Well it has been a while, about 7 months in fact, since I made my last post here. It’s about time I got off my butt, or maybe put my butt in the chair in front of my ‘puter and write something that just might win me a Pulitzer. I have been thinking about writing about “That 2-Drawer File Cabinet”. Like I said, it’s about time, so here goes.
During the first 2 years of my tenure at WRPI, the station was co-located with The RPI Players in a building called “Lounge 15”. No kidding, the mailing address at the time for the radio station was: WRPI, Lounge 15, Troy, NY, 12180.
The WRPI news room was in a very small room next to the music library. The room contained a desk and chair, an Uher Portable Tape Recorder, a microphone connected to the recorder, a Bearcat scanner, and That 2-Drawer File Cabinet.
The bottom drawer of That 2-Drawer File Cabinet was stuffed with a bunch of 45 RPM records! They were all pretty dusty and few were in their sleeves. Who knows how long they might have been entombed there. As you would expect, most were scratched up badly.
In that bunch I found a few gems:
First off, there was Al Caiola’s recording of “The Magnificent Seven”
I dusted it off and found that it was in good shape. I started using it as background music during my show on WRPI. One afternoon during my show I got a phone call from an idiot who said he was going to file a complaint with the FCC for airing a Marlboro commercial. Crikey!
Next was Link Wray‘s “Rumble”.
It was in good enough shape that I played it a few times on WRPI. It didn’t get any complaints. It also didn’t generate any kudos. So, I guess the audience thought little of it. I had never heard it before and I thought and still do think it is a very cool tune.
The history on this song, according to informed sources, is that while Link and his Ray Men were playing a dance someone in attendance asked for the band to play a stroll. They didn’t know any so they improvised “Rumble”.
Last but not least there was a record loaded with short promotions by various 1960s pop stars for Coca Cola. I don’t have any idea what they used for. They are too long to be used as commercials.
I found a few on line and have posted them here:
That’s all for now. Have a nice day!