Music Department of Shawnee Mission North in Concert 1966-67 Century Records 1967

Music Department of Shawnee Mission North in Concert 1966-67 Century Records 1967 CAT # CL 4-5600



Not much to this LP, not even the typical Beatles cover that was all the rage with high school choirs. Really only reason to pick it up is to archive it.



It's the Shawnee Mission North music program recorded in concert. The girl's choir is kind of entertaining, but yeah, nothing special. Typical selections for a high school program and it all ends up sounding like church music.

Shawnee Mission West High School The West High Story HPC Records 1963

Shawnee Mission West High School The West High Story HPC Records 1963 CAT #SPB-623

This record commemorates the newly opened Shawnee Mission West High School, which opened it's doors to students in the Overland Park area for the 1962-1963 school year. So in that regard, given that it was a newly formed music program, I guess this is good.

However, apparently the West High Story is about religion. The first side is exclusively Christian. The second side only steps away momentarily, but gets back to it in the matter of a couple of songs. It's a pretty boring story and now that Shawnee Mission West has an actual history, there's probably better story to tell. One thing is for sure, when you see the Facebook post demanding G-d be put back in public schools, the who posts those types of rants has never heard this album, it's boring and there's no way you'd want Christianity back in school if it meant going back to this type of music program.

The Reflections My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys American Artists

The Reflections My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys American Artists Unknown Year CAT #AAS-1500-LP

Not sure of the year on this, but it's gotta be sometime in the 80's judging by the scorching cover of 'Fame.'

Also, not exactly sure where The Reflections are actually from, but searching the large lists of names on the back cover would indicate most players resided around Pittsburgh, Kansas. The group is made up a large group of teenagers, some with guitars, a few with keyboards, even some horns, and a single drummer keeping the Reflections in place.

It's basically a high school style music review, but with songs the kids were actually interested in. Which for the area, is country...lots of country. 'Long Haired Country Boy' by Charlie Daniels is probably the highlight as it's way too adult for the kids performing it. Other than that, the attempts at pop songs are fun, the horns are usually heavy in those tracks and the cover of Olivia Newton-John's 'Totally Hot' gets pretty dirty.

The amateurishness of these types of LPs are endearing and The Reflections are strong in that regard.

Merritt Owens Advertising Agency "Whistle and Boom" Sound Effect Damon Unknown Year

Merritt Owens Advertising Agency "Whistle and Boom" Sound Effect Damon Acetate Unknown Year No CAT #

This is odd. It's literally just a sound effect. Sounds like the whistle and boom of a firework going off and it repeats 3 times on one side of the record while the other side is blank.

Typically, if you find Damon records, they are custom press gospel records. Some of which are one-of-kind acetates, others that the label provided multiple copies for whoever took advantage of the companies service. This is just an acetate disc of a single sound, obviously used for the advertising firm that purchased it, but the strange thing is why did they need a record of it?

To get the sound to record, it had to be taped, right? So why wasn't the Merritt Owens Advertising Agency just able to use the tape? Odd. Either way, it does appear the Merritt Owens Agency was based in K.C. The Damon label most certainly was.

Center North Music Department Century Records 1969

Center North Music Department Century Records 1969

I got too many of these types of LPs...a while back, DJ Shadow did some cool stuff with high school and college band/vocal LPs like this, so I started picking them up when I saw them thinking I'd strike gold.

For the most part, they are all typically the same.  Loads of crap that no one needs to hear with moments of brilliance here and there.  Most of them feature insanely Christian Gospell songs.  Which, I'm not saying is bad, but, it's just amusing that in the 60's and 70's it was expected to sing overtly religious songs in school.  Today, if a music teacher even attempts it, things go South fast and before you know it, Fox News is doing story on your school.

Center North is a Kansas City, Missouri High School.  The first side is vocal, religious and pretty boring.  The Association's "Windy" is pleasant, but meh.  The B-Side is far better, but still, meh.  They run through another version of "Windy", the Beatles' "Yesterday", and the "Mission Impossible Theme" is neat, so the fact that the kids were allowed to do some pop hits makes it kind of fun.  However, it isn't professional and the amateur aspect of the players doesn't make this time any more endearing, I bet the parents loved the LP, though.