There is something to be said for the Golden Age of Drag Racing and the fact they recorded many of the racing events in the Early 60's. Consider today with all of the technology at your fingertips where you can watch and listen to virtually any current racing event from the comfort of your own home via the internet - the 1960's not so much! I have seen some collections, one being near my home at the Speedway Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska. In it are some pretty amazing album covers not to mention the precious vinyl tucked away neatly inside. These recordings transported you to the event as if you were in the grandstands with the technology available at the time. Not sure how popular these were in the day but they are pretty rare to find today. With that said I have become a collector of these myself and have amassed about 30 albums so far. Any other fellow enthusiasts remember these or have you listened to any?
Pretty cool collection. It would be interesting to listen to a few of those IMO. Back in the 80s a friend who I hired to do some metal finishing on a car I was doing told me he had an album of Mercedes racing cars from the 30s at speed. I had a record player and told him to bring it next time he came over. He would spend hours at night with a pick hammer and file and we played the album really loud which I found to be a hoot. I bet some of your stuff would be just as interesting. Neighbors from surrounding businesses working late, stopped by to see I suppose to see if we were still sober.
Hey 402, That collection is totally amazing. I see several LP albums in your collection that I could use to back up some of my silent 1958-60 drag racing films from Lions, Riverside, and Bakersfield. The one published by Griff Borgeson at Bakersfield would interest me the most. I highly recommend that you start digitizing those valuable albums, starting with your favorites, first. As we all know, if they are not in neutral climate containers or rooms, the recording will age and start to deteriorate. Yes, the more plays also does wonders to the LP grooves. But, once digitized, they will last quite some time even with plenty of replays. Transferring digital copies is simple and can be done easily. There are commercial vendors/shops that have quality reproduction equipment to make the transfers from LPs to external hard drives. (No CDs or DVDs, they are fragile and can't be used like digital hard drive files). For home bodies with plenty of time, there are even home studio turntables with USB connections and programs to hook up to your computer for easy transfers. Those are the choices for most people. In researching the digital quality of commercial vs these high quality USB turntable units, unless anyone is listening to high quality original recordings from the 1960s like this one, the new digital drag racing sounds will have less differences. So, easy to set up, start and walk away for 30 minutes. What is the other one of interest to me? The Winternationals from 1961,63, or 65. Arizona 63, Bakersifield 62-63…etc. I am grateful to several HAMB members that have helped me get started with the digital LP Hot Rod/Drag Race collection from their own files. Thanks, guys… I still have plenty of drag racing films (1958-60 silent 16mm technology) that could use some sounds to make it fun to watch the videos from my files. But, I am totally against sending fragile LP albums through any U.S. Mail or UPS system. Digital files are so much easier to transfer. Jnaki Here is my favorite silent 1959 film collective with the same 1959 race car sound from an old drag racing LP I bought back in 1959 at Wallich’s Music City in Lakewood, CA. I filmed the Sidewinder over many Saturday events. My 16mm color movies were shot with a non sound camera. Only the Pros had the ones with the sound, but they were rarely used, for drag racing, for some reason. The sound was edited from the digital album files into the edited films of the Sidewinder at Lions Dragstrip. 1959 The Sidewinder at Lions (March to August) with added sound of the Sidewinder in Sept 1959 at the Detroit Nationals. (FROM MY OWN DIGITAL FILE COPIES OF THE 1959 ALBUM) https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/hot-rod-album-art.1081349/page-3#post-12278171 Hello, Finally, I am in the search pattern for someone that has these 2 LP albums and or digital copies. (Bakersfield Smokers and the Rods and Rails LP albums.) There are some recordings that would be of interest to me, if not for preservation of history’s sake. LP albums degrade over time, unless they are stored in a temperature controlled room. Digital copies are stored in the cloud, on your computer, or on flash/hard drives, etc. They are preserved for a very long time. CD/DVDs are good, but they are the modern equivalent of the old LP albums. They degrade over time, in addition to the scratches upon continual play and storing away the discs. So, external hard drive, digital files preserve much better. Whatever I am able to find and preserve (films, sounds, photos), I send to various auto museums across the country as a donation for their archives and historic displays. That way, I am giving back to something that got me started in hot rods. It also allows me to make sure that these files are stored away for the public viewing for years and years. Jnaki I have some of my own, old, LP sounds that I have added to silent drag racing films from 1959. Thanks to those that replied and contributed to the effort of getting me those valuable old drag racing sounds. Now, I can keep documenting those films with actual sounds from the actual racers during the time period. So, if you happen to have access to the above two albums, (Bakersfield Smokers and Rods/Rails, etc,) Please PM me, asap. We can work out some kind of trade. Thank you... JNAKI, OCT 24, 2017
Jnaki, I have some of those albums in my collection you seek. You and I are on similar pages, I do plan to convert these to digital form in the future just figured I'd better get the collection sorted out first. A older gentleman I work with put me on to a record player to be able to convert to digital format. https://www.audio-technica.com/cms/turntables/583f30b3a8662772/index.html I know where you can get copies of those records. I will send you a PM.
Hi 402, (OTHER HAMB MEMBERS...) Ok, thanks for that list. quite extensive to say the least. I have been waiting for that Bakersfield LP album to become available. From past experiences, I would rather contact the owners of such albums, instead of purchasing the albums themselves. I have previously had broken albums sent in the mail that were lost causes, so I do not do that type of ordering anymore. There is a HAMB member in So Cal that has the album, but So Cal is big/wide, so getting together is hard to do at the moment. He is trying to get it converted digitally, so we can make the exchange. He offered to mail it to me, but I declined. I would rather go without, instead of losing a part of 1960s history to the U.S. Mail service. Copying the album to digital format is easy to do. That Audio Technica record player/recorder is one of the best. My son purchased one, but it does not have a USB connection. Currently, he has all of our 50s-60s LP albums and enjoys what we used to do back then, except for the modern upgrades. I know this is a wish list starting with the original Griff Borgeson album. I would rather trade someone digitally for those sounds vs. my historic drag racing films. Plus, when I am finished with the project, I will send the finished "SOUND" MOVIES FROM 1958-64, of what ever sounds/films I can coordinate/edit from those old LPs AND my films. Thanks, Jnaki FOR ALL OTHER HAMB MEMBERS: This offer is my way of saying thanks to those interested in having a set of historic drag racing films. So, if you have an album from that list, please let me know and we can get started in the exchange. All it takes is for you to have a digital copy of the album, a CLEAR, legible photo of the cover and the back cover information, so I can coordinate the exact sounds to the race cars from my films. With the newly formatted sounds, it will be a fun thing to have and listen to what we used to hear/SEE at Lions, Bakersfield or other old dragstrips during our time back then. THANK YOU AHEAD OF TIME...SO, START DIGGING AND JOIN THE FRAY. IT IS NOT A "FIRST-ONE-FIRST" CONTEST. (DIGITAL RECORDINGS CAN COME OUT DIFFERENTLY EACH TIME) IF YOU HAVE THE DIGITAL RECORDING, WE WILL MAKE THE EXCHANGE. MY THANKS TO YOU FOR YOUR HELP. PRESERVE HISTORY AND ENJOY YOUR OWN UNHEARD OF "SOUND" FILMS FROM 1958-64. THERE IS NO CHARGE AND I AM NOT SELLING ANYTHING. I AM NOT MAKING ANY PROFIT, JUST SPREADING SOME SO CAL DRAG RACING HISTORY IN ITS ORIGINAL FORMAT AND THE UPGRADED "SOUND" VERSIONS. SAMPLE SOUND ON FILM: Where else can you still hear Junior Thompson making those acceleration sounds and the exact shifting points from 1959?
This is not an album (it does play at 33 1/3). I inherited it from my buddies estate. Its approximately 6 inches square and came in a AMT model kit.
The Jalopy Journal
