Re: [ARSCLIST] the origin of scratchin'

[David Lewis <davlew@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Don wrote:

If we are literal enough to interpret the question as you did, I believe
the only possible inventor of the "scratch" should be limited to the
initial inventor(s) of stylus based media; I'm speaking pre-disc record,
and possibly even pre-cylinder.

I feel it safe to assume that said inventor(s) would have most likely
stopped, paused, reversed, or scratched the media inadvertently or
purposely during the test and development phase of their invention.

So now that we've answered Tom in a manner that is equally literal and
useless, I'm sure he'll re-ask the question to include the obvious
assumption he was referencing.

Don Andes
EMI Music

P.S. I don't mean this email to belittle the influence of you or your
"scratching" on the greater fabric of our musical culture. Tom's own
assumed answer pointed to a specific DJ (Grandmaster Flash) so I though
to pick up his assumed reference to Hip Hop, which as I stated earlier
was un-influenced by any High Art vinyl turntablism that may have
proceeded it.

Don,

As an "inventor" whose inventions can still be accessed, I suggest "Etudes
des Chemins de Fer" of Pierre Schaffer, recorded in 1948 or so, as being
perhaps the earliest surviving example of turntabling. As it was once
released on a Ducretet-Thomson LP, you may even be able to find it in your
own corporate library. 

This is list for collectors, librarians and scholars. I am primarily a
scholar, and as such I am devoted to examining a question from every angle.
I'm surprised to see so many of us trying to limit the topic, even to the
point of patronizing me here. However, something about those thrown chairs
emboldens one.

James:
You clearly have a personal axe to grind on this issue. To be fair, so do I.
Even thirty years down the road, hip-hop is not afforded much respect from
the gate-keepers of "serious" music. I've lost count of the number of times
I've heard it dismissed by classical scholars and the like as "noise" or
some other equivilant of the "jungle music" epithet jazz got thrown at it in
the twenties. Even on this list, some people feel it is unseemly for the
Library of Congress to include hip-hop records on its National Recording
Registry. I leave it to others to figure out why there might such prejudice
against this uniquely American art form.

>
I can sympathize with you James - both as a "gate keeper" and an artist
within a realm so little known it doesn't get a lot of love institutionally,
least of all here it seems. At least the hip-hop choices nominated to the
registry have made it, and while I have never nominated any, I certainly
felt "Straight Outta Compton" belonged on the list. I seriously doubt that
were I to name an equivalent recording from "outside" hip-hop - Orchid
Spangiafiora's 1979 Twin/Tone album "Flee Past Ape's Elf," for example -
that it would be very seriously considered by anyone. It is relevant,
technically quite sophisticated, and very, very "American" in spirit; most
folks would call it "noise." 

I simply felt something needed to be said for the turntabling establishment
outside the South Bronx. Milestones that can apply equally to Hip-Hop, "High
Art vinyl turntablism" or even "Art Damage" artists like myself tend to be
most relevant within their own niche. Expanding one outward and displacing
the work of others exposes an untruth. Enthusiasm about a given genre is a
great thing, but in this case, the redaction of seemingly easy and obvious
milestones tends to cloud forward developments of research in areas that
sorely need it, even down to documenting the ways kids used to manipulate
records and what bearing that may have on the matter. Ever asked a hip-hop
artist if they did that?

David N. Lewis
Assistant Classical Editor, All Music Guide
1168 Oak Valley Dr.
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
734 887 8145
 
Maybe music was not intended to satisfy the curious definiteness of man.
Maybe it is better to hope that music may always be transcendental language
in the most extravagant sense. ~ Charles Ives


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