SOME ALBUMS I OWN

We used to call them albums. LP’s. Loved them. I’ve got hundreds of these things left. Yes, mine are all originals from the era, not re-issues I’m proud to say. Bubble gum music was big in the 60’s and after watching The Archies on TV you had to have there albums. Somewhere I have a sealed copy of the ‘Everything’s Archie’ album with the little sticker promoting ‘Sugar, Sugar’ – but I have no picture of it yet. So here’s the Jingle Jangle album.

As a kid I grew up with the TV Batman show. This was by far the coolest kids record I’ve ever heard. My dad got this for me in 1966 and I’ve been rockin’ with it ever since. Members of Sun Ra and The Blues Project play on it. Too cool!

I was flying on Pan American airlines when I heard this cool track by a group called Kraftwerk. It was after all the edited version of Autobahn. I ran out and bought the album and took in the 22 minute version of this amazing electronic track! Released in 1974, this is my original record and I still listen to this.

I heard Tubular Bells before a portion of it was used in the film ‘The Exorcist.’ I always thought the opening of this was so cool and haunting. In the summertime I had a neighbor that played this on his patio speakers and I remember hearing it playing through the trees. That’s a weird memory I have of this one.

When this album came out I remember going to a record store and without hearing a note just looking at the cover. Rock & Roll. It’s all I needed. I bought it, took it home and blasted it on my stereo.
It was the late 60’s. The rest is history.

SHOPPING IN THE 70'S - PART 1

One of my all time favorite hang outs was our local Two Guys Department store back in the 70’s. They had everything there; think of Wal-Mart Supercenter today. You could buy furniture there, clothes, food, even get your car serviced while you went into the pet department and bought a fish.

This is from one of there circulars from the day, check out the 8-track tape deck, and the $279 includes everything record player!

How about those ‘C’ code albums on sale! I loved the record department there, I remember they put there 45’s in these little wire baskets hanging from a wall.

This picture is from the Bluebook 77 catalog where you could buy all kinds of neat stuff. Tape decks and tape recorders everywhere in every color. What a groovy life.

Admit it. Come on. At sometime in your past, either you or your parents had carpeting like this. Or do you still have carpeting like this? My aunt used to have shag carpeted stairs, they looked so soft I threw myself down them one time and almost broke my neck.
We used to have gold carpeting and a yellow vinyl couch. That couch is still in my basement somewhere. Maybe someday I’ll take a picture of it and torture you with it.

Join us again for Shopping in the 70’s – part 2

45'S - THOSE LITTLE PLASTIC DISCS WE LOVE

45’S! How could you not love them? I’ve been buying these things my whole life! In my era these were the most important way for you to discover new music. I used to buy 2 or 3 of these a week, especially on Saturday’s after watching ‘American Bandstand’ on TV. The best thing about the 70’s was the variety of music that would top the charts. You had rock, soul, country, it didn’t matter. A good song was a good song, and the 45 was a cheap and great way to introduce you to a new musical group or artist. The flip side was also a surprise as sometimes it contained a track not available on the album.

Collecting 45’s today is still big, but finding original labels can be a challenge as a lot of them have been reissued on ‘oldies’ labels. However, they are still out there, and finding the original factory sleeve that accompanied the original release is a plus.

A music fan knew the labels. You also knew what artist recorded for what label. For example, The Monkees were on ‘Colgems,’ The Jackson-5 on ‘Motown,’ The Beatles on ‘Apple’ or ‘Capitol (swirl)’ The Guess Who on ‘RCA (orange)’ ect.

How about the versions of the songs? Many oldies CD’s today use the album version and not the edited and remixed 45 version of the song. Some songs were specially mixed for the 45 version making it more up-beat.

If you bought a lot of these you knew that the early ‘Epic’ record releases were on a yellow label, and in the 70’s Epic changed it’s label color to orange – you knew what the ‘Laurie’ records label looked like, how about ‘Roulette,’ ‘Chess,’ and ‘Parrot’ records. The same rules applied to albums however as the CD era crept in sadly the label recognition went away. Most music fans today will have a favorite group and have no idea what label that group records for. There isn’t much of a recognition factor with a silver disc or worst, an I-pod.

This may not seem important; however it’s the stuff that made these records collectible in the first place. When you saw a ‘Colgems’ you immediately thought of The Monkees, it was embedded in our minds. That’s how you remember them spinning on the turntable. Besides, these 45's were little works of art. How cool is the Parrot label? A part of our past, sadly gone and discarded today.