Square Dance Records

[bjarvis]

A while ago, Dayle H. bought a load of 400+ square dance 45 rpm records on eBay. He's passed the box to us so we can take our pick of the lot.

Oh. My. God. They're horrid.

Well, more accurately, they're horribly dated. Few have dates marked on them but of those, none are newer than 1982 and some go back to the early 1960s. And 90% are my most hated labels: Lore, Windsor, Grenn, MacGregor, Jewel, Kalox. So many banjos, fiddles and accordions.

I'm sure they were all high quality stuff in their day. Of the 200+ I've listened to so far, only three would not get me laughed off the stage in shame.

And the subject material... oy! What bright light thought of "Hertz Rent-a-Chick" (Blue Star 1853)? "Wouldn't it be slick if they had a Hertz Rent-a-Chick? They'd sure get the business out of me!" WTF?!

I'm going to listen to the remaining records, just in case there's a gem buried somewhere in this steaming pile of records. My soul is taking major hit points today but I might be able to salvage something from it all.

Edit: I just located a record from 1957: "Marianne" by Folkraft Records.

Edit: *Six* copies of "Square Dancin' Man," MacGregor 1062? One is bad enough.

Comments

[unzeugmatic.livejournal.com]

I didn't think anyone still wore all whites.

I'm confused by this. All of the Cotswold Morris teams in the Twin Cities (including the teenage and children's teams) wear all white as their base kit. Here is a picture of the Giant Abram's Circle last Mayday, with all the Twin Cities teams visible in the semi-dark:

http://pics.livejournal.com/unzeugmatic/pic/000d922f/g19

Most of the midwest teams use white as the kit basis -- that is, white trousers and white shirt, usually with a vest rather than baldrics or suspenders (which is our team's weirdness). Here's a picture from a massed dance at last year's Midwest Morris Ale:

http://pics.livejournal.com/unzeugmatic/pic/000dw79g/g22

The all-dark kit is that of the visiting White Rats, from SF.

I suppose 19th-century tradition is really dark knickers, like the St. Louis team wears (visible in that massed dance).

Here I am in Melbourne, dancing with Britannia Morris (and one member of their sister team), also all in white kit:

http://pics.livejournal.com/unzeugmatic/pic/0006adpe/g16

So I'm not sure why you'd be surprised. Do you mean all-white without mitigating vests of a darker color?