2003 OCTOBER 11 #284
Troll At The General Meeting - Call To order By Chairman, Troll/Good-By Song
While shopping for comics in San Diego with my brother, I noticed an orange crate with some records in it. A crude drawing on a record cover always piques my interest and I bought it, sight unheard. This seems to be a real homemade affair. A person of note on the record is an actor named Jarl Victor (Head Troll), who played some minor roles on Captain Midnight and had minor movie roles from "Away All Boats" to "The Wild Scene" (an uncensored "Shocking Expose'" style film). The rest of the elves, goblins and ghosts are simply a matter of one-to-one matching. The writer/narrator was one Lois Prante Ellis and there are three children named Ellis on the record, the music is by Mary Ann Parker, there is a boy named Larry Parker listed, the "Good-by song" vocalist Lois Cummins had her daughter Elaine join in, etc. Two of the musicians, Glen and Jo Ann Scrivner seem to have continued in their musical endeavors and were or are members of an organization called "Songmakers".
On to the record itself. The kids, bless their hearts, can't act, but neither can many of the kids that participated in the "Peanuts" specials, so I can't carp too much about them, but Mr. Victor is one of the deepest-voiced trolls I have heard. He doesn't seem horribly thrilled to have company and that "I'll miss you!" at the end of the "Good-by song" seems to have "...because I can't aim well!" lopped off the end of it. So like a troll, I guess. Another great moment is the sound of Little Elf walking. The elf sounds like a clicker used at a county fair to count attendees, making the elf sound as if it just came over from tap class.
If you are wondering about one of the lyrics, according to the enclosed lyric sheet (which has specific instructions for classroom use), the meeting starts off with a hearty "FOOM! BAM! ZOW!"
Wow, it's scary.
Very.
- Brian Phillips
TT-3:04 / 2.8MB / 128kbps 44.1khz
(Images courtesy of Brian Phillips)
Micah Nutt writes:
Lois Ellis was my family's immediate neighbor in
the mid-sixties. The children on this album consisted
of her own and the neighborhood kids. My sister is one
of the little voices; I was too young. I just finished
printing out some labels to accompany Troll CD's I've
made to give as gifts when I decided to search the internet
for an references to this project. Found yours. Thanks.
