The Now Sounds Of Today (Columbine)
The year and location of this record are ambiguous. However, apparently, this is apart of a series of recordings where a songwriter would submit their work through mail order to have their works performed by a professional singer. The singers on this compilation are ones named Marie Bain, Kay Weaver and Ralph Lowe. The women do country songs. The songs that stand out are done by Mr. Lowe, who has a couple of funky tunes accompanied by slide guitar, one about an alien that views Earth as a pretty “hip” place to live.
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They’re called “song poems” and there’s a highly entertaining documentary about this f—ed up phenonmenom & a huge archive of this stuff on the www.
yeah, I saw a doc. on Independant Lens about this. Some of the “songwriters” submiting work were truely twisted!!!! Some dudes would write a song a week for like 20 years.
Not a song a week but rather several songs per day…
Song poems got braekz, yo! :)
shit, i think i saw this at goodwill a couple months ago.
My mother wrote the song titled “Free” on this album and was very serious about the lyrics to all the songs she wrote. She died of a brain tumor in 1982 and I still have the demo recordings of various artists from at that time K-City Sound Studios in Knoxville Tennesee.
douglas, could you say again what the link to the song poem archive is? i am extremely interested.
There was a PBS documentary called “Off the Charts: The Song-Poem Story”
I wrote a song on this album in high school…boy did they ever screw it up. I wroe it as a medium love ballad, they produced it as a country polka….fricken hilarious!!!
Big mail order scam…but kinda fun as a high school project.
I wrote a song on the album “The Now Sounds of Today” “Do You Remember” but have not heard from Columbine Records since the ’70s. I was using a General Delivery address back then but now have a physical address. I would like to know how this album is doing?
Elmon Henry
48 Glover St.
Kiana, AK 99749
I got a “recording contract” in the mail from Columbine Records in 1979 for some lyrics I wrote called “Dancin at the Disco” (it WAS 1979 after all!) I was only 14 and stoked that I had been “discovered”. Naturally, they wanted something like $300 something dollars for “processing fees” if I remember correctly, and my parents said no. I was heartbroken, thinking they were depriving me of my big chance. We never sent the money and I assumed my lyrics never used, but then I saw a TV commercial for an album called “THE SOUNDS OF TODAY” (they left out the word “now”) that had a song called “Dancing at the Disco” on it. I was tempted to buy it to see if somehow it was my song, but was too lazy (or poor, can’t remember which) to send the $$. To this day, I still wonder if they used my song even though I never sent the money/permission. Does anybody have a track listing for this album or know where it can be purchased? I couldn’t find it on Amazon.
Hello,
You folks put one of my songs on one of your Albums some 20 or so years ago.
The name of the song was,
“Blue eyes you and me” and it was written by me,
Dan Saville.
I received a free copy of the Album at the time, but have since been divorced and lost track of the album
Is there any way I could get another copy of that particular album please?
Thanks Very Kindly.
Dan Saville
You folks who did these song poems who are looking for records should set saved searches on ebay for the song titles (search both title and description) and also on google alerts. This way you’ll get an email if the one you worked on goes up for sale. There is no place you can just go and order one of these, but ebay, gemm, and musicstack are the best places to try on the internet.
Be clear that there is no such thing as a song poem record that sold a lot of copies, so don’t get the idea that you’re missing out on royalties. In every or nearly every case, these were printed and sold only to the song contributors, and not in stores. Yes it was a scam, but led to a little bit of interesting creativity here and there too.
i’d like to now if this album is still available,I wrote a song that was added to this album
I wrote a song on the album “THE NOW SOUNDS OF TODAY” I too, have lost the copy that was sent to me. How can I obtain a copy of the album. The song was sung by an artist name Kate ———-. Can’t recall her last name.
Could it have been Kay Weaver? My mother wrote one about me when I was little and it’s on the album. I would also like to know how to obtain a copy. Thanks!
Could it have been Kay Weaver? My mom (Iva Perbetsky) wrote one about me when I was little and that’s who sang it. I too would love to know where to get a copy.
Thanks in advance!
For those of you looking for the song-poem archive and info, it’s here:
http://www.songpoemmusic.com/
If you or someone you know “had a song on this album”, there’s something you should know.
Columbine Records made HUNDREDS of DIFFERENT albums with this exact same title and cover art. They were never sold in stores. They only pressed 50 or so copies of each, which were only offered for sale to the people who actually had songs on them.
Columbine would also send a few copies to radio stations (as promised in their ads), who would always throw them away unopened. Needless to say, the chances of you finding one with any particular song on it are slim-to-none, since there are probably only a couple dozen copies of it still in existence, all in the hands of the other songwriters.
It wasn’t entirely a scam, at least with Columbine. You got what you paid for, a professionally written and recorded demo, pressed on a high-quality record. (Some other companies’ recordings weren’t very professional.) The unethical part was the implication that it would go any further than that. Out of many thousands of recordings, not one single song poem ever came within a million miles of being a hit. Needless to say, if you were expecting royalties, there are none.
There are folks who collect these “song poem” recordings, but they’re generally only interested in the VERY bad or VERY strange ones. If yours happened to be on the same album as a VERY bad or VERY strange one, there may be copies floating around the used record market. Otherwise, I’m afraid your only chance is to dig up your own missing copy.
Another Ralph Lowe track from one of these albums is here.