![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/space_songs.jpg\")
This curio from 1961 was originally created to serve as an instructional record for children. The word that immediately comes to mind when hearing the vocals and instrumentation is \u201cginchy.\u201d And while I’ll readily concede that \u201cginchy\u201d is not a real word, it somehow seems to encapsulate the vibe of Space Songs<\/i>.<\/p>\n
It’s easy enough to conjure a mental image of Tom Glazer<\/strong> and Dottie Evans<\/strong> when listening to the record. Tom has a neat gray flannel suit, tortoise shell glasses, Brylcreamed hair, and probably a pipe. Dottie has a simple white or off-white dress, probably a modest pearl necklace. They’re both white. Really<\/em> white, in fact. But they’re nice, wholesome, well-meaning folks, and they’re here to teach.<\/p>\n Bits of spoken word \u2013 mostly by Glazer; this was 1961, after all \u2013 serve as intro\/bumpers for most of the songs. Glazer provides some basic contextual information about the topic at hand \u2013 helpfully defined by each song’s title \u2013 and then he and Evans launch into song. \u201cConstellation Jig\u201d is a wonderfully descriptive title: the music is a sprightly jig, and the lyrics list some of the more well-known constellations visible in Earth’s nighttime sky: Sagittarius, etc.<\/p>\n Technology gets some time as well, via cute little tunes like \u201cBeep Beep (Here Comes the Satellite).\u201d It’s worth remembering that \u2013 Cold War notwithstanding \u2013 in 1961, the United States was in a largely optimistic frame of mind, and science was viewed as a force for good. Against that backdrop, which is embodied in many of these tunes, it’s more than a little sad that in 2017 we’re living in a society led \u2013 for the moment, at least \u2013 by climate science deniers and traffickers in \u201calternate facts.\u201d<\/p>\n Real<\/em> facts are at the heart of \u201cWhy Does the Sun Shine? – The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas.\u201d Tell that to the four percent of Americans who are unaware that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Clearly they didn’t listen to Space Songs<\/i>. As Glazer and Evans guilelessly intone, \u201cIt’s a Scientific Fact.\u201d<\/p>\n Everything about Space Songs<\/i> conveys a kind of charming innocence. But there’s a nicely world-music (1961 edition) to many of the songs; that’s a clearly Parisian vibe to \u201cLongitude and Latitude,\u201d set to the tune of childhood favorite \u201cDid You Ever See a Lassie?\u201d But the kids of ’61 could trill along to the tune and learn about the Prime Meridian and other useful bits of information.<\/p>\n Musically, the most interesting tune is the opener, \u201cZoom a Little Zoom (Rocket Ship).\u201d Glazer and Evans chirp away in perfect harmony as they sing, \u201cSoon we’ll see if the moon is made out of green cheese ha ha ha.\u201d How can you not love that? The musicians aren’t credited beyond a note that the music is played by the Tony Mottola Orchestra<\/strong>, but whomever is playing is doing a swell job.<\/p>\n Sundazed Records associated label Modern Harmonic has reissued this odd little record, recorded in 1959 and originally part of a series called \u201cSinging Science Records.\u201d The vinyl is translucent red. Casting a (shall we say) very wide<\/i> conceptual net, this release can be viewed as part of a collection of other related items including a Sun Ra Arkestra<\/strong> 2CD live set (At Inter-Media Arts 1991<\/i><\/a>), and the instrumental gem Attilio Mineo Conducts Man in Space with Sounds<\/i><\/a>, originally released in conjunction with the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle, Washington. I’ll cover each of those Modern Harmonic reissue titles in separate reviews.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This curio from 1961 was originally created to serve as an instructional record for children. The word that immediately comes to mind when hearing the vocals and instrumentation is \u201cginchy.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12395,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,51,64,65,73],"tags":[2975,2973,2974],"class_list":["post-12394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-childhood-development","category-pop","category-reissue","category-review","category-vinyl","tag-dottie-evans","tag-modern-harmonic","tag-tom-glazer","cat-15-id","cat-51-id","cat-64-id","cat-65-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12394"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32047,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12394\/revisions\/32047"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}