Isn't it funny how a song will stay in your mind for decades, and hop onto your tongue for no good reason at all?
When I was in college, I subscribed to the Columbia Record Club. It was like a Book Club, every month they would send you a flyer of the current 'hit' records, and you could choose what you liked.
I had recently seen Nancy Sinatra in a movie (The Wild Angels) and her songs "Bang Bang" and "These Boots Are Made For Walking" were pretty big then, back in the sixties, so I chose to spend my dwindling funds on her latest LP.
Remember how hard it was to find money for anything more than Room, Beer, Board & Books when you were in college? I expect I spent $5.95 on this album, and that's significant bucks considering that at Gino's Pizza Parlor on 3rd and Van Buren would sell you three pitchers of beer for a buck on Wednesday nights.
I talked to my sweetie, SWMBO, on the phone tonite. She had just changed jobs, is looking for an apartment closer to the new office, and was pretty discouraged. I had suggested that we spend Saturday looking for an apartment, and Sunday shooting an IPSC match. "Poor Sweet Baby" I said.
What I should have said was: "I will give to you Strawberry Wine".
The N.Sinatra album I bought was "Nancy and Lee", and one of the most haunting of this surprisingly good album was Strawberry Wine. It was a duet-album with County Singer Lee Hazelwood, and it has NOT been converted to DVD, CD, or any other digital format. You can't buy the album, but you CAN buy it on the "Lightning Girl's Greatest Hits" album from Amazon for about $45.
Strawberries cherries and an angel´s kiss in springYes, I still have the LP. It is one of the reasons I'm contemplating the purchase of hardware/software inteface so I can transform my extensive collection of 33-1/3 Long Playing Records (LP's) into digital files.
My summer wine is really made from all these things
Take off your silver spurs and help me pass the time
And I will give to you summer wine
Ohhh-oh summer wine
Is there a point here?
No, clearly not.
You got a problem with that?
UPDATE: November 7, 2007
This "Summer Wine" post has been one of those 'one-hit wonders' that you occasionally get on a blog. I wrote it because I felt strongly about the subject, never expected to find that anyone else ever cared, and was surprised when I got so many hits on the post.
I just shrugged it off until tonite I got an email from a lady in the UK who actually sounded interested. She wanted to know, for example, if (in my experience) this song was frequently played in high-school proms in the 1967 - 1968 period. She hinted broadly that she had 'other questions'.
Full Disclosure: when I wrote this article I had the LP album in my hand. Since then, I have been unable to find it. Well, my stack of LPs is on the floor under my 'work station table' in the Front Room, and it's about 5' long. I can't find the album now, although I had no problems finding the "How's That Grab You" and "Nancy in London" albums. Too bad. Judging from the comments on the Amazon website, there is a lot of interest in the exact songs, and the sequence in which they appeared in the original album. I could get some major bucks from selling this album. I say this in full recognition of the fact that the re-issue of the album starts at about $65, and goes up to over $250 on Amazon dot com. (I won't bother trying to provide links here, just go to Amazon.com and search "Nancy and Lee".)
This album was re-released in 1990, and is currently available for under $8 as an "MP3" collection under the title "Fairy Tales & Fantasies".
I have not listened to this album for at least two years, but I bought the MP3 download tonite and in fact am listening to it now .... "Summer Wine" is playing. This is the third successive time I've listened to the MP3 download, and to the best of my memory this album faithfully reproduces every song on the album, and in the correct *(original)* sequence.
I'll keep an eye open for the original album, but for those crazies who think this is an important point, I'll say it again:
The Amazon MP3 download of "Nancy and Lee: Fairy Tales and Fantasies" is a faithful reproduction of the original album, in that it provides ALL of the songs in the same sequence as the original.
If YOU really really need authoritative confirmation, please email me (address at the bottom of this page) and make me an author. For enough money, I will search my LP collection again and, if I find the album, I'll give you the information.
Hell, for enough money I'll sell the original LP.
After all, I have the music and I can listen to it any time I want to. I don't need the LP any more.
No comments:
Post a Comment