Going through my mother's garage, I came across this case that contains old 78 records. I've seen it before, and put away for another time. Well, it's another time. I've taken it out again.
I knew that these were basically German records that my step father must have brought with him when his family fled Nazi Germany. So they would have been late 1920s and early 1930s. But I didn't know what they sounded like. I have a turntable, but it doesn't play 78s. I did ask a few people about what I should do with them, but got vague responses.
So I did what everyone does these days. Google.
And I found some of the records that I have on Youtube.
Here are a few:
Telefunken Musikus M 6359 Truxa-Fox.
Telefunken R 1910 Links sitzt das Herz (Left sits the heart)
There's even Frank Sinatra and Doris Day - Let's Take An Old-Fashioned Walk. It says "Berlin" on the label - but I think that's for Irving Berlin who wore the song. Did this get added to the collection later?
Here's one more - Richard Tauber and Dajos Bela - Ich Küsse Ihre Hand, Madame (I kiss your hand, Ma'am)
And there were others I couldn't find online.
Thank you to the YouTube folks who have put this music online.
Physical evidence of the Jazz Age in Deutschland and you own a bit of it. I'm reading a deeply researched history of Swedish emigration and the consequent reactions from people 'left behind.' It's fascinating to read how eventually Swedes saw the USA as a place they must take into account for the 'better treatment of its people'.
ReplyDeleteSounds incredible, but upwards of a third of Sweden's younger population was lost to emigration (largely to America) from the 1880s to the 1920s. Sweden responded by overturning its rigid class system based on estates and nobility.
The 'Jazz Age' in Europe was one of these effects of 'soft' power, something Mr Trump will never understand.
Thanks for filling in that gap in my immigration knowledge. There's so much I don't know. I wonder if the jazz was allowed by 'soft' power or taken by the youth despite the system. The Nazis certainly discouraged it and Putin's fighting rap now. The movie Hipsters showed the underground swing/rock movement in Russia in the 50s. Well worth watching if you can find it. A Russian musical.
ReplyDelete