Tom Sankey ~ The Golden Screw
Showing posts with label Tom Sankey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tom Sankey. Show all posts
August 5, 2021
July 28, 2021
20,000 Vinyl LPs 300: Tom Sankey ~ The Golden Screw
~
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 ~
July 27, 2021
Loring Eutemey ~ vinyl LP illustrator/designer
~
The number of vinyl LPs I have purchased simply because of the album
cover design is probably in the thousands! Loring Eutemey is one of the
designers/illustrators responsible for that.
The number and variety of musicians he has designed covers for is truly amazing. At the top of the list, for me, is Iron Butterfly for their second album, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (link below). He designed the cover for My Favorite Things by John Coltrane. Then there was Wild Thing by the Troggs (originally called the Troglodytes); Sam Kinison did an absolutely hilarious send up of the song and the mood completely fits my first impression of it (link below).
The number and variety of musicians he has designed covers for is truly amazing. At the top of the list, for me, is Iron Butterfly for their second album, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (link below). He designed the cover for My Favorite Things by John Coltrane. Then there was Wild Thing by the Troggs (originally called the Troglodytes); Sam Kinison did an absolutely hilarious send up of the song and the mood completely fits my first impression of it (link below).
The Troggs - Aug. 5, 1970
photo: KEYSTONE Pictures USA
One of my very favorite records is the second album by Bette Midler; Richard Amsel
did the illustration, Eutemey did the design. I had never heard of Midler
but when I saw the album cover, I bought it and loved the range of music on it (link below). Needless to say, I was not
disappointed!
vinyl LP album cover detail
illustration by Richard Amsel
design by Loring Eutemey
detail photo of album cover by Styrous®
Eutemey did the cover design for the album of the Off-Broadway show, The Golden Screw by Tom Sankey. A brilliant project but unfortunately, one few people know of (link below).
The list of the artists he has worked with goes on and on. Archie Bell & the Drells, The Young Rascals (later known as The Rascals), Otis Redding, Ray Charles, Ike Turner, Ben E. King, Herbie Mann, The Coasters, João Gilberto, Mel Torme, Acker Bilk, Solomon Burke, Esther Phillips, Leslie Uggams, Joe Tex, Eddie Harris, Donny Hathaway, Ornette Coleman, The Slow Slushy Boys,
a French rock, soul, and R&B band that's been active on the
underground scene from the early 90's (I love this group simply for the
name) and dozens more.
vinyl LP album cover
illustration by Loring Eutemey
photo of album cover by Styrous®
Eutemey
has done over four hundred album covers. Unfortunately, I do need to
keep the list of the artists under control as it would be endless.
He also designed covers for books; in particular, the 1963 edition of The Black Jacobins by C. L. R. James published by Vintage Books (link below).
I could not find the date of his birth nor an image of him but he grew up at Revere Place in Brooklyn, and graduated from Samuel J. Tilden High School. After graduating from Cooper Union,
where he trained as a graphic designer, he began his career at Push Pin
Studios during its early days. Later he became a freelance illustrator
and graphic designer, widely recognized for his distinctive album cover
designs for Atlantic Records.
After a short illness, Loring Eutemey died in 2013 on the 22nd of September, in his apartment in Manhattan. He was 82 years old.
Iron Butterfly ~ In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
The Slow Slushy Boys -
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