[Rumori] Sample-spotting in Nippon

[Taylor Jessen]

Hello cutters. Mashup, mixdown, fight fight fight!

Does anyone on this list know someone in Japan whom I could hire to find 
an obscure LP?

The whole quest is too ridiculous to recount, but here it is anyway: I'm 
archivist for the Firesign Theatre. In 1970-1971 Firesign had a weekly 
series on KPFK-FM Los Angeles called /Dear Friends/, a one-hour show on 
Sunday nights where they went on the air and let 'er rip: improv comedy, 
found texts, strange surrealist outbursts, Deputy Dan, and an engineer - 
"The Live Earl Jive" - who just loved throwing random records into the 
mix and listening to the boys react.

I've got recordings of all the shows (stay tuned for a reissue! fingers 
crossed, people!), including the broadcast dated November 22, 1970. That 
night the Jiver ended the show with this mystery LP cut:

http://www.footnoteconspiracy.com/Chugoku-Chiho%20no%20Komoriuta.mp3

It's haunting, isn't it? The name of the song, the artist, and the LP 
name are a complete mystery to everyone in Firesign as well as to Jiver 
himself - nobody remembers what this is - but it's lush and noir and 
velvety and splendid, oh so splendid. This makes me want to find the 
original LP, not to clear the cut, not as a trophy, but for my own 
personal enjoyment.

So with no one remembering what the LP is, the recording itself remains 
the only clue with which to identify the source. Here's what I know so far:

A Japanese friend of a friend identified the tune: it's ???????? 
("Chugoku-Chiho no Komoriuta", a lullaby). Live Earl Jive played several 
more cuts from the same LP during the show: the songs include ?????? 
??("Antagatadokosa"), ?????? ("Tawara wa Gorogoro"), and ????? 
("Toryanse", which means "Let Me Pass": many Japanese crosswalk signs 
tinkle out this tune when it's safe to cross the street).

They're all Japanese children's songs. That means this is probably an 
easy-listening LP made in Japan for a Japanese audience in the late 
1960s, full of easy-listening pop instrumental arrangements of 
traditional children's songs. And why the hell not? It's no weirder a 
concept than /Switched-On Gershwin/.

Actually scoring a physical copy of this LP is going to be very 
difficult. Very /very /difficult. I Googled the track names in English. 
I Googled the track names in Japanese. These tactics don't always help - 
especially with lounge LPs. Sometimes you just need an expert's help. I 
can't afford to fly to Japan and go from town to town digging in the 
bins. But I might be able to pay a finder's fee. If anyone can put me in 
touch with a digger based in Japan who's willing to take an advance 
payment and who lives for this sort of wild goose chase, I'd be 
eternally grateful. I know this is sorta the opposite of the usual 
detournment conversation on this list, in that what I'm after is 
recontextualization in reverse - but hey, it's all vinyl love, babies.

You're the best,

Sincerely,
T.

P.S. As everyone's been digging on the natural history of mashups 
recently, here's one that needs to get back into general circulation: 
the Ownership Mix of "Sex Bomb" by Tom Jones, a house barnburner from 
2000 cooked up by a remixer known only as Eye Q. Mashed are "Sex Bomb" 
and "Owner of a Lonely Heart" by Yes; don't know the name of the masher, 
but it sounds like he had stems for "Sex Bomb": 
http://www.footnoteconspiracy.com/Tom%20Jones_Sex%20Bomb%20Eye%20Q%20Own%20mix.mp3
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