masterbeat64
Fleetwood Class
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2022
Last month we crated up all my records and delivered them to a secure storage unit pending a decision on their future. The whole shooting match. For the first time in 63 years I live in a record-free house.
During the sorting process I made a note of the discs that had been with me all those years. I started buying records in 1961; and collecting them about 3 years later. By collecting I mean taking a conscious decision to gather things which were intended to be retained beyond the usual short time attention span of a teenager. My late Father, himself an avid collector of pre-war jazz 78s, told me that starting a collection was akin to an act of faith. You are setting out to seek what you can never ultimately find. If you do find it, then you’ve failed. Or lost interest.
My tastes were pretty eclectic in the 60s. The Modernist code scorned popular trends and I owe a great debt to Guy Stevens for his taste-making guidance and all those great R’n’B records he put out on the UK Sue label, not to mention his guidance to Pye when they acquired the UK rights to Chess. Take a squint at the Sue discography and you’ll see why my own tastes were wider than most of my peers.
Surprisingly I find I have fair number of those bought-back-in-the Day records. Most of them are UK Beat and R&B 45s. Stones, Kinks, Pretty Things, Downliners Sect, Yardbirds, Who, both singles and Long Plays. No monster rarities, but a respectable number of ‘Crazed Limey Teens on a Wild Rampage’ type. Rats, Fairies, Blue Rondos, Syndicats, Cheynes, Birds, etc.
Most of the Soul slanted 45s such as the early UK issues of Tamla Motown classics on Oriole and Stateside, were traded in 1973 with a local DJ for his Rock’n’Roll discs. I still have most of the old Pye label issues culled from the Chess vaults and not always in the best sound quality. Who cared about such things back then? Bo Diddley was a Gunslinger; what else did you need to know?
Unsurprisingly, I bought few US teenbeat records back then and kept even less. The Beatles and their ‘invasion’ just about killed off their American rivals in the UK. The Byrds were a notable exception but tha was largely due to their choice of Dylan songs. Saint Bob was a big deal over here at the time. We tried to fight back with – Donovan. Believe me, he gave many of us The Wind. So apart from The Kingsmen, Count Five, Electric Prunes, Seeds and Moby Grape, the cupboard was as bare as a badger’s arse.
Then one Sunday evening in late ‘69, The Johnny Burnette Trio came blasting out on Radio One. The Train started a-Rollin’ and did not stop for a long time.
Anyone else care to tell us about how their addictions got started?
During the sorting process I made a note of the discs that had been with me all those years. I started buying records in 1961; and collecting them about 3 years later. By collecting I mean taking a conscious decision to gather things which were intended to be retained beyond the usual short time attention span of a teenager. My late Father, himself an avid collector of pre-war jazz 78s, told me that starting a collection was akin to an act of faith. You are setting out to seek what you can never ultimately find. If you do find it, then you’ve failed. Or lost interest.
My tastes were pretty eclectic in the 60s. The Modernist code scorned popular trends and I owe a great debt to Guy Stevens for his taste-making guidance and all those great R’n’B records he put out on the UK Sue label, not to mention his guidance to Pye when they acquired the UK rights to Chess. Take a squint at the Sue discography and you’ll see why my own tastes were wider than most of my peers.
Surprisingly I find I have fair number of those bought-back-in-the Day records. Most of them are UK Beat and R&B 45s. Stones, Kinks, Pretty Things, Downliners Sect, Yardbirds, Who, both singles and Long Plays. No monster rarities, but a respectable number of ‘Crazed Limey Teens on a Wild Rampage’ type. Rats, Fairies, Blue Rondos, Syndicats, Cheynes, Birds, etc.
Most of the Soul slanted 45s such as the early UK issues of Tamla Motown classics on Oriole and Stateside, were traded in 1973 with a local DJ for his Rock’n’Roll discs. I still have most of the old Pye label issues culled from the Chess vaults and not always in the best sound quality. Who cared about such things back then? Bo Diddley was a Gunslinger; what else did you need to know?
Unsurprisingly, I bought few US teenbeat records back then and kept even less. The Beatles and their ‘invasion’ just about killed off their American rivals in the UK. The Byrds were a notable exception but tha was largely due to their choice of Dylan songs. Saint Bob was a big deal over here at the time. We tried to fight back with – Donovan. Believe me, he gave many of us The Wind. So apart from The Kingsmen, Count Five, Electric Prunes, Seeds and Moby Grape, the cupboard was as bare as a badger’s arse.
Then one Sunday evening in late ‘69, The Johnny Burnette Trio came blasting out on Radio One. The Train started a-Rollin’ and did not stop for a long time.
Anyone else care to tell us about how their addictions got started?
