$8.99
Sold by music on Tradebit
The world's largest download marketplace
3,250,955 satisfied buyers
The world's largest download marketplace
3,250,955 satisfied buyers
MP3 The Sole Proprietor - Illuminated Sole
14 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Folk-Rock, ROCK: Rockabilly
Details:
The Sole Proprietor’s Illuminated Sole is at once a jazzy, urban country, bluesey jamming, folk-rock-a-billy and satiric comedy compilation. Clever, covert sarcasm lies between the foot tapping lines in the lyrics of some songs, while a smooth singing crooner balladeer style enhances the others. Blahh, blahh blahh ... ok it''s a neat, fun and sometimes serious album! Wow, all them adjectives! There is something here for everybody. If you like an unusual mix of this genre of music and lyrics, then you’ll enjoy listening to this album. You’ll laugh, or maybe you’ll feel a little lonely, a little melancholic, depending on the track. Whatever happens, you won’t have your eardrums hashed to pieces with noise. These songs were written to pull at your heartstrings and your unique sense of humor. You are the audience and YOU rule! So, if you are looking for hard rock, metal, hip-hop, or any pumped-up distortion or clipped mastering, you won’t find it here on this CD. You will hate this album if that’s what you are looking for. It’s not that we don’t like hardcore stuff, we’re just gving you the scoop and you can hear the clips. The listening level and the words on these tracks are clear and understandable, sometimes at the expense of glossy production. This is purely acoustic/vocal music with a percussive backbeat. You can dance to some of the tunes, so it’s not like they are all that mellow. The CD definitely has a thing or two with country flavor, but not any mule-kickin’ songs about losing your truck keys while you were at the bar last night getting your head punched in by some drunk. There’s rock-a-billy influence as well, and a blues song about a gin mill. You’ll hear some faint Beatles influence here and there, and even a sea chantey, most definitely. By the time that you start sailing, your toes and soles will be a tappin’ when you make your way out to sea with your captain and mates, looking for your sole mate in a distant land. Open your heart, mind and sense of humor! Let your imagination take you away, then wander and go with it. You’re going to like this!
This CD, the whole conceptual thing, reads and sounds like a book and takes you to new places with a colorful cast of characters and new ideas. It’s a variety show on wheels! There are imaginative stories here! Stories of yearning hearts, flying above the clouds, disconnected travels and experiences, again with LOTS of interwoven humor. Like these examples: After being stung in a crazed relationship, you’ll travel from San Diego to Tijuana only to be captured by a dancer and one too many shots of tequila .. or you could wind up back on that ship on a distant sea with chanting sailors, then find yourself on a deserted cold beach at night, walking alone, waiting for your ship to come in. You might even find yourself “a-walkin’ home from work” near 7th & Fashion Avenues in NYC or some other place, as the end of your long work day finds its way into this multi-motif, acoustic-with-drums album. Seasons and mysteries? You will feel the grand entrance of spring, then witness the haunting effort to solve a mystery about someone you may never get to meet again. How about a super, mellow flight above the clouds, just to get away from it all? There is a song about flying south for the winter; about leaving troubles behind, or is it about the hereafter? Personally, we hope it''s headed for the islands.
Uh oh, now we get a little more serious. There’s “Twelve and Three” … written back in 1980 when we started to see some of the international dangers that have escalated in recent years, and we hoped that our youth could help in solving some of the problems that we envisioned back then. We see these things coming true and now we are facing them larger than life. The older folks are running out of energy. That’s where the Sole Proprietor stops just short of trying to do any sort of political-musical statement. This is a slippery slope for a songwriter, and takes a very special talent to do serious writing in the politico-folk idiom. Where are the songwriting masters of that genre from the past who were able to communicate these ideas in words and music? Some are gone, but some are still with us and sorely needed to step up again and make some musical statements about what is happening to us right now in the 21st century. Maybe Sole and some other musicians here will eventually attempt this. Time will tell. But for now, it’s time for fun and entertainment!
Truth is, this album is supposed to bring more smiles and laughter than tears, longing or sorrow, so we need to get back on track, right? We need something to take us away for awhile like B&W movies did for the unemployed workers back in the 1930’s. Maybe there’s a potential pop song in here? Well, we are not really sure about that, and The Sole Proprietor no longer wants to be signed by a “label”. Who wants all that sticky label stuff all over their clothes anyway? We do know that there is one comedy tune on this CD that made it to vinyl and syndicated radio, if only for a brief time during the 80’s. Commercial radio HATED it and we still think it was banned, though there are no facts to prove this. It still played on the air thanks to the late Raymond Franks and a DJ named Pat of listener sponsored radio station WFMU (then in East Orange, NJ, now in New York City) and Dr. Demento in Culver City, CA. Yes, thanks to them, “Real Garbage”, the wild and crazy “live” folky rock song that knocked top 40 radio enjoyed some highly prized 90 seconds of fame. Recorded in front of a live participating audience, the song attracted alternative, Indie supporting terrestrial radio airplay. Raymond Franks of WFMU and fellow DJ Pat really liked the song, much to the chagrin of other WFMU DJ’s (they didn’t get it before Ray did, so maybe they banned it too.) The station is well known for playing outlandish unknown songs by unknown artists. They could easily get away with playing one that threw mud pies at top 40 radio of that period. After WFMU got a hold of it, Dr. Demento got a copy of it too. The Doc did a nationally syndicated show to honor American throw-away junk food, songs and everything else, so the Doc included “Real Garbage” in his play list as junk food music. It’s a “one-note joke” song, and might have worked, but the major labels wouldn’t touch the song because of the “indie anthem anti radio” negative attitude of the song. Well, duh, is there any wonder why The Sole Proprietor wasn’t signed with that song? One major label outright refused to take the song, even with national airplay and sales. Asking top 40 jocks to spin a song that hinted at their playlist mentality was a little too much. Also, back then there was no Internet marketing so you were out of business if a record label didn’t sign you and provide massive brick and mortar marketing. End of big time career. NO, WE DO NOT DO JUST COMEDY RECORDS!! Just sharing a story with you. As for marketing new music, thankfully, things have changed in the artist’s favor. We now have a whole new freedom in making music and a great way to get it out there! Thank you CD Baby! Thank you digital tech!
And, thanks to all of you for letting us ramble on here. We know that this is long winded, but also know that you have some questions .. so we gave just a tidbit of information to answer them, but hopefully not so much that it gets in the way of the music. The Sole Proprietor didn’t do more than two comedy records, and is mostly a thoughtful and sincere writer, and as songwriters go, tends to write from life experiences (yes, well, how can you write from a deceased point of view after you are gone?) With the backing of 6 & 12 string acoustic guitar tracks, electric & acoustic bass, a great drummer friend and all kinds of other percussion and human utterances, this buttery and sometimes disguised vocalist changes like a chameleon to set the character of both lead vocals and background harmonies to match the song theme. Herein lie the secrets of acting on a microphone. This album is sometimes kind of strange in spots (funny strange), but at the same time down-to-earth, peaceful, soft-loud, melodic and a hell of a lot of fun! Please enjoy and bring your tissues! Bring your unbridled humor too! Play it while you drive!
SBBS (Sometimes Boring Biographical Stuff) - The Sole Proprietor began an on-again off-again career in music by playing bass with The Riptides of North Plainfield, NJ, in 1964 at the age of 15. The band cut its first and last record in November of 1964. A lossy master tape copy still exists, but no discs are known to survive. The rhythm guitarist left, and the group continued as The Renegade Three, playing the lakes in Northern NJ during summer vacations. Way before punk came along 2 decades later, the band had a hotheaded drummer who whipped drum sticks at the audience when he felt insulted! Kind of bad PR. Well, the band eventually broke up in 1965 and regrouped in 1968 as Shakespeare’s Head with a new drummer and rhythm guitarist. Ron was fired for not showing up at rehearsals and because he was hanging around with his GF too much. Also, he couldn’t devote enough time to keep up with the rigors of rehearsing to do The Cream, Vanilla Fudge, Hendrix and The Doors with covers that the band was doing at the time (excellent covers we must say, too). After Shakespeare broke up, young Proprietor Ron teamed up with a new guitar player and 1 of the original Riptide band members after making amends. The new band was recording in 1972, writing several harmony driven CSNY type songs. This band with no name then split up in 1973 for good. There was one final attempt at turning out “product” with 2 original Riptides band members and one new guy doing pop demo songs. In 1975 a ray of hope came from CBS Records (now Sony). Submitting songs to CBS eventually caught the record company’s interest and they scheduled an audition/meeting with Epic Records’ East Coast A&R Director, but one of the guys in this new band didn’t show up for the audition meeting at CBS in NYC (then called the Black Rock.) We guess he had to drop off some clothes at the dry cleaners or had a hot date and didn’t want to re-schedule. Ok, so you have a meeting with CBS and you think you can cancel and easily get another appointment on your own terms? Well, needless to say, that was our first and last chance with CBS. The A&R guy said, “you guys are not serious, where is the other guy who sings with you?”. Yep, he was right and we never heard from them again. End of early SBBS, NO CBS contract. Seems like we lacked a good business plan and presentation. Or maybe we didn''t have what they really wanted in the first place? The problem is, you never know where you stand with the big companies and it''s more or less a guessing game and trying to parallel current trends. Current trends disappear like backfires on the highway. Here today, gone tomorrow. Not so with Internet marketing. When you take control and market yourself, you know right away if you are or are not doing the right thing.
A new identity, The Sole Proprietor, was born in 1980, and Sole has been writing under that pseudonym ever since, as recorded in the Library of Congress. SP is now actively writing again, hoping to find a small but dedicated audience of loyal listeners. There will be more stories, and as we said, we hope to add a great rock album to this bio before too long. We''ll still give you the words & music, clear as a bell too. Stay tuned, you’ll never be bored!
Enjoy, and best wishes! The Sole Proprietor, March, 08’
Special note: This album comes with a limited edition, first run, 10 page full color lyric and photo booklet with higher quality images and text. After the first run, the booklet may be produced in larger quantities with lower quality print, or may be discontinued depending on demand. Either way, the CD will still be available with the original cover art, front and rear. Please let us know what you think of the lyric booklet. There are no guarantees that future copies of the album will contain this. Thank you
People who are interested in Jimmy Buffett Loudon Wainwright III should consider this download.
File Data
This file is sold by music, an independent seller on Tradebit.
| Customer Rating |
Rated 4 out of 5, based on 6 review(s)
|