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On A Lighter, If Scratchier, Note
This Chap has long been looking to make his fortune.
.. well, pension, now he thinks about it. … and one of the latest whiz-bang schemes centered around all those old grooved circular things most of us have cluttering the closets. Just what do you do with those things, when you’d love to hear them but when even CDs are now a little, well, passe?
Heh! I just bought one of those yesterday!
The Chap thought he had a partial solution. Then blow us down if someone doesn’t come up with something that is, annoyingly, free.
Twenty-five thousand songs recorded onto 78RPM discs in the early 20th century have been released online, for free. They are the first batch of an estimate 400,000-piece virtual record collection to be made available by the Internet Archive, from gospel by the Tuskegee Institute Sings, to opera recorded in Italy, to novelty tunes by Spike Jones, to hot — though obscure — jazz.
Newsworks
Sometimes a Chap is not sure whether to laugh or cry. Yes, the Chap has always been partial to 1920s jazz
I’ll Get By - Billie Holiday, Turk, Ahlert, Teddy Wilson And His Orchestra
And musical goofing-off
When Yuba Plays The Rhumba On The Tuba – Spike Jones And His Other Orchestra
Wait - Spike Jones has recordings on 78s!
And even period comedy
Old Country Fiddler At The Telephone – Charles Ross Taggart
But Dr. Demento covered all that pretty well already, in his day.
Still, it is rather nice to see this old stuff collected together. Where else would we find
Barber Shop Melodies – Elmer’s Orchestra
or
I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas – Vicki Dale and The Peter Pan Orchestra
or
A Dinder Courtship – Stanley Holloway
A piece of the action would have been nice, though…
10% baby - and you didnt need to do the work
Don’t tell me the royalty check is in the post.
One a side note - it’s interesting to hear those crackles at the beginning of the track - all natural and everything. These days they are edited in!
For example … and again … there is someone that even catalogues this stuff.
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