The sound resorationist, trying to restore a 78 to life. When hand gestures and Bela-Lugosi-style pleas of "Commmmme baaaack!" fail to work, there's always the 31-band equalizer (as a last resort):
And we have three more restored discs to share, beginning with two classics by Prince's Dance Orchestra. I'm very pleased with the results--the sound is detailed, balanced, and smooth, and the percussion (by acoustical standards, at least) is clear and sharp. There was a good deal of surface noise on these, and I'm surprised by how much of it I was able to filter out without hurting the music:
Bound in Morocco (Herscher), Prince's Dance Orchestra, 1920. From Columbia 78.
Oriental Stars (One-Step; Monaco), Prince's Dance Orchestra, 1920. From Columbia 78.
And we close with a "party" record from 1947, the sort of thing I find as funny (and interesting) as a needle stuck in the run-off groove. However, there's a big to-do about censorship right now, what with the FCC fining everyone left and right (but mostly left, if you know what I mean), so I guess this is timely. The Elevator Song is all about an older man who "can't get it up anymore," and the words ain't referrin' to an elevator, if'n you knows what I mean. Wink, wink. Hint, hint. Snort, guffaw.
Being a left-winger, I ought to be one of these no-censorship-no-way people, but I'm not. My problem with the anti-censorship folks is that they seem to place far more significance on someone getting to yell "Fuck!" on TV than, say, the average citizen getting to cast a vote and have it counted. I'm almost tempted to suggest that, while everyone is fighting for the right to hear nonstop penis jokes on network sitcoms, the free flow of information is becoming less free. And that, by the time the truly important things have been censored, propaganda-style, from our reach, we'll wonder why we gave so much of a fuck about "fuck." Just a thought.
Anyway, this record showed up in my pile, and, like most double-entendre humor, it's vapid but very well-done. If you like this sort of thing, it's being reissued like crazy on CD.
The Elevator Song, Nan Blakstone with Artie Fields and His Orchestra, 1947. From Gala label 78.
O.K., we've done our bit for anti-censorship. I feel so... free. I hope you do, too.
Lee
4 comments:
Hi Lee ! Thnx for the pics of the Master at work at the Masterworks.
Whadda rewarding process; A BIG E
ticket for effort. All hail to ye ole Vinyl Myner digging for gold among dem grooves!
Just listen to those 'new' sounding records !
Byron Los Angeles
I just paid a visit to DB Coopers of Burbank, CA. They are closing forever on the 24th of March, so I dug up some 78rpm discs and found Spike Jones 'Blowing Bubble Gum / 'Love In Bloom' oh, what a fun one that will be to spin, plus Oscar Brand's filk album of adult ditties such as 'The Four Letter Word'. I'm sure the rescue from your thrift shop makes for a lost treasure found. Thanks for the spin again.
Dear Dr. Demen- er, dear Lee,
Plaudits for the smirkalicious Elevator Song! Just had a blast at the These Records are BenT! blog, who is sharing "Bawdy Barracks Ballads Vol. 2", and now I found this gem from you! Man, what a day I'm having! Almost as
fun as playing Post Office with a Special Delivery! (Wink, wink, nudge, nudge!)
Max the drunken severed head
Man, you do a really great job of remastering these things. I have official releases of music from this era that don't sound this good.
Byron,
Oscar shows up in the thrifts occasionally, but I don't think I've ever taken any home. Thanks for the nice words!
Max,
Doctor LEE-mento's the name! Glad you enjoyed.
Anon.,
Many thanks! Some official reissues I've heard go too far in the noise-reduction department and lose too much detail. Other labels, like Archeophone, get the perfect balance between noise suppression and music enhancement.
Lee
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