Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Keep the faith....


I'm a big fan of Eddie/Eddy Giles' output on the Murco label out of Shreveport. In the 70's, he recorded some great stuff with Wardell Quezergue for the Alarm label, even worked with Allen Toussaint at one point, but it's the Murco sides that get my attention.

Giles' first single, "Losing Boy", was a fair sized hit in 1966. It was followed by six more 45's for Murco, none of which did much in terms of sales.

Oddly enough,"While I'm Away" was released on both Giles' second and third singles for Murco. Whether or not it was meant to be the b-side on either or both is difficult to tell. Murco didn't actually designate a&b sides, so I suppose it's possible "While I'm Away" was meant to be the follow-up to "Losing Boy"......and perhaps when the follow-up didn't sell as expected, a very funky flip side was added for a quick re-release???

The two singles were issued back to back with consecutive numbers, which even for a small label like Murco makes the release of Giles' third 45 appear rushed.

In case ya'll have never been there, Shreveport is in northern Louisiana, actually much closer to Dallas than New Orleans in more ways than one. As far as I know, all recordings on the Murco label were cut in Tyler Texas, which is about half way between Shreveport and Dallas.

Eddie Giles lives in Shreveport today.

Hope ya'll enjoy...

10 comments:

  1. Ana, is it possible to just listen or is it download only with your file hosting service? I'd love to hear your last few postings. Thanks.

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  2. Marie...it's download only at this point. I'd love to have a player on the blog, but the only file service I know that offers one is the dreaded Divshare. Other than that, you have to use a third party player which requires access to your own server space. Which, in one way or another, costs money.

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  3. Oh, and while I know this doesn't address your concerns Marie, I do presume that those who only want to listen to the songs can download the files and then delete them when they're finished.

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  4. Thanks Ana. The only reason I'm not downloading is that, for the time being anyway, I haven't enabled it on my blogs. I don't feel it's fair for me to download from others. Looks like you're posting some great stuff (and I do enjoy your writing)!

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  5. You silly.

    I, Queen Ana, do hereby grant Marie the irrevocable right to download from this blog anytime she pleases.

    There, does that help?

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  6. Ana, that's so kind, generous, sweet (all of those cliched words you're not supposed to use because they're not too cool), but I mean it! Thank you. Now, you have my email address, I believe, so let me know if anything catches your ear(s) on my blogs.

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  7. By the way, I forgot to mention that box.net has a free player that is very easy to use, as well as being ad-free. If you feel like taking a look it's at:
    http://www.box.net/
    The only reason I'm not using it now is because you can only control the download feature with a $$ upgrade.

    One of the links I have on my blog, My Favorite Doo Wops, uses it, so you can see how it works for listeners here:
    http://myfavoritedoowop.blogspot.com/

    Thanks again, Ana! Marie

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  8. Should have done this in the last comment. A direct link to one of the tunes that might have some interest for you - Nolan Strong and the Diablos a capella version of Jump Shake and Move:
    http://www.box.net/shared/t4uoc9sakb

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  9. Thank you Ana, I'd never heard this song. Sad & ironic that so many great songs came out of the Vietnam war.

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