SHOWTIME!

I'm a sucker for crazy little things from my early years (not my 1st Izod shirt or my red jazz oxfords, tho). Certain things evoke a vibe, kinda like a cerebral taste or smell, if not a specific moment in time. Such is the case with ... er, Camelot.

Back in the mid 60s my cousin (whose siblings are the subject of a draft I've yet to publish; some things are best left on the cutting room floor) had the original Broadway cast lp, featuring Richard Burton, Julie Andrews & Robert Goulet. (yeah, & I had "Highway 61 Revisited") Anyway, he was painting some rooms in our house and brought this lp with him to play while he worked. I admit it grew on me, and apparently my mother too since she bought a copy. His younger brother, who was my age, used to know all the words to all the songs in that damn thing. And I wanted to, too, since occasionally it seemed better to be him than me (yes, I have issues). Well lo and behold, I memorized that bitch, including the Julie Andrews cuts. The Camelot Original Broadway Cast album became one of my life standards.

So last weekend I was scouting around my favorite download vehicle & found a site offering the complete original Broadway cast from 1960. I downloaded it, and when I opened up the master file, it contained two folders - Disc 1 & Disc 2 - wow! An expanded version?!? My excitement grew. I opened the Disk 1 folder - and there were the familiar track titles but also tracks entitled "dialog", and even more titles unfamiliar to me. Disk 2: more of the same! YOW! So as I loaded them onto my media player, It was like Indiana Jones finding the holy grail, or the guy at that flea market last year who found the studio acetate of 1st Velvet Underground album with alternate takes! For me it was that cool!

OK, OK, check this out: someone had recorded a complete overture-to-curtain call performance of the play from the audience! So this was one particular night at The Majestic Theatre on Broadway, sometime between December 3 1960 and January 5 1963 (873 performances!). I don't know who recorded it, or how they got it, but it's all there, all two hours-plus of it! The quality is pretty poor, but I can overlook that! From the very first strains of the Overture, which has a bit more punch than the cast album, it's an exciting sound. And what's more, you even hear audience reactions and applause! And of course, because the songs are being performed in front of a live audience you get slightly different vibes from the songs. Burton with his thick brogue, Goulet's voice booming like he didn't even need a mic. It was as if I were listening to something from a time before recording equipment existed. It's like the first bootleg album! Nowadays acts are playing entire albums in concert - it's kinda like what this is, even though it's a chicken/egg thing.

Anyway, if I memorize the dialog, I'll have one over on my cousin. Except I think he's got money.