Comments on: pre-vinyl

pre-vinyl

nickyskye — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 21:31:33 -0800

78Man is a member of YouTube, who has created a collection of 378 videos of 78rpm records playing on the phonograph or gramophone. It's an amazing mix of blues, ragtime, jazz, old quirky songs of all kinds and more. Choices include: I'm tired of fattenin' frogs for snakes. She's lazy,She's lousy and she loves it. [more inside]

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 21:32:07 -0800

Long gone blues by Billie Holiday. Cigareets,Whusky, and wild wild women. Let's all sing like the birdies sing. Put me back in the alley by Wingy Carpenter & his Wingies. Sweet Patootie by Sidney "Pops" Bechet. [previously] A little about 78 rpm records.

By: taosbat

taosbat — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 21:35:38 -0800

Well, now, that's a hoot, nickyskye!

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 21:41:25 -0800

If I were a kid today, accustomed to intricate and obscure electronic gadgets, I'd see it as no less than a miracle that music - gorgeous, lush, complex, vibrant music - can be produced simply by scratching a needle across a piece of vinyl. Magic. thanks nickyskye!

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 21:48:59 -0800

by scratching a needle across a piece of vinyl Oops. I was thinking resin and the 78 but my fingers still typed out vinyl. The point remains :)

By: growabrain

growabrain — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 22:01:41 -0800

awesome as usual, nicky

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 22:05:14 -0800

I can't access YouTube from work, but I saw a doco once on this silver-haired, cigar-smoking American man with an entire basement full of all these old 78s that he had been buying up from garage sales in the midwest for decades...I hope it's the same guy! He'd dance along to the music, play air-banjo, beaming all the while with the cigar clenched between his teeth...

By: amyms

amyms — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 22:15:50 -0800

Great find, nickyskye!

By: donovan

donovan — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 22:25:31 -0800

Fantastic!

By: jodrell banksmeadow

jodrell banksmeadow — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 22:29:26 -0800

UbuRoivas, that'd be Joe Bussard and the movie is Desperate Man Blues. I doubt that he and 78Man are the same person, as 78Man hails from Leicester in England. Wonderful, wonderful find, nickyskye.

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 22:32:33 -0800

Finally--a use for the internets!

By: mediareport

mediareport — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 22:48:34 -0800

Whoa! The spoken intro to that Cigareets and Whusky tune shows up decades later at the start of The Hombres "Let it All Hang Out!" Whoa! After hearing that song on one of the Nuggets comps, I've wondered for years where those Hombres got that intro from. Thanks, nickyskye; you have solved one of the lingering mysteries of my life.

By: trip and a half

trip and a half — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 22:48:45 -0800

[this is so good]

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 22:51:26 -0800

jodrell banksmeadow (if-that-is-your-real-name), thanks heaps for that! Desperate Man Blues was such a fantastic doco - the guy was just so passionate about these old blues & jazz records that you couldn't help but get dragged along with his enthusiasm. I would've been happy for that movie to go on forever. At least, as long as I could duck out for a toilet break every now & then. Curiously, the blurbs on the website are all from Australian sources. It's possible that our overseas friends haven't seen or heard of the doco, in which case, well, that heinous injustice has now been righted.

By: BitterOldPunk

BitterOldPunk — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 22:52:19 -0800

This is why I love MeFi. Thanks ever so much nickseye, I'll never lack for background surfing music again.

By: BitterOldPunk

BitterOldPunk — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 22:53:43 -0800

Oops. Nickyskye, I meant.

By: madamjujujive

madamjujujive — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 23:46:31 -0800

Stellar post, nickyskye - thank you!

By: The White Hat

The White Hat — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 23:47:24 -0800

FANTASTIC. Bonus for the Bussard mention. Anyone who says that jazz went out with big band has his heart in more than the right place.

By: Turtles all the way down

Turtles all the way down — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 00:01:25 -0800

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 01:53:36 -0800

This is really very very good.

By: soundofsuburbia

soundofsuburbia — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 02:28:38 -0800

Truly magnificent.

By: jazzido

jazzido — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 02:29:59 -0800

There goes my workday. Thanks.

By: SteveInMaine

SteveInMaine — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 03:25:50 -0800

It's all about the music, but I find it amazing that the guy who made these didn't use a tripod to shoot videos of a record playing. Excellent find, thanks!

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 03:53:51 -0800

This is the only thing I'm subscribed to on YouTube - joyous.

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 06:51:41 -0800

this version of tiger rag is not to be missed

By: nebulawindphone

nebulawindphone — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 07:06:54 -0800

Cigareets and Whusky solves a mystery for me too — about a year ago I heard some damn hipster playing it, but it turned out he'd gotten it off a mix tape and couldn't tell me where it was from.

By: PHINC

PHINC — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 07:18:40 -0800

Very cool. I see those 78s in junk shops all the time, I'm tempted but I can't start collecting those. I really shouldn't.

By: JBennett

JBennett — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 08:33:28 -0800

That "Laughing Record" reminded me of this great old recording of The Laughing Song, by George W. Johnson From the website of Chris Ware's excellent Ragtime Ephemeralist. Chris made a great comic strip about this song. If you can't read that, you can find a copy of The Comics Journal Summer 2002 Special. It's in there.

By: danb

danb — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 08:49:59 -0800

One of my favorite posts of all time.

By: acro

acro — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 09:04:18 -0800

Youtube doesn't offer a link for non-members -- The 50 most viewed 78man videos on You Tube (as of 28 Feb 2007)

By: unknowncommand

unknowncommand — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 09:35:06 -0800

Thanks!

By: the sobsister

the sobsister — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 13:28:45 -0800

Excellent, excellent, excelent. 78s are getting their due. Witness the excellent Bussard- and R. Crumb-curated comps. Thanks for finding this.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 16:46:05 -0800

Evening all, just in from work, got online and am tickled pink you liked the post. :) 78Man is really dedicated and there's something charming about the sheer simplicity of him filming the record playing. Finding any information about 78Man was difficult, just his eBay profile. But just now I found his MySpace profile. He's such a likeable fellow, 78 years old, like the rpms, single, no kids, from the United Kingdom, Leicester, England, as jodrell banksmeadow said. He's obviously got a twinkly sense of humor, since his Public Service Announcement is this. Some of the song titles are even better than the songs, like Two buck Tim from Timbucktoo. flapjax, the Chewing Tobacco song sounds distinctly eefy. Can't help thinking he'd enjoy some feedback from anyone here who likes his videos. :) I sent him a link to this thread, maybe he'll get a kick out of it.

By: caddis

caddis — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 20:52:34 -0800

Interesting stuff. I have been tuning into this for many months now, but can not remember how I found it. I think some mp3 blog. The video portion is kind of silly, but the music is really, really intersting stuff. I love the internets. Thanks Al.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 21:26:18 -0800

Hey, nickyskye, you linking animal you, thanks for the link to his MySpace. Once again I say, "MetaFilter! Do not be afraid of or ashamed to link to MySpace! Sometimes it's great!" And caddis, I disagree about the video part being kind of silly. I think this visual representation (complete with shaky hand-held technique, zoom-ins on the label, etc.) are a big part of the charm, and particularly worthwhile in the era of CDs and MP3s, where there is no visible spinning disc as visual counterpart to the music. A good reminder of how things were not so many years ago.