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:: I Couldn't Take It ::

:: Changing Life ::

A friend at work came in the other day with a big paper grocery sack
full of 78s. The records weren't in sleeves or anything, just tossed
into a double bag with nothing but the good Lord to protect them. Joe
came into my cubicle with a sly look on his face. "I have to show you
something", he said and then produced the bag. He asked, "Can you play
33s?". I was already in a state of shock after one look at the
contents of the bag, but his question forced a hasty 2nd look. "These
are 78s", I said. "Oh yeah, that's what I meant". "Where'd you get
these?", I asked somehow already knowing the answer. "They were my
Dad's", Joe said. "They were in the shed like that for years, so I
thought you might want to take a look at them". "Hell yes!", I said.

I gingerly pulled out a couple of records. They were in bad shape. An
Ellington record. A Louis Armstrong record. Then a Wynonie Harris, and
a Mabel Scott. "Hmmm...", I thought.

Joe said I could have them if I'd digitize the good ones for him.
Well, that's a no brainer of a deal. The responsibilty of it all is a
bit overwhelming, but that's ok. I still have no idea what to do with
them other than slowly making my way through, cleaning them as well as
I can and finding the best way to get the audio out of the well worn
(and quite frankly abused) grooves.

I went through about 10 of them the other night (I think there are
between 50 and 75 records in the bag), and this one really caught my
ear. I can't find hardly anything about the singer, Lee Wynn, so this
is one of those posts where I'm looking at you, dear reader to help
fill in the blanks. Sorry the b-side is scratched, but the a-side
sounds great. For all I know, this thing's worth bucks to somebody.
I'm just happy to liberate it from the sack and give it it's own 10"
sleeve and a nice shelf to sit on.


Mike

This entry was posted on Monday, August 13, 2007 at 5:45 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.