Direct mp3 download or play: Harry To The Ferry
This is the original recording from 1970 or 1971 as heard on the Negativland album “Points.” It features my mother playing accordion and my aunt singing. The voices of my father and a cousin can also be heard. This is part of a college drinking song from Cal Berkeley and you can go here to see more information about this song. I used a Calrad 500c dual crystal microphone for my aunt and a Calrad DM-59HL dynamic microphone for my mother. Separation was about 25 feet with my mother in the kitchen and my aunt in the living room at my house in Martinez, California. The tape recorder was a Sony 560D running at three and three quarters inches per second, which my father recently purchased from White Front on Contra Costa Boulevard in Pleasant Hill, California. There is a little distortion on the side where my aunt is singing which is most likely due to the mike preamp in the recorder being overdriven by the Calrad crystal microphone.
In addition, the Calrad 500c has what I think is a cult following, as it is used as a “dummy” microphone on infomercials and it seems to be somewhat collectible as seen in this link. I bought mine in the late sixties for ten dollars from the now defunct Olson Electronics.
Calrad 500c Dual Crystal
Calrad DM-59 HL Dynamic
Sony TC-560D Instruction Manual
