Humpback Whale – Songs of the Humpback Whale (1970, inside the ocean)
Our next spotlight is on number 396 on The List, submitted by platenworm.
When I put this album on – my first ever listen – I immediately wondered if someone would have a different experience of this album if they were able to go into it without any context. No artist name, no album name, no release date, nothing. So, for anyone who was interested, I first posted a version of this on the 1001 OA Fediverse account with a link to the album stripped of its metadata, with only the below abstract descriptions, minus the footnotes. The format of the blog doesn’t allow for such a blind listen but I can at least hide the identifying descriptions in footnotes, so:
The work we listen to today is an experimental a cappella album that started a movement, featuring a hybrid of avant-garde vocals and spoken word.[1]
In part, this album captures the sounds of the Cold War around the time of the Cuban Revolution,[2] albeit in what seems to be coded lyrics in a language understood by approximately only 80,000 worldwide.[3] The tracks are renditions of traditional pieces that have been passed down for generations within the region, allowed to be performed only by male (or, perhaps, masculine-presenting) individuals, and only after reaching sexual maturity.[4]
The artists[5] captured on this album have never been paid a dime for their work, even though it’s the most popular recording of its genre,[6] in part due to the artists’ anonymity and reclusiveness. For the same reasons, the artists likely are not aware that an excerpt of this album has travelled to and currently exists in interstellar space.[7]
It is unknown whether the artists had any further releases, or whether they are still alive.
The Save the Whales movement to end commercial whaling. ↩︎Tracks 1, 2, and 4 (“Solo Whale”, “Slowed-Down Solo Whale”, and “Distant Whale”) were recorded in the late 1950s by U.S. Navy engineer Frank Watlington while listening for Russian submarines. ↩︎The recordings are the vocalizations of male humpback whales during breeding season. If the Internets is correct, there are approximately 80,000 humpback whales alive today, hence the number used here; it presumably was higher at the time the album was released. ↩︎See ftnt 3. Also, research done while making this album found that all males whales in one ocean “sing” the same “song”, with the song slightly changing with each breeding season. ↩︎The title/indexing of this post seems a little bit ridiculous, but Discogs does actually have “Humpback Whale” as the artist of this album (and has a full page of releases under it) and I needed an album by an artist starting with an “H” for reasons, so I’m sticking with it. Most credit the album to biologist Roger Payne, who found out about Watlington’s recordings (see ftnt 2) and did subsequent research and further recordings with zoologist and then-spouse Katy Payne. Katy then went on to analyze these recordings for the next 30+ years, even after her marriage to Roger ended, and yet her name is not in the credits. Hmm. Katy has also extensively studied the vocalizations of elephants, and, just as this album is, her recordings of elephants are in the National Recording Registry. ↩︎Even in 2023 when Roger Payne died, the album was still the best-selling environmental/nature record ever. ↩︎Part of the album is on the Voyager Golden Record that’s on the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft launched in 1977, both of which have since reached interstellar space. ↩︎
#1970s #fieldRecording #FrankWatlington #humpbackWhales #KatyPayne #RogerPayne #SaveTheWhales
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1001 Other Albums
1001 Other Albums
Antinous the Gay God
