LINER NOTES

BOB GIBSON
Ski Songs
There may be, somewhere on this improbable planet, sports enthusiasts who are more fanatical than skiers. Fishermen, croquet players and golfers have been known to develop some nasty, though clinically interesting, obsessions.
But few addicts to other sporting vices are deliberately willing to risk life, limb, body and soul to satisfy their caprices. The skier, however-unthinkingly, unabashedly, with head held high in traction-is. What’s more, he’s desperately eager to trek hundreds of miles to a favorite run, to suffer the agonies of frostbite while patiently awaiting the arrival of a recalcitrant ski tow and to spend his last sou on a piece of esoteric equipment. All for the thrill of barreling downhill at 70 miles an hour, balanced precariously on a pair of wooden slats fixed firmly (it is hoped) to the feet.
And so to YOU-intrepid, impetuous, damnfool skier-this album is dedicated.
The songs herein are certain to pluck the heartstrings of any true devotee. Many of them are akin to the stories oft told by hearthlight in the lodges from Squaw Valley to Aspen to Stowe. That is to say, they are outright and outrageous lies. Set to music.
For example, there’s the saga of Super Skier whose “Jumpin’ form was fine, till he ran into a pine, and two one-legged skiers left from there.” And a whopper about Super Skier’s Last Race, to the tune of Battle Hymn Of The Republic, yet. (“Gory, gory, what a helluva way to die.”) Another fellow, the Celebrated Skier, “could ski the Cliffs Of Dover with nary a bloody hitch, and haven’t I often proved it in the barroom.”
Not all of the SKI SONGS are in the prevaricative vein. In This White World is a beautiful lyrical and melodic paean to that special ecstasy that only a skier knows. (“For his skis are the things that give him his wings and make him an eagle on high.”) Even love finds its way here as a young man sings of My Highlands Lassie whom he met on the hill…on skis, of course…a switch that might even startle the solons of Tin Pan Alley.
All in all, this LP must delight any skier…beginner, intermediate, advanced or advanced-fireside-sitter. For enjoying it in utmost fidelity, we recommend a monaural sassaphras X2371-Y speaker in coordinate linkage with a bi-trennial mixless moraphan (model 17-B) and a hot buttered rum.

Bob Gibson, who pleads guilty to writing and recording all of the SKI SONGS, has been a favorite of folk music buffs since he began singing professionally in 1953. A winner on Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, he became a frequent guest on Arthur Godfrey’s TV and radio shows. Bob has played numerous concerts throughout the country, including a solo appearance at Carnegie Hall where one major reviewer called him “a folk singer of rare charm and talent.” He has starred in such clubs as the Blue Angel and the Village Vanguard in New York, the Bull Pen in Miami Beach and the Gate of Horn in Chicago.
A couple of years ago, Bob journeyed to Aspen, Colorado, with the intention of working in one of the bistros there. It took two weeks before he found the time (i.e. nerve) to strap on a pair of skis. He hasn’t taken them off yet.