Catchgroove’s Musical Memoir: Ragtime

The movie The Sting came out on Christmas 1973. I assume I saw it in early 1974 when I would have been 15 years old and in 9th grade. It made a big impression on me, especially the ragtime songs on the soundtrack. I bought a copy of the soundtrack LP from The Optic Nerve, a small record store across from my high school (Minneapolis West). The movie was a big success and won several Oscars including Best Picture.

The soundtrack album included several Scott Joplin ragtime compositions adapted by Marvin Hamlisch. “The Entertainer” really grabbed me (Hamlisch also won an Oscar for the music in the movie).

Later that year, I was working a shit job at AARCEE Rental. I cleaned camping tents and sleeping bags (the sleeping bags were occasionally as disgusting as you can imagine). One of the older guys who worked there became aware of my budding interest in ragtime and convinced me that The Sting renditions of Scott Joplin were watered-down crap and that I needed to get a copy of a respectable performance of Joplin’s catalog. He recommended that I acquire Joshua Rifkin’s solo piano performances of Joplin’s Rags on Nonsuch (which was mainly a classical label at the time). He insisted I buy it, from what he felt was the best record store in Minneapolis, The Wax Museum, so I did.

The Rifkin album was released in 1970, but after the success of The Sting, it became Nonsuch’s first million-seller. Clearly, I was not the only person who had been entranced by Joplin’s Rags in the movie. I don’t recall any of my friends being fans of ragtime – so again my music tastes were not part of the teenage mainstream.

As promised the Rifkin rags were fantastic. They were well recorded, yet sounded like an accidentally found treasure or relic.

Joplin’s tunes are almost baroque fugues. To my ignorant ears, Joplin is similar to Bach. There is a playfulness to Joplin’s rags. They sound joyful and fun. Ragtime puts you in a good mood. However, listening to the recordings now, they sound like novelties. Something I might play once every few years or that would bring a smile if I heard the Rags in the background. They are not something that would be in my regular rotation. But back in 1974, they were an amazing “discovery.”