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The song was recorded in 1927 on a Victor Orthophonic Victrola – one of the earliest electronic recording devices to make music reproduction possible on high fidelity equipment. I’m a little fuzzy on the details, but supposedly prior to this music recordings were engraved into wax cylinders, which didn’t preserve the sound quality very well.
I came across the song on a collection of music recorded just after World War I, between the time of this technological innovation and the depression, when folk music sales apparently halted.
The anthology book bills Brown as “one of the earliest musicians to learn the 12 bar ‘blues’ Chord Pattern,” suggesting the musical format was as innovative as the recording technology for the time.
More knowledgeable music fans could probably better understand the significance of the 12 bar progression and the blues format better than I can, but hearing it I can at least appreciate a distinctly old yet familiar sound, the warbling vocals, and the snappy lyrics.
I’ve been giving sugar for sugar, let you get salt for salt
I’ll give you sugar for sugar, let you get salt for salt
And if you can’t get along with me, well it’s your own fault.
Hah.
If you have any interest in the anthology I found it on, I’d recommend checking it out: Anthology of American Folk Music, released in 1952 by Folkway Records. That link has many of the tracks you can listen to. Here is a PDF link of the original liner notes of the Anthology.
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