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Tom Sankey ~ The Golden Screw
vinyl LP front cover
album design by Loring Eutemey
cover photo by Bert Andrews
photo of album cover by Styrous®
Today is the birthday of Tom Sankey who was was an American folk singer, playwright and actor born on July 28, 1933, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is only known for one thing, the off Broadway production of The Golden Screw. That's all, nothing else!
Tom Sankey ~ The Golden Screw
vinyl LP back cover
album design by Loring Eutemey
back cover photos by Bob Siegler
photo of album back cover by Styrous®The Golden Screw was a folk rock musical documenting the progress of a fictional folk singer, Bob Dylanesque, who starts from folk music roots to sell out to almost achieving the height of commercialization. A theme echoed many times since then in music and theater, a case in point is one of my favorite films from 1980, Breaking Glass with Hazel O'Connor.
The complete score for the show was recorded by
Sankey on Atco Records and was the first rock theatrical recording of its kind. Hair is cited as the first rock musical but the Golden Screw opened nine months before it; although Screw does sound more folk than rock.
The
show's band was called The Inner Sanctum and featured Kevin Michael -
Lead Guitar, Gerry Michael - drums, Vince Taggart - rhythm guitar and
Frank Thumhart - bass guitar. (link below).
Loring Eutemey, the designer of The Golden Screw album cover, also designed or illustrated vinyl LP covers for many other musicians (link below).
Tom Sankey ~ The Golden Screw
vinyl LP back cover detail
album design by Loring Eutemey
detail photo of album back cover by Styrous®The Golden Screw opened on January 30, 1967 and only had 40 performances. It was directed by James Grove, produced by Paul Stoudt, with scenery and costumes by C. Murawski and a cast of only four: Tom Sankey, Janet Day, Patrick Sullivan and Murray Paskin. The musicians were Tom Sankey (autoharp), Jack Hopper (guitar) and members of The Inner Sanctum: Kevin Michael (lead guitar), Gerry Michael (drums), Vince Taggart (rhythm guitar). The script was published as The Golden Screw, Or That's Your Thing, Baby
The
staging was unusual. On one side of the stage were three non-singing
performers, Janet Day, Patrick Sullivan and Murray Paskin who enacted
scenes from the folk singer’s story. On the other side were Sankey, who
performed all the vocals, and the other musicians. One of the cliche’s
of the off Broadway
rock musical was that the musicians were never called the ”orchestra”
or the ”band”. Instead they were called bizarre names, such as the Strawberry Alarm Clock or the Harpers Bizarre.
The next year, 1968, Sankey played tenor guitar with drummer Gerry Michael and The Bummers, a circa 1880 Commedia dell’Arte style group of cowboys and Indians, at Woodstock.
The performers numbered 14 and included a five-piece rock band which,
in addition to Gerry, featured his brother Kevin on lead guitar, Sankey
on tenor guitar, his wife, Janet, on autoharp and Frank Thumbheart on bass.
The Bummers flyer - 1968
In 1962, Sankey contributed to the folksongs in the Jonas Mekas film, Guns of the Trees which also featured Allen Ginsberg
reading his poetry. The film captures the feel of a particular moment
in time, early 1960, and the concerns that seemed important then.
A subsequent production of The Golden Screw was mounted at Toronto's Global Village Theatre
in 1972. Directed by Sankey, the cast included Elan Ross Gibson,
Francois Regis-Klanfer and Yank Azman with music by Larry Wells (piano) and Fergus Hambleton (guitar).
Tom Sankey won an Obie Award in 1976 for The Golden Screw. This is an award originally given by The Village Voice newspaper to theater artists and groups in New York City.
Although he was an interesting performer, writer and composer, for some reason Tom Sankey was never heard from again. One of many mysterious tales in musicology. He died on August 26, 2010. He was 77 years old.
Tracklist:
Side 1:
Side 1:
A1 - Bad Girl - 1:48
A2 - New Evaline - 1:44
A3 - You Won't Say No - 3:14
A4 - The Beautiful People - 2:40
A5 - I Heard My Mother Crying - 4:55
A6 - I Can't Make It Anymore - 3:00
A7 - Jesus Come Down - 2:29
A2 - New Evaline - 1:44
A3 - You Won't Say No - 3:14
A4 - The Beautiful People - 2:40
A5 - I Heard My Mother Crying - 4:55
A6 - I Can't Make It Anymore - 3:00
A7 - Jesus Come Down - 2:29
Side 2:
B1 - 2000 Miles - 3:15
B2 - Trip Tick Talking Blues - 2:50
B3 - Can I Touch You? - 2:50
B4 - That's Your Thing, Baby - 2:10
B5 - I Can't Remember - 2:20
B6 - Bottom End Of Bleecker Street - 3:30
B7 - Flippin' Out - Little White Dog - 1:30
Credits:
• Arranged By, Producer – David Lucas
• Band – The Inner Sanctum (2)
• Bass Guitar [The Inner Sanctum], Recorder, Washtub Bass – Frank Thumhart
• Design – Loring Eutemey
• Electric Guitar [The Inner Sanctum] – Vince Taggart
• Electric Guitar [The Inner Sanctum], 12-String Acoustic Guitar – Kevin Michael (9)
• Engineer – Adrian Barber, Phil Iehle
• Guitar, Kazoo, Harmonica – Jack Hopper
• Percussion [The Inner Sanctum] – Jerry Michael (2)
• Photography By – Bert Andrews
• Sleeve Notes – Bob Rolontz
• Written-By, Autoharp, Tenor Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals – Tom Sankey
Notes:
Stereo version with plum and gold Atco label.
Folk-rock musical which opened Off-Broadway at the Provincetown Playhouse, New York on Jan 30, 1967.
Tom Sankey – Tom Sankey Sings The Songs From The Golden Screw
Label: ATCO Records – SD 33-208
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo
Country: US
Released: 1967
Genre: Stage & Screen
Style: Musical, Folk
Viewfinder link:
Net links:
The Globe & Mail ~ Tom Sankey obit
University of Florida ~ The Golden Screw
WoodstockArts ~ Gerry Michael and The Bummers
YouTube links:
The Golden Screw ~
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