78 Collectors: Why are they so weird?

coolest guy in america?

definitely.
i wish the guy many many many years of good health, but i look at him and i can't help thinking -- what's happening to those records when he passes away? i mean, i just hope there's something along the lines of what's happening with John Peel's collection in the works? library of congress? what?!

i don't actually find joe b. that interesting--after you get past how seminal of a collector he is etc. he doesn't have a ton interesting to say about the music.

having an encyclopedic knowledge of pre-war american 'vernacular' music is enuff for me tbh. not everyone has to be an academic with critical insight imo.

totally agree, wish more people felt that way!

that said i love reading things like calt's skip james bio & the recent book about early country music & mill workers, which are full of critical speculation and supposition and in the case of the calt especially 'outside the box.' but it's not a pre-req for me.

bussard does make a hell of a mixtape though -- the few that i ordered back when he was doing that are awesome.

i'd guess he knows the ins & outs of the music about as well as anyone.

i feel like i'm biologically wired to value artifacts over theories about the artifacts, in general. i think it's just some kind of a mental orientation?

i tend to feel the same way. that is why i had such a lousy time in college where half my classes we were thrust packets of frustrating literary criticism as tho they were as valuable as or more valuable than the o.g. object.

It's the collector mentality, I guess. I don't know that I think they're so weird, really. They're better at what they do than I am at what I do, that's for sure.

Working in a used record store for about four years, I ran into a lot of really obnoxious, anal retentive knobs. Most of them were 45 collectors. From my experience, they're the worst. Met a few 78 weirdos, but they were just kind of quirky, not outright jerks.

funny though, out of all those 78s bussard has, i wonder how many he'd say were total garbage.

i think i've already said this, but my dad is a 78 dealer and he often gets called out to guys' warehouses by the family after someone passes to assess consignment sales. It happens a lot.

got a note in my email today notifying me that i had won some records i bid on in the back of VJM -- a martin & roberts on perfect and pete pyle on bluebird

what is all this about "theories about artefacts" or whatever? you guys are reading an awful lot into my posts. i guess i just feel that for a guy who gets hella attention for having the most awesome record collection in the USA i don't find what he has to say very interesting.

ian since you watch out for these things, can you look out for piano and other 78s by a guy named "lee sims" (not frankie lee sims, just lee sims)? none of his stuff (well, save for one or two tracks) is on CD and most isn't on LP either. but he's great. i'll pay you for any of his 78s in decent condition.

funny though, out of all those 78s bussard has, i wonder how many he'd say were total garbage.

― tylerw, Friday, July 6, 2012 10:54 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

doesn't he pointedly not collect stuff (like any jazz post-1933 or whatever) that he thinks is trash? or he'll collect the valuable ones just so's he can trade them away for stuff he really wants.

When you consider that it's about two songs per record, it's not too hard to believe that he thinks all his records are cool.

I've got about a box of 78s now but I still don't have a way to play them. I play them on other people's record players sometimes. It seems like a tougher hobby than regular record collecting.

I peed my pants when I found some 78s lying around, including an entire Hank Williams set.

However, they sound like shit. I think archivists must like them for other reasons. God bless them, but they are a pain in the ass. The old stereos you can play them on are really cool though.

um, lots of 78s sound great.

and you can play them on lots of record players--was standard until the late '50s/early '60s really. not just gramaphones or whatever.

they last is the thing.

bebop 78s sound SO GOOD

tyler, thank you for that link to the r. crumb shows, i really enjoyed them, especially the last one on black string bands. i was surprised at how great most of the recs sounded (i'm used to hearing skip james 78s that are more crackle than music) - dunno if the discs had been sonically tidied up, or if crumb has enough coin to only collect the most pristine examples of such, or what. it was also amusing to me hear 'respected american cartoonist robert crumb' drawling on BBC Radio 3, which is as 'straight' an institution as you can imagine...) Could have done w/ a few more tales of rec collecting/hunting and maybe a lil less primo levi, but o/wise it was fab, so thanks again.

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everybody wants a key to my cellar

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okay, that's it. just some stuff i picked up this morning before i'd had my coffee. greenfield usually more of a doris day kinda town.

that tom hutchinson is actually tom ashley under a pseudonym and i would like to buy it from you if it's not cracked? can we talk abut this?

i don't usually photograph labels and post 'em online but i got some good ones from my pal.. so.. in honor of skot's birthday, i will take a few photos

except i can't find the camera

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those are in order:
chubby parker
tommy dandurand as UNCLE STEVE HUBBARD
rayne-bo ramblers (flip side is THE BLIND FIDDLER, good cajun record)
blind lemon jefferson (looks bad, plays decent!)

I'm old enough to (barely) remember when Sears sold records, but never knew they once had their own label

they didn't ~really~ have their own label -- they would lease titles from other record companies, often changing the artists name to a pseudonym, and press on their own budget imprint.

so Sears cheaped out even way back then....

the info on 78 labels amuzes me, like how the older ones were cleanly styled and had just the essentials but as time went on more and more legal crap had to be squeezed into the border. And why did they feel a need to clue you in on what style the music was? like "a foxtrot"?

that's for the consumer!

well since Sears used pseudonyms to avoid paying royalties or whatever, customers had no idea who the recording was of, only the name of the song. At least you knew it what style of music it was before you bought it ...

it wasn't really to avoid any kind of payment, it was just a distribution arrangement in a way -- the pseudonyms were so that the label the recording is leased from could still sell the recording for a higher price than the sears price. some pseudonyms were also to avoid breaking a contract w another label.

So you would know how to dance to the song.

favorite genres of music on 78 labels --

barn dance with calls
stomp
two-step
reel
old-time song with banjo

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/21/nyregion/rescued-kurt-weill-recording-is-sweet-vindication-for-accidental-discoverer.html

innerestin'

people almost never bring me 78s at the store.
this one guy dan does -- a collector from upstate (moving back to brooklyn!)

got these for myself from him today --

byrd moore and his hot shots 'frankie silvers' / 'hills of tennesee'
north carolina ramblers 'too young to marry' / 'ragtime annie'
gid tanner & riley puckett 'fox chase' / 'arkansas traveler'
burnett/rutherford/moore 'cumberland gap' / 'goodnight waltz'
narmour & smith 'captain george has your money come?' / 'the sunny waltz'

i love old-time music. these were all on columbia except the burnett/rutherford/moore which was on champion and the narmour & smith which was on okeh.

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/ae/music/rare-robert-johnson-record-turns-up-at-jerrys-records-662343/