Holy Vinyl, part 2

Let's start off with Swing That Gospel Axe, by Butch Yelton and Upbound. Like the rest of the albums here, the actual record isn't too amazing, but the cover is pretty cool. That's an axe emblazoned with the words "GOSPEL AXE" that the one guy (Butch, I'm guessing) is holding.)

The cover is pretty amazing, but what really pushes this cover over the top is the cameltoe.


Mmm, lovely!

Another good source of strange record covers is the singing family. When Mom and Dad drag their offspring into the singing business, you're usually going to see an album cover of children either trying a little too hard to smile, or just staring slack-jawed into the camera.

We have two examples of singing family records for you. The first one, The GLORY Special by the Waters Family, uses the tried-and-true formula of equating religion with a train. The whole family has been put upon the end of a train car, with the camera placed far below eye level, with disturbing results, as you can see from the blown-up image. Most of the kids look like undead hellspawn, instead of perky singers coming to tell you about the Lord. In particular, the kid positioned on the top of the car (isn't that a bit dangerous?) looks like some devil-child from a Stephen King novel.

The World's Most Unusual Family (hopefully not unusual in the way that you're probably thinking right now) is the Pent family from Houston, Texas. Note the look of transfixed horror on the youngest daughter in the middle of the picture.

And let's end on a particularly scary-looking family, The Shorbs. They're all brothers, apparently, although they don't really look alike. In fact, if you focus in on the guy on the far left on the front cover, you can see that he's a dead ringer for Mr. Carlin from the old Bob Newhart show.

Like the Ambassador Quartet in the previous chapter of Holy Vinyl, the Shorbs do a version of "Daddy Sang Bass" that features a somewhat disturbing falsetto part for the "Mama sang tenor" line. In fact, just about anytime this song is sung without a woman taking the Mama line, you're sure to be freaked out by the singing. Check it out:

"Daddy Sang Bass"
MP3 audio, 1.03 Mb

Coming up in the next installment: more grimacing singers, and a look at Merrill Womach, who turned his terrible disfigurement into a whole new career. Catch you later!

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