Friday, January 22, 2010: Books and Music Edition

Charlie Huston reading.

Beginning on the last Thursday in February, Scott Parker will host a monthly opportunity for people to talk about forgotten music. Let him know if you will post something.

And be on the lookout for Keith Rawson and Cameron Hughes' CRIMEFACTORY beginning on Monday.


BOOKS

'Julie Lewthwaite lives by the seaside in the north east of England and is a business writer who occasionally ventures into crime fiction (as Julie Wright or, more recently, Julie Morgan). She promises to pick just one name and stick to it soon.'

Paul Gallico, The Man Who Was Magic

I first read The Man Who Was magic when I was off school sick for a day and despite my (genuine - honest, guv!) illness, I could not put the book down. I've read it several times since, as often as possible in one sitting, and I enjoy it as much now as I did then. I think the reason is that this is perhaps the first book that really opened my eyes to the wickedness, the shallowness, the greed, the duplicity of which people are capable. Not bad people, the villains in black hats or with stubbly chins who skulk in shadows and menace gangs of smart kids: just people.

The basis of the book is that Adam, who practises 'simple' magic, goes to Mageia, the city where the world's great magicians may be found, to take part in their annual competition of magic. Adam is desperate to win as he wants to be admitted to the Guild of Master Magicians and to have the opportunity to learn the secrets of these great artists. What he does not know is that all these magicians are mere illusionists, so when he nervously performs his well practised, 'simple' trick of unscrambling an egg, he causes a sensation: the apprentice magician has done the impossible. Many adventures follow, with friends made, perils faced and lessons learned, and Adam ultimately triumphs by acknowledging the basic greed inherent in people's natures and using it as a means for escape, leaving older, wiser and better equipped to face the future.

Paul Gallico is undoubtedly better known for others of his titles: The Snow Goose and The Poseidon Adventure spring to mind; and whilst I have enjoyed many of his stories over the years, I always come back to this one. Perhaps it's the place and time it takes me back to - it is certainly very tame indeed by the standards of the books I tend to read now - but for me this is a true forgotten treasure and an enduring pleasure. (And as a bonus Mopsy, Adam's talking dog, really can talk!)

Ed Gorman is the author of books such as TICKET TO RIDE, THE MIDNIGHT ROOM, and SLEEPING DOGS. You can find him here.

The Ham Reporter by Robert J. Randisi

These days Bob Randisi is probably best known for his larky look at The Rat Pack, novels that aren't just fun to read but also map out show biz morality--or lack thereof--with skill and grace. Randisi's changed publishers for the next couple and I can't wait to read them.

But the novel I'd like to discuss here is Randisi's 1986 historical The Ham Reporter first published by Doubleday in 1986 and reprinted last year (along with The Disappearance of Penny and still available) by Stark House.

It's nice to think that Gene Barry's TV depiction of Bat Masterton was historically accurate but unfortunately--and I thought Barry was a good actor--it wasn't. Now that you've recovered from your shock I'll note that Randisi gives us the real story. Masterton ended up in New York working on a newspaper as a columnist and reporter. And because he was outspoken he got into one hell of a lot of trouble.

One such moment came when Masterton wrote a column accusing a boxing promoter and his minions of fixing a prize fight. The promoter blazed back accusing Masterton of having concocted his own reputation as an old west gunfighter and claiming that Masterton only shot young cowboys in the back.

During all this Masterton became friends with Damon Runyon. The Ham Reporter deals with how they get caught up in this and other battles in the New York City of 1911. Randisi brings the city to real life, high and low alike. There's a particularly good chapter on the street gangs of New York. It has the same resonance as Borges' piece on Billy The Kid who, as most people forget, was a NYC street ganger himself.

I've probably read this novel four times over the years. I like the people, the local color and the way Randisi demonstrates how press wars (Fox News anybody?) are nothing new.

A fine, rich novel that just about any reader will enjoy and appreciate.

MUSIC

Eric Peterson

Mark Pickerel and His Praying Hands: Snake in the Radio (Bloodshot Records 2006)

I wanted to approach this weeks Forgotten music with the thought "what would James Reasoner dig?" Which is to say, what could I write about that someone who likes crime and western novels and has written about enjoying classic country and Rock'n'Roll would like.

There were a lot of answers, but the one that kept coming to mind was the 2006 album Snake in the Radio by Mark Pickerel and His Praying Hands.

I discovered the album after seeing an ad for it and reading a review in No Depression magazine. In the ad, Pickerel is shown lying on the floor a red telephone to one ear, a old pulp crime magazine in the other. A bottle of soda rests next to him. It's an image that evokes a time and a place and a feeling. I ran out to my local record shop and picked up a copy and have been hooked ever since.

The album runs the gambit of the 'Alt County' sound, a bit of classic country balladry, some up- tempo roots rock, and a dash of honky-tonk. Pickerel has a haunting plaintive voice that fits the songs. Sometimes he whispers, and sometime it's the voice of a barn-dance caller. My favorite tracks from the album are the title track with its lament about the state of radio, and the bouncy Sin Tax Dance.

A 2008 follo

w up album Cody’s Dream is also worth checking out.

More on Pickerel can be found at http://www.bloodshotrecords.com/artist/mark-pickerel

Jerry House lives in Southern Maryland. He can be reached at jerry@hotmailcom

No Man's Land by Eric Bogle

My Forgotten Music pick is a song that has haunted me since I first heard it. World War I was a travesty from the beginning, starting when three pig-headed and selfish cousins (Willie and Georgie and Nickie) got involved in a

stupid pissing contest and no one backed down. It brought us trench warfare and mustard gas and Armistice Day/Veteran's Day/Remembrence Day and way too many dead.

No Man's Land opens with a wanderer pausing to rest by the the grave of a young soldier in France. As he talks to the dead soldier, he begins to ask questions: And I see by your gravestone you were only 19 When you joined the glorious fallen in 1916. Well, I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean Or, Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?

And then the bittersweet chorus: Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the pipes lowly? Did the rifles fire o'er you as they lowered you down? Did the bugles sound The Last Post in Chorus? Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?

The song pays sincere tribute to fallen soldiers everywhere, as well as reminds us how meaningless and tragic some wars are. I play it often throughout the year, and make a point to play it every Veteran's Day. No Man's Land has also been recorded as Willie McBride and as Green Fields of France; the original title, though, carries the message best. There are a number of versions availa

ble on Youtube. Lyric's are available on Bogle's webside. Singer/songwriter Bogle is an Australian by way of Scotland. His best-known song is The Band Played Waltzing Matilda (also about World War I) and he has a remarkably diverse and powerful catalog.

Kent Morgan. Spotlight On Jacy Parker - Verve V-8424

I can't find a date on this record, but I must have picked it up in a delete bin in the late 1950s or very early 1960s. I knew nothing about Jacy Parker other than what was in the liner notes. She was described as " a pert pianist from Chicago who, although in her mid-20s, demonstrates ability and jazz sense well beyond her years." She moved to NYC in 1954 to study at Juilliard. Parker said she likes to play "hard" and admires Oscar Peterson, Billy Taylor and Horace Silver. I am attracted to piano players who play and sing the great American songbook and the songs on this LP were what got me to invest my $1.99. I've always said in my next life that I want to come back as a piano player and singer in a saloon. Parker doesn't have great range, but her version of Ira Gershwin and Kurt Weill's My Ship is as fine a one as I've ever heard. She leads up to My Ship on side one with I thought About You, Guess Who I Saw Today and Here Comes Trouble Again. I often would play this record late at night back-to-back with Sinatra's Only the Lonely. Once I realized that this record would have a permanent place in my collection, I looked for other albums by Parker and tried to find out more about her without success. It's hard to imagine why an artist with so much talent would disappear after one record.

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