Vinyl that is impossible to find

@chrisoshea posted:-"Let’s all consider retiring the term "spiritual jazz" ...ALL good jazz is spiritual."

@foggyus91posted: - "totally agree, blues too!"

Chris- I think I’m the only person on this thread that used the term "spiritual jazz"- which is a loosely defined subgenre for that era in the late ’60s and early ’70s when elements of free jazz merged with Eastern influences during the Black Power movement, reflected in works like those of Pharaoh Sanders, a lot of the output on Strata-East and many small or private label "one and dones" from the likes of Milt Ward and Jothan Callins, or bodies of work from Horace Tapscott and others, mostly claiming "A Love Supreme" as an antecedent or inspiration. 

I’m open to any categorization to help define this era- what do you suggest? All of it as jazz? It really isn’t "free jazz" in many cases and certainly isn’t "straight ahead" and defines a period of cultural change. 

Foggy- what would you use to describe the music that came out of the delta, later electrified in Chicago, used as inspiration by the UK rockers in the mid-’60s to bring back our own native form of work song /lament in the form of blues-rock and is still a recognized genre despite changes over the decades?

In a sense, all music has certain elements in common, but even musicologists use genre categories as a short hand despite strands of origin that may go deeper. I ask out of intellectual curiosity, not pique. 

Bill

 

I remember several Lost Highway titles having noise/pressing issues. So there’s something to consider when thinking about a remaster vs. an original..@bdp24

$150 seems like a decent price for NM.  
Or just wait for a reissue. The in demand discs all seem to get reissued these days. 

@chrisoshea totally agree, blues too!

Let's all consider retiring the term "spiritual jazz" ...ALL good jazz is spiritual. 

I've been collecting 1970s East European and Soviet jazz & progressive rock for many years.  As well as pre-1970 "academic" electronic music.  So many world-class artists who are virtually unknown in the West.  Really, a whole new world of music.

So when people talk about Qobuz and Tidal as being Celestial Jukeboxes, I have to differ.  Both have at best a 10% hit ratio when I try to stream digital versions of my favorite artists in these genres.

Same goes for a lot of Western European Rock in Opposition releases from the same period.  1973's "Z=7L" is a world-class album by the French post-Magma band Zao, which featured the incredible saxophonist Yochk'o Seffer. 

I have a shelf of these albums obtained during the Cold War years by trading American CDs for Euro vinyl and by snapping up Cuneiform imports.  But if I'd been limited to what's available on modern streaming services (other than, gulp!, Youtube) it would have been impossible to hear any of these records.

@puptent 

I’m a Big Head Todd 🪭 as well. Just have one on vinyl.

If I recall correctly, it was on The Absolute Sound list years ago 

 

@slaw:

Thanks Steve. I’m a patient guy, so one will eventually come my way.

 

@bdp24 

Eric, I was fortunate to have scored "Tambourine" on Lost Highway not long after it went OOP. I'm a big 🪭. Good luck on your search.

Opal (w/Hope Sandoval)

Good Times.

Thanks guys!

:thumbsup:

 

@jnovak: Fortunately Mason’s LP’s are pretty easy to find. I’ve picked up four of his locally in the past coupla years, each priced $5.

 

I pride myself on my collecting skills. I like Mason Williams. I collected everything he ever did BEYOND released vinyl. When he was in the navy, he did an EP with four songs on it. I acquired a copy of it from the publisher who owns the rights to the label. I was quite proud of myself for the endeavor of it all. Decades later with the rise of Ebay, I bought THREE copies for $6.00 each! A little deflating but still a good thing. Happy listening. Joe 

At Big head Todd and the Monsters album release party for "Another Mayberry" I bought the CD... I'm not sure if I saw an LP, or not. There seems to be a catalog number (?). still looking 

 

Hey, thanks Steve. I'd prefer an original (in black vinyl I presume), but a reissue is not out of the question.

 

"Tambourine" is being reissued @bdp24 .

@kerrybh - That Johnny Adams LP is great!  Fortunately I got my copy from an LA used record store as a cut-out promo back when it first came out.

I have an LP wishlist but every purchase is a balance of how much I want the music vs. the format (CD, download, LP) and the cost.  I make many compromises.

When possible, I like to have music in the original format in which it was released.  I have many cherished jazz and rock LPs, but also pop 45’s and R&B 78s that I enjoy owning. 

The current top of my lust list would be the two original Herbie Nichols Blue Note 10” LPs.  For now I have to settle for the 70’s LP twofer reissue, which actually sounds quite good.

 

Some titles are available on LP, but at a price I don’t care to pay. $200 for Levon Helm’s Electric Dirt, for instance. I saw a copy in 2010, but wasn’t buying LP’s at that time. Time machine, please.

 

Others are much harder to find. Currently I'm on the hunt for clean copies (Mint - or better) of:

 

- Bobby Charles: s/t album on Bearsville Records

- Dire Straits: debut (Vertigo pressing)

- Bob Dylan: Desire (Mobile Fidelity pressing on Super Vinyl)

-    "         "    : World Gone Wrong

- Aretha Franklin: This Girl’s In Love

- The Kinks: mono boxset

- The Latin Playboys

- Aron Neville: Warm Your Heart

- Richard Lloyd: Alchemy

- Tift Merritt: Tambourine

- Boz Scaggs: My Time

- Dave Spillane: Atlantic Bridge

- Television: Adventure

- 20/20: s/t debut

- Tom Waits: Closing Time

- Warren Zevon: Life’ll Kill Ya

- The Care Bears Movie soundtrack (Kids Stuff 3901) in playable condition. It features recordings by Carole King and John Sebastian (with NRBQ providing musical accompaniment)

- The Beau Brummels: ’75

- The Everly Brothers: Roots

- Stained Glass (San Jose, CA Garage Band): Aurora

- The Ventures: In Space

- Chet Atkins: Down Home

- Guy Clark: Old No. 1

- Jim Dickenson: Dixie Fried

- Dillard & Clark: Through The Morning, Through The Night

- Joe Ely: Masquerade

- Bela Fleck: Drive

- Emmylou Harris: At The Ryman

          "               "     : All I Intend To Be

- George Jones & Tammy Wynette: Golden Ring

- The Kentucky Colonels: Appalachian Swing

- The Louvin Brothers: The Tragic Songs Of Life

- Judy Sills: s/t

- Ricky Skaggs and Tony Rice: Skaggs & Rice

- Billy & Terry Smith: Ease My Troubled Mind

- Gary Stewart: Out Of Hand

- Marty Stuart: Nashville Vol. 1

- v/a: The Bluegrass Album Volume 1

- Jesse Ed Davis: Keep Me Comin’

- John Hammond, Jr.: Southern Fried

- Albert King: Born Under A Bad Sign (Craft RSD mono pressing)

 

I had a hard time finding Johnny Adams: a room with the view of the blues, but finally located a clean copy at rare vinyl and received it from the Royal mail service today.

I find myself in these situations sometimes, when there's a particular album I want on vinyl but finding a near mint / good+ rated copy on vinyl that isn't absurdly priced because it's out of print, I often look for the first issue CD copy.  For example, the first pressing of Seal's debut album on vinyl can run up to $90 if it's the UK pressing before it was remastered. But the CD version can be had for $10!  I have some albums on CD only because they were released only on CD and decades later are now being reissued on vinyl for $30+. I'm not sure if you entertain the CD listening side of things as far as your collecting goes but I've found them to be an affordable option. 

I have been buying obscure (and sometimes very desirable) records for years. Short of the FMU show in NY and one year at the Austin record show (still have not made it to the famous show in the Netherlands), almost never find this stuff in record bins. Discogs usually, sometimes, private sites of dealers. Condition is key, and grading these days is loose. I find certain vendors who I will tap into til the vein runs dry or their prices get nuts. There are different vendors who specialize in different genres- for some years, I was buying up OGs of spiritual jazz until that got to be crazy money, especially for the private label stuff. Ditto on the OG Vertigo Swirls, particularly from the UK. The market is still high despite general economy depending on what you are looking for. I've slowed way down in buying b/c of this- and some of the records were simply hard to find- e.g. the OG of Alice Coltrane's Ptah had not been reissued after 1974 until a recent reissue pulled from a digital master. It took me a few years back when to find a clean original though it wasn't "rare" as such- an Impulse release. 

Best approach is dialog with seller unless you know them. Get a sense of what they know, what their standards are, right to return (I hate returning records and explain that). We are talking about some records that now sell in the 4 figures, but I bought them before they hit those prices. Good luck, the hunt is part of the fun. 

Prices for vinyl nowadays are just like the prices for older gear that was pure junk 40 years ago -- sellers on Facebook and EBay slap the word "vintage" on it and think that is worth an extra 80% to the price.

 

I keep hoping I live long enough to see the scalpers end up sitting on thousands of Vinyl releases that they can't sell because buyers wise up and quit paying $50 to $100 for a crappy sounding vinyl album from the 1990's or 2000's that was pressed from a CD source.  How I wish I had a time machine...I had the opportunity to buy out the inventory of several independent used record stores in college town in the 1980's and 1990's.  No telling what gems I could have found.  Live and learn.

Jesus. About a year or two ago there were several copies at my local Barnes and Noble. Knowing that they were essentially the cd version on vinyl, I passed them up. Sheesh. 

The Strawbs. Strawberry Music Sampler No.1

1969 publicity limited edition promo album at the time and 99 pressed. Only two copies have surfaced since that time.

The Strawbs first commercial album was produced by Tony Visconti. The tracks for their proposed first album on A&M had dialogue links between the songs, but the concept was dropped when another group released an album using the same idea. Various CDs were released in the 2000s.

Update

I see another has surfaced and sold in 2021. I have met Dave Cousins many times and talked about this LP. At the time of The Strawbs article in Record Collector only two copies were known to survive, so now the total is 3. This one sold for £2,500 on Discogs.

With the exceptionof their first  2 albums 10000 Maniacs recordings were done during the dreadful digital CD days.There wasn't a US LP release, as CD was king.

The euro press that was released probably sounds no better than the CD.

Likely, you're  not missing out on anything.

I have Blind Man's Zoo on LP and its nothing special.

Try Noble Records in Matthews, N.C . 

The owner seems respectable and has a YouTube channel. Chad presses new vinyl for him on his own label as well 

It's not impossible if copies are found.

The Vivante stuff is very rare. My feeling would be the AP lps are most likely superior.

Been looking for Muddy Waters' "The Folk Singer" on the short-lived Vivante label to complete my Vivante collection.  I'm not even sure this 180 gram vinyl disc was ever released -- I've never seen it offered for sale.  (Reviews had rated it inferior to the Analog Productions and MFSL LPs.)

Probably just hope for a reissue. "MTV Unplugged" was recently remastered on vinyl, so there's hope.

It’s right next to the MFSL sealed copy of Pink Floyd DSOTM. Joking aside I feel your pain. It’s right up there with buying NOS tubes. I love that band and wish you the best in your search. Happy Hunting, Mike B. 

I'm looking for one that won't cost me an arm and a leg.

 

TIA

+1 Discogs - best and easiest place to find vinyl and digital media recordings 

There are 3 for sale on Discogs right now.