If you had any of the jazz stuff you had your eye on, you might want to bump it up on your queue. I can still get the Cleo Brown from Amazon, but the Fats Waller has disappeared for the time being. I assume it'll turn up used somewhere eventually. Although I should see if Amoeba has any of them hanging around their bins.

I was trying to think of things I probably ought to own chronological of because I end up rebuying certain songs with all the comps I'm buying. On that list fall:

The Mills Bros (early mostly)

The Ink Spots (early mostly)

The Boswell Sisters

Will Bradley Orch.

Freddie Slack Orch.

Fats Waller

Louis Prima (although there's definitely some dodgy stuff in his career)

The Foursome (if only anyone'd any issue them)

Cliff Edwards

Bing Crosby

Bob Wills (I've gotten close to achieving this)

Ella Fitzgerald (although I'd never have enough $ to buy it all)

Cab Calloway

And several artists in totally unrelated genres. ( I don't have easy access to check it right now, but I wonder if the Leo Watson track you mention is rather on The History of Jazz: Scat Singing [or something similarly named]? It's a different French label...)

but I wonder if the Leo Watson track you mention is rather on The History of Jazz: Scat Singing

Probably. Actually let me check....

Anthology of Scat Singing: Volume 3 1933-1941 on Masters of Jazz / Media 7.

Cab Calloway, Leo Watson, Tiny Bradshaw, Mills Brothers, Five Spirits of Rhythm, Svend Asmusson.

Oh, since I've got you on the line Spidra, where can I get "Mr. Ghost Is Going To Town" by the Five Jones Boys on CD? You know the version I want - from the Human Orhcestra LP comp. One of the greatest Halloween songs evah!

I need some more early Mills Brothers and Boswell Sisters.

Oh, and speaking of Cliff Edwards (aka Jiminy Cricket), I met a guy working a counter at a used clothing store in New Orleans who was writing a book about him. (Apparently he was a HUGE seller in the 20s.)

Well, it was issued on one of those swell P-Vine comps "That's Jig Time!! - The Best Of Jive Vocal Groups 1" But I got around to digitizing my Human Orchestra LP 2 years ago. ItellyawhutI'mgwineahdo...email me the address you want it sent to and I'll burn you a copy. It might take me just a little while to dig it up since I didn't master it to this laptop. That means I'll have to find my actual CD, but I'm sure I have it somewhere.

(I'd write "eta" but I don't know what it stands for.): Yes, Cliff Edwards was an enormous seller. And he's gaining steadily in popularity now. When I put him on my Random Iconography page, I think I was the only one on the web. Within a year, there were two other pages on him. Now there are many and many uke players name-check him. What people don't realize is that he was as brilliant, if not more brilliant, a vocalist as he was a uke player.

ItellyawhutI'mgwineahdo...email me the address you want it sent to and I'll burn you a copy.

Done! Thank you.

I'd write "eta" but I don't know what it stands for.

Edited To Add

What people don't realize is that he was as brilliant, if not more brilliant, a vocalist as he was a uke player.

Oh yeah, the guy who was writing about him specialized in early crooners and was far more interested in him as a singer.

And I checked my laptop and I've imported into iTunes so I should be able to zap you up a copy in no time. Though I did no special tweaking, my digitization of it sounds better to my ears than the one on Jig Time. They left it at that very high volume that makes it fuzz out a bit when the band first starts wailing. I think it was that way on the Human Orchestra as well, but I toned it down just a wee bit so there's no cut out.

Is there any agreement out there on what "Meat Puppets" means? The Meat Puppets took their name from the song "Meat Puppets," from the album Meat Puppets. I can't make out a single word on that song; I don't know if there is one.

Perhaps the most obvious interpretation is sexual, but for some reason the name has mostly had an abusrdist association with me. Sorta' like, "We're just meat; we're not in control of our lives like we think we are."

Sorta' like, "We're just meat; we're not in control of our lives like we think we are."

That's basically it. As I recall, the phrase "meat puppets" was being bandied about in that era before the band took it. I always presumed there was some underlying Burroughs quote backing it, but I don't know what I base that on.

I guess I could just email Derrick Bostrom and ask him since he contributed to the book.

It's from that famous William Gibson book, IIRC.

ETA: no, I'm apparently wrong, the group predated Necromancer.

The book's name is Neuromancer.