2003 MAY 5 #125
The Central High School Cafeteria Band - First Rhapsody For Knives, Forks & Spoons parts 1 & 2
Don't know the year on this but I reckon 60's by the sound quality. I found this in Vortex on Queen St. in Toronto, bought in the same crop that yielded the Utica club beer drinking song featured on January 23rd. A high school band clunks and clanks it's way through 2 (original?) compositions by Charles Crean accompanying the band with Knives, Forks & Spoons - very noisy, disjointed and hilarious in that quaint way all high school bands are. The first movement (Allegro Conbeat) is my favorite, 'Wipeout' guitars, a kazoo, oompah style kickdrum and the trade offs between the cutlery and piano make this a treat. The second movement (Andante Con Cha Cha) is a bit more sedate as an organ joins them with overtones of 'The Monster Mash' in places and the whole thing clunks to a halt after just over two minutes. Suitably apt as I spin and produce music under the title of DJ Food.
- Strictly Kev (DJ, producer, graphic designer and rabid collector of all forms of 'music')
TT-4:03 / 4.6MB / 160kbps 44.1khz
from Reo 7"
(Image courtesy of Strictly Kev)
Christopher Cuomo in Birmingham, Alabama
writes:
I once had a copy of that record! I found it in a thrift
shop amongst a stack of obscure early-'60s novelty records.
The copy I had was on the Amy label, which was a subsidiary
of Bell Records. Bell (home to the Partridge Family and
Gary Glitter) would later become Arista Records, which
is still with us today. Apparently Reo (a Canadian imprint
that released many US indie recordings North of the Border)
released the record in Canada. Note the blurb about by
arrangement with Bell Records. I always seriously doubted
that that this was a real HS band, probably just some
tomfoolery by Bell studio musicians. The school name is
so common, and what high school band gets released on
a major label? It is quite a unique record though.
Scott S. writes:
I guess we think alike, as this single was played a few
times as fill on cheese (www.cheezepleeze.com)...well
part 1 anyways, first i've heard of pt 2. Just as a follow
up to some of the notes on the page, yes indeed, there
were canadian labels that actually released independent
hits from the US on a regular basis. There were three
companies to my knowledge, Quality records had REO, as
well as QUALITY as it's labels, Phonodisc had DELTA and
REGENCY, as well as anything Motown using it's originating
labels(one of the only ones to do that in the early 60's)
and Compo had APEX. everything from Roulette, Sun, Big
Top, Vee Jay, A&M, and many other US labels was released
by these companies in canada. As a footnote, I remember
talking to a veteran Canadian DJ from the 50's who used
to get calls from american DJ's who preferred canadian
copies of what they are playing on air. Seems the canadian
45's held up better at cueing up the record on the turntable
then the american copies. They even went so far as to
pay for them!