WeenieCampbell.com
Country Blues => Super Electrical Recordings! => Topic started by: Stuart on October 16, 2006, 09:08:29 AM
-
There are bargains to be found for sure, but the other side of the coin is that some of the CDs (and books as well) in the "Cheap Bins" aren't really cheaper than one can find them elsewhere. So you're probably safe with the truly low priced single CDs, but you have to do your homework when it comes to some of the other stuff. Several years ago I found the Verve 3 CD set "The Big Bill Broonzy Story" for around $8, but in the same bin were a few of the Proper multiple CD sets that were priced higher than list.
-
I think the bar was raised beyond reach in this fascinating -- I mean, how do these things GET there? -- area when a buddy of mine came back from the local Stop & Shop (supermarket) with a couple of Stash (ST-101) LPs he paid a couple of bucks for entitled "Copulatin' Blues" ("16 Original Blues Classics") featuring Lucille Bogan, Lil Johnson, Jelly Roll Morton, and a few other artists performing what have to be the raunchiest numbers ever heard in a Storyville or French Quarter brothel. And it wasn't even April Fool's Day!
-
Hey... I have copy of that LP...the Copulating one (would I have anything else ;D) and in fact I think I used a track for the juke prog I did on Female Blues :P
-
I mean, how do these things GET there?
It is by means of a system and process referred to as "merchandising," Doc.
I know the LP and I believe that there was a Volume 2 as well as other albums of novelty songs released on the same label.
-
OK I admit I can waste two perfectly good hours going through the used CD bins in record stores.
Last week I found a couple of Document Arthur Crudups, Jerry Reed / Chet Atkins, and Norman Blake w/Tony Rice #2. A good haul I thought.
Today I found Sam & Kirk McGee, Out Standing In Their Field, Live 1955 - 1967, I've wanted this CD for ages, and Red River Blues 1934 - 1943, on the Travelin' Man label with many people, none of whom I've ever heard of, recorded in NC, GA, FL and VA, several in prisons. In the forbidden pleasures department I also picked up The Best of Nick Lowe, and paid full price for Lenny Breau and Brad Terry, The Complete Living Room tapes double CD (yeeha!)
Am I the only one regularly scouring the used bins?
-
No, you're not. :P I go infrequently, meaning every couple months or so, to a couple regular places. I just went the other day to a local strip that used to have 5 to 6 places within a few blocks, only to find two of them had closed. Succumbing to the mp3 age perhaps? Probably better selection in your neck of the woods than mine. I find that I really have to dig to find something even remotely of interest.
But the other day I came up with the Fremeaux 2-CD set called Chicago South Side (fun!), which is a nice compilation of 1920s-30s early jazz. And a Yazoo Barbecue Bob I've been listening to constantly.
I swear there's some CDs in my regular haunts that have been there for 10 years.
-
I used to love scouring the used bins, but virtually every store that sold used CDs in my neck of the woods has closed. My biggest score was 5 or so years ago: a box of Document CDs that the local store had picked up in a purchase from a store in Albany NY that was closing. All new and shrink wrapped, with a couple of duplicates, and all stuff I didn't have (well, I had less in those days, so that wasn't such a miracle). I got the whole thing for $20 or so, since the local store had no idea what to do with them.
-
Check out your local Goodwill and Salvation Army. I've found all kinds of great stuff there: Yazoo LPs, etc. I started my 78 collection junking those places. Its harder now that Ebays around, but every once in while someone will dump a collection there.
-
I'm always on the lookout for vinyl but very rarely find any old blues records. The streets of my neighborhood in NYC (the upper west side) are literally swimming in discarded LPs,. The garbage room of my building often coughs up great finds, and because I live near Lincoln Center, and the building has a large number of classical musicians, they are usually well cared for classical records. Good thing I'm a classical music fan, though I have to sit on the sidelines as far as playing any of it goes. Then there are the used book & record stores where the LPs can start at $0.50 on up. You can occasionally snag a good blues disk in these places for not too much. Some ambitious garbage pickers have started a curbside book and record market on Broadway between 72nd and 74th streets that yields up an amazing prize on occasion. It almost makes up for the overpowering stench of money and yuppiedom that's overrun the neighborhood. The traveling book market stops and starts all the way up to about 81st . The thrift stores are uneven but some used to have vast stores of LPs with a lot of interesting stuff and a preponderance of Donna Summer, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Eagles, Michael Jackson, Carol King, and other shlock-pop. They're mostly crosstown on the east side. Old Yazoos and such can be found downtown at stores where they know the value of things so no bargains there. I do see a fair number of classical and some Jazz 78s but have no way of playing them and no room for another turntable so... I think they're mostly not too exotic anyway.
-
This week's haul was limited but worthy. Billie Holiday, volumes 1 & 2 of the 'Quintessential' Columbia 9 CD set, both are fabulous. I dig Bessie and Ma etc but Billie's early stuff is truly exhilarating. Kind of makes me wonder how Bessie and Ma would have sounded if swing had taken hold earlier. Also found an Arhoolie CD of diatonic accordian maestro and local hero Flaco Jimenez in the 1960's. All at bargain prices.