Sold!

May 30, 2005 2:31 PM

Audio recordings of World Livestock Auctioneer Championship winners.mp3s of every champion from 1963 through 2004, with the exception of 1970. Strangely hypnotic. [Via the J-Walk Blog]
posted by LeeJay (21 comments total)

I'm partial to 1997 champion Joe Frazier, myself.
posted by LeeJay at 2:43 PM on May 30, 2005

Brings my childhood right out to the top of my consciousness: the smells of mud, barns, the refreshments table (usually a home-made collection of potato salads and hot dogs), dusty junk brought up from a cellar, cow manure, and hay; the sounds of bellowing cattle, squealing pigs, tractors and trucks firing up as bidders give the goods a going-over; the matter-of-fact conversation of farmers and good ole boys, each with one leg inevitably perched on the bumper of a truck, on a stump, or on anything just high enough that they could comfortably lean forward into the standing crouch for as long as it took to talk business; and the walk through overgrown grass and weeds, over marshy ditches, from where we parked on some field or gravel road, in the middle of a line or row of pickup trucks. I liked looking over someone else's things laid out on doors and plywood on sawhorses.
posted by Mo Nickels at 2:54 PM on May 30, 2005

Werner Herzog's How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck is a brilliant little documentary about world championship cattle auctioneers. It's pretty amazing.
posted by goatdog at 3:43 PM on May 30, 2005

Whoa...it's incredible somebody actually understands what they're saying ? All I get are some number here and there.
posted by elpapacito at 5:48 PM on May 30, 2005

This is a nice reminder that although we think folkways are disappearing in America, they're often there where we didn't think to look.
posted by argybarg at 5:52 PM on May 30, 2005

That is a great link, thanks so much. My fiance was convinced it was that chopped-up techno style (like Amon Tobin's done some of lately) and was waiting for the goofy break beats to come in over the processed vocals :)
posted by freebird at 5:57 PM on May 30, 2005

freebird: I found myself bouncing along to each auctioneer and thinking how similar some of the rhythms were to techno songs I have heard.

Mo Nickels: That is lovely. I'd like to visit such a place.
posted by LeeJay at 6:09 PM on May 30, 2005

EXCELLENT!
posted by homodigitalis at 6:16 PM on May 30, 2005

This rocks. Lee Jay, Joe Frazier indeed. Great post.
posted by Hanover Phist at 6:28 PM on May 30, 2005

Is there an English translation somwhere?
posted by thedevildancedlightly at 6:29 PM on May 30, 2005

I think it goes like:

1 dollar, one dollar, we got one dollar here, we got one dollar and two dollars, thank you sir. and a quarter, two dollar, and fifty, two...

:P
posted by anthill at 6:32 PM on May 30, 2005

Wow. Brought back a lot of memories. Great link.
posted by dead_ at 7:06 PM on May 30, 2005

That is dizzying just listening to it. I want to hear one of them tackle Reunion's "Life is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)."
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 7:18 PM on May 30, 2005

Good post, thanks for this.

d00d from Sufferin' Springs won in 88! wooo, locals represent :)

Right on freebird...I see a lot of similarities between stuff like this and, say, dancehall toasters and junglist MCs...
posted by First Post at 7:28 PM on May 30, 2005

This is a really cool site. Thanks!
posted by Dr. Wu at 8:01 PM on May 30, 2005

That is great. Central Illinois boy here, born and raised, and this certainly brings back fond memories. My parents used to take me to all the country estate auctions. Laid out on large hay trailers would be a person's entire life. I'd stand motionless (didn't want to accidently bid on anything) while these bits of a life were sold one by one. The auctioneer was always accompanied by some helpers that would carefully walk among the items on the trailer, holding aloft whatever people were currently bidding on.

Thanks a lot LeeJay.
posted by sbutler at 9:23 PM on May 30, 2005

OhYeaLeeJaythisROCKSinawayIcan'tevenexpressatthismoment ThankYou
posted by RecordBrother at 9:54 PM on May 30, 2005

Thanks this is great stuff.

I tried firing about 3 or 4 of these up at the same time which
was quite interesting.
posted by thedailygrowl at 10:50 PM on May 30, 2005

love it! I was just going to look this up!
posted by tomplus2 at 8:32 AM on May 31, 2005

Brilliant. Brilliant. Thanks LeeJay.
posted by kenaman at 8:42 AM on May 31, 2005

To order an audio CD of all past champions...

Stocking stuffer SOLD! to the Californian.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 11:22 AM on May 31, 2005