For those of you who moan that I may occasionally, every now and then, very seldom, once-in-a-blue-moon, twice decadely persuade them to spend their hard-earned cash/ill-gotten gains on music*, this is just to let you know you are not alone.
There I was blogging my little heart out about Hawkwind Quark Strangeness And Charm the other day when I realized that the 1977 original I thought I owned was a 1982 repress. Now, I want you all to know that I’m not the sort of inter-galactic wanker^ who gives a rat’s arse about that sort of thing (if you take the mid-to-late 80’s out of the equation**), I am perfectly happy with a cheaper later repress – the vinyl’s the thing. Except when it isn’t.
During my exhaustive pre-blog research I discovered that the original Quark Strangeness And Charm had an interesting inner sleeve, complete with message from the band and lyrics; all on some rather far-out spiral graph paper. Annoying. I wanted it but there was nothing remotely wrong with my own copy at all.
Then I spotted a copy for £4 on Discogs, for an LP that routinely goes for £25-ish for a very good condition copy. The catch being that the condition of the actual LP – the usual reason for buying, umm, an LP was ‘fair‘ – which in collector’s terms actually means ‘borderline shitty‘. But the cover was VG and that was what I wanted … the seller was excellent and it arrived, exactly as described with lightning efficiency today.
So here it is, in all it’s inner glory. What I want to know from y’all, my wise counsellors, is this a normal thing to do? does it make me the sort of insaniac sad sack that police only discover has been a serial killer for 40 years upon discovery of my posthumous diaries? I value your opinions^^.
The Hawkwind party:
To all space. This is just a small message to let you know we are back on course. Last year was the worst year for us. Finding us in debt and out of touch with the modern world. We have had a few changes, the sacking of Nik Turner, Paul Rudolph and Alan Powell and the arrival of Adrian Shaw, our old friend from ‘Magic Muscle’. Your letters do get to us, though a devious route had to be found. We do appreciate them and the ideas. So once again we we’ll try and get the motors running and take off. See you soon,
Hawkwind.
Now it strikes me as pretty unusual to glory in the SACKING of band members like that. I know all about the bad blood between Brock and Turner, but the other two seem more like collateral damage in this than anything else. It is interesting. Easily £4 worth of interesting, I hope.
Brock, for I assume it is him, appears to be every bit the compulsive used of capital letters I am and I have added some of my own punctuation in there too, because that is how I roll.
Even this doggerel that pours from my pen, Has just been written by Oh, another twenty telepathic men, Word for word, it says: "Oh, for the wings of any bird, Other than a battery hen". That's the spirit of the age That's the spirit of the age That's the spirit of the age That's the spirit of the age
981 Down (still).
PS: I far prefer the Mad Hatter Charisma Records label to their tidied-up early 80’s blue.
*hopefully always with positive results.
^I’m actually a totally different sort of inter-galactic wanker. It’s good to get that cleared up.
**when the vinyl was virtually see-thru and inner sleeves were plastered in shit adverts.
^^on the strict proviso they accord with and/or confirm my own.
Perfectly normal behaviour.
Now, between finishing the previous post and starting this one, I’ve ordered a copy of Quark via Discogs. Wonder if it will have the insert.
If a man as normal as you are, tells me it’s normal, then it must be so …
Correct.
On a sad note, I just received an email from the Discogs seller saying, ‘Sorry, we couldn’t find the LP’.
On a brighter note, I purchased a 2-LP set of PXR-5 this afternoon on slinky grey vinyl.
My cat has sent me to the record shop for second copies numerous times. A little cat scratch fever.
Yasss!! Your post was so good you convinced yourself to buy this one.
In all seriousness, though… I think you done the right thing. I’ve bought a second copy for a different sleeve or inner (John Hiatt’s Bring the Family – had the US A&M pressing and bought the UK Demon pressing cause I liked the cover best). You’re not insaniac yet.
Ha, you’re right – I should be immune to my own wheedlings and persuasion. And thank you.
I have this problem of course, I have the US Editions of Unknown Soldier and HQ by Harper, they suck and I had to buy the UK editions to compensate, also the Harvest label os way cooler than the Chrysalis one so that drove the decision as well.
In the record collector’s thesaurus, that is indeed listed as a synonym for fair!
Phew!
I think it is normal. I have two of several albums only because the cover or something about it is different could even be the track listing order is different. Please tell me it’s normal.
Don’t worry, maybe they’ll let us share a cell at the asylum.
I hope so.
Yes, it does.
Fair enough.
Ha!
It is absolutely not normal to do this. The only answer is to turn over all your records to me for safekeeping and to start indulging in s streaming only life to purge these unnecessary excesses from your life. It is good to seek out this type of feedback at this point when you can solve it so easily by just giving it all away. You should consider this weakness something to be purged, purge I say.
Greater love hath no man for his fellow blogger. I can believe you’d help me with my burden like that, you’re just like that son of God dude I read about once.
Speaking as someone who occasionally, and recently, has bought something and blamed you for it, I can confidently say… you’ve lost it! Must be the lack of protein in your diet or something. Who’s buys vinyl for the “packaging”?
I know, I know. What a loser. It’s why I am a serial killer that the police will only find out about when my posthumous diaries come to light in 40 years time.
Joe The Ripper
I’ve probably mentioned this before but my friend Sarge played in a Hawkwind tribute band in Bournemouth.
No you haven’t, that’s cool. My uncle lives there, but he’s a very straight dude.
But is what i did normal Mike?