Product description

People Take Warning! Murder Ballads & Disaster Songs 1913-1938

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Average customer rating: 5.0

Binding : Audio CD
EAN : 0856075001875
Label : Tompkins Square
Manufacturer : Tompkins Square
Publisher : Tompkins Square
Release date : 2007-09-25
Title : People Take Warning! Murder Ballads & Disaster Songs 1913-1938
Format : Box set
Original release date : 2007-09-25
Studio : Tompkins Square
MPN : 1875
Number of discs : 3

Editorial reviews

Album Description
"In the late 1920's and early 1930's, the Depression gripped the Nation. It was a time when songs were tools for living. A whole community would turn out to mourn the loss of a member and to sow their songs like seeds. This collection is a wild garden grown from those seeds."
- Tom Waits, from the Introduction
Songs of death, destruction and disaster, recorded by black and white performers from the dawn of American roots recording are here, assembled together for the first time. Whether they document world-shattering events like the sinking of the Titanic or memorialize long forgotten local murders or catastrophes, these 70 recordings - over 30 never before reissued - are audio messages in a bottle reflecting a lost world where age old ballads rubbed up against songs inspired by the day's headlines.
Produced and annotated by the Grammy winning team of Christopher King and Henry "Hank" Sapoznik with an introduction by Tom Waits, the accompanying 48-page three-CD anthology designed by Grammy award winning Susan Archie brims with many eye-popping historic images never before reproduced.

Customer reviews
review by: ggggggggggggggwiz date: 2008-04-25 rating:
Remember Us
When I drive down the road in my 2006 Honda Accord and have this collection playing on my six changer cd player I feel like it's 1922 in Alabama and I'm in my Ford jalopy listening to some great radio station from the past. These songs not only tell stories of the past they make you feel for people you have never met. It's a great collection.

review by: happi travler date: 2008-04-07 rating:
love tose old songs from my generation
Received these cds just before a trip from VA to TX.
Took me over 200 miles of happy interstate driving
(with nary a disaster)!

review by: Marigold date: 2008-02-19 rating:
Brilliant & Creative Historical Collection
On a recommendation from a friend, I picked this up even though I only own the Harry Smith Anthology and really no other reissue collections. I'm now sold! This is at least on the same level as the Harry Smith collection if not much better. This set is a thoughtfully constructed, almost visionary collection of pre-1938 recordings, with each one of the recordings demonstrating something lost in the current "musical vocabulary" that is being put out now. Besides sounding fantastic and looking great, the package also includes deeply revealing annotations and notes by Hank Sapoznik, Christopher King and Tom Waits. I've listened to the set for hours and read and re-read the notes and tried to take in all the compelling graphics. It is indeed a singular experience and a true artistic success.

review by: date: 2008-02-15 rating:
repetative,but interesting
An interesting peak into early 20th century culture.The packaging is top notch.As for the music,it sounds like 20 or 30 versions of the same song,especially given the primitive recording techinques.I might suggest to Tompkins Square they re-record these song using modern artists ie Steve Earle,Dwight Yokum etc.Sort of like the Phil Alvin "Lost Songs"lp from 1985.
In short ,historically interesting,musically tedious.

review by: Polarhound date: 2007-12-24 rating:
Wow. Just. Wow.
I can not think of a better set to have received as a Christmas gift. From Waits' introduction through the transfer quality of the audio all the way down to the panoramic pictures in the book, this set is a must-have for any serious music collector or lover.

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