Chung King?

Humans are incredibly interesting individuals. Some people consider a record trash and don’t want it released at all, others are willing to pay huge amounts of money for that exact record. Some of those people who really want to have said record are apparently also willing to bootleg the record, or at least are willing to help along the way to create the bootleg, so more people can enjoy the record that was never meant to be enjoyed in the first place. It’s really fascinating. 

Then there’s me, who would never spend the kind of money on a Chung King that seems to be the going rate these days, because objectively it is a shitload of money, but I might be tempted to spend a lot of money on other records and not bat an eyelash. I’m not a big fan of bootlegs in general either, but some bootlegs are pretty cool and are maybe even more interesting than the original record because there’s a interesting back story, which then makes them desirable after all.

The Chung King album has been re-released officially by Revelation Records, both as part of the Judge discography and the actual re-release of the Chung King record, so the actual recordings became widely available to the masses, making any further bootlegs obsolete. But at one point, it did make sense to bootleg such a rare record. 

The 10” bootleg of the (in)famous Chung King album, originally released in the 90s, has become kind of a collectible in itself, commanding three figures in some cases, which is kinda ironic. Kinda supporting the point I made about humans being complex beings. My buddy was pretty surprised when I told him about that, but great guy that he is, he didn’t take advantage of that and he made me a really good price.

Close up of the insert, part 1. This shines some light on the bootleg itself. I don’t know how well kept the secret is who bootlegged this record and whose number was whited out, but I have no clue who’s responsible for it.

Close up of the insert, part 2, with the original back cover and label art.