the face of evil

Back to my Dad's old singles for some more great songs. First up a real oddity - on one level a sweet song about pretty laydees, on another a frankly chilling vision of an international sexual predator. Sure, he looks nice...

Ricky Nelson - Travelin' Man



This chap has been about a bit ("I've made a lot of stops all over the world"). But despite his free and easy way it doesn't work both ways - "And in every port I own the heart / Of at least one lovely girl" - he own's the heart?! What is he, some kind of international, seafaring pimp? Too harsh? Well, what about, "If you're ever in Alaska stop and see / My cute little Eskimo". He's like Harvey Keitel in Taxi Driver - outrageous.

His Geography ain't up to much, either. Fancy a trip into Berlin town, anyone?

Unlike the tracks in the earlier post this was a double A-side with "Hello Marylou, Goodbye Heart" - now that's what I call a quality piece of vinyl.

Bobby Darin - Not For Me



Amongst my Dad's singles there are lots of tracks by Bobby Darin. He had a really interesting life, too bizarre to go into here (try ubiquipediaTM). This song was the b-side of "18 Yellow Roses", a fairly naff song about a father and his hopes and dreams for his daughter. "Not For Me", however, is an insanely dramatic, nigh-on pyschopathic depiction of self-pity- fantastic over-the-top orchestration by Jack Nitzsche, too.

Bobby Darin - Oo-Ee-Train (b-side)




Bobby Darin - Lazy River (a-side)



This single is so great, I had to put both tracks on. "Oo-Ee-Train" is just cool; barely scraping over the 2-minute mark, wicked rumpty-tumpty beat and all. There's some more of those "phoned-in" backing vocals like on the Little Eva track I posted previously - strangely, that had a fairly lazy-sounding 12-bar structure as well.

"Lazy River" starts off deceptively low-key, before it ditches the ukelele and shifts up a gear at 32 seconds. All of the bloody "X Factor" wannabes (I include Robbie Williams in those) have learned the tropes of swing singing but just don't the balls - just listen to the way he says "from the halfway mark!" at 1.32. Too cool for school.

Buy - Ricky Nelson's Greatest Hits
Buy - The Very Best of Bobby Darin (only features "Lazy River")
Visit - RickyNelson.com
Visit - Bobby Darin.com