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The birth of a new thread dedicated to sharing our newly-acquired "old" LP's.

The Audiogon Forum thread of most interest and use to me is the one entitled "What’s on your turntable tonight?" It was started on 03-04-2004! Reading about the music the contributors to the thread are listening to is a real pleasure, and as I drove home from my visit today to a Vintage Collector’s "Mall" (just a storefront, but with individual spaces for independent sellers, some of whom in my past visits had a milk carton filled with mostly trash LP’s sitting next to a rack of old clothes), the idea to share today’s incredible haul with fellow Audiogon LP lovers came to me. And later in the evening, the idea that others might want to do the same seamed plausible. I don’t expect this thread to be as long-lived as the one referred to above, but that’s up to ya’ll.

I have been to this mall numerous times before, occasionally finding an LP of both interest and in as close to Mint condition as one could reasonably expect from such a source. But today---my first visit in over a year---was a very different story. There was a new vendor, one whose space was devoted 100% to items related to music: LP’s, 45’s, CD’s, magazines, posters, etc., etc. As I started flipping through the LP’s, I realized this was not just random records the vendor had acquired, but rather the collection of an owner with a particular taste in music. In addition to that, the number of promo copies and rare items suggested the owner may have been in the record business. The vendor’s inventory was better than most record collector stores I’ve ever been in! All the LP’s were in plastic outer sleeves, with a hand-written note describing the record: details about the band or artist, backing musicians, etc. The vendor is VERY knowledgeable about music and records.

But dig this: the LP’s were not only very desirable titles, but every single one was in Mint condition! And I mean New/Unplayed Mint, even the LP’s from the 50’s and 60’s! Some were still factory-sealed, others still in shrink wrap but slit open. And the prices! Most in the $5-$10 range, a few $12 or $14. So with that introduction complete, here’s what I brought home with me, in alpha order:

- The Alpha Band (T Bone Burnett, David Mansfield, Steven Soles): Spark In The Dark. $5

- Jim Capaldi (Traffic drummer/songwriter): Oh How We Danced, a title I have been looking for for quite some time. $10

- David Crosby: If I Could Only Remember My Name (original pressing), on Harry Pearson’s Super Disc list. $12

- Delaney & Bonnie: Home (Stax original). $12

- Delaney & Bonnie: Accept No Substitute (first Elektra album). $12

- The Dillards: Mountain Rock (incredible sounding Direct-To-Disc on Crystal Clear). $10

- Dion: Yo Frankie (produced by Dave Edmunds). $6

- Durocs (Ron Nagle and Scott Matthews): s/t. $5

- The Everly Brothers: A Date With (mono). $10

- Red Foley: Greatest Hits (Decca Records). $5

- Ellie Greenwich: Let It Be Written, Let It Be Sung...(legendary album by this incredible Brill Building songwriter). I have been looking for a clean copy for YEARS! $10

- Marti Jones: Used Guitars (guest artists Marshall Crenshaw and Janis Ian). If you don’t yet know about Marti and her husband/partner Don Dixon, get with it! $5 (sealed!)

- Marti Jones: Unsophisticated Time. As is the album above, produced by Don Dixon. $8

- Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind. $5. Background story: On my maiden visit to a newly-opened hi-fi store in Livermore, CA in 1972, the owner (Walter Davies, later of Last Record Preservative fame) was being visited by Bill Johnson of ARC. Bill was a pilot, and flew himself and a complete ARC/Magneplanar Tympani T-1 system to install in the fantastic listening room of his newest dealer. Keeping my mouth shut and my ears open, I got a real education that day (I had just discovered J. Gordon Holt/Stereophile, and the emerging high end scene). Walter used this LP as demo material, and upon hearing Gordon’s version of "Me And Bobby McGee" (bottleneck guitar by Ry Cooder) Bill said: "That IS a great sounding record." Walter gave it to him. I bought my first copy when I got back to San Jose, and still have it. This copy is just for back up ;-) .

- Gordon Lightfoot: Sundown. $5

- Gordon Lightfoot: Summer Side Of Life (German Reprise pressing). $5

- Lone Justice: Shelter (with singer Maria McKee---whose older brother was in the band Love. LJ’s original drummer was Don Heffington, heard on many Buddy and Julie Miller albums. Produced by Little Steven.) $6

- Manassas (Steven Stills, Chris Hillman, Al Perkins, Dallas Taylor, and Bobby Whitlock. Guest guitarist Joe Walsh.): Down The Road. $5

- Henry Mancini: Music From Mr. Lucky (RCA Living Stereo, black label). $6

- The Morells (legendary Springfield, Missouri band beloved by Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, and myself. I even saw them live ;-) : Shake And Push (backup copy): $8

- Buck Owens And His Buckaroos: Carnegie Hall Concert. $6

- Leslie Phillips: Beyond Saturday Night. You may know Leslie better as Sam Phillips, one-time wife and musical partner of T Bone Burnett. This album (on Myrrh Records) is from when she was a Contemporary Christian Artist. This is the only copy I’ve ever seen. $8

- Jimmie Rodgers: The Best Of The Legendary Jimmie Rodgers (RCA mono, black label with Promo stamp on cover). $8

- The Searchers: Meet The Searchers/Needles & Pins (stereo copy to join my mono on the shelf). $8

- Connie Smith (Marty Stuart’s wife): The Best Of Connie Smith (RCA stereo, black label). $5

- Bobby Whitlock (organist/harmony singer on Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, Clapton’s songwriting/singing/organist partner in Derek & The Dominos, an original member of Delaney & Bonnie And Friends): Rock Your Sox Off. $6

- V/A: White Mansions (A Tale From The American Civil War 1861-1865). With Waylon Jennings, Jessie Colter, Eric Clapton, Bernie Leadon. Produced and engineered by Glyn Johns. $12

- And finally, an LP I never expected to find, and I’ve been looking for about 45 years!: Dick Schory’s New Percussion Ensemble: Music For Bang, Baaroom, and Harp (RCA Living Stereo, black label). $5!


I left a few LP’s, needing to come home and see if my collection was missing them. I’m going back tomorrow to get the one I don’t have: The debut album by The Dave Clark Five in mono.
128x128bdp24
jrw1971
62 posts
 
Love this thread; thanks for creating.  I’ve found some real gem first pressings in the last year.  Brubeck’s Countdown — Time in Outer Space; yet another Abandoned Luncheonette; Gord’s Gold (compilations don’t usually sound good, this and Steely Dan Gold are exceptions); a white hot Jerry Mulligan; Randy Newman’s Sail Away.  Excepting the white hot, all in the $6-15 range.  No question, the world of old LPs is full of stuff that sounds better than any reissues could achieve.  And no wonder; they were made from the master tapes when fresh.  Tape doesn’t age so well.  
But for every gem I find on my own, I find several dogs.  And that’s after limiting my buys to first gen catalog numbers.  
Which is a long way of saying what others here have said: Tom Port and his BetterRecords business perform a valuable service.  
What Tom might not like hearing: most of his selections are albums that were recorded and pressed well.  Some of them almost always sound good.  (I bought a white hot Rita Coolidge and — for science — I periodically buy the same LP in the $5 bin.  That LP always sounds pretty good (not amazing, not even his WH) after ultrasonic cleaning).  So, you can use his selection as a short list of “stuff that generally sounds good.”  And then buy and clean a few of each at normal prices.  It’s my way of throwing $20-30 at an LP he offers and seeing if I can find my own white hot (before spending $400 on it).  And I definitely do.  I also definitely cave on certain titles and buy from him.  Capt Fantastic comes to mind.  Or Sticky Fingers.  Or several Steely Dan albums.  But, if you like Al Stewart’s Year of the Cat or Crosby’s If I Could Only Remember ... , you can find a white hot for $7-10 after buying 3-4 of each.  Because they are reliably good.  
This way of doing things creates a healthy discard pile.  I try to support local dealers and give them away.  They’re all worth at least $7 and have been ultrasonically cleaned.  Feeds the karma wheel.  
slaw's avatar
slaw
21,601 posts
 
Do you know of or remember this band @bdp24 ..........
A-B-Skhy . I found their "Ramblin’ On" lp, MGM, a couple years ago. I think it’s probably an OP. They only put out two lps? From San Francisco.

Dust "S/T" on Kama-Sutra......great album!

Found all three Norman Greenbaum lps as WLP a couple years ago.
glupson
7,842 posts
 
Inspired by this thread, I went to Goodwill today. I forgot to buy a few of the Gordon Lightfoot records out of which one (Summertime Dream) looked like it has never been touched. For some reason, I am completely unfamiliar with his work, but see a lots of fans here so I thought it was meant to be. I guess it was not meant to be when I did not walk out with them

Instead, I ended up with Emil Gilel’s interpretation of Beethoven’s 5th piano concert. MInt looking Angel Records straight from 1957, or 1958. One more Dvorak.s 9th symphony by Czech Philharmonic on Supraphon from, it seems, 1954. Also looking and sounding like new. Here lies the problem. After hearing them, I did not wish for better turntable, cartridge, or amplifier. I wished for CDs. Both records, as good as they could be given the time distance, are not the latest marvel of technology.
bdp24's avatar
bdp24 OP
9,816 posts
 
This is going well!

@slaw: Yep, I remember A.B. Skhy, though I’ve never heard them. From the very-early 70’s, right? Wonder what the name means? I remember seeing their name around the Bay Area back then.

I also remember seeing the debut Dust album, which I also never heard. Did you know their drummer was later in The Ramones? Marky!

@jrw1871: I was a customer of Tom Port way back in the early/mid-90’s. He lived above a small pizza joint near the corner of Ventura and Van Nuys Blvd. in Sherman Oaks, two blocks from my house. He did business out of his apartment, which I visited to buy a copy of the German pressing of Magical Mystery Tour (it is in true stereo, unlike the US and UK LP’s of the time). His apartment was pretty stuffed with LP’s, and his system at the time surprised me: decidedly mid-fi. I had a Townshend Rock table and Decca Cartridge, and Quad ESL’s powered by Atma-Sphere OTL’s.

I too end up with LP’s bought at one record store, later used as trading material at another, sometimes making money in the process ;-) .

@fuzztone: The saddest thing I ever experienced (well, aside from the death of my Mother when I was 15) was seeing Brian Wilson live on the tour for his first solo album. His singing was not only awful (as was his piano playing; they had the sound of it going only to his monitor, not the house sound system), but as he spoke between songs, the depth of his brain damage became apparent. Very, very sad. I have deliberately avoided ever again seeing him live.

I went to the album release event for his debut album at Tower on Sunset Blvd. I brought not just my copy of the album for him to sign, but also my copy of the "Caroline, No" 7" 45 RPM single. Though on The Beach Boys Pet Sounds album, the song was released as a Brian Wilson single, the BB name appearing nowhere. Odd! Anyway, I handed him the 45, and the deepest look of wistfulness enveloped his eyes as they perused the label. It was heartbreaking, I having to hold back my tears.

Years later I saw him in Tower Records, and this time his eyes were filled with paranoia. He was obviously scared to death. I’m surprise they let him walk around alone.

My first live Rock ’n’ Roll show was The Beach Boys at The San Jose Civic Auditorium in the Summer of ’64. I passed on using my ticket to see The Beatles at The Cow Palace that Summer, still not completely sold on them. My Mother used my ticket, and went herself. She was pretty hip, having Johnny Cashes Ring Of Fire LP, which I listened to a lot on our Magnavox console.

In the Summer of ’75, having spent a year recording demos with a great songwriter, he and I made a pilgrimage from San Jose to Brian’s house in Bel-Air. We brought a reel-to-reel copy of the recordings, intending to interest him into producing an album (we at the time did not know about his mental/emotional condition). I pressed the buzzer located on the wall next to the wrought iron gate, and Marilyn answered, asking "Who is it?" That I had not anticipated, and replied "Is Brian home?" She said "Yes he is. Who is it?" I explained who we were, and the reason for our visit, and she instructed me to lay the tape against the gate.

Having reluctantly done that, Kent and I walked up the driveway of the house next door, until we were positioned so as to be able to see into the dining room of Brian’s "house" (an old Spanish-style mansion, really). The thin drapes were drawn, but we could see a large, hulking figure sitting in a high-backed chair at the table. It was obviously Brian. I don’t know what we were expecting to see, but Brian sat in chair, not moving an inch in the half-hour we stood there. Thank God the neighbor didn’t see and call the Bel-Air security team!
bdp24's avatar
bdp24 OP
9,816 posts
 
@tablejockey: Yep, I played the Blue Cafe a coupla times, one time as a member of The Hillbilly Soul Surfers, an instrumental trio. We shared the stage with The Naughty Ones, the Austin band whose members included singer/songwriter/Ted Roddy and drummer Mike Buck, original drummer of The Fabulous Thunderbirds and current part-owner of Wateroo Records in Austin.

When Mike saw we were playing identical drumsets that night (60’s Ludwigs in bdp finish), he suggested we just share the same set. Unfortunately, I’m a lefty, and it’s easier to reset a stage than to reconfigure a drumset.

Small world: After leaving the Fab T’s, Mike drummed in The Leroi Brothers, a great 4-piece combo. Evan Johns joined the band for one album, and as fate would have it, I did an album with Evan in the late-90’s. So there we were on the same stage, one former-Evan drummer, one future. What are the chances?!

I also did a gig on The Queen Mary, the famous cruise liner permanently moored in Long Beach. I love that row of bars than populate the outdoor "strip" (sidewalks, no streets) by the beach. Geez, this is making me homesick!

Your mention of The Foothill Club suggests you may remember my recounting having backed Don & Dewey (label-mates with Little Richard on Specialty Records) on a gig there. What a great place, dripping with 1950’s Rock ’n’ Roll style! I felt out-of-place, what with my long hair ;-) . Dewey didn’t mind, going out of his way to compliment my playing. The drummer on his Specialty recordings was Earl Palmer---one of my three favorites, so I was quite pleased with myself ;-) .
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