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.
