Re: [ARSCLIST] the origin of scratchin'

[David Lewis <davlew@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I beg to differ...this is just my opinion, but I think it has some validity.

I "invented" scratching just as much as the NY DJs did, and probably earlier
than them. So did countless others - scratching is not an invention so much
as it is a discovery, like discovering electricity, or America. Any kid with
an "N" speed on their turntable who decided to land there and spin the
record around by hand for fun made this same discovery - no doubt many of
you discovered the same thing at some point. Even before I had a turntable
with an N speed I had a toy hippo that came equipped with a pin in the wheel
the size of a phono spindle; I would pull the tone arm away from the phono
and spin the record around on my hippo. In my case, I don't have any
recordings of myself doing that kind of work before 1980, but I was doing it
in the 70s and started fooling around with turntables from the time I was 7
- that was in the sixties. I certainly didn't hear any "scratching"
elsewhere until the early 1980s, outside of what's mentioned below:

In John Cage's "Cartridge Music" (1962) Cage and David Tudor inserted twigs
and other non-needles into phonograph carts and used them to play slinkys
and things like that. Not the same thing, but related - it certainly sounds
similar.

David N. Lewis
Assistant Classical Editor, All Music Guide

Maybe music was not intended to satisfy the curious definiteness of man.
Maybe it is better to hope that music may always be transcendental language
in the most extravagant sense. ~ Charles Ives


-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bob Olhsson
Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2007 10:31 AM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] the origin of scratchin'

-----Original Message-----
>From James L Wolf: "...Grandwizard Theodore and Cool Herc are definitely
among the originators of scratching and other aspects of DJing/turntablism.
But I'm pretty sure there were other DJs in the early to mid-70s who
participated in the Bronx dance and party scene that gave birth to hip-hop
as we know it now..."

A fascinating tidbit I learned from one of the Dictators is that New York
punk rock was a product of the very same crowd. It all traces to one
community arts center where everybody rehearsed and hung out together.

Bob Olhsson Audio Mastery, Nashville TN
Mastering, Audio for Picture, Mix Evaluation and Quality Control
Over 40 years making people sound better than they ever imagined!
615.385.8051 http://www.hyperback.com