Gene Marshall Archive

In WeirdoAudio deze keer een echte ‘song poem‘:

Song-poem music is a scam in which innocent people are deceived into paying to have a poem or song lyric they’ve written set to a tune and recorded. Although the song-poem company suggests in its promotional literature that it will support the finished recording, and that it therefore has a chance to become a smash hit, in reality once the record is completed and returned to the customer it is quickly forgotten about, in favor of the location and seduction of new victims.

Gene Marshall – Thanks mister Handel [mp3 download]

Gene Merlino says he recorded over 10,000 song-poems — or “demos” as he calls them — under the names Gene Marshall and John Muir. “I started doing them basically to make a few bucks,” Merlino says. “I started with $2 a song.”

Merlino insists the would-be songwriters weren’t ripped off by the service he and record companies provided. “We actually did our very best to make these things sound good and I think we gave them a real good product. They were getting their money’s worth and I never felt guilty at all in doing these things — ever.”