78 Collectors: Why are they so weird?

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/11/23/arts/music/20101128-arhoolie-ss-slide-0S5F/20101128-arhoolie-ss-slide-0S5F-slide.jpg

Arhoolie at 50

One thing I have always wondered about re 78 collectors: Are they just collecting them because they are rare, or are they heavily into the Great American Songbook and pre-rock music?

they're heavily into american music of the twenties & early thirties, usually.

there was a record shop that only sold 78's a block or two away from where i was staying in edinburgh last summer. it was run by these two old cranks who claim to have been against vinyl from the beginning and wanted nothing to do with it or any the music on it

Of course it was the evil vinyl that corrupted the younger generation and got them into overtly erotic and noisy music with screaming singers. :)

I wish I was a 78 collector - they're cool dudes imo

Of course it was the evil vinyl that corrupted the younger generation and got them into overtly erotic and noisy music with screaming singers. :)

― You're Twistin' My Melody Man! (Geir Hongro), Monday, November 29, 2010 9:29 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

Funny those guys sound to you what you like to use ;)

What a beautiful thread...you know if you were a serious collector you wouldn't miss the old music. The artwork on the labels is high quality, I am saving every photo!

I am not a collector (don't have any others), but I bought some today. Re-purposed from the Buy That For $1 thread:

$2, total, at an Austin garage sale today for 40 78-RPM records -- mostly looks like square dance music on local Texas labels like Blue Star and Longhorn, but one is Red Foley "Milk Bucket Boogie"/"Salty Dog Rag" on Decca; another (sadly slightly chipped -- the only one I've seen that is) is unfortunately named Western Swing guy Adolph Hofner and the San Antonians "Cotton Eyed Joe"/"Put Your Little Foot" on Columbia. There's also a "Cotton Pickin' Polka" by Lester Woytek, and at least one other version of "Cotton Eyed Joe." There seem to be a few each by the Sundowners and by Red Warrick, whoever they are. Also included in the box were file dividers for all the records, and -- weirder -- lots and lots of lyric (square dance call) sheets and/or dance instructions for individual songs, some of which look like they were officially issued by the record companies with the records, but others of which are either typed out or written out longhand. Also, an 80-page pamphlet/mini-book called It's Fun To Square Dance: Six Easy Lessons By Louie Ratliff, one Elks Club card, and two cards apparently allowing dancers free "goofs". All for $2.

Now all I need is to get a 78 needle.

was just listening to r crumb on this wfmu show: http://wfmu.org/playlists/AP
i don't collect but for some reason i like hearing collectors gab about it.

I always buy foreign language, country, western swing, gospel. and big band 78s when I see them. Yesterday I got about ten Russian 78s for a quarter apiece. Some had cool labels, and two had black and white photograghs for labels. I don't know what you call them. They weren't monochrome. The other kind, the more detailed kind.

And, you know, some bebop 78s go for about $10. I would totally pay that.

Well, not just any big band. Where is that cat?

Now that I have a player (one of those awesome old tube-amp school library ones with the flip needle to play regular LPs as well), I pretty much buy anything that looks interesting and is less than $3. Another advantage of having a player is that a lot of those record-your-own discs (which I seriously collect and will ALWAYS buy) are 78 RPM. Plus the collection & player look great in the living room.

My initial collection came from the dump, I used to have a friend who worked there. Seven boxes! I eventually gave most of the Glenn Miller & Bing Crosby stuff to a local thrift store.

Hey, you're right, I forgot that I found a few record-your-owns. The other cool thing about 78s is they track really well even when they're really scratched.

yeah, a lot of 78s can sound grrrreat, even when they look trashed. on the other hand, they can also sound awful when they look clean! needle damage can be hard to spot sometimes. tbrr, it was quite nice out a few days ago and i spend the evening in the backyard listening to (mostly country) 78s & drinking, it was lovely.

my ravens 78 got broke :{ was in a box. maybe i put stuff on top of the box? dunno. such nice shape too. oh well.

http://78records.cdbpdx.com/

what turntable do y'all use to play your 78s? do you have a separate stylus to play 78s?

Article in Chicago Reader this week about a Dust to Digital release from a 78 collector

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/dust-to-digital-steven-roden/Content?oid=4456763

http://www.chicagoreader.com/imager/b/magnum/4456766/9159/Roden034_magnum.jpg

that was a nice article, i read it yesterday.

amateurist, i use a crappy numark portable hooked up to my marantz receiver with the numark-manufactured '78 needle' (approx $15-20.)

i am waiting for ten 78s to come in the mail this weeb btw....

4x carter family
blue sky boys
jack reedy's walker mtn string band
blue ridge highballers
roane county ramblers
three tobacco tags
riley puckett

weeK

for some reason i loled at weeb

i will never be a 78 collector, so these comps are very interesting to me. i'm thinking about buying myself one for my bday, but having a difficult time choosing which one.

(i don't think 78 collectors are weird btw, i just don't see myself collecting them -- 78s, or 78 collectors ;)

my friend john put together a comp for dust to digital which is really great and covers a wide range of american musical styles--
http://dust-digital.com/baby

"songs of love, lust and contempt"

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704156304576003640416924506.html#articleTabs%3Darticle

ooooh that's one of the ones i wanted! who could argue with love, lust, and contempt?!

i don't normally buy CDs but i don't feel bad giving this company my money, and they seem to have nice packaging/booklets too

yeah i want that one too. dust to digital is pretty reasonable when it comes to prices. which is nice.

i figure these packages were created with someone just like me in mind, so it is clearly my duty to buy them

Theyre nice people

most of them. i've met a few real douchebags.

that was a nice article, i read it yesterday.

^^ classic 78 collector response

No, i meant the dust to digital guys are nice people.

i bought the recommended comp -- should be on its way to me shortly. excited! and full of loving contempt ;)

what turntable do y'all use to play your 78s? do you have a separate stylus to play 78s?

La Lechera, how do you like your compilation of old-timey music purchased from the dust-to-digital corporation?

I love it! I meant to post to this thread when I received/first heard it, but then I forgot. I really like the wide variety of styles and thematic consistency; it's varied enough in style to not seem at all jokey in theme, which is always a risk, right? It reminded me how much I like cajun music too.

Would recommend!!

oh man early cajun music fukken rules. there are some amazing collections on Arhoolie you could check out..

http://www.amazon.com/Cajun-String-Bands-1930s-Breakdown/dp/B0000001N8/ref=sr_1_4?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1315504163&sr=1-4

http://www.amazon.com/Folksongs-Louisiana-Acadians-Various-Artists/dp/B0000001I2/ref=sr_1_9?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1315504163&sr=1-9

oh yeah - they have a lot of good stuff! that reminds me of how my college roommates refused to let me play my arhoolie cajun classics cd. they wouldn't let me play anything fun.

there's an all-78 record store in minneapolis, i keep meaning to check it out, been there forever

i heard the dude has a cat in the store and smokes a pipe and is kinda surly

it's trv kvlt tho, only 78s

speaking of dust to dig, this looks cool, if only for the spooooooooky cover
http://www.dust-digital.com/images/320/dtd20-320.jpg
I Listen to the Wind That Obliterates My Traces: Music in Vernacular Photographs 1880-1955

... i listen to the wind that obliterates my traces brings together a collection of early photographs related to music, a group of 78rpm recordings, and short excerpts from various literary sources that are contemporary with the sound and images. It is a somewhat intuitive gathering, culled from artist Steve Roden’s collection of thousands of vernacular photographs related to music, sound, and listening. The subjects range from the PT Barnum-esque Professor McRea - “Ontario’s Musical Wonder” (pictured with his complex sculptural one man band contraption) - to anonymous African-American guitar players and images of early phonographs. The images range from professional portraits to ethereal, accidental, double exposures - and include a range of photographic print processes, such as tintypes, ambrotypes, cdvs, cabinet cards, real photo postcards, albumen prints, and turn-of-the-century snapshots.

The two CDs display a variety of recordings, including one-off amateur recordings, regular commercial releases, and early sound effects records. there is no narrative structure to the book, but the collision of literary quotes (Hamsun, Lagarkvist, Wordsworth, Nabakov, etc.). Recordings and images conspire towards a consistent mood that is anchored by the book’s title, which binds such disparate things as an early recording of an American cowboy ballad, a poem by a Swedish Nobel laureate, a recording of crickets created artificially, and an image of an itinerant anonymous woman sitting in a field, playing a guitar. The book also contains an essay by Roden.

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/shookdown/2011/09/nostalgia.php

http://www.forumusic.co.uk/a_pile_of_78s.html

gorgeous.

since i've started this thread i've become a 78 guy :( buying 78s online monthly at least.

*made a lame joke; deleted it*

78-only guy who comes into our store wears microskirts in a kind of Catholic school girl plaid. He's in his late 40s at least and is either a creep or on the creep end of the autism spectrum.

i have met some totally fine 78 guys, really. dudes i would just hang with to have a beer or eat a burger.