Yep I have finally got around to recording a full album of songs. For the story behind this see the previous post. The short version is that "Monsters, Whores and More" is an album of songs held together by a loose theme of sea faring, water, and stuff that lives on and in the sea. All this and not a sea shanty in sight!
It's available for download at bandcamp (see the link over on the right there). It's free if you want it to be or you can pay me what you think it's worth or what you can afford. To be frank I'd much rather people listened to it than paid for it. It's taken me a while to realise it but the reason I play and write music is largely because I want to communicate with and connect to my fellow human beings. This is beyond price.
But let's face it that kind of integrity has got to be worth at least $10.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Monsters, Whores and More
In September 2009 I received an email from an old work friend in the UK. Other than being a nurse, Dave calls himself a “part time antique dealer”. What this actually means is that he enjoys going around car boot sales buying crap and trying to sell it on eBay. The email mentioned several 78 records he had picked up. He said he was a bit freaked and didn’t know what to make of them. He promised to send me a cd copy when he got around to digitalising them.
A month later a small parcel arrived containing a cd, a photo and a short letter. The photo was of a 78’ record. A hand written label on the record said simply, “7”. The note attached read,
“Dear Michael
I hope you’re well. Here is a cd of one of the records I mentioned in my email. I picked it up at a car boot sale in Haywards Heath as part of a box of old 78’s. Most of these records were a fairly predictable mixture of light classics and popular songs from the 1930’s. In amongst them were five records like the one you have in your hands now. They had no markings on them other than a plain white label and a hand written number. I have numbers 1, 2, 4, 6, and 7.
I decided to listen to them in order. Numbers 1, 2, and 4 were very weird and mainly consisted of seemingly random noises. One contained nothing but a series of metallic objects being hit. There was no discernible rhythm to this, just hitting. The second sounded like a recording of a piano string being plucked repeatedly which was occasionally punctuated with the sound of breaking glass. Number 4 was a bit more disturbing. At first all I could hear amongst the general noise and crackle, was a creaking wood sound but as I listened closer I could hear a quiet moaning sound which gradually grew louder and more obviously human (a woman I think). The record lasted only a few minutes but it seemed longer. It was uncomfortable listening. Number 6 was really scary. It contained nothing but 3 or so minutes of some very laboured breathing and occasional sobbing. I have to say I was pretty freaked out by this time. I couldn’t help but imagine that what I was listening to were snuff recordings. I was so freaked out in fact that I avoided listening to number 7 for several weeks.
Eventually curiosity got the better of me and I had a listen. Imagine my relief when it was nothing worse than someone singing a song. The song is called Deep Blue Sea I believe. I don’t know a lot about it other than it’s a traditional American tune. The really striking thing though is that the singer sounds a bit like you. Actually that’s not true. He sounds a lot like you. That’s kind of why I sent it.
I’m afraid I have no idea where these recordings originated and I haven’t been able to trace the guy who sold them to me. I can only guess that they come from around the same time as the other records in the box. The most recent record in the box is 1937.
Bloody weird ay? It’s a proper mystery.
Take care
Dave
PS. If you’re interested I’ll do a copy of the rest of the records. Unfortunately this will mean I’ll have to listen to them again!”
The recording was pretty rough even by 1930s standards. It was also quite damaged and scratched. Dave was right though, it did sound a lot like me. Spookily so in fact.
The song being performed was indeed “Deep Blue Sea”. This is an American traditional tune. The song itself is a bit of a mystery as are many traditional tunes. By their nature these songs were generally passed on without ever being written down. Over time you end up with huge variations in lyrics and melody. It’s a fair bet that it is a song that was at least partially imported into America, probably via the West Indies, rather than one written there. I knew the song from a version by Pete Seeger though there are numerable other versions including a really lovely recent one by Grizzly Bear which I strongly recommend. The lyrics on Seeger’s and the Grizzly Bear versions are different from each other and from the mystery version but they are all clearly the same song. I’ve since discovered that the lyrics on the mystery version are pretty much identical to that performed by The Spinners who say in turn they got it from Pete Seeger.
The singer on the recording is accompanying himself on something like, (but not,) an autoharp. It is an instrument with tuned strings that are strummed. There doesn’t seem to be any dampening mechanism, other than the players hand, so I can only guess that it’s a simple zither like instrument with strings arranged in chord groups. Only two chords are played – not very expertly I might add.
As to the question of who it is, I have no idea of this either. I guess it’s a little strange that a man in 1930’s England would be an area in Sussex where my father’s side of the family came from. I suppose, given how much this man sounds like me, that there is a small chance this is actually a recording of some long lost relative. The coincidence would be too ridiculous though. There is also the issue that recording equipment wasn’t cheap in the 30’s so whoever recorded them would have had to have had a fair amount of disposable income. This certainly wouldn’t be my family.
As Dave said, it is a proper mystery. It’s also an unsolvable mystery – there are no leads. Who recorded this stuff? I’m assuming these recordings meant something to the person who made them, but what? Why are they numbered? And what of Dave’s fears that the recordings are “snuff recordings”? What sort of person would record this stuff? What were numbers “3” and “5” recordings of?
I guess that’s all this would have been – a list of unanswered questions and just one of those weird little events that occur in our lives from time to time. But what this recording did was plant ideas and images in my head. I had several not very pleasant dreams involving a strange man, who looked like me, staring at a large wooden crate containing a terrified looking woman. All the while he sang deep blue sea. Dave has a lot to answer for for that “snuff recording” comment. Predictably enough some of the images also started coming out in the songs I wrote.
In early 2010 I realised that what I had were several songs that had a common theme. Within all the songs were references to ships, boats, and life on and in the oceans. Inspired by the content of the first few records I also started writing and recording a few more slightly experimental pieces. It was pretty obvious why these images and themes were appearing so I just rolled with it and turned it into an album. The album is called Monsters, Whores and More and is available from http://fledderjohn.bandcamp.com/ as a name your price download.
At the time of writing I still haven’t heard the other records. I asked Dave a little more about them and got a fairly terse reply. He then admitted that he had been more than a “little freaked out” and would now much rather forget about them. Like me he had had nightmares only his were pretty much every night for a while. They were also more graphic and very intense. I don’t believe in the supernatural and am yet to come across anything that can’t be explained rationally, but I did get a bit of a shiver when Dave wrote, “the man looked like you and he never stopped singing that fucking song”.
A month later a small parcel arrived containing a cd, a photo and a short letter. The photo was of a 78’ record. A hand written label on the record said simply, “7”. The note attached read,
“Dear Michael
I hope you’re well. Here is a cd of one of the records I mentioned in my email. I picked it up at a car boot sale in Haywards Heath as part of a box of old 78’s. Most of these records were a fairly predictable mixture of light classics and popular songs from the 1930’s. In amongst them were five records like the one you have in your hands now. They had no markings on them other than a plain white label and a hand written number. I have numbers 1, 2, 4, 6, and 7.
I decided to listen to them in order. Numbers 1, 2, and 4 were very weird and mainly consisted of seemingly random noises. One contained nothing but a series of metallic objects being hit. There was no discernible rhythm to this, just hitting. The second sounded like a recording of a piano string being plucked repeatedly which was occasionally punctuated with the sound of breaking glass. Number 4 was a bit more disturbing. At first all I could hear amongst the general noise and crackle, was a creaking wood sound but as I listened closer I could hear a quiet moaning sound which gradually grew louder and more obviously human (a woman I think). The record lasted only a few minutes but it seemed longer. It was uncomfortable listening. Number 6 was really scary. It contained nothing but 3 or so minutes of some very laboured breathing and occasional sobbing. I have to say I was pretty freaked out by this time. I couldn’t help but imagine that what I was listening to were snuff recordings. I was so freaked out in fact that I avoided listening to number 7 for several weeks.
Eventually curiosity got the better of me and I had a listen. Imagine my relief when it was nothing worse than someone singing a song. The song is called Deep Blue Sea I believe. I don’t know a lot about it other than it’s a traditional American tune. The really striking thing though is that the singer sounds a bit like you. Actually that’s not true. He sounds a lot like you. That’s kind of why I sent it.
I’m afraid I have no idea where these recordings originated and I haven’t been able to trace the guy who sold them to me. I can only guess that they come from around the same time as the other records in the box. The most recent record in the box is 1937.
Bloody weird ay? It’s a proper mystery.
Take care
Dave
PS. If you’re interested I’ll do a copy of the rest of the records. Unfortunately this will mean I’ll have to listen to them again!”
The recording was pretty rough even by 1930s standards. It was also quite damaged and scratched. Dave was right though, it did sound a lot like me. Spookily so in fact.
The song being performed was indeed “Deep Blue Sea”. This is an American traditional tune. The song itself is a bit of a mystery as are many traditional tunes. By their nature these songs were generally passed on without ever being written down. Over time you end up with huge variations in lyrics and melody. It’s a fair bet that it is a song that was at least partially imported into America, probably via the West Indies, rather than one written there. I knew the song from a version by Pete Seeger though there are numerable other versions including a really lovely recent one by Grizzly Bear which I strongly recommend. The lyrics on Seeger’s and the Grizzly Bear versions are different from each other and from the mystery version but they are all clearly the same song. I’ve since discovered that the lyrics on the mystery version are pretty much identical to that performed by The Spinners who say in turn they got it from Pete Seeger.
The singer on the recording is accompanying himself on something like, (but not,) an autoharp. It is an instrument with tuned strings that are strummed. There doesn’t seem to be any dampening mechanism, other than the players hand, so I can only guess that it’s a simple zither like instrument with strings arranged in chord groups. Only two chords are played – not very expertly I might add.
As to the question of who it is, I have no idea of this either. I guess it’s a little strange that a man in 1930’s England would be an area in Sussex where my father’s side of the family came from. I suppose, given how much this man sounds like me, that there is a small chance this is actually a recording of some long lost relative. The coincidence would be too ridiculous though. There is also the issue that recording equipment wasn’t cheap in the 30’s so whoever recorded them would have had to have had a fair amount of disposable income. This certainly wouldn’t be my family.
As Dave said, it is a proper mystery. It’s also an unsolvable mystery – there are no leads. Who recorded this stuff? I’m assuming these recordings meant something to the person who made them, but what? Why are they numbered? And what of Dave’s fears that the recordings are “snuff recordings”? What sort of person would record this stuff? What were numbers “3” and “5” recordings of?
I guess that’s all this would have been – a list of unanswered questions and just one of those weird little events that occur in our lives from time to time. But what this recording did was plant ideas and images in my head. I had several not very pleasant dreams involving a strange man, who looked like me, staring at a large wooden crate containing a terrified looking woman. All the while he sang deep blue sea. Dave has a lot to answer for for that “snuff recording” comment. Predictably enough some of the images also started coming out in the songs I wrote.
In early 2010 I realised that what I had were several songs that had a common theme. Within all the songs were references to ships, boats, and life on and in the oceans. Inspired by the content of the first few records I also started writing and recording a few more slightly experimental pieces. It was pretty obvious why these images and themes were appearing so I just rolled with it and turned it into an album. The album is called Monsters, Whores and More and is available from http://fledderjohn.bandcamp.com/ as a name your price download.
At the time of writing I still haven’t heard the other records. I asked Dave a little more about them and got a fairly terse reply. He then admitted that he had been more than a “little freaked out” and would now much rather forget about them. Like me he had had nightmares only his were pretty much every night for a while. They were also more graphic and very intense. I don’t believe in the supernatural and am yet to come across anything that can’t be explained rationally, but I did get a bit of a shiver when Dave wrote, “the man looked like you and he never stopped singing that fucking song”.
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