What are the treasures in your vinyl library?

04-30-07: Restock
My almost complete collection of Tom Waits Records.

Yeah, I had no idea. A minty fresh copy of Swordfishtrombones fell into my possession recently, and it blew me away, both sonically and artistically.

Is it just me, or is this one of the best recorded and reproduced albums in *any* medium--analog, tape, direct-to-disk, digital, reproduced to tape, vinyl, CD, DVD, or SACD?

Hear, hear, when it comes to import pressings.

I have a German pressing of Joni Mitchell's "Blue" and a Japanese pressing of Bowie's "Let's Dance." I remember paying about a buck extra for the Bowie album and it was well worth it. That thing slams!

So does "Blue," for that matter. The dynamics and "in-the-room" sensation are very strong.

OTOH, I just picked up a used Beatles' White album. The store had two: a UK pressing from 1986 and a USA one from 10-15 yrs earlier. It had an embossed title rather than printed, but no serial number on the cover. Anyway, the US pressing I bought really stomped *that* particular UK pressing, which sounded thin and threadbare.

I remember my nephew had this and I remember enjoying it. A local used record store has a used one. I'll have to check out whether its condition is good enough for me to pick up. If not, I know of another used record store that probably has a few copies.

Thanks for the tip.

05-15-07: Daveyf
MSFL Ella and Louis again sealed

You lucky mofo! Congratulations.

Well, I've had a few additions since my last post. I now have Japan-EMI pressings of Rubber Soul and Revolver (opened by never played, or played once at most). Damn! It's unbelievable how well even pop/rock music was sometimes recorded over 40 years ago.

I also now have a direct-to-disk recording of Mel Torme accompanied by the Buddy Rich Big Band and a rare (I think it was distributed only in Europe) pressing of Pat Metheny's "Question and Answer" that I got from a UK vendor on eBay.

I recently discovered an antiques pavilion near where I live. A few of the vendors sell LPs, and I picked up the Sheffield D2D of Harry James' band and some Concord Jazz albums of the L.A. Four and the Woody Herman big band (all about $3 ea.). Concord Jazz has some of the most real in-the-room-sounding LPs I've ever heard.

On the same trip, my stepson made what may be the biggest score of all--a Japanese pressing of Pink Floyd's "The Wall," apparently unplayed ($10). Holy shnikes! This has got to be one of the 5 best-sounding LPs in my house, and the best pop/rock studio recording I've ever heard. The dynamic slam on kick drum on this is an order of magnitude better than any other pop studio album I have.

Well, I've acquired a few LPs since my first post in this thread.

My sister (she's in her 70's) was cleaning out her shelves and sent me some LPs. There, nestled in the box among the movie soundtracks and swing band collections was the 1965 Mercury Living Presence edition of Janos Starker playing the Bach Cello Suites. Yee hah!

I grew up listening to this version, and it's spoiled me for all others. Unfortunately, the one I grew up listening to got destroyed when my brother's garage and part of his house burnt about a year ago. The stereo versions of this still fetch something north of $1K on eBay. Mine is the mono version, but even those go for amazing money. Besides, with solo cello you aren't losing a whole lot going from stereo to mono.

Anyway, that's got to be at the head of my new short list.