Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Ten Years After

As I mentioned, I'm in the process of re-organizing my cassette entries.. Here is all the TYA cassettes I've posted, as well as any I may have overlooked..
Firstly,  Undead, their second album.. this is an early Decca (Deram) issue

Next, a german "Teldec" compilation , likely a mid 70's issue:

A recent acquisition, an american mid to late  80's issue of Cricklewood Green :

Another American one, the 1977 "Greatest Hits"release  with the Woodstock performance..this is anywhere from late 70s to  early 80s issue, I am not sure as to the exact date of this issue:

Another US one, this time later stuff the 1973 or so "Rock And Roll Music To The World"


 A couple of UK tapes now..Firstly, Positive Vibrations, from 1974 - I have to say I was pleasantly surprised to find this one.. other than likely being  pre 80s though, I have no idea of the date:

Lastly for now.. the reunion album from 1989.. This is a UK issue:




A quick note

I had a currency converter on this site, but it looks like their site has been compromised, so have taken it down for the moment. Sorry about that..

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Cassette cover - Good ole stogey munchin' tophat wearin boogie...

A Big Cigar and a Tophat.. well there's that voice too.. the main reason I liked early Savoy Brown so much was Chris Youlden .. and when he left the band, thankfully they adapted. Well, too.. turns out their rhythm guitarist could really belt it out.. in fact he kept on doing it as the main singer in Foghat..
 Back to Chris though..after he left he took a long break until 1974, and then recorded two albums in relatively quick succession. for Decca UK..
 Im 1978 or '79 this cassette came out, probably not for very long, and as far as I know, has never been reissued.. It is a compilation of tracks from his two albums City Child, and Nowhere Road.
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Friday, February 17, 2012

Cassette Cover - Motorvatin'..

Yeah.. i bet just that title got the rest of the song going in your head..  I'll leave it up to you to name it though...


You really do NOT see many original Chess cassettes.. in fact, even though I've had lots of the reissue ones, I don't recall having any of the original issue ones.. I don't know who, prior to MCA, even would have distributed them.. This one is English though, and issued 1977..

Cassette Cover - Freddy (Freddie) King.. again

Never get tired of this guy.. other than budget compilations of his (mostly) early Federal sides, you don't come across cassettes of his very often.. however, anyone interested in obtaining some would do well to check out GEMM online..

Cassette Covers - More Pink Floyd

I ran across an Australian set of Ummagumma.. although I think they could have put it on one tape, it may be that because this is an early release, tape wasn't available in the required thinness yet.. This appears to be the only way to date Aussie cassettes, incidentally, as it appears that they never updated the cassette design fort a very long time.. this one, for instance, has the mid to late '70s clear cassette shells, but still retains the original 1969 sleeve...


Also here is an early Italian Saucerful of Secrets...Tape scan is coming forthwith...

Monday, February 13, 2012

Is anybody out there?

Yeah.. Pink Floyd reference .. Maybe ;-) a hint of things to come..
But really.. if you like ANYTHING about this blog.. leave a comment.
. I'll GIVE YOU STUFF for doing it..
Hey is that bribery attempt  too subtle for you? ;-)

Doc

Cassette "Roots" .. The original Philips cassettes

Here's a bit of a treat... I obtained this in a box of tapes I bought for their cases, as they were in excellent condition..I noticed this one, but didn't realize what I had got until I examined it in detail after I got home.
You may or may not know that Philips, a Dutch company, was the original inventor of the "Musicassette" as they were originally known, and was the first company also to release albums on cassette.
 Well, it appears this is one of the very first made.. a Philips "Demonstration" cassette to showcase all the advantages of this "new" format..It came witha special fold-out listing all the releases available so far on cassette, and judging by the releases it appears 1966...

  Update..After several months of intense crosschecking, it looks like it is, indeed, 1966, making it the oldest cassette I have ever had, and since the earliest ones came out *in* 1966, it's is one of the very first in existence!  Since it's in like new condition, with the insert inside the "J Card"  intact, I believe this may be extremely collectible!..



 Below is the foldout insert that came inside the tape:

Pretty cool, eh?

Friday, February 10, 2012

Reel to Reel Tapes

Well, this is the Reel to Reel tapes section.. my necessity it's gonna be small, because these things go for a mint used..routinely fetching several hunded dollars used for the older  60's ones, especially British Invasion, Surf rock, and Blues
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Firstly: cover - Dis singer gonna make you an offer you can't refuse..
Capiche?
Yup.. it's Frankie Sinatra Baby..
I stumbled on a stack of pre-recorded reel to reels a few days ago.. even though they're not my 'Bag', nusicwise, i picked the ones i at least had some familiarity with.. here's one of them.. they're all in beautiful condition too..!
  



Next is one I  really didn't think I'd get.. I just thought it would look good in the shop window.. I plan on opening another rare tapes and records shop (but mostly tapes).. It's always good to have something like this in the (less sunny ;-) window..


 This next one is by Elvis's old bass player, Bill Black.. he set out on his own around the time Elvis went into the military.. this is an early Best of from 1962 or so.. I wan lucky to find a copy:

I have more from that same era..Why these have survived in like new condition, yet the Beatles reel aged noticeably, isn't clear..
Wayne King, for those who don't know, is another of those instrumentalists like Ace Cannon, Earl Bostic, Bill Doggett,  Herb Alpert ...etc etc.. Nice stuff...the tape's mint too...



Another instrumentalist, more along the lines of Harry James in that it was a full orchestra,, was Percy Faith.. lotsa fiddles...people who say they can't stand this kind of music seem to lile it ok when it;s a soundtrack to a movie.. -)


And.. speaking of movies, here's a *really* old soundtrack..


Lastly, a mid 60's Patsy Cline Reel ..since Pickwick was a supposedly "budget" label, releasing something immediately after the singers death , on Reel to Reel, especially , is a bit odd, as reels were *quite * expensive in the day.. even
the tiny sticker on the reel shows typical Pickwick thriftiness !





That's all for now...