The Vinyl Thread: What are you spinning?

[Rocky]

I have Phil Ochs vinyl-s that I'm spinning. What a distinct and creative voice he had....and a troubled soul.

Phil was not one to mince words.

 

[Midnight Toker]

Not sure if any of you vinyl folks have been keeping up with this story. It's pretty crazy. I have a decent fistful of Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs titles, but all mainly from the 80's....thankfully.

Turns out, they've been deceiving customers for well over a decade...and likely profiting by means of using a cheaper process. DSD files are basically indiscernible to even the best ears of audiophiles/engineers, but the huge prices of their products while touting a pure analog process is pretty cold.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/08/05/mofi-records-analog-digital-scandal/

Let's hope their product gets a major price drop. (I'd still buy if so. If not....heck no!! )

Btw, the Steve Hoffman forum mentioned in the article has had an ongoing thread on this since the leak broke...it's over 200 pages long! (I don't frequent the place...but check it out once in a blue moon. If you're into audio production, recording, engineering, an audiophile, or just love any part of the tech side of the music business, it doesn't get any more informative.

 

[Midnight Toker]

Currently watching...Squaring The Circle: The Story of Hipgnosis....on Netflix. A wonderful new documentary about the legendary company responsible for many of the most iconic album covers in music history. Highly recommended!

Trailer

 

[adorshki]

Oooh... missed this while I was AWOL!
I was heavily into European progressive music in the mid 70's, still have most of the vinyls. Greek, Italian, and French bands were my faves.

Arti & Mestieri were headed by percussionists, but they gave contemporary King Crimson a run for their money


I don't know why this one sticks in my mind except for the magnificent production and depth of emotion. Vangelis' first band, Aphrodite's Child. A short pop single Lennon would have been proud of:



Oh yeah. Maggers guitar break.

Got more 'f you want it.

 

[adorshki]

Speaking of Lennon:

 

[tonepoet]

Just re-boxed and had movers move my 700+ album collection, but I won't be unboxing and setting it up until I move to a more permanent housing situation. Talk about hauling a ball-and-chain around with you!! Damn those things are heavy.

 

[adorshki]

More Italian. This one's "pretty".


Picture yourself in a room in the Haight, when the sunshine's lines are becoming un-straight.....


A forgotten classic.

Boy you got me goin' now. And yes I have al these vinyls, except I don't have the multi-colored disc for Alone Together

 

[Midnight Toker]

Released last week, 52 years ago.

I just got my copy of the Atlantic Records 75th anniversary series on crystal clear vinyl. (Made in Germany.) (I think this makes my 9th version of this album between all the analog and digital sources, both import/domestic first and latter pressings.)




Coincidentally, this story connected to the album cover art has been all over the news this week.

Researchers Have Finally Identified the Mystery Man on a Led Zeppelin Album Cover

Once thought to be a painting, the image of the "stick man" was hiding in a Victorian photo album in England

www.smithsonianmag.com

 

[5thumbs]

Released last week, 52 years ago.

I just got my copy of the Atlantic Records 75th anniversary series on crystal clear vinyl. (Made in Germany.) (I think this makes my 9th version of this album between all the analog and digital sources, both import/domestic first and latter pressings.)

That would look really cool on my Rega Planar 2 with it's glass platter (although it would probably need a mat to avoid slippage).

Yeah, I'm easily entertained.

 

[adorshki]

Released last week, 52 years ago.

I just got my copy of the Atlantic Records 75th anniversary series on crystal clear vinyl. (Made in Germany.) (I think this makes my 9th version of this album between all the analog and digital sources, both import/domestic first and latter pressings.)




Coincidentally, this story connected to the album cover art has been all over the news this week.

Researchers Have Finally Identified the Mystery Man on a Led Zeppelin Album Cover

Once thought to be a painting, the image of the "stick man" was hiding in a Victorian photo album in England

www.smithsonianmag.com

My favorite tune on that album was always "4 Sticks".

 

[Ross]

The last vinyl thing on a turntable was a record by Cano, a Francophone group from northern Ontario. It was from my wife's side of the collection, a favourite from Uni days. She asked me to dig it out. It did not live up to her memories of it. Killer electric violin player, good female singer, and so so, so so for the rest. My son packed it off to listen to. He will probably sell it.

Folk-rock is a popular genre in French Canada. Before we moved to a condo and sold our vinyl, I had LPs by several Franco-folk/rock groups: Harmonium, CANO, 1755, Beau Dommage and most recently Les Cowboys Fringants, who lost their frontman to cancer last week.

 

[jp]

Released last week, 52 years ago.

I just got my copy of the Atlantic Records 75th anniversary series on crystal clear vinyl. (Made in Germany.) (I think this makes my 9th version of this album between all the analog and digital sources, both import/domestic first and latter pressings.)




Coincidentally, this story connected to the album cover art has been all over the news this week.

Researchers Have Finally Identified the Mystery Man on a Led Zeppelin Album Cover

Once thought to be a painting, the image of the "stick man" was hiding in a Victorian photo album in England

www.smithsonianmag.com

So cool! I used to have a marbled vinyl Spanish reissue of Zep IV. Unfortunately, I sold it off in a giant purge years ago with the majority of my classic rock. I know, I was an idiot. My full Pink Floyd collection went as well.

 

[Midnight Toker]

Yeah, I’ve seen that one before. It was an early pirated copy and not anything that was ever licensed by Atlantic/Warner. Until this 75th anniversary clear vinyl version, the only colored vinyl ever officially released by Zep was an 1978 UK pressing of the 4th album…in light purple/lilac, and a semi recent single of a Sunset Sound Studios mix of Rock And Roll/Friends on a yellow 45 for Record Store Day. The original lilac one fetches over $500 a copy!!

You can find just about every Zep album online in multiple colors, but none of them are authentic Atlantic releases. They are all Eastern European pirate copies claiming to be Spanish/Italian/Portuguese “collector editions”.

 

[jp]

Yeah, I’ve seen that one before. It was an early pirated copy and not anything that was ever licensed by Atlantic/Warner. Until this 75th anniversary clear vinyl version, the only colored vinyl ever officially released by Zep was an 1978 UK pressing of the 4th album…in light purple/lilac, and a semi recent single of a Sunset Sound Studios mix of Rock And Roll/Friends on a yellow 45 for Record Store Day. The original lilac one fetches over $500 a copy!!

You can find just about every Zep album online in multiple colors, but none of them are authentic Atlantic releases. They are all Eastern European pirate copies claiming to be Spanish/Italian/Portuguese “collector editions”.

Yups. That's why I sold it. I knew it would eventually be worth some cash, but I didn't really care about that. Admittedly, I did keep a lot of classic rock, but I do still regret selling a lot of it off. Still have some Zep, Beatles, Stones, and the like. :C)

 

[Midnight Toker]

Scored a purple vinyl edition. Imo the best Stones album since Tattoo You!
Heavyweight, sounded great! Better than most new vinyl.

 

[guildzilla]

Happy to accept your invitation to post on this thread, MT. My daughter, son-in-law and grandson reside in Arnold, MD and love it there, btw.

I don't know anyone who disdained the LP to CD transition more than I did. I held off buying a CD player until I was unable to special order favorite new releases on LP, around 1992. The culprit was Neil Young's Arc Weld live album - had to have it. But I continued to buy LP's at sell-it-again shops for several years after that and only bought CD's that I had to have.

I always preferred the sound of LP's compared to CD's and argued that bias until I was blue in the face with members of the CD posse.

More of the Monkees was my first LP at age nine. I now have more than 600 titles.

I always loved the ritual of going to the record store and flipping thru the titles. So many to buy, so little money, but always a thrilling quest. By the time I learned to drive and could go by myself, it was just about my favorite pastime, even if I had to sneak them up to my bedroom, past disapproving parents. $6 in 1973 was a lot of money, when a gallon of gas was 35 cents.

Anyway, after playing them rarely for 14 years, I recently shook off my musical funk and began to revel in rediscovering my LP gems. Each album is a time capsule for me, and I'm just having a blast right now. I've been playing more than just my very favorites, too. Getting deep into the collection.

Tonight I played Silver Morning by Kenny Rankin, On the Beach and Everybody's Rockin' by Neil Young, and From Every Stage by Joan Baez.

For a number of years, I've been aware that new vinyl was back and available again. Have yet to explore the opportunities.

 

[Brad Little]

I think this is my most recent vinyl purchase, even though it's from the '70s or early '80s. New England based singer/songwriter. FWIW, I, too, never gave up on vinyl.

Here's a small part of my collection, top shelf is Jazz Guitar until the box with the space that has LPs needing to be reshelved. Second shelf is Classical Guitar until the ones with the white labels on the spine, they are non-guitar classical. There are two more shelves below that have more classical, jazz, blues and bluegrass. Another fixture has three shelves of rock and folk, plus several 50 LP storage boxes with miscellaneous genres.

 

[guildzilla]

Wow, Brad. That is some collection!

 

[Brad Little]

Wow, Brad. That is some collection!

Helps that I managed a record store for 15 years!

 

[Midnight Toker]

Helps that I managed a record store for 15 years!

Seems everyone I know that worked in a record store has a massive collection. Especially back in high school when they knew it was just a temporary job and the store only did inventory once a year, if that. Another friend worked day shift at a mom and pop new/used record store and when people brought in stacks of records to sell, he’d get first dibs at lowball prices for his own collection and the rest for the store. He probably had enough to open his own store after several years!! I bet he had 10k records by 1985!

For me, I used to skip school in 11th/12th grade, hang out w/ my buddy at the mom and pop store, and I’d stock all the previous day’s purchases (after they had been inspected/priced by the owner (who was a dentist by day and worked the store at night) In return, I got to pick out any 2 albums in the store. That’s where my Led Zeppelin bootleg collecting started.