"Bald" Bill Hagan And His Trocaderons - Music to Strip By

I must admit I skipped over this one more than once when I was scouring the dollar bins. The album was actually in surprisingly decent shape, and the jacket was okay. The absence of an insert wasn't a big deal - most of the stuff I was mining from the cheap stacks didn't seem to have all of their parts, although I suspect in this case there weren't any notes or missing pieces other than a paper liner. I bought the album because I thought it would be silly kitschy fun. "Party Fun Songs from the Golden Age of Burlesque" indeed.

As you may have guessed I did eventually lay down my loonie and a few cents to cover taxes and bought the album. It came home and was carefully cleaned (who knows where this had been) and then put it on my pile of records awaiting their turn on the turntable.

It sat there for more than a year and my pile had grown past by ability to keep up, and while I was making progress I wasn't exactly following the FIFO inventory model. It was more of a WFT do I feel like listening to model. This is also why that Osmonds double record is still in the pile. I just need to be in the mood.

Well, today I was in the mood. I had to look for a bit before I found it in the pile because the fine folks at Somerset didn't put a label on the spine. I wonder if that was deliberate so the kids wouldn't find the record in their parent's collection. Who knows, it was 1966 (to be fair there was no date on the record or jacket so I just assumed discogs was correct) and the image of the nearly exposed butt cheek and the dangling brassiere was probably more enticing than the Sears catalogue underwear section. So yeah, I'm thinking it was deliberately left blank, like a plain paper bag.

There's not a lot out there on ol' "Bald" Bill Hagan And His Trocaderons. It's sort of a weird case of self-authentication. I know that Bill Hagan existed because I have this album, and I know he put out records because I have this record ... but finding any information about Bill Hagan is pretty thin and mostly just points back to this album. Who knows it may have been a pseudonym sort of like when I used Stuart Pedasso as an alias for a while. For all I know "Bald" Bill was a pet name for the guy's penis. Having said all that this one does appear to be up on the streaming sites but it's the only thing by "Bald" Bill.

Whatever the case, the album is a pretty fun jazz record that leaned into the burlesque. The "Stripper Song" is probably the most famous example, but some of the titles here were pure gold, 

• "Bumps and Grinds
• G-String Twist
• Girdles Aweigh

Although I'm a bit creeped out by the growling trumpet (think "Minnie the Moocher" played by a flasher) on the album's closer "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" which is absolutely not a song I want to envision a woman stripping to. Oh the humanity. 

Regardless, this was way more fun than I expected. Stipper music is an odd concoction of Dixieland and little big band, and the band delivered the goods with a healthy dose of swagger. Who knows how this was recorded, but I get the sense it was live from the floor.

I'm sort of glad I was listening by myself in the basement. When it was over my shirt was in one corner and my socks and pants were scattered on the floor. 

Party fun indeed.