Sound
The archive below contains field recordings made by Brian Nelson on the waterfront. These recordings document the sounds and conversations that shaped daily life on the docks, capturing both the rhythms of work and the social world surrounding it.This page is organized into three sections: conversations on the job; conversations off the job; and machinery, material, and movement. Scroll down to explore each category.
Conversations on the job
Title: Matson container yard
Duration: 4 minute 58 seconds
Description: Oakland, 1978. The haunting sounds of work on the container yard: crackly chatter over the radio, cranes and trucks moving boxes on the yard.
Title: 'A wife, mistress, and two whores'
Duration: 31 seconds
Description: Howard Street Terminal, Oakland, 1980. A longshoreman boasts to coworkers about his romantic life while working in the hold.
Title: 'Alright, big brother'
Duration: 36 seconds
Description: 1979. Sounds of machinery and material overlap with the talk and shouts of longshoremen.
Title: Blues harmonica and Colombian gold
Duration: 52 seconds
Description: 1980. A worker plays the harmonica while others listen on.
Title: Clerks counting the cotton ship
Duration: 8 minutes 45 seconds
Description: Oakland, 1980. Tape starts with shipclerks deliberating how to off-load a cotton ship. Later, Brian and coworkers discuss the pace of gangwork, weekend activities, and books they're reading.
Title: Coffee break conversation
Duration: 3 minutes 24 seconds
Description: Oakland, 1978 or 1979. Coworkers discuss disability, workplace injury, movies, harmonica, and listening to these recordings years later. Machinery roars in background.
Title: Conversation aboard a scrap steel ship
Duration: 6 minutes 24 seconds
Description: Schnitzer Steel, Oakland, 1979. Brian and friend talk about health risks, sorting material, and finding oddities at the scrap metal yard.
Title: 'Do we need the guy with earphones on?'
Duration: 29 seconds
Description: 1979.
Title: 'Don't rush the gang'
Duration: 51 seconds
Description: Pier 27, San Francisco, 1979.
Title: 'Fuck you, motherfucker'
Duration: 51 seconds
Description: 1979. An argument breaks out.
Title: Gang working cotton in the hold
Duration: 2 minutes 55 seconds
Description: Oakland, 1980.
Title: Gangboss gives instructions in the hold
Duration: 3 minutes 13 seconds
Description: Oakland, 1980. A gang boss discusses the job at hand, including the dangers and machinery involved: "It hit him right in the fucking melon."
Title: Gangway talk from the superintendent
Duration: 1 minute 37 seconds
Description: Pier 27, San Francisco, 1979. A superintendent discusses with gang bosses the machinery and manpower required for the cargo to be off-loaded: "Let's have a good day, a safe day, and get out of here at a decent hour."
Title: 'Good thing I had my hardhat'
Duration: 40 seconds
Description: Oakland Army Base.
Title: Hard work stowing cotton in the hold
Duration: 2 minutes 55 seconds
Description: Oakland, 1980.
Title: 'If I land this piece'
Duration: 45 seconds
Description: Oakland Army Base. Deliberating whether cargo will fit.
Title: 'It's a pretty good day for sound'
Duration: 25 seconds
Description: Pier 27, San Francisco, 1979. A colleague asks Brian if he is recording.
Title: Lively talk working down hatch
Duration: 2 minutes 14 seconds
Description: Jokes and jobtalk interspersed with one another.
Title: Longshoremen discuss inflation
Duration: 35 seconds
Description: 1979. Making sense of the economy in the midst of machinery.
Title: 'Lousy cup of coffee'
Duration: 1 minute 57 seconds
Description: Oakland, 1980. Workers chat about taking a job on a busy weekend.
Title: Making a sound movie
Duration: 3 minutes 43 seconds
Description: Pier 27, San Francisco, 1979. A colleague asks if Brian is making a "sound movie," asserts that he is the star; followed by discussion of the job while downhatch.
Title: Raw talk in the hold
Duration: 2 minutes 28 seconds
Description: Oakland Army Base, 1980. The profanity-laden chatter of a gang working a ship.
Title: Rigging the gear on a Victory ship
Duration: 1 minute 3 seconds
Description: Oakland Army Base, 1980.
Title: Shooting the shit in the supercargo shack
Duration: 2 minutes 55 seconds
Description: Oakland Army Base, 1980.
Title: 'Who all in the gang'
Duration: 27 seconds
Description: Pier 27, San Francisco, 1979.
Title: Working together on deck
Duration: 1 minute
Description: Oakland, 1980.
Conversations off-the-job
Title: Comparing manning on breakbulk versus container cargo
Duration: 2 minutes 38 seconds
Description: Oakland, 1979. Discussion of labor-power required to work different forms of cargo.
Title: Conversation with an old-timer Frank Smack
Duration: 4 minutes 32 seconds
Description: Pier 27, San Francisco. Brian catches up with a friend while "browsing around" for work.
Title: Eric Nelson on the transition from breakbulk to container shipping
Duration: 2 minutes 56 seconds
Description: 1979. Brian's uncle describes his experience of containerization: "Those days, you were walking among humans and very little machinery, but today you walk in and there's hardly any humans there. … You don't see the cargo anymore. … These big monsters have taken over the business of stevedoring"
Machinery, material, and movement
Title: Boarding the ship via gangway
Duration: 56 seconds
Description: Oakland Army Base, 1980. The clatter of workers boarding a ship.
Title: Forklift motoring down the pier
Duration: 36 seconds
Description: Faint traces of voices in the midst of machinery.
Title: Loading scrap steel
Duration: 3 minutes 43 seconds
Description: Schnitzer Steel, Oakland, 1979.
Title: Rumble of the engine room
Duration: 28 seconds
Description: Oakland Army Base, 1980.
Title: Screeching winch
Duration: 44 seconds
Description: Oakland Army Base, 1980.
Title: Soundscape in the hold of a Victory-class ship
Duration: 1 minute 58 seconds
Description: Oakland Army Base, 1980.
Title: Steel beams, modified soundscape
Duration: 5 minutes 17 seconds
Description: Oakland, 1980. An experimental soundscape.
Title: Straddle carrier
Duration: 57 seconds
Description: Oakland, 1978. Assorted sounds of a freight-carrying vehicle.