Tom Fogerty - Excalibur (Fantasy 9413 - 1972)

I recently bought this still sealed on eBay. I paid $6 plus 5 for shipping and packing. Today was the day I felt the need to crack the 'phane on this one. The vinyl condition was communsurate with being sealed until this morning. It sounded a lot like a cross between CCR and The Dead. Garcia plays on every track of this album. Why Garcia-philes don't jump all over this album is a mystery to me. Amazon indicates that this LP along with Fogerty's first (self-titled) album were released as a CD import and now available through resellers for as little as $42.

The Vassar Clements Band - The Vassar Clements Band (MCA 1977)

This one looks to be a little hard to find. I can't find it anywhere on Amazon. The LP came from Lans' stuff. It was pleasant to listen to and the vinyl condition was excellent.

Jessica is hypnotic in places.

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew (Columbia Records 1970)

What can I say? I was up early and got to work late and fit a double album in between. This was out of my collection but Lans definitely introduced me to Miles Davis. Historically, I wouldn't listen to this album very often so the vinyl is in very nice shape. This has been remastered and released on CD with a bonus track and the 4 disc boxed set, "The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions" came out in 1998. Amazon has them for $21 and $45 respectively. Given how long it's been since I listened to this, I think my homemade CD will suffice for the foreseeable future.

Brewer and Shipley - Shake off the Demon (1971 Kama Sutra Records)

According to some writing on the album jacket, this LP once belonged to Sissy Jarvis (who ever that is). I don't know how I got this album but I suspect it came from Lans and is part of a collection that Lans absorbed into his own.

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shake_Off_the_Demon) "Shake Off the Demon" spent 3 weeks on the charts, peaking at #98 in February 1972.

This one doesn't seem to have been released on CD. I wasn't able to download track and artist information through Media Player. The condition of the vinyl isn't as good as most of the stuff I've been transcribing lately. I guess Sissy didn't have a Discwasher or Zerostat, but it really wasn't too bad. Although there aren't any break-out tracks on this album, there are some notable session musicians: John Kahn, John Cippollina, Spencer Dryden, and David LaFlamme are all notable Bay Area musicians from the 60's and 70's.

Jimmy Buffett - High Cumberland Jubilee (1971 Barnaby Records)

... One of Lans'... A cut-out. It sounded a bit dusty in places but overall very listenable. Amazon is only selling the download for $9. The CD version is only appearing as available through re-sellers for prices ranging from less than 7 to more than 55. I kind of liked the opening line of one Amazon reviewer who said, "This is arguably Jimmy Buffett's most obscure album - which is all the more reason why you should own it. "

This is Buffett's second album, which like the first, was on a minor label. It was fun to hear but I think that his third, "A White Sportscoat & A Pink Crustacean" really was his breakthrough album.

Chuck Berry - Bio (1973 Chess)

This was one of mine. I have no idea when, where or why I bought it. I hardly ever listened to it. Its a cut-out with the cover corner clipped. The sound quality was excellent but now that I have listened to it again, it didn't turn my head around. It wasn't bad by any means but it just didn't grab me. It's not currently being offered on CD from Amazon.com. There is one being sold by an Amazon re-seller as "New" for $20.

Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen - -We've Got a Live One Here! (1975)

This one is one I've had in my collection for years. The vinyl sounded really clean. The earlier release, (and earlier transcription) "Live from Deep In The Heart Of Texas" was always my favorite Commander Cody album, so this one got significantly less play. Still, it's a solid album and a double to boot. It fit on a single CD. Amazon is currently selling this one for 12 bucks or downloadable for around 8. The recording is spliced together from several performances and so, like many live albums, the track marks can be problematic. I wouldn't say I nailed them all but I think most of them are pretty passable.

Jeff Beck - - Truth/Beck-Ola (EMI - 1991)

Per Amazon.com: 1991 EMI release, a two-on-one featuring the first two albums by the band he formed after leaving the Yardbirds in 1967, 1968's 'Truth' and 1969's 'Beck-ola'. 17 tracks total.Other members in the band include Rod Stewart, Ron Wood, Nicky Hopkins, Tony Newman and Mick Waller. Tracks include ['Morning Dew', ] 'Shapes Of Things', 'I Ain't Superstitious', 'Beck's Bolero', 'You Shook Me', 'Jailhouse Rock' & 'All Shook Up'.

There was a two-fer LP predecessor to the above mentioned CD offering. The vinyl was pretty nearly flawless and it fit on a single CD. The individual CD's are going for 11 bucks each on Amazon or the combined CD (labeled as an import) is $18.

Progress report

I refiled last week's selections adding about another inch to the "Done" pile. I included a Beatles album I've had for years titled "Rare Beatles" (still sealed in cellophane) because it appears that it doesn't contain anything that isn't already on the (previously burned) "The Historic First Live Recordings" double album. I continue to refile CD's to merge homemade and store-bought and to file by first name. While I'm doing that, I'm also updating the Media Player library to reflect the source and media where my libaray copy came from. I'm less than half way through with that. The corresponding LP re-sort will not start until the CD's are finished. At that point, I think I'll try to cull the albums a bit and maybe try to get set up to sell the cast-offs on eBay.

Jackson Browne - Lawyers in Love (1983)

Another one from Lans' collection. It looks like it's practically never been played. Sounded great, almost no wear on the cover.

Stevie Nicks - Bella Donna

Richard's MFSL. Really pleasant all around. A very solid album by a solid talent in virtually flawless vinyl (even with the headphones on)

Charlie Daniels - Honey in the Rock (Kama Sutra KSBS2071 - 1973)

Per Wikipedia: ... His first hit, the novelty song "Uneasy Rider", was from his 1973 second album, Honey in the Rock, and reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100.... There are 5 resellers on Amazon selling this album on vinyl for around $10 but I can't find it being offered anywhere on CD. There are 3 LP copies currently being offered on ebay for from $12 to $40. The $40 one is a signed copy. I think this album is referred to on http://www.charliedaniels.com/discography4.htm as "Uneasy Rider" (1972). I'd rate the condition of my copy (from Lans' collection) at excellent. It's on the KamaSutra/Buddha label. The artwork didn't automatically download into media player for me although the track information was available (which is another indication that this hasn't ever been released on CD).

Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen - Lost in the Ozone (1971)

The first from the Commander... The one with the R. Crumb-esque cover that reminds me a bit of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. The highlights include "Down to Seeds and Stems Again" and "Hot Rod Lincoln". This vinyl has seen its share of play but the sound is still pretty clean. A small warp is slightly noticable during the first track but overall, not bad sound. It boggles me a bit that this country-swing band managed to appeal to a pretty broad cross-section of hippies and freaks for several years in the early '70s. I think they really peaked with their 1974 live album (already converted to CD).

Delaney & Bonnie & Friends - D & B Together

OK, maybe I deserved a hard time for some recent selections: Boston, BTO, etc. Well this one's different I though. This album was consistent with Lans' taste and holds up reasonably well but... in a somewhat disturbing twist, this album has the tune "Groupie" which later came to be known as "Superstar". This song was written by Bonnie Bramlett and Leon Russell and fell just short of topping the pop charts for the Carpenters. Ouch! Vinyl condition: Very good.

Syd Barrett - The Madcap Laughs/Barrett

An early 70s release that combined Barrett's two pre-Pink Floyd solo albums onto a double album. I decided I had to break out of the A's rather than finish up with the one remaining Airto album. Parts of this proto-Floyd album are remarkably hypnotic and parts are just pretty weird and demonstrate Barrett's eccentric nature. With headphones on, the vinyl was a bit scratchy sounding in places, but overall, quite listenable. I think Lans had this album originally but I acquired it from him when he converted his music collection over to cassette in the mid 70's. Both of these albums seem to be generally available on CD for about $11.

Total Groove Length - Fun facts to know and tell

According to Wikipedia under "LP Album":

"The average LP had about 1,600 feet of groove on each side, or about a third of a mile. The needle travels approximately 1 mph on average. It travels fastest on the outside edge, unlike CDs, which change their speed of rotation to provide constant linear velocity. (Also, CDs play from the inner radius outward, the reverse of phonograph records.)"

My current estimate is 5 albums per liner inch of shelf space and thus I have approximately 405 albums (81 inches * 5 per inch) converted so far. At 3200 groove feet per album, that means 1,296,000 feet of groove. That divided by 5280 feet/mile means I've tracked about 245 miles of groove thus far on my LP conversion effort. This doesn't take into account the miles of cassette tape that I've converted but I'm guessing that out of the roughly 1000 albums loaded in my iTunes that 100 to 200 are from tape and somewhere around 400 are from CD to get to the remaining 400 that are from LP.

Since I know from the above citation that the needle travels at approximately 1 mile per hour, I should be able to check my estimates by figuring that 245 miles of groove will equate to about 245 hours of play or just over 10 days. I believe that iTunes says that I have about 35 days of music and if 40% of it is from LP, that would mean 336 albums. That tells me that I've probably got at least 20% slop in my estimates.

J. D. Crowe and the New South (Gusto Records SLP-489 - 1977)

Eric Clapton and the Yardbirds - Eric Clapton and the Yardbirds (Springboard Records SBP-4036 - )

One of mine. This has that "semi-bootleg" feel to it. I took the album art photos.

Cream - Early Cream (Springboard)

The Beatles - Beatles Broadcasts (Circuit LK4450 - 1980)

Beatles Broadcasts (Circuit Records 1980)

I bought this in my Beatles completist phase. Which was probably about when this thing came out. It's in pretty good condition yet it has a bootlegish quality about it although it appears to be quite legitimate at the same time. The cover art is of my own capture on June 6, 2008. (Recaptured on june 29, 2008 with better setup and to get the back cover.)

http://www.recmusicbeatles.com/public/files/faqs/rare.html (A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO BEATLE BOOTLEGS ) says:

The Beatles At The BEEB (BEEB Transcription Records) - SERIES

- Between 1962 and 1965 The Beatles performed hundreds of songs for the BBC. Most of the best of these have been gathered together in an excellent series (on CD as well). Care to hear John Lennon singing "Honey Don't"? Fantastic live performances of "Some Other Guy" and "Thank You Girl"? Unreleased gems like "Soldier Of Love", "Youngblood" and "Lucille"? This is the place. Be warned, however, that these are vintage mono radio broadcasts, and include between song chatter and an announcer. If you want a compilation of BBC performances, perhaps it would be better to search out "Broadcasts" (Circuit Records LK4450), or "From Us To You" (Swingin' Pig double CD).



[! The preferred method of purchasing this material is now the official "Live at the BBC" compilation, and a 9-CD set from Great Dane in Italy, covering every known-to-exist appearance of the Beatles at the Beeb]

Norman Blake - Directions

Darol Anger - Fiddlistics (Kaleidoscope F-8 - 1979)

The Beatles The Historic First Live Recordings (Pickwick PTP-2098 - 1980)