What's the oddest thing in your music collection?


For me, it's a CD titled "Kashmir: The Symphonic Led Zeppelin".

Yes, it's Led Zeppelin songs played by The London Philharmonic Orchestra.

It's actually quite interesting, to me anyways. For a review and sampling the music, see:

So, what's the oddballs in your collections?

 

128x128toddsyr

This Sounds in Space vinyl used as packing material for another album I ordered off of Discogs. I cleaned it up and it sounds phenomenal!

 

I have an "educational" recording LP of "jump rope rhymes" recorded in NYC in the 1950’s.

Never found a reference to it on the WWW (aside from my posting about it).

 

DeKay

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No odd, but I think lesser known.

 

Christmas Classics with Harp & Oboe

Christmas Classics 2 with Harp & Oboe 2

 

Both are very clean recordings to my ear and an excellent listen, particularly for the season.

It appears that neither are available on CD currently on Amazon.  

Simao:

Unfortunately no.

Can’t even access the LP now as it’s buried behind gobs of other stuff.

Looked for other like recordings but struck out.

Once thought of contacting Johnathan Demme to see if he would be interested in such a recording project, but never got around to doing so and as time flies so did he.

Maybe Ry Cooder would be up for it (we are all getting so old and I can’t stand Ken Burns)?

Some other odd ones I have are a half dozen LP’s of "Official Figure Skating Music" and a Tito Puente "advertising/tourism" compilation LP.

 

DeKay

@dekay : is it Tony Schwartz 1, 2, 3 And A Zing Zing Zing- 

Demme was a neighbor when I lived near Nyack. Very nice guy. We used to bump into him at the local sushi bar and never talked about his films, just stuff about the 'hood. Sorry he's gone. 

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I have quite a few "weird" records, from those atomic era Batchelor pad records like the RCA posted above (most of which I got rid of to make space, ahem) to rare groove jazz that had black islam overtones and labeling- many on private label that were released at the end of the '60s into the '70s. I did a big purge before I moved from NY to Texas, so a lot (12,000) records got offloaded including old test records, some field recordings and a lot of the novelty stuff, e.g. Music for Non-thinkers, along with lesser pressings and duplicates. The stuff I kept is musically interesting to me, despite bizarre covers or titles. 

My parent’s collection of Yiddish music and comedy sketch 78s from about 100 years ago that I digitized into my digital music library.

Musically, No Pussyfooting by Fripp and Eno is about as far out there as it gets.

Also I have a well recorded CD of Tibetan Bells that is very interesting….

 

@whart

You mean like Oi Va  Voi? You betcha! Good stuff. CD is “Rough Guide to Klezmer”

 

 

I have one (on CD, not sure it was released on LP) of a guy playing a shofar but I think he is sporting a third eye. There's a whole body of this stuff, a genre. some of it is pretty out there!

I have a nice shofar on the mantle in family room with a yoga frog right next to it. Might have to add a third eye to the frog…..🙏

Whart:

Not it, but I’m placing an order for it - thanks.

Don’t know why I like listening to this stuff as I shied away from it as a kid (1 older sister and 4 female first cousins who lived a few houses away).

I also have a small collection of mono recordings of tribal music (mainly New Zealand) which were made on portable Nagra tape recorders per the album notes.

Great recordings aside the music just mezmorizes me.

Good to hear that about Demme.

 

DeKay

 

 

If I may stretch 'oddest' to include most avant-garde: Aisha Devi's "DNA Feelings"

From the bandcamp album description:

"She is a rebel and a radical alchemist who is breaking down barriers and traversing dimensions with her art...Devi applies meditation techniques in her approach to production and performance, channeling metaphysical research, ritualistic practice and healing frequencies into an alternate club paradigm." 

A very trippy listen. Awesome bass on some tracks. Profound at high volumes. 

 

Like mapman, I have loads of ancient, oddball stuff I inherited from my parents. There's the 78rpm shellac of their marriage ceremony, which was broadcast on a  radio show that did that sort of thing. I have 45 rpm comedy singles. I have a passel of LP test records, both for mono and stereophonic. One compares the sound of ancient 78's to modern HiFi, It features Toscanini recordings as the latest and greatest.  Another compares 78 and mono LP recordings to recordings in that new-fangled invention Stereophonic. One of the stereo ones has London's Ceremony of the Keys that happens every night at Buckingham Palace.  I have a passel of those flexible 7" records that were sometimes included in magazines.

The first thing that comes to my mind is Hen House Five Plus Two/In the Mood. Have it on one of those Warner Bros sampler albums, I believe it is Limo. There were about 18 or 20 of them and I bought them all at the same time through Warner at a cost of $2.00 each, all double albums and they turned me on to a lot of great music and artist. Enjoy the music

A R2R tape recorded in a Chgo club that was given to me in the 70s.

Folksinger Jenny Clements, quite good, no trace of her on the WWW.

Maybe she married the bass player and changed her name permanently like Christine Perfect.

A lot of interesting responses here!

@jc4659 I HAD to look up Monty Python's Matching Tie and Handkerchief LP with 3 sides. The interesting explanation from Wikipedia is:

"The album's original LP edition is particularly notable in that it was mastered with two concentric grooves on side two, so that different material would be played depending on where the stylus was put down on the record's surface. For this reason it is sometimes referred to as a 'three-sided' record."

 

 

A 4 disc survey of Hungarian popular music from the 70s. One picture disc of the Hungarian Imperial Eagle on one side and a view of Buda from Pest on the other, and three disc that are the three colors of the Hungarian flag: white, red and green. 
Don't see many white lps!

Favorite song? It's a toss up between "Learn to dissemble, sonny" and "I was disappointed in everyone".

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A very early Joan Baez album 'Joab Baez in San Francisco' where she does pop songs and Belafonte folky songs. She even does a version of "young Blood' in a deep, semi-male voice.

The Baroque Beatles Book, Beatles tunes made to sound like real baroque music except for the opera piece where the voices and words sound corny.

Various P D Q Bach albums where Richard Schikele discovers the only forgotten son of Johann Bach who should have remained forgotten. The music titles make bad puns of Baroque pieces and the music is corny and brilliantly hilarious.

I've a 'sampler' CD of various Houston bands received at a street festival, mostly ok stuff, no stand-outs but...

One is a 'bluesy' sort of thing, reminiscent of 'Cocaine' in it's rambling way.

It's hidden 'surprise' is that it 'skips back' randomly, much like a LP, but it stays within the song itself.

You can play it for hours....the skip can be a few seconds, a minute +/-, no real pattern....

Literally, this song goes on potentially forever until your player breaks or a power fail.  No visible damage or dirt, I've checked.

I've thought of putting it on during the later part of a good-sized party as background sound .... to see if anyone would notice...

16” and 20” transcription records. I’ve collected a few hundred over the years. They are transcription discs the DJ’s use to - among other things - have enough time to go to the bathroom I imagine. Some are V- Discs, some are live, and some are just a few songs per side with commercials. Always fun to put on a 20” record - make you feel like your shrinking. 

Doesn't qualify as "odd" per se but I have 3 albums from 3 different very close friends that never hit the big time, didn't hit the small time for that matter. I am relatively sure they didn't sell outside of Rochester NY. Each album is excellent in both sound and performances.

*"the portsmith sinfonia" "plays" the classics" [more like slays 'em, as on this record each player picked up the next player's instrument and tried their best with it, with predictable results.

*"shut yo mouth" - major holley and slam stewart pair up on their respective double basses, major effects a basso profundo growl in pitch unison with his string bass, while slam sings an octave above his. 

*an audio cassette given me by a psych drug rep at the hospital i worked at, "the sounds of mental illness" complete with a listener caution. 

 "the sounds of mental illness"                                                              Ladies and gentlemen, We have a winner!!!                  

A private issue LP of a Friar's (or Masquers') club stag dinner For Harry Joe Brown. A roast of the film director by his friends George Jessel, George Burns, Jack Benny, and Art Linkletter. Very Funny and raunchy for it's time (definitely the only time I have heard George Burns talk about contracting "Cupid's Eczema" and drop the F-bomb). And imagine Art Linkletter dropping another F bomb. I believe it was recorded in 1950. 33 rpm. A reel to reel was smuggled out, as they had a very strict secrecy policy. NO RECORDINGS ALLOWED!

 

I enjoy collecting funny, unique, and weird covers. Here's one just in time for

Xmas

 

RCA Living Stereo and Command Records had some really good sounding records. Command Records Vol. 2 Provocative Percussion. Enoch Light and the Light Brigade.

Beverly Cotton-Clog-In (Flying Fish 237).  Out of nearly 2000 vinyl records this gets my vote.

@richopp, man I love me some Johnny Otis, that dude knew how to put a touring group/show together but I ain't never seen that Skillet and Leroy jive. Thanks for that. Enjoy the music

@1111art , the above post was in response to your post, was laughing so hard I got confused.

I would add Rachel Sweet, too, but she may have been too main-stream for the "odd" designation.

@tooblue Your are welcome. I guess.

A private recording of songs by the Hmong minority outside of Sapa, Vietnam, from 1999.