a blog for those who never gave up their turntables
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? [Read more] “are there albums where the covers are worth more than the records?”
I LEFT WIKIPEDIA ALONE for the past few months, even though critiquing their entries is like shooting fish in a barrel. When it comes to “definitions” of persons and terms regarding popular music, Wikipedia’s theme song seems to be a well-known song by Elvis: “If you’re looking for trouble, you’ve come to the right place. [Read more] “wikipedia really messed up “music recording certification””
THIS IS THE NINTH in a series of ten articles listing and addressing the #1 records of the year as they appeared on Cash Box magazine’s Top 100 chart from 1960 through 1969. It was originally published as “Grazing In The Grass With Mrs. Robinson” on my publication Tell It Like It Was on Medium on September 19, 2019. [Read more] “the #1 hit records on the pop charts 1968”
THIS IS THE FIRST in a series of ten articles listing and addressing the #1 records of the year as they appeared on Cash Box magazine’s Top 100 chart from 1960 through 1969. It was originally published as “Save The Last Twist For Me” on my publication Tell It Like It Was on Medium on January 1, 2019. [Read more] “the #1 hit records on the pop charts 1960”
ONCE UPON A TIME, it looked like the Byrds had a long, successful, productive career in front of them. In 1965, they had two #1 hits that effectively defined the recently coined term folk-rock. Their two albums were pivotal in the transition of rock music from being primarily pop singles-oriented to being primarily “serious” album-oriented. [Read more] “why the hell isn’t gene clark in the hall of fame? (gene clark part 4)”
GENE CLARK’S FIRST SOLO ALBUM came almost a year after his final record with the Byrds. For a long time, Gené Clark With The Gosdin Brothers was considered rather lightweight, especially from the man who wrote songs like She Don’t Care About Time, Set You Free This Time, and Eight Miles High while a Byrd. [Read more] “when was “gene clark with the gosdin brothers” released? (gene clark part 2)”
MISS PATSY CLINE may seem to be the focus of this article, but she’s not—at least, not primarily. Primarily it’s about hyperbole in describing the accomplishments of popular stars, even when the artist doesn’t need any embellishment to shine among the other stars. Fans of any field of artistic or athletic endeavor are given to excessive bragging about their faves, whether it’s rock bands or comic book artists or baseball players. [Read more] “hyperbolic exaggeration in pop culture and miss patsy cline”
I KNOW, IT’S ONLY ROCK & ROLL, but I like it and so do millions of others (although the number of faithful may be dwindling as we age and the Hip-Hop Era endures). The phrase “rock & roll” as it refers to music and dancing has been with us for almost seventy years and appears to have originally been a black American euphemism for sex that goes back even further. [Read more] “I know, it’s only rock & roll (or is it only rock and roll?)”
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a blog for those of us who never gave up our turntables
Mystically liberal Virgo enjoys long walks alone in the city at night in the rain with an umbrella and a flask of 10-year-old Laphroaig who strives to live by the maxim, “It ain’t what you know that gets you into trouble; it’s what you know that just ain’t so.
I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn, and a college dropout (twice!). Occupationally, I have been a bartender, jewelry engraver, bouncer, landscape artist, and FEMA crew chief following the Great Flood of ’72 (and that was a job that I should never, ever have left).
I am also the final author of the original O’Sullivan Woodside price guides for record collectors and the original author of the Goldmine price guides for record collectors. As such, I was often referred to as the Price Guide Guru, and—as everyone should know—it behooves one to heed the words of a guru. (Unless, of course, you’re the Beatles.)
