[Dixielandjazz] Discographical punctuation

[Dick Baker]

Colleagues,

In discussing evolution, we get confused because of the flexible 
meaning of the word "theory": To laymen it means "guess"; to 
scientists it's a rigorous system for testing and proving or 
disproving hypotheses.

Likewise, "index."  If you're talking about forcing a mindless 
computer to place words in good alphabetical order based on its rigid 
rules, then you may indeed want to remove all puncuation marks (or 
even spaces between words) to get the job done.  For some purposes, 
that's all you want.

But "index" can also mean an accurate listing of the items in 
question.  Song titles, like books, are copyrighted, published 
documents--published either in the form of sheet music or in the form 
of records with labels.

The whole Stomp Off Index project started back in the early 1980s, 
when I finally got a computer powerful enough to enter all my LPs 
into a database and ask it for all my recordings of any particular 
tune.  I was shocked to discover all the variations in titles and 
composer credits I found across different records, even within the 
Stomp Off label.  When I mentioned this to Bob Erdos, he was 
dismayed.  He'd ask each bandleader recording for him to provide a 
list of titles and composers, and that's what he'd print.  He asked 
me to research the discrepancies and come up with a list that is 
accurate to the best of our ability.  I've been working at it ever since.

But the Index aims at accuracy, not computerization, so it is a word 
processor file that I edit by hand.  Therefore, you'll find "'Deed I 
Do" in its correct place between "Decatur Street Tutti" and "Deep 
Creek."  You'll find "12th Street Rag" between "Twelfth Street Blues" 
and "Twenty Million People."  And you'll find "(I Got a Woman, Crazy 
for Me) She's Funny That Way" listed under 'S', allowing you to find 
it where you'd expect to look for it, but informing you that it 
actually was published with a leading parenthetical subtitle.  Also, 
whenever the popularly used title differs substantially enough from 
the "correct" title to cause confusion, I've put in cross-references 
to lead the user to the correct place: look for "I'm a Yankee Doodle 
Dandy" and you'll find "(see The Yankee Doodle Boy)."

Bottom line: The Stomp Off Index tries to be extremely accurate and 
complete, not computerized.  There's a place for both, which is why 
you'll occasionally find me here asking for arcana to be found on 
sheet music or original record labels.




--Dick Baker
Working on an updated version of the Stomp Off Records Tune Titles 
and Composers Index
See working draft at http://dickbaker.org/stompoff/index.pdf