More From the Gay 90's Village

Here's some more proof that the Salvation Army sells some of the strangest records on the market. Old people really aren't so square...
This record is a compilation of one retired plumber from Sikeston, Missouri's personal collection. Paul Eakins collected enough to open the Gay 90's Village to showcase "the world's largest collection of nickelodeons" (this record is from 1957).
I do like how the sound of inserting the nickel into the machine starts off most of the tracks, except for player piano and music boxes. And what better way to spend five cents than to see a mechanized piano/organ with, drums, cymbals, flutes, bells, and who knows what else play pre-arranged "gay" songs? I hope the pianos were purposely out of tune, it suits this music so much better.
To me, this is the equivalent of Electronica for the 1890's, well, more mechanical than electronic but the principle remains. Todays electro-musicians never seem to use a march beat though...
If this intrigues you I recommend looking for photos of these machines (each machine is listed as the artist in the zip file). These really are incredible machines that create some strange jolly music.

http://www.mediafire.com/?uzjdzjfwmjr