I am going to be taking a few days off from blogging at this time.There’s a bit of travel coming up, and I will return to regular daily posts on Tues. 12-1-09!
I always welcome suggestions for topics upon which to write.Lately, I’ve been trying to write the blogs right before I post them – not months in advance.
Lately I have been feeling like I have a lot of stuff; I’ve found some ‘want list items’ recently (like the 6CD Joe Cocker live set!).As usual, I never have any idea what will turn up in San Francisco / Berkeley, so I will advise if something neat walks down the pike.These days, there is a lot of stuff we get to do in SF bay area that isn’t record collecting – many great bookstores left there, some good shoe stores, extra nice restaurants, good friends / family etc.
But I will always take a look and see what’s on offer at the 2 x Amoeba stores up there.Heck, last Xmas / New Year’s – I found the Stump CD box in San Francisco!
I have been regularly going to San Francisco / EastBay / San Jose / Santa Cruz for about 30 years.I’ve seen many odd stores come and go; I’ve sold (& bought) at assorted swap meets up there.It’s another concentration of humans; humans mean “used CD’s / vinyl”.I sometimes get ‘tired’ of L.A.’s bounty – something different will be on offer in S.F.!But…what?
I miss Tower Records!It was always interesting to see what was going to be for sale in Mountain View, Berkeley, 2525 Jones St., Bascom Ave. – Bascom Ave is still good, with a great Streetlight and a Rasputin’s!
A big shout out to my S.F. / S.J. crew – Scott & Deb, Ruth & Ken!And my former S.F. / S.J. crew, Big Mark (!), Cameron!Both no longer in S.J., sadly.Still love to go to S.J., and it’s these men I have to thank for my knowledge and lore of Cupertino, Sunnyvale and El Camino Real in general.Whatever happened to that guy at Chimera in Palo Alto who used to hum tunelessly to the Velvet Underground…or Debussy?All hail Rex, “The Dedicated Record Collector”!Rex remembered that I wanted a Heinz LP for well over a decade!
So, I’m real ready to get on a plane and make it up north.Thanxgiving in Pacifica!Daiso @ Serramonte!Amoebas!Get me some 24SF’s (shoes)!Upper Playground in the house!Japan town mall!Kinokuniya stationery store!Aquarius!Medium Rare!Ti Couz!T. Rex BBQ in Berkeley!Vik’s, Berkeley Marina!Half Price Books!DownHome Music in El Cerrito!
Happy Thanksgiving!Thanks for reading while I drool.Coming next Tuesday:1969!
I had already been through stamps / coins and comic books / Mad Magazines.
Somehow when music collecting became apparent to me, there was something to back it up – Schwann Record Catalogues!Wallach’s Music City weekly charts (printed on 2-sided legal goldenrod paper)!And Atco Records used their innersleeve to show us 50 (or more?) of their available LP’s.Yes, it’s true: I got a yellow legal pad and wrote down all the possible numbers for the Atco Records 33,000 series – at the time, it was #1 - #300 or so.The LP innersleeve showed me a bunch of titles, but I could cross-check them in the Schwann Catalogue, and find titles not pictured on their sleeves!Almost like a bingo game, it quickly became:“I’ve never seen a Chickenman LP on Atco”.So I would look for it – scouring comedy used LP bins wherever I could find ‘em.But it wasn’t limited to comedy LP’s – everything on Atco had a certain level of interest to me.Still does, as 2010 approaches.
And there were other labels that I could figure out their numerical sequences:the Elektra 74000 series, Warner Brothers 1000 series, Reprise 6000 series etc.By the early 70’s, I advanced on to British record labels: I wrote to Island Records in London, and they sent me their catalogue!ILPS 9000 series!
So, by the early 70’s, I was collecting whatever I heard that interested me, whatever I was reading about in Circus, Creem and Melody Maker and – some numerical sequences!
There were a lot of record stores I could get to fairly easily.My dad could take me anywhere I couldn’t ride my bike to.And it wouldn’t be long before I started to have friends who drove.I knew how to get to Hollywood from Long Beach!And I knew where the record stores were!
There still weren’t reference works I could read to find out about things like comedy records.I learned what I could from constantly combing the used comedy bins in used record stores.In a few short years, I would be adding jazz to my interests.And soundtracks. And European music.
In a pre-internet world, it was a lot more difficult to find out about stuff.I only had a few friends who “thought like I did” (i.e. music and record collecting, 24-7) – I could write to my brother (who lived in Germany) or I could try to talk to guys in record stores…yes, there were some patient guys, but mostly nobody in an early 70’s record store wanted to talk to a 12-year-old asking a lot of questions.
My first record store job didn’t arrive until July 2, 1976 – I was 17 years old.I worked in record stores, record distribution, record importers, CD stores and eventually I even worked with a friend on an internet-based music sales business.I’ve sort of ‘done it all’.
But – you have to start somewhere.I was interested.Still am.
I was recently sent an email by amazon.co.uk offering me a bunch of cheap-ish CD titles for Xmas.At the bottom of the email was the offer to visit their “download shop” – with over 8,000,000 DRM-free Songs!
Let’s see…8,000,000 songs – that’s a boat-load!If I do even a small breakdown of my collection…approx. 4,000 x 7” singles (2 songs per) = approx. 8,000 DRM-Free songs, approx. 1,500 x 12” singles (3 songs per) = approx. 4,500 DRM-Free songs…rounding it off (some have more, some less – and the doubles, triples, boxed sets etc) – approx. 7,000 x CD’s (12 tracks per) = approx. 84,000 DRM-Free songs, approx. 7,000 x LP’s (10 tracks per) = 70,000 DRM-Free songs.Guess I’m a long way off of Amazon.co.uk with my measly 162,500 DRM-Free songs!
I still buy records & CD’s in stores in Los Angeles – availability!I’m going to do it as long as I can!I can discover new music without having to worry about DRM or computer virus things!I just pay the guy and put the records in Mr. Suzuki!
I went to Record Surplus a few Sundays ago – and I came out with an infinite vista of possibilities from the upstairs ‘$1 room’:
CARAVELLI – GRAND PRIX, COLUMBIA JPN LP test pressing; with a Jacques Dutronc EZ hit version of “Les Playboys”
CARAVELLI – MICHELLE A LA CARAVELLI, COLUMBIA JPN LP test pressing; Beatles EZ hit covers!
DELON, ALAIN / JEAN PAUL BELMONDO – s/t, SEVEN SEAS JPN LP test pressing; looks to be an LP of themes from movies they were both starring in, circa ’67/’68
ELGART, LES & LARRY – GIRL WATCHERS, COLUMBIA US LP no, not the O’Kaysions song, but a Teo Macero-produced LP with a beautiful ‘mod art’ cover! (see the scan!)
HOLLYRIDGE STRINGS – ELVIS PRESLEY, TOSHIBA JPN LP test pressing; this one didn’t have a title on it, being a test pressing, but it’s all Elvis songs, done in typical EZ hit style
LETTERMEN – PUT YOUR HEAD ON MY SHOULDER, TOSHIBA JPN LP red vinyl; the innersleeve offers Toshiba Japan pressings of “Sgt. Peppers” and “A Collection of Oldies But Goldies”!
LOVICH, LENE – FLEX, STIFF JPN LP test pressing; a bit out of date to the other Japanese test pressings I found; her 2nd album – no hits!
NAZZARO, GIANNI – s/t, CGD JPN LP test pressing; Italian male vocalist; no rock & roll here, folks!
NEW TRIO LOS PANCHOS, LOS – QUE NO TE CUENTEN CUENTOS, COLUMBIA JPN LP test pressing; in stereo, guess that’s why it’s “New”
O.S.T. – UNHOMME ET UNE FEMME, KING JPN LP test pressing; avec Pierre Barouh
ORIGINAL FINNISH JENKA DANCE BAND – LET'S LETKISS! JENKA!, COLUMBIA JPN LP test pressing; Mute Beat covered the ‘Jenka’ song on their debut cassette!
POPP, ANDRE – MY WAY MUSIC, FESTIVAL JPN LP test pressing, the “Love Is Blue” album, circa ’67
THREE BRASS BUTTONS – BRASS IN THE NIGHT, DERAM UK LP Tony Osbourne; in the series of Deramic Sound System albums that include The Moody Blues “Days Of Future Passed”!
URBAN DANCE SQUAD – MENTAL FLOSS FOR THE GLOBE, ARISTA US LP NL ’90
V.A. – CHANSONS NOUVELLES, LES Vol. 2, BARCLAY JPN LP test pressing; circa ’67
V.A. – ESSENTIAL FOLK BLUES – 1, COLUMBIA JPN LP test pressing; Lightning Hopkins, Ray Charles etc.
V.A. – GORGEOUS FOLK SONG ALBUM, MGM JPN LP test pressing; Sheb Wooley etc.
VALENTE, CATERINA – BEST OF, LONDON JPN LP test pressing; “Tintarella Di Luna” – sung in Japanese!
VARTAN, SYLVIE – s/t, RCA FR 2LP looks to be a double LP of a TV special from the early 70’s ($2 because it was a double album)I don’t recognize any of the songs!
YAMAYA, K. / TOKYO UNION ORCHESTRA – MODERN JAZZ SCREEN MOODS, COLUMBIA JPN LP test pressing; subtitled “Sounds For Spies and Secret Agent Men” – too bad this test pressing doesn’t have a cover!Great big band jazz cover versions of all the spy movies of the late 60’s!
Followed by…
BRAND X – LIVESTOCK, CHARISMA UK LP Britsh pressing
BUCKNER & GARCIA – PAC-MAN FEVER, COLUMBIA US LP a whole LP of this!
BYRD, CHARLIE – CHRISTMAS CAROLS FOR SOLO GUITAR, COLUMBIA US LP Xmas
HARA, NOBUO / SHARPS & FLATS – SANTA CLAUS IS COMIN' TO TOWN, CBS/SONY JPN LP Xmas ’69
ITCHY FINGERS – QUARK, VIRGIN VE US LP with Stanley Unwin
JAVANESE GAMELAN MUSIC – JASMINE ISLE, NONESUCH US LP in the same series as “Golden Rain”
NORIS, GUNTER – TOP-HITS FOR DANCING 2, ARIOLA DE LP more EZ hits
My brother told my dad where to take me in Hollywood to look for British-pressed records.There were a number of stores on Hollywood Blvd. that specialized in having British pressings.I learned at such a young age that British records not looked nice and sounded great – some of them had different songs!And there were British RollingStones 45’s that had never been released in the US!
I listened to a lot of AM radio approx. between 1964 and 1969 – I can’t tell you where / when exactly, but the first time I heard Jimi Hendrix was on the portable clock radio – blasting out “Foxey Lady” – I had certainly never heard anything like that before!And Cream was very popular, I was interested in them, too.
At age 10 or so, I was played some psychedelic records – things like Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe & The Fish, The Doors, The Fugs – mostly from my older sister Marilyn.For the most part, this was stuff not being played on the AM radio.I didn’t discover rock music on FM radio until…Crosby Stills & Nash time, likely 1969.
My dad dutifully took me to hippie record stores – Licorice Pizza, Phineas, Mundae, Platterpuss – Long Beach, California stores.My mom would take me to places like Cal Store, The Treasury, White Front, Zody’s – not exactly hippie places.The big squaresville store was Wallach’s Music City, in Lakewood, CA.Towards the end of the 60’s, I discovered that you could request records @ Wallach’s (i.e. you could ‘special order’ them).Being a kid, I only had enough money for 45’s, unless I could get my parents to spring for whole LP’s.Wallach’s had the best selection of 45’s, no question.
To give you an idea of how long ago this all was – when I bought my Elvis Presley EP’s @ Wallach’s, they were still in the 45 bin – from the time they were first released!Yes, they had all been re-pressed endlessly – but RCA was still printing and sending out EP’s at that time!
So, my first investigation into “Oldies” came towards the end of the 60’s.In “Status Back Baby” on the 2ndFrank Zappa LP, I was told about The Coasters – so I went in search of that.From a box of records found under a bed, I knew I was interested in SueThompson, Freddy Cannon etc.It was likely 1968 when I first tried looking up record stores in the yellow pages of the phone book.
In most of 1969 – 1971, my ‘availability’ consisted of wherever my dad would agree to take me.Our family’s cars had 8-track tape players.I had a small Sony portable reel-to-reel, and a Philips compact cassette recorder.During these years, I also started riding my bike to record stores – The Wherehouse, American Records…and other places that weren’t record stores, per se – Dooley’s Hardware etc.
Being a child, my concern was – at that stage – where can I get the most music for the least amount of money?Who had the cheapest 45’s?The Singer Sewing MachineStore?
I am always tempted to try and think about writing about music in different ways.This is the 3rd incarnation of this blog.I started way back in 2002 with my “20th Century Music” blog, which transformed into “The Ron Kane Files” and finally arrived at this “Music Life” blog.Some entries are artist specific, others are “playlists”, there are ‘obits’ and ‘big lists’.
It was during my “20th Century Music” days that I discovered that people were very encouraging when I wrote about my “record collector nostalgia”, as in – “What can I remember about collecting records in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s etc”.And for whatever reason, it always seemed appropriate to me to write about record collector nostalgia as the ‘year end’ approaches.Home for the holidays, as it were.
So, for those who weren’t here the first time around the block…
I grew up in a house where there was a lot of music (and phonograph records).My dad played me “Dinner Music For Those Who Aren’t Very Hungry” by Spike Jones when I was no more than 5 years old.He had taped it off of the FM radio onto a reel-to-reel tape deck (in mono).In the early 60’s, I can remember hot summer days when we would all go down into “the den”, close the blinds, turn on the air conditioning and listen to Allan Sherman LP’s all day.
Our family all watched The Beatles land on the Ed Sullivan Show together.My brother interned at KNOB-FM (“KNOB – the Jazz Knob”), he had an LP collection separate from my parents’ records.My earliest memories are of his Stan Getz / Joao Gilberto “Jazz Samba” LP on Verve – it’s thick, shiny cover.And if my sisters were all into The Beatles, my brother liked The Rolling Stones.
My sister Marilyn got interested in Sonny & Cher.When she and my sister Susie were babysitting me (while my mom worked), they played me Frank Zappa & The Mothers ofInvention – probably “Wowie Zowie” from “Freak Out”.
For my birthday, my parents took me to see the Harry Belafonte show at the Greek Theatre up in Los Angeles.Unless I am mistaken, the opening acts were Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee and either Miriam Makeba or Nana Mouskouri.I am going to guess this was 1963? 1964?
My brother went into the US Air Force; my older sister Marilyn moved out.By the end of the 60’s, I was the only child at home.I remember all of them having gone to the June, 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival, I was too young.They all saw The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl.I was too young…to do anything much but go shopping with my mother or father.
My brother showed me the magic of British-pressed LP’s in 1967 – he brought home a UK Parlophone copy of “Sgt. Peppers” – “Are your hands clean?”, he asked me.
7"SUPER / NEUSCHNEEU.A. UKUP 354851972 2 TRKS with pic sleeve
Klaus Dinger (1946 – 2008) and Michael Rother.I last wrote about Neu! in 2003.Since that time, I have now obtained all 3 of their proper albums on legit issue CD’s.And Klaus Dinger passed away.I never saw a CD of “Neu! 4”, but I wouldn’t have bought it if it was too expensive.I really liked the first few Michael Rother solo albums, but I never got into La Dusseldorf very much.Whereas, I like Harmonia very much.This particular batch of German musicians are rather “all over each other’s records / bands”.
Finding the first Neu! album in the U.S. in 1972 or so was really a revelation – a revelation of what was possible in the context of rock music.I’ve no idea how / why Billingsgate Records came to exist to release such a thing in the U.S. – I certainly remember writing to the record label, but I don’t remember them replying.
For a while there, my enthusiasm was really flamed – “Neu! 2” came fairly quickly after the 1st album.If memory serves, I got the 2 x 45’s in either at a 70’s swap meet – or on a visit to England.Real Neu! 45’s are kind of unusual.At least they picked the right songs for the A-sides of both singles!I remember being disappointed that “Neu! ‘75” came out in the U.S. on Capitol Records – so I went and found out how to get a Japanese pressing!(I ordered it when it was a new release).
I didn’t like it when the bootleg CD’s of the Neu! albums were around.Expensive Germanophon bootlegs, each and every one of them “needle drops”.Same story for the first three Kraftwerk albums.I never bought any of that crap on boot CD.I’ll stick to my (mostly) original German LP’s, thanks.
The music?It’s that “motorized musik” beat – ‘intoxicating’, I think it was written.As a youngster, I just knew that they (the cool, intelligent music world) were thinking way past “the 3 minute pop song” in rock music of the early 70’s.I am not at all surprised that many famous folks (Mr. Bowie, for example) always name-check Neu! when speaking of their “influences”.
I was also mightily into Faust, Amon Duul II, Cluster, Kraftwerk, Can et al.We all know that Krautrock was on the menu from 1971 – 1977.Seems to me that quite a few people tried German rock music at the time, but not many took it all that seriously.I know Krautrock was more popular in England than it was in the U.S. (in the 70’s).Now it seems to be a worldwide phenomena – at least for 70’s German music.
We all remember different stuff.A large part of my memory is taken up with remembering stuff about record collecting.In the 80’s, I tried to modify this behavior to include music videos – I got pretty far with that idea, generating a list of 22,000+ individual music videos.I moved around a bit in the early 90’s, and lost interest in music videos – so my list sits stagnant for over a decade now.
It even seems like I have hit the glass ceiling with DVD’s.There really aren’t too many I am waiting on these days (that I think ever will eventually exist).So, I don’t worry about it.I have a DVD recorder, but the tuner no longer works.If I want to record anything off of TV onto it, I must use a converter box.It’s an older model with a big hard disk inside, so I can store up to something like 22 hours of top quality video.
I keep a big Excel spread sheet of all of my vinyl and CD’s.It’s from this list that I create discographies that I sometimes post on this blog.My lists are not infallible; there’s plenty I don’t know or have accurate descriptions of!But it mostly suits my needs.I’d like to make a bibliography of my book collection, also probably in Excel – but that would take some time (that I don’t seem to have these days).
So, a bunch of stuff about music and record collecting floats around my memory.Serial numbers, the order an artist released their albums in etc.Useful?Well, if you’re trying to do what I do, it is.I like the idea of having an overview of my experience with music – the how and when / why of my perception of it – with the purpose of telling others, so that they might understandmusic better / more completely – as I sometimes feel that I have.I want all of you to listen!
So that’s an easy enough directive:Listen to music.What you listen to is up to you, to your experience, your access.But listen…More than once, I feel that listening to music has saved my life – from what, I cannot say.But a life less ordinary, perhaps?What do people who don’t listen to music occupy their minds with?Sporting events?Religion?Well, music / record collecting is my ‘religion’.I definitely worship at record stores – whether they be in Tokyo or Amsterdam or Los Angeles (or a thousand other places).I walk through the doors of a record store and I know I am in a place where “my people” are (just as though each record store was a church).And I sometimes go more often than once a week!
I might not like my surroundings, my job, or any other aspect of my present-day existence…but I still like music.And I like to write about my music “experience”.
If I had a perfect memory, there would no need to listen to stuff again and again, but… it helps me remember what it was I found interesting when I ‘listen again’.Sometimes, if I listen long enough – I will discover something new about the music that I am already familiar with.I can make ‘connections’ that were previously obscured from my attention. That’s when it gets fun!
Last Title Listened To:“You Are What You Eat” (O.S.T.) – ’68 Columbia Records, CD is Sony Japan ’06 DSD Mastering, kami sleeve.
Been thinking about the ’73-’74 King Crimson a lot lately, what with getting a new 2CD re-mastered “Red” CD + DVD set.Supposedly remixed from multi-tracks, the “Red” re-master sounds pretty good to me.And the video on the DVD is very interesting.I always did like that one, “Red”, a bit more accessible than the previous album, “Starless & Bible Black” (and I always thought they stole the title from a Stan Tracey album!).
So, to follow today’s thread, I recommend having on hand these CD’s:
Larks’ Tongues In Aspic (1973) (LP)
Starless & Bible Black (1974) (LP)
Red (1974) (LP or new re-mastered CD + DVD set)
U.S.A. (1975) (LP or CD, CD has 3 x bonus tracks)
Supplemented with:
“The Collectable King Crimson – Vol. 1” (Live in Mainz, 1974 & Live in Asbury Park, 1974) – issued 2006 (2CD)
“The Great Deceiver: Part One” (Live in Rhode Island, 1974 & Live in Glasgow, 1973) with a bonus of a short bit from PennStateUniversity, 1974) – issued 2007 (2CD)
“The Great deceiver: Part Two” (Live in Pittsburgh, 1974 & a bit more Penn State ’74 and Toronto ’74 and Zurich ’73) – issued 2007 (2CD)
First, I listened to almost all of these live 2CD sets – some of them have fairly impressive sound quality!Mr. Fripp likes to “abbreviate” “Larks’ Tongues In Aspic: Part II” – it appears only on the Mainz ’74 show as a complete track.Interesting to see that he acknowledges when the music is “improvised”.
Listening to all that live music sent me back to the original LP’s.I played “Larks’ Tongues” to death, once I got a grip on what was on offer.I flogged “Starless” a bit less (though “Fracture” was fairly interesting) and I enjoyed “Red” a lot.“U.S.A.” was neither here nor there for me at the time, but now it serves as a professional recording of the final version of K.C. that I can wholly abide.
Particularly on the live material, John Wetton sounds a bit lost at times.And David Cross seems to get stepped on a fair bit (by Wetton & Bill Bruford).And does it all sound like Robert Fripp told them what they were going to do in advance?Uh, guess not.But this version of the band were certainly capable of some mighty sounding material.
There are a ton of liner notes by Mr. Fripp in the live CD’s, some of it rather amusing.Diary entries, “A personal note to young musicians” etc.I saw Mr. Fripp on stage recently as part of the group “Slow Music”, where he was barely audible.I couldn’t help but think he was doing his best Derek Bailey impersonation.Guess he’s still interested in making improvised music.
