Brown Eyes - Why Are You Blue? US Roll 43234. Lee Sims

[@barrygordon5323]

In a era that had hundreds of terrific pianists,every home had a piano,,,sims stands out. He had tremendous technique,great harmony ,and ideas effortlessly fit in like a puzzle ... Just one of the greatest...

[@That_1940s_Delinquent]

I bought a 1923 Sonora record player and this song came with it.

[@That_One_Player_Piano]

One of my favorite rolls. Sounds great on your piano!

[@playerpianofavorites8999]

Lee Sims had a beautiful way of playing the piano. Unlike so many others that use the high part of the keys, Lee uses the middle section so that a beautiful balanced piece of music was created. Awesome!

[@SevenPlus65]

I'm glad you enjoyed it. Sims was a master mind, genius. He had a way of making his rolls sound like an orchestra of pianos to me.

[@playerpianofavorites8999]

@@SevenPlus65 you are absolutely right! Hoe was your holiday?

[@SevenPlus65]

​@playerpianofavorites8999 We had a most wonderful time! It rained heavily in Salzburg but that was ok. My dad had been stationed with the army in Munich in the early 60s. Southern Germany was picture perfect.... everyday looked like a page from a calendar. Thanks for asking!

[@PiotrBarcz]

WOW, that intro is AWESOME

[@SevenPlus65]

Did you read in the comments what rowanbelt said? He recognizes measures of other songs in this particular arrangement. I trust his knowledge.

[@PiotrBarcz]

@@SevenPlus65 Yeah I believe I've heard that Polka he was referring to and recognized elements from it.

[@rowanbelt3612]

This arrangement quotes both of Bartlett's compositions entitled "Grand Polka de Concert" - the first one in the introduction, and the second one in the chorus that starts at 2:40. I don't think either piece is well-known today. I must admit that I only picked up on the second reference after another KZbin commenter mentioned the first one! I have both this Sims roll and the second Bartlett polka on QRS Recordo. I think it would be cool to do a video where I show the similarity. Regardless, I think this is one of Sims' best arrangements. There are probably more references in there that I'm not picking up on...like that little outro, it sounds like it might be a popular melody? I love how it goes with the loud, dare I say boisterous sound of your piano. I like that sound very much and I like how it complements the other more delicate performances of this that are on KZbin. Thank you so much for this fantastic post!!

[@SevenPlus65]

Very glad you enjoyed it. I had no idea of the other song references you mentioned. It would be interesting to post those and show the similarities. The "loud and boisterous" sound of the piano is spot on correct. I sometimes think that the player pianos used in movie theaters in the 1920s before "talkies" were invented, played loud and boisterous too. The whole audience had to hear the corresponding music with the silent film.

[@pgronemeier]

A MILLION times better than the QRS roll. But...I still liked the Supertone. (If I remember...🤔😉)

[@PiotrBarcz]

Sounds like Sims was imitating Pauline Alpert to some extent or maybe she picked up on those novelty runs later on?

[@That_One_Player_Piano]

Hey, WAIT a sec... does my roll have a DEFECT?! That last bass note isn't on your roll. Well, I'm surprised that the defect on mine was acually musical. The vast majority I find sound terrible lol.

[@SevenPlus65]

Does it look like someone cut it themselves?..... I've been known to do that!

[@SevenPlus65]

Also....I've been out of the country for 2 weeks, got home this morning. Catching up on all things piano.... congrats on your 2 week viral out of tune pianos post. Holy cow, that's commendable my friend!

[@That_One_Player_Piano]

@@SevenPlus65 Just played it. It looks like that was how it was cut.

[@SevenPlus65]

@That_One_Player_Piano I just watched your video and mine. Interesting!! Not all rolls are alike for sure.

[@That_One_Player_Piano]

@@SevenPlus65 Thanks! People want more lol.

[@PiotrBarcz]

Is this roll cut on narrower paper? It's tracking very oddly, I'm surprised it's playing fine and that it's not centered on the tracker bar, it's like the tracking pneumatic somehow knows the roll was punched cockeyed and was like "ahaha, nice try, you're playing correctly no matter what US did!" xD Very odd indeed.

[@SevenPlus65]

That's why it's always good to have the tracking mechanism working efficiently 😄 It seems to play just fine. To be honest....I haven't measured it with my ruler to see if it's cut more narrow, probably doesn't matter since it's playing the notes loud and clear.

[@PiotrBarcz]

@@SevenPlus65 Yeah I guess so xD I'm just surprised that it's actually tracking the roll so far off to the left though. My piano never let's that happen unless the paper is curled a little at the edge. As someone who is very quick to notice little stuff like this, I saw how far to the left the roll was I thought to myself "Jeez I hope it doesn't tear up immediately" and then it sort of played like that the whole time, the whole time I was watching I was just like "what the hell am I even looking at, nothing about this is right yet it works!" XDDDD