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Topic: Why So Many Anonymous Hawaiian LPs ? |
Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 3 Apr 2010 4:21 pm |
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The average Hawaiian LP seems to be composed of a mixture of various artists in various styles, with no details of who they are or who is playing what. It's as if the record industry has decided that there is just one style of Hawaiian music, and anyone who wants to buy an Hawaiian LP isn't that discriminating ... just throw a bunch of numbers together. 
I looked through 40 Hawaiian albums in my collection. Only 8 mentioned who was playing steel, and most didn't even say who was singing. Some of the cover notes didn't even mention whether there was a steel guitar in the lineup at all. And I'm not talking about just a generic "Music of Hawaii" sort of album. Even LPs by known stars often completely disregard the band. |
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Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
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Posted 3 Apr 2010 4:42 pm
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Alan:
A couple of thoughts:
The same thing is true of LPs in general, particularly outside of jazz. Going from memory, country and pop LPs didn't list musicians in the 50s, 60s, or in most cases the 70s. At some point in the 70s, I think you began to see personnel on major label C and W LPs out of Nashville.
I dunno--do the latest CDs by Madonna or your average Top 40 act list personnel? Or do they have actual live musicians on Top 40 stuff nowadays? I'm uncontaminated by that loop.
Secondly, I think Hawaiian LPs are typically targeted at dilettantes who want background music for their next "luau" or root canal--as opposed to serious listeners who would know Gabby Pahinui from Gabby Hayes. This is particularly true for LPs circa 1950-1980, rather than for CD reissues of vintage material, which may be more targeted at serious listeners who may be interested in those details.
Also, many older Hawaiian LP are on budget type labels, which are notorious for giving no details at all, using bogus names, etc. Anything to get the product out the door with as little expense as possible. I'm thinking in particular of things like that great series of LPs on Crown by groups such as "The Polynesians", with knockout steel guitar by Bernie Kaai, Bob Nichols, etc. Little detail provided, to my consternation.
But I know there are still Hawaiian CDs out there with little detail. I commiserate with you. |
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Bill Hatcher
From:
Atlanta Ga. USA
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Posted 3 Apr 2010 5:04 pm
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Most of those were just record productions....a producer would get a job order from a record company or a producer would get the record together and sell it to a label. The players would usually be just regular studio guys.
If the project were lucky enough to have some authentic players from Hawaii, they would more than likely not be known by the end users anyway, so the record would just have some pretty pictures of hula girls and such.
It was just the record biz as usual. |
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Bill Creller
From:
Saginaw, Michigan, USA (deceased)
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Posted 4 Apr 2010 12:14 am
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| There were a lot of cassette tapes put out like that also. |
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