Oscar Brand LPs, CDs

Subject: BS: Oscar Brandt +
From: Donuel
Date: 19 Mar 14 - 10:36 AM

I have a good Oscar Brandt LP and other obscure records I found in College Park as well as CD collections of early Folk Festivals.
To whom shall I deliver them to at or Mudcat archives/library for donation?
Is my answer possibly in FAQ?

Subject: RE: BS: Oscar Brandt
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 19 Mar 14 - 10:41 AM

Oscar Brand? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7syMivuctIg

Subject: RE: BS: Oscar Brand
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Mar 14 - 10:56 AM

Geez, Don. Scare us! Last I checked, he's alive and well. Old, but alive.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Oscar Brandt
From: Donuel
Date: 19 Mar 14 - 11:03 AM

Folk singer Oscar Brand, and good friend of Pete lived in the area but passed almost ten years ago. My memory of him was a kind, encouraging, older and heavier man. The LP is local not Folkways.

Does mudcat take collections?

And for cod liver oil, by god it was given to me and has made every supplement medicine go down easy in comparison.

Subject: RE: Oscar Brand LPs, CDs
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Mar 14 - 11:07 AM

Folk singer Oscar Brand is still alive and well, Donuel. He's 94 now.

http://www.oscarbrand.com/

SRS

Subject: RE: Oscar Brand LPs, CDs
From: frogprince
Date: 19 Mar 14 - 11:25 AM

Yep; I had been meaning to check to see if he was still with us. I first "discovered" him in 1964, when a classmate at the Navy Electronics School at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center kept playing the record that included "She Rambled", which could as well be titled "The Ballad of Miss V.D. of Guam". Shortly after that, I was ordered to a submarine tender at Guam for 18 months, which may be part of why the song has stuck in my head. A couple of years ago I tried to look up the lyric; for some time all I could find was references to the obscenity trial sparked by the album.

Subject: RE: Oscar Brand LPs, CDs
From: Jeri
Date: 19 Mar 14 - 11:41 AM

I don't think Mudcat has archives, but I'm not sure. Sing Out! does.

Subject: RE: Oscar Brand LPs, CDs
From: pdq
Date: 19 Mar 14 - 11:43 AM

In a few weeks (May 2) Theodore Bikel will also be 94.

Subject: RE: Oscar Brand LPs, CDs
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 19 Mar 14 - 03:27 PM

Does anyone have any OSCAR BRAND 78's/45's, OTHER than the Young Peoples Records / Childrens Record Guild discs ??

His website lists some, without discographical details.

He made many LP's for Riverside, Elektra, Audio Fidelity, Caedmon, Tradition, etc.
His website lists them - without much detail, and some
have been made available on CD or CD-R.

A couple of not so common LP's are:
CMS Chesterfield Music Shops, Inc. CMS-101    10" LP date????
OSCAR BRAND "The Wandering Minstrel"
BACK-ROOM BALLADS

AUDIO MASTERPIECE LPA 1220    LP   DATE????
SONGS and POEMS of The SEA
Songs performed by Oscar Brand
poems read by Bill Forrest
musical arrangements, Philip Raiguel.

Best wishes, Thomas.

Subject: RE: Oscar Brand LPs, CDs
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Mar 14 - 03:42 PM

A couple of years ago I tried to look up the lyric; for some time all I could find was references to the obscenity trial sparked by the album.

Isn't that wonderful? Seriously, people who were able to take on the system like this usually won, and made important contributions to the right of free speech (and song)! I hope that was the outcome of the trial you mention.

SRS

Subject: RE: Oscar Brand LPs, CDs
From: bobad
Date: 19 Mar 14 - 04:51 PM

One of his albums, entitled "Bawdy Songs and Backroom Ballads, Vol.1 (1949)" is available here for streaming and download: https://archive.org/details/BawdySongsVol1

Subject: RE: Oscar Brand LPs, CDs
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 19 Mar 14 - 05:23 PM

The AUDIO FIDELITY Bawdy Series commenced with a 10" LP
AFLP 906 Bawdy Songs and Backroom Ballads reissued
as a 12" disc with 2 added* tracks as AFLP 1906(mono) and
AFSD 5906 (Stereo) Bawdy Songs and Backroom Ballads Vol.1

Roll Your Leg Over
No Hips at All
One-Eyed Reilly
Blow the Candle Out
Sam Hall
* Limericks
The Chandler's Wife
Her Name Was Lil
Bell Bottom Trousers
The Sergeant
Old Joe Clark
Around Her Neck She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Our Goodman
* The Fireship
Rollin' Down the Mountain

The ubiquitous series included
Vol.1
Vol.2
Vol.3
Vol.4
Vol.5 Bawdy Sea Shanties
Vol.6 Bawdy Western Songs
Bawdy Songs go to College
Bawdy Songs for bawds, broads, barrooms & bordellos
Rollicking Sea Shanties
Sing-Along Bawdy Songs & Backroom Ballads
Bawdy Hootenanny

a couple of volumes were issued in the UK on the RCA International label. Anyone know of others ???

Best wishes, Thomas.

Best wishes, Thomas.

Subject: RE: Oscar Brand LPs, CDs
From: Elmore
Date: 19 Mar 14 - 05:45 PM

PDQ says "In a few weeks Theodore Bikel will be 94. No. I saw Theo perform at the Freight and Salvage in Berkley, Ca. about a year ago when he mentioned that in a few weeks he'd be 89. This coincides with his biography which gives his dob as May 2, 1924. That would make him almost 90. Still working occasionally.

Subject: RE: Oscar Brand LPs, CDs
From: bobad
Date: 19 Mar 14 - 05:47 PM

I have a copy of " Bawdy Songs & Backroom Ballads Vol.5"

Tracklist:

    01Seven Old Ladies Locked In A Lavatory Time: 2:32
    02 We Go To College Time: 0:59
    03 The Jolly Tinker Time: 1:59
    04 Bella Time: 1:39
    05 Cats On The Rooftops Time: 3:40
    06 Humoresque Time: 1:04
    07 Ring Dang Doo Time: 1:27
    08 Roll Your Leg Over Time: 2:10
    09 Three Prominent Bastards Time: 3:40
    10 Red Wing Time: 1:14
    11 Ball Of Ballynoor Time: 1:52
    12 She'll Do It Again Time: 1:36
    13 Kafoozalem Time: 1:56
    14 The Bastard King Of England Time: 2:17

Subject: RE: Oscar Brand LPs, CDs
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Mar 14 - 10:18 PM

Bikel is another great one, and a fabulous voice.

SRS

Subject: RE: Oscar Brand LPs, CDs
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Mar 14 - 02:06 PM

Oscar forgive my mistake regarding your life status. You my friend are already immortal in song and people you've touched.

After learning of the people and history of Folkways on the Smithsonian Channel I worry that good recordings can be lost by the most unpredictable ways.

Subject: RE: Oscar Brand LPs, CDs
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Mar 14 - 05:44 PM

We had all his bawdy ballads - Dad loved that stuff. I didn't find out he was political till much, much later! So glad to read he's alive!

Subject: RE: Oscar Brand LPs, CDs
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Nov 14 - 09:16 AM

Oscar will be 95 in February 2015. You can hear his radio show, Folksong Festival, every Saturday evening on the Internet at WNYC.org AM 820, 10:00 PM to 11:00 PM EST.

Subject: RE: Oscar Brand LPs, CDs
From: Midchuck
Date: 29 Nov 14 - 11:22 AM

If the secret to living to a great old age is knowing lots of dirty songs, I've got it knocked. As does Kendall.

Subject: RE: Oscar Brand LPs, CDs
From: GUEST,Big Mick
Date: 29 Nov 14 - 03:12 PM

I had many hours of fine conversation with Oscar over the last year. Just as it was with Pete, so it is with Oscar in that sitting and talking with him is a fascinating experience. Both of these fine men were contemporaries of folk legends, and witness to an amazing period in folk music history. I consider myself privileged and fortunate to have had time with both of them.

Subject: RE: Oscar Brand LPs, CDs
From: kendall
Date: 29 Nov 14 - 07:36 PM

I have his bawdy sea chanties. It's clear that he never was a sailor, but he sure knows some interesting songs.Sure they are "earthy", but sailors were never choir boys.

Subject: RE: Oscar Brand LPs, CDs
From: Joe Offer
Date: 29 Nov 14 - 08:56 PM

He has lots of recordings for sale on his Website, http://www.oscarbrand.com/. Some of them are available as MP3 at places like Amazon, emusic.com, and iTunes. He has done some really entertaining stuff over the years. I have a personal fondness for his album on dogs...

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Oscar Brand LPs, CDs
From: Lighter
Date: 13 Apr 15 - 10:10 AM

Many Internet cites claim that "Bawdy Songs an Backroom Ballads Vol. 1" appeared in 1949.

That is incorrect. The album (Audio Fidelity AFLP 1906) was released in 1955. The final volume (8) appeared in 1962.

The cause of the confusion is that Chesterfield records (not Audio Fidelity) released a ten-inch album by Brand called "Backroom Ballads" (CMS-101) in 1949.

The songs were:

Maid of Amsterdam
Tom Bolynn
Early One Morn
The Fireship
Ramblin' Wretch
Red Light Saloon
Sunday School
Old King Cole.

I've not heard the album, so I can't identify "Early One Morn." "Sunday School" was formerly known as "The Darky Sunday School."

Brand's recording of "The Fireship" preceded the even more bowdlerized hit version "The Roving Kind" by at least a few months and perhaps more than a year. The "Roving Kind" was copyrighted by Hollis Music on Nov. 24, 1950.

Though most of Brand's bawdy songs songs were considerably rewritten and toned down for the general public, Brand has written that he never copyrighted them. Who could make money off of bawdy songs in 1950s?

Subject: RE: Oscar Brand LPs, CDs
From: Lighter
Date: 25 Apr 15 - 01:52 PM

A correction:

> Chesterfield records...released a ten-inch album by Brand called "Backroom Ballads" (CMS-101) in 1949.

Internet sources generally assert that the year was 1949, but the actual date may have been a few years later. According to David Bonner's "Revolutionizing Children's Records" (2007), the small Chesterfield label released the album "in the 1950s."

Since Brand's first "Bawdy Songs and Backroom Ballads" for Audio Fidelity (a ten-inch version) was released in 1955, the Chesterfield album may well have appeared at any time between 1949 and early 1955. The Audio Fidelity album (AF 906) is datable by a brief review in "High Fidelity" (Oct., 1955).

I'm unaware of its precise contents; presumably it contained most of what would soon appear on the twelve-inch version, "Vol. I," about 1956. Perhaps it was merely a reissue of the Chesterfield disk, whose contents are given up-thread.

Whether the Chesterfield album's "Fireship" preceded the Weavers' is thus uncertain.

The first of the twelve-inch series to be copyrighted appears to have been "Bawdy Songs ...," Vol. IV. That was in Nov., 1957, acc. to the Library of Congress.

Complicated, isn't it?