When you are a collector of American nickelodeons and orchestrions as
I am you soon notice the nifty titles or names given to various "A",
"G", and "O" rolls.  These titles or roll names were used to help
promote the rolls to the customer.  Usually, they would give you the
theme or mood of the roll.  The following are examples of such names:

  Tuneful Toe Ticklers,
  A Hot Roll from the Musical Bake Shop,
  Step With Pep,
  A Musical Stampede,
  Radio Knockouts,
  Rhythmaniac Hits,
  Posilutely Popular, etc.

Each title creates a mental image of the potential of good tunes on
the roll.

While searching under "nickelodeon roll" on E-bay yesterday, I came
across a roll title that really caught my eye!  The title of the
original Automatic "A" roll 1348 is "Crap Shootin' Blues".

This title immediately conjured up thoughts of an illegal game being
played in a smoky room of a saloon.  In other words, you would not
picture this roll being played on a piano in an ice cream parlor or
fancy restaurant.  I thought of Svoboda's old saloon bar that had the
trough of sprinkled water that flowed at the foot of the bar.  When
I asked Al about this he said that it was originally a men's only bar
where you never left the bar to go to the bathroom!  Well, I could
picture this roll being played at Svoboda's in the "Good Ole Days"
when Al Capone supplied the booze.

A further look at the roll titles showed fascinating tunes such as
Alibi-ing Papa, Gravier Street Blues, Sorrow Valley Blues, The Birth
of Jazz, and the Dyin' Crap Shooters Blues!

Dyin' Crap Shooter Blues...  There it was, a song to match the title
of the roll!  And a most interesting song title, indeed.  Beyond even
Svoboda's, one can just imagine the low down gin joint that spawned
this tune!  Well, that set me off on an Internet search about this
song.  And I found the lyrics.  The lyrics are even more interesting
and stirred up my excitement about the roll even more:

  Little Jesse was a gambler, night and day
  He used crooked cards and dice.
  Sinful guy, good hearted but had no soul
  Heart was hard and cold like ice

 [ Snip -- see Blind Willie McTell's lyrics at http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/delta/2541/blmctell.htm#The369 

Wow!  What a song!  Talk about getting your nickel's worth.  A further
search turned up a great performance of the song on YouTube by its
originator, Blind Willie McTell:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gqIVHoL0xQ 

Imagine this great song being captured in the heyday on an Automatic
"A" roll.  On E-bay, the seller says it came from a Seeburg E that was
rumored to be in a house of affordable affection in California's gold
mine region.  Well it is, in my opinion, the most eye catching of all
the roll titles on what is probably one of the most historic rolls to
turn up in years!  It will be interesting and entertaining to see what
happens to it on E-bay.

Tim Trager
http://www.timtrager.com/