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The Schooners "Viddly Biddly Baby" b/w "Schooners Blues"



 The Schooners "Viddly Biddly Baby" b/w "Schooners Blues" Ember 1958


 

This is one hell of a two-sider! Right out of the gate we get a barn busting rock and roll tornado with foot stompin' beat, a bleating saxophone and a great nonsensical call and response vocal like Bill Haley on stimulants! Then we turn this little black disc over and we get a cool-as-hell noir jazz number that sounds like it could have played over the titles of an early Roger Corman creature feature, or as the roadhouse juke box tune from any 1950s crime thriller. Picture if you will, Beverly Garland and Marie Windsor going about their business in some nondescript, small desert town, when suddenly a foam rubber something, larger than life, starts smashing up saloons and flipping over cars! Just imagine Sterling Hayden slowly panning the interior of some roadside dive, scowl on his face, looking for the guy who framed him!

I've mentioned my appreciation for label and logo design in previous posts, and this Ember Records release is prime example of how amazing these things can be when the art direction is left in the hands of the right people. That logo isn't just on fire, it IS fire as far as logo design goes. Why the color wheel on the label? No idea, but damn if it doesn't arrest your attention and force you to investigate! Ember appears to have gone through three major brand ID changes, with this design being the middle period, and it's by far my favorite.

Sadly, I have no information on The Schooners. Where did they come from? Where did they go? Who is Adolphe Fodari, who is credited as writer on both tunes? Lost to the ever crashing waves of time, perhaps. If anyone has any info, I'd be greatly interested. This appears to be the only release that The Schooners ever released. Perhaps they scuttled away to more fulfilling shores when the rock star thing didn't work out; or perhaps they were a just-for-fun local group from Somewhere, U.S.A. and didn't feel the need to press more than one single. 

Whatever the truth behind the mystery, enjoy this fantastic collection of grooves!

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