well no review.
Yesterday was Yellow Submarine by The Beatles and it is the first time I suspect that this album has been played. I think my sister bought it me, she certainly bought me the film for my birthday and potentially she also bought me the soundtrack. It isn't important.
This version is the 1999 reissue and does not contain the orchestrations that appeared on the original and replaces it with songs from other albums.
Yellow Submarine is considered the weakest of The Beatles' albums, and with the removal of the orchestrations, therefore messing with the release, it is even weaker for it, extremely weak, so I will be ignoring tracks that appeared on other albums and concentrating on the 5 songs that were specific to this release.
Its an extremely poor album this album and that may be the reason for it's lack of play. Of the five tracks I only like one song and that is the rather throwaway All Together Now, the other tracks, either jar or just aren't that good. Harrison is let loose again at a time when he should be on a tight reign, maybe things were such at that time that Lennon and McCartney would allow any old shit on to an album, Only A Northern Song being the best example.
This release of course features the Ringo vocal on the title track and it's not a bad song, its not awful, familiarity breeds contempt and all that and as it is so damned familiar I have nothing but contempt for it, and its vocalist.
So not a good album, an appalling reissue that someone thought was a good idea, when it clearly wasn't. 1 out of 10.



All Together Now by The Beatles

Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

The nations favourite old person, Sarah Kennedy kept me entertained for the main part for my journey to London, she is like a walking talking version of The Daily Mail, after all she does believe that Enoch Powell was the best leader this country never had. She does play show tunes though and there really is nothing better than zipping through England screaming at the top of your lungs, “Therea ain’t nothing like a dame”.
It doesn’t last long though and as soon as Terry Wogan came a long it bought me neatly to my commute CD, apparently the greatest album ever made depending on the day, The Beatles’ Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Its not the greatest album ever made though, its note even The Beatles greatest album, but considering I wasn’t particularly looking forward to listening to it, it wasn’t an altogether bad experience.
I hadn’t listened to this album in quite some years, I had listened to the NME compiled Sgt Pepper Knew My Father but the actual album that tribute was based on, it may have been around 25 years since I last heard it, I find it quite dull you see.
It wasn’t dull though, I would say that She’s Leaving Home is possibly The Beatles most accomplished and well put together song. Potentially their best song, it caught me off guard a little as it was a song that I hadn’t really given any thought to.
The album as a whole demonstrates extremely well just how good Lennon and McCartney were as songwriters, in all of the songs on this album there are no clichés, they aren’t lazy lyrically or musically, they don’t feel the need to add superfluous “ooh baby’s” and the album fits together better than a jigsaw, carefully compiled running order makes it an effortless album to listen to.
The only downside for me is when they allow George Harrison to have free reign as he does on the tabla and sitar infused Within You Without You. If The Beatles can’t be arsed to play on it, then I think that is rather telling. It only takes one bad apple and this bad album loses this surprising (to me) album a point. 9 out of 10.



She’s Leaving Home by The Beatles