Wednesday, July 4, 2007

The Lifer

My current obsession, among others, is this record.

The story of The Lifer (quoted verbatim from the back of the record sleeve)

"The story of The Lifer began about four months ago, when Al Gliva wrote a letter to Dewey Groom of Longhorn Records in Dallas, Texas, and asked permission to send a tape recording of a tune he had written called 'The Lifer.' Dewey frankly didn't see much in the tune, as the first tape was very biblical and didn't have much commercial value. But Clay Allen, who works and records for Longhorn Records, and who is also a fine songwriter, thought the tune had possibilities. So, on the advice of Clay Allen, Al Gliva rewrote the tune as you hear it now. Of course, we ran into another problem, that of getting a tape cut there in the prison with enough quality to record. So, after two more attempts at making a tape of good quality, we decided that as it was impossible for them to come to Dallas, we would take our own recording equipment up there and record. So with the kind permission and cooperation of Warden Raymond Buchkoe, George McCoy, our recording technician, flew via jet, to the prison on Mon., Sept. 10th and made this record Tues., Sept. 11th, 1962. So Recording History has been made. The proceeds of the sale of this record will go to Al Gliva and his prison band. It is our sincere hope that my our efforts, this record of 'The Lifer' might keep some boy from turning to crime."

Alexander (Al) Gliva, inmate # 62055, was indeed serving life for murder. Roger Chase sings a bare chorus that bookends the recitative, spoken by Gliva, that's an attempt to convince someone - the parole board, the world, God, himself, who knows? - that he's now a different man than the young man who committed the murder years ago.

The song tends toward the preachy end of the spectrum, as you may expect, but knowing that it was recorded by inmates, inside the walls that were destined to confine most of these players for a very long time, and that the words being spoken are those of a man who's been sentenced to spend his remaining life there, is honestly chilling.

Most important about this record to me, though, is the guitar player, Clyde Stanley. My grandfather, Pat Moore, employed Clyde in his HVAC business here in St. Louis after the War. Clyde also made a guitar and banjo in the joint, which he later gave to my grandfather, and which I now have and play frequently. To the best of my knowledge, Clyde played the guitar he made on The Lifer. That guitar is now in my living room.

One of my main motivators in posting this, aside from just telling a fascinating story to which I'm connected indirectly, is in the hopes that somebody else is searching for the same information I am. God only knows how many of these 45s Longhorn even pressed, or if anybody else alive aside from other members of my family even knows of the existence of this record. I would think that family or friends of the other inmates on this record are the only remaining likely sources of information. Those other inmates, by the way, aside from the aforementioned Al Gliva, Roger Chase and Clyde Stanley, include Jess White, Carl Gilkerson, Howard Moore, and one man only identified on the record sleeve as #62054.

If you have any connection to or any more information about any aspect of the story surrounding The Lifer or the people who made it, please contact me directly at akcarlson@gmail.com, or leave a comment to this post. Please include your email address in your comment, so I can reach you with further questions.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm your first comment! Woohoo! That "Lifer" stuff is pretty fascinating. I had no idea that banjo and guitar were made in the slammer. Sorta creepy, very cool. Sooo... you've got yourself a big rust car skeleton, I see. That should keep you busy. Make sure you post when you have shows- hopefully I'll be able to come down and catch one before too long. I still say "Jolene."

charger said...

Clyde M. Stanley is my Grandfather
He died in a michigan prison in 1981, he was serving time for a double homicide of his girlfriend and her husband.
Please get me contact info, I would like to speak with you.
Thank You,
Chris G. Wichita, KS.

Muriel said...

I am Clyde Stanley's daughter. I would like to get in contact with anyone who knew my father. I am especially interested in any info I can get about the record he and some other inmates recorded in 1962 " The Lifer". Also the guitar and banjo that he made while in prison. Please contact me with any info you may have. Thank you for your help.

Clifford Hare said...

I was just doing the genealogy of my family and recently found out that Al Gliva is my great uncle from my mothers side of the family. My great grandmother is Carolin Mary Gliva and great grandfather is Alexander Burke (which was changed from Borkowski) In finding out this information my grandma also informed me that he wrote a book so i decided to google it and found this blog. This is so exciting!! I am trying to find the book so that i can learn more about my family. If you have any info i would love to get it from you as well :)
Natalie Hare Puyallup, WA

Clifford Hare said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Alex said...

Natalie, I'm unable to contact you through blogspot. Please email me at akcarlson at gmail dot com. Thanks.

windwalker said...

My name is Paul, I will leave out my last name for now but I will tell you that Al Gliva was my uncle. I picked him up from Jackson Prison in 1967 on his release. After the Detroit riots when the buildings were still smoldering we were at the record companies such as Pioneer, Frontier and even Motown with his songs. They all were very gracious and would listen to each one of them for something that would fit too there music but they all were on the order of C&W. I will leave it at that and will have to search my mind on other facts about my Uncle Al.

windwalker said...

Natalie, You must be Laura's daughter , who I've never met. My sister was Delphine.

windwalker said...

My name is Paul, I will leave out my last name for now but I will tell you that Al Gliva was my uncle. I picked him up from Jackson Prison in 1967 on his release. After the Detroit riots when the buildings were still smoldering we were at the record companies such as Pioneer, Frontier and even Motown with his songs. They all were very gracious and would listen to each one of them for something that would fit too there music but they all were on the order of C&W. I will leave it at that and will have to search my mind on other facts about my Uncle Al.

Alex said...

Paul, that's fascinating stuff. Please feel free to share anything and everything you care to, either here in comments, or with me directly. You can reach me at akcarlson at gmail dot com. I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks!

-Alex

Unknown said...

I just located this single while going through my grandmothers old albums. I have copy 526 of 6047.

Clifford Hare said...

Rodney, would there be anyway you could make an mp3 recording of that album and email the song over to us? I know there are usb record players that record into computers and my wife and I would love to hear the song. We have never had that opportunity.

Alex said...

Paul and Natalie,

I'd love it if you'd email me directly so we can talk more about this. I do have an mp3 copy of The Lifer I can send along to interested parties.

Looking forward to hearing from you,
Alex
akcarlson@gmail.com