Re: GG: What's this?

[Tim Conway <tpconway@ozemail.com.au>]

Hello Lori,

>Do you all want to see something strange?
>
>Click here:
>http://mb1.musicblvd.com/cgi-bin/tw/712315854083180_42_85609^S&TEMPLAT
>E_PATH=/ci/#336502
>
>I'm thinking this is a mistake.  GLENN Gould didn't really conduct 
>this did he?  I think someone has our GG mixed up with a certain 
>MORTON.

I haven't had time to look at the URL but most of the Net's CD stores 
(and Music Boulevard, CD Now and CD Universe are just some of them) seem 
to use the same database. It contains quite an amount of erroneous 
material. 

For example, there used to be, in the 1920s, '30s and '40s, a venerable 
duo called Flotsam and Jetsam. Jetsam was Malcolm McEachern, a 
New-Zealander with one of the finest bass voices ever (his voice was so 
powerful it was reputed to have shattered more than one mechanical 
microphone until they moved him back to sing alongside the usual brass 
band accompanists). Flotsam was B C Hilliam, a Brit. Hilliam wrote the 
songs, played the piano and sang a strained tenor; McEachern sang a bass 
obligato and chuckled when necessary. They were the forerunners of 
Flanders and Swann. McEachern also sang some Handel and operatic stuff, 
but he and Hilliam were far better known as Flotsam and Jetsam and were 
loved for their popular songs, most of which were witty and quite 
melodious.

Both of them died in the 1940s (possibly the 1950s).

If you search for 'Flotsam...' in the databases of most of the Net's CD 
shops you will uncover not only two CDs released by Pearl/Flapper of the 
the two gents I have described above but also about 5 CDs released by a 
heavy metal group that goes under the same name. As I'm not a heavy metal 
fan I can't tell you if the heavy metal Flotsam and Jetsam are still 
current or have broken up.

I sent an email to (I think) CD Now telling them of their faux pas of 
grouping two dead staid gents with a heavy metal group. They thanked me, 
said they would correct the entry, then did nothing. Things are still the 
same. What's more, you can find the same faux pas if you do a 
'Flotsam...' search in other CD mai-order companies' databases. That's 
why I think they all use the same database.

You can find quite a number of Morton Gould recordings among the Glenn 
Gould recordings if you search for 'Gould, Glenn" or 'Glenn Gould'. 
Drives one mad.

Does anybody know who controls this database? I'd like to throttle him. 
Regards,

Tim Conway
<tpconway@ozemail.com.au>