NRR Project: 'Stormy Weather' (1933)

 

NRR Project: ‘Stormy Weather’

Music: Harold Arlen Lyrics: Ted Koehler

Performed by Ethel Waters

Recorded May 3, 1933

3:12

On April 16, 1933, a new show opened at the Cotton Club in New York. It soon became known as the Stormy Weather Review, due to the success and impact of the singing of Ethel Waters.

Up until this time, Black women were typed as blues singers – shouting, stomping, with big-mama energy. Waters was one of these . . . but then she got a chance to sing this song, originally intended for Cab Calloway. Her rendition made her famous.

In doing so, the culture showed itself open to a new style of song – neither a Victorian ballad nor a low-down blues but something in between. It’s a torch song, bluesy but not a blues, replete with catchy lyrics and an essential emotional vulnerability that appealed to audiences not used to seeing it onstage. Soon it and many songs like it from the period would be codified in the national imagination as the Great American Songbook.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again.

NRR Project: 'Goodnight, Irene" (1932)

 

NRR Project: ‘Goodnight, Irene’

Music and lyrics by unknown

Performed by Lead Belly

Recorded 1933

This sweet, plaintive song is an American classic – but it didn’t become a hit until the man who made its definite version was dead.

Huddie William Ledbetter, aka Lead Belly, had a difficult life, full of criminal behavior. He spent many years in prison, and in fact was “discovered” by folklorist John Lomax in 1933 while serving time in Louisiana’s Angola Penitentiary. He was an encyclopedia of songs – blues, folk tunes, gospel songs, children’s game songs . . . something for every kind of function, as was normal at the time for a versatile traveling musician.

Lomax recorded him, and pursued a pardon for “the singing convict” from the governor, which was obtained. Lead Belly then began 16 years of touring, recording, and performing, finding the greatest interest from those into folk music. Two years after his death, the folk group the Weavers had a massive hit with their cover of “Goodnight, Irene.”

The song is a gentle lament in three-quarter time. “I asked your mother for you/She told me that you was too young/I wish dear Lord I’d never seen your face/I’m sorry you were ever born,” says the first verse. Despite the vehemence of the feeling expressed, the singer goes back on his thoughts immediately and sadly declares, “Goodnight, Irene/I’ll see you in my dreams.”

It is difficult to define the origin of the song. Christopher Lornell, in his excellent explanatory essay, does an amazing amount of detective work in tracing the song back to its origins. Lead Belly got the song from his uncle. Where did he get it from? There is evidence that the song was originally a Victorian parlor song, the words and structure of which mutated over the decades, until the song finally assumed its most familiar shape. (The same melody graces the gospel song “If It Had Not Been for Jesus,” recorded in 1930 by Blind Willie Johnson.)

Lead Belly produced a large body of work in a short time, leaving a number of memoriaable songs, such as “Midnight Special,” “Cotton Fields,” and “In the Pines.” Artists such as Bob Dylan, George Harrison, And Van Morrison have cited him as an influence. He had the touch.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: Stormy Weather.

NRR Project: FDR - Speeches and Fireside Chats (1932-1945)

 

NRR Project: Complete Presidential Speeches, Franklin D. Roosevelt (1932-1945) and

Fireside Chats, Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1944)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a phenomenon. Creative, forceful, and patient, he guided America through 13 years of turmoil – the Great Depression and World War II – as the 32^nd President of the United States. The country rarely had so strong and dynamic a figure to look up to, and due to his actions he became one of the era’s great leaders.

He set up many of the social welfare agencies, including Social Security; he set up the Securities and Exchange Commission and many other agencies as well. He created jobs through government work projects, and through those jobs improved vast areas of America’s infrastructure, as well as contributing to the culture. And his resolute defiance of fascism helped to insure the Allies’ defeat of the Nazis and their ilk.

A large part of his popularity with the general public (Republicans and news editorial boards hated him) was due to his ability to communicate. In dozens of speeches, he eloquently and simply put forward the progressive proposals he had for America, and he reassured a worried public about the strength of the economy as well. Instead of hiding behind official pronouncements, he went frequently to the radio, his favorite medium, as a way to inform and influence the general listener (he began using radio as the governor of New York).

His “Fireside Chats” are particularly memorable. (They are so-called because his second chat took place next to a blazing fire.) Rather than avoid the issues, or to make pleasant double-talk, Roosevelt in his broadcasts would develop and expound upon one issue at a time, patiently explicating his thinking and making a case for the reforms he knew would transform society.

His familiar voice was listened to by millions – he was carried on all the networks. The more than two dozen chats he initiated became welcome in all manner of homes. People listened to and trusted him – a reality that does not exist with today’s politicians.

Was Roosevelt a visionary or a would-be dictator? No matter where the verdict of history places him, he remained an immense source of inspiration for the Greatest Generation. You can find out more information here and here.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: Goodnight, Irene.

NRR Project: 'Voices from the Days of Slavery' (1932-1975)

 

NRR Project: ‘Voices from the Days of Slavery’

American Folklife Center

1932-1975

Another academic entry, but one that is still compelling. The American Folklife Center collected 24 recordings of the testimony of people who were slaves, recorded primarily through the years of 1932 to 1941. These interviews, some of which can be sampled online, are of variable audio quality. The Center transcribed the interviews as well, to overcome the limitations of the sound recordings included. You can listen to some here, and you can read the excellent explanatory essay by Ann Hoog here.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: FDR’s speeches.

NRR Project: 'Show Boat' (1932 album)

 

NRR Project: ‘Show Boat’

Music by Jerome Kern; Book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II

Performed by the cast of the 1932 revival

Show Boat started a revolution in musical theater. Until it premiered, musicals were scattershot affairs – loose collections of sketches and songs, or light-hearted fluff and farce, or operettas set in imaginary European kingdoms. With the creation of Show Boat, a musical with three-dimensional characters and a serious plot, the musical grew up.

It didn’t hurt that some of America’s most enduring ballads are studded throughout the work. “Bill,” “Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man of Mine,” “Make Believe,” “You Are Love,” and of course the iconic “Ol’ Man River – all are classics that continue to be performed today by jazz and cabaret artists. The songs all serve to advance the plot, and stand on their own as well, as all catchy tunes should.

The musical was adapted from a 1926 novel by the best-selling author Edna Ferber. It’s an epic story that plays out between 1887 and 1927, from the banks of the Mississippi to the theaters of New York City, encompassing the evolution of American music from old-time sentimental ballads through bluesy torch songs and on to jazzy standards. Kern had plenty of practice as a songsmith – he’d already been in the business for 20 years, and had cranked out 16 musicals between 1915 and 1920. Hammerstein was similarly experienced.

The story involves the steamboat Cotton Blossom, which serves as a floating, traveling theater along the banks of the Mississippi River. Its owners, Cap’n Andy and Parthy, have a daughter, Magnolia. When it revealed that the show’s leading lady, Julie, is of mixed race, she is forced to leave the show boat. Her role is taken over by Magnolia, who acts opposite the charming gambler Gaylord Ravenal.

Magnolia and Gaylord end up together and have a daughter, but, impoverished and ashamed, Gaylord leaves the two of them. Magnolia goes on to be a successful singer in a club thanks to the selfless sacrifice of Julie. Twenty years later, Magnolia and Gaylord are reunited at their daughter’s Broadway debut.

The musical was the first to deal with racism, and has been accused of a kind of racism itself. While the “n-word” is bandied about freely in the original script, later times have caused alternations to accommodate better sensibilities. It deals frankly with the scourges of the time: the segregation of black and white populations, the inability of a mixed-race person to be thought of as little better than an animal. No one had tried to seriously engage these thorny issues on stage before. Merely the act of having black and white performers on stage together was seen as the breaking of a taboo.

The recording is interesting, as is the comprehensive and explanatory essay by Todd Decker, which you canread here. The cast is that of the first Broadway revival of the musical, in 1932. It features eight musical pieces, six songs and two medleys. Interestingly, the arrangements are unique to the recording, not taken from the score of the musical.

Of particular merit are the performances of Helen Morgan and Paul Robeson. Morgan, a well-known torch singer, was the original Julie, and her renditions of “Bill” and “Can’t Help . . .” are iconic – musically superior and heart-rending. And, of course, Robeson is purely and magnetically Robeson in the role he originated in the London production, a role no one else could play to satisfaction. (An unnamed baritone reprises “Ol’ Man River” in the Finale, and it is obvious not Robeson.)

This became his signature song, one he would reprise with more hopeful lyrics throughout his career. It’s the best remembered song from a history-making production.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: Voices from the Days of Slavery.

NRR Project: Rosina Cohen oral narrative from the Lorenzo D. Turner Collection

 

NRR Project: Rosina Cohen oral narrative from the Lorenzo D. Turner Collection

Recorded by Lorenzo D. Turner

1932

This is an academic entry, none of which can be accessed online. The recording is merely a representative piece of an enormous study composed of interviews, stories, and songs in the Gullah dialect by Dr. Turner, who discovered Gullah speakers quite by accident and then took an immense interest in their language and culture.

The Gullah is a distinct African American subgroup, whose members live along the Eastern Atlantic seaboard between North Carolina and Florida. Due to their relative isolation from mainstream culture, they retained many African words and mean of expression, all of which Dr. Turner studied thoroughly. His work on their language and culture is still referred to today.

For a more complete picture of the entry, please refer to the excellent explanatory essay by Alcione M. Amos, which can be found here.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: Show Boat.

 

 

NRR Project: 'Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?' (1932)

 

NRR Project: ‘Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?’

Music: Jay Gorney; Lyrics: E.Y. Harburg

Performed by Bing Crosby with Lenny Hayton and his Orchestra; 3:12

Performed by Rudy Vallee; 3:40

Recorded 1932

This song is truly what NPR declared to be “the anthem of the Great Depression.”

It first appeared in the October 1932 Broadway show Americana. It became a hit overnight, and by the end of the year both Bing Crosby and Rudy Vallee recorded it with great success – thus the double listing of performances.

The composer, Jay Gorney, born Abraham Jacob Gornetzky, was a refugee from Russia when he was 10. He is best remembered as the discoverer of Shirely Temple. “Brother”’s tune is based on a lullaby he heard as a child, a minor-key ballad that emphasizes the pathos expressed in the words. And what words! They tell a story, convey a complex mood, and serve as a call to action, all at the same time. They were the marvelous work of E.Y. Harburg.

 They used to tell me I was building a dream,

And so I followed the mob,

When there was earth to plow,

Or guns to bear, I was always there,

Right on the job.

They used to tell me I was building a dream,

With peace and glory ahead.

Why should I be standing in line

Just waiting for bread?

 

Once I built a railroad, I made it run, made it race against time.

Once I built a railroad; Now it's done.

Brother, can you spare a dime?

Once I built a tower up to the sun, brick and rivet and lime.

Once I built a tower, now it's done.

Brother, can you spare a dime?

 

Once in khaki suits, gee we looked swell,

Full of that Yankee Doodle dum.

Half a million boots went sloggin' through Hell,

And I was the kid with the drum!

 

Say don’t you remember?

They called me Al. It was Al all the time.

Why don't you remember?

I'm your pal.

Buddy, can you spare a dime?

In the aftermath of the Wall Street crash, various unrealistically cheery songs made their way into the popular consciousness – “Happy Days Are Here Again,” “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries.” “Brother” was different – it faces the overwhelming problem of having nothing to eat, outlining the singer’s recitation of his willing participation in the World War and business schemes, only to find no financial security at all.

The lyrics take advantage of past and present tense. “Once” the singer went to war, built things; now, he stands in the breadline. “Buddy, can you spare a dime?” is a roughly expressed plea, embarrassing and shamed. The words are few, well chosen, and powerful. “Made it race against time” is an implied lament that can’t be answered.

Lyricist Edgar Yipsel “Yip” Harburg was born Isidore Hochberg in New Tork, the son of immigrants. A boyhood friend of Ira Gershwin, he began to write light verse while he served as the co-owner of an appliance company. In the crash of 1929, he lost his company and turned to writing lyrics. After the “Brother” breakthrough, and after Harburg ran away with Gorney’s wife, he wrote the lyrics for such songs as “April in Paris,” “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” and “Over the Rainbow.”

Harburg and Gorney were socialists, and Harburg was especially militant in his beliefs, to the extent that he was blacklisted by Hollywood for his leftist views from 1951 to 1962. There is definitely an emphasis on the plight of the little guy here; in fact, many radio stations banned it, feeling it was too depressing for the general public.

Both the Bing Crosby and the Rudy Vallee performances of the songs are referenced here. Crosby’s version is more heartfelt and sorrowful, Vallee’s more upbeat, in strict 4/4 time, presented as an almost danceable tune. Vallee includes a spoken introduction, describing it as “A song that has taken its audiences by storm, which may be explained by its theme, which is both poignant and different.” It would be a long time before such hard-hitting material was heard again on the airwaves.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: Rosina Cohen’s oral narrative.

NRR Project: Schnabel plays the Beethoven sonatas

 

NRR Project: Beethoven – Complete Sonatas

Performed by Artur Schnabel

Recorded 1931

I could not hope to surpass the explanatory essay written by James Irsay about this project – you canread it here.

Suffice it to say that, despite the severe technical limitations of the 78 rpm record, the HMV recording company sought to get well-off listeners to subscribe to a project that would commemorate a classical composer. This they did, with a complete recording of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas, all performed by Schnabel, then the pre-eminent pianist of his day.

Listening to those recordings, it is remarkable how lively and playful Schnabel’s interpretation is. He moves at times with blindingly fast tempi, but does not neglect to illuminate the music by maintaining a clear, open sound.

The success of Schnabel’s project meant that many other classical artists began to find satisfaction in recording huge swathes of the classical repertoire.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

NRR Project: The Boswell Sisters sing 'It's the Girl' (1931)

NRR Project: ‘It’s the Girl’

Composed by David Oppenheim and Abel Baer

Performed by the Boswell Sisters with the Dorsey Brothers

Recorded July 8, 1931

3:16

Everybody remembers the singing trio the Andrews Sisters, but far fewer people know the group that inspired them, and countess other trios in the jazz era.

The Boswell Sisters, Martha, Connee, and Vet, grew up in New Orleans, where they were trained in classical music and exposed to contemporary music-making from both the white and Black populations of the area. The three started off performing together in vaudeville, then got noticed by the radio and recordings industries. Their repertoire soon consisted of jazz and popular songs styled as jazz. Their unique sound propelled them to popularity. Soon their unique harmonies were heard across the country.

What the Boswells were so good at was in arranging close-harmony tunes that really swung. Due to their musical prowess, they were able to rewrite and -arrange the tunes they were given to work with, turning them into streamlined ear candy that was undeniably catchy. (Some songwriters and some listeners didn’t enjoy this.) They chose and worked with some of the best instrumental accompanists of the day.

“It’s the Girl” is a typical Boswell treatment. (For comparison, listen to “When I Take My Sugar to Tea” and “The Object of My Affection.”) The opening I fast-paced, with swooping vocals, full stops, and untamed vocalizing moving in and among the melodic and harmonic lines. The song then slows down to a legato pace, letting the soloist style the bridge/intro. Then all three leap back in at double time, coming to a screeching halt at the song’s finish line.

The trio broke up in 1936. Connee would go on to have a notable solo career, but the heyday of the group was over. Fortunately, we have a decade of recordings of theirs to enjoy and analyze.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: Arthur Schnabel plays the complete Beethoven piano sonatas.

NRR Project: Early stereo (1931)

NRR Project: Bell Laboratories experimental stereo recordings – Philadelphia Orchestra, Leopold Stowkowski, conductor (1931-1932)

Here is a highly technical entry into the series. To really understand it, to need to read the explanatory essay by Larry Huffman, which you can read here.

It seems that the desire for stereophonic sound came much earlier in the history of recording than is generally thought. Here we have an example of extensive research and experimentation with stereo recording. You can find some samples of the results of these recordings on line, and they certainly sound much closer to what we enjoy today than the old monoaural recordings of the period.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: It’s the Girl.

 

NRR Project: Will Rogers speaks -- 'Bacon, Beans, and Limousines' (1931)

 

NRR Project: ‘Bacon, Beans, and Limousines’

Written and performed by Will Rogers

Broadcast October 18, 1931

10:35

One hundred years ago, the most popular entertainer in America was Will Rogers. Few people today know how pervasive his presence was. He dominated all media, including films, radio, newspapers, and the stage.

Rogers (1879-1935) is the American humorist best known for saying, “I never met a man I didn’t like,” which was not strictly true. (He was mean once to H. Allen Smith when Smith tried to interview him at Cheyenne Frontier Days. So there.) He was a cowboy philosopher, a fount of common sense during a crazy time in American history.

He was born in Oklahoma, and grew up on a ranch. He dropped out of school after the 10^th grade, and began performing as a rider and a trick roper in rodeos. Gradually, around 1905, he transitioned into vaudeville, where he spun his lariat and interjected jokes and observations if his trick didn’t come off. He started working in more prestigious New York shows. Soon his humorous remarks began to supersede the rope tricks, and he was making money as a comic monologist.

From that role he branched out into other disciplines. He appeared on Broadway. He made 48 silent films, and 21 sound features. He was a top box office draw. It was only natural that the government turned to him to broadcast on behalf of President Hoover’s Organization on Unemployment Relief. He stepped up to the microphone and delivered his take on the trouble he found America in.

It was during this address that he famously stated, “We’ll hold the distinction of being the only nation in the history of the world that ever went to the poor house in an automobile.” In his address, Rogers makes note of the unequal distribution of wealth, and argued for full employment (he was a Democrat). Such candor, couched in humor, had not been heard over the airwaves before, and it proved incredibly popular with the listening audience.

Rogers would continue to make his sharp and funny observations until he died tragically young in a plane crash in 1935.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: Stokowski in stereo.

NRR Project: 'Minnie the Moocher' (1931)

NRR Project: ‘Minnie the Moocher’

Composed by Cab Calloway, Irving Mills, Clarence Gaskill

Performed by Cab Calloway and his Orchestra

Recorded March 3, 1931

3:00

It was the first record by an African-American to sell a million copies. It cemented the reputation and bolstered the career of the flamboyant and tuneful Cab Calloway.

Calloway (1907-1994) was one of the breakout stars of the Harlem Renaissance. He started off by working in Chicago clubs as a singer, a drummer, and a master of ceremonies. Eventually he moved to New York, where Louis Armstrong recommended him as a singer of “Ain’t Misbehavin’” in a musical revue. This caused another band to hire him on as bandleader.

As Cab Calloway and His Band, they soon got a highly desirable gig as the band at the Cotton Club when Duke Ellington was on tour. Soon, however, they had the job full time. Calloway was a relentlessly engaging performer – he had energy, inventiveness, charisma. Then, in 1931, he recorded his signature song, “Minnie the Moocher.”

The song is based on an earlier number, “Willie the Weeper,” about a drug-addicted chimney sweep that made its rounds in vaudeville in the early 1900’s. Calloway probably cribbed most directly from Frankie “Half-Pint” Jaxon’s 1927 recording of the song.

But Calloway turbocharged the material. He tells the story of Minnie the Moocher, a “low-down hoochy-coocher” with a boyfriend who was into cocaine, and who taught her “how to kick the gong around” (smoke opium). She takes drugs, and flies off to a world of fantasy. She meets the King of Sweden, who gives her everything “she was needin,’” setting her up with a home, a car, horses and fancy meals, and a million dollars in nickels and dimes. In doing so, he created a contemporary folk figure – many sequel and answer-songs on the topic were composed in the wake of this song’s success.

Perhaps the most infectious part of the song is the call-and-response chorus. “Hi-de-hi-de-hi,” sings Calloway, and everyone repeats him. "Ho-de-ho-de-ho!" Back and forth goes the melody. As the song continues, the choruses become longer and more complicated, until Calloway is scatting beyond the ability of the audience to keep up.

The song was the big hit of 1931. Soon Calloway was known as the “Hi-De-Ho Man.” He appeared in Betty Boop cartoons, singing the song. Calloway would perform for another 50 years, but “Minnie” was always on the set list. It is worth today to look up video of Calloway’s performances, to see his wild dancing and extravagant gestures. He was the quintessential showman.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: Bacon, Beans and Limousines.

NRR Project: 'Suncook Town Tragedy' (1930)

NRR Project: ‘Suncook Town Tragedy’

Sung by Mabel Wilson Tatro

Recorded July 1930

2:12

Oh, boy, a murder ballad! Ever since I was overexposed to “Tom Dooley” as a child, they have been a favorite of mine.

Murder ballads are exactly that – songs that outline a ghastly, true crime and its inevitable punishment.

These kinds of songs have been around for hundreds of years, most of them organic creations by amateurs that wind up as enduring folk songs. “Knoxville Girl,” “Pretty Polly,” “Ballad of Little Romy” -- they serve as the sensationalistic billboards of the time, drawing in listeners riveted by their horrifying details.

Such is the case with “Suncook Town Tragedy,” which is based on an actual murder in 1875 New Hampshire. It’s sung here by Mabel Wilson Tatro, who relates it acapella. It tells of the story of the killing of a 17-year-old girl and of the criminal’s comeuppance afterward.

This excellent example of the genre was collected by Helen Hartness Flanders, a Vermonter who for 30 years, from 1930 to 1960, traveled across New England collecting songs and stories that otherwise would have been lost to memory. This NRR selection serves as an example of her findings, and commemorates the more than 4,000 recordings she preserved for mankind.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: Minnie the Moocher.

NRR Project: Highlander Center Field Recording Collection

 

NRR Project: Highlander Center Field Recording Collection

Curated by Frederick C. Packard, Jr.

1930s – 1980s

The Highlander Center is an alternative school in Tennessee, founded in 1932. It not only taught traditional subjects, but pursued training in labor rights and civil rights action. This decidedly liberal institution has become a magnet for those interested in these subjects.

The Collection consists of all manner of material: folk songs, interviews with civil rights leaders, labor songs, religious songs, and much more. Here’s a link to the Highlander Research and Education Center.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: Suncook Town Tragedy.

NRR Project: the Harvard Vocarium record series

 

NRR Project: Harvard Vocarium record series

Curated by Frederick C. Packard, Jr.

1930 -- 1955

I cannot do better than the explanatory essay written by Matthew Rubery for the National Recording Registry, which you can read here.

Basically, Professor Frederick C. Packard, Jr. of Harvard decided that it was important for people to hear poetry aloud, as opposed to the silent reading that had been going on for centuries. He thought he’d record the great poets of his day, starting with T.S. Eliot and continuing with hundreds of writers, including William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, Elizabeth Bishop, and Ezra Pound.

The result is compendium of invaluable information regarding the author’s intent. To hear them speak their own words strongly inflects the sense in which they express themselves. The recordings are uneven in quality – not everyone is cut out to perform their writing. However, when some fortunate, gripping recordings were made, they reveal new bursts of nuance that help to set the writer down in relation to his or her work.

Today, the Harvard Vocarium still exists, and a substantial portion of it is available online, here. A click on “the listening booth” tab on its site will lead you to selections from the collection.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Highlander Center Field Recording Collection.

NRR Project: 'Ten Cents a Dance' (1930)

NRR Project: ‘Ten Cents a Dance’

Music: Richard Rodgers

Lyrics: Lorenz Hart

Sung by Ruth Etting

March 4, 1930

3:15

Rodgers and Hart were one of the first great songwriting teams of the 20^th century. They were introduced as young men in 1919, and soon began cranking out material together. Richard Rodgers was an adept composer, and Lorenz “Larry” Hart was a master of the lyric. By 1930, they had already crafted 17 Broadway shows, and several hits, such as “Manhattan” and You Took Advantage of Me.”

“Ten Cents a Dance” was written for the show Simple Simon, starring Ed Wynn, in 1930. At an opening performance of the musical in Boston, the singer for whom the song was written, Lee Morse, showed up drunk. She was fired, and Ruth Etting was called on to take her place.

Etting was riding high as well. She had started her singing career in clubs in Chicago. In 1922, she met Martin Snyder, a gangster better known as “Moe the Gimp.” Insanely jealous, controlling, and violent, he took over Etting’s career, using threats and intimidation to get her better gigs, recording contracts, and radio appearances. (Their dysfunctional relationship was outlined in the film Love Me or Leave Me in 1955.) She was a popular star, one whose performance could make a hit out of a song. This Etting did.

“Ten Cents a Dance” outlines the melancholy prospects of a “taxi dancer.” A taxi dancer is someone who dances with customers for a fee, a formerly popular vocation in formerly popular places termed “dance halls.” The dancer would charge ten cents a dance – and she and the hall would split the money.

The singer bemoans her fate, as she must dance with whoever chooses her as a partner.

“Ten cents a dance

That's what they pay me

Gosh, how they weigh me down

Ten cents a dance

Pansies and rough guys

Tough guys who tear my gown

Seven to midnight I hear drums

Loudly the saxophone blows

Trumpets are breaking my eardrums

Customers crush my toes

Sometime I think

I've found my hero

But it's a queer romance

All that you need is a ticket

Come on, big boy, ten cents a dance”

The plaintive situation is fully revealed in Etting’s plaintive vocal. She’s sad and complaining, but she also wields a rueful sense of humor. She doesn’t ask to be freed from her work, she just views it as a means to an end. It stinks, but it’s what she’s got.

The song would inspire a movie of the same name in 1931. Rodgers and Hart would continue to craft songs until Hart’s death in 1943. Etting would retire in 1937, after a messy divorce and shooting scandal impacted her career. Soon dance halls would die off, leaving only this unique artifact behind.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: the Harvard Vocarium record series.

NRR Project: 'Night Life' (1930)

NRR Project: ‘Night Life’

Composed and performed by Mary Lou Williams

1930

2:59

I could hardly do better than the explanatory essay by Linda Dahl, which you can read here. As her biographer, Dahl offers not just a musical evaluation, but an extremely painful personal narrative that underlies the 1930 recording session that gave birth to “Night Life”.

A child prodigy, Williams was not content with merely being an interpreter of others’ music. She was a gifted composer and arranger, and found herself working with Andy Kirk and his Twelve Clouds of Joy. While the band was setting up for a recording session in Chicago, Williams was asked to improvise a couple of solo numbers. Out of this came “Nite Life,” and “Drag ‘Em,” two classic tracks. (Dahl clearly outlines the terrible personal circumstances suffered by Williams right before this session.)

The piece is sprightly and inventive, working on a bluesy foundation. Williams does frills and fills, modulates and gets down and dirty, bringing it all to conclusion with a twinge of whimsy. Few are the times when a young genius makes their mark so clearly and distinctly.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: Ten Cents a Dance.

 

NRR Project: Egmont Overture, Modesto High School Band (1930)

NRR Project: Egmont Overture, Op. 84

Modesto High School Band

1930

This is one I don’t have a lot of information on, and only a small excerpt to listen to online. I refer you to the excellent, comprehensive essay by Steven Pecsek. Between 1926 and 1934, there was a National High School Band contest. This recording was made in 1930. There was a small trade in commemorative albums of the high school bands’ performances, used sometimes for fundraising purposes as well. The Modesto High School Band ranked highly in these competitions.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: Night Life.

NRR Project: 'Sittin' on Top of the World' (1930)

NRR Project: ‘Sitting on Top of the World’

The Mississippi Sheiks

1930

3:12

It’s interesting that a song I thought of as an upbeat bluegrass tune started off as a slowly paced blues song. Once again, the National Recording Registry holds an excellent explanatory essay on it by Edward Komara, which you can read here.

The Mississippi Sheiks were a duo that consisted of Walter Vinson on violin and Lonnie Chatmon on guitar. They played in central Mississippi, and probably would have been forgotten if not for the success of this unique song. It was recorded when Polk Brockman of Okeh Records caught them at a remote recording session in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1930. The song was a hit, and sustained the duo through their career together.

The lyrics are counterintuitive. Instead of lamenting the loss of a lover, the singer declares, “Now she’s gone, and I don’t worry/For I’m sittin’ on top of the world.” This defiant, proud statement overcomes the sorrow that the singer is feeling. (The title may have come from the 1925 pop song, “I’m Sitting on Top of the World,” made popular by Al Jolson.)

Almost immediately, others began to cover the tune, in all kinds of styles. Among those artists were Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, bluegrass creator Bill Monroe, Howlin’ Wolf, Cream, and the Grateful Dead. Each brought their unique perspective to the song, bending it into many shapes, generally with a faster tempo, until the song became a rollicking, happy one.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: the Modesto High School Band plays Beethoven’s Egmont Overture.

NRR Project: 'Lamento Borincano'

‘Lamento Borincano’

Canario y Su Grupo

1930

3:04

I could not do better than Mario C. Cancel-Bigay’s explanatory essay on this selection. To read it at the National Recording Registry, go here.

For the sake of completeness, however, I will do my best to summarize. “Borincano” derives from the native slang for Puerto Rico. The song is a lament from the person of a peasant bringing his wares to town, only to find it deserted. The song becomes larger in scope, as the singer contemplates the sorry state of his homeland, before pledging his loyalty to it.

“The entire morning goes by

Without anyone wanting

To buy his load, oh to buy his load

Everything, everything is deserted

And the town is full of need

Oh, of need

The mourning is heard everywhere

In my unhappy Bonrinquen, yeah

 

And sad, the peasant goes

Thinking, saying

Crying like this on the way:

‘What will happen to Bonriquen, my dear God

What will happen to my children and mt home?’ Oh!

 

Bonriquen, the land of Eden

The one that when sung by the great Gautier

He called out the pearl of the Seas

‘Now that you lay dying from your sorrows

Let me sing to you also

Bonriquen of my love’, and no one will take that away

I’m a child of Bonriquen and no one will change that

I’m a child of Bonriquen and no one will change that

And on the day that I die, I want to rest in you

I love you, Puerto Rico, and no one will take that away,

Yeah!”

The song was an immense hit, and made the careers of its writer, Rafael Hernandez; of its original bandleader, “Canario”, and its singer “Davilita.” It has since been recorded innumerable times, serving as an informal anthem.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: Sitting on Top of the World.

NRR Project: 'Gregorio Cortez'

 

‘Gregorio Cortez’

Performed by Trovadores Regionales – Pedro Rocha, Lupe Martinez

October 1929

2:31

The corrido is a Mexican ballad, often in three-quarter time, that relates a narrative or describes an historical event. It is a genre that inflates mundane realities into legends, and makes heroes of common men. So it is with Gregorio Cortez.

He was born in 1875 in Mexico. When he was 14, his family moved to Texas, and Cortez began working as a cowboy and a farmhand. On June 14, 1901, Sheriff W.T. Morris and his deputy, who served as interpreter, came to interview Cortez and his brother regarding the theft of a horse. Due to mistranslation, the sheriff determined that the Cortezes were lying and declared his intent to arrest them.

Cortez’s brother ran at the sheriff and was shot several times. Cortez responded by shooting the sheriff dead. After taking his brother for medical attention, Cortez began his escape. For ten days, he traveled hundreds of miles by horse and on foot, evading over 300 lawmen deputized to bring him in. Finally captured, he was tried and sentenced for murder, but his sentence was commuted after a relatively short period of time.

This exploit made him a hero among Mexican-Americans, who saw him as a symbol of the fight against prejudice and malfeasance against them by the Anglo community. No fewer than eleven versions of “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez” developed, each of them giving a slightly different perspective on his story. One common thread in these songs is the bemoaning of the unequal justice meted out to Mexican Americans.

The version preserved here is performed by a duo with guitar, singing simple harmonies. “Gregorio Cortez said, with his gun in his hand, ’I’m not sorry I killed him,’” they sing. “’I was only thinking of my brother.’”

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: Lamento Borincano.

 

 

The NRR Project: 'Pony Blues'

 

‘Pony Blues’

Written and performed by Charley Patton

June 1929

2:58

Charley Patton is “the father of Mississippi Delta blues”. What does this mean?

Blues issued forth initially from two regions – the city and the country. Country blues are finger-picked, acoustic performances. Mississippi delta blues are those that originated in the region of east Arkansas and Louisiana, and western Mississippi, adjacent to the Mississippi River. Primary proponents of this style were Patton, Son House, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, and Lead Belly.

Patton, born perhaps in 1891, quickly proved himself adept at the guitar and began performing throughout the region. He started performing around 1908. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he played higher-class locations consistently. He also served as a mentor to many bluesmen, including Robert Johnson.

“Pony Blues” is a typical blues tune – revolving around sexual metaphors and the idea of hooking up with someone. Patton’s growly intonation, syncopated rhythms, and percussive intensity make him a distinct voice in the blues pantheon.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: Trovadores Regionales.

 

 

The NRR Project: Rachmaninoff and Stokowski

Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor

Composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff

Performed by Sergei Rachmaninoff, piano

Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski, conductor

April 1929

31:47

The first complete recording of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 took place 28 years after its composition. The piece, written after a four-year creative drought (he dedicated it to his therapist), is one of the composer’s best-loved numbers. This recording features Rachmaninoff himself on piano, with the venerable Leopold Stokowski on the podium leading the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra.

Rachmaninoff was born to relatively well-off parents in Czarist Russia in 1873, and received an excellent schooling in music. His compositional efforts were at first rebuffed; later, they would be seen as a culmination of Romanticism in the vein of Tchaikovsky. An incredible pianist, Rachmaninoff would turn to a life of primarily performing after his and his family’s escape from the newly formed Soviet Union in 1918.

Stokowski was already earning a reputation as an impressive conductor who specialized in 19^th and 20^th century music. He was known for conducting without a bat0on, one of the first to do so. He led the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1912 to 1941.

Some critics have called this performance perfunctory, but it is still as close as we will get to hearing a Rachmaninoff composition as he intended it to be heard. With its lyric, flowing style, it is one of the last compositions in the Romantic manner.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: Pony Blues.

 

 

NRR Project: “Light’s Golden Jubilee Celebration”

 

“Light’s Golden Jubilee Celebration”

NBC Radio

Oct. 21, 1929

In 1879, Thomas Edison invented the incandescent light bulb in Menlo Park, New Jersey, changing human history and cementing his legendary status as the ingenious American inventor par excellence.

Fifty years later, the General Electric Company and Westinghouse, always on the look-out for good publicity, decided to observe the anniversary of the discovery by honoring the still-living Edison to an extraordinary degree. The lengthy broadcast from NBC that captured the events of the celebration was preserved, and documents the immense, worshipful attention paid to the event and the character at its center.

The 82-year-old was feted in an elaborate production hosted by his long-time admirer and friend, fellow inventor Henry Ford. Ford eventually wrested control of the event from General Electric, and soon whipped up a spectacle at his newly established Edison Institute of Technology (later to be the Henry Ford Museum) in Dearborn, Michigan, Ford’s headquarters. Ford hired Edward L. Bernays, the so-called father of public relations, to orchestrate a commemorative campaign that would extend throughout the year of 1929 and climax at the ceremony.

The evening began with a celebratory banquet, attended by 500 prominent guests, among them President Herbert Hoover, Walter Chrysler, Marie Curie, Will Rogers, and Orville Wright. Afterwards came the painstaking recreation of the moment of Edison’s invention.

Listeners across the country were urged to turn out all their lights and leave them off until the reenactment was complete. Edison was transported to a reconstruction of his Menlo Park lab, along with Ford, Hoover, and his long-time assistant Francis Jehl (the only other surviving participant in the lightbulb’s invention), where he then connected the wires that caused the electric bulb to light up, live on air, “a moment broadcast over the airwaves on as many as 140 stations.” (Extensive movie footage of the events has survived as well.)

The attention then shifted to adulatory speeches. Speakers included a live message over the wireless from Germany – Albert Einstein chiming in with praise. A national event of this kind had never been broadcast before, and it presaged the ability of the media to unite and influence vast numbers of people.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: Rachmaninoff plays his Piano Concerto #2.

 

 

The NRR Project: Cajun-Creole Columbia recordings (1929)

 

    

NRR Project: Creole-Cajun Columbia recordings

 Creole-Cajun recordings

Performed by Amede Ardoin and Dennis McGee

Recorded 1929

First of all, what is the difference between Creole and Cajun? These two words are bandied about indiscriminately. Creole refers to a person of mixed white and Black ancestry. Cajun refers to the not-necessarily Creole descendants of of the French-Canadian settlers who were displaced to southern Louisiana in the early 19^th century.

Both cultures intersected with and influenced each other. This is most easy to distinguish by indulging in their musics. This selection epitomizes the fusion of styles in this collaboration between a Black accordionist and vocalist, Amede Ardoin, and Cajun violinist and singer Dennis McGee.

The music is vital, throbbing with energy and feeling. The words are sung in the Cajun patois, that evolution of French that took place when its speakers moved south. Their music was meant to be danced to, and they played at farms, houses, bars, and festivals.

Sadly, Amede Ardoion’s life was cut short by an act of racist violence. He asked anyone for a rag to wipe his face during a performance, and a white woman gave him her handkerchief. Two white men then vowed that he would never perform again. They followed him outside after the gig and beat him severely, leaving him brain-damaged and causing his death a few months later. He was only 44 years old.

I could not do better than the explanatory essay penned by Ann Savoy at the National Recording Registry website, which you should read here. I can only add that it is remarkable that, considering the state of race relations at the time, these two men were able to collaborate so freely and beautifully.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: Light’s Golden Jubilee Celebration.

The NRR Project: 'Puttin' on the Ritz'

 

‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’

Composed by Irving Berlin

Performed by Harry Richman with Earl Burtnett and his Los Angeles Hotel Biltmore Orchestra

Recorded 1930

2:25

Irving Berlin was expanding his horizons. The preeminent American songwriter had already conquered Tin Pan Alley, churning out hits such as “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” (1911), “I Love a Piano” (1915), “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody” (1919), and “What’ll I Do” (1924). Berlin’s music publishing business was making money hand over fist. His Music Box Theater, still in operation at 239 West 45^th Street in New York’s theater district, opened in 1921. It served primarily as an outlet for his continuing, prodigious output. Now Berlin wanted to conquer the movies as well.

Berlin, born Israel Beilin in Russia, immigrated to America with his family at the age of 5, in 1893. He grew up in poverty on the Lower East Side, and went to work at age 13 after the death of his father. Self-taught though musically illiterate, he composed obsessively (creating some 1,500 songs over a 60-year career), relying on transcriptionists and orchestrators to get his notes on paper. Through discipline, effort, and sheer force of will, he hammered out hit after hit — cheery comic songs, stirring patriotic songs, sincere ballads — simple, heartfelt, catchy melodies all.

He was there at the very beginning of sound film. Al Jolson sings Berlin’s “Blue Skies” during the groundbreaking The Jazz Singer (1927). Three Berlin songs could be seen and heard in the Marx Brothers’ debut film The Cocoanuts (1929). Now the composer, normally loathe to leave Manhattan, went West to Hollywood to oversee a movie vehicle featuring his music — 1929’s Puttin’ on the Ritz.

The title song was one Berlin wrote three years previously. Long before the digital era’s multiple-platform release strategies sprouted, the music industry was already hip. “Puttin’ on the Ritz” would in rapid succession be featured in a film, released on recordings, and published in sheet music form. The movie was panned and quickly faded; the song endured.

Harry Richman was the first singer to be identified with the song, although he was not the first to commit it to record (that distinction goes to Lew Conrad, who recorded it with Leo Reisman and his Orchestra a few months prior to Richman’s version).

Like Berlin, Richman was another assimilated Jewish American and musical autodidact. Born Henry Reichman Jr. in Cincinnati in 1895, he started working at age 10, playing piano in a saloon with a screen around him to hide how young he was. Heading to New York, he got his big break as an accompanist for established stars such as Mae West and Nora Bayes. He became a valued singer on radio, and served as prominent master of ceremonies at New York stages and nightclubs. The apogee of his career was introducing “Puttin’ on the Ritz” to the public.

“Puttin’ on the Ritz” is a snappy, upbeat number, with a propulsive stutter-step beat. The title phrase, a synonym for dressing up and going out on the town, is taken from the reputation of the hotel chain of the same name, founded in Paris in 1898, noted for its rich décor and its service to high-end customers in Europe and America.

It’s possible to watch faded copies of the film, and in the “Ritz” number Richman embodies the perfect style for the song. He’s in black tie, top hat, and tails, with brilliantined hair, sporting a nasal, fruity baritone topped by a slight lisp. His delivery is corny – broad, jaunty but stiff, almost italicized. He’s Mr. Monopoly’s rakehell nephew. Richman was one of the last generation of pre-amplification popular singers like Jolson and Eddie Cantor, someone who was used to making themselves heard and understood all the way to the back row. All would have to learn how to resize their performances to fit the more intimate dynamics of radio and electric recording.

The moviemakers were proud to let it be known that the title sequence in Puttin’ on the Ritz was the first in film to feature both blacks and whites onstage; sadly, a close examination of the sequence shows that while there is a white chorus and a black chorus, the two never share the stage at the same time — on-set segregation.

Likewise, the original lyrics for the song are highly problematic, as they are those of what was termed a “coon song.” These tunes cast African Americans as stereotyped and denigrated sources of amusement, and were popular in white American culture from the 1880s through the 1930s. The song’s lyrics imagine impoverished, pretentious African Americans literally “aping” their supposed betters:

“Have you seen the well-to-do

Up on Lenox Avenue

On that famous thoroughfare

With their noses in the air

High hats and arrowed collars

White spats and fifteen dollars

Spending every dime

On a wonderful time

If you're blue and you don't know where to go to

Why don't you go where Harlem flits

Puttin' on the Ritz

Spangled gowns upon a bevy of high browns

From down the levee, all misfits

Puttin' on the Ritz

That's where each and every Lulu Bell goes

Every Thursday evening with her swell beaus

Rubbing elbows

Come with me and we'll attend their jubilee

And see them spend their last two bits

Puttin' on the Ritz”

This set of lyrics stayed with the song until 1946 (Clark Gable delivers a brave but awful performance of it, complete with straw boater, cane, and chorus girls, in the 1939 film Idiot’s Delight). By then, the cultural climate no longer tolerated such words, and Berlin rewrote them for Fred Astaire, who delivered the new version in the film Blue Skies.

“Have you seen the well-to-do

Up and down Park Avenue?

On that famous thoroughfare

With their noses in the air

High hats and arrow collars,

White spats and lots of dollars,

Spending every dime

For a wonderful time.

If you're blue and you don't where to go to

Why don't you go where fashion sits?

Puttin' on the Ritz.

Different types who wear a day coat

Pants with stripes and cut-a-way coats,

Perfect fits . . .

Puttin' on the Ritz.

Dressed up like a million-dollar trouper

Tryin’ hard to look like Gary Cooper

Super duper!

Come let's mix where Rockefellers walk with sticks or um-ber-ellas

In their mitts . . .

Puttin' on the Ritz”

With the new lyrics, the song enjoyed a revival, dozens of new cover versions, and a niche in the culture it still occupies. Whether as a memorable punch line in Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein (1974) or as an unlikely synth-pop hit for Taco in 1982, it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: the Cajun-Creole Columbia releases.