VINYL RECORDS – PART 3: LET’S COLLECT

The two first posts from my series about vinyl records “Part 1 - Rise and Fall” and “Part 2 - Back From The Grave” made a short summary of the history of vinyl records and then discussed why the unexpected vinyl revival happened during the 2010’s.

In this last post I'm going to let you know more about my personal record collecting hobby and I will provide you with advice and tips if you plan to start a vinyl record collection or just buy a few records.

Music is so diverse you have limitless possibilities for your record collection. You can focus on a music genre, an artist, a period, a region, a label, a song or a musical work, a specific instrument or simply the records you like…

You may also want to collect all records with a Jaguar Type E on the sleeve or with a sleeve from Bansky or Andy Warhol…You can find very interesting interviews of record collectors on Dust & Grooves.

MY COLLECTING HISTORY

I was born in the sixties, the golden age of vinyl records and I bought my first records in the early 70’s. This said, I was introduced earlier to music and records by my older brother who was a British rock fan. Before I was ten, I knew all the most famous rock groups including the Rolling Stones, Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Them… I also started to read my brother’s specialized French magazines like Best and Rock & Folk. Yes, the seed was planted a long time ago.

You may think I’m a rock only fan; in fact it’s not true. If you ask me to list some music I discovered when I was young and I’ve been loving since I listened to it for the first time, you will have Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, John Coltrane’s My Favorite Things, Jacques Brel’s Amsterdam, Schubert’s chamber music, Mozart’s Requiem and many more. The only music I’m not equipped for is opera...

This said, rock has been part of my youth. Punk and new wave were the new underground genres when I was a teenager in the late 70’s. So, Clash, Cure, Police… became my favorite bands and I confess I still have goose bumps when I listen to God Save the Queen from the Sex Pistols. My first big musical shock was when I first listened to “Closer”, the second album of Joy Division. It was exactly the music I’ve been expecting to listen to for years. The sleeve designed by Peter Saville was the perfect illustration of the music. Unfortunately Ian Curtis, Joy Division’s leader, had committed suicide a few months before. Of course I immediately bought my copy of “Closer”, the first “Unknown Pleasures” LP, all the singles and I started to look for all the available concert bootlegs.

I began to collect all the bands of the U.K. punk, new wave, cold wave… scene but I was not a great fan of the evolution towards the synth – dance. So I started to listen to US groups like Residents, Tuxedo Moon… at the boundary between rock and avant-garde and to the garage rock revival movement with groups like Chesterfield Kings, Slickee Boys, Lyres, Wipers… attempting to replicate the sound and look of the 1960s garage bands. Of course I checked how this 60’s garage music sounds thanks to compilations like Nuggets and Pebbles. I enjoyed the energy of these young people who often recorded only one single. I learnt garage had evolved to psychedelic music in the second half of the 60’s under the influence of drugs and thanks to new instruments and recording techniques.

There was an interest from collectors for this music genre and unofficial reissues were available. In a certain way, I had closed the loop with my early discoveries with my brother. So, I decided to collect LPs from that US garage / psychedelic period.

I started with the main groups like the Doors, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Love, Velvet Underground, Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention… and discovered 13th Floor Elevators, Remains, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Electric Prunes… then obscure bands like Music Emporium, Perry Leopold, Morgen, Damon... I also liked how diverse the music scene was at that time with folk, country, blues, Christian... influences. I read a lot about that period, we have all heard about the Summer of Love in 1967, Woodstock, the first man on the moon… but this period also had its shadow-side with the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King’s assassination, black riots and the Manson family.

INTERNET IMPACT ON RECORD COLLECTING

The mp3 revolution has impacted the music industry. Of course, Internet also revolutionized record collecting.

Before Internet, the access to rare vinyl records was limited to a small group of dealers and buyers. Information about groups was also very scarce. Record fairs and physical shops were the only locations to sell and buy.

Internet forums, blogs and e-commerce market places changed it very quickly. Fans started to publish forgotten information about the most obscure bands, unearth very rare records and sell them directly. In the late 90’s Ebay became the most important site to sell and buy rare records. Dealers opened on-line shops. A lot of physical shops closed and record fairs dramatically shrunk. Now, the music streaming platforms give immediate access to a large library of music and are ideal to discover new artists. You can always check first before adding a new record to your collection.

I buy almost all my records on Internet but I’m nostalgic of stores and record fairs. I miss dirty fingers after a full day of digging…

DISCOGS: THE REFERENCE SITE

In 2000, Kevin Lewandowski, launched Discogs originally intended to be a large database of electronic music. The Web site was totally rewritten in 2004 to support all genres of music. Discogs is now the reference site for music collecting with its huge database and market place.

Firstly Discogs is an open source data base designed for music collection. Each record has a master release and versions (it can be a LP, a CD, a cassette, MP3 files or other bizarre formats) related to this master release that is attached to an artist. If you search for the Beatles in the data base, you will find 1,285 official releases, each one being a master release (album, single, compilation…). You will note you will find additional 1,867 “appearances” that include a contribution from the Beatles and 3,604 “unofficial” entries including bootlegs and non-authorized pressings… Under each master release, you will find the different versions, for instance 528 for the “Beatles For Sale” LP originally released in the UK in 1964.

Of course the data base lists the catalog number, all songs, all contributors (musicians, producers, sleeve designers, …), etc. Pictures of the sleeve, labels and inserts if any are attached to show the specifics of each version. The data base is open to contributors to create new master releases and versions or correct and expand existing entries using a specific format to describe the data. Like in other open source projects, you have reviewers who accept your contributions or can ask you to revise them. You can add a specific version to your want list and your collection.

This data base is used by the market place. If you want to sell a record on Discogs, you have just to find the right version then sell it indicating the record and sleeve condition, your price and the shipping conditions. It’s really fast. That’s where Discogs is very powerful. You can only sell a version that is listed in the data base. In other words, if it’s not the case, you have to extend the data base before selling. So, the data base grows naturally. In August 2019, the data base included over 11.6 million entries, by over 6 million artists, across over 1.3 million labels, contributed from over 456,000 contributors.

You can consult the data base and browse the marketplace without an account. Opening a Discogs account is free of charge. So, you can consult the data base without ads, contribute, build your want lists and collections, buy records... You don’t pay Discogs to buy records, only sellers pay a fee. Records for sale have fixed prices with a possible offer option. No auction. Please note you cannot sell unofficial releases.

Discogs provides useful services. With a single click from your want list, you can show all the records for sale in the marketplace. You have a history of sales of each version to have an idea of the right price according to condition. Discogs also manages an interesting blog, discussion groups…

However, a few improvements would be nice. You cannot include pictures of your copy for sale (like with Ebay). The data base includes the pictures provided by the contributor not the seller. So it’s wise to ask the seller for pictures before purchasing to check the condition of the sleeve and possibly confirm the details of the version. I also recommend using the Web site instead of the mobile application that is less convenient.

Although Discogs provides a history of sales, it’s quite recent. Two sites, Popsike and Gripsweat, compile all the record sales done every day on e-commerce sites (mainly Ebay). So, you can search in the data base to have a pretty good idea of the value of a record. I also sometimes use Album Discography, an encyclopedic site that lists a large number of labels and compiles chronologically all the releases for each label. For instance, you will learn the very first pressing of the first Bob Dylan album issued in 1962 on Columbia came with the “6-eye label”.

HOW MUCH IS A VINYL RECORD WORTH?

An interesting question. Paying several thousands of bucks for an original pressing of a record knowing you can have access to the music on streaming platforms for free can be difficult to understand…

The value of a vinyl record depends on its condition, rarity and “collectibility”.

As for every collection, condition is key but it’s really important for records and their sleeves. The vinyl record condition gradings were defined a long time ago by the famous “Record Collector” US magazine and it’s used by all major Web sites including Ebay and Discogs. It includes the following grades: Mint (M), Mint- (M-), Very Good + (VG+), Very Good (VG), Good + (G+), Good (G), Fair (F), Poor (P). Sometimes a VG++ or EX (Excellent) grading is inserted between VG+ and M-. This page details how Discogs grades a record and its sleeve and the respective value of the different gradings compared to a M- copy.

You have to know that Good is really... bad. Personally I never buy a record that is not at least VG+. Please note you can also find Still Sealed (SS) records. That’s the case when you buy a recent pressing and it guarantees the record is brand new. You can also find still sealed old records especially for US pressings. It’s nice to unseal a record 50 years after it was released but be cautious because you never know how the record has been stored. Sometimes the record is warped and inaudible. Unfortunately you have also some dishonest dealers who “reseal” records.

Rare doesn’t mean expensive. The record your grand aunt recorded with her local choral society back in the 50’s is for sure very rare. It has a high sentimental value for you but its market value is likely very low as only few people are interested. This said if your grand aunt has become a rock star a few years later, the value will significantly increase…

Even if Mozart is your preferred composer, you may not find any specific interest to buy an original 1957 recording of his third violin concerto by Gioconda de Vito, a famous Italian-British violinist, on the well-known His Master’s Voice label. De Vito decided to retire at the age of 54 so her records are rare and very collectible, between $6,000 to $7,000 for a M- copy for this third concerto.

One of the best late 60’s psychedelic records has been released by a L.A. group called the Music Emporium. Three hundred copies were pressed in 1969 on the Sentinel local label and packaged in a beautiful die-cut sleeve. Music Emporium was a quartet with two males and two females including the drummer. Music Emporium’s record is a true classic of West Coast psychedelic music with fantastic organ play, dreamy vocals, and powerful guitars. The group released a single but it has been rarely played on radios. Music Emporium disbanded when its leader was drafted to enter service for the Vietnam War. Although a lucky collector found 100 brand new copies in a warehouse in the 1990’s, the LP is rare as hell and in the want list of all fans of the genre. If you find a M- copy for sale, it will cost you at least $4,000. The complete story of the group can be found here. You will learn Bill Cosby, the band leader, was not aware the disc became cult.

FIND THE RIGHT VERSION?

The private pressing I talked about before is quite easy to identify because there has been only one 60’s pressing. It’s another story for records distributed by large labels. You may have hundreds of versions. How can it be possible?

First of all, you have the original pressing generally issued in the country the artist comes from. Then you may have pressings in other countries all over the world, represses with a new catalog number, etc. You have also specific pressings known as promo / demo copies that were provided to radios; the label is often in white color or the sleeve having a “Demo – Not For Sale” stamp. Some pressings are very interesting for the collector because they come with a different sleeve, with different songs or different mixes of the same song, minor changes on the label or sleeves including typos and misprints…

Let’s consider the example of the first Led Zeppelin album released in 1969 with the famous black and white picture of the burning Hindenburg on the front sleeve. Discogs lists 677 versions of this record including LPs, cassettes, 8 track tapes, CDs… The very first vinyl pressing has turquoise sleeve lettering and ? Superhype Music/Jewel Music Publishing ? credits labels. A second pressing came with a misprint in the credits on the label of the A side. The subsequent pressings have orange lettering. Be careful some later reprints and bootlegs have also turquoise sleeve lettering.

If you have a doubt on the edition, the very last thing to check is the matrix number located in the ? dead wax ? of the record. The dead wax is the space between the music and the label. The marking on the dead wax can be machine stamped, hand inscribed, or a mix thereof. The marking generally uses a string of numbers and letters and other symbols. What these inscriptions mean varies from record label to record label and sometimes from pressing plant to pressing plant, but the last signs identify the matrix used for producing the vinyl record. When the record manufacturer needs to use a new matrix because the previous one is worn out, the matrix number will change. So the first original pressing of the Led Zeppelin should have the following marking: 588171 A//1 for the A-side and 588171 B//1 1 for the B- side. Hum… variants exist but let’s forget them. You generally can find all the detailed information on Discogs. A true original of the first Led Zeppelin in M- condition was sold for 2,895 GPB recently. Maybe you will be happy with a $15 brand new reissue edition.

A FEW RECORDS TO LISTEN TO

This is the end of my last post of the series. I hope you found them interesting. Before letting you go, I would like to give you a list of 20 US records from my favorite list, most of them psychedelic, you may want to listen to (if possible not remastered) for a first journey.

You will also find a selection of 60’s - 70’s garage punk and psychedelic songs in my Spotify playlist. Enjoy…