[Dixielandjazz] Discographical punctuation

[Marek Boym]

So now I know who the culprit is!
Thanks, Dick - your labour has enabled me to find the Stopm Off records I
wished to play or order.
At first, I did not understand the importance of that index, but when Bob
Erdos issued more and more recordings by the same band, knowing even one
tune on a certain issue enabled me to locate it in the catalogue, and then
- in my own (non-computerized) catalogues.
Cheers


On 20 June 2013 18:13, Dick Baker <djml at dickbaker.org> wrote:

> 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<http://dickbaker.org/stompoff/index.pdf>
>
>
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