2003 MAY 13 #133
Stag Party Record 9 - Winnipeg Whore
For a brief period, there was a really great record shop in Toronto called Eargasm, that was positively teeming with great records and supreme deals. In his "Strange" section of the LPs were untold riches (such as what you see and hear on this page). It only took me finding one Leonard Nimoy record in there to make this section my very first stop with each new visit. The Nimoy record ("Space Odyssey", one of my cherished) was 6 dollars and the one below merely 4. The owner began to wise up to my habits and, suspiciously, things that were once 4 dollars were now 8. I guess this is what happens when a shop first opens: feel out the patrons, see what they'll spend money on, then price accordingly.
Most of the record is pretty silly and isn't worth a full sit-through, but the Winnipeg Whore is an absolute delight: a true gem (I'm in love with the backup singers), and, apparently an age-old ditty. (A friend bought me an Oscar Brand, "Bawdy Songs, and Backroom Ballads" LP for 50 cents with, much to my shock and amazement, an alternate version of Winnipeg Whore. Two recordings of the song? Do people care this much? Hunt around for the mp3 and listen to his version for yourself.)
Now, seeing that this is Stag Party Record 9 and assuming there are volumes 1 through 8, I tried to do some interweb research to find the missing volumes. I found people with Volumes 1 and 2, and have seen a picture of Number 6 in a magazine. I even have a copy of Number 4. But not a peep about the others. The Stag Party series was put out on Fax Records (who have 10s of fabulous releases), so I searched the label to not much avail. The best link I discovered was this link to a formal Postal Service complaint about the distribution of obscene matter from 1961, which is good for a guffaw. If anyone has any information about this series or where to get more, please contact me. (Email below)
Blather, blather. Making this song more personal for me is the fact that I grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Why on earth my parents chose Winnipeg to emigrate from Scotland to is a mystery to me. I guess living in dry, hot summers and sub-arctic winters is satisfactory punishment for a healthy Protestant upbringing. And I know what you're thinking; this song has nothing to do with my dear, sweet mother.
- Marty Knox, pantsxplosion@hotmail.com
TT-1:47 / 2.5MB / 192kbps 44.1khz
(Image courtesy of Marty Knox)
Henry Lowengard writes:
I'm a fellow 365 days curator, and just today I pulled
out my Terri "Cupcake" O'Mason records to see
if they were worth uploading... I have #2 and #4. I have
an Army songs record that I think also came from FAX.
There's an interesting but not super informative link
on FAX records here: http://www.arrowweb.net/frame/fax.htm
- Meanwhile, I'd have to say that #4 is not as much
fun as #2 .. she spends too much time doing limericks.
Her low-key voice with limited singing range is pretty
nice. Her super-pregnant pauses, to allow for prurient
guffaws, no doubt, break up the flow of her jokes. But
in today's modern tsunami of smut, it's hard to put yourself
in a world where that would be entertaining. It merely
comes out feeling bizarre. I might try to upload "Cupcake"s
signature song, though, for those interested in schadenfreude.
Similarly, I audited a Burlesque record I have to see
if it was worthy. The audience seemed to be laughing,
but, wow, these jokes were lame. I guess you had to be
there, drunk. Keep listening!