Percussive Oompah (Rudi Bohn and his Band) — Self-titled
Author: tracysigler | Posted: October 11th, 2007 | | Tags: 1962, music, Oompah, polka, Rudi Bohn, vinyl | 10 Comments »
Percussive Oompah (Rudi Bohn and his Band) -- Self-titled
- Artist: Percussive Oompah (Rudi Bohn and his Band)
- Title: Self-titled
- Year: 1962?
- Format: Vinyl 12 in.
- Rating (1-10): 6
- Owner: Tracy
- Acquired: Thrift store?
- Keeper: Yes
Here’s some more lovin’ from the Oktoberfest oven. I’ve had this record forever and kept it in “various,” but I now realize that the name of the performing group is “Percussive Oompah (Rudi Bohn and his Band).” This one is instrumental. There are some, at the time, contemporary songs like “Mack the Knife” in addition to more traditional stuff like In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus.” It’s all pretty decent and I enjoy it because it just seems so strange to me. But the cover is why I had to have it. Brew in the brass horn makes me happy. And speaking of the cover, do you get the feeling the label really wanted you to know about “Phase 4 Stereo”? Inside the gatefold there’s even a diagram of how it works, along with painfully long explanations about how it was recorded, including the make and model of the microphones!
But wait! There’s more… This stuff always brings up stories of when Mary’s family was stationed in Germany during the late 1970s. Mary laments how in the prime of her childhood she was deprived of some crucial elements of American culture. The top three being Pop Rocks, Bubble Yum, and Charlie’s Angels. They had the American magazines though, so they did know what they were missing. On the other hand, they had a “beerman.” That’s right, a man, who delivers beer, regularly, right to your house. I’m not old enough to have ever seen even a milkman, and something tells beermen never existed in this country. Mary’s dad got to be friends with the beerman. On Saturdays the beerman would bring Mary’s dad beer, my father-in-law would give the beerman a cigar, and they would hang out for a bit, drinking and smoking. Those were the days.
Hey I have this album, but my inside is completely different. Still full of garbage about Phase 4 though.
I love this album! My dad bought this at the AFEX at Torrejon AFB ouside Madrid Spain in 1962. It still has the price tag of $2.35. I have that plus several others in that phase4stereo series. Other labels were doing similar albums that I find equally entertaining. I am uploading all these to imeem.com. where I have listed my page as my webxite. I hope you are getting a big kick from yhem.
My Dad had this album, I was just going to transfer it to CD for our slightly late Oktoberfest party. Mine is just like the picture above inside. My friend who’s hosting the party even found a free download once I scaned the cover and emailed it over so he could see what I’m bringing.
Also, Dad told me about going to Oskosh, WI. back in the early 1940’s. Chief Oshkosh beer was delivered fresh each morning to a limited local area in what looked like milk bottles.
Fresh beer on the porch! Great story John. Thanks for sharing.
I am transfering this to CD this morning, and noticed that the sides are listed wrong on the back of the jacket. The label on the record matches the number engraved in the run-out groove. STE-020371-2D is labeled side one and STE-020372-2D is labeled side two. That’s why I say it’s the jacket, which lists “Mack The Knife” as the first tune on side two, that is wrong.
If you listen from vinyl, you can hear how the master was assembled. After the tune fades out, there will be a noticable drop in hiss level. Listening closer, you can hear a thump right at the beginning and end of where the noise drops. The thumps are splices where the tape was cut then put back together using adhesive tape applied to the “back”, or side that doesn’t touch the head. The quiet section is paper leader tape that was commonly used between selections. It served several purposes. It was easy to find in rewind or fast forward. You could write in it to identify the track or take. Light would shine through, some equipment used this to control the cutting lathe.
Interesting to note, if quieter tape recorders existed back then, the noise level of the whole record could have been as low as it is between tracks!
Great insights into the world of making records. Thanks for adding that.
haha great!
I am from germany and never heard of the beerman.
but i was never at the oktoberfest also…
We should reinvent the beerman immediately!
I live in an apartment building where people chuck all sorts of things away in the garbage room in the basement (half the stuff in my apartment is perfectly good, often brand new items that someone threw away. Anyway, just got a stack of LPs someone threw out, and this album was among them. One of my little hobbies is collecting albums as MP3s off the internet, and also converting anything I can get my hands on to MP3 (19,000+ so far). So right now I’m playing this album on a Hitachi HT 40-S direct drive table, through my Pioneer SX-980, and a patch cord from the headphone jack runs into the back of the Creative Labs Audigy 2, captured as a .wav by GoldWave and ultimately saved as an MP3. This is a great sounding album, no matter whether you like that type of music or not (I generally avoid it). The sheer variety of percussion and other sounds on it almost qualifies it as a “sound effects” album. I’m playing it back on a 5.1 set of speakers, so I get sort of the spirit of quadrophonic sound. Although I usually get rid of the vinyl once I have a good rip, I’ll keep this one!
Thanks for the comments Rick. I don’t play this a lot but it’s a fun record, and it seems to annoy some people which makes it even more fun. Around our house a lot of vinyl gets ripped to MP3, but I personally love playing vinyl records. I rarely listen to music as a secondary activity anyhow. Best, Tracy
By the way, “Mack The Knife” =is= the first track on side 2 here. And I’d vote for any politician that will enable beer to be delivered. Sure beats milk (unless it comes in them organic, natural containers).