[78-L] BACKGROUND ARTIFACTS (WAS Hal Kemp record question)

[Michael Shoshani]

On Fri, 2009-04-17 at 21:45 +0100, Royal Pemberton wrote:

> After the last chord dies away on Frank Luther's 'The big rock candy
> mountain'  (Banner 6251 and others, matrix 8369, recorded 28 November
> 1928) there's a weird boomy 'clunk' like the acoustic guitar banged
> into a music stand, just before the leadout spiral.

I have an American-made Pathe Actuelle record of 'Abide With Me', sung a
cappella by a male quartet whose name escapes me. After the song is
finished there is a rhythmic THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP, like the plucking
of a bass string or something, about two beats per second. There are
about a dozen plucks before the leadout spiral takes over.

I have yet to figure out whether someone was monkeying around near the
recording horn, or whether this was some sort of cue to the listener to
get up off the easy chair and take the damn record off the turntable.