Album Droppings: Songs of the Street and the Road...

The only way to tackle such a huge undertaking is methodically. The A-Z approach seems appropriate.

But I just couldn't wait. There were a couple of old albums I really wanted on CD, and have been waiting impatiently for them to be re released. The first is at left: Geraldine Fitzgerald in "Streetsongs." Yep, it's a musical, one-woman show. I know what you're thinking. If you even have any idea who Geraldine Fitzgerald is (or was), you are rolling your eyes at the prospect of her appearing in a musical. There's a joke in there someplace. To paraphrase Bette Midler, who said it about somebody else, "I never miss a Geraldine Fitzgerald musical."

But the thing is really a charmer. Fitzgerald sings old songs, some well-known, others quite obscure, and intersperses the concert with anecdotes about these chestnuts. Doesn't sound very interesting, and indeed, her voice is not well suited to song. But it IS well-suited to story-telling, which is what she is doing. The show ran in New York and on tour, and was actually filmed for PBS at the same time this recording was made, when she was appearing at The Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival. The DVD remains unreleased, the CD remains unreleased, and this vinyl recording is going for 25 bucks on Ebay (I just checked). Very obscure.

The second album I had to convert to CD is one I mentioned in an earlier post, Cass Elliot's "The Road is No Place for a Lady." For some reason, this album remains unreleased on CD, though all of the other of the big gal's work is now available, even records made in her pre-Mamas and Papas phase. This is the final studio solo recording she made before dying. (Her actual final release was a live album recorded at Mr. Kelly's in Chicago, "Don't Call Me Mama Anymore.") I am one of those who were fascinated by Elliot when she was alive, and I'm glad to see that her talent is still recognized so long after her death. But this album remains unavailable, maybe somebody has the rights tied up. One of the reasons I liked her so much was her attraction to old standards, at a time when absolutely nobody in the pop world paid any attention to them. Her big solo hit, "Dream a Little Dream of Me," was written decades earlier, and she continued to slip in old chestnuts with her newer material. Of course, these days, every pop star cuts an album of standards, but she was the first. This album ain't getting much respect; I've just seen it on EBay for about 5 bucks...

...and I'm not sure how much respect Cass Elliot got when she died. I think they finally put to rest the rumor that she died choking on a ham sandwich. She died of a massive coronary, brought on by choking on a ham sandwich. I won't repeat the tasteless joke which was circulated around that time. You know the one, where it is noted that if Cass Elliot had shared that sandwich with Karen Carpenter, they'd both be alive today...

So, two albums down. Hundreds and hundreds to go. This is going to take the rest of my life.