Gramomania

Posted by homoludo on August 29th, 2008 filed in 78's, gramomania, gramophone disco, music, writing

“In 1924 the British magazine Gramophone playfully warned of ‘gramomania’ alerting readers to its ‘insidious approach, its baneful effects, its ability to destroy human delights’. Two years later, on the other side of the Atlantic, the Phonography Monthly Review asked readers to recount their most dire sacrifices in the name of grooved shellac.”

From Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed Music by Mark Katz, p10.

I’m starting a new section of this blog/site called gramomania, I’ll try to put up a 78 gramophone record every week. It will also be a place for posts about old stuff, the history of the future, time machine schematics, automata etc.

So to start off here’s a US top ten tune from 1950

Hank Penny with String Band- Blood Shot Eyes

[audio:/Bloodshot_Eyes_Hank_Penny_with_String_Band.mp3]

This tune being something of an anthem at a Gramophone disco thing I do with some pals.

Gramophone disco being an all night bar with a 78’s , normal records and a pre sixties music policy. The Gramophone disco has a nice carny feel with various diversions including-

Smash hits gramophone disco.

This is where the crowd listen to a record and vote whether to smash it or whether it’s a hit and a keepy. It’s fun for a various reasons

1. Smashing records(particularly brittle shellac) is very satisfying fun.

2. It has the added bonus of being a kind of anarchist history smashing theatre.

3. When I have a enough smashed 78’s, I’m going to make a time machine out of them.

4. It’s good to crate dig in public and share the pleasure of finding an unknown great record- makes a surprisingly good entertainment.

5. It’s a way of getting people to actually listen and pay attention to old 78’s.

6. It’s a good antidote to the whole po-faced worship of the past, old records etc.

We’re doing the Electric picnic this weekend so drop in if your around and here’s another 78/tune to listen to on the drive there.

[audio:/Strawberry_Fair%20_The_Beverly_Sisters.mp3]