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.
Cleaning out the garage this summer, I picked up my late grandad’s coin collection. Among the rolls of threepenny bits and Edwardian pennies, I found a Festival of Britain souvenir crown (a pre-decimal coin worth 25p in decimal currency) in its original display case. Looking it up on a coin appraisal website, it transpired that it was much less valuable than I’d thought, and is available online in a similar condition for less than £7. So definitely not worth selling, and nicer to have as a keepsake. If my grandad visited the festival, he would – at a guess – have gone to the main exhibition on the South Bank, presumably by train from his house in Dover, with my nana. Their first child would be born the following year.
Unlike Worlds Fairs, the Festival of Britain was not a showcase for the world. Instead it was intended as a showcase for national recovery after the Second World War. The Labour government elected in 1945 had introduced the National Health Service, the welfare state and nationalised state industries, but in a country still subject to rationing and littered with bomb sites, it was felt that attention needed to be drawn to the positives. Labour minister Herbert Morrison planned the festival, which took place at many locations throughout the country, with the biggest site on the South Bank of the Thames, a location that will still be familiar to anyone who knows London to this day. The design for the festival was bold primary colours, to contrast the greyness of the day. By all reckonings, the festival was a triumph, almost universally popular in a country desperate for good news, but it was not enough to save the Labour Party. Before the festival closed its doors, they had lost a general election to the same Conservative Party who had vigorously opposed the festival on the grounds that it was socialist propaganda. They would be out of power for the next thirteen years.
Across the Atlantic, technology was also making new things happen. Les Paul was already a successful session guitarist in 1951, and had already pioneered his famous solid body guitar, but it’s another innovation which would make this his year. His first experience of a plastic-based magnetic tape recorder was in 1946, and he was impressed enough that he had Bing Crosby bring an Ampex 300 to his house in 1949. Les immediately saw the possibilities.
“So, there I was, busy recording to disc, and I looked at the machine and all of a sudden the light went on — what if I put a fourth head on this machine? I took a piece of paper and a pencil, I drew it out, and I went to Mary and I said, ‘Forget hanging up the laundry, forget the whole thing. Lock the place up, we’re leaving. I’ve just found a way to record without needing the garage or a recording studio. I can do the whole thing anywhere that we wish to record.”
The multi-track tape device Les put together would revolutionise the recording of music. Until now, everything has effectively been live recording. We have already heard his experiments with speeding up and slowing down tape – “Lover” from 1949 for example – but the ultimate exploration of this nascent technology came in 1951 with the version of pop standard How High The Moon he recorded with his wife Mary Ford. For the first minute or so there’s not that much of a progression, in face all sounds fairly normal to ears adjusted to stereo mixing and delay pedals. Then, a minute in, Mary’s voice is double, triple, eight-times tracked or more, a sound never heard before and seldom since.
Some years have an exciting new musical movement or a craze taking over popular culture. This is not one of those years. But in that gap, we get all kinds of bizarre and brilliant things popping up. I hope you enjoy the mix.
Tracklist
(Clip from Interview with Hamish Henderson about mouth music)
(Clip from How To Teach Your Parakeet To Talk)
00:00:10 Les Paul & Mary Ford – How High The Moon
(Clip from Dimension X)
(Clip from Early Columbia Records LP Advertisement)
00:02:25 Betty Hutton – It’s Oh So Quiet
00:05:31 Kathryn Beaumont & Chorus – All in the Golden Afternoon
(Clip from Wanna Buy A Record)
00:08:10 The Four Freshmen – It’s A Blue World
(Clip from Building the Holme Moss Transmitter – Newsreel)
00:11:06 Tiny Bradshaw – Walk That Mess
(Clip from Inner Sanctum 51-05-28 The Unforgiving Corpse)
00:12:59 The Swallows – It Ain’t The Meat
(Clip from You Bet Your Life)
00:15:30 Kico Rangel Band Featuring The Rangel Sisters – Ábrete Sésamo
(Clip from Westward The Women)
00:17:23 The Dominoes – Sixty Minute Man
(Clip from Westward The Women)
00:19:49 Frankie Laine – Jezebel
00:21:31 Bud Powell – Un Poco Loco
(Clip from interview with Catherine MacKellaig about The Cake Song)
(Clip from interview with Ewan MacColl about his father’s ballad repetoire)
(Clip from Othello)
(Clip from Christmas Day, 1951 Newsreel)
00:26:14 The Lion – Spanish Calypso
(Clip from Improve Your Personality)
00:28:48 Shona – Chirombo Woye Nditerere
(Clip from Pen Point Percussion)
00:30:16 Kwaku Addae and his Band – Ogyama Abere
(Clip from Wanna Buy A Record)
00:32:57 Four Knights – I Love The Sunshine Of Your Smile
(Clip from Wanna Buy A Record)
00:35:23 The Four Buddies – I Will Wait
00:37:40 The Clovers – Fool, Fool, Foool
00:39:20 Tommy Edwards – It’s All In The Game
00:41:49 Ruth Brown – Teardrops From My Eyes
(Clip from Alexandra Kropotkin’s Interview about life in Russia)
00:44:36 The Ravens – Lilacs In The Rain
00:47:45 Slim Whitman – Indian Love Call
00:50:51 Spike Jones and his City Slickers – Alto Baritone And Bass
(Clip from Edith Evans in The Importance of Being Earnest)
00:53:55 Sophie Tucker – I’m Living Alone And I Like It
00:56:31 Ethel Merman & Jimmy Durante – You Say The Nicest Things
(Clip from They Know We Know)
(Clip from Wanna Buy A Record)
00:59:02 Seychelles United Band – Waltz Of The Young Hearts
01:00:34 Les Baxter – Bacoa
(Clip from Survival Under Atomic Attack)
(Clip from How To Teach Your Parakeet to Talk)
(Clip from Othello)
(Clip from The Man in The White Suit)
(Clip from Wanna Buy A Record)
(Clip from Ernst Schnabel – Hörspiel Interview mit einem Stern)
(Clip from The Browning Version)
01:03:40 Stan Kenton – Laura
01:06:51 Frank Sinatra – Farewell Farewell To Love
01:08:44 Nellie Lutcher – Pa’s Not Home
(Clip from Wanna Buy A Record)
(Clip from Anti Drug PSA)
01:11:11 Lawrence Walker – Boscoe Stomp
(Clip from The Browning Version)
01:14:21 Edith Piaf – Le Noel De La Rue
(Clip from Guernica)
01:17:49 Lucienne Delyle – Domino
01:19:46 Lawrence Welk – Petite Waltz
(Clip from Good eating Habits)
01:21:35 Kasagi Shizuko – Old Man River
01:24:26 Earl Bostic – Sleep
(Clip from Interview with Ewan MacColl and Joan Littlewood about weaving songs)
(Clip from Career of A Salesman)
(Clip from Alexandra Kropotkin’s Interview about life in Russia)
01:27:33 Charlie Parker – Bloomdido
(Clip from The African Queen)
01:30:55 Xavier Cugat – Mambo Gitano
(Clip from Modern Football)
01:34:03 The Marshall Brothers – It All Comes Back To Me Now
(Clip from Strangers On A Train)
01:36:41 Little Esther – Lookin’ For A Man
(Clip from The Browning Version)
01:39:21 The Robins – That’s What the Good Book Says
(Clips from Stan Freberg – John And Marsha)
01:41:37 Guus Jansen – Steppin’ Out (Ziede Gij Me Gere)
(Clips from Stan Freberg – John And Marsha)
01:43:07 Miles Davis & Sonny Rollins – My Old Flame
(Clip from The Day The Earth Stood Still)
(Clip from Interview with Jimmy MacBeath about James MacPherson’s fiddling before his execution)
(Clip of Jackson Pollock)
(Clip from Interview with Fanny MacIsaac about ‘S a Mhic Dhughaill ac Ruairi)
(Clip of TS Elliot reading The Hollow Men)
(Clip from The Thing From Another World)
(Clip from Ace In The Hole)
01:49:38 The Weavers – Kisses Sweeter Than Wine
(Clip from Interview with John Burgess about MacIntosh’s Lament, his love of piping, and his piping awards)
01:52:35 David Kusevitsky – Ashrei (High Holiday)
(Clip from The Singing Street – children playing in Edinburgh)
01:55:49 Billie Holiday & Tiny Grimes Sextet – Blue Turning Grey Over You
(Clip from Pen Point Percussion)
01:57:51 Lord Kitchener – Kitch’s Bebop Calypso
(Clip from The Man in The White Suit)
02:00:30 Sonny Boy Williamson II – Eyesight To The Blind
(Clip from Ace In The Hole)
02:03:31 Amos Milburn – Bad, Bad Whiskey
(Clip from The Outsider)
02:05:16 The Cardinals – Shouldn’t I Know?
(Clip from Improve Your Personality)
02:08:26 Little Esther & the Dominoes – The Deacon Moves In
(Clip from Guernica)
02:11:34 Léo Ferré – La Chanson Du Scaphandrier
02:14:20 Charles Trenet – L’ Ame Des Poetes
(Clip from Interview with John Burgess about MacIntosh’s Lament, his love of piping, and his piping awards)
02:17:00 CSO, Kubelik – Pictures at an Exhibition – Catacombae
(Clip from Building the Holme Moss Transmitter – Newsreel)
02:18:41 The Sidney Torch Orchestra – Barwick Green
(Clip from Early Columbia Records LP Advertisement)
(Clip from Modern Football)
02:19:40 Johnny Otis – Mambo Boogie
02:21:18 Bud Powell – April In Paris
02:23:51 Andrés Segovia – Cavatina for guitar 3. Scherzino
02:25:51 Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra Conducted By Antal Doráti – Copland Symphony No. 3 I. Molto Moderato
(Clip from Wanna Buy A Record)
(Clip from Dimension X)
02:28:19 Lili Labassi – Mazal Haye Mazal
02:30:33 Howlin’ Wolf – Moanin’ at Midnight
02:33:24 Pee Wee Crayton – When It Rains It Pours
02:34:43 Kotsanabanthoeng Paired Piphat Ensemble – Fawn Jao Sri Oi
02:35:45 Winifred Atwell – The Black and White Rag
(Clip from Hank Williams interview by Mack Sanders, September 14th 1951)
02:38:35 Hank Williams – Cold Cold Heart
(Clip from Hank Williams interview by Mack Sanders, September 14th 1951)
02:41:16 Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats – My Real Gone Rocket
02:43:43 Shona – Dendera Jikwa
02:44:25 Miles Davis – The Squirrel
(Clip from The Lavender Hill Mob)
(clip from Douglas Macarthur – Address to Congress)
02:51:52 Eddie Hill – The Hot Guitar
(Clip from Inner Sanctum 51-05-28 The Unforgiving Corpse)
02:54:56 Chet Atkins – Goodbye Blues
(Clip from Dimension X)
(Clip from A Place In The Sun)
(Clip of TS Elliot reading The Hollow Men)