At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is a placeholder to appear on the podcast feed. For the full 3-hour version either see below for the Mixcloud player, or come to patreon.com/centuriesofsound for the podcast version and a host of other bonus materials for just $5 per month.
Mixcloud player with full mix – or listen on the Mixcloud website.
The mid-point of the 20th century feels superficially like its fulcrum. The first half has been an upward struggle (two world wars, a great depression, a devastating pandemic) but also a tale of progress – we have gone from racist parlour songs recorded on cylinders to cool jazz LPs and proto rock & roll singles. Now it’s a smooth ride downhill through the 50s, 60s, 70s, and so on. Culture will become more free and less imposing, the cold war will gradually cool down and end, we will see Fukuyama’s end of history. Of course, for most of you, who lived through the last half of the 20th century, that will immediately ring false. It’s so reductive that it’s essentially nonsense, the joys and the horrors of the late 20th do not form a pattern easy enough to sum up in a page, let alone a paragraph. And so (this is my point, sorry) goes for the first half. Listening through these mixes I hope you’ve been able to feel how society and how art has shifted, not as a smooth process but as a tortuous web being pulled in many directions at once, and any simple narrative is in essence a lie.
So if I were to say “something is in the air in 1950” or talk about the “zeitgeist”, you should know that this is probably nothing more than apophenia – “the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things” – but this is how it is with every story anyway, you pick up a feeling and go with it.
So what is the story this time? In a sense 1950 is a particularly unremarkable year for music. Jazz is stalled somewhere between bebop and post-bop. Rhythm & blues or jump blues seems to be finally winding down from the frenetic energy it had in ’48 and ’49, much as rock & roll would wind down in the early 60s. Outside of Hank Williams, Western swing seems to be taking a bit of a breather too. Even Hollywood musicals seem to be largely spinning their wheels after their golden age, but before Singin’ In The Rain led their revival a couple of years later. But sometimes you need a bit of calm to show the lay of the land around you, and you know what? There’s really something special going on here.
This may still have been a duller than usual mix if it hadn’t been for the work of Michael Daddino’s project “1950: The Bomb in the Heart of the Century” originally from 1950. A playlist, initially on Spotify, but most recently on Mixcloud, it’s a lot more detailed and a lot longer than a Centuries of Sound mix, and demonstrates a good deal more work – I try to get these things out in a month, not that I have really met that goal of late, and naturally my research phase can only go so far. So instead of reinventing everything, I have used the flow of this mix (and around 50% of the music selections) as a framework, and have built everything else around it.
The bomb in the title is not merely a metaphor. 1950 does seem to be the year that the Cold War really set in, especially in terms of the nuclear arms race. The USSR conducted their first nuclear test in 1949, and not long after President Truman announced the plan to develop the hydrogen bomb, which would be ready in 1952. Being confronted by the enormity of this so soon after the end of the war must have felt like whiplash, and the prospect of mutually assured destruction before the foretold 2000 years must have been terrifying to many. A couple of selections here discuss this directly. Others were still excited about this new technology. The cover image for this mix comes from the case of the “Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Laboratory” – an experimental kit briefly on sale to children in 1950 which contained genuine radioactive material, a cloud chamber and a Geiger counter. For the makers, they seem to be presenting the new decade as an exciting new phase of technological progress.
Tracklist
(Clip from BBC at Lime Grove)
0:00:04 La Scala Orchestra (Wilhelm Furtwängler, Cond.) – Excerpt From Prologue Of Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung
(Clip from The Last Date)
(Clip from Use Your Voice)
(Clip from New Look at The H Bomb)
0:01:23 The Swan Silvertones – Jesus Is God’s Atomic Bomb
(Clip from New Look at The H Bomb)
(Clip from William Faulkner – Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech)
0:04:16 Rev. J.B. Crocker – Sermon, Hallelujah Amen
(Clip from Milton Berle Show)
0:06:01 Judy Garland And The MGM Studio Chorus – Get Happy
0:08:12 Bud Powell – Get Happy
0:10:44 Judy Garland And The MGM Studio Chorus – Get Happy (Reprise)
(Clip from Sunset Boulevard)
0:11:18 Maddox Brothers And Rose – Water Baby Blues
(Clip from Suspense)
0:13:24 Beny Moré Con Pérez Prado – Babarabatiri
(Clip from Benny Goodman introduction)
(Clip from What To Do On A Date)
0:15:51 Abe Ellstein’s Orchestra With Dave Tarras – Second Avenue Square Dance
(Clip from You Bet Your Life)
0:19:27 Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie – An Oscar For Treadwell (Alternate Take)
(Clip from The Last Date)
0:22:12 The Dominoes – Sixty-Minute Man
(Clip from You Bet Your Life)
0:23:52 Hardrock Gunter & The Pebbles – Birmingham Bounce
(Clip from BBC – Hotel TVs)
0:26:44 George Sibanda – Sivele Sithandana
(Clip from In A Lonely Place)
0:28:23 Mita Stoicheva – Stori Se Horo Golyamo
0:30:09 Einer Nielsen – Phantom Stimmen
0:30:28 Marjorie Mazia, B.J. Walberg, And Gary Walberg – Out West
(Philip Larkin – Spring)
0:32:40 Walter Gieseking – La Cathédrale Engloutie
(Clip from Using Your Voice)
0:35:57 Friedel Hensch Und Die Cyprys – Holdrio- Liebes Echo
(Clip from What To Do On A Date)
0:39:05 Skeets Mcdonald – The Tattooed Lady
(Clip from Benny Goodman introduction)
(starts with solo harmonica + echo)
0:42:11 Red Foley – Old Kentucky Fox Chase
(Clip from BBC Archive – Tottenham Pudding)
0:44:59 Pink Anderson – I Got Mine
(Clip from BBC Archive – Lime Grove)
0:46:57 Moises Ribeiro Manjati And Grupo Manjacaziana – Meu Amor Era Aviado
(Clip from All About Eve)
0:49:53 Lata Mangeshkar – Chhed Sakhi Sargam
0:53:14 Tito Puente And His Orchestra – Swinging The Mambo
(Clip from BBC Archive – Chair Bodgers)
0:56:30 Henri Salvador – Le Loup, La Biche Et Le Chevalier
0:58:53 Clarence Garlow – Bon Ton Roulet
(Clip from The Last Date)
1:01:19 Bulawayo Sweet Rhythms Band – Hondo Chiwutsi
1:03:19 Wynonie Harris – Good Morning Judge
(Clip from You Bet Your Life)
1:06:13 Edmundo Ros And His Rumba Band – Mambo Jambo
(Clip from Sunset Boulevard)
1:09:01 Quinteto Pirincho – Arrabalera
(Clip from Basil Rathbone reads Edgar Allen Poe)
1:11:41 Orquesta Aníbal Troilo Con Jorge Casal – Che Bandoneón!
1:13:42 Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester – Adagio From Haydn’s Symphony No. 104 In D Major
(Philip Larkin – Wants)
1:16:33 Groupe De Jeunes Filles De Bamako – Celu Mankan
(Clip from What To Do On A Date)
1:17:45 The Roy Eldridge Quartet – Nuts
1:20:57 Noro Morales And His Orchestra – Up And Down Mambo
(Clip from BBC Archive – Dubbing Theatre)
1:23:48 Kasagi Shizuko – Kaimono Boogie
(Clip from Cinderella)
1:27:11 Carlos And Trianita Montoya – Alegrias
(Clip from How to Make A Sandwich)
1:28:18 Elias Nelushi – Kama Kalinyana
1:29:28 Arsenio Rodriguez Y Su Conjunto – Anabacoa
(Clip from Benny Goodman introduction)
1:32:20 Celia Cruz Con El Conjunto Sonora Matancera – Cao, Cao Maní Picao
(Clip from What To Do On A Date)
1:34:01 Louis Prima And Keely Smith – Oh, Babe
1:37:03 Lalo Guerrero Y Sus Cinco Lobos – Chicas Patas Boogie
(Clip from You Bet Your Life)
1:40:01 Hank Williams – Why Don’t You Love Me
1:42:20 Webb Pierce – In The Jailhouse Now
1:43:23 Bobbejaan Schoepen – Cowboy Jimmy
(Clip from You Bet Your Life)
1:45:43 Sister Slocum & Her Little Brother – Whistlin’ Boogie
(Clip from BBC Archive – Bristol Brabazon)
1:48:55 Lord Beginner And The Calypso Rhythm Kings – Victory Test Match
1:50:44 Dúo Los Compadres – Caña Quemá
(Clip from William Faulkner – Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech)
1:52:48 Moondog – Moondog’s Symphony, Part 1
1:54:40 Bom Amberton – Nahawand No.2
1:55:00 Eliazale Kazinduki Horn Band – Nkete
1:56:33 Carmen Miranda And The Andrews Sisters With Vic Schoen And His Orchestra – Ca-Room-Pa-Pa
1:58:47 Mickey Katz And His Orchestra – Yiddish Mule Train
(Clip from You Bet Your Life)
2:01:18 Roy Milton – Information Blues
2:03:12 Doc Sausage – Rag Mop
2:04:18 Tiny Bradshaw – Well Oh Well
2:06:56 Cecil Gant – We’re Gonna Rock
(Clip from Basil Rathbone reads Edgar Allen Poe)
2:09:12 Jascha Heifetz And Emanuel Bay – Grigoras Dinicu’s Hora Staccato
(Clip from BBC Archive – Robot Tortoise)
2:11:33 Pancras Mkwawa – Ngosingosi
(Clip from Rashomon)
2:13:28 Champion Jack Dupree With Big Chief Ellis And His Blues Stars – Deacon’s Party
(Clip from You Bet Your Life)
2:16:24 Stubby Kaye – Sit Down You’re Rockin’ The Boat
(Clip from All About Eve)
2:18:32 Betty Hutton And Howard Keel – Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better
(Clip from What To Do On A Date)
2:21:38 Rose Murphy – Busy Line
(Clip from BBC Archive – TV Transmitters)
2:24:27 Humberto Morales Y Su Ritmo – Jungle Mambo
(Clip from What To Do On A Date)
2:27:09 Tennessee Ernie Ford – Shotgun Boogie
2:29:39 Bill Monroe And His Blue Grass Boys – Uncle Pen
(Clip from In A Lonely Place)
2:31:03 Hank Williams – Long Gone Lonesome Blues
(Clip from You Bet Your Life)
2:33:21 Lord Kitchener With Cyril Blake’s Calypso Serenaders – The Underground Train
2:36:13 Chuy Reyes And His Orchestra – Oink, Oink Mambo
(Clip from Using Your Voice)
2:38:53 Doris Day With Gene Nelson And The Page Cavanaugh Trio – Crazy Rhythm
2:41:16 Povel Ramel Och Hans Husvilla Sambaseñorer – Är Det Nån Som Har En Våning Åt Mej!
(Clip from Benny Goodman conclusion)
2:44:32 Percy Mayfield – Please Send Me Someone To Love
(Clip from William Faulkner – Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech)
2:47:47 James And Martha Carson – I’ll Fly Away