Multiple "takes"

[jdavishart]

Picked up 2 of my favorite DD's today that I thought might be in better shape than my copies: 51752, To-night's My Night With Baby & Poor Papa (Markels' Orch.) and 51405, Glad Eyes & Bring Back Those Rock-A-Bye Baby Days (Congo Four). "Tonight's...": I had C & got B. "Poor Papa": had B & got B. "Glad Eyes": had C & got B. "Bring Back...": had B & got A.
It's amazing to me that Edison allowed the performers to approve a take to be released -- & then issued any of them when new ones were needed! Makes collecting a lot more interesting!
Love the xylophone stuff on both "Glad Eyes", but "B" seems a little more energetic -- he was probably tired by "C"!
The differences are subtle, but they're definitely there -- sometimes just placement of the instruments.
What a great hobby!
Would like to say how sorry I am to hear about Bob Johnson's (Mr. Victor's) death. He was a great source of information, parts, & phonographs. Always a nice guy to deal with. My best to his family.

[martinola]

Hi jdavishart!

I think having multiple takes was less a matter of having bad or "not so good" performances as it was to provide extra masters in case the original "A" version masters wore out. Later on, magnetic tape mastering made this practice unnecessary.

I agree that it makes things more interesting!

Regards,
Martin

[wagnerian]

The Edison Company seemed to have a policy of issuing all (or most) takes without any concern for their artistic merit or the preferences of the artistes concerned. The alleged reason the Russian pianist Rachmaninov parted company from Edison was due to this policy of issuing all his takes; good, bad and indifferent. That coupled with the fact that Edison suggested to him that he was not much of a pianist but was a "pounder" and if he wanted to hear a proper pianist he should listen to Ferdinand Himmelreich! Needless to say, Rachmaninov took his talents elsewhere making a fortune for himself and the Victor company in the process.

Tim W-W