Pickwick discussion

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The saddest part is trying to find clean six-eye LPs out there.

Yeah, no kidding. I've managed to find a couple Johnny Mathis six-eye pressings in excellent shape (probably not that hard a find - some of those early Mathis titles are awfully ubiquitous, it seems like), but beyond that, nearly every six-eye title I've run across has been awfully dusty or beat up. You're right, though - when you can find them, they do sound quite excellent!
 
Funny thing recently was, I scored a nice NM 6 Eye Stereo of "Hell Bent For Leather" at McKay's in Knoxville, and I saw LP Jim on my way into the store. Good luck magnet, came home with some good finds.
 
I usually hear that 50's-early 60's Columbia label referred to as the six-eye label; connecting that weird trademark symbol with the "eye" of CBS television. Recently on another forum, someone referred to it (singly) as a Columbia "bird," I suppose it does resemble a stork or some other long-legged bird (not a British girl who looked good in a mini skirt... :cool: ) As a kid, it always reminded me of that spider-like one-eyed "robot spy" from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon "Jonny Quest"... I understand the CBS television "eye" was based on a "hex sign" seen on an Amish barn in Pennsylvania; :blinkeye: anyone (connected with CBS or otherwise) know exactly what the record symbol was supposed to be, anyway? (An "eye" symbol made perfect sense for television, but records?)
:shrug:
 
I've heard that it could represent a stylus touching the grooves of a record.

Harry
 
OK, a Pickwicked (Pickwick'd?) copy of Pat Boone's White Christmas on CD: Fourteen tracks listed on the disc on the back cover and in the booklet, but only THIRTEEN play; the last one is indiscreetly/discreetly omitted...! :sad:

Then there's the first Lulu (born: Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie) album, Something To SHOUT! About that's centered around her version of The Isley Brother's tune, that got reissued as Lulu w/ only the ballads included...


-- Dave
 
Marvellously off-topic, but seeing Dave's reference to Lulu's real name prompts me to comment that her brother was a pal of mine back in the '70s (indeed I knew all the family) when he was an A&R man at RCA. That label released some of Billy's own records (he's a pretty nifty singer-songwriter and now writes songs for his big sister). I saw Lu fairly recently here in Scotland (where this pic was taken)
_53977819_luluattallships.jpg
..............and must say she's still looking fantastic.
 
I would love to see Lulu in concert if she's still performing Live!

She made tons of great discs, such as a couple for Chelsea, a self-titled one, and another afterwards, Heaven And Earth And The Stars, on which she recorded a terrific version of "The Man With The Golden Gun" from the James Bond film, and a couple tracks produced by Mick Ronson and David Bowie, "The Man Who Sold The World" and "Watch That Man"...

New Routes and Melody Fair, on Atco, have both long been a favorite of mine...


-- Dave
 
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While not on Pickwick as far as I know, Lulu did an album featuring Duane Allman and recorded at Muscle Shoals. That just strikes me as... unexpected. It was called "New Routes", I believe.
 
Yes, she recorded New Routes and the follow-named after the Bee Gees song, Melody Fair, in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and Miami, Florida, respectively (and she covered a LOT by Barry and the late-Maurice and the late-Robin, down there), all collected on the 2-CD set, The Atco Years, w/ the second disc containing the Bonus Material--unreleased sessions and lost singles...


-- Dave
 
Lu had invited me along to the gig (as a pal), and we had a wee blether* in her dressing room (in a Portacabin) afterwards. She never changes! On stage she was electrifying. The show was a free open air concert in Greenock as part of the Tall Ships Race and was well attended.

* Glaswegian for a short but amicable exchange....
 
Well, this might not mean much, but here is a Pickwick in "the very obscure" category, (not there could be anything UN-obscure) by Pat Boone's late-father-in-law, Red Foley... Originally issued on MCA, actually, and from what I see, there couldn't really be much that Pickwick would have really bowdlerized from the original, given a fair share of tracks presented:

http://www.discogs.com/Red-Foley-Church-In-The-Wildwood/release/2968091

But, there IS! Here is its original incarnation on Decca, entitled Let's All Sing To Him, featuring EIGHT TRACKS on each side:

http://www.discogs.com/Red-Foley-Lets-All-Sing-To-Him/release/3951348


-- Dave
 
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OK, here's something that MIGHT mean sumptin':

http://www.discogs.com/Jerry-Lee-Lewis-Drinkin-Wine-Spo-Dee-ODee/master/659709

A discussion on Billboard Top-100 Pop Songs from 1973, in another A&M Corner Forum, prompted my research on one artist/song that I couldn't help but notice, and that was Jerry Lee Lewis "Drinkin Wine (Spo-Dee-O-Dee)", of which I actually saw that album that song is on (though it looks like a collection of Pop Standards, which Discogs bills it as, as opposed to a regular release) at a local record store...

So, yes, it appears on a one-shot stint at Pickwick for 'The Killer', amongst his newfound, and equally productive3 tenure at Mercury, after next to Elvis Presley, long-being Sun Record's brightest star, that that song was on...

(An old-time Blues number, Pat Boone cleaned up the plot of, by making "drinking wine", to "going to the soda shop to share a bottle of pop", and turning the song to "HAVIN' FUN, Spo-Fee-O-Dee", to further paraphrase the "Mr. Clean"-tag he'd long had... Lewis does "Corina, Corina", on that obscure Pickwick release, which Pat did a decaxde earlier...)


-- Dave
 
What's wrong w/ these Pictures?...:


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pat-Boone-D...140?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item56766b1ea4

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pat-Boone-D...618?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f395ed402

OK, for when the auction ends on these items--Pat Boone's Departure album on 8 Track Tape (yes, I believe one is on Pat's native Tetragammon label--a one-shot label for that said album as well as for a few other artists before that Bill Cosby-owned enterprise quickly folded, while the other I think was packaged by Scepter), in the event they get sold--it's the couple songs REPEATED: "Friends" and "Within My Own Time", while those who know this album like I do (it's the FIRST P.B. album I bought--to be followed by endless others) then the missing songs are the cover of Fred Neil's "I've Got A Secret" and the remake of Tim Buckley's "Song Of The Siren" (which reportedly probably didn't sound good, or be compressed well for that format)...

Side note: The James Gang's 16 Greatest Hits on LP, and previous Tape Formats, becoming 15 (FIFTEEN) Greatest Hits on CD... And instead of four rows of four songs listed, there's three rows of five; "White Man, Black Man", left off...


-- Dave
 
OK, now would something like THIS:

http://www.discogs.com/Mama-Cass-Dream-A-Little-Dream-Of-Me/master/432626

mean anything?

Well, sure enough, just as the height of Pickwick's legacy reaches insanity, Mama Cass gets called... A rehash of her debut mixed w/ odds 'n' ends from later period (no "Talking To You Toothbrush", "Jane, The Insane Dog Lady", or anything like that!)... Didn't really take much time to thoroughly see, or compare this to any other Cass Elliot (as she wanted to be, sans the 'Mama' moniker)...



-- Dave
 
What... Is... This...?! Is NOTHING Sacred Anymore?! Yes, the Bee Gees get the "washed out" covers at Pickwick, too... (Right down to the black 'n' white 'reversed negatives' of them selves on the back...)

Think this (deservedly) forgotten artifact is a compilation:

http://www.discogs.com/Bee-Gees-Turn-Around-Look-At-Me/release/3380895

And while these Brothers Gibb are mostly known for original material, they managed to sneak in a remake, and a cover, of someone else's works, in...

(Geez, the later-ONE-DISC condensation of the two-disc Odessa LP wasn't bad enough!) :bangwall:




-- Dave
 
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I'm not sure how abbreviated this one is, it's by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and one track before their version of "Mack The Knife" is "Individual Introductions", suggesting that this was Live, In-Concert...

Anyway, it's Pickwick:

The Four Seasons - Brotherhood Of Man »


-- Dave
 
Forgot about this other Pickwick album, if it was even something that came up in a random search, but I do remember it being on an 8-track:

Larry Butler - Larry Butler & Friends »

A Larry Butler album featuring an appearance by Crystal Gayle and Billie Jo Spears; not sure how official or randomly novel this item, either...


-- Dave
 
My mom had an infamous pickwick album of a fake " jonathan livingston seagull" album by the Pickwick orchestra and chorus which had only 10 tracks but 5 songs that were vocal and 5 instrumental of the same songs although i liked the instrumental versions but the vocals were pretty lame ( whoever the male vocalist was he was .he didnt sound anything like Neil Diamond. More like a washed up old country singer trying to sing adult contemporary..) pickwick would have been better off just releasing it as an original muzak instrumental album which i was the only thing i liked about pickwick. Othewise.Everything else they did was just Garbage.
 
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