Category: Uncategorized

Larry Burda – Lady Barbara

Larry Burda – Lady Barbara (1975)

This entire album is dedicated to Lady Barbara, and according to Larry, the song is self-explanatory unless you have never been in love. He also points out that the second verse is in Russian. However, one suspicious fact that he doesn’t mention is that “Lady Barbara” is basically an anagram of “Larry Burda”. Even more unsettling is the fact that “Night Blast” (the song below) is almost an anagram of “Lab Thing”. You can draw your own conclusions.

Larry Burda – Night Blast

Hainault High Drama Workshop – Rikky The Musical

Hainault High Drama Workshop – What We Gonna Do (1978)

RIKKY The Musical was devised and directed by Steve Birch and performed by the Hainault High School Drama Workshop in Essex, England. The students were ages 11-14 and had a lot of creative input on the project. The story is based on a boy who dreams of stardom. He goes to an audition set up by a scheming record company that’s rapidly going broke and needing new blood to boost its flagging finances. The boy and his backing group are selected from the audition, and from that point the story becomes one of increasing manipulation. “RIKKY” is created and becomes a veritable Superstar. However, in the typical pop-machine process, the innocent boy inside is destroyed, his relationship with his girlfriend crumbles, and eventually he collapses on stage and dies. The story isn’t quite over, however, because the record company creates another RIKKY…. an EVIL RIKKY… who seems all set to be even bigger than the original! The final song introduces RIKKY 2.0:

Hainault High Drama Workshop – Ballad of A Star

Hainault High Drama Workshop – Gotta Dance

The Kaplan Brothers – Eleanor Rigby

The Kaplan Brothers – Eleanor Rigby (The Kaplan Brothers, 1973)

Ponytone has long been a connoisseur of fine Rigbies of the Eleanor variety, and this one is stellar. According to the back of the record, not only did the Kaplan Brothers have a long standing gig at Chicago’s Sheraton O’Hare, they were the hosts of a one-hour nationwide television show sponsored by the San Antonio World’s Fair. They also entertained Lady Bird Johnson, one of my heroes because apparently she conducted all of her business from bed. (Which does make me wonder just where exactly this “entertainment” took place)