365 DAYS PROJECT

2003   JANUARY 18   #018




Charlie Lewis - Four Songs

Fun at home with a personal tape recorder! Years ago Charlie Lewis (over yonder at WFMU) sent me a cassette tape of recordings he made as a kid (he knows I collect this stuff). This is one of my all time favorite home recordings. I've included all 4 songs in the original order they appeared. The sound quality is pretty great for 30+ years and I think you'll enjoy these songs as much as I do.

- Otis Fodder

TT-7:03 / 6.46MB / 128kbps 44.1khz

Charlie Lewis writes:
These tunes were recorded by me around 1970 or 1971, when I would have been about 12 years old, probably in my bedroom in Queens, NY, into a portable Panasonic cassette recorder. The kazoo (or harmonica) was attached to one of those Dylan-style harmonica holders you wear around the neck, to free up the hands for guitar strumming. I've created a lot of music since then, but nothing with that degree of unselfconscious spontaneity, glee, and abandon.

Patrick writes:
Yet another classic! Please tell Charlie Lewis I'm prepared to invest my life savings if he ever wishes to produce his Magnum Opus "Four Songs" as a stadium based rock opera. I wept openly at Song 4 (which starts at approximately 4:30 into the recording), "Love Theme from Four Songs by Charlie Lewis." It's contemplative, introspective start (that kazoo, it didn't buzz in my ears, it spoke to my HEART) belies the symphonic crescendo that soon awaits unsuspecting listeners, before returning to the theme presented in it's quiet, paced starting stanzas. Alas, much like true love itself, no?