Friday, November 13, 2009

And Make It Snappy!

Call it "synchronicity."

Call it "serendipity."

Call it "ippity-bippity."

Through a series of events, I managed to score a pile of overlooked "golden age" cartoons on video and meet an interesting fellow in the process.



Back around 1991 or so, I received a copy of "The Whole Toon Catalog." This was an impressive mail order company that handled a pretty comprehensive array of videos. They included the mainstream releases of the day from the likes of Disney and Warners, as well as "niche" producers. (This was back in the days of VHS cassettes, kiddies.)

One of these obscure labels was "Snappy Video." As I went through the catalog, circling titles of interest, their name kept coming up over and over. Clearly, my fantasy shopping list was going to be a budget-breaker.

Also around this time my wife had gone back to school to earn her Radiologic Technologist degree. In order to finance some of the educational costs, I decided to put some films up for sale in "The Big Reel" which was "the" monthly swap-sheet for film collectors.



One of the items for sale was an incomplete print of "Dumbo." It was missing the first hundred feet, so I had it listed at a fairly reasonable price.

Amongst the calls I received in response to the ad was from a fellow named Steve Stanchfield, who was interested in that print of Dumbo. In the course of our conversation, he mentioned that he was the guy behind those "Snappy Video" releases.

Oh, WOW!

Long story short, I bartered that print of Dumbo for copies of all his current titles. This was mutually beneficial, as Steve was able to burn off some stock (I'm guessing, maybe $50 worth of raw materials) and I was able to grab maybe $200 worth of videos. Sweet!



One of Steve's releases was an excellent collection of Popeye cartoons that had fallen into "public domain" status. I wrote an enthusiastic review of this tape for the "Official Popeye Fan Club" newsletter and included ordering info.

This served to give Steve a nice spike in sales for this title and it also brought the OPFC to his attention.

Every year the OPFC has a "Popeye Picnic" celebration during Labor Day weekend in Chester, Illinois. This was E. C. Segar's home town.

In 1994 there were particularly big doings at the Picnic and I finally caved in and attended. Who should I meet there by Mr. Stanchfield, himself?



The highlight of the picnic was sitting with Steve, Leonard Kohl and several other spinach-heads at the annual banquet. We drew all over the paper table cloth and had a swell time "geeking out."

I lost track of Steve for about ten years after that. My googling on the internet for "Snappy Video" only served to conjure up page hits for a video capture device with the same name.

Of course, the internet being what it is, Steve eventually surfaced on a couple of cartoon message boards about five years ago, with a new video company called Thunderbean Animation. Once again we resumed our bartering; only this time it was based on my providing cartoons to be included in his new collections in exchange for copies of the resulting DVDs.

Sometimes you never know how these threads are going to weave together in this rich tapestry of cartoon nerdom.

Monday, July 20, 2009

The Bugs Bunny Show

Thanks to my on-line pal, Tom, I have had four of my 16mm prints of The Bugs Bunny Show transferred to DVD-R. Here's the menu for the disc:

The segments that the WB crew created to bridge the cartoons are so cool. Look at these weird combinations of characters:

Bugs with the "Goofy Gophers"


Bug with Sylvester (hawking Post cereals!)

Bugs & Pepe LePew (Bugs can't take it!)

Yosemite Sam & Pepe


Here are a couple "made-for-TV" title cards:







A Freleng character (Rocky) in a McKimson-directed segment!


Some opportunities for re-using theatrical animation over TV backgrounds:



I'd sure like to get more of these early 'sixties show on video someday. Anybody want to trade?

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Popeye? Why the Audacity!

Here is a yellow, five inch, 78 rpm record that is a touchstone of my childhood. Jack Mercer singing "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man!"

My original copy is long gone, but I've had this one for some years, now. I have not, however, owned 78 rpm turntable sice maybe 1978.

AUDACITY TO THE RESCUE!

I recorded a wav file with my turntable set to 45 rpm and then used the speed change option in the to convert the file from 45 rpm to 78 rpm.

It worked like a charm, but...

The original recording on the record was sped up so that it sounded like one of his nephews, rather than Popeye, himself, was singing.

AUDACITY TO THE RESCUE, ONCE AGAIN!

I found that by bringing the pitch down one whole note (from "C" to "B-flat") the sailor's voce was more natural. Well, as "natural" as Popeye's voice can sound.

It worked like a charm, but...

This record also had some pretty bad pops and click on it.

AUDACITY TO, well, you know.

I zoomed in on each click and used the "repair" tool to neutralize them. This works better than the click filter, I find, but it is infinitely more tedious.

One last tweak...

The last few seconds of the record had some fatal skips, so I edited in a repeat chorus and forced a fade out.

Click on the link, below, to download the resulting mp3.

POPEYE GOLDEN RECORD



Well, blow me down!

Friday, May 29, 2009

Not Quite The Chipmunks

What happens when you run The Chipmunks Sing The Beatles Hits through the de-novelizer?

Download the zip file I have attached to find out!

Track list:

01 ALL MY LOVING
02 DO YOU WANT TO KNOW A SECRET
03 SHE LOVES YOU
04 THERE IS NO TRACK 04
05 LOVE ME DO
06 TWIST AND SHOUT
07 A HARD DAYS NIGHT
08 PS I LOVE YOU
09 I SAW HER STANDING THERE
10 CAN'T BUY ME LOVE
11 PLEASE PLEASE ME
12 I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND

I "pitch corrected" The Chipmunks vocals to normal speed and then re-synced them against the original backing tracks to create a Frankenstein vintage Beatles Cash-In LP.

Why?

Because I could!

Download the zip file here.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Garage Full of HIT RECORDS

I've put together a pile of mid-sixties sides from the Tiffany's of USA budget labels, HIT RECORDS.

The emphasis here is "Nuggets" style / "garage band" / "psych-pop" material.

Enjoy the HIT RECORDS versions of tunes originally made famous by the likes of THE KINKS, SAM THE SHAM & THE PHAROS, THE DOORS, THE BOX TOPS, CREAM and P.J. PROBY!

Track list:

Various / Garage Full Of Hit Records

101-Dandy
102-Little Red Riding Hood
103-The Hair On My Chinny Chin Chin
104-Hello I Love You
105-Sunshine Of Your Love
106-Hurdy Gurdy Man
107-Hanky Panky
108-Little Bit Of Soul
109-Eve Of Destruction
110-Hang On Sloopy
111-I Got You Babe
112-Do Wah Diddy Diddy
113-I Can't Get No Satisfaction
114-Keep On Dancing
115-Sugar Sugar
116-Last Train To Clarksville
117- It's A Beautiful Morning
118-Catch Us If You Can
119-Cry Like A Baby
120-Just A Little Bit Better
121-When I Grow Up To Be A Man
122-Jolly Green Giant
123-People Are Strange
124-Whatcha Gonna Do
125-Hold Me

GARAGE FULL OF HIT RECORDS

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Moody Jangle Punk


Here is a compilation of various 'sixties garage track I put together some time back.

Basically, I scoured a pile of my vinyl garage comps looking for tracks that had either 12 string, harmonica, or a moody teen subtext.

1. AL'S DYNAMICS - DISAPPOINTED IN YOU
2. BOO-BOO & BUNKY - THIS OLD TOWN
3. CHRISTOPHER & THE CHAPS
4. THE CORPORATE IMAGE - I'M JUST NOT THE SAME
5. DISTANT COUSINS - LET IT RING
6. FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH - DON'T BLAME ME FOR TRYING
7. THE GO-BETWEENS - HAVE HER FOR MY OWN
8. THE JAGGED EDGE - HOW SHE'S HURTIN' FOR ME
9. THE JAGGERS - FEEL SO GOOD
10. JIM "HARPO" VALLEY - I'M REAL
11. THE MOTIFS - IF I GAVE YOU LOVE
12. THE NEW ORDER - YOU'VE GOT ME HIGH
13. THE PALACE GUARD - A GIRL YOU CAN DEPEND ON
14. THE SHAGGS - RING AROUND THE ROSIE
15. THE SOUP GREENS - THAT'S TOO BAD
16. THE ONES - I CAN'T EXPLAIN
17. THE WEBS - YOU PRETTY FOOL
18. THE VIBRASONICS - SEND HE TO ME
19. THE WEADS - DON'T CALL MY NAME

This is one of those home brew comps that came together just as I wanted it to. I like the music, the title and the insert. The perfect CD-R trifecta!

ENJOY:

MOODY JANGLE PUNK

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Some of the Best Hits of California

"Some Of The Best Hits From California" on the "WW" label was an unexpected find! It is a collection of cover tunes by studio musicians much in the mold of my beloved "Hit Records" series. I had never come across the "WW" imprint before. Apparently this series was put out by something called "World Wide Productions," hence the double W.

The first side is the surf/folk-rock side with covers of Surf City, Fun, Fun, Fun, It Ain't Me, Babe and Eve of Destruction. The second side kicks off with "Everybody Loves Somebody!"

The covers are ably performed, but the energy level seems a little low over-all. Still, I'm happy to have this one in my pantheon of bogus LPs collection.

SOME OF THE BEST HITS OF CALIFORNIA

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Dragsville by The Woofers

Dragsville, by The Woofers, is a pretty good album. In addition to not-too-bad versions of "Little Deuce Coupe" and "Drag City" we're treated to eight other decent exploitation-themed originals. Not up there with The Beach Boys or Jan & Dean, but a solid third-tier offering, I'd say.

Ken Burroughs suggests that this was recorded by The Dovells, given the Cameo-Parkway-Wyncote pedigree. Sounds logical to me!

Tracks:

1. Drag City
2. Hot Rod Races
3. Mister Hot Rod
4. Wailin' Wheels
5. Ridin' The Rails
6. Little Deuce Coupe
7. Bench Racer
8. Dragster On The Prowl
9. Cool Bash
10. Down By The Draggin' Strip

DRAGSVILLE BY THE WOOFERS

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Hit Records That Were Never Hit Records

The Hit Records label released "sound-a-like" singles back in the 'sixties. Sometimes they would plop an original composition on the B-side, though.

I compiled a CD-R of some of these original tunes and called it "Hit Records That Were Never Hit Records." This is because I am so clever.

These tunes can be downloaded by right clicking the links below:

PART ONE

PART TWO

A tip o' the hat to rockinbee for requesting this one.

NOTE: Dead DivShare links have been replaced with new Dropbox links on 13-Feb-2013.