1 post tagged “lost pets”

Mark has a new playlist up on his mySpace page
http://www.myspace.com/dreamtunesmusic

Message from Mark:

I'm having some fun today with the new list of obscurities - a veritable "Gloat and Shame" parade ;)

Track one is just a fun little ditty that stands out because of Big Jim Sullivan's damn fine (written!) fiddle arrangement, revealing that he was, at heart, a British, good ol' boy Redneck! LOL. Gotta love that man!

The never released Metal Rock version of "Grocer Jack" is another version not produced by me, except for the kids sections -- I guess nobody could ever get the kids right, so they'd come to me, LOL.

"Let" is one of my original song demos for the half-completed yet aborted, never released, "Lost Pets" album. So sad, too bad, I liked that album.

Helen Reddy's "Catch My Breath," a cool Allan O'Day song, was originally produced by Kim Fowley and me for Helen's "Let's Sing In The Sunshine" album, but taken out by the executive producer in favor of another, inferior, track that he published. Hollywood.

"My Daddy Is A Baddie" is the worst record I ever made. No - the worst record ANYBODY ever made. Why did I make it?
Out of sheer desperation. It was 1969... my champions, the pirate radio stations (without whose support nobody would ever
have heard of me) had been sunk, and the BBC once again ruled as a dictatorial radio monopoly, refusing to play my stuff.
Trying to somehow fit into their niddle-diddle playlists, I no longer made records for the people, but for the BBC.
To no avail. So, as a last resort, facing unemployment as market/BBC poison, I produced the most contrived, unimaginative,
moronic, piece of crap record I could --- untypically even copying the arrangement from a proven hit record (Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da) -- AND sticking in a childrens chorus, since bratty kid voices had made me "(in)famous." Did the BBC play it? Nope. Bastards! LOLOL

It was around that time (1970) when composer/producer Les Reed sat me down and gave me a stern talking to, shaking me up and telling me to stop f... ing around and make my own kind of records again. Having just started his Chapter One label, he went one step further and said,"Produce an album for me. Do anything you want. You have carte blanche." And so, "Philwit & Pegasus" came into being. Alas, despite rave reviews, the BBC once again refused to play it. Worse, they actually banned the P&P single "The Elephant Song," claiming that it was a glorification of bestiality. Huh?? Bestiality?? In truth, it was a metaphor to promote racial integration! DUH!

I had had it and broken heartedly accepted producer Denny Cordell's invitation to leave England and join him and Leon Russell at their Shelter Records company in Hollywood.

Less than a month before my one-way flight to the U.S., Les Reed asked me to produce one final album for him with his new artist Roger James. I did. As a sarcastic "farewell" gesture, I closed that album with the most pompously overblown, overproduced, Bubble Gum track ever put on vinyl... "Something Wonderful" (the final track on this music player list). Two days after the final mix of that track, I departed into exile in America... 35 years later, I'm still here, but good old England will forever be "back home" to me!!

Markie

P.S. Now, look here, amigos... I go down into the dungeon for you, battling cob webs, moth balls, ancient ghosts and weird smells to dig out these obscurities, so be a real friend and give back, would ya? How? By voting for me in the FameCast comedy contest, that's how. Here is the link:

http://www.famecast.com/contest/stage.php?stage_id=44&round_id=178&artist_id=7077

Thank you, my luvly duhlings! :) You're the best! Mmmmmmmwuh!

Love & Hugs
Rosemarie
http://www.markwirtz.com