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Firefighter Blues / My Neighbor-The Firefighter

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Firefighter Blues / My Neighbor-The Firefighter --- 1972

Here's the history on this record. Paul Morton was a guy from Baytown Texas who decided to become a firefighter after an experience he had during a fire and explosion at what is now the ExxonMobil Baytown Complex but back then was Humble Oil & Refining's Baytown Refinery. He was a Baytown firefighter for 25 years before retiring. He said that he had heard songs glorifying police officers and soldiers but had never heard a song about a firefighter before so he decided to write a couple. He was closely related to a friend of Leon Rausch through marriage and he approached Rausch with the songs and Rausch agreed to arrange some studio time to record them and also arranged to have some 45s pressed up. Morton wanted Rausch to perform both of the songs but Rausch and the rest of the musicians in the studio felt that Morton was best suited to read his spoken-word "My Neighbor, The Firefighter". Morton took a bunch of the 45s home with him to Baytown and distributed them locally, his home address is on the right side of the label. Anyway, decades later "My Neighbor, The Firefighter" ended up on a compilation LP/CD from Crypt Records called "God Less America". https://www.discogs.com/Various-God-Less-America/release/594490 His family had no idea that the song had been released by Crypt. The song is misattributed to "Paul Barton" but the writer and performer was Paul Morton of Baytown Texas. Although "Firefighter Blues" was numbered 00334 and "My Neighbor" was numbered 00333 on the labels, the family has assured me that "Firefighter Blues" was the intended A-side. There are a bunch of typos on the label. The street name of the Record Label is misspelled, and they used a dash instead of a comma on "My Neighbor, The Firefighter"