Defeating boredom...one mp3 at a time!





Cole Porter songs are everywhere! Vocalists revere his witty lyrics, jazz musicians praise his melodic structure, and for 50 years most Americans could whistle or hum along with his tunes. Record companies knew that including a Porter ditty (or two...or even devoting an entire lp) would increase sales, and, as a result, every thrift store crawls with these songs, each flea market stall is rife with them, and if you see a stack of dusty vinyl at a yard sale...well, the odds are good that someone is interpreting classic Cole.







This blog is a humble attempt to offer some of the more unusual/rare/overlooked versions from the Porter canon. Most come from forgotten vinyl, some may come from other sources, none will come from official discography. I'm not here to steal from the record companies. If you see something that is available from Amazon.com please let me know and it will be removed.







I'm no expert on the "great American songbook." I grew up a rabid punk rocker who loved (and still loves) The Ramones, Sex Pistols, and all things Beefheart. My dad loved Broadway, though, and even as I ridiculed his collection of bland records, I was apparently absorbing every song on My Fair Lady, South Pacifiic, and Kiss Me Kate. I can still remember the first time I heart Porter's Lets Do It...did someone just say "Lithuanian and Lats do it?" Hey, I'm Lithuanian! Dad...lets listen to that song again. It sounded so corny when I was a teenager. These days it just sounds good.







The Porter Quarter gets its name from the simple fact that many of the records heard here were purchased for a quarter. Then it occured to me this blog might be considered as a destination...in the same way The Latin Quarter is an actual place. And it rhymes!



















Tuesday, February 16, 2010

The Smithereens: My Heart Belongs To Daddy




Finally, the computer is back in the office (a tip o' the hat to John - computer expert extraordinaire), the turntable is up and running, and the audio restoration software is slowly revealing its secrets. Here we go with our first vinyl-to-digital offering: The Smithereens! A vinyl artifact from Smith College in Northampton, Ma. No date on sleeve or disc, but I'm guessing it was made in the early 80's.
The college LP represents a nearly forgotten subgenre....the musical equivalent of the "vanity press." Thousands of these discs, representing glee clubs, greek organizations, and drama departments, find themselves in landfill every year. Every record collector runs across them and nearly every record collector shuns them. This one is actually interesting: a cappella versions of Beatles and Beach Boys...and Cole Porter. www.box.net/shared/uuqlsql9oa
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