Vinyl Distractions

Ramblings about My Records

RSD 2024 Black Friday

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Just to be clear, I hate the concept of Black Friday so much. Go get manipulated by massive corporations for the benefit of the capitaliz, but think you’ve somehow got one over on them by saving a few dollars? It’s all a sham, and always has been – but it somehow gets bigger every year, while small businesses – the ones that actually support our communities – continue to get crushed. Then combine that with my ambivalence about Record Store Day, and I don’t get excited about this event. And most years, there’s precious little on the RSD list that I need or want anyway, but I’ll dutifully line up to support my friend’s store, Forever Changes here in Phoenixville, PA. (By the way, the only Black-owned record store in the Philly area – I’d ask how it’s come to this, but that’s another whole rant.)

But dammit, this year there were some things I wanted. Even things I needed. And of course, with limited editions and so on, there’s no guarantee a store can get everything it orders, so I gave Shawn my whole list – and lo and behold, my whole list came in. (He even ordered some of these for people who aren’t me, but that’s on him.)

I haven’t even gotten through everything I bought on Friday, but here’s what I got – and yeah, I wanted to do a fancy Instagram post with them but the tools weren’t cooperating, so I’ll do it here.

Cover of Morphine B-Sides and Otherwise. Cover image is a degraded photograph or art showing a young person in an old-fashioned dress pouring from a rectangular bottle onto a bowl of food. The box the bottle came from says "Caution!!!!" the overall impression is of an antique image perhaps of poisoning.

Oh, kids, I’m coming so late to the Morphine party. I only discovered them through taking a chance on Hypnosonics, and then I found out they’re this whole thing. Oh boy, are they. I’ve since acquired their landmark “Cure For Pain” on digital, but have to patiently (?) await a vinyl re-release, as the original vinyl is a touch pricey – probably the result of having been released right in that time when vinyl was on the way out and releases were small. In the meantime, I’ve got this, which is amazing, and which reminds me that I’ve had a Morphine track all these years without remembering it – something that was included on the Kerouac tribute “Kicks Joy Darkness.” May send me back down a Kerouac rabbit hole, if I’m done with my return to Vonnegut for now.

Cover of The English Beat, Special Beat Service. The cover is a photograph of the band in front of a jet airplane with an old style staircase to the tarmac. They appear to have just departed the plane, and are arranged roughly in a line, starting under the wing and across to the right. They are eight men, three Black and five white. The first is in a light colored raincoat; the rest are in dark suits with white shirts and narrow dark ties, except for a Black man in the middle who wears traditional Arab garb with a ghutra and perhaps (sorry, my cultural knowledge is limited) a thobe. The overall color cast is dusky blue.

Speaking of late to the party: My apologies to The Beat / The English Beat for ignoring them all these years. It was my mistake. They are amazing, and this re-release of their last album, “Special Beat Service,” features some bonus live tracks that show that they were also just incredible live. Sometimes I regret the narrowness of my listening scope in my younger years, the prejudices that affected my tastes (“I hate Madness, therefore . . . .”), or just the circumstances (bad radio, no money to experiment more) that kept me from experiencing a broader spectrum. Well, anyway, here we are, on the edge of retirement age, ranking and skanking. In spirit, anyway. LOVE this release.

Cover of Buffalo Springfield at Monterey International Pop Festival, with the band's name in giant type covering the top half of the record, along with incidental type with track names, etc. Below that, a photograph of the band in the dark, six white men in fairly close proximity on a dark stage. To the left, in the shadow, a guitar (Neil Young) and bass player (Bruce Palmer). Near center and more prominent, a mustache-bearing guitar player, David Crosby, sitting in with the band for this performance. In the background, a drummer, Dewey Martin. to the right, and facing each other, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay on his twelve-string.
Cover of The Byrds at Monterey International Pop Festival. Type across the top half, a dark and not very clear image of the band below, with a horn player, bass player, two guitarists and drummer visible.

An odd and interesting double album done in a format I haven’t seen in a while – Buffalo Springfield on one half, flip over the album and it’s The Byrds. Both from their sets at Monterey in 1967, and both with David Crosby because?

First off, my advice is to always buy any record introduced by Mike Bloomfield. He never disappointed. That’s The Byrds side – which is . . . fine. Somebody forgot to cut off Crosby’s microphone when he started yammering JFK conspiracy theories. Whatever. Or when he thought war would be ended if world leaders all dropped acid. Oh, 1967! (Oh, fucking alcohol/drug culture.) The Byrds set isn’t fantastic – glad to hear it as a time capsule, and would like to get in a time machine and tell them to slow the hell down on “So You Want To Be a Rock and Roll Star,” but it’s fine.

The Buffalo Springfield set, however (intro by Peter Tork), is absolute fire. I knew all this anyway, because somewhere I have a complete DVD set of Monterey, but damned if I can remember where it is. (If I loaned it to you, which seems unlikely, please let me know!) And it’s rare that I sit down with DVDs anyway – when I’m in long-form listening mode, it’s vinyl, so I don’t mind paying for these again.

cover of John Lee Hooker, "Don't Turn Me From Your Door." The type is across the top. The cover is a black and white photograph of John Lee Hooker, standing, wearing a dark suit, playing guitar before a series of microphones. He is to the right side of the photo, facing the left, in a three-quarter turn, his eyes cast down toward his guitar but perhaps entirely closed as he plays.

Having been yelled at by my wife for once thinking about breaking this rule, I am here to note that I am in full observance of this important rule now – that rule is: if it’s a John Lee Hooker record, buy it. That said, I haven’t played this one yet. I’m sure it’s amazing, and I’m glad that it includes added tracks that were put on later editions of the original 1963 release.

It turns out my historical indifference to Jimi Hendrix was largely that I hadn’t heard enough live Hendrix, and I hadn’t heard enough Band of Gypsys Hendrix. People always get weirded out if I don’t show sufficient appreciation for certain icons – I’m not sure why it’s so difficult to get that we can recognize someone’s incredible talent without particularly being affected by it. I know it’s sacrilege, but I don’t really care about, for example, Queen or Bowie. They just don’t do a thing for me. It doesn’t mean I think they suck. So for the longest time, I also didn’t care about Hendrix, even though I got what he was about and understood his incredible skill and his groundbreaking place in rock and blues rock. Eventually, and recently, I got into Are You Experienced and Axis Bold As Love, and came to appreciate them – but they still didn’t knock me for a loop. However – Jimi Hendrix live, with Buddy Miles and Billy Cox? Sign me up. I already had the awesome Live at Berkeley, and (with the Experience) Hollywood Bowl. Listening to this selection, I’m now kinda wishing I had the full damn box set – something I almost never want because I don’t listen to that much of anybody.

Cover of Jorma Kaukonen's album Reno Road, with an abstract painting of different colored semi-circles, ovals, semi-ovals.

I asked for this without even really knowing what it was, so when I opened it and saw the explanation, I realized that this is an amazing piece of musical history. Recorded on a home Wollensak, it’s pre-Jefferson Airplane, Jorma showing Jack the finger-picking technique he’s learned. Well, I’d say he learned it, all right. Incredible. The songs are all the basis of everything Jorma has ever done. And the sound! That these tapes survived, and could be restored to this condition, is a miracle of the modern age.

Another thing I can’t say enough about is how beautiful it is that these two men have been friends, and playing together, for – 66 years? There’s not many who could equal that.

The Blasters Over There Complete Concert album cover. It features an equipment trunk with the titles stenciled on, and a taped-on photograph of Phil Alvin in a deep crouch playing his guitar

Our Blasters mania began with the movie “Streets of Fire,” which captured the insane live energy of the band. In those early days in the ’80s, we had “Over There” aka “Live At the Venue, London.” It was six songs, delivered inside of 16 minutes – a tantalizing taste. So if there was one record from this RSD list that I wanted, it was this one – the complete concert from 1982! Omigod, these guys were so good.

This isn’t an RSD release – but the point should be to get people in record stores to buy things, and not just the special releases. Somehow I hadn’t tripped on this one in the Forever Changes bins before, or if I did, I made a serious error in not snatching it up. It’s a garage band collection! It’s female rockers! It’s … awesome. This record rocks SO HARD. And it turns out it’s a series, so I’m now going to have to be on the hunt (easier in these days of Discogs, for better and worse).

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