A totally delightful documentary has just been added to Netflix. BATHTUBS OVER BROADWAY. It’s the story of one man’s obsession with a certain type of vinyl records and how this lead to him making friends with not just fellow collectors but the people who created the albums as well.
The man in question is Steve Young who was a writer for Letterman for many years. One of Steve’s responsibilities at the show was producing the Dave’s Record Collection segments. Dave’s Record Collection was a recurring feature particularly in the early days of Letterman’s NBC show. Dave would hold up the cover of some album that was offbeat, weird or just hadn’t aged very well and they would play a sample. i.e. William Shatner singing Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.
I, myself, contributed a few of the albums to this segment. For instance, the Meat Market song that can be found at the 11:40 mark of this video was one of my submissions.
However, there was a special type of album that Steve Young ran across while producing these segments that captured his fancy. They were these strange and mysterious soundtracks to “industrial shows”. Back in the day, many large companies with more money than they knew what to do with would produce Broadway style musicals celebrating their products for their annual conventions. Many times, they would also create an accompanying soundtrack album to give to their employees as a souvenir. It’s these albums that have become Mr. Young’s passion.
Most of the songs from the albums that are featured in the movie, which are about such things as copy machines and plumbing fixtures, are hilarious. What’s more, Steve’s own story of making friends with fellow collectors like punk rockers Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys and Don Bolles of The Germs as well as some of the people who were involved in the creation of the shows, is downright life affirming.
BATHTUBS OVER BROADWAY may have even inspired some businesses to resurrect the musical industrial show as evidenced in this video from the Oil of Olay people. I’ve never cared about Oil of Olay, but their musical, starting Saturday Night Live’s Ana Gasteyer is an absolute hoot. -Rick-
https://youtu.be/ZVSnvyd-Zd0
