for those who never gave up their turntables
THERE IS A NEW FEATURED IMAGE on Rather Rare Records! I have used the same photograph on the home page of this blog for years. That photo had two drawbacks: While tasteful, it was monochromatic and not very eye-catching. The new photo is colorful, dramatic yet playful, and seems to say, “Hey—look at me!” [Continue reading]
MY INTRODUCTION TO PUBLISHING was with the Wyoming Valley West High School newspaper, where I was the nerd who got the gig of reviewing records. That was 1969 and, like most nerds with super cool record collections, I wrote condescending reviews of records that all my non-nerd classmates bought. [Continue reading]
HERE’S ANOTHER QUESTION ABOUT VINYL on Quora that distracted me from various writing projects! The question is, “What vinyl album cover empty is worth more than a mint vinyl album without the cover?” Or, as I have worded it in this article’s title: Are there albums with covers that are worth more than the records? [Continue reading]
THE AVID RECORD COLLECTOR is a column that I recently started contributing to the Sixties Music Secrets blog. The intention of the column was to address LPs released in the ’60s and subsequently deleted. Then they found their way into cut-out bins of retail record stores around the country and then, years later, found their way onto collector’s want-lists. [Continue reading]
“BACK THROUGH THE OPERA GLASS” is the title of three lengthy articles that review most of the Beach Boys album covers released on major labels in the US. It is subtitled “The Stories Behind the Album Covers” and was written by Malcolm Searles. This massive project covers every important album from 1962 through the present. [Continue reading]
WHEN REQUIRED TO POST A PROFILE on the internet, I usually write, “Mystical liberal likes long walks alone at night in the dark in the city in the rain with an umbrella and a flask of 10-year-old Laphroaig.” While this bit of irony works for some readers, others want a little more in terms of personal background information. [Continue reading]