The Battle Of The Large Pt. 1
“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”― W.B. Yeats
Downsizing a record collection. As Tompkins Square Records’ head honcho Josh Rosenthal once told me…getting rid of records…keeping only the stuff you really love: makes your collection more powerful. And even though he is riding a huge wave of record collecting, one like no other I have seen in a long time (Josh…I dare you to write in the comments below the 78 pick you recently scored), I have found over the past few years that he is right. Getting rid of records….listening to albums that have been dormant in the collection for years and figuring out which ones to keep and which ones to lose…is a fantastic process for anyone whose collection has gotten unwieldy. Unless you are someone like Elektra Records CEO Craig Kallman, whose desire is to have two copies of every record released as a public service, the idea of bulk record collecting seems more silly as one’s record listening time gets shorter with age.
So this weekend I continued going through records that I have not listened to in a long long time to see if they should stay or they should go. And some of the decisions…some of the decisions were tough!
Live in Italy (Lou Reed): Ever since a chance conversation about Lou Reed’ solo output, I have been digging into the massive collection of his albums I own. And yes, some of them hold up a whole lot better than others…and I am realizing I do not need to be a Lou Reed solo artist completist. Of course Transformer is a classic, with the hit Walk on the Wild Side and the other stunners like Perfect Day (one of my fav Karaoke songs), the glam-tastic Vicious, Andy’s Chest and Satellite of Love. But other records like Bells, even though it features Don Cherry, and Rock n Roll Heart…I just don’t know. Will I ever love them and lean on them like I do Street Hassle or The Blue Mask? Live in Italy: I have not thought about this 1984 release for decades but when it hit the needle this past weekend, it lit up the room. With a tight four-piece band crowned with Robert Quine of the Voidoids on lead guitar, Live in Italy is a scorcher with Reed blowing through all your favorite Velvet’s songs with a vicious punk sensibility. Side 3 with White Light/White Heat into Some Kinda Love into Sister Ray, with Quine’s crunched-out fuzz guitar powering through Reed’s locked-in focus, rhythm and singing, is rock n roll bliss. A total keeper (if you want to see this 1983 band in action, there is a great video of them at the Bottom Line)
Mirror (Emitt Rhodes): Emitt Rhodes is one of those artists that has been a collectors hero ever since his records were rediscovered decades ago. The regal Paula Frazer first turned me on to Rhodes via his first self-titled. Rhodes was coming off being the lead vocalist and guitarist for Los Angeles’ Merry-Go-Round, who recorded the Nuggets’ classic Live. He decided to go solo, signed to Dunhill Records, and went in the studio producing a record where he wrote every song and played every instrument. While for me the Beatles’ leaning gets a little bit tired for my ears, that opening track…With My Face On The Floor, which is Rhodes doing Badfinger doing The Beatles…is a nail-hitting groover and sets the pace for a solid venture. After obtaining a mint pressing of his debut, I searched for more and found a promo copy of Mirror sometime in the early aughts. Holding the record in my hand today, I cannot remember how it hit me back then, getting placed next to the debut in the collection and sitting there…getting moved from my apartment to the house with Barb in the Sunset to the place we live in now in the hills of San Anselmo without another spin on the turntable. So I threw it on while the kids and I were playing triple solitaire with an overcast, cold sky enveloping the late daytime Sunday hours. This record is revered as much as his debut is, but to me, the songs strayed even more into Beatles territory, farther into a world which I am not an oft enthusiastic wanderer. The third listen in and I came to that tough decision: yes, the record collectors of the world would say to keep it, but for me, while it is so impressive that Rhodes plays every instrument on the record, the overall listen is just not grabbing. And I think that I felt that way decades ago as well. It ain’t a bad record, but for me not one worth a’keeping.
Jazz On The Potomac Vol. VII (Various Artists): I bought this record at the Record Shop on La Cienega Boulevard (just south of Pico) around 1996 (the owner would put the date of its shop arrival on the price sticker, which ends up being a great memory trigger). In the late 60s, the US Marine Corps put together 15 minute jazz shows to be aired on their radio networks, pressed them up, threw ‘em in a box with fourteen shows (7LPs) and distributed them to their stations. I have only heard this volume, with Felix Grant as DJ taking the listener through a well curated group of hard bop and modern jazz recordings, often focusing on an artist during a program. For the genre-uninitiated, this is a fantastic introduction to jazz, from the 40s to the 60s, from Johnny Hodges to Bill Evans to Freddie Hubbard to Art Farmer to Jimmy Smith to Charles Lloyd to Duke Ellington. All great recording representations of the artists featured. While I have loved having this in the collection, as time has progressed, I have, over the years, obtained the records featuring the songs I discovered & loved through this box set, making this a perfect item for the get-rid-of pile.
Mind Of Fire (ST Mikael): A more recent purchase, I bought this record when it was released in 2007, when I was buying pretty much anything coming out on the Swedish label Subliminal Sounds. I was turned onto the label through their Dungen releases, a band led by modern psych visionary Gustav Ejstes. For me, many modern psychedelic records do not hold up over time, being made redundant as they fight for listening time with more classic releases (I need to revisit all the Dungen records now that I think about it). And I must say, I was dubious of Mind On Fire, not remembering what the record sounded like…worried that the excellent groovy artwork would far exceed the recordings within…wondering why the artist’s recorded output stopped soon after Mind Of Fire came out. To my surprise, the record is a beautifully orchestrated, well written and inspired addition to the world of swirly psychedelia. The album is all over the place, sometimes poppy (not as much to my liking), sometimes, heavy and bombastic. The first side presents more of the latter, while the flip features two epic, long tracks with Mikael expanding his artistic reach and thus creating his best stuff. A keeper.
~
I have this idea of getting rid of three records whenever I take in one; trying to cut down the collection significantly over the next few years. Yet as these records that I have written about today were listened to…even though I got rid of half of them including a big box set of seven, more were delivered to my doorstep by talented friends whose records I am excited to listen to. Oh well…could be worse…but the battle of the collection goes on….
Top 25 Most Expensive Items Sold on Discogs in April 2023
For the second month in a row, the top seller on discogs was a rare hardcore single—at a nifty price of $7,850.00—this time RF7’s Acts of Defiance on the Smoke Seven Records which also released the first Redd Kross (at the time spelled Red Cross) record. Some usual suspects on the list: like last month, Sun Ra’s Continuation LP makes the list twice (someone must have found a box full) as well as Nirvana’s Bleach 1992 release with extra single. Yes, I would love a Mono copy of Lee Morgan’s Candy, but not for $4500!! As always, so interesting to see what people are spending on records…
Mississippi Delta: Returning Home to Its Haunted Past
There’s nothing more American than the Mississippi. It’s one of the world’s major river systems, and a timeless literary inspiration. As Mark Twain wrote in Life on the Mississippi: “It is a remarkable river in this: that instead of widening toward its mouth, it grows narrower; grows narrower and deeper.” In the Delta, that means the mighty and muddy Mississippi can be explored by canoe, because it’s possible to find water that’s deep and calm. After paddling a while, you can have lunch on magnificent sandbars placed there by time and hydraulics. That section of the river shows few signs of civilization, except for the occasional passing tugboat.
There's a surprising twist to the story behind the bizarre SF spite monument
The finger monument. Makes sense that somewhere in SF there is someone who decided to have the city give the world the finger at all times. Great article.
First female photographer Anna Atkins gets her beautiful cyanotypes republished 180 years later
“English botanical artist and photographer Anna Atkins (1799 – 1871) is historically famous for being the first person ever to publish a book that had been illustrated with photographic images. This book, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843) is being reprinted for the first time in full, in a new edition merging together her other album on Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns (1853).”
Today is the birthday of one of the great poets, William Butler Yeats. Ever since I first read him as an English major at UC Berkeley, his mystical writings have given me pause to ponder. His automatic writing, jotting down stories as they are told to him and his wife by spirits, are also worth a read. The lecture this article links to will be live streamed today (it is at 7pm…which I think is Irish time…which means 11am PST/2pm EST)
Scott Schinder, Veteran Music Writer, Dies at 61
I have been reading Schinder’s articles for years. I loved his articles on Please Kill Me, a few that have been featured on The Signal. Check out his great piece of journalism on the tragedy of Badfinger, or his piece on the song I Fought The Law. RIP.
The Balloon of the Mind
By: William Butler Yeats
Hands, do what you're bid:
Bring the balloon of the mind
That bellies and drags in the wind
Into its narrow shed.
The Cat And The Moon
by: William Butler Yeats
The cat went here and there
And the moon spun round like a top,
And the nearest kin of the moon,
The creeping cat, looked up.
Black Minnaloushe stared at the moon,
For, wander and wail as he would,
The pure cold light in the sky
Troubled his animal blood.
Minnaloushe runs in the grass
Lifting his delicate feet.
Do you dance, Minnaloushe, do you dance?
When two close kindred meet,
What better than call a dance?
Maybe the moon may learn,
Tired of that courtly fashion,
A new dance turn.
Minnaloushe creeps through the grass
From moonlit place to place,
The sacred moon overhead
Has taken a new phase.
Does Minnaloushe know that his pupils
Will pass from change to change,
And that from round to crescent,
From crescent to round they range?
Minnaloushe creeps through the grass
Alone, important and wise,
And lifts to the changing moon
His changing eyes.
Symbols
By William Butler Yeats
A storm beaten old watch-tower,
A blind hermit rings the hour.
All-destroying sword-blade still
Carried by the wandering fool.
Gold-sewn silk on the sword-blade,
Beauty and fool together laid.
As long as you're keeping the Jars album, dude!! :)