Ken Nordine ‎– "Word Jazz Vol. II" (Dot Records ‎– DLP 25301) 1960

We've had 'Son Of.....',there also exists a 'Grandson Of....', and there is also a Word Jazz two or 2 or II; which for those not familiar with roman numerals, could be Volume eleven?
Volume two's are notoriously crapper than Volume ones,and to a certain extent this is true of Word Jazz Two. However,the first volume set such a high bar,that the follow-up would have to score eleven out of ten to be superior. It is therefore very excellent,but not as good as numero uno, but better than "Son Of Word Jazz".....sctrictly a subjective judgement ,which in my experience usually ends up in back to front order for most of the public out there.After-all, one in fifty households own an Elton John record,so you understand what we're dealing with here? If one in fifty households owned a Ken Nordine reord instead, the world would be a better,or even a safer, place.

Tracklist:

A1 There's A She And A He 3:36
A2 Reaching Into In 2:04
A3 Adult Kindergarten 1:58
A4 Spectrum 2:51
A5 Fireflies 2:14
A6 So And So 2:01
B1 Lesson Number 1 1:34
B2 Confessions Of 349-18-5171 7:55
B3 You're Getting Better 2:08
B4 Original Sin 2:57

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Ken Nordine ‎– "Stare With Your Ears" (Snail Records ‎– SR 1001) 1979

Whoops-a-daisy....Ken tries to sing on a couple of these tracks. No Ken!
Thankfully, he sticks to his tried and trusted method of talking over some music, this time provided by Pat Ferreri replacing the cool cartoon beatnik jazz of his fifties work with woodstock hangover country and western, including contributions from the great man himself.
There's some nifty usage of a Vocoder,but the backing tracks are mostly country-tinged versions of a no-budget hippie cash-in movie soundtrack from ten years earlier."Cheesey Rider".
Well,I'd go and see it!?
The cover art is also designed to appeal to upwardly mobile American hippies who were still lurking like a cœlacanthe in the deep dark oceans of the Punk Rock era.....like those post-cambrian fish,they were thought extinct,but now we know where to find them ,often aserting that music died soon after the release of the Notorious Byrd Brothers album, with the exception of the first half dozen Neil Young solo albums, the ones without Crazy Horse that is.


Tracklist:

A1 Island 1:33
A2 Angel's Lament 4:08
A3 Alphabet 2:58
A4 Cracks In The Ceiling 4:33
A5 Mister Blister 2:13
A6 Fadeaway Stranger 2:47
A7 Once Upon A You Know What 2:22
B1 Don't You Wish 2:42
B2 Seven Ways Of The Meek 5:20
B3 Ballad Of The Final Page 4:02
B4 Inchoate Blues 7:18
B5 Smelts 0:33
B6 Scratch 2:46

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Ken Nordine ‎– "Ken Nordine Does Robert Shure's 'Twink' " (Philips ‎– PHS 600-258) 1967

The unfortunately titled "Twink",first published in 1957, was a popular selling pamphlet of quirky poetry by someone called Robert Shure, hence the title.
A "Twink" is, nowadays, Gay Slang for a young homosexual male with attractive, boyish qualities.Ooh-la-laaaa!?

So when it says Ken does Robert,one assumes he means Ken reads Robert's Poetry,rather than anything sexual. Or maybe, as the Twink in question is referred to as belonging to Robert Shure,maybe Shure was a fifties Jeffery Epstein who provided young boys to c-list voice over artists to provide sexual favours? Maybe this is why Nordine did a recorded version of Shure's pamphlet,as payment,in kind, for allowing him to bum the boyish young victim provided by the poet in question.

As this work was made well before the term Twink was misapropriated by the Gay scene,in a more innocent time, I suggest everything i wrote before this sentence was likely just an amusing fantasy.
In fact,the reissue of this album was renamed "Wink" at the request of the author, Robert Shure.The reason for which I think is glaringly obvious.Its not beyond the realms of possibility that some poor unsuspecting homosexual had previously purchased either this album, or pamphlet, rushed home in a state of semi-arousal,only to find the contents empty of references to sodomising young boyish men,but full of extremely unerotic ,and downright Silly poetry.They may have even noticed the poem called "Queen" to further enhance the need to purchase such literature, full of gay abandon,to use these words as a back drop to 'knock one out' upon his eager return from the literary emporium.

In true space-age batchelor pad style, Nordine uses the stereo spread to appear to be talking to himself with one voice recorded dry, the other recorded with effects.It sounds a bit like the voice one hears during a sudden attack of paranoid Schizophrenia. In between every track ,for some reason, there are different styles of tinkling bells,as if entering a small Haberdashers every minute for half an hour.

As always, Nordine's silky baritone makes this a soothing but surreal,and accidently psychedelic nostalgia trip.Like watching a Mr Magoo cartoon,but in this version Mr Magoo is hard of hearing rather than myopic.Gets him into all sorts of trouble it does.Mr Magoo mishears himself into a Gay sex orgy as the Gimp and gets topped by Waldo. That episode won an Emmy in that famed alternative universe that we visit often on here.

Tracklist:
Windshield Wipers 1:17
Tears 1:18
Suede 0:27
Zebra 1:16
Sidewalks 0:57
Breathing 1:19
Chimney 0:39
Queen 1:21
Nothing 1:23
Apple Cider 1:46
Bathtub 1:12
When You're Born 1:12
Piccolos 1:13
Knee 1:23
Pea 0:19
Great 0:21
Eyeleashes 1:03
Clock 1:28
Ear 1:32
Ping Pong 1:21
Freckles 1:38
Cellophane 1:39
Dream 1:49
Gabardine 1:01
Planet 1:31
Meat Balls 0:41
Sky 1:17
Envelope 1:05
Roller Skate 0:51
Blotter 0:36
Moth 1:16
Indians 1:48
Lampshades 1:50
Cigars 1:45

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Ken Nordine ‎– "Son Of Word Jazz" (Dot Records ‎– DLP 25096) 1958

As in the movie world,anything that has the prefix, "Son Of", in front of it, can not, after strict scientific observation, be as good as the original. Just the same as the suffix "2" for the follow up movie to a sucessful original. "Son Of Godzilla" isn't as good as "Godzilla" for example, and Jaws 2 is a desperate version of "Jaws"......don't even mention "Jaws 3D".
Word Jazz, has a "2", and a "Grandson of...." which aren't very good at all. The same applies to "Son Of Word Jazz". It's kind of  allllriiiight, but certainly lacking the quality of the stories /poems on the parent album;but, like "Son Of Godzilla" it has its good points. Such as the ludicrous noise that Baby Godzilla (Minilla) makes, and the bit when baby Godzilla gets a good kicking from some giant mosquitoes; "Son of Word Jazz has a poem called "I Used To Think My Right Hand Was Uglier Than My Left"
Of course,according to the Quantum physics' shadow universe theory, there's going to be some Nordine nut out there who thinks this is the best Word Jazz album. Just as your trusty scribe used to insist that "Son Of Godzilla" was the best Godzilla movie.....now i'm inclined towards "Godzilla Vrs Mechagodzilla"; so maybe its possible that I could do the same with the Word Jazz family? This is all classic quantum wave behaviour,so don't be alarmed.An alternative world exists where "Jaws 3-D" is generally regarded as the best movie ever made.... anywhere....in any time.Which is,of course, both correct and very,very, wrong at the same time.
The paradox that is Meat Loaf's "Bat Out Of Hell", which is a truly awful insideous crime against humanity,should, under these theories, have a counterpart which is a work of musical genius.Confusingly what we got was "Bat Out Of Hell 2", which is an even worse heinous crime that could threaten even the fabric of space/time itself.The only way to stop this happening would be to put the matter, and anti-matter versions of Meat Loaf into a room so that they cancel each other out,anihilating each other out of existence.Therefore preserving the smooth function of particle physics and the balance of this observable universe for the forseeable future.

Tracklist:

A1 The Smith Family 1:59
A2 Miss Cone 2:43
A3 Outer Space 3:37
A4 Down The Drain 3:12
A5 Secretary 3:01
A6 Bubble Gum 2:36
B1 Looking At Numbers 2:21
B2 Anytime, Anytime 2:20
B3 I Used To Think My Right Hand Was Uglier Than My Left 2:15
B4 Lemming 2:18
B5 The Bullfighter 2:50
B6 Junk Man 4:35

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Ken Nordine ‎– "Word Jazz" (Dot Records) 1957

'A somewhat new medium', it says on the cover. Was this the start of 'Rap'? There's certainly a beatnik vibe to these comforting mono monologues,and after all, 'Rap', was a hipster term for talking.
Yeah I know, us 'Honkys' are alway misapropriating Black Culture and claiming it for the supreme white race.I'm still looking for that KKK rap record,I'm sure it exists.However, I suppose I could slag, John Coltrane off for using a Belgian instrument, but I won't be so petty. We are Humans all, and Humans are responsible for Rap music......for their eternal shame.I'm proud to say it had fuck all to do with me.I can comfortably claim 'Nicht Schuldig' in the Nuremburg Rap Trials for crimes against music, fashion and culture in general, which ocurred in the mid to late 2050's......does this groovy concept come under Retro-Futurism or Alternative Histories?
Would you let a Rapper into your Nuclear Bunker,or hermatically sealed anti-Virus pod? Be it Vanilla Ice or Ice-T?...the answer is NO FUCKING WAY.Would sooner have a dose of anthrax or Radiation Sickness before I allowed even a basball cap anywhere near me during the nuclear winter.
Lots of actors started talking,rather than singing over some hip music from the mid to late (nineteen)fifties onwards,and i guess there were similar star vehicles before Nordine,but Ken gets the plaudits.
Nordines smooth voice flows like hot chocolate sauce over a waffle,and his intonation gives these charming stories a slightly surreal edge,all layered over the Fred Katz Group's cartoon jazz.
Among the laid back vibes and cigarette commercial narration, there lies some astute observations about Human culture and behaviour of the naked ape.Above all,and its not something I refer to very often on this blog, its entertaining?

Tracklist:

A1 What Time Is It? 3:48
A2 My Baby 2:36
A3 Sound Museum 7:09
A4 The Vidiot 5:30
B1 Roger 5:05
B2 Hunger Is From 3:47
B3 Looks Like It's Going To Rain 3:27
B4 Flibberty Jib 4:42

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