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Shellac Attack
24th Feb 2017		78 RPM
Laurel And Hardy - Laurel And Hardy / Laurel And Hardy In The Dance Of The Cuckoos		Caveat: I'm citing what should be factual, but I can't find my Rust entertainment discography and therefore can't provide specific discographical information. But here's some insight into these two terrific performances and recordings made by the great duo. I'm referring to the two sides as a pair of performances and recordings because they weren't done contiguously. I don't recall the master #s, but there was one missing between the two sides. I think that they had "CAX" prefixes. For example, side one would have been CAX-1. Side 2 would've been CAX-2. But if it was 'CAX-3' there was no hypothetical CAX-2. The contents of that missing master weren't cited in Rust's compendium perhaps because it wasn't indicated in the recording log. If, without touching your volume and tone controls, you listen carefully to Ollie's voice at the end of side 1 and the beginning of side 2, you'll hear that their tonalities are very different. They should be the same. But on side 2 his voice is much more clear and powerful. Comparing his voice between the inner most grooves of side 1 to the outer most of side 2 would yield a false comparison because as all of you must know, the velocities of outer most grooves are much faster than those of the innermost ones. They're both turning at the same rpm, but their speeds are very different: the faster the speed, the better the high frequency response. "remember Stanley, speed is distance divided by time. Referring to an rpm as a speed is utterly sophomoric". I'm stopping for a moment to twiddle my tie to be sure that you understand this rule of math & geometry.

At the very beginning of the second side, Ollie starts by saying something like "ladies and gentlemen, this is again Laurel and Hardy." Stan then cuts in with "in two parts" after which Ollie gruffly and abruptly says "will you shut up?" The dialog eventually concludes by Ollie introducing the orchestra. Stan gets in the last word by saying "good bye" either before the rousing orchestral performance that follows, or right after it.

Getting back to technicalities, Ollie's proximity to the microphone is self-evidently different than when the dialog stopped at the outer most grooves of side one. His spacing and orientation to the mic had moved enough to change the audio. Also, perhaps the recording level and equalization were changed. These possibilities suggest that it wasn't just an interval to set a new blank wax disk on the lathe to continue recording. For whatever reason, something else apparently occurred in that interval. Technically, they're the typically superb examples of what English Columbia and HMV were recording at that time. If you're lucky enough to obtain and or listen to a laminated (versus homogenous) pressing, given equal wear, the former will have much less noise and distortion. Also, the reference on the two labels to Hal Roach should be self evident. But MGM? That's because MGM was then the distributing company for Roach. That's why, in original (uncut) versions, Leo the lion roars prior to the Hal Roach title & theme music.

I think that the recordings were done in August, 1932 when Ollie & Stan (let's give Ollie first citation for a change) were on their momentous trip in Europe. They were swamped by fans at every possible opportunity for the public to get near them. I don't know if they appeared on the BBC. If so, then theoretically, a recording could've been made of that (those?) broadcasts. My head swirls at that ecstatic thought. But this was not their only recording. As Ollie might say, "now tut tut tut, we made another recording about 12 years later." It's a war-time half hour preview (aka audition) for NBC. It lacks commercials and might've only been used closed circuit, or via disks provided to NBC executives and potential sponsors to evaluate the concept's potential. It bears an unhappy similarity to their pathetic post-Roach features.

A final point: the playback of the disk used for the "Sons Of The Desert" 45 was terrible. It was not remotely equivalent to the superb quality of the originals. Well, I see that I'm running into the inner most grooves of this disk. My tonearm's about to thrown off of the record by the turntable's amazing ability to know when time's up.



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