Guess what? Recording technology 99 years ago was primitive. Despite the obvious limitations in sound fidelity, in some ways the unique “feel’ of older recordings can trump today’s slickly-polished Pro Tool records.
Such is the case with The Young Caruso, Songs and Arias: Milan Recordings 1902-1903 from Angel Records, an old vinyl I stumbled upon the other day.
The record is a document of the early recordings of Italian tenor Enrico Caruso. Born in 1873, Caruso was the eighteenth (yes, 18th) child of a poor mechanic. Despite his poor beginnings, Caruso grew to become an international star back in his day. Caruso’s 1907 recording of “Vesti la Giubba” was the first gramophone/phonograph to sell more than 1 million copies. Freddie Mercury of Queen was big fan of Caruso’s operatic singing style.
I was in a shitty/depressed mood when I put the record on, and listening to this distant sounding, century-old recording by a long dead tenor lightened my mood in a perverse, existentialist kind of a way.
Should you run out and get this record? Probably not. However its good background music and an interesting listen, even if just for the historical novelty of it.
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