Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy (Asylum Records 6E118 - 1978)

Kind of an amazing album really. It was in great shape. Lans probably committed this to tape when he got it though there is some ringwear on the jacket. Possibly the wear is a function of this falling at or near the end of an alphabetic sort. Amazon has the CD for 8 bucks or 9 if you download the remastered in 2007 version (which is 15 bucks on CD). I don't see any resellers selling the LP.

Steve Forbert - Jackrabbit Slim (Nemperor Records JZ36191 - 1079)

I can't even be sure that I actually went to the show at The Brandywine Club. Maybe I just picked up the flyer somewhere. But, it was my habit to store stuff like that in the record jackets. The 7" single was how the industry did bonus tracks in the pre-CD era. This one is particularly odd in that it only has one side. The condition was near mint. I hardly heard anything about Forbert after this album but it seems like he continued to pump out records. Amazon has this for $7 or you can download it for $10. In no case, that I've found, do you actually get the bonus track though.

Steve Forbert (Nemperor Records JZ35538 - 1978)

This was one of mine. I still had the opened cellophane on this album up to the point of taking the cover photos. The cellophane had a price sticker of $4.96 from Record Revolution. I can't remember where Record Revolution was but I would have thought I got this while still in college but based on the copyright date of 1978 I would have to have been in the last half of my senior year so I expect it was after graduation. The condition was mint. Amazon has this on CD or 10 bucks or downloadable for 9.

Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece (Warner Bros. BS2805 - 1974)

I'm not sure if this was Lans' or mine. I guess it doesn't much matter. The condition was near mint. This is only available through resellers at Amazon starting at $18.

Bob Dylan - Slow Train Coming (CBS/Columbia Records FC36120 - 1979)

I've kind of been avoiding this one for a while. I never really felt good about Dylan's Christian phase. Still, it's not a bad record. I assume Lans bought this one for himself. The condition was mint. Amazon is selling this one for 11 dollars.

Bobbie Gentry - Ode To Billie Joe (Capitol ST2830 - 196?)

I think this album has been in the family since it came out back in 1967 when the title track hit number one on the pop singles chart. My brothers and I no doubt played it on the stereo that we affectionately referred to as "the record eater" in our pre hi-fi era. The cover is in remarkably good condition but the vinyl is average at best. That means that to a casual listener it would probably sound like what they think of when they think of listening to old scratchy LPs. I pulled this out because I saw Reba McEntire and Kelly Clarkson singing a duet version of the song from CMT's "Crossroads" program of 2007 where Reba mentioned that Bobbie Gentry wrote "Fancy". Both Ode to Billie Joe and Fancy appear on a Greatest Hits album Amazon has for 7 bucks. This album is currently selling on Amazon for $9 and a half.

Kris Kristofferson - Surreal Thing (Monument PZ34254 - 1976)

Neil Diamond - You Don't Bring Me Flowers (Columbia HC45625 - 1978)

This one came from Richard D. and it's one of those half-speed mastered audiophile releases from Columbia. I need to remember to tell Carol about the Streisand duet on here. The disc was pretty dusty when I pulled it out of the jacket but it cleaned up very nicely and I thought the condition was nearly flawless (without headphones). Amazon is selling this on CD for 6 bucks. In an econonmic perversion, you can pay 10 bucks if you want to download it.

Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson - Waylon & Willie (RCA AFLI-2686 - 1978)

Lans again. I wasn't happy with the way the track information came down. I adjusted the "Contributing Artist" field on almost every track. There might have been a few artifacts on this one but still highly listenable and Mommas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys. Amazon wants 11 bucks for this or resellers are 5 and up.

Emmylou Harris - Gliding Bird (Emus ES-12052 - 1979)

Probably some time in the '90s, Lans put this on a tape for me. He'd put the Gram Parsons (International Submarine Band reissue) on one side and a Clarence White and the Kentucky Colonels on the other side and used this album as filler. I ripped it from that tape back in December of 06. Since it was filler, this album was missing one track. I went back to the original vinyl and re-transcribed to pick up the missing track and I photographed the cover. I once looked this album up on the net and somewhere found that there is a version which is very rare and worth a lot of money. This one is dated 1979 and so I'm assuming that this isn't the original and premium priced version. That would probably be the original release which would have been 1968 I think.

Mary Chapin Carpenter - Hometown Girl (Columbia PCT 40758 - 1987)

Mary Chapin Carpenter - Come On Come On (Columbia CT 48881 - 1991)

Yet another tape. I tried auto track marking this and it worked fine for the first side but it inserted extra track marks on the second side causing me to have to redo half the tape. It looks like this one is out of print on CD but available used from resellers for about 3 bucks (with shipping and handling). The download from Amazon is running at about 9.

Willie Nelson - Spotlight on Willie Nelson (Pickwick ACL-0705 - 1974)

I always thought these Pickwick releases were sub-par quality pressings but this one (of Lans') sounded pretty good. The jacket says this one was previously issued on Camden Records. A quick look on Amazon indicates that this hasn't been put out on CD and resellers are asking 9 bucks and up for the LP.

Carly Simon - Come Upstairs (WB BSK-3443 - 1980)

The thing that struck me the most about this album was how absolutely pristeen it was. From the cover right down to the groove, this album looked and sounded absolutely right out of the cellophane. Amazon resellers are offering this on CD at $18 and LP versions from $3. This came out of Lans' collection but I'm doubtful that he would have bought this for himself.

Paul Simon - Greatest Hits. Etc. (Columbia HC 45032 - 1977)

Half-Speed Mastered extended range recording CBS Master Sound Audiophile Pressing. A bit of dust and a few clicks that are noticable with the headphones but overall highly listenable. This came from Richard D. Amazon resellers are offering the basic CD for 75.00 while it appears that the LP could be had for as little as $3.

Arlo Guthrie - Arlo Guthrie (Reprise/Rising Sun 1974)

This is one from the "Was it really worth it?" category. This cut-out album from Lans' collection has its jacket corner clipped and the disc is warped to the point where the outer track on each side of the album won't play without skipping but the inner tracks play OK. I recorded all the tracks that would play and I purchased the two missing tracks from iTunes. I had to do some shuffling around and reburning to merge the purchased tracks with the LP tracks and to burn an archival disc. The tracks that would play sounded good but the hoops I had to jump through were enough of a pain that I probably should have just bought the whole thing for 99 cents a track from iTunes or bought the album from Amazon for $18.