Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Record mistakes

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Record mistakes

    On the Jazz thread yesterday, I mentioned an impetuous teenage purchase of Sun Ra’s ‘Atlantis’, made without listening to it beforehand. What are your record buying mistakes? The ones where you had a stirring of unease within a few minutes of dropping the needle or pressing ‘play’ and by the end were wondering whether you might be able to take it back for a refund. Or worse, records bought for you by a well-meaning friend or relative that weren’t what you had asked for and really didn’t want.

    I can still remember presenting my Mum with a list of records that I would like for Xmas 1975, which included Alquin’s ‘Mountain Queen’, an album that Radio Caroline had been featuring regularly that year. I didn’t stop to think that tiny little Whites Records & Tapes in Tonbridge might not have something by an obscure Dutch prog band. On Xmas Day I unwrapped a copy of Hawkwind’s ‘Hall Of The Mountain Grill’. “I hope that’s the right one,” said my Mum. “Mr White said that you had written it down wrongly and you must have meant this one.”

    #2
    I'm sure it's happened a few times. I seem to recall buying my sister a Donny Osmond album for Christmas during the 1970s, while glancing nervously around Baker's Records in Canterbury for anyone who might happen to know me. Thinking I'd just about got away with it, Christmas came only for my sister to inform me that this wasn't the right record: I pleaded with my mother to exchange said disc for me, but she claimed she'd never remember the title, which was nonsense - and even my offer to write it on a slip of paper went unheeded. She basically just didn't like the shop, which played very loud rock and was admittedly a bit cramped. (My sister was of course, 'too busy' to perform this task herself.)

    In the holidays, Baker's was always chock-a with kids from our school listening to music in the booths - and my fears inevitably were borne out. There was Malcolm Burkinshaw from the year below with his mates listening to the latest Bob Dylan. No escape, so I blew my gift money on Changesonebowie and slipped the exchanged Donny album underneath it. "Whatcha got?" called out Tony Broom. "Bowie!" stated I with confidence. "Yeah, but what's the other?" he responded. I muttered under my breath and skulked out.

    Okay, so I was a music snob even as a kid (I like to think of myself as 'discerning') - but I was fourteen and, as many will concur, it was all about survival back then.

    Comment


      #3
      We were dreadful music snobs as teenagers. I got really sniffy with someone on the school bus who asked if the copy of the Edgar Winter Group album that I was ostentatiously carrying was something by The Sweet. I must admit that even then I could see how they might have come to that conclusion.

      Comment


        #4
        I remember being very disappointed by the Beastie Boys' Licence to Ill, thinking that all the tracks on it would be as upbeat as "You Gotta Fight ..." and not just them in a bedroom shouting at each other (that's what it sounded like to the 15 year old me). Albums used to cost about a fiver and that was pretty much my weekly pocket money so it was a real blow.
        Last edited by Rogin the Armchair fan; 05-04-2021, 10:52.

        Comment


          #5
          Loads. Off the top of my head I can think of:

          The Tygers of Pan Tang’s eponymous debut album. My brother listened to Hawkwind, Motorhead, Def Leppard, Iron Maiden and I wanted my “own” metal band. It was crap;

          I’ve mentioned the Spin Doctors’ album recently on the “only one album” thread. I bought that because of Two Princes and that was the only song I ended up liking;

          I really liked World Party’s albums Goodbye Jumbo and Bang! so bought Egyptology on spec. Probably played it twice;

          Finally, I’d been enjoying Fuel’s hit single Shimmer so bought their album Sunburn. Didn’t like it, and then didn’t even like Shimmer any more.

          gjw100 my brother would have been very disappointed to hear that you were less than thrilled to receive Hall of the Mountain Grill.

          Comment


            #6
            I made the very common error in my youth of mistaking the ‘John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band’ album with the ‘Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band’ album. Easy to do as they had near identical covers. However if the former was so emotionally raw as to be considered difficult the latter was unlistenable.
            Last edited by Tony C; 05-04-2021, 17:02.

            Comment


              #7
              As a 10 year old, I excitedly bought Madness' The Rise and Fall on the day of release, looking forward to more of the fun and upbeat music from the Nutty Boys, like on their previous albums (Absolutely, 7).

              I was very disappointed to hear that they'd gone all grown up and serious and had made (to my ears) a very dull record. Certainly nothing to which you could fly through the air while playing saxophone. Not sure I played it more than once.

              I am aware that it is critically regarded as one of their best records, but haven't been tempted back.
              Anyway Lee Thompson is blacked up on the cover, so it's problematic.

              Comment


                #8
                I bought Swans' Cop album when I was fourteen or fifteen. I was a big Soft Cell/Marc Almond fan and there was some tangential connection, possibly through the Some Bizzare label. The record was supposed to be challenging but was just unpleasant and boring. I managed to scratch it on the first listen too, ruling out any attempt to return it. Played at 45rpm it had more of an EBM feel which was a considerable improvement but still not much consolation for the wasted outlay. I've been wary of self-consciously "heavy" music ever since.

                Comment


                  #9
                  There was a phase I went through where if I liked a single, I'd buy the band's album.

                  As a result I ended up with Franz Ferdinand eponymous first album, Songs for the Deaf by Queens of the Stone Age and The Beginning Stages of... by The Polyphonic Spree.

                  There's probably a few more as well, but all my cds are in the garage and I'm damned if I'm going through that load of crap.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Ha, Monaco's Music For Pleasure stands out for me as the epitome of not adding anything to a catchy lead single.

                    That said, I had previously bought the album by Peter Hook's other side band Revenge which lacked even that.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      I bought a Duran Duran LP based on one song. I'll get my coat.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Not so much a purchase mistake, but back in the early 80s as just turned teenagers we were trying all sorts of alternative stuff out. Generally this meant picking up the latest Bauhaus, Killing Joke or Theatre of Hate, so one day my mate bought a Crass single, possibly Nagasaki Nightmare, just because the 'pay no more than 45p sticker' meant it was a free hit. Well that was a bit of a game changer so he broadened out and Neu Smell by Flux of Pink Indians became a bit of a favourite. I've not heard it for years but I reckon I could just about recite the poem even now, but anyway he just had to buy the album when it came out. Well, Strive to Survive was slightly more challenging but, most problematically for him was just about the incessant swearing. Eventually he could take no more so confessed to his parents he'd got this album that had loads fo rude words on it. They were absolutely livid and took to it with a hammer, put him on curfew for a few weeks and it was all he could do to stop his parents censoring his entire record collection.

                        The fall out for me meant my mum flicking through my record box, she was a bit peturbed by the title of The Cure's Let's Go To Bed but that was about as bad as it got for me. Imagine though if they'd found out the title of the follow up album.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Heh, "Parliament says it's safe/SO WHY NOT BURY IT THERE"

                          I was a big Smiths fan as a teenager, and this carried on for a bit with Morrissey. Then I bought 'Kill Uncle'. Fucking hell, what a load of shit. I was very annoyed when my friend smashed it up, but only because he did it when I wasn't around, I'd have liked to be in on that cathartic act.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            I bought 'Let It Be' not knowing it was a bootleg copy. Unlistenable.

                            Live jazz albums can be pot luck because of recording quality and (as with live rock albums) the addition of fake crowd noise or overdubbed instruments in the studio.

                            Another strand is acts re-recording their hits decades later and the label not telling you these are not the recordings that made the charts.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Yeah, that aggravates me as well - seems also to be the deal with compilations these days. (Not that I often buy/download them.)

                              In terms of returning music, I've never much done that either. On one occasion, having seen the band live and quite liking their Autocade single, I bought The Italian Flag by Prolapse in 1997. From memory, most of the tracks were wrecked by backing vocalist Mick Derrick yelling over them, 'Einar-out-of-Sugarcubes'-stylee. It didn't work for me, and I exchanged said CD at Virgin for Stereolab's Dots and Loops (which I still play regularly). Derrick became an archaeologist after Prolapse split up, which perhaps tells its own story.

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Originally posted by delicatemoth View Post
                                I was a big Smiths fan as a teenager, and this carried on for a bit with Morrissey. Then I bought 'Kill Uncle'. Fucking hell, what a load of shit. I was very annoyed when my friend smashed it up, but only because he did it when I wasn't around, I'd have liked to be in on that cathartic act.
                                Yeah, same. The first two solo albums are great. Then the slide happens quickly. I also soured on him after seeing him solo twice and it being dreadful.

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  I liked East River by the Brecker Brothers in the late 1970s, so snapped up a "Best of" compilation when I saw it going cheap in HMV or somewhere, many years ago.

                                  I still like that track, but after several listens through to the rest of it - honest, guv - realized what an outlier that track was. No doubt it's mighty fine jazz - I should have passed it onto my jazz-loving brother-in-law while I had the chance.

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Ian Dury - 'New Boots and Panties'. Not because it's not very good, but because I bought the gold vinyl version and the pressing was unplayable. It looked great, though.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Originally posted by Simon G View Post
                                      There was a phase I went through where if I liked a single, I'd buy the band's album.

                                      As a result I ended up with Franz Ferdinand eponymous first album, Songs for the Deaf by Queens of the Stone Age and The Beginning Stages of... by The Polyphonic Spree.

                                      There's probably a few more as well, but all my cds are in the garage and I'm damned if I'm going through that load of crap.
                                      Embarrassingly, I bought Pornograffiti by Extreme. Obvioudly, and even more embarrassingly, it’s the song that’s the staple of The Twat With The Acoustic Guitar at a house party, More Than Words.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        I went to the Soviet Union early in 1990, and amongst the things I brought back with me was a Led Zeppelin compilation album, purchased from a department store in Moscow for not very much money, but the store we went in also had a whole bunch of other albums by people that I didn't like very much, and I do rather regret not buying up as many as I could fit in my suitcase, regardless of whether I liked the artists concerned or not.

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          The only record I can ever remember me buying and then switching out at the store was Pantera's Far Beyond Driven. It was that exact point I completely switched out from Metal into other stuff.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            Originally posted by Giggler View Post

                                            Embarrassingly, I bought Pornograffiti by Extreme. Obvioudly, and even more embarrassingly, it’s the song that’s the staple of The Twat With The Acoustic Guitar at a house party, More Than Words.
                                            Get the Funk Out.

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              Originally posted by WOM View Post

                                              Yeah, same. The first two solo albums are great. Then the slide happens quickly. I also soured on him after seeing him solo twice and it being dreadful.
                                              He had some incentive to be good after the split, hence a good first couple of years, but then became a lazy, entitled fucker.

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                Originally posted by Giggler View Post
                                                Embarrassingly, I bought Pornograffiti by Extreme. Obvioudly, and even more embarrassingly, it’s the song that’s the staple of The Twat With The Acoustic Guitar at a house party, More Than Words.
                                                Pornograffiti must be one of the worst album titles in the whole of recording (and recorded) history.

                                                I think that, even if I hadn’t known anything about the band that made it, I’d just not have gone near it on the strength of that.

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  Originally posted by Rogin the Armchair fan View Post
                                                  I remember being very disappointed by the Beastie Boys' Licence to Ill, thinking that all the tracks on it would be as upbeat as "You Gotta Fight ..." and not just them in a bedroom shouting at each other (that's what it sounded like to the 15 year old me). Albums used to cost about a fiver and that was pretty much my weekly pocket money so it was a real blow.
                                                  Rogin, I made exactly the same mistake. No you tube or iTunes on them olden days to check things out first. Same for me- a fiver wasted.

                                                  Comment

                                                  Working...
                                                  X