Geekin' out on your Grandma's Gramophone

June 3, 2008 9:51 AM

[PREVIOUSLY on METAFILTER] Each week between 2005 and 2007 (and sporadically thereafter), Basic Hip Digital Oddio's Kiddie Records Weekly offered children's recordings issued by big labels during the 1940's and 1950's. This cache now holds approximately 214 phonograph records, the covers and sounds therein lovingly digitized, ready for you to absorb.
posted by not_on_display (10 comments total)

This is rad. I am gonna use traktor to scratch all these records. un gran gracias.
posted by MNDZ at 10:00 AM on June 3, 2008

This is wonderful. I was interested to see that there are at least 3 versions of the Uncle Remus stories there, along with a few other works that have become difficult to find because of their real or perceived racist content.
posted by TedW at 10:06 AM on June 3, 2008

Amazing site, great link!
posted by JHarris at 10:32 AM on June 3, 2008

This is about 10 different kinds of amazing. We had a shitload of these when I was a kid, and being the lifelong record hoarder I am, I still have them. My favourite was always Rusty in Orchestraville where the kid dreams he's in a land where all the instruments talk but they were all mad at him because he doesn't practice enough. It both freaked me out and entranced me.
As a teenager in the late 80's, in my sad neo-psychedelic phase, I put clips of Rusty on many a mixtape.
To this day, for no apparent reason, I will say (in that phony 1950's little-boy voice that is really a 40 year old woman), "I'm taking lessons. I start next week with Mr. Dumous!"
posted by chococat at 10:43 AM on June 3, 2008

Great find. We had a few of these when I was a kid.
posted by doctor_negative at 12:13 PM on June 3, 2008

Man, I had a whole bunch of Little Golden Records. It's hard to believe they lasted as long as they did given what I did with them.
posted by tommasz at 1:10 PM on June 3, 2008

Jerry Lewis The Noisy Eater. I'm terrified to even imagine what that could be like. Just looking at the cover fills me with a mix of terror and rage.
posted by DecemberBoy at 2:34 PM on June 3, 2008

Oh, this rocks. Thanks!
posted by dejah420 at 5:09 PM on June 3, 2008

^DecemberBoy: I'm terrified to even imagine what that could be like.

It's all that you would imagine... but with even more sound effects than you could imagine!
posted by not_on_display at 6:41 PM on June 3, 2008

^MNDZ: This is rad. I am gonna use traktor to scratch all these records. un gran gracias.

[self-link] see this MeFi Post about 41. He does a lot of old Kiddie record mashup stuff, among other things.
posted by not_on_display at 5:29 AM on June 4, 2008