Avid Record Collector

the night I saw the bangles and didn’t know who they were

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WAY BACK IN 1984, way back when people ac­tu­ally be­lieved in “trickle-down eco­nomics,” I was living in Scotts­dale, Ari­zona. I had suc­cumbed to the ubiq­ui­tous peer pres­sure ques­tion of “Why do you live in the past when it comes to music?” and pur­chased a couple of al­bums by the Psy­che­delic Furs. While I thought the use of the word “psy­che­delic” in their name may have been ironic, I nonethe­less liked their post-punk British rock-pop. READ MORE

is “street fighting man” the most valuable picture sleeve in the world?

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IN LATE AUGUST 1968, the Rolling Stones re­leased Street Fighting Man as the lead single for the un­re­leased BEGGARS BANQUET album. It was the group’s follow-up to Jumpin’ Jack Flash, which had been a world­wide smash. While it topped the Cash Box Top 100, for some in­ex­plic­able reason it stalled at #3 on the Bill­board Hot 100

As Street Fighting Man was of a quality sim­ilar if not quite equal to Jumpin’ Jack Flash, I as­sume now that everyone as­sumed then that an­other top-tenner was on the way. READ MORE

the avid collector’s guide to wild in the streets part 3

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THE AVID COLLECTOR’S GUIDE to Wild In The Streets Part 3 ad­dresses records made that are as­so­ci­ated with this movie—both sin­gles and al­bums. All were re­leased in the wake of the very suc­cessful movie in 1968, but few were hits. Be­fore com­mencing, I rec­om­mend that you first read “On Wild In The Streets As Polit­ical And Social Satire” and then the first part of this four-part se­ries of ar­ti­cles about the movie and its music. READ MORE

the avid collector’s guide to wild in the streets part 2

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THE AVID COLLECTOR’S GUIDE to Wild In The Streets Part 2 ad­dresses records made that are as­so­ci­ated with this movie—both sin­gles and al­bums. All were re­leased in the wake of the very suc­cessful movie in 1968, but few were hits. Be­fore com­mencing, I rec­om­mend that you first read “On Wild In The Streets As Polit­ical And Social Satire” and then the first part of this four-part se­ries of ar­ti­cles about the movie and its music. READ MORE

the avid collector’s guide to wild in the streets part 1

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IN 1968, AIP’S NEW MOVIE was not about bikers, babes, and devils. While “Wild In The Streets” was an­other Amer­ican In­ter­na­tional Pic­tures ex­ploita­tion B-movie, it was also a clever com­bi­na­tion of black humor, so­ciopo­lit­ical satire, and some gen­uinely good rock & roll. The Avid Col­lec­tor’s Guide to Wild In The Streets Part 1 ad­dresses the records as­so­ci­ated with that movie and its music. READ MORE

the kinks’ arthur album and related singles 1969

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THE KINKS’ ARTHUR album of 1969 was a smashing suc­cess with the critics and the few fans that the once pop­ular group still had at the time. It sold better than any Kinks album had in re­cent memory, but barely graced the best-selling charts. ARTHUR has grown in pres­tige through the years and now both orig­inal press­ings and even reis­sues are sought after by col­lec­tors. READ MORE

what was the first “rock” double-album of the ’60s?

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 IT IS ACCEPTED “FACT” that two sem­inal works of pop­ular music—the Beach Boys’ PET SOUNDS and Bob Dy­lan’s BLONDE ON BLONDE—were re­leased on the same day, May 16, 1966. And there was a second reason to cel­e­brate that date: BLONDE ON BLONDE was also the first rock double-album of all-new studio record­ings, beating the Mothers of In­ven­tion’s FREAK OUT! READ MORE

the ongoing damnation of faust (and a lesson on selling on ebay)

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BUYER SCAMS ON eBay and other seller sites are rec­og­nized, if poorly ad­dressed by those sites. In my ar­ticle “eBay Buyer Scams And Ship­ping Items In­ter­na­tion­ally,” I wrote about these is­sues and an al­ter­ca­tion that I had with a buyer in Eu­rope who I be­lieve was trying to pull such a scam. I said that safe­guards needed to be put in place to pro­tect sellers from scur­rilous buyers—an idea that never oc­curs to buyers—and their on­going damna­tion of all sellers! READ MORE

surf raiders discography & price guide

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THE SURF RAIDERS Discog­raphy & Price Guide is the second of three ar­ti­cles on Bob Dalley and his group The Surf Raiders and his book Surfin’ Gui­tars. This is prob­ably the most com­plete listing of the group’s records ever pub­lished. It is also most likely the most ac­cu­rate if gen­er­al­ized price guide for the group’s records.

The first part is “Surfing Gui­tars And In­stru­mental Surf Bands Of The Early ’60s” and re­views Dal­ley’s book on that topic. READ MORE