David Bowie

Byrds EightMilesHigh PS Japan 600

japanese picture inserts for 45 rpm singles

(a picture insert is not the same thing as a picture sleeve)

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THE TERM “PICTURE SLEEVE” has a spe­cific meaning in record col­lecting. Ba­si­cally, it’s a paper en­ve­lope with a pho­to­graph or art­work on at least one side made to hold a seven-inch, 45 rpm record. Japanese pic­ture in­serts for 45 rpm sin­gles are not pic­ture sleeves no matter how many col­lec­tors and dealers con­flate the terms. [Continue reading]

Byrds EightMilesHIgh PS US gray A 600

just what is a picture sleeve?

(about picture sleeves, title sleeves, and company sleeves)

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WHAT IS A “PICTURE SLEEVE”? I know—this is a dumb ques­tion to the thou­sands of col­lec­tors who know the an­swer. But based on ads, ar­ti­cles, and com­ments on the in­ternet, thou­sands of other col­lectors and sellers do not know the an­swer. Or they don’t know the cor­rect an­swer. [Continue reading]

DavidBowie MickJagger DancingInTheStreet photo 1500 crop

a few embarrassing songs by a few major pop and rock artists

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IT WAS JUST ANOTHER DAY on Medium when I found the ar­ticle, “Em­bar­rassing Songs By Major Artists.” Written by Alex Markham for The Riff, its tagline was “Even the biggest music su­per­stars had mo­ments when taste de­serted them.” He could have written “every music su­per­star” and sub­sti­tuted “in­tel­li­gence” for “taste” and I would have agreed! [Continue reading]

are there albums where the covers are worth more than the records?

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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]

DavidBowie RockNRollSuicide ad Mirror 4 20 74 1500 crop

why did rca have to export david bowie records to england in the ’70s?

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THERE ARE A HANDFUL OF RECORDS from the ’70s that are so common among British col­lec­tors that they re­ceive little at­ten­tion from them. But they are all rather rare records out­side of the UK—so rare, that most non-UK col­lec­tors have only seen them as im­ages on the in­ternet! [Continue reading]

Prince header copy 3

beware fake bowie and prince autographs and memorabilia

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FAKE AUTOGRAPHS are back in the news, this time fea­turing a mother-son combo forging the sig­na­tures on thou­sands of sports items. And while it hasn’t made any head­lines, the re­cent un­ex­pected deaths of two beloved su­per­stars should have every col­lector of Bowie and Prince au­to­graphs treading cau­tiously as this is when they are ripest for a rip-off! [Continue reading]

Bowie ManWhoFell Schapiro 1975 1500 crop

just how did david bowie affect your consciousness?

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THE ORIGINAL TITLE to this piece on David Bowie was “Damn That Damn Disco Music!” But that was re­ally an in­ad­e­quate opening for the tone of this ‘true story’ about con­ver­sion. Then I dal­lied with vari­a­tions on “The Day I Came Out as a David Bowie Fan,” which was an al­lu­sion to his an­drog­y­nous Ziggy Star­dust period. [Continue reading]