Make horrid scars and gashes.

10.28.2007

Richard Taylor "Nightmare", "Horror", "Terror", "Fright" (Major/ Random Records, 1962)

Acting as both an addendum and a slight re-cap of two earlier Scar Stuff posts (feel free to check out my earlier entries on "Nightmare" and "Terror"), here's the complete 4 LP run of Edgar Allan Poe stories narrated by Richard Taylor. Well, probably the complete run -- an additional record entitled "Strange" (Random cat #40) is mentioned on the back cover of some volumes in the series, but I can't find evidence of it anywhere else (I'd love to be proven wrong here, so if anyone has a copy please drop me a line.)

Mr Taylor's sketchy profile claims him as "one of the newest sought after 'thriller' actors on the scene today", with producers allegedly finding "his sinister voice mystifying and full of suspense, and in direct contrast to his handsome appearance". Now this all may well be true, but what really strikes me in his delivery is the breathy, manic and nearly unhinged quality he gives these readings. In the best parts (like when the character is all worked up), there's a real sense of low-budget madness coming across -- kinda like the archetypical creep in the cellar was awarded a recording contract or something.



These LPs were initially issued under the "Major Records" name (here's an early ad), but over the years could be more commonly found with the "Random Records" logo attached to a generic cover design (hand stamped in the upper left corner with the word "Nightmare", "Horror", "Terror" or "Fright"). While these dime store sounding recordings got their start in life at the beginning of the "Monster Kid" boom in the early 1960's (they were heavily advertised mainstays in pages of Famous Monsters, Horror Monsters, Mad Monsters, Monster World and probably 50 other magazines with the word "monster" in the title), amazingly enough as late as 1981 you could still pick them up in the back of FM for only $1 each. Since I've already shown the classic early '60's ads on Scar Stuff a couple of times, here's a slightly more "contemporary looking" variant that ran in Creepy, Eerie & Vampirella after Bill DuBay took over as their editor and changed up the art direction in the early 1970's.


Click To Enlarge

Oh and one last warning before you get going, side one of "Fright" (aka "the House of Fright") is missing a few lines right at the tail end, but it really doesn't detract much from the story, which is a two part adaptation of "The Fall of the House of Usher".

Okay! Let's get those "Eerie Midnight Ghoul Parties" started!

Links Removed

12 Comments:

Blogger Dave said...

Awesome. Thanks Jason. I've been waiting for "Fright". I had the other 3, but not that one. It's weird that mine all have the same LP cover with just this white block area that has the name of each LP hand stamped on it. And they're by a different record company than your LPs too. Thanks again.

Dave

10/28/2007 12:17 PM

 
Blogger Dr.Terror said...

It won't download..

I keep getting redirected.

10/28/2007 1:05 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

downloaded just fine for me. here was some information posted before about the redirection stuff:

"VictoryCabal said...

Jason and Everyone who has trouble with the link: I've got the problem fixed at my end. I'm running Norton Personal Firewall, which includes privacy controls, which makes surfing anonymous-ish.

It appears that when I click the link to the zip file, the server it resides on doesn't see me as coming from here, and rejects it. Undoubtedly due your script you have to prevent hot-linking.

So no worries. Now I'll just turn off Privacy Control when you post something great - like this.

Thanks for all the great stuff you post here. I love these old records, I remember listening to some of them as a kid, and it's great hearing them again.

Good job!"

10/28/2007 2:25 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks Jason. Great to finally see/hear FRIGHT. I'll add it to my site.

10/30/2007 9:43 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

By the way, does someone has - by any chance - the other E. A. Poe records mentioned on the ad? Especially the Ugo Toppo reading?

10/30/2007 9:51 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jason -

I'm one of the old guard who posted as Medusa almost exactly a year ago right after your post "To Server Man" precluded the hosting troubles. (I don't have my Blogger password here at work, which is why I'm currently posting anonymously.)

I was enjoying some of the recordings you put up in early 2006 last night before I went to bed, determined to explore them more thoroughly today. However, to my heart-pounding horror (that's not a joke), I find today that your new hosting repository, MrFink.com, has exceeded its bandwidth and is not presently accommodating downloads.

Now, I suppose this is to be expected, considering that we're nearly right on top of Halloween today and downloads have probably been obscenely excessive. But please, for the love of all that is unholy, tell me that Scar Stuff is not going down again. Tell me you're still at the helm, albeit enjoying a temporary absence for your undoubtedly unique commemoration of the All Hallow's Eve festivities. Tell me, in short, that I'll be able to savor the rest of your exemplary tastes in aural assaults directly after the Halloween-ified, bandwidth-leaching download-athon.

Please also reassure me that you're not done posting, since your writing is often as well-done, intriguing and adventurous as many of the vintage, eccentric and until-now lost recordings you provide for us all to experience.

In nothing less than desperation,
Medusa.

10/30/2007 1:45 PM

 
Blogger Dave said...

Mr. ottermole,

I'd be glad to hear these other LPs as well. I'd never even heard of the series until seeing this ad jason posted. I'd say that ebay would be the best bet to find any of these. The ad mkaes reference that the Lps were already being produced. I'm wondering if they actually DID in fatc get released.

Dave

10/30/2007 11:17 PM

 
Blogger Dave said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

10/30/2007 11:24 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jason, it's great to have you back! As always, you make available the wickedest shtuff - I used to see these in the back pages of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine and just PINE for them... Do you remember the Phantom of the Organ album? I've been looking for that for - well, since I was about 8, I think, and never mind how long ago that was... Let me know, please, if you or anyone runs across it; I, of course, shall do the same!

Despicably Yours,
Doc

12/20/2007 3:23 AM

 
Blogger mistermarduk said...

Great stuff!!! I have the Taylor Horror buried in storage somewhere. Does anyone have a scan of the original Horror cover on the Major label ? I have the Randon re-issue. When it was re-issued, some of the detail in the art was lost. There's apparently a grave visible, which isn't visible in the Random release.

2/17/2008 11:37 PM

 
Blogger KL from NYC said...

I also used to see these advertised in the monster magazines when I was a kid, but couldn't afford them. So, thanks a lot. Now I can hear what they sound like.

10/19/2009 1:15 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The only thing wrong with these albums is two of them lack Richard Taylor.
Plus, the background music is weak on the "Taylorless" ones.
I have the "Terror" and "Fright" lps. They are far better than the other two. One has the soundtrack music from "The Revenge Of Frankenstein."
But if you ever run across the other two lps for sale, I would love to buy them.
Tim

10/01/2010 1:21 PM

 

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