I Knew the Bride When She Used to Rock'n'Roll (cover)

This was requested by micayetoca, and so here it is. Features Marxophone and autoharp.

Finally, after years of trying, I got a Marxophone off of eBay last week. A Marxophone is a gadget zither manufactured in the early-to-early-mid 20th century, and was often sold door-to-door. It has fifteen sets of doubled strings and fifteen spring-loaded hammers; pressing down on a hammer causes it to bounce off the string, creating a mandolin-like trill. More information about Marxophones can be found on the internet.

(You may have already heard a Marxophone if you are a fan of The Doors or The Magnetic Fields.)

So, like I said, I finally got one last week (it joins my increasing collection of gadget zithers, which also includes the tremoloa and the violin-uke) and it felt like it might fit in with what I had been vaguely considering for my requested cover version of Nick Lowe's song. I tried it out and thought "yeah alright" and banged it out that day, autoharp and vocals and all.

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posted by Karlos the Jackal (4 comments total)

mesmerizing. that karlmarxophone is somethin'
posted by ageispolis at 2:47 PM on February 11

Very nice. That contraption has a great sound. It is really trance-inducing. Now that I think of it, maybe it would have more impact if it came in and out, instead of staying steady, but I really like your rendition.

Now we can say that we heard Karlos and the Marxophones before they got big.
posted by umbú at 12:01 PM on February 12

Now that I think of it, maybe it would have more impact if it came in and out, instead of staying steady [...]

This has since occurred to me as well; I blame new toy syndrome.
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 7:52 PM on February 12

February 11! geez, I'm sorry that it took me so long to notice it Karlos, but it's really cool that the requests thing is still tweaking and this version is completely different to what I would have expected, and really really cool. I won't even get into my rabid envy for your ever growing collection of instruments, because it wouldn't be so nice from me to bring it up. What a nice version, and thanks for replying to the request!
posted by micayetoca at 5:46 AM on March 2