Topic: Feature Story on Joe Bussard

[lindy]

Seems like a profile story about Bussard and his record collection shows up in the media once every few years, here's the latest version from WAPO:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/05/joe-bussard-record-collector-78s/

[Tony Gilroy]

Interesting article but the comments underneath are mostly mindless. Outrage at his hoarding and demands that he make the music available. If those commentators knew anything about old music they'd know that Joe was doing this 50 years ago.

There's a clear distinction between the physical objects and the music on them. Partly through Joe's generosity the music is all  available. There's barely a Document CD that doesn't credit Bussard as one of those contributing copies of 78s and old Blues Unlimiteds from the 1960s have Joe's advert offering to sell tapes of anything anyone wanted years before much had been made available on LP.

Rightly or wrongly he's dedicated his life to his collection and has every right to keep enjoying it in his own way for as long as he can. When he dies his family can sell or donate to an institution as they wish but if it went up in smoke tomorrow no actual music would be lost to posterity.

[Stuart]

Thanks for the link, Lindy, and for your comments, Tony. I went through some of the recent WaPo comments and more than a few are actually well thought out, posted by people who have more than a superficial understanding of "old records," and who would be right at home here. Some have visited Joe and others are collectors themselves.

The question, of course, is what lies ahead for Joe's collection? There's a lot of idealistic wishful thinking by those who want to see it preserved in the best possible way (myself included). Where are next week's winning Powerball numbers when we really need them?

Dust-to-Digital still as the digital version of "Fonotone Records: Frederick, Maryland (1956-1969)" available:

https://dust-digital.com/collections/box-sets/products/fonotone-records-frederick-maryland-1956-1969