| Many blogs feature music from old LPs; usually rips from CD reissues. Very few (like, none) concentrate on the music from the 10-inch LPs that were fairly common from the first several years of the long-playing record, roughly 1948-57. This blog does. We also make room here for other LPs and even 78 and 45 singles from the pre-stereo era. The title of the blog is an homage to an R&B record of the same name by Bullmoose Jackson and His Buffalo Bearcats. (Not sure why a moose would be fronting a band of bearcats, nor why they would be from Buffalo when Jackson was from Cleveland.) The Moose was selling double-entendre blues; we are promoting primarily pop music and classics, although all genres are welcome here! |
4 comments:
The world "album" is a carry-over from the days of 78s when many sets of records were issued literally as albums. Some were assembled thematically according to artist, and others were concepts in the same way that LPs became to be recorded later. Most of the latter had covers especially designed for them. For example, the first album I ever received, at the age of about 5, was an album of 3 78s of the soundtrack of Walt Disney's Pinocchio. Not only was the entire album, including the inside pages, specially designed, but the labels were also.
Hi Mel,
It's ironic that those of us whose lives have spanned the LP and CD era bemoan the inferior presentation than accompanies CDs - when in fact the LP versions of 78 rpm sets were sometimes inferior versions of very elaborate 78 albums. This Rodgers LP is a good example. Another is the Alice in Wonderland album featured here earlier.
I was also struck by the el cheapo graphics on the reissue, but when you listen to the tracks it makes more sense. By 1949 when this 10-inch was released the arrangements must have sounded horribly dated, especially in comparison to the Philharmonic-type stuff that was in vogue. I assume the whole point of reissuing it was to make a few bucks on Richard Rodgers' name without spending a lot of money.
Listening to the tracks again I'm also struck by how fast some of the ballads are. Especially "Where or When;" "welookedateachotherinthesamewaythen" practically comes out in one word.
The "first album cover" thing has always sounded fishy. I have a similar 78 set (12") of Jerome Kern hits on Victor that has a nifty photomontage on the cover, and I'm pretty sure it predates this one. How late did the Victor Light Opera Company hang on?
Thanks for the shout-out, btw.
Jeff,
What you see is one of the house styles for Columbia in the early LP era. Many of the covers have the same cartoon style illustrations (from the same anonymous illustrator) with big blocks of color. These could be printed on two-color presses with inexpensive stock. This cover also exists with an aqua second color rather than pink.
I suspect that just as in the early CD era, record companies issued old materials in the new format to make some money with little outlay.
I'm not familiar with the Kern set you mention; I stopped collecting 78s about 10 years ago - right after the first time I had to move my collection.
Rodgers had a reputation for liking straightforward versions of his music. One of the reasons I called these dance band style arrangements is that the vocal choruses have a strict tempo approach that is so different from the more flexible and emotional versions we have heard in the intervening 70 years. Great music allows for many different interpretations. I like to hear 'em all, but I always have a soft spot for the original version - if there is such a thing.
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