Help Me Find This Songbook

Subject: Help Me Find This Songbook
From: Joe Offer
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 11:44 PM

As a serious songbook addict, I thought it might be a good idea to keep a thread going, telling people what I'm looking for.
Right now, I have two main objectives, both from Vance Randolph:

• The four-volume set of Ozark Folksongs, target price about $100
  
• Blow the Candle Out, the second volume of "unprintable" songs.

Oh, and I'm also looking for reasonably-priced volumes of the Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, maximum $25 per volume.

I suppose folkies shouldn't be competitive, but it really bugs me when I think Rich R and Dicho are getting an edge on my collection.

Can anybody help me with these, or would you like to post your own requests? Please send me leads by personal message, so Dicho and RichR don't find out about them...

-Joe Offer-

---

I have them all now, and I just got a copy of Huntington's Songs the Whalemen Sang for $13 through Bookfinder this week.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Help Me Find This Songbook
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 30 Apr 02 - 12:17 AM

I paid $125 for the Randolph volumes. I think there was another set at the same price. Some wanted up to $400 but this is for the 1949 first ed. I found the lower priced sets through Abebooks.com. I also use Alibris.com. Both have many dealers listing through them. Note: My set is dated 1980 and is "new" in condition. In the original 1949 ed, there are about six more songs. I would like to get these texts which were removed. I wonder why.

Subject: RE: Help Me Find This Songbook
From: wysiwyg
Date: 30 Apr 02 - 12:20 AM

And I want the Louvin Brothers songbook they mention at the end of a sound file I got somewhere or other... I believe the book is, "Songs That Tell a Story." I don't even care if I OWN it, I just want to look at it and know that someone around here can post from it!

~Susan

Subject: RE: Help Me Find This Songbook
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 30 Apr 02 - 09:12 PM

I just missed a set of Ozark Folksongs at a good price a few weeks ago. (Curse, swear; never mind; I got the 1974 two-volume set of Cecil Sharp, which is much harder to find). Be sure, if you can, to go for the first edition of Randolph, not the recent reprint, as some songs are omitted in the later printing, due, I believe, to copyright problems.

Subject: RE: Help Me Find This Songbook
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 30 Apr 02 - 10:02 PM

Randolph, Ozark Folksongs
Very little, and no folksongs, omitted fron the 2nd edition of Ozark Folksongs by Randolph. Omitted are 13 songs, 6 in the DT or threads at Mudcat (maybe more, sometimes I am DT and Forum challenged):
I have no loving mother now
Why do you bob your hair, girls? (In the DT and thread 11005)
The spelling song
The ship that is sailing by
If I was on some foggy mountain top (In the DT)
Once I had a sweetheart (In the DT)
How sadly my heart yearns toward you
Mother, the queen of my heart (In the DT)
A distant land to roam
Moonlight and skies
Turnip greens (Thread 16526)
Beautiful, beautiful brown eyes (DT and thread 6744)
He kept a-kissin' on

All of these are early tin pan alley or modern country songs which are readily available elsewhere. I'll let McGrath spend his fortune on the 1st.

Take your pick- The 1st ed. at up to $400 or more, or the 2nd ed. in new condition at $125.

Subject: RE: Help Me Find This Songbook
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 30 Apr 02 - 10:48 PM

I just missed a decent first edition set (ex library) at around $90, so it can be done: you just have to be quicker than I was! Alibris are probably ok if you're in the USA and buying from abroad, but their markup can be huge; being in the UK, I wouldn't touch them unless I was desperate. Many dealers on Alibris also list their stock on ABE or Bookfinder, and you can generally buy direct from them for considerably less.

Subject: RE: Help Me Find This Songbook
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 30 Apr 02 - 11:03 PM

You may have a problem with Abebooks and Alibris in Britain (VAT or something?). I have bought a number of books from English and Australian dealers through them, because the prices asked were cheaper than listings in the States at the time I checked.

Subject: RE: Help Me Find This Songbook
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Apr 02 - 11:17 PM

I got 3 volumes (those I didn't have of the 1st 5) of the Frank C. Brown North Carolina collection via www.bookfinder.com. I've looked for a long time, and am still looking for that 1974 Cecil Sharp collection (edited by Maud Karpeles).

Subject: RE: Help Me Find This Songbook
From: raredance
Date: 30 Apr 02 - 11:46 PM

JOe, This is being sneaky right out in public. You probably thought I wouldn't notice the thread. You have been found out. I gave you a heads up on a couple volumes of the Brown Collection (FCBCNCF)not too long ago. I guess you weren't quick enough.

rich r (still looking to complete my collection of "Folksongs of Central West Virginia")

Subject: RE: Help Me Find This Songbook
From: Les B
Date: 30 Apr 02 - 11:50 PM

I've just started to think seriously about expanding my garden variety collection of dog-eared folk song books and get some of the classics you all are discussing.

My questions are: will these be considered 'collectable' and maintain or increase their price - and how do you store these gems - just in a regular book case or a special humidity controlled, termite free room, or what ??

Subject: RE: Help Me Find This Songbook
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 01 May 02 - 12:02 AM

We don't pay VAT on books in the UK, and I'd recommend ABE to anyone (I've bought from Australia, too, at good prices); it's just Alibris I don't like. Don't care to buy through a third party on the other side of the planet something that I could get for half the price if the dealer (here) wasn't contractually obliged to sell only to them so they can then re-sell it to me, with two sets of international shipping and their mark-up added. As I said, useful in other parts of the world, perhaps. Not here.

Subject: RE: Help Me Find This Songbook
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 May 02 - 12:26 AM

Oh, by all means, in the high tech controlled light-free environment. And, horrors, don't alter their condition by turning on the lights and consulting them.
Brown vols. show up periodically at about $25 each for the ones with songs and ballads (Vol. 4-5); I picked them up recently at that price.
I still prefer the newer Randolph edition at $125 with the nice dustjackets and no marks to a used 1st ed. for not much less. How long they will stay in pristine condition is another matter. The very few missing copyrighted songs make me no nevermind.
WYSIWYG, I picked up a copy of "Songs That Tell A Story" for $3.00. For you only, I will resell for $100 (higher to others). Cackle, cackle!
It is only 75 pages, and I will copy (if it is the right one). It ain't rare, but most bookdealers don't list items like this because there ain't profit.

Subject: RE: Help Me Find This Songbook
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 May 02 - 12:49 AM

I buy songbooks because I want to use them, so I don't look for first editions. I intend to keep the books for a lifetime, so I don't really care if they increase in value.
I don't want to pay inflated prices, and it really ticks me off how collectors have inflated prices of books like Bronson, so that ordinary musicians can't get access to them.
I keep my songbooks in a bookshelf, where I can use them. One thing I'd like to do, though, is kill the mildew smell on some of my books. Opening some of them can be a real experience.
Whew!
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Help Me Find This Songbook
From: Anglo
Date: 01 May 02 - 01:43 AM

To come back to the original topic, I would _really_ like to find a copy of Patrick O'Shaughnessy's "Twenty-One Lincolnshire Folk Songs," the green paperback (green) from Oxford Uni. Press c. 1970. (I do have the others in the series). I'll gladly toss in a copy of my (& partner's) recording of Grainger-collected songs to anyone who can point me to that.

Subject: RE: Help Me Find This Songbook
From: Gypsy
Date: 01 May 02 - 11:34 AM

JOe, i save the perfumed advertising strips and use as bookmarks in mildew-ey books. Works well. Just find a fragrance that you don't object to!

Subject: RE: Help Me Find This Songbook
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 May 02 - 07:31 PM

Joe, several factors combine to inflate book prices. Printing costs are up, so dealers inflate the price of older editions- people will pay more so dealers put the price up. There are a lot more literate people that there were before WW2. Many books were in smaller editions then, and current demand kicks the prices up. The population has also grown dramatically. Book publishers hate small reprint editions, even if they hold the copyright. Even if there is a small, steady demand, the profit margin is small.
I have collected western history and don't find it unusual for a title issued in 1960 to bring 20 times or more its issue price now.
Libraries are becoming less useful. Librarians hate books that are consulted only occasionally, so they toss them out. Also, anything more than 20 years old is suspect. This means that if I want an older book, my only option is to purchase it. This, again, adds to the demand.

Subject: RE: Help Me Find This Songbook
From: raredance
Date: 01 May 02 - 08:35 PM

Dicho is right about general libraries ditching books that haven't met their check out quota. One exception is college and university libraries that keep old stuff for scholarly pursuits.

Joe, if you sat on your book for a while and then sniffed it, I'm guessing mildew wouldn't be the primary odor. Just trying to be helpful.

rich r