This second B-side collection ran into problems as I realized
afterwards that I had no idea about any tracks after 1987 since by
that time I had moved to Thailand and only purchased cassettes…
Therefore
I discarded the original concept of 1980 - 1999 and focused instead on
whatever I remembered from those heady days.
Unusual tracks on the flip
sides became almost the norm rather than an exception.
Great for
collectors, but financially a lot less so, although I usually waited a
bit until the 45 in question was no longer that popular and had ended up
in the bargain section.
Radio programs only played B-sides sometimes, so you had to go to your local record store, check if they had anything interesting and take it to a ‘listening station’!
Other formats popped
up too: picture discs, 12 inches, double 7 inches, and even 10 inches!
So once again a (2 CD!) collection that goes all over the place!
In order to get the link we have prepared the following question for you: Did you ever have any 'special' kind of vinyl? If so, please let us know!
Oh, jeez...where do I even begin? As a hardcore kid of the 90s, I have SO many ridiculous variations of vinyl. Forget about colored vinyl; let's talk die-cuts. My favorite remains the Left For Dead/Acrid split on No Idea; it's a die-cut in the shape of a buzzsaw!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.discogs.com/master/455872-Left-For-Dead-2-Acrid-Hacked-To-Pieces
Second place, b/c I've never been able to obtain one, goes to Spazz's "Funky Ass Lil' Platter", a 1" record released in an edition of 14:
https://www.discogs.com/release/14873823-Spazz-Funky-Ass-Lil-Platter-1-Noise-EP
The Stiff Records list that I posted below includes some die-cuts as well as picture discs with different pictures on each side!
DeleteI did (and maybe still do) own the Talking Heads' Speaking in Tongues on a Robert Rauschenberg-designed vinyl. Played it once but got freaked out I'd scratch it. --Muzak McMusics
ReplyDeleteI have that Rauschenberg LP too! The vinyl was housed in a hard plastic sleeve (much like today's "clamshell" product packaging), and the plastic has discolored with age so that every copy now looks yellow rather than clear. I don't think my copy is scratched, but I did scratch my copy of the first Faust album (clear vinyl in a clear sleeve), which made me feel like a sad skinhead. I also have a copy of the Black Humor album (Love God, Love One Another). The band took a bunch of old record sleeves and defaced them with spraypaint, stickers, rubber stamps and duct tape. Each one is different. Mine is in the sleeve of Billy Preston's "Wildest Organ In Town" LP.
DeleteHere is a great list of the cleverest Stiff Records packaging:
https://www.discogs.com/lists/The-strangest-Stiff-records/555229
Talking Heads, I only have 2 old 45s...
DeleteStiff Records could probably enter the Guinness Book of Records with Do It Yourself by Ian Dury & The Blockheads... This album was released with an amazing number of different covers. Most sources speak of 34 different covers, although some claim there were up to 48 different cover variations! Stiff allowed the countries where the album were released to choose there own design, and therefor had no idea themsélves how many different versions had been produced. The ultimate collectors nightmare! I had just one lp and although it was excellent (& still is!) I never had the urge to start hunting for variations ;-)
Thanks Koen. Very interesting!
DeleteOh damn, this one does it count?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.discogs.com/release/2611617-Max-Woiski-Nescaf%C3%A9-Coffeeboatsong
It is not on vinyl, from 1958, on postcard.
https://www.discogs.com/release/78359-Steve-Stoll-Hyperrealism Techno-Chainsaw. In House and tachno they had inside out players but my other real nice one is X-101 (b-side) https://www.discogs.com/release/88441-X-101-X-101 That one was great vinyl to look at when played, seeing is a must.
Also there where endless locked grooves from 1 on each side to 1 in the middle (you remember which I mean) to a 100 each side. Tracks to play on different speed during the song (switching 45 to 33)
And the singles where they put side 1 versus A-side. black vs blue, black vs white etc. No, my favorite still, the humble postcard
That Nescafé Coffeeboatsong is wonderful and definitely counts, Richards!
DeleteRecords with concentric grooves are also amazing: depending on where you drop the needle, you may hear a different track. And records that included cutouts that you could fold into a 3-dimensional object, like the Flipper tour van or the toaster that came with the Diagram Brothers album. I would love to have a copy of this one with all the inserts intact: https://www.discogs.com/release/2332756-Sudden-Sway-Spacemate
DeleteA friend of mine had one of those concentric grooves 12": M - Pop Music which was a hit at the time in Holland. I remember a drunken / stoned kind of party where it became fun just to kick the record player and find out which M song it would play...
DeleteJohnny Moped, M, Monty Python. Yeah those had two Mystery grooves. https://www.discogs.com/master/540-Various-RRR-100 This one had 100 locked grooves for endless fun.https://www.discogs.com/release/209011-NON-Mode-Of-Infection-Knife-Ladder This one had two holes for "normal" and wobbly play.
DeleteCan we please get a link now?
Old vinyl for all you whippersnappers out there - the first classical music I ever listened to was Dvorak's "New World Symphony" on a stack of hardbound 78 RPM discs - yes, 78s - that were colored red. This would had to have been 1961 at the very earliest...
ReplyDeleteCool! Was that vinyl or shellac?
Delete78s, so it would had to have been shellac - my error. With what looked like industrial cardboard inside (I broke a few in those days...)
DeleteOne of my vinyl survivors (I sold most of it in the late 80s for peanuts...) is the B.E.F. – Music Of Quality And Distinction - Volume One, the whole album as a 5x7" vinyl box set, pretty cool. I used to have a similar box set of Joe Jackson's I'm The Man, but that one got pinched by someone...
ReplyDeleteI gotta say that's quite the eclectic line-up. Very nice!
ReplyDeleteAs a kid of the CD age, I don't have any special kind of vinyl. I did have a ton of maxi-Cds, though. And also, some CD-singles, if someone remembers those (two tracks on a mini-CD half the size of a normal CD)? And, for the real exotic stuff, does someone remember cassette singles, with the a-side and the b-side usually repeated on both sides of the cassette?
I will be happily relistening to those as - after vinyl - it seems that cassettes are making a modest comeback. Two weeks ago I bought a boom box with a tape player (!) in it, the first I have seen in at least twenty years. Young folks and their retro fetish, I suppose...
I still have quite a few of those CD singles, even 3 of that mini format. During our last moving house episode I decided to get rid of all my cassettes, but afterwards discovered that I'd forgotten 1 box. Oh well, I decided to keep it for old times sake despite having nothing to play it on. I'm very tempted to buy a CD boombox though, could be fun...
DeleteI remember the 3" CD singles and the "cassingle"! Bjork released a box set of 3" CD's: https://www.discogs.com/master/34575-Bj%C3%B6rk-Family-Tree
DeleteSo I started to go through my cassingles today, which threw up an interesting b-side. Faith No More's "Richochet" was backed by a cover of Al Martino's "Spanish Eyes". And while the much more famous a-side of a different single, "I'm Easy" at least had Mike Patton's "hurgh!" and an expressive guitar break, he really gets indulgent here, with mariachi instrumentation, orchestration and full easy listening middle of the road arrangement...
DeleteMike Patton, the bass player from The Middle Class? Eddie & The Subtitles? Cathedral Of Tears? Trotsky Icepick?
Delete(Beating that Bowie joke into the ground!)
Another triumph, Koen. - Stinky
ReplyDeleteHad Frank Zappa's I don't Wanna Get Drafted The b side was some kind of live guitar solo from a Halloween concert. It has now been released as a bonus track on something. So has the single of I don't Wanna get drafted been released.
ReplyDeleteHopefully we get some more feedback, but this is already pretty good, therefore I think our regulars deserve the link, here you are:
ReplyDeletehttps://mega.nz/file/mJMjyQSY#6p74KwUAPS4PNHtmdAJp1YN6S1jSsaTwsXDkOJZ7PYY
Cool stuff thanks Jonderblog!! I have a couple of 7 inchers from Vinnie & The Stardusters with crayons in them and coloring books and other stuff. Glad I looked them up as I just got a couple of their CD's (no fun stuff however) before they disappear. I remember when someone named Lydia Lunchable sent in the Nash The Slash EP (on CD) recorded for me and meant to be heard at three different speeds!
ReplyDeleteNo one mentioned the obvious B-side skippers...single sided 45s...with usually scrathing/etching on the B-side. I still seem to have tons of those: Joan Jett-Summertime Blues; The Stranglers-Aural Sculpture; Tindersticks-What Are You Fighting For?; but leading the charge in my punk years was local-to-me Rip Off Records from San Bruno,CA who had a large number of single-sided 7"ers. (Spoiled Brats, Young Losers, The Chronics, Teenage Rejects,) Some of their single-sided 7" had two songs on one side, but no real B-side.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I ever had one of those...
DeleteI think I did mention the Art Bears, with an etched b-side (Coda to man and boy) in the first of the b-side madness. Kurt / Burroughs -The Priest, Yello Live at the Roxy. Both single-sided. And what nobody mentioned were the play/plug sides where a-and b side were the same. On a few I have there is no mention of promotional copy or for dj-copy. Another bit of fun were the diy single/eps splitting the cost. One side release though one label and the other through another label https://www.discogs.com/release/1988369-Buy-Off-The-Bar-Golden-Strings-Untitled This is also interesting for Eton Croppers BTW
DeleteYello Live at the Roxy... Completely forgot about that one, I did have it!
DeletePossible reason might be that I considered it rather disappointing after their fantastic Claro Que Si.
Yeah Nathan, I still have my 7 inch for The Nig-Heist is a one-sider with some etching on the other side. A prize possession for me as I keep all my 7 inchers in a couple boxes but harder to make room with LP's to keep. I just read the Discog write up thanks to you and was a great article (https://www.discogs.com/artist/860181-Nig-Heist) so thanks. This comp. by Art58Koen is incredible! Many I have not heard of at all but should have. Thanks ALL
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