LOS ANGELES (Top40 Charts/ It's Alive! Media) Ernie Kovacs: Percy Dovetonsils Thpeaks, a comedy album featuring the iconic comedian's fey poet, will be released on CD, Digital, and LP with download card on June 19. This is the first release between Omnivore Recording, and Ediad Productions, which owns the rights to the Ernie
Kovacs (www.erniekovacs.com) estate. This is the first time ever that this album will be available to the pubic.
The vinyl release will be limited to 1000 copies pressed on limited edition lavender vinyl, with future pressings to be made available on black vinyl thereafter.
Percy Dovetonsils Thpeaks is a collection featuring bits from
Kovacs gentle, martini drinking, lisping, fey poet who became ripe fodder for a comedy album in the late 1950s. A fan favorite on his television shows, this album was recorded for an independent record label in 1960 before legal entanglements shelved the project until the 1970s. The reel had been mislabeled and was discovered recently by archivist Ben Model. After hearing
Kovacs discuss the record in a CBC Canada television interview, Model was able to piece together the mislabeled tape and realized its current value. Track listing is as follows:
1. Intro
2. Ode To Stanley's Pussycat
3. Ode To Mona Lisa
4. Lament From A Germ's Eye Viewpoint
5. Ode To The Happier Days of the Roman Coliseum
6. Ode To Whistler's Mother
7. Thoughts While Falling Off the
Empire State Building
8. Side One Closing
9. Some Pertinent Thought of Julius Caesar While He Was Being Assassinated
10. Ode to am, The Taller of the Two Monkeys
11. Ode To A Housefly
12. Oder TO An Emotional Italian Knight
13. Happy Birthday To A Bookwork
14. The Night Before Christmas On New York's Fashionable East Side
15. Cowboy
16. Side Two Close
17. Roughing It (bonus track from
Kovacs Unlimited)
18. A Day At The Races (bonus track from
Kovacs Unlimited)
19. Ode From A Worm's Eye View (bonus track from
Kovacs Unlimited)
20. Ode To A Hangman's Noose (bonus track from
Kovacs Unlimited)
21. At Home With Lorelei Latour (bonus track from
Kovacs Unlimited)
22. Poem for Edith Adams (bonus track from
Kovacs Unlimited)
Ernie
Kovacs left behind the recordings and files of information for Thpeaks, including an artist's mock-up of the album cover. On the tape
Kovacs says at the end of the recording session "Now, with 88 bars of music between each line, it'll come out even!" Taking that statement to heart, Ben Model (also a leading silent film accompanist) composed and recorded a befitting piano score, and Percy Dovetonsils finally gets to "thpeak." Model also provides the liner notes accompanying the LP and CD versions.
The album will appeal to
Kovacs fans who have demonstrated their continuing interest in the iconic comedian by purchasing large numbers of the recently released 6-DVD box set, The Ernie
Kovacs Collection and 'best of' DVD release, The ABC Specials.
Bonus tracks are taken from audio-only acetates of television recordings from
Kovacs Unlimited, a network television show that ran from 1952- 1954.
