The Gift

Another classic crossed off my want list. The Gift was the final album by the Jam and unbeknownst to me until today peaked at number 1 in the UK, which is quite remarkable. The first single off the album and my favorite song on this LP, Town Called Malice, also reached number one of the single charts. Again, quite remarkable. The whole album flows really nicely and I’ve been enjoying spinning this record quite a bit these last few weeks. 

I don’t really know what pressing this as the pressing info on Discogs is rather confusing. 

Live At The Hollywood Bowl

When a bunch of record collectors hang out together, obviously they will go to the local record store sooner or later. Well, that‘s exactly what we did and we all walked out of the store with a few more records each. Mission accomplished.

I might have been influenced by the two Beatles records I had already received on that trip, so picking up another one just felt right. I‘ve stated before that I really like live records and this is a great one! Actually it’s not a live records of once concert, rather songs were taken from two or three different concerts. Opinions on this vary. Be that as it may, the song selection reflects the time period of the band quite well. This album came out way later in 1977, so seven years after the band The Beatles had disbanded and a good 12 to 13 years after the songs were recorded. People often complain about the audio quality of live recordings, but the songs on here sound really, really good. It must have been quite the effort to find a balance between the band and the about 19,000 (mostly female) people screaming at the top of their lungs to make the audio experience as enjoyable as it is. That‘s actually one of the reasons why I like this album so much, even though most of my favorite Beatles songs aren‘t even on there - because the recordings manage to show what Beatlesmania was like: C-R-A-Z-Y! 

The best moment on the record for me occurs during Help!, which is one of my favorite Bealtes‘ songs. At one point during the song, John Lennon‘s voice cracks and he has to suppress a slight laughter because he seems to be in disbelief / in awe of what‘s happening around him. I mean, he was only 24/25 at the time the song was recorded and he was playing in the biggest band in the world, so playing in front of thousands of people in the US must have still felt like a dream at this point. 

Another thing I really like about this record is that they played a bunch of covers. You could argue that playing five covers out of thirteen songs total might be a bit much, but I like bands paying homage to their heroes. Plus, some of the songs they played live back then had also been released on Beatles LPs. 

Last, but not least I got this record because of the leaflet it came with advertising a book for Beatles fans. I‘m just a sucker for stuff like this. The book title translates to “The Beatles - Their Career, Their Music, Their Successes“. The book not only gives info on the band history and the members, but also on the pressing info on the various Beatles records, so basically it‘s like  the Flex! Discography, just for Beatles records, at least that‘s how I picture it in my head. Makes me wonder if there was a scene of Beatles collectors around back then. I already checked and you can get a decent used copy for under 10€ and I‘m really intrigued to get one of these at one point. The leaflet still contains the original postcard you could use to order the book back then, but I doubt that will still work, haha. Even though I‘m tempted to try it. Sleeve, record and all the extra gimmicks are in pristine condition and considering what I paid for the record, this might end up on my list of favorite pick ups this year in the category Value for Money.

A Collection of Oldies

A Collection of Oldies, not only an apt name for this record, but also if anyone wanted to refer to three older guys hanging out talking about music, amirite?

This record was another gift I received from my friend who gave me the Beatles 7“ I wrote about in the previous post. To give you some context: my friend collects Japanese pressings of Beatles records. I love how people buying records come up with all of these unique micro collections and I must say, those Japanese pressings are pretty awesome. The lyric sheets are pretty interesting with Japanese and English on them, and all of the records come on this really amazing dark shade of clear red vinyl. The details on these Japanese pressings are pretty neat. For example, they all have this red dot on the spine, which is usually white, so you get a Japanese flag to make them easily recognizable. A bunch of these next to each other on a shelf look pretty sweet. Usually they come with an OBI strip as well, but this copy doesn‘t have one unfortunately. 

I really like the songs on this collection, too. Judging by the cover art, which is sort of trippy, you‘d probably think this is a collection of later era Beatles songs, but they‘re all songs from the early days of their carrer since this compilation was originally released in 1966. I‘ve heard all of them a million times, but not in this particular order, so this is still a fun listen.

While this is not an original, this repress from 1970 still is one of the oldest records I own. Considering it‘s a 55 year old record, this is in pristine condition. I‘m very grateful for this cool record and even more so for having such good friends. 

1970 Repress on Clear Dark Red on Apple /???

Edit: Forgot to include the close up of the lyric sheet in my original post. The song titles are listed in English and Japanese, the lyrics are English only. This is printed on quality paper as well and has a really nice feel to it. 

Now And Then

Happy new year, everyone. I spent the beginning of the new year with a good friend and his family. People I love and don‘t nearly get to see as often I‘d like to. We did the same thing two years ago and I wrote similar words and they are still true. But such is life. Having said that, the five days we spent together were an absolute bliss. Not only did my family and I get to see them, another person we‘re friends with was travelling Europe, so we all got to hang out for almost a week despite living in three different countries spread over to continents. 

Daytime was for food, sightseeing and family activities, night-time was for sports and music talks. We always pick up stuff for each other we think the others might like, but this time we got exchange records personally instead of receiving parcels, which was pretty cool. We all have different tastes in music in some regards, but we also have some bands we all can agree on. One of these is The Beatles. I was graciously given a copy of Now And Then, which just came out in 2023 and is the final single by The Beatles. Originally it was recorded as a demo by John Lennon in 1977, but the other three members of The Beatles all worked on the song after John Lennon‘s death, albeit to varying degrees. It‘s a good enough song, but not as good as their biggest hits. On the b-side you get Love Me Do, an absolute classic from the early days of the band. It says it‘s a 2023 remix, but I also found info on Discogs that this is 1962 singles version. Since I don‘t own one of these, I can‘t really attest to that. 

The artwork is whatever, but at least the vinyl colour is pretty cool. A really cool shade of baby blue with some white marble. 

I really hope we can make this New Year‘s hang out a biannual thing, so I can make a similar post in two years. 

2023 Press on Baby Blue w/ White Marble on Apple/Parlopahone /???