Papa's Got A Brand New Bag ( and an old microphone) uke cover by Mark Suszko

[Mark Suszko]

I scored an early 50's Shure 55S mic at the local pawn shop for a bargain price, because it had the old incompatible type connector that scared off all the other shoppers. I rehabbed the mic internally with new shock mounts, an XLR adaptor, and period-correct blue windscreening and decided I needed to use the mic for a song from one of it's famous users. I find this mic to be the smoothest I ever owned; great noise rejection, a tight cardioid pattern, ample rejection of plosives, terrific dynamic range and ability to handle big transients... No wonder it remains a huge seller, often going for over $300 today, and with many imitations, including an imitation by Shure themselves (different internal capsule than the original Unidyne). Many folks call this the "Elvis Mic", and the King used it a lot... but so did Sinatra... and a lot of other stars, big and small, from the late 40's on up to today. Including the Godfather of Soul. So I broke in my "new" old mic on his 1965 classic.

You may not know this, but the '65 original was a MUCH slower tempo than the version that gets popular radio airplay. Some say this song in the slow original mode is one of the very first true "Funk" genre' songs. The record company in '65 sped it up to sell it on the radio and the rest is history.

 

[ampeep]

Great job on my favorite James Brown song! Wasn’t it from 1965?

 

[Mark Suszko]

Great job on my favorite James Brown song! Wasn’t it from 1965?

Typo, fixed now, thanks.

 

[Mark Suszko]

" THIS IS A HIT! " The slow original:

 

[Wiggy]

My first reaction was, "Let it all hang out!"

 

[ampeep]

I scored an early 50's Shure 55S mic at the local pawn shop for a bargain price, because it had the old incompatible type connector that scared off all the other shoppers. I rehabbed the mic internally with new shock mounts, an XLR adaptor,

I remember the conductor you mentioned; believe that most Shure mics of that period used that conductor. Used one of these mics in the 60's; never thot they'd become popular again.

 

[Mark Suszko]

I remember the conductor you mentioned; believe that most Shure mics of that period used that conductor. Used one of these mics in the 60's; never thot they'd become popular again.

They never stopped being popular. The connector, not so much

 

[ampeep]

Used to have a Shure Mic in the 60's that came in a foam-lined hard case for the Mic & cable. Now SM58s come in a bag.

 

[Mark Suszko]

Used to have a Shure Mic in the 60's that came in a foam-lined hard case for the Mic & cable. Now SM58s come in a bag.

I went to Harbor Freight and bought a cheap pistol box for this mic and its cord: the pick-apart foam liner lets you customize the shape pretty well. About ten bucks, I wanna say. When I ran out of vinyl mic bags for my stick mics, I found that pencil cases from the school supplies section of the store works just dandy. And a lot cheaper than a branded mic bag from Shure or etc.