I'm Just Wild About Harry (Eubie Blake) arranged by J. Russell Robinson, on player piano roll

[purplepanda246]

you tuck your shirt in your pants....... o_O

[Keeper1st]

@purplepanda246 It's a T-shirt. Of course it's tucked in before I go on camera. You sound surprised that someone actually would choose not to look like a slob.

[TentativeTitle1]

@Keeper1st My friend, it is indeed admirable that your sentiment is such that you don't want to look 'like a slob', but I urge you to think about what looking like a slob is. It is that which is physically unclean, or otherwise, aesthetically disastrous. The fault with your stance is that both modern and old fashion's laws state that you should NEVER, EVER tuck in a non-collared t-shirt. You are being more of both a slob and an aesthetic wreck by doing so.

[Keeper1st]

@TentativeTitle1 Maybe where you come from (and the time period you come from), but where/when I come from, it's perfectly normal. Particularly if I'm going to sit down. Otherwise the shirt rides up. Or if I'm wearing a looser pair of jeans, as it makes them fit better. As someone who normally weighs 120 or less (but as I'm now 40 and am getting a gut, I tend to be around 135 to 140 now), it is indeed quite difficult to find pants long enough in my waist size.

[purplepanda246]

@Keeper1st wait...i never wrote this?! and i've never watched this?? :/

[majormixer]

I think we have the same piano but it is in disrepair. What is the manufacturer of yours ?

[Keeper1st]

@majormixer It's a Mercer. That cabinet style is pretty generic...

[old87country]

Ach, we use to go to my aunt Adeleins in the summer for a few weeks and she had this old tune on her piano. We would roll up the rug and have so much fun stomping around her livingroom.

[AAErikCO]

I've got a missing damper felt on my new player piano I'm working on, I feel your pain Keeper :( lol

[Keeper1st]

@AAErikCO I managed to find the fallen damper and glue it back in place without any interference with its neighbors, so the newer videos have it working OK. It's just that middle D that never has played since I got the piano (it tries but doesn't get thrown with enough force). And of course the lack of good seal on one of the main air tubes the connection point of which I can't get to without dismantling everything. It used to have a sticky goop seal, but at this higher altitude, it became mush.

[ProspectBroadway]

This is wonderful!!

[JamesPriceJohnson]

wait, i should know this, but can the faster you pump the pedals make the roll go faster and slower or no?

[Keeper1st]

There is a governor that maintains the roll speed regardless of pressure -- well, at least down to the point where there's not enough pressure to operate the motor, but at that point the notes wouldn't be playing anyway.

[AAErikCO]

If the governor is regulated improperly the harder you pedal could actually make the roll go faster or slower, but at that point you've got an undesired problem :) It's easy enough to change the tempo with the keyslip lever anyway.

[batboi62]

LOVE this roll my next favorite version is when judy garland sang it in ''babes in arms in 1939 thanks for the post

[pianola6588]

No, the "e" is silent. I was told that by Frank's own daughter!

[Warners14]

Great!

A song that not only Michigan J. Frog has sung,but has been in WB shorts ever since...

Thanks!

:)

[hotsickle]

Wonderful sounding instrument! Loved the arrangement too!

[Turkeydoodlers]

nice piano, but it looks like you need bellow work done. you shouldnt have to pump that like your running the marathon.

and the guys name on the roll is pronounced mil-nay.

frank milne.

what brand is that piano? cant make it out. good rolls though you have there, good music :)

[Keeper1st]

It's not the bellows; its the main air tubes that don't have a tight connection. They fell off when the piano was moved from sea level to its new location at an altitude of 4600 feet and the resin turned to mush. They're held in now just with a lot of electrical tape trying to make a seal as best as I can. I imagine the lower air density at this altitude is contributing to the requirement of more effort than there used to be at sea level, also. The piano is a Mercer, probably 1923 or 1924.

[Keeper1st]

The guy's name on the roll is pronounced Rob-in-son actually...!

[AAErikCO]

True true :) QRS' early rolls played by Robinson credit a certain E. Russel Robinson lol. Nice typo heh.

Where does Frank Milne come in? This roll has nothing to do with him. He woulda been playing at Aeolian on Ampico or earlier on Universal but not at QRS until way later.

[Keeper1st]

@AAErikCO The roll I'm playing is one I hadn't played before, and right here live on the video, I discovered that the roll in the box was entirely different. So... no Frank Milne, but J. Russell Robinson instead.

[BachScholar]

I didn't know player pianos were pedaled, I'm assuming some were and some weren't? This is good exercise!

[Keeper1st]

Many player pianos that you see on YouTube probably had the electric motor added at some point in their life. The older 88-note player pianos I think typically were foot-pumped like mine. The reproducing pianos that came later probably came electrified since household electricity was widespread and standardized enough by then.

It's more exercise now than it used to be. Maybe it leaks a little, but certainly there's less air density here at 4400 feet than there was at sea level.

[dpsejp]

Just lovely! A beautiful old tune!

[mangobat827]

Hey! This is one of the songs Michigan J Frog sang! Awesome! XD

[Keeper1st]

True! True! On his Tiny Toons appearance, they changed the words to "I'm Just Wild About Mary" and lines like "his kisses" to "her kisses" because people these days are so uptight about a male character singing a song that was originally sung by a female character. Go fig.

[LudwigVonKoopa64]

haha I've never seen that! interesting