The Velvet Forum

citizensmurf wrote:Anticipating and searching for an album is always more exciting and rewarding than it is when you actually own it, especially when it's just the packaging and not the music you're after. Think about all the stuff you just had to have over the years, how many times do you get as excited putting it on the listen compared to the feeling you had just before you bought it.

Hmmm...couldn't disagree w/ ya more, Smurf. I love finding one of these bootlegs, but love it even more when I throw them onto my turntable. For example, I own a copy of Liquid Air on CD-R, but to be able to throw it onto a turntable and listen to it as it was meant to be...well...that is what my collection is all about!!

I keep the CD-R's for convenience, but the bootleg LP's are what I treasure as far as my music collection goes.

If the vinyl matches your expectations, fine, but sometimes there's a little note of anti-climax in the big score.
Like for years I was looking for the Cartier Foundation Heroin 12" ("man, it's going to be cut so loud and raw it'll blast those CD-Rs into next week!") But then I got it and the sound on the 1990 CD-R is much better, even the sound on the LP of that show with the luminous flower cover is better. It just sits there and looks cool. I even tried to sell it not long after getting it, but I had to withdraw the auction due to lack of interest, decided I'd keep it after all.

Yeah, sometimes it is tough with bootleg LP's, many of which are probably cut using inferior equipment and on the cheap. It can be hit or miss sometimes. But thanks to ePay, I can find them on the cheap, so if they turn out to be sub-par recordings I am not so upset. My fave that I own? Live in Stockholm '74 in the green jacket. Sounds just as good as the CD-R I have.

Plus, nothing beats the sound of the needle dropping onto vinyl!!

simonm wrote:I would quite like the original silk-screen cover Etc, just as a piece of art, or 1966 (which I also had a chance of buying once - "aah - I've got it on tape..." I said to myself).

Talking of which, does anyone know how to identify if one has the silk-screen version? Fraid I know little about what is and what isn't! Mine has a very dry but shiny surface in bits. The label on the LP has ye old tape machines of past (on both sides).

If it's the original....bloody hell! I got it in my local non-boot laden record store (albeit on import)! However, I hated the crappy plastic inner sleeve it came in - it was impossible to get the record in & out of it as it was shaped so badly. Stupid get I was, I replaced it with a regular paper sleeve!

Mind you the sound quality of the tracks on it still pisses all over any of the versions I've heard on CD.

One thing I'm proud to say I did purchase on LP and don't regret now - despite my misgivings then - is getting Nico's Abscheid boot on white vinyl in a small shop in Bruxelles for around ?10 in 1997(?). It was brand new and limited to 500 copies. It now goes for ?50+ on E-bay!!!!

I have the silk-screened cover. You can tell because it LOOKS like several different layers of paint were used to make the cover. The paint is also raised. The artwork on the non-silk-screened edition looks like any other printed picture, like on any regular album jacket.

simonm wrote:I would quite like the original silk-screen cover Etc, just as a piece of art, or 1966 (which I also had a chance of buying once - "aah - I've got it on tape..." I said to myself).

I was lucky enough to locate most of the vinyl LP's that I thought were worthwhile in the 90's by going to Record Fairs and tracking down dealers (pre-ebay, i'm afraid to say). I have got 1966 but I never even knew there was a silk-screen edition of Etc (which I would like!).

Sound quality aside I would go on the packaging angle:

1. I really like the sleeve design of 1966 on matt-finish heavy white card. Very understated and with just the right feel of the era. A must have.

2. I have never seen a copy of Searchin' For My Mainline 3LP but it sounds like a nice package, limited to 500. Hmm.

3. Also, I prefer the cover art of the re-issued - Uptight rather than the original - 'Live '68'. Great photo with Woronov et al.

I want 'Sweet Sister Ray'

I know they come up on ebay now and again - I'll be ready this time!

The CD version has been seen recently for ?20-?30 (Japanese I think) but I would like the vinyl version


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velv my man - I got the SSR 2LP on ebay for ?75 a few years ago (what was I thinking?) but since then have seen mint/unplayed copies at record fairs in London for ?25...

WOW ?25 unplayed?

Pick me one up when you see one!


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ok - will do