One of three sides that William recorded for Edison labs in the early 20s (the other two of which can be heard on-line at the
UCSB Special Collection), this one was recorded on March 1 of 1923 and released on disc only. William also wrote a song in 1925 called "The
Birth of the Shamrock", which also saw release on an Edison record, but aside from those contributions he seems to have remained completely obscure. His folksy humor, as well as his simple and candid acceptance of the way things are, makes his material quite
fresh and vital in any age. His view of street-corner fights may seem strangely detatched, but it is his philosophical acceptance of it that endeared him to his original audience. Those who may object to that, or to the ethnic stereotyping found on this record,
must acknowledge its value as a piece of entertainment history. The disc from which this was sampled had a little more groove hiss than normal, but was clean despite that and needed only a minor amount of noise reduction.
