Okay, we all know that the folks here love to play the old “the music I like is more obscure than the music you like” game. So let’s just go ahead and whip 'em out:
What’s the rarest or most obscure music in your collection?
I’d like to omit bootlegs from this challenge, but if you really want to list bootlegs, go ahead but make a note of it.
Here’s my entries:
I have a couple of CDs from the “Private Tapes” series put out by Kawabata Makoto (of Acid Mothers Temple fame), issued in sets of 100, burned by him on his own PC, purchased from him in person at AMT shows.
I also have a number of demo CDs from several obscure indie bands. I have no idea how many of the CDs have been sold, but for at least a couple of the bands I purchased the CDs at their first. gig. ever., so the number can’t be too high.
I’m really into a band called Wild Stares that had a few 10" and EP releases back in the eighties. They were a boston post-punk band that hinted at Sonic Youth and Pere Ubu. For whatever reason, they’re all but unknown even among fans of punk and post-punk music.
As for ownership, I have a plehora of Bluebird 78’s, as well as many private press releases going back to the mid-forties.
I have CDs of the tapes made on the scene at The Merry Pranksters’ Acid Tests in San Francisco and elsewhere, by Pranksters.
I have a Canadian pressing of the 78 of “Good Rockin’ Tonight” by Wynonie Harris, on the Maple Leaf - King label. This issue is so rare that collectors’ illustrated discographies do not have an available photo of the label to demonstrate what it looks like.
I also have the rarest Pink Floyd bootleg album in existence. There were apparently only 250 made. Most hardcore Floyd collectors have never seen a copy.
I have a white label test pressing of Phil Phillips’ “Sea Of Love” on its original label and number of Khourys 711. It has what may be Phillips’ own handwriting on the label, saying “Soon to be released on Mercury!” and “It’s A Hit!”
I’ve got all the extant recordings of John, Paul, George and Stu, jamming very badly. Especially Stu. All the biographers were right. He sucked on bass.
And now for my humble rarities. I just gave away a CD of *Jammin’ With Edward.*It was a lame studio tape without the stars.
I have a Bobby Doyle album.
I have a Bill Reinhardt album from Jazz,LTD.
Bela Fleck…Perpetual Motion
Skip, Hop, and Wobble. Believe me, folks. No matter what kind of music you like, I have to recommend this one to you.
Tone Poems–David Grisman and Tony Rice. They take pairs of historical mandolins and guitars, and do a period piece on each pair. You won’t believe your ears. If you don’t check this one out, you should pour warm molasses over your entire person. Okay, cue the ants!
Well, the Charlie Manson stuff has been distributed widely enough, as has the CD of Aleister Crowley, so the rarest thing I have- a CD of two songs & a sermon by David Koresh.
I recently decided to subject myself to more obscure and unknown music, so I’ll now tend to buy second hand CDs purely because I have no idea what they’ll be like.
I don’t think I have anything to trump anyone else’s obscure selection, but I’m currently listening to a CD by this unlikely bunch.
I have an album (tape) by a Heavyish Metal/Punk kinda group called Fang circa '89. The album is called A mi ga sfa sfa and contains such classics as “A Fistful of Wicked Women (on the bathroom floor)”, “You Suck”, and “F.U.C.K.Y.O.U.”.
The latter a clever attempt to get airplay, I imagine. If you spell the obscenity in the lyrics instead of actually saying it, it doesn’t count, right?
They really do kick ass. Haven’t listened to it in years though.
Not at all what the OP is looking for, but the one piece of recorded music I’ve had a hard time finding is Alfred Reed’s Russian Christmas Music. In the pre-Internet days I looked all over for this, and couldn’t find it in music libraries, music catalogs, or major music outlets.
Imagine my surprise to make a few clicks on my computer and find this Wikipedia entry:
Ahhh, all my rare stuff is Blur junk. I own a real copy of the Wassailing Song, Never Clever, the CD single for *Chemical World * with *My Ark * and *Young & Lovely * on it. My *Anniversary Box Set * is numbered - I don’t know if they still are, but I remember at the time I got it it was supposed to be some big, screaming deal.
I also have a single around here somewhere for a Tears For Fears song that I had bought originally for the single but ended up loving the b-side more, which was Bloodletting Go. I’ve been told that’s somewhat rare-ish.
I have a pile of old Sloan b-sides, Eric’s Trip (the band) on vinyl, and one Cat Power record on vinyl, but those are back home with my parents, collecting dust in the basement. I don’t know how rare those are, if at all.
Steve Kazerowski – Steve was the lead singer with the Left Banke (Walk Away Renee) under the name of “Steve Martin” and the All Music Guide called him “one of the more underutilized lead singers in rock history.” He dropped out of performing, and went back to get his high school diploma, making a living by selling songs to others. He sold them outright for a flat fee, and wasn’t listed as the composer. Songs that he wrote during this period may have included Spirit’s “I Got a Line on You,” Alvin Lee’s “I’d Love to Change the World” (definite) “Signs” by the Five Man Electrical Band (possibly) and “Our Hour” by CSNY (rumored).
He put out this nice little album under his real name. It includes “I’d Love to Change the World” – credited to him and Alvin Lee, with Lee singing backup, so he was aware of the credit and had no problem with it.
The songs are quite good, though it was odd for me to listen to a song about him breaking up with his girlfriend and thinking, “I know who he’s talking about.”
They are a fun live band, for certain. I saw them at the Summersault Festival many years back (shortly after the release of Navy Blues I think) and I was right up in front of Patrick.
Sometimes I don’t miss my home in the Maritimes for what we didn’t get out there… but other times, I miss it for what we did get.
I have a vinyl disc (too young to know the RPM, but I think it’s 72) of some children’s choir singing a song called “My Mummy is One in a Million”. And on the reverse side is another song called “Bozo the Clown”. I’m not sure if it still works though because I don’t have my record player anymore.
7 red vinyl, 33 1/3, coarse-groove, slightly dish-shaped test pressings from 1934 by the Joe Haymes Orchestra, the first pop music group to record for Muzak.