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.”
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.”
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