Comments on: No nickel required!

No nickel required!

Dr. Wu — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 21:50:53 -0800

Turtle's 78 RPM Jukebox
Popular Victor, Edison, and Columbia recordings, 1900-1930.

By: arse_hat

arse_hat — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 21:53:18 -0800

This is way cool!

By: mrs.pants

mrs.pants — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 22:11:08 -0800

THANK YOU!

By: 23skidoo

23skidoo — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 22:11:33 -0800

Damn, those are some seriously clean sounding mp3s, considering how old the records are. Nice find.

By: mazola

mazola — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 22:18:13 -0800

Nice!

By: Absit Invidia

Absit Invidia — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 22:19:30 -0800

This is absolutely wonderful! (And makes me snarl inwardly upon remembering that my Victorola and collection of 78s got pinched from storage a few years back.) Thanks Dr. Wu (for the link, if not the memories)!

By: arse_hat

arse_hat — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 22:30:48 -0800

(And makes me snarl inwardly upon remembering that my Victorola and collection of 78s got pinched from storage a few years back.) Hit Ebay. A few years ago I bought a portable Victorola and about 200 78's and then a Edison phonograph and 22 of the tube type recordings. With shipping both deals cost about $300 USD total. The evenings spent listening and dancing in the basement entertainment room; priceless.

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 22:42:29 -0800

F*cking awesome! *is rendered completely inarticulate by the general coolness of this* Thank you.

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 22:55:17 -0800

A thousand girls would dance each day, with lots of hip hip hip hooray! In old King Tut-tut-tut-tut-tut! King Tutty's day! Beats the hell out of Steve Martin, I say.

By: Item

Item — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 22:57:09 -0800

I was just listening to the new Negativland album. Somehow, this fits in place very neatly after that. Thank you.

By: Dr. Wu

Dr. Wu — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 23:12:57 -0800

Thanks for the kind words, all! Glad you like it!

By: tellurian

tellurian — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 00:04:05 -0800

[This is absolutely brilliant]

By: tellurian

tellurian — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 00:20:52 -0800

And the link from there is sweet too. The jukebox is full of blues this month.

By: tellurian

tellurian — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 00:42:52 -0800

I am loving this stuff. Thanks Dr. Wu Rosetta Howard and the Harlem Hamfats If You're a Viper Dreamed about a reefer 5 feet long Mighty Mez but not to strong You'll be high but not for long If you're a Viper

By: crunchland

crunchland — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 08:24:28 -0800

If you dig this, you might also like WFMU's Antique Phonograph Music Program Archives and its sister site, Tom Edison's Attic for many hours of streaming ancient audio.

By: piratebowling

piratebowling — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 08:26:23 -0800

Great find!

By: crapulent

crapulent — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 09:42:21 -0800

Yay! Yay! Minstrelry!! Auntie Skinner's Chicken Dinner--A great piece of Americana?! Blech. Are you people serious?

By: Dr. Wu

Dr. Wu — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 11:16:21 -0800

crapulent, the past is sometimes ugly, but that doesn't necessarily preclude it from being interesting and/or even entertaining, especially 100 years on. Better to see it in the proper historical context than to condemn it outright for not conforming to modern-day standards of propriety. Plus, that's just one song out of many. There's probably the same percentage of racist/sexist music made today - it just doesn't hit the mainstream. Ever hear of Oi!?

By: sleepy pete

sleepy pete — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 11:31:50 -0800

Awesome. What a wonderful link. Thanks so much Dr. Wu.

By: Outlawyr

Outlawyr — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 11:34:48 -0800

Great link. Many thanks

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 12:06:29 -0800

There's probably the same percentage of racist/sexist music made today - it just doesn't hit the mainstream. Or, speaking of minstrelsy and misogyny, a couple of little acts called 50 Cent and Snoop Dogg? It hits the mainstream, allright. This site is so moving because you can sit back and hear what people were actually listening to in 1924; it's a window into a world lost, not an object lesson in social progress. Thanks again, Dr. Wu.

By: svidrigailov23

svidrigailov23 — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 12:16:18 -0800

i hate lumus !

By: crapulent

crapulent — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 12:41:40 -0800

I thought it was important to interrupt all of these Awesome! Nice! Thank you! comments and point out that some of this music is horribly racist and demeaning. And no, I do not find it interesting or entertaining. If you find this amusing I'm sure you can dig up some German music from oh, approximately 1939-1944.

By: pracowity

pracowity — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 13:19:26 -0800

[Is he gone yet?] Anyway, there was an AskMefi question about the cliche "Chinese" musical theme. I hear a couple of others in these songs. 1) About 0:07 into Old King Tut (1923). 2) About 3:30 into Oh, Gee! Say, Gee! You Ought To See My Gee Gee From The Fiji Isle (1921).

By: pracowity

pracowity — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 13:23:43 -0800

Oops. "About 3:10 into Oh, Gee!..."

By: Dr. Wu

Dr. Wu — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 14:54:07 -0800

crapulent, with all due respect, you need to develop a sense of perspective. For the record, I've actually heard a few Nazi-era cabaret songs, and, upon reading the translations, found them to be offensive. Still, some of them were pretty good songs, and fascinating historical documents. And I'm Jewish.

By: svidrigailov23

svidrigailov23 — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 15:32:02 -0800

Ha ha. Dr. Wu got upset because people stopped kissing his sweet little butthole about his banal post. The shit is racist. And the shit that ain't racist is still racist 'cause it's a bunch of crackers stealing ragtime from its originators.

By: Dr. Wu

Dr. Wu — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 17:21:38 -0800

svidrigailov23, you are so very perceptive! Keen observational and analytical skills, there, pal. Thank you also for perpetuating racism by using the term "crackers." Good show!

By: squalor

squalor — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 19:46:59 -0800

I still keep a VV-260 running, but most of my 78s are too precious to play with a heavy steel needle. Lots more early recordings lovingly digitized are available at archive.org, and here's another collection of early jazz mp3s. The Red Hot Jazz Archive is an incomparable resource for scholars and music lovers- all the bands and musicians are meticulously cross-referenced, but the huge quantity of audio there is all encoded in .ra format and a little hard on the ears. While there give a listen to Eddie Lang, who was inventing jazz guitar while a young Django was still out stealing chickens....

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 20:12:14 -0800

the cliche "Chinese" musical theme This was also being used in other musical genres of a more serious nature, as in Puccini's Turandot (1926). Orientalism was alive and well in Europe in the 1920s, in cabaret and vaudeville as well as popular music, party to do with the spectacular discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb.

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 20:18:19 -0800

Oh, and svidrigailov23, please do shut up. This particular thread isn't the place for a debate on cultural appropriation; it's a discussion, at least in part, of how amazing it is to have these historical documents available for us to hear at the click of a mouse. If you want to talk about ragtime and mainstream (or white) culture feeding off the cultural productions of African Americans (something which is far from over, as I am sure you know), put together an FPP and post it on the blue. Ta.

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 20:22:21 -0800

And squalor, thank you, excellent.

By: arse_hat

arse_hat — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 20:26:28 -0800

"I thought it was important to interrupt all of these Awesome! Nice! Thank you! comments and point out that some of this music is horribly racist and demeaning." You thought wrong.

By: Dr. Wu

Dr. Wu — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 23:20:40 -0800

squalor, those are awesome links! jokeefe & arse_hat: you rock.

By: Mo Nickels

Mo Nickels — Sat, 04 Jun 2005 06:34:08 -0800

Dude, that site ain't nothing. Hie thee to the alt.binaries.sounds.78-era and alt.binaries.sounds.78rpm-era newsgroups.

By: crapulent

crapulent — Sat, 04 Jun 2005 09:48:48 -0800

crapulent, with all due respect, you need to develop a sense of perspective. Dr. Wu, I have a sense of perspective, thanks. If you do not acknowledge the cultural background of art, I think it is you who is lacking perspective. Art doesn't exist in a vacuum. I do not advocate banning or burning art that is racist, offensive, questionable, etc. However, it is our responsibility to analyze the meaning and context of such art. jokeefe and arse_hat: If you want to control the direction of conversations on a public forum, perhaps you should start your own. And thanks for letting us know that whites are no longer appropriating black culture! I almost forgot that the deadline had passed.

By: Dr. Wu

Dr. Wu — Sat, 04 Jun 2005 10:21:09 -0800

However, it is our responsibility to analyze the meaning and context of such art. My point exactly. And exactly what your earlier comments indicate you were not doing.

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Sat, 04 Jun 2005 10:56:06 -0800

And thanks for letting us know that whites are no longer appropriating black culture! I almost forgot that the deadline had passed. WTF? I said the exact opposite. Please read my comment again. And I was responding to the unhelpful, even hostile, post from svidrigailov23, in which the word "butthole" was used, if you'll recall. Also, I'm certainly up for talking about cultural history, but your initial post was so sarcastic and content-free ("Yay! Yay! Minstrelry!! Auntie Skinner's Chicken Dinner--A great piece of Americana?! Blech. Are you people serious?") that you can't really expect it to have inspired measured debate. But as I said-- I'm happy to talk about power and culture and who made the music and who profited. I just wasn't happy about the hit and run, sniping attacks-- that's not the way to open a discussion.

By: arse_hat

arse_hat — Sat, 04 Jun 2005 11:18:43 -0800

"arse_hat: If you want to control the direction of conversations on a public forum, perhaps you should start your own." Again you are wrong. I made no attempt to control or change the conversation. I just pointed out that you were wrong. "And thanks for letting us know that whites are no longer appropriating black culture! I almost forgot that the deadline had passed." WTF? Huffing glue perhaps? Dude your idea is valid but take a hint from jokeefe "If you want to talk about ... white ...culture feeding off the cultural productions of African Americans (something which is far from over, as I am sure you know), put together an FPP..."

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Sat, 04 Jun 2005 21:40:14 -0800

I also count myself of the jokeefe frame of mind. Stop derailing, crapulent.

By: crapulent

crapulent — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 07:15:43 -0800

Okay. Next time I will just ignore all racist and offensive content.

By: arse_hat

arse_hat — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 08:41:02 -0800

crapulent, are you thick or a prick? Don't ignore it. Do something constructive. I really would like to see you do an fpp on the subject.

By: crunchland

crunchland — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 09:53:38 -0800

Crapulent's attitude is what gets books like Huckleberry Finn or Catcher In the Rye banned -- an attitude of people too intellectually bereft to see any value beyond lthe most obvious aspects.