little coloured squares...

found a little surprise on the label of this madison 78. someone glued little coloured paper squares on each side. i've found name stickers or stickers with numbers on them, and assume in general these kinds of things are either ownership claims or index related, particularly as a lot of people stored these things in record albums that had room for a list inside the front cover. with this madison record, it's a bit more confusing as to who glued these on or why... perhaps a 7 year old with a taste for the pastel geometry of alexander girard...

there's 5 squares on jeff calhoun's side and 4 on vel veteran's side. vel's side has 4 different colours, and jeff's has only two. the title casey jones has two words, and that side has only two colours, but wreck of the old 97 has 5 words and only 4 colours... unless someone thought "old 97" could be one word... vel veteren does have 4 vowels in his name, so 4 squares make sense if they are a code of some sort... but jeff calhoun also has four vowels in his name and his side has 5 squares. maybe they were ratings, as casey jones is definitely at least one square better than old 97 (it's probably 40 squares better, so maybe each color represents a different number...).

well, now that you can see the labels, it would probably be nice if i also posted the music. i don't know either artist, but everyone from vernon dalhart to johnny cash has recorded old 97 (this might be one of the worst versions i've heard). casey jones is not the song i thought it was going to be, but it seems there are a ton of different casey jones songs out there... this one is kind of ok...

listen to casey jones and wreck of the old 97.