Unusual Finds?

[Inigo]

How many years was it available the HMV recording of birds from the Karl Reich bird zoo in Bremen? The acoustic version must have been remade several times, and later electric versions... I believe it was in the catalog until the 1950s or 1960s... Probably it has been the recorded subject remaining the longest time in the gramophone record catalogues... I own one from early 1900s in double sided form, but I've seen other copies from time to time... Rare record to be found in the wild, but a staple in the hmv catalogues.

[Orchorsol]

Great fun, this thread! I have lots of bizarre records that have turned up randomly over the years.

Here's one that comes to mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEl5gNcjMWY

I enjoy Morse code 78s. The way I enjoy them is to play several at the same time and revel in the cacophony.

[Inigo]

the Morse code record played through an emg oversize xb must be a true strong experience!! ha ha

[Roaring20s]

I recall this being a self-help type message.
My old notations are in capital letters.
I'll see if I can get some temporary audio posted on Saturday.

James.


Here's the content ...
http://www.ecommerceplayer.com/MediaPla ... 202fbcd60b

[Inigo]

interesting... I wouldn't have resisted this record, and would have bought it immediately.
These are the things that make you rush back home to play them...

[CarlosV]

How many years was it available the HMV recording of birds from the Karl Reich bird zoo in Bremen?

Iñigo reminded me that I have a book not of birds but of animal sounds, with two attached Parlophone records. Written in 1938 by Aldous's brother Julian Huxley, a famous naturalist. It is certainly more interesting than the parakeet training one.

[Lah Ca]

Possibly a pair of records with the recording of a marriage, with a speaker describing what's going on, the dresses of the ladies, then come the church bells, etc. Apparently some recording facility offered this type of service here in town. It's quite peculiar that I keep these records of an unknown couple, while their dear relatives decided to lovely dump them.

Interesting. They are perhaps something that a research museum would be interested in if you were ever to consider letting them go. One of the problems for social historians is that there are relatively few records (documents of any kind) of the ordinary because it was ordinary, something that all contemporary people knew and understood. Why document it?

Later I have also found a pair of cardboard postcards that are plastified and recorded on one side. Items like these may be common elsewhere, but were the first that I happened to see over here.

Depending upon what is on the postcard records and where they are from, they can be highly sought after. The underground Russian ones, the bootlegs of 60s Rock music, such as the The Yardbirds, can be quite valuable.

[Lah Ca]

Here is a record that I had almost forgotten about. It came from a number of boxes of records that I bought quite cheaply.

The elderly man who sold them to me told me that the records had belonged to his father, a man from Winnipeg who had played trombone in big bands and who DJed at weddings, mostly Jewish weddings. The records were being sold as a lot, but the man who was selling them said that two people had been there before me, paid him for the lot, and then just took what they wanted from the boxes. So pretty much anything of any monetary value, such as the large number of Klezmer records, was gone. Mostly what was left were common Swing records by the A-List big bands and less common and less interesting Swing records by B and C List big bands. There were more Micky Katz records than I had ever seen in one place. There were enough things of interest left that I bought the boxes and carted them off.

I pulled this strange 10" white label disk out of one of these boxes. The handwritten label on one side reads: Contest/Farting Contest. The label on the other side is blank. The record appears not to be an acetate, at least not an aluminium/lacquer one. It appears to be made of an early shellac substitute, heavier and less flexible than vinyl and with different resonant properties if you tap it with a finger nail. There are no identifying numbers or letters in the run-out area.

The labelled side seems to be what it claims to be, a farting contest with sportscaster-like commentary on volume, tone, timbre, and aroma.

The unlabelled side is a scatological/flatulent skit, Lady Windermere's Fan (after the Oscar Wilde play), which focuses on the Lady's wind.

The production values are quite professional, as are the voices, perhaps not those of professional actors but those of trained radio people. The dialect features of the voices are probably Canadian. Modest amounts of alcohol may have been involved in the production.

I am highly unlikely ever to discover anything certain about this record.

[Inigo]

The International Crepitation Contest was a very well known record
(actually four 10" sides) made in CNC in Toronto on 1946 and sold, copied, given and distributed more or less under the counter. Eventually it ended in the Army and it's popularity among the initiated rocketed. A very funny contest narrated by professional radio men, even inventing words and classifications for the different kinds of gas... very very funny. it's in YouTube complete, if you want to listen to.

[Lah Ca]

The International Crepitation Contest was a very well known record
(actually four 10" sides) made in CNC in Toronto on 1946 and sold, copied, given and distributed more or less under the counter. Eventually it ended in the Army and it's popularity among the initiated rocketed. A very funny contest narrated by professional radio men, even inventing words and classifications for the different kinds of gas... very very funny. it's in YouTube complete, if you want to listen to.

Thank you. This is indeed what the record is. I have not looked at it or listened to it in years It even took me a bit to find it.

This short article is interesting: https://randsesotericotr.podbean.com/e/ ... t-of-1946/

Apparently someone at Columbia dubbed the records and bootlegged them with an unofficial release on two twelve inch records.

Columbia bootleg:

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