RARE 1914 Pathé recordings of the Fred Van Eps Banjo Orchestra

Here are two RARE 1914 recordings of the Fred Van Eps Banjo Orchestra playing for the USA company Pathé Freres ... before it existed in the USA !!

 

The Fred Van Eps Banjo Orchestra was among the first artists to record in America for the newly established Pathé Freres Phonograph Company, the American branch of the French firm Pathé Freres Compagnie. "Down Home Rag," "Florida Rag," "My Hindoo Man," "Too Much Ginger" and other titles were cut but since a pressing plant was not yet operational in America masters were sent to Europe so discs could be pressed here. Near spindle holes of early discs is the phrase "Made in France."

 

Soon after these pressings Pathé opened their own plant in Grand Avenue, Brooklyn. New York.

Here is the French pressed recording of Thanks for the Lobster.

THANKS FOR THE LOBSTER Fred Van Eps Banjo Orchestra 1914

and Down Home Rag... "It's a Bear" !

DOWN HOME RAG Fred Van Eps Banjo Orchestra 1914

I like  “Thanks for the Lobster”, but “Down Home Rag” is dire... someone please shoot the clown with the bones and the whistle!!

:-)

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There's a version of "Thanks For The Lobster" with all the bells and whistles...and a cockerel crowing, etc. Actually, I like it better than this version. That rat-a-tat-tat block playing is damned annoying...it would make any self-respecting bear head for the hills!

Yeah that other version of Thanks FTL has a High Intense Lunatic Factor to it. It's a wild and crazy thing!

Trapdoor2 said:

There's a version of "Thanks For The Lobster" with all the bells and whistles...and a cockerel crowing, etc. Actually, I like it better than this version. That rat-a-tat-tat block playing is damned annoying...it would make any self-respecting bear head for the hills!

In that interview Van Eps explains that he did not like using drums.  I wonder if doing the sound effect gags were a way to protest while doing what he was told?

They are really dreadful and I have a hard time believing that it is just my modern ears.

I don't mind the woodblocks so much as they are "bones" like.  Straight snare is OK.

The disturbing and random sounds is what makes them unlistenable to me.

These were some of the first "party" records. Somewhere I read that they were intended to sound like they were recorded during a wild party, etc.

Recording companies often directed artists to play roughly and or eccentrically as it tended to sell more records than 'strait laced' playing. They were trying to depict 'fun' on a recording...some did, some didn't!

Yes ; i think too the recordings with SD ' rolls like this or the 1914 >Victor ' version , FVE " the smiler " are unlistenable  ;

general rule : more the sounds of the instrument are in the treble frenquency ( banjo , ocarina ...etc ) and best there are & vice versa

I guess it wasn't a party until someone pulled out their coc… um, rooster.

LOL. I've been trying to find out what they used for that sound effect back then. The local "Fiddler's Convention" has a craft show and one year somebody was selling paper cups with a string that could be made to sound much like a rooster crowing. Every 8yr old kid had one and you couldn't hear yourself think.

Maybe I don't wanna know!

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