Don’t Give the Name and Bad Place

I have been fighting several bold infections since Thanksgiving that have left me feeling lethargic as a petrified sloth. As a result, I have quite unsatisfactorily met my writing deadlines and simply tried to be content in my mobile chair while listening to records and CDs accumulated for years in anticipation of just such a period of malaise. I recently reached for an LP that had been shoved back on the shelf and discovered it was unique, though its acquisition was unremembered. The title was Don’t Give the Name and Bad Place, From the old Gus Williams tune. I was not surprised to discover that Max Morath and Dick Hyman were involved in making a record with a title cleverly containing the flipped words. Adding to the mystery, when I inquired about the record, Max had only a faint memory of its production and when I called Dick Hyman, he could barely recall it at all. Thus, my fascination was heightened. The New World Records LP from their Anthology of Recorded Music project contained 14 selections illustrating “Types and Stereotypes in American Musical Theater, 1870-1900.” I soon managed to locate a wealth of information on-line, not only about the project from the label’s website but about the recording as well from Richard M. Sudhalter’s extensive liner notes. It seems back in 1975 New World Records (NWR) with a hefty Rockefeller Foundation grant undertook to press a