[Vintage-Audio] The Nashville Sound in Morse?

[Robert Nickels]

As Duane has mentioned in the past, these RCA Nashville LPs contain 
great music but the RCA record-keeping system seems to be somewhat 
odd.   For example, take the LP "Sweet Talk" by Boots Randolph, which I 
have two copies of, one the Mono version and the other "Stereo Effect 
reprocessed from Monophonic".  To my surprise, Boots sings as well as 
plays the sax, and the album contains a rockabilly song "I'm Getting 
Your Message Baby" that I hadn't heard before.   What struck me about it 
is the presence of what is meant to be Morse Code, played (I think) as a 
single note on an electric guitar.  My first thought was "Hey, Chet 
knows Morse being a ham and all" but since there are no credits on the 
album jacket I did a web search.    While I still couldn't find any info 
as to who was playing,  I did find this site which shows a photo of the 
45 and has a short audio clip of the tune:  
http://rcs.law.emory.edu/rcs/artists/r/rand8000.htm

The 45  confirms that the producer was Chet Atkins, so at least he was 
involved, even if we wasn't the guitarist.  The odd part?   Well for one 
thing, the LP shows the composers as being  "James Rich and Charles B. 
Dooley" while the 45 shows the names as "James Rich and Pete Dooley".  
OK that may be a nickname, but you'd think they'd make them the same.  
Moreover,  both LPs show the artist as Boots Randolph, yet on the 45, 
he's identified as "Randy Randolph".  That must have been a stage name 
for Herman Louis Randoph III but it's a one I've never heard before.

And oddest of all, if you listen to the sound clip (click on the little 
speaker icon) the Morse sounds to me like the letters "REO" followed by 
the letters "SM" or "SK".    Maybe Chet drove an Oldsmobile? Or did they 
pick this combination just for its rhythmic sound.     As for "SK" that 
could mean "Silent Key" in ham parlance...ala "Paul is Dead" way back in 
1958!

The vocals are really pretty good as are the tunes.  But I much prefer 
the name "Boots" over "Randy"!

73 Bob W9RAN