Hard-To-find Vinyl- Lucky finds


Over the past month, I've been on a lucky streak of finding some rare and hard-to-find first pressings in Near Mint condition at great prices. The interesting part is the following finds were at the same record store!
1. Mark Knopfler- Ragpicker's Dream 2002;
2. Shirley Griffith‎– The Blues Of Shirley Griffith: Saturday Blues 1965
3. Buena Vista Social club - Self titled 1996; and
4. Jakob Dylan- Seeing Things 2008.

What great LP finds have you purchased lately?
dre1960
Slaw: no, not necessary, although your WLP may have been pressed at
Monarch. Monarch was a west coast pressing plant with a very good
reputation for punchy sounding pressings (obviously, much has to do with
the mastering). If yours has a timing strip, it does indeed sound like a WLP.
The reason I asked was because the early Asylum label was white and I
have an early pressing of Desperado on such a label (but it is not a WLP,
which should be a very early pressing).
I've been paying a lot more attention to all those little inscriptions in the
deadwax. :)
Whart: Thank you. It's these little "tid-bits" that you may find here that are not available elsewhere.
Wow, I just remembered... Miles Davis ....

"Someday My Prince Will Come" Columbia 6eye mono, $1.00
"At The Blackhawk, San Fran..." Vol. 1.. Columbia 6eye mono, $1.00
"At The Blackhawk, San Fran..." Vol 1 @ 2, still sealed stereo re-issues, $1.00 a piece.

Carly Simon "No Secrets" WLP, $1.00
Whart: It's a WLP Asylum. Just wondering, does the Monarch have the song/timing label pasted to the front cover?

Here's a few more I forgot...

James Taylor: "JT", "Flag" WLP. absolutely amazing! $1.00 a piece.
For the best deal all time, this includes sonics, resale, hard to find... Van Morrison "Moondance" on Direct-Disk Labs... paid $15.00... Acoustic Sounds wants $150.00 for the same lp in great condition as mine is.

Fairport Convention "Chronicles", very nice copy, sounds fantastic, $5.00! Cover = M, Vinyl= M
My lucky find is a 6 eye of Dave Brubeck time out but the real luck is that it is autographed by all the musicians on the back.
Slaw- on the Desparado, is it a WLP or simply an early 'white label' asylum- the first pressings of that record, pressed at Monarch, with the black inner sleeve, sound phenomenal (and still have that early Eagles country/western thing going, before they became an anthem rock band).
09-09-14: Czarivey
Sebrof, What color is Muddy Waters 'Folk Skinger' label?
The original would have a black label with white letters.
It's an orange-ish color with a blue bar across, Chess label.
Here are some WLP: White Label Promo lps I've scored!!

A buck a piece!

Eagles "Desperado"
Cars "Candy O"
Randy Newman "Little Criminals"
Linda Ronstadt "Hasten Down The Wind"
Heart "Little Queen"
Bruce Springsteen "Darkness ON The Edge Of Town"
Doobie Brothers "Stampede"

Need I say more!!!

Got all of these in excellent shape for $1.00 a piece!!!

Excellent sound!
It's been a while since I scored this one,

Wilco "Being There", a double lp, for $5.00!

Van Morrison "Tupelo Honey", a mint- copy for under $10.00!

(Ronnie Montrose on guitar.)
I've been focusing on pop and psych, early or odd pressings, mainly for
sonics, not collectibility, but some of these are fairly hard to find:
UK Vertigo Swirls - some of the more obscure ones:
Dr. Strangely Strange- Heavy Petting;
Gracious!
May Blitz- both titles- the 2nd of May is pretty rare
along with a number of others that are less rare; I cheated on Linda Hoyle
and bought a later Asian reissue of Pieces of Me, b/c the original is crazy
money if you can find one. (Even the Asian pressing was limited to 1,000
copies but the original UK was limited to 300).
Some nice WLPs: St. Dominic's Preview; Moondance; Dixie Chicken,
Alice's 'Love it to Death' on the Straight label;
a US W7 pressing of Astral Weeks;
a plum UK first with Peter Grant credit of
LZ III, along with minty early Plums of LZ II and IV;
a friend gave me a UK first black label Jeff Beck Truth- not nutty rare, but
sonically far more compelling than any other pressing of this 'Epic' record
(which was first pressed on EMI/Columbia);
a sealed package of Classic Clarity plus black vinyl of Tull's Aqualung,
totaling 8 records cut at 45rpm which, I believe, was an outgrowth of the
'samplers' Classic made for reviewers to compare the different vinyl
formulations , but in this case, of the entire album in both vinyl formulations;
A Claudia Cardinale of Blonde on Blonde;
a few nice old 6 Eyes, including 'The Sound of Jazz' from a guy in the
neighborhood;
an odd transcription of a radio program about Roy Harper, with Harper,
Page and Plant, Ian Anderson and a few others, from a street vendor in the
neighborhood;
a true UK first of Roy Harper's Stormcock (no EMI credit on label);
Earlier in the week, got to hear (but did not buy) a true first of both the
stereo and mono of Hoodoo Man Blues (with the 'friendly chap' credit).
Both were dead mint, but not for sale.
I've met some great sellers recently who supplied me with:
Ziggy/Spiders 6E/4E UK- dead mint;
Die Beatles Horzu -2;
a UK Vertigo Swirl '1970 Annual'- not exceedingly rare in itself, but contains
tracks from some albums that are quite rare; this 'sampler' is not easy to
find in mint condition;
on Knopfler, I picked up a minty UK Vertigo 'Spaceship' label of the first
Dire Straits album and found a Quiex copy of 'Love over Gold.'
I rarely buy classical any more b/c I have so many, unplayed, from buying
during the 80's- mainly RCA/Mercury/Lyrita/Decca/London/EMI ASD, etc.
but found a very nice Period pressing of Starker, Kodaly, Unaccompanied
Cello, that plays quietly, which is pretty unusual, I think. Most are beat up
for some reason, and expensive.
At an antique pavilion my stepson found an opened but possibly unplayed Japanese pressing of Pink Floyd's 'The Wall" for $10.

On eBay a woman was selling some private stock of her recently deceased father, a former DJ. I got several unplayed "for broadcast only" Verve pressings, such as the Ella (Fitzgerald) and Louis (Armstrong) duets, both volumes, plus some same-era Buddy Rich (I'm a big fan), and comedy albums of that era.

Not a big steal, but I got an early '70s Columbia reissue of "Kind of Blue" in NM condition for $8, and it rivals my Classic Records 200g reissue.

I got 18 box sets from Time-Life's "Great Men of Music" series at $1 ea. at a thrift shop. All were virtually or actually unplayed with 4 LPs per set. These were all reissues of Living Stereo recordings.
Full set of the "Greatest Jazz Recordings of All Time" from Franklin Mint, unplayed/sealed (100 albums). Some great early recordings that's hard to find otherwise.
As popular a thing as vinyl has become (again), it is a bit of a rare moment to have a lucky streak like that anymore. I guess, on the up side, it's great to be here in the(so called)rebirth of the format and see so many vinyl conscious consumers. Like many, many of you, I never abandoned it.
Sebrof, What color is Muddy Waters 'Folk Skinger' label?
The original would have a black label with white letters. Some of the original releases would have blue label, but would need to know the serial number to be precise. Also it may have UPC code as well on jacket as there were more than one repress versions of your album.

Reissues of MW are fairly easy find.
"The Greatest Jazz Concert in the World", Johnny Hodges, Colemann Hawkins, Zoot Sims, Russell Procope, Jimmy Hamilton, Cat Anderson, Lawrence Brown, Clark Terry, T-Bone Walker, Harry Carney, Paul Gonsalves, Cootie Williams, Benny Carter, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Oscar Peterson.

Sarah Vaughn, the "The Pablo Years".

Procul Harem, "A Salty Dog" and "Whiter Shade of Pale", both original English pressings, Moby Grape, "Moby Grape", The Beatles, "Revolver" (Capitol stereo).

Most are in mint or near-mint condition, lots of great listening with these finds.

Regards,
Dan
1. Stan Getz/Gilberto yellow Verve label DJ copy that has 5 songs per side vs. original and further represses that have only 4 songs per side.
2. Edie Lockjaw Davis "Modern Jazz" holand repress
3. Manu Dibango "Makossa Man" original release
4. Ginger Baker/Fela Kuti live original release
I found two recently at a local Half Price Books:

Stanley Clarke - School Days, Sealed $4.
Muddy Waters - Folk Singer, Mint $8. This is not the Analog Productions reissue which I already have, but probably not the original release.

I find that it's getting harder to find good buys than it was just a few years ago.