First use of scratching on a record

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mrnex

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May 5, 2005
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S'funny how you lot seem to be able to confuse a gutiar 'strum technique' called a scratch - purely because it sounds like someone scratching something - as in your head.... and a vinyl scratch - which was called scratching because that too sounds like someone scratching something - but neither have anything to do with each other in terms of music or timeline in the history of dance music - also - aren't you all forgetting the adventures of grandmaster flash on the wheels of steel as one of the 1st tunes with scratching - also the very 1st commerially available dj mix on vinyl?

Although Rockit is an amazing record - it only gets hailed as 'the 1st' because it was hugely successful and was in the public eye - similarly was Malc's 'Buffalo Gals'....

No doubt someone will call me a twat for adding my 2 pence worth - but felt i had to - saves 'scratching' me arse all day...;)
 
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Jonno

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mrnex said:
S'funny how you lot seem to be able to confuse a gutiar 'strum technique' called a scratch - purely because it sounds like someone scratching something - as in your head.... and a vinyl scratch - which was called scratching because that too sounds like someone scratching something - but neither have anything to do with each other in terms of music or timeline in the history of dance music
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I suspect the guitar scratch is so called because of the action of scratching rather than the sound it produces.

Anyway, the facts we have here are we've got a sound that's definitely called a scratch and it sounds like a scratch (regardless of what implement produces it). The jury is definitely out as to a vinyl scratch being called that because it sounds like someone scratching their heads or suchlike (I'd say scratching is definitely, historically, a verb rather than an adjective). Therefore I'd postulate the theory that a vinyl scratch is called a scratch because it sounds like a guitar scratch. I can't believe the 2 are unrelated, as guitar scratches seem to be played on records that early hip hop DJ's were using for their breaks anyway.

mrnex said:
aren't you all forgetting the adventures of grandmaster flash on the wheels of steel as one of the 1st tunes with scratching
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I thought that adventures was just cutting up, I don't recall there being scratching. Could be completely wrong there though. Either way I didn't say Rockit was the first, more that it was up there (ditto D'ya like scratching). Although it does have to be said that Rockit was certainly one that the likes of QBert and Mixmaster Mike quote as saying where they first they heard scratching.
 
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Jiglo

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mrnex said:
S'funny how you lot seem to be able to confuse a gutiar 'strum technique' called a scratch - purely because it sounds like someone scratching something - as in your head.... and a vinyl scratch - which was called scratching because that too sounds like someone scratching something - but neither have anything to do with each other in terms of music or timeline in the history of dance music - also - aren't you all forgetting the adventures of grandmaster flash on the wheels of steel as one of the 1st tunes with scratching - also the very 1st commerially available dj mix on vinyl?

Although Rockit is an amazing record - it only gets hailed as 'the 1st' because it was hugely successful and was in the public eye - similarly was Malc's 'Buffalo Gals'....

No doubt someone will call me a twat for adding my 2 pence worth - but felt i had to - saves 'scratching' me arse all day...;)
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I think it's an interesting topic and there's obviously going to be a lot of speculation about the history of hip hop as even the giants of the hip hop world in the beginning disagree with a lot of the accepted 'facts'. Maybe someone with access to a recording studio pre dated Grandmaster Flash/DST/World Famous Supreme Team, or whoever with the first ever recorded mixtape/battle weapon/scratch or cut. None of us were there in the Bronx in the mid 70's so we've just got to try to piece together what we can from what we know or hear. It seems amazing that it took scratching and hip hop so long to evolve to a point were Blondie picked up on the rap(ture) and whoever picked up on the scratch. What the hell was happening in those early years for nobody to pick up on the sound sooner?

This thread was started though because there's a sound in an old record that sounds a hell of a lot like a decent vinyl scratching technique - even if the instrument isn't a turntable - it's raising awareness of it:thumbsup: :)
 
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Biskit

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Jun 7, 2002
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Jonno said:
What do you reckon was the first record to have scratching on?

I've just been going through some disco records, and I've come across this all the way back from 1976! Now the sound could be done by a guitar but it sounds like scratching and it's called a scratch!

Have a listen
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Jonno who's the artist to that tune m8, i wouldnt mind it, i have a version of it from 2000 that samples that tune :) class tune :)
 
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Jonno

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Biskit said:
Jonno who's the artist to that tune m8, i wouldnt mind it, i have a version of it from 2000 that samples that tune :) class tune :)
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It's called Turn The Beat Around by Vicki Sue Robinson. You could sly the tune into a funky house set!
 
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leaky

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Apr 11, 2006
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well i could of course be very wrong here, but just listen to a sound at 2.25 could that possibly be a scratch, :confused: if it is, the answer to this thread could well be those mad hippies were experimenting with the sound back in 1968 :gigolo:

The Journey - YouTube
 
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djperkins

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Sep 22, 2011
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I would suggest that the "juggle" type effect on the Faces track is a guitar string stroked, down or up, the string quickly with the plectrum...and then gated off rather sharply....all that is tacked onto the end of a reversed reverb/delay tape effect...an awsome wee snippit that prob took a lot of time to do...if it was intentional.
 
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leaky

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djperkins said:
an awsome wee snippit that prob took a lot of time to do...if it was intentional.
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well those mad hippies must have had lots of time, Pink Floyd used to record themselves saying a word, then play it backward, then learn how to make that sound of the word played backwards, record that, then play it forward so it made the word again :|:fekked::fekked::fekked::D
 
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djperkins

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Sep 22, 2011
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gotta take yer hat off to the og's that pushed the limits...peeps doing the avant gard stuff in the 20's recording industrila machinery and looping it, running it out of phase...pukka.
 


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