At Centuries of Sound I am making mixes for every year of recorded sound. The download here is only for the first hour of the mix. 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. This show would not be possible without my supporters on there, so please consider signing up or sharing this with someone who may be interested.

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1948 Part Two – Move

In part one we saw how tape technology was transforming the sound of the world in 1948. In part two we’ll take a cue from another new development – the long playing record. When I first heard that the LP had been less than twenty years old when Sgt Pepper was released – or just eleven years old when Kind of Blue was released, it seemed hard to believe. I was so accustomed to thinking of music as naturally fitting in this format – two sides of around 20-25 minutes each. But until now, nobody was experiencing music like that. There were “albums” it’s true – there had been since the Edwardian age – but these were “albums” in the “photo album” sense. Booklets of perhaps eight double-sided shellac discs, with sides numbered under the assumption that they would be played as a stack on top of a record player (side one matched with side eight maybe.) These cumbersome things were meant for classical music, and not anything as disposable as jazz. But jazz was one step ahead already. By now of course we have this wave of Be Bop artists, often playing improvised music for hours on end, also very much unsuited to a short side of shellac.

Columbia’s new long playing discs (and RCA Victor’s new 7” singles) do not make up a substantial proportion of this mix, but where last time everything was a tape cut up, this time we’re more in the realm of the sometimes meandering, sometimes slow groove building world made possible by this new medium. This is less of a mix to pay attention to, and more a mix to sit back and enjoy. Which is the way forward? We’ll just have to see. The decade is almost over, we’ve come a long way, but there’s one last shock for us before we reach the heart of the century.

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Tracklist

Intro

(Clip from Naked City)

Part One – Rock

(Clip from interview with Frank Sinatra)

Part Two – Move

0:21:23 Crown Price Waterford – Move Your Hand, Baby

Part Three – Mist

0:35:07 Pee Wee King – Bull Fiddle Boogie

Part Four – Size

(Clip from Top Tunes of 1948)

Part Five – Twist

(Clip from interview with Vera Hall)

Part Six – Run

(Clip of Edward R Murrow)

Part Seven – Rope

(Clip from Bicycle Thieves)

Part Eight – Hate

(Clip from Bertrand Russell / Fr Frederick Copleston debate on existence of God)

Part Nine – Love

1:54:39 The Orioles – It’s Too Soon To Know

Part Ten – Mirth

(Clip from Hamlet (Gielgud – BBC Radio))

Part Eleven – Stew

(Clip from The Jack Benny Program)

Ending

(Clip from Top Tunes of 1948)