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Do Not Sell At Any Price: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt for the World's Rarest 78rpm
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Located in: Eugene, Oregon, United States
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Estimated between Fri, 10 May and Tue, 14 May to 43230
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Item specifics
- Book Title
- Do Not Sell At Any Price: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt for the World'
- Publication Year
- 2014
- Format
- hardcover
- ISBN
- 9781451667059
- Language
- English
- Publisher
- Scribner
- Topic
- History & Criticism, Genres & Styles / Blues, Records
About this product
Product Information
The untold story of a quirky and important subculture: The world of 78rpm records and the insular community that celebrates them--by acclaimed music critic and author Amanda Petrusich, who contributes regularly to Pitchfork , The Oxford American , and The New York Times . Before MP3s, CDs, and cassette tapes, even before LPs or 45s, the world listened to music on 78rpm records--those fragile, 10-inch shellac discs. While vinyl records have enjoyed a renaissance in recent years, good 78s are exponentially harder to come by and play. A recent eBay auction for the only known copy of a particular record topped out at $37,100. Do Not Sell at Any Price explores the rarified world of the 78rpm record--from the format's heyday to its near extinction--and how collectors and archivists are working frantically to preserve the music before it's lost forever. Through fascinating historical research and beguiling visits with the most prominent 78 preservers, Amanda Petrusich offers both a singular glimpse of the world of 78 collecting and the lost backwoods blues artists whose 78s from the 1920s and 1930s have yet to be found or heard by modern ears. We follow the author's descent into the oddball fraternity of collectors--including adventures with Joe Bussard, Chris King, John Tefteller, Pete Whelan, and more--who create and follow their own rules, vocabulary, and economics and explore the elemental genres of blues, folk, jazz, and gospel that gave seed to the rock, pop, country, and hip-hop we hear today. From Thomas Edison to Jack White, Do Not Sell at Any Price is an untold, intriguing story of preservation, loss, obsession, art, and the evolution of the recording formats that have changed the ways we listen to (and create) music.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Scribner
ISBN-10
1451667051
ISBN-13
9781451667059
eBay Product ID (ePID)
175724149
Product Key Features
Language
English
Topic
History & Criticism, Genres & Styles / Blues, Records
Dimensions
Item Length
8.4in
Item Height
1in
Item Width
5.5in
Item Weight
13.3 Oz
Additional Product Features
Book Title
Do Not Sell at Any Price : the Wild, Obsessive Hunt for the World's Rarest 78 RPM Records
Lc Classification Number
Ml111.5.P48 2014
Reviews
This is American history as the tale of an American obsession-the record collectors, be they scholars, scroungers, hoarders, or heroes. In this brilliant book, Petrusich hits the road with these junk-shop blues Ahabs around the country-she makes you feel the frenzy of the chase, on a crazed, loving quest to rescue lost music from oblivion., One of the best things I've read about that inexplicably, but endlessly, fascinating group of people, the so-called Serious Collectors of 78s. Petrusich burrows into not just their personalities but the hunger that unites and drives their obsessions. She writes elegantly, and makes you think, and most important,manages to hang onto her skepticism in the midst of her own collecting quest., This is an adventure story: Amanda in the Land of MagicalShellac. Petrusich, a warm and witty writer and longtime music journalist,encounters the eccentric, soulful characters who've devoted their lives thearcane practice of hunting old records, shares stories of great lost musicians,and ponders the philosophical issues that make collecting more than just afancy version of hoarding. Readers will be delighted to become her confidanteson this life-changing journey., Amanda Petrusich's fascinating and insightful journey into the arcane netherworld of 78 records and its bring-'em-back-alive collectors brims with the joy and passion of discovery, along with a heartfelt affection for those who keep alight the flame of our musical heritage., Captivating...Whether you're already a 78 aficionado, a casual record collector, a crate-digger, or just someone like me who enjoys listening to music, you're going to love this book...Elegant and witty., Do Not Sell at Any Price tracks generations of obsessive collectors who dedicated their lives to the holy grail of blues and country music-78rpm records. Inspired by collectors like R. Crumb and Harry Smith, Amanda Petrusich wants each record 'to keep playing forever, from somewhere deep inside my skull.' Her book is essential reading for all who love American music., Do Not Sell enticingly chronicles [Petrusich's] immersion in a subset of record collectors...Her compelling, finely drawn portraits such as James McKune and Harry Smith amount to a rich study., [A] thoughtful, entertaining history of obsessed music collectors and their quest for rare early 78 rpm records...Fascinating., Petrusich wisely and insightfully goes beyond just documenting these collectors' peculiarities, as she also traces the history of early American recordings and their legacy in contemporary music. Perhaps most powerfully, the book serves as a treatise on the act of collecting itself, probing the psychological, social, and cultural implications arising from these pursuits of passion., I don't know hillbilly from Blind Willie, but I loved Amanda Petrusich's archaeology of an almost-lost world of American music. Do Not Sell at Any Price is like a well-loved 78: it pops, it crackles, it seduces utterly., [Petrusich] weaves her interviews with personalobservations and just the right amount of dry humor to make us feel as if we'relooking (and listening) over her shoulder as she travels up and down the EastCoast...a propulsive read., Full of strange, even beautiful, tales of obsession....Even someone who knows little or nothing about 78s will find Petrusich's book an incredibly enjoyable read., Some live for love, some for money. Some for wickedness, some for this god or that. Others for the gift of every blessed moment, others for nothing at all. But what of those who live for-no: whose lives are consumed by-old thin-pressed plates of shellac with round paper labels and little holes in the middle? Is theirs a pursuit of pleasure gone awry, or is it the stuff of psychopathology? Step into this prose, which flows as clear, as beautifully, as deliciously as if from an underground spring. It is not the tale of lunacy and mania herein, but the telling of it that sets it closer on the shelf to John Fowles's The Collector than to the usual junk by, for, and about collectors., Ms. Petrusich goes on a pilgrimage to see and hear firsthand the legendary holdings of the top collectors...[she] brings a discerning eye to her profiles., Do Not Sell at Any Price is full of little epiphanies ... [Petrusich's] persistence pays off in the form of stories and observations that humanize the collectors and their pursuit ... [Petrusich] effectively uses the prism of her personal experience to analyze the aesthetics of collecting, consuming and enjoying music., An engaging and deeply personal journey, for both the writer and her subjects, and an adroit disquisition on the nature of this distinctly American form of insatiable lust., Petrusich enters the dusty realms of 78 rpm record junkies, and like Rolling Stones chronicler Stanley Booth, catches her subjects' disease. But she's mostly interested in the emotional heart of things, and the old music's strange power. An entertaining road tale and moving self-interrogation that dives deep for answers, sometimes literally., "Oneof the best things I've read about that inexplicably, but endlessly,fascinating group of people, the so-called Serious Collectors of 78s. Petrusichburrows into not just their personalities but the hunger that unites and drivestheir obsessions. She writes elegantly, and makes you think, and most important,manages to hang onto her skepticism in the midst of her own collecting quest."-, This book is so alive to its subject, to the grail of the music.... Petrusich will make you desperate not only to hear the records she's writing about...but to feel the way they make her feel, to feel the mask dissolve on your own face.|9781451667059|, "A profound rumination on the idea of recording, asking what it means to capture sound, to be moved by it, and ultimately, to obsess over it. With "Do Not Sell at Any Price," we have an astounding new writer not of musical criticism but of longform narrative prose. When Petrusich writes about music, she is akin Keats writing about a Greek vase: She is telling us what it means to be human beings adrift in time.", A travelogue into the most beautiful corners of obsession. Petrusich is a top-flight music writer-meticulous, generous, and deeply informed. But she's also a terrific curator of human subjects, from the lovesick collectors who make up the bulk of her narrative to the towering, still-shadowy names that grace these circular hunks of shellac... Do Not Sell At Any Price is as idiosyncratic, alluring and totally alive as the scratchy sides that consume it., Petrusich's personal journey through the lives and legacies of the 'Blues Mafia' reshuffles their twice-told stories and makes of them something new...excellent., In this entertaining book about the finite universe of oddballs who scrounge frantically to collect the shellac fossils the rest of us consider worthless, you get all the joy of discovery without having to grub through boxes at garage sales.... Petrusich proves an engaging, frequently funny tour guide.
Copyright Date
2014
Format
Hardcover
Target Audience
Trade
Dewey Decimal
780.26/6
Publication Year
2014
Dewey Edition
23
Illustrated
Yes
Genre
Antiques & Collectibles, Music
Number of Pages
272 Pages
Item description from the seller
Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing.
eBay item number:315303488019
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Item location:
Eugene, Oregon, United States
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| Postage and handling | To | Service | Delivery*See Delivery notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free postage | United States | Economy Shipping | Estimated between Fri, 10 May and Tue, 14 May to 43230 |
| US $4.99 (approx S$ 6.73) | United States | Expedited Postage (USPS Priority Mail®) | Estimated between Thu, 9 May and Mon, 13 May to 43230 |
| Handling time |
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| Will usually ship within 1 business day of receiving cleared payment. |
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| After receiving the item, contact seller within | Refund will be given as |
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| 30 days after the buyer receives it | Money Back |
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i received how to eat to live but not the other one