Another Crass sense of Humor

I did a post a long while back about Russell Hunting's wonderfully crass sense of humor, which was very clear to understand by all of those smut cylinders that he recorded from 1892 to 1896, but I was digging through some of Spencer's talking records from 1898 to around 1903, and have found that Spencer's sense of humor was rather similar in many ways. 

Yep, it was him. 

I already had some notion that Spencer's humor was very similar to that of his recording friends, as from thinking of how much of a riot he was. His auction records are actually the best examples of his sense of humor, more so than one would think at first. They seem like they're just auction records, but they are actually also great examples of the real dark and rude humor that Spencer had, and all the others at Columbia had as well. He did most of these talking records with the assistance of Gilbert Girard, but at Columbia, he did some with yodeler Pete LaMaire. The first take of "An Auction Sale of a Bird and Animal Store" is the Edison take, and I particularly find the Edison take interesting, only because, well, it's Edison, and Spencer did not really work for them very much, as we know he was a Columbia fanatic. In 1902, Edison was finally able to grab him to work for them. Now the main reason I think that this take is interesting is because of how clear and ever so slightly different he sounds on this one than on most of his records, somehow, it seems that he sounds more realistic on this cylinder, and it truly catches all the tones and colours of his speech, more so than many records of his. 

Anyhow, here's that cylinder:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder2641 

Spencer spoke in a wide variety of tones, it was really something that made him so agreeable to record buyers. Some of you might have been able to notice this idiosyncrasy in some of the records I have posted a while back, as it's all over his talking records, but not exactly in all of those many hundreds of songs. I may be Columbia-biased, but I must say, those Edison records that Spencer made in 1902-07 were actually the best examples of what Spencer truly sounded like. As we have all read somewhere that these records only paint a shadow of what these people truly sounded like(though I only half-believe that statement). Though, those Edison cylinders he made were not nearly as interesting content-wise as his earlier recordings for Columbia. Without a doubt, his Columbia's were more full of history and "clan" mirth, but the Edison cylinders caught the tones of his voice better than any other records he made. 

Anyhow, now to move onward to the Victor take of the selection in the link above. The victor of this is just as interesting, and it's great like always, because Spencer often added things in the dialogue, or said things in a different tones. That fact always makes for an interesting variety when digging through Spencer's talking records. Here is that record:

http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/2000000606/Pre-matrix_B-1148-Auction_sale_of_a_bird_and_animal_store

Spencer must have really enjoyed making records with Girard. Especially these auction records, as every time I hear them, I know that Spencer's loving it. Speaking of Girard, I have been meaning to share this image here for a while:

Yep, there's the reason that Spencer had him on all of those auction records. Girard must have also been a real riot! 

Now back to the Victor record, the examples of Spencer's humor can be heard in these quotes here:

"Now, these cats are noted for their gentle disposition, why they'll actually eat off your hand!" 

and this one " they are gentle and affectionate--(cats begin to fight in the cage)"

a little later in the record, you can hear "Carrie Nation, Oh! Don't Axe me madam!"

"This monkey will eat anything, very fond of children!"

I like that he specifically puts emphasis on the final word here. How that joke is terribly wrong, and no one was supposed to laugh at it anyway, though he puts more emphasis on that one than the more common-type of jokes that he tells on the record. That says something about him doesn't it. Now if you listen to the very end of the record, after Girard does the parrot sounds, they left the record going too long and you can hear them beginning to talk at the end. That's always funny, even if it is more likely than not to be unable to understand the speech when this happens. 

You can hear the Columbia version(transferred a little too fast...) here:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder7215

Pete LaMaire does all of the animal sounds and the second voices, which are all hilarious. That other deeper voice in the background is Hylands by the way, it's a little hard to hear though.(recorded in their big room)

Now for the other one of his auction records, the "Auction Sale of Household Goods". Now this one had many variations to it, as expected from Spencer. Here is the Edison cylinder(s):

You can hear Banta playing piano toward the end on both takes listed here.

You not only get Spencer and Girard, you get Banta involved as well, laughing at all those points on it, and playing at the sale of the piano. That is a great added bonus! You know what's so odd about this one, it that the piano actually sounds fantastic at that one point it's played, all the notes are fully present, and it reveals the echo of the room more than anything else on the cylinder. Both takes have this amazing characteristic, but the second take specifically has that effect more. I wish there was more playing of that piano on the second take! 

The humor Spencer throws in slyly is just as funny as it was on the Animal store record, though it's not really as dark. These include these statements:

"...there, that'll wake up yer mother-in-law."

Girard: "Why, it's lovely, sounds just like a piano!"

Spencer: "Of course it does."

Only on the second take listed you can hear these:

"Eh, Your name please...(Banta plays part of "And Her Golden Hair was Hanging Down Her Back")

Girard:"And Her Golden Hair was hanging down her back!"

Spencer:"Aww, what a sweet singer, yer address please...(everyone laughs, including Banta!)"

What Spencer says at the very end actually has a little bit of an esoteric connotation to it, more so than it actually does in the situation depicted on the cylinder. It can refer to Spencer's publishing days, as he liked her singing, so he asks for her address, as he did back in 1899 and 1900. I must remember though that this isn't a Columbia cylinder, so Hylands wouldn't be there, to get a little bit cross with him for mentioning that. I know he did a Columbia take of this selection, so I'd be curious to know if he added that dialogue on the Columbia take. Here is the Victor of it:

http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/2000000375/Pre-matrix_B-857-Auction_sale_of_household_goods

The variations on this one include this:

" Why of course it is, what'd ya think it 'd sound like, a Jew's  harp, heh!" 

(that's a quick one...)

Also at about 1:50 when the Bible is being sold, his voice cracks terribly. That's fantastic! It adds to the comedy, even if we know that he didn't at all intend for that to happen. OH! Something I just noticed when listening to this record is what Spencer says here:

"The lady that sells this piano----lady that sells this piano got beautifully carved legs, double back-action, and a patent harp attachment." Oh! What a quick and sly piece of comedy Spencer! Wow, it took me five listens to finally catch the connotation of that statement. Wow. My eyes widened at that one. 

The rudeness of that reminds me of that last line of Spencer singing "I Wish They'd Do it Now" recorded in 1898(with Fred Hylands probably tipsy). Spencer says this:

" They'd take me in to sleep with them-- Ta Re Re Boom De-Ay."

Yep, that's Spencer's humor for ya. In fact, I think that's the most obviously crude piece of Spencer's speech of many of these recordings. 

Now to move to something by Harry Spencer(that Len Spencer recorded at some point). Which is another one of those auction cylinders. This one is called "Auction Sale of a Pawnbroker's Unredeemed pleasures", and it's another great creation of the Spencer brothers, though Harry was more known for it. This first example of this sketch is the 1902-03 take with only Spencer and Hylands. Here is that cylinder:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder4935

The other voice on this cylinder is--Fred Hylands. Yes indeed, and the only thing that really gives it away that it's Hylands is the thing just after Spencer says, "Say Ikey, you can go and shoot Filipinos with that!" 

What Hylands does is really hilarious, and we can actually understand him! Though he doesn't really talk. I like the "Oi! Oi!" at the end of it though...(nice political correctness Hylands). You know what's weird about Hylands on this cylinder(other than the fact that he isn't playing piano at all, and that he's sitting at the piano!), is that it's a very clear cylinder that catches Hylands' voice extremely well. He sounds a little bit like someone else---Byron Harlan. Hmm. Never noticed that before I listened to the cylinder this morning. Just an interesting observation. 

Anyhow, back to the Spencer's. The thing that he says on the cylinder above that is really the funniest thing on there is this:

"Now, this bicycle has two wheels; tireless, shameless, spoke-less, and dan-gerous." 

That, is hilarious. The double meanings really make it so. 

Now, the brown wax version of this is also hilarious, and since it's longer, there's more material. Here's the brown wax:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnGp26zpgO4

Now this one actually has two more recognizable voices behind Spencer. The voices include Russell Hunting and Fred Hylands. 

Hunting says this one thing that give it away, 

"Ow, why ye-o rememba' the Maine!" yep, that's Hunting alright. 

Hylands can be heard clearly saying "Five dollars!" at 1:02, and a little later in that same bidding, he yells "Seven dollars!"(in a little bit of a different tone of voice). It's indeed that same voice on the later take of this. Though it's hard to tell because both the records are heard at different speeds, the tones and pronunciations of the words are the same as they are on this one Spencer's "Side Show Shouter" from 1898 as well. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if these two cylinders were recorded on the same day, as they're both very similar, and have the same sound to them. Oh! I meant to mention on the 1898 take of the auction sale a little above, try to notice how Hylands says, "Five Dollars." It's very odd, but it's kind of slurred. Really take a few listens!(hmm, maybe a clue into Hylands being a drunk...) 

Also the funny little pun at the sale of the "mouth-organ"(harmonica), Spencer says, "Sold! To that red-head boy over there for 1 cent!" Ha! Hidden Hylands pun, love it. There's another voice at 3:29, and I'm not sure who it is exactly. Does anyone know? It's not Russell Hunting, and not either of the Spencer's. Hm... I don't know if it's Fred Hylands or not, as he's awfully close to the mouth of the horn. I'll try to write out the dialogue exactly as I hear it:

Hylands(?): Why, you'd look here, the tire's busted--

Spencer: So er you--

Hylands(?): I's all full a' holes!

Spencer: Ha ha ha ha! 

Hylands(?): Sa-y, take it back an' get me a ci-gar for it-eh!( said awfully close to the horns...)

Spencer: A cigar! Smoke up Rube, yer goin' out!

If anyone thinks that they know who that voice is, if it's Hylands or not, leave a comment on this post! I would love to have the observations of other ears! 

Anyhow, I love looking into the slightly obscene sense of humor that the Spencer's had, more particularly, Len Spencer's. Their sense of humor was quick, intelligent, and rude, even to modern standards, and it certainly must have been considered as such back when the records were new, take the puns that no one laughs at in the room for example.

I hope you enjoyed this! 

The Edison Orchestra and Columbia Orchestra

Sorry it's been so many days, it's been a little hard to stay on a single subject for a  post, and it's been busy around here. I have been listening to many of the "descriptive selections" that were recorded by the Columbia, Peerless, and Metropolitan orchestras, and just regular selections by these groups. The differences between these three studio ensembles are much more so than many would think, as of course, they did indeed have different people in the groups, and they were under different management by the record companies, and as I have explained before, makes a big difference. The Peerless orchestra was the Edison studio group, regardless or their Edison Concert band, which essentially served exactly the same purpose. The one who led this orchestra was:

Yes indeed, that chap. 

Banta led this group by writing out most of the arrangements, and counting them off, and all else he had to do while leading this group. He must have been aware of the fact that the Columbia orchestra was doing all of the same material at the same time, but with a much looser bound string of rules surrounding their sessions. According to capitalist logic, Banta had to try to compete with those fellows at Columbia for better arrangements and better balancing techniques. Banta encouraged all of the Rag-Time we hear and see listed in the Edison catalog from that time, and that's why there was so much of it. Banta is where we get some of those great Rag-Time arrangements like these: 

Fred Stone's "My Rag Time Baby"(transferred a little too fast though) from 1899

"My Tiger Lily" from 1900

two takes of "Whistling Rufus" from 1899

These are all great examples of Banta's leadership, and even the selections that aren't Rag-Time are just as great, such as the descriptive selections and other popular songs. Two descriptive selections are here:

"The Yankee Doodle Dandy Lanciers" from 1899

"The Midnight Alarm" from 1900.

Now as you might expect, these "descriptive selections" were very popular among the record buyers. Edison orchestra also recorded the extremely popular one called "The Night Alarm", which you can find countless versions of all over the place on records from the late-1890's. I don't exactly know why it was so popular in its day, but it was certainly a fun one regardless, you can hear the earliest example of it I know of here(from 1892!):

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder10482

It is unknown how it began to circulate among the record companies, but there are at least 12 different recordings of it I know of. That's really saying something! 

The Peerless orchestra was never known to go out and do any performances, unlike the Columbia orchestra, who was all over the place at exhibitions and performances of Spencer's minstrels, or at lavish affairs at the Waldorf-Astoria. Since Edison didn't really have those fun sort of exhibitions that Columbia had, they didn't invite a handful of artists to come and demonstrate. Though, since Arthur Collins can be heard at the beginning of all but one of the Peerless Orchestra cylinder listed above, he probably had some sort of role in these Edison exhibitions. Collins was essentially at Edison just like how Len Spencer was at Columbia, and later what Ed Meeker became after 1902 at Edison. 

While Banta was getting sick and running the Edison orchestra with all he could to make them better, in a sort of serious way, minus Collins' comical introductions, the Columbia orchestra was wailing away at their antics they were known for. Many of the "descriptive selections" that the Columbia orchestra did in 1898-1900 were actually specific just to them. Such as their rowdy mess called "Charge of the Rough Riders". Now that one is a real kick! This is because of how wild and rowdy it seems, but yet how organised it is. It's one of the most symbolic of all the Columbia orchestra's selections, as it represents everything they were, all they did, and their attitude toward making records and music. You can hear a take here:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder9828

"Forward March!"

Yes indeed Mr. Clark. 

It's just such a contrast to the selections by the Peerless orchestra from the same year. They also had some weirder ones, like "Children's Games Lanciers", as you can hear that here:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder8173

Ha! they're all cheering like little kids! Hilarious. 

They also had one called "The Capture of Santiago", which is again referring to Roosevelt and the Rough Riders charging into Cuba. I haven't heard this one yet, but I have seen it listed in several places around the same time as their "Charge of the Rough Riders". The one in the link above is certainly a strange one in the mix, but then again I am not surprised about that, as Columbia's people certainly had some more odd ones in their files. They were hard to compete with, so at this, it left Banta a little at a disadvantage when trying to make his orchestra at Edison better. In reality, the Columbia orchestra had better musicians in its personnel, but the Edison studio orchestra had a mix of just as talented musicians. The thing about Columbia's orchestra is that their musicians had been in the business of recording for at least 7 or 8 years by 1898. They had status. By this I mean that with musicians like David Dana, George Schweinfest, and William Tuson, they were already known as soloists on records by the time the Columbia orchestra was formed in 1897. In fact, you can see all three of these musicians here:

I was studying this picture a few days ago and noticed that Dana is there! The only reason I know this is because of that wonderful picture that was put up on Tinfoil.com recently, this one to be more specific:

Yep, see it now? 
Taking a good look at Dana here was how I figured that he was in that Columbia orchestra picture. It makes sense really, since was was one of those members of Issler's orchestra who dropped out in 1897. As all three of the musicians picture just above were the main three who did this. So in that picture of the Columbia orchestra(actually, that is not everyone in the group! There would be at least four more people if they had the usual amount of instruments that would be on their records) We know that Hylands is there at the piano, looking out to everyone else with those expressive eyes behind those glasses, and with Tom Clark(maybe, I'm not exactly sure, I've never seen a picture of him) holding his right hand up(I don't know why...). Now that is actually why my father and I have come to the conclusion that this was a "staged" picture. What it meant by that? Well, the photographer was getting everything set up in there, and they actually weren't in the middle of making records when it was shot. And actually, much of the setup in realistic with the chairs on tables and such, but not exactly what they would be doing when making records. It's much like many of the studio pictures from that time, in fact I would be confident in saying that all of those studio pictures are "staged". Even the ones from the 1910's and 1920's have a similar story. The only so-called "Studio" picture that isn't really staged is this one here:

They didn't spend fifteen minutes trying to get everyone in the right place for this one. It can be seen clearly. The photographer probably had to yell while he already had his flasher in the air, as the exhibitions were loud and rowdy. He couldn't stand there and fix anything, so at that, what you see here is very candid, no tricks were done like in that other studio picture. Now another thing that's unique about the Columbia orchestra is the fact that they carried much of Issler's arrangements over from the earlier 1890's, such as "On the Midway", which you can hear the 1898 version here:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder7941

The Issler's orchestra take from 1894 is here:
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr+1=1020&num=1&start=1&query=cylinder8101

They are a little bit different, but it's funny to think that most of the same musicians were on both of these takes. I forgot to mention that Len Spencer was another Issler dropout, as he was their announcer and sound effects man(though he's not on the 1894 take just above...).  So as you can hear, Spencer is on the 1898 version of "On the Midway", and also if you listen closely, you can hear Hylands kind of singing along with the "Hoochie Koochie" song at the end. Yep, that's him you can hear.

Now saying that brings me to the next part of this post I wanted to discuss. I have mentioned a few times before that there are times on cylinders where you can pick out the voice of Fred Hylands among the mix of other voices(other than the one above). Now the Spencer brothers, Len and Harry, did a series of three records in the late-1890's advertised as "Scenes from life", all of them you can see listed here;

Nothing is said about "The Dog Fight", but that makes sense, as it pretty much is what is said in the title. Yes! Two dogs fighting to the death. Yep, this is 1898. 
Now to begin in finding Hylands, here is Spencer and Gilbert Girard's "The Dog Fight" recorded in c. 1903. Where's Hylands? Well, that voice that's yelling:


"ALL-RIGHT JIMM'EH!"

Yep, that's him alright. 

Why is that Hylands? Well listen to the slight dialect, and how powerful the voice is. It's also a voice that I have heard before on Columbia records, so that is a great indicator. That raspy voice is one that you can hear on this one as well, Harry Spencer's "Side Show Shouter" from 1898. I have explained before where you can hear Hylands on this one(0ther than him playing the organ), but just to refresh this, you can hear him at the beginning, in the middle saying, "I've seen bigger dwarf's 'en 'im!" (It's hard to write how he actually says that...), and he's also yelling at the end being the cops coming up on them. 

I played this cylinder for my former history teacher Mr. Rotenizer this Thursday, and he actually caught one of the things that Hylands yells at the beginning. He caught that Hylands yells "HOT TAMALES!"(in that slightly Chicago dialect) at a lull in what Spencer's yelling at the beginning after the announcement! THAT is hilarious! Also, I think that part of the reason that no one can understand what Hylands is saying at the beginning is because he's pretty drunk. Yep, that really makes sense now doesn't it. Also by how he does that laugh in the middle, oohh... Yep, he's pretty tipsy. Also by how it is very hard to understand what he says at the end acting as the constable, all I can understand is something like:

"Hey!! Ah'll catch ye-o rollahers(?)!"(while swinging around one of those clicker things)

I can't understand him. Well, he's obviously pretty drunk, so that makes some sense. It's still Fred Hylands' voice! 

I hope you enjoyed this!