Salutations™!!

Yesterday was the start of the $1 sale at Underdog Records. Jonathan and De put out around 3,000 records Friday night after work. Jonathan estimates around 1600 of those went out yesterday during the sale. Some people walked out with over 200 records yesterday. The place was a madhouse and I loved seeing it like that. Here’s our modest haul, by comparison:

©Warner Bros.

• Lou Reed – The Blue Mask — This was not $1. It was found as we waited in line to purchase what we had already gotten. It was Reed’s 11th studio album. This was okay. It’s not my area of expertise for him. To me, nothing beats Transformer and Berlin from Lou. VG+.
• The Police – Synchronicity — I know what you’re thinking, dude, you already have this album. You would be correct. There’s a special thing about this album. On vinyl, in 1983, there were around 93 different variants of the cover of this album. Some were blue, red, yellow (BRY), others were (RYB) and then others, still were (YBR), on top of that, in each color scheme, different pictures showed the band members in various orders and in various pictures. No, I’m not looking to have 93 different variants of this album. I am however looking for 30 different variants. I have three right now. I thought I had a fourth but it was a duplicate. Boo hiss. This is BRY and is Sting/Stewart/Andy with the textsheet to the left. VG+.

The rest of these are $1 records and are assumed to be graded VG unless otherwise noted:

• The Police – Synchronicity — Yep, we found another and it was the first RYB that I had seen. This is Andy/Sting/Stewart with tub on the right. That’s how it is designated. VG+.
• Richie Havens – Connections — Looks to be his 13th studio album.
• The Ambrosian Singers And Players – The Cries Of London – Music In Honor Of Queen Elizabeth I — We love stuff that has to do with England and UK. VG+.
• Various – Scottish Pipes — See previous entry explanation except for VG-.
• Chicago – Chicago 19 — Their 16th studio album (yeah, I know what you’re thinking but they continued to count studio and live albums in the sequence) the second with Jason Schiff replacing Peter Cetera. VG+
• Gordon Jenkins And His Orchestra – France – 70 — You know we love our French music, too. We find all kinds of reasons to own anything we can French.
• Igor Stravinsky – Columbia Symphony Orchestra – Stravinsky Conducts Stravinsky: The Firebird — We got this one and another version of the same piece, but I don’t think Stravinsky conducted it. It isn’t in Discogs, so I’ll need to put it in myself.
• Nat King Cole – A Many Splendored Thing — The BCPF loves anything Nat King Cole, so yes.
• The Montevideo Singing Strings – I Love Paris — And so do we. From 1964. VG-.
• Arthur Fiedler And The Boston Pops – Play The Music Of Paul Simon — Paul Simon, “pops.” Yep.
• Thomas Schippers, New York Philharmonic, Lili Chookasian, The Westminster Choir, Prokofiev – Alexander Nevsky — Composed by Sergei Prokofiev about the Russian prince and conducted by Schippers. VG+.
• Ambrosia – One Eighty — We love our Yacht Rock. This has “Biggest Part of Me” and “You’re the Only Woman (You & I).”
• Lester Flatt And Earl Scruggs – The Fabulous Sound Of Lester Flatt And Earl Scruggs — VG-.
• Debussy • Richard Strauss • Fritz Reiner • Chicago Symphony – La Mer • Don Juan —VG-.
• Nils Lofgren – I Came To Dance — A member of Springsteen’s E Street Band since 1984. His third solo album from 1977.
• Gary Graffman ♦ Eugene Ormandy ♦ George Szell, Philadelphia Orchestra ♦ Cleveland Orchestra – Tchaikovsky – The Three Tchaikovsky Piano Concertos — I don’t think Tchaikovsky get the credit he deserves in piano-dom.
• The Piano, Orchestra And Chorus Of Henry Mancini – A Warm Shade Of Ivory — I love Henry Mancini. VG+.
• Rick Wakeman – White Rock — The keyboardist of Yes. The soundtrack to White Rock, a 1977 documentary film about the 1976 Winter Olympics held in Innsbruck, Austria.
• Marian Anderson – Songs By Schubert – Schumann – Brahms – Strauss – Haydn — Chosen by The BCPF. No clue.
• Andy Williams – The Andy Williams Christmas Album — The BCPF also loves her Christmas albums and while I usually give two hoots about Christmas stuff, I do think that his “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” (along with “Sleigh Ride” composed by Leroy Anderson and first recorded by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra) brings back the whole childhood memory thing of Christmas.
• Tchaikovsky, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy – “Pathetique” Symphony (No. 6 In B Minor) — VG+.
• Tchaikovsky – 1812 Overture ● Serenade For Strings — One of the most bombastic pieces of music, ever! VG+.
• Laurindo Almeida – Guitar Music Of Spain — Spain is on the itinerary for next year’s trip to Europe for The Beer Dads+ so we had to get this, but even if it weren’t on the itinerary, we’d probably still have gotten it. VG+.
• Moussorgsky – Ravel / Franck – Arturo Toscanini, NBC Symphony Orchestra – Pictures At An Exhibition / Psyche And Eros — VG+.
• The ‘Big’ Sound – A Tribute To Glenn Miller — I love big band standards and this is Glenn Miller. This is big band standards. VG+.

This week, (Tuesday-Friday) the records will be left out for the same deal that went on yesterday, purchase 15 and get 15% off; purchase 33 and get 33% off; purchase 50 and get 50% off. Next Saturday, all remaining $1 record will be $.25 each or 5-for-$1, but they will close two hours early on that Saturday (at 5p). Because of this, there will be no TLD/UR special of the week. This is a great way to kickstart a record collection. Discogs has been a big help to me on this long list.

Until tomorrow, keep spinning…
Scorp out!

—
“I ain’t no Christian or no born again saint. I ain’t no cowboy or Marxist D.A. I ain’t no criminal or Reverend Cripple from the right. I am just your average guy, trying to do what’s right.” – “Average Guy” (Reed)