Recordmecca

Collecting autographs requires patience.  Sometimes extreme patience.  But getting David Bowie and his 1970 band The Hype to sign my UK dress cover copy of The Man Who Sold The World took me 42 years.  That’s got to be one for the Guinness Book of World Records.

Here’s the somewhat short version.  I was and remain a huge fan of David Bowie’s 60’s and 70’s work.  In 1973 I saw him and the Spiders From Mars at the Long Beach Arena and the Hollywood Palladium.  Still among the top 5 concerts I’ve ever seen–and I’ve seen many. Back then I spent a lot of time trying to meet the musicians I admired and get their autographs.  So Bowie and his band were at the top of my list.

David Bowie: As I wrote in an earlier post, in 1974 my friend Harvey Kubernik, who wrote for Melody Maker, called to tell me Bowie and his new band were rehearsing at that very moment at Studio Instrument Rentals in Hollywood.  I rushed there and sat outside for five or six hours until Bowie’s bodyguard, Stuart George, emerged.  I shyly asked him to sign a photo I had of him with Bowie, and we began to talk.  I showed him the dress cover Man Who Sold The World, which he’d never seen, and he invited me inside.  He brought David out to meet me, and he graciously signed it “For Jeff, with my very best wishes, Bowie ’74.”  I couldn’t believe it.  I’d met my hero.

Mick Ronson: Two years later the call came from Harvey again: my guitar hero Mick Ronson was staying at the Sunset Marquee Hotel in Hollywood.  Same drill–I hightailed it to the hotel with my album, parked outside, and sat for 5 or 6 hours, waiting for Ronson–with no sign of him.  I came back the next day and sat another three or four hours before doing something I’ve never done, before or since.  I called his room, explained my mission, and much to my surprise he invited me to his room.  I spent half an hour with the exceedingly nice Ronson, who signed my album and some 45’s by his band The Rats.  When his Rolling Thunder Review bandmates Joan Baez and I believe Ronnie Blakley came by to visit, he introduced me as if we knew each other.  Again, I couldn’t believe it. Mick Ronson!  In the 80’s, I worked for A&M Records and met him a number of other times when he produced our band The Payolas.  He was always wonderful, and I never got used to being in his presence.

Tony Visconti: Fast forward to 2000.  I learned the album’s producer and bass player, the great Tony Visconti was giving a talk at the National Association of Music Merchants convention in Los Angeles.  I wasn’t registered for the convention, but somehow I talked my way in and when his talk was over, I rushed onstage and accosted him.  He signed my album, barely looking at it or me.  But I was very happy just to have met him for a second.

I figured getting the autograph of Woody Woodmansey, the fourth and final member of The Hype, would be near impossible.  Woody lived in the UK, and to my knowledge his touring days were long behind him.  Years passed.  And then…

In 2014 Tony Visconti and Woody Woodmansey formed a band, Holy Holy, to play the music of David Bowie.  Particularly The Man Who Sold The World.  They toured the UK in 2014, Japan and the UK in 2015, and the East Coast of the US in 2016.  But not Los Angeles, where I live.  And then it happened–they booked an LA show, in April.

Woody Woodmansey: At breakfast one day, my old friend David Leaf happened to mention that he was friendly with Tony Visconti’s manager, Joe D’Ambrosio.  I told him of my mission and he promised his friend would make it happen.  A flurry of phone calls and emails later it was arranged.  Joe told me to knock on the stage door at The Wiltern Theatre just before the soundcheck, identify myself and ask for Woody’s wife.  I did as instructed, and was ushered into his dressing room.  Woody and his wife couldn’t have been nicer.  I thanked him profusely, he signed the album, took a few photos with me, and my project was complete.  42 years later, a fully signed Man Who Sold The World.

It was hard to believe.  I’d begun my quest as an 18 year old college student and record store clerk, and ended it as a 60 year old former executive vice president of Warner Bros. Records, married 30 years with two grown kids!  But I still love music, record collecting hasn’t eased its grip, and The Man Who Sold The World is still one of my all-time favorite albums.  And I do like a good project to sink my teeth into.

So thanks Harvey, David, Joe, David, Mick, Tony and Woody. I owe you. Phew.

Jeff Gold

July 2016

PS: Yeah, I know, Mercury Records executive Ralph Mace played synthesizer on a few songs.  But he wasn’t a band member, so I think I’ll quit while I’m ahead.

More about my adventures with Bowie are here.

As I previously wrote, I had the great fortune to work with Prince during the 90’s, while an executive at Warner Bros. Records. I art directed a number of his album covers (pictured throughout this post*) and oversaw much of the marketing for his records. We weren’t friends by any means; nobody at Warner Bros. was personally close to Prince. But we did have a good working relationship (which was rare), and spent time together. Since his passing, I’ve been thinking about him a lot.

Genius is a pretty overused word these days. True geniuses are very few and very far between. But Prince was a stone cold genius, the only one I ever knew.

I don’t think there has ever been a musician and performer remotely as talented as Prince. He was an incredible singer and songwriter. A dancer on the level of James Brown or Michael Jackson. Definitely one of rock’s greatest guitarists. And without a doubt, one of the best live acts ever. The clips that surfaced from his last ‘Piano and a Microphone’ show, a week before his passing, show he was still at the top of his game.

He was also an extraordinary record producer and arranger, who played 27 instruments, many of them at virtuoso level. My friend Joel Bernstein, once Prince’s guitar tech, told me even as a studio bass player, he was one of the best ever.

Add to that label owner and highly successful A&R executive, who developed, produced, and wrote hits for numerous artists including The Time, Vanity 6, Shelia E, The Family, The Bangles, Sheena Easton and many others. And a pioneer in direct marketing and unorthodox distribution of his music, with his NPG Music Club, retail store, cd giveaways, etc.

A few days after Prince died, Howard Stern perfectly summed up his singularity, saying Prince was to music what Steve Jobs was to technology.

OK, on to Prince, the person. I first met Prince in early 1991. Uncharacteristically, Prince had been open to feedback about his forthcoming album, Diamonds and Pearls, from Warner Bros. chairman Mo Ostin and president Lenny Waronker (himself a legendary record producer) and I believe sr. vp’s of a&r Benny Medina and Michael Ostin.  When finished, many at the label felt it had great potential.

I was WB’s new senior vp of creative services, responsible for the art department and much of marketing, and when I saw Prince’s proposed album cover—a tight close up of his face, with two fingers in front of his lips, and his tongue sticking out between them, I thought it was kind of…ridiculous.

Since the album was a major priority for the company, I went to Mo and Lenny with my concerns. They suggested I have a meeting with Prince, and so Benny Medina, who worked closely with Prince, set one up. I was a major Prince fan, having seen him on Purple Rain tour and a few other times, and while I knew of his difficult reputation, figured ‘what have I got to lose?’ What followed was surely the most difficult meeting of my career.

Benny’s office was dark and sort of cave-like, with no windows. I entered to find Benny at his desk and Prince sitting in the middle of a couch, with the obvious spot for me a couch opposite Prince. There was no small talk, then or ever, with Prince. Benny got to the point, introducing me and telling Prince that I wasn’t particularly fond of his album cover concept.

Just as Benny finished delivering the bad news, there was a knock on the door, and Benny’s attorney stuck in his head. He needed Benny right away. Benny left, and I was alone with Prince, in full hair, makeup, and clothed like he was about to take the stage (as he always was), sitting about 5’ across from me, not particularly happy. In hindsight, I’m not sure anybody at Warners had ever offered up a negative opinion about his album artwork. He’d earned the right to call the shots, and expected to do so. But still, that photo was so…weird.

We had an hour or more of very difficult semi-conversation, mostly about what I thought he might do instead. Prince had enormous charisma, knew it, and knew how to use it. He also knew how to use silence and pauses in conversation to intimidate people, and he did a great job with me. I spoke respectfully and generally about why I thought a different image might be better. He glared. At one point, he asked with incredulity ‘What do you want me to do, wear overalls like R.E.M.?’ A bit later he said ‘Maybe I should have some clothes made for you’. I was wearing jeans and a button up shirt; he was wearing lime green skin-tight pants, high-heel boots, and a day-glo green, pin-striped, see-through shirt.

After one pause, he said ‘show me some album covers you’ve done.’ I ran upstairs to my office and collected about 20 cd’s I’d worked on, most from my previous job at A&M Records. He looked at each one, saying something dismissive about it, until near the bottom of the pile, he saw a holographic limited edition package I’d worked on for Suzanne Vega’s album Days of Open Hand (which I’d won an art direction Grammy for.) ‘Now this is great’ he said. Why can’t I have a hologram?’

Ah, finally a potential break. A few weeks earlier I’d met with a salesman for a company with a new, much less expensive hologram technology. I told Prince about it, and he perked up a bit. I promised to follow up and get back to him, and the meeting was over.

I pitched the hologram company’s rep –how would you like to introduce your new technology on Prince’s new album cover? Somehow, miraculously, we were able to pull it off, and Diamonds and Pearls was the first mass market CD with a holographic cover.

A few memories: We did a 4 hour hologram shoot at Studio Instrument Rentals (SIR) in Hollywood, where Prince and his two dancers, ‘Diamond’ and ‘Pearl’ sat on a small circular platform. After speaking to the holographer, he decided on an arm motion to perform while a motion picture camera on a dolly shot them in a 180 degree arc. Multiple takes were completed, with a lot of down time. I remember trying to make conversation (near impossible) and asking him about collaborating with Miles Davis (he was pretty dismissive.)

A few days later, I met him at a studio in Hollywood to watch video transfers of the various takes (each a few seconds long.) We chose one pretty quickly, and I was on my way. A few weeks later I got a ‘glass plate’ test hologram, which I thought looked great. Benny and I took it to Larrabee Studios, where Prince was recording. When he saw it, he loved it—and I think I detected a bit of a thaw. Progress!

Our next encounter was probably the highlight of my music business career. Benny and I went to see Prince at SIR, where he was rehearsing his band; I think it was to show him the first actual stamped hologram samples. He was very happy with what he saw, and asked what we were doing after we left. We said something to the extent of ‘going back to the office’, and he pointed to an old funky couch and suggested we sit down, alongside two Dutch journalists who were writing a story. We did, and Prince proceeded to rehearse his set, with full band, for about an hour, for the four of us. We were mabye 10 feet in front of him. It was the most extraordinary thing I’ve ever seen. As I reflect on it now, I think he may have been sort of saying ‘nice work on the hologram. Now take a look at what I can do’.

When he finally saw the finished album cover, he was thrilled and sent me this note. His assistant told mine that she’d never seen him send a thank you note, ever. I’d passed the test.

From then on, he never gave me any grief. That’s not to say it was always easy. But as we continued to work together, I understood that Prince was driven by a relentless pursuit of perfection. He knew exactly what he wanted. He did things his own way, and that worked for him. The word “no” didn’t exist in Prince’s world. If you told him ‘no’, he’d move on and find somebody else who would give him a ‘yes’. The absolute worst thing you could say to him is “but everybody else does it this way.”

The alternate Diamonds and Pearls cover, done for international vinyl use.

Prince knew exactly how talented he was, had supreme self-confidence, and saw no reason to settle for anything less than his vision. And you had to respect him for it. Nobody worked harder than Prince. He was a perpetual motion machine, exploding with creativity.

When Prince died, I called Joel Bernstein, who was much closer to Prince than I was. He too was in shock, but said something that really stuck with me. We were talking about how tragic it was that he passed on at such a young age. Joel said something to the effect of yes, it’s true, but Prince crammed three lifetimes into those 57 years. So true, so true.

Jeff Gold

May 27, 2016

I’ll be writing more about my experiences with Prince, so watch this space.

*all album covers done with my friends and co-workers Tom Recchion and Greg Ross.

This week Third Man Books (part of Jack White’s Third Man Records) announced a book I’ve been working on for quite some time.  Here’s their press release.  As the winter release comes nearer, I’ll be posting some updates, but for now, this tells the story.

THIRD MAN BOOKS ANNOUNCES TOTAL CHAOS: THE STORY OF THE STOOGES / AS TOLD BY IGGY POP

• Third Man Books is excited to announce one of the most anticipated books of the year about one of the most influential bands of all time…The Stooges. TOTAL CHAOS: The Story of The Stooges / As Told by Iggy Pop is the first time the story of this seminal band has been told entirely in Pop’s own words.

  

  Author Jeff Gold and contributor Johan Kugelberg, noted music historians and collectors, spent two days with Pop at his Miami home, sharing with him their extensive Stooges collection and interviewing the legendary singer. Pop’s candid, bare-all responses left them with the almost unbelievable tale of the band he founded—the alternately tragic and triumphant story of a group who rose from youth, fell prey to drugs, alcohol, and music biz realities, collapsed and nearly 30 years later reformed, recording and touring to great acclaim. In 2010 The Stooges, credited with having invented punk rock, were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Their continuing influence can be felt today in the shape and sound of rock-n-roll music.

  Jeff Gold, Johan Kugelberg and editor/contributor Jon Savage are among the most respected music authors and historians working today. Their efforts include numerous acclaimed and best-selling books and a Grammy Award. TOTAL CHAOS stands as a work for all fans of the band and rock music to draw inspiration. Including an absolute treasure-trove of rare and unseen photographs, TOTAL CHAOS is a book that shows AND tells the story of The Stooges. A metallic k.o. of only the best kind.

  COMING WINTER 2016

  It was a rare privilege to sit with Iggy as he downloaded the story of The Stooges. He’s an incredible storyteller with a fantastic memory and a great sense of humor, and he held nothing back. The Stooges were pioneers in sound, look, and live presentation, and along the way invented a genre—punk rock—and influenced countless others that followed. There was no precedent in rock music for what they did. They’re definitely the only group in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame who started out playing an amplified Waring blender, a vacuum cleaner, spring water bottles and a 200 gallon oil drum. — Jeff Gold, Author of 101 Essential Rock Records

  Iggy and The Stooges have to be one of the greatest American rock bands that has ever been. — Joan Jett

  What does it mean to be Iggy Pop, five decades of being ‘the wildest man in rock’? Iggy Pop is many things. Rock Star. Singer, Rebel. Primitive. Stooge. The Jean Genie, Passenger. Legend. — Johnny Marr

  Iggy Pop has turned the interview into an art form. In this book he tells the history of The Stooges with a mixture of wit, candor and spontaneity: from their early beginnings to their full flaming flare over three groundbreaking albums before the crash and the triumphant return that no-one could have predicted. Profusely illustrated with dozens of unseen images, this is the story of The Stooges like you’ve never read it before. — Jon Savage, Author of England’s Dreaming.

  ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE:

  Ben Blackwell
  Joan Jett
  Johnny Marr
  Jack White
  & more.

  Cover photo by Dustin Pittman

An hour ago I learned that Prince has died.  I  had the very great privilege of working closely with him during the 1990’s, while I was at Warner Bros. Records, his record label.  At Warner Bros, and before that A&M Records,  I had the good fortune to work with many extraordinarily talented artists .  But Prince was the only true Genius.  With a capital g.  I think if you polled all the other artists I’ve known, they’d probably agree.

An incredible guitarist.  An amazing songwriter.  A world class dancer.  A visionary and tireless live performer.  A masterful record producer.  A business visionary.  Prince was not afraid to do things his own way–in fact, he was fully committed to doing so, no matter what anyone thought.  I spent a fair amount of time with him, art directing a number of his album covers, and overseeing the marketing of his records.  I’ll be writing more about my experiences with him, but right now I’m just processing the news.  The world will be a much lesser place without Prince.

Today I’m listening to David Bowie’s first 8 albums in chronological order, and thinking about one my all time musical heroes.  When I heard he’d died, I was shocked, but not surprised.  There were rumors of ill health, and he hadn’t looked well in recent videos.  But still…

In the 1970’s, I was obsessed with David Bowie.  I first heard him when a local L.A. radio station broadcast his October, 1972 Santa Monica Civic concert.  I ran out and bought the Ziggy Stardust album, which I LOVED, and then the reissues of his second album (Space Oddity), Hunky Dory, and my all time favorite, The Man Who Sold The World.  The records blew me away like little else; so different, so original, such great songs, high concept but accessible. I played them endlessly.  Soon there were bootlegs, and I bought those too.

One of my most prized possessions: the UK “Man Who Sold The World” album, signed by Bowie, Mick Ronson and Tony Visconti

I was already a serious record collector, but enlarged my focus from finding every Jimi Hendrix record in the world to include Bowie rarities too.  Record collecting was far different (and exponentially more difficult) in those pre-internet days.  There were no discographies of rock artists.  You depended on other collectors, friends of friends, pen-pals in foreign countries (found through ads in Melody Maker), old magazines, people who worked in record stores.  Anyone who might know more than you did.

In Los Angeles we were fortunate to have Tower Records and their incredible import section, and a monthly record swap meet in the parking lot of Capitol Records.  In the early 70’s I was the only person in L.A. seriously collecting Bowie and Hendrix records, so things found their way to me.  Somebody told me about a guy in Long Beach who had the legendary UK pressing of The Man Who Sold The World with Bowie wearing a dress on the cover, something I’d never seen.  I tracked him down and paid him the outrageous sum of $25 for his mint copy of this ultra rarity, and a mint copy of Bowie’s first album on Deram.  People at the swap meet though I was out of my mind–$25 for two David Bowie records!

Moby Disc Records would let you reserve import LP’s before they were released, if you put down a $1.00 deposit.  My brother and I did so for Aladdin Sane, and when I called him a few weeks later from a camping trip and he told me Moby had our albums, I left the pay phone, went and packed up my tent, and headed home.  I couldn’t wait another day!

We made sure to see Bowie when he came to L.A. in March 1973, at both the Long Beach Arena and Hollywood Palladium.  Quite simply the best concerts I’ve ever seen, by anyone, to this day.  He and the Spiders From Mars, especially the great Mick Ronson, were astounding.

I started buying rare Bowie records from UK auction lists in Alan Betrock’s pioneering record collector zine, The Rock Marketplace (the only place collectors could buy and sell records via auction and set-sale lists.)  I searched for Bowie’s earliest efforts, non-album singles on Pye and Deram.  I placed classified ads in Melody Maker looking for rare singles.

In 1974 my friend Harvey Kubernik, who wrote for Melody Maker, called to tell me Bowie and his band were rehearsing at that very moment at Studio Instrument Rentals in Hollywood.  I rushed there and sat outside for five or six hours until Bowie’s bodyguard, Stuart George, emerged.  I shyly asked him to sign a photo I had of him with Bowie, and we began to talk.  I showed him the dress cover Man Who Sold The World, which he’d never seen, and he invited me inside.  He brought David out to meet me, and he graciously signed it “For Jeff, with my very best wishes, Bowie ’74.”  I couldn’t believe it.  I’d met my hero.

Later that year, when the BBC made a documentary about Bowie, they wanted to interview a big fan.  MainMan, Bowie’s management company, sent them to me.  And today, on YouTube, you can see my 18 year old self talking about Ziggy in the Cracked Actor BBC Special (I’m 40 minutes and 30 seconds into the show.)

Other versions of “The Man Who Sold The World”, as pictured in my book “101 Essential Rock Records”

During preparations for the BBC doc, I got to try on Bowie’s cape (me on the right!)

In 1975, I made my first trip to Europe, and on the very first day scored a copy of Bowie’s first record, “Liza Jane” by Davie Jones and The Kingbees, for 20 pounds at London’s Vintage Record Center. That was a LOT of money to pay for a single in 1975, but I was floating on air.  That summer I spent every cent I had at record stores and flea markets in the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Holland.

I loved Aladdin Sane and Pin Ups, and Diamond Dogs too, but Young Americans threw me for a loop. I loved rock music.  People who liked rock hated disco, and Bowie had gone disco.  But I was back soon enough, with Station to Station, Low and Heroes.

Harvey continued to give me hot tips when Bowie was recording or staying in L.A., and I would stake him out.  I’d begun a Bowie discography, and along with getting autographs, there was no better source of information than the man himself.  I met him two or three more times, and he was always very kind–signing things, confirming his participation in singles like “I Pity The Fool” by The Manish Boys, and chatting for a few minutes.  In 1975, he recorded Station to Station at Cherokee Studios in Hollywood, and on more than one occasion I waited outside until 2 or 3 AM, when he’d emerge.  As always, he couldn’t have been nicer.

Another thing people tend to forget about Bowie.  He deserves a great deal of credit for popularizing Iggy Pop and the Stooges, and Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground.  Bowie’s passion for Iggy was the impetus for new management and record contracts, the Stooges’ Raw Power, and a lot of ensuing publicity. His constant championing of the Velvets, cover versions of their songs and co-production (with Ronson) of Reed’s Transformer album brought the band a great deal of publicity, and Lou his first and biggest hit, “Walk on the Wild Side.”

While many love Bowie’s later albums, my interest began to drop off by the time of Lodger. Though I would check in with his albums from time to time, I found his post Spiders/Ronson and post Fripp/Eno albums far less compelling than his earlier work.

But I’ve never stopped listening to (and loving) his classic albums; and have always had the utmost respect for him as a continunally evolving, boundary pushing artist.  So his death yesterday hit me hard.  As I was processing it, I realized, yes, it’s very sad.  But we are lucky indeed to have so much great music (and filmed performances) to savor for years to come.

So blast  Ziggy, or Aladdin Sane, or Hunky Dory.  Or watch the Ziggy farewell concert, or sample Black Star, released only two days before his death.  Few will leave as enduring a legacy as David Bowie. Let’s make the most of it.

Jeff Gold

January 11, 2016

Also see our great friend Jon Savage’s Bowie tribute

I’m sorry to report that the great Bruce Langhorne is in hospice care and dying.  I visited him a few days ago and he is in a good place and at peace.  But the 24 hour care he needs is expensive, and so I suggested letting his fans know, in case anyone is able to make a contribution to his care.

Bruce was the inspiration for Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” and played guitar on many of Dylan’s greatest works, including “Love Minus Zero/No Limit,” “She Belongs To Me,” “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” “Maggie’s Farm” and other tracks from The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home and Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid.

In the liner notes for Dylan’s “Biograph” box set he recalled ““Mr. Tambourine Man,” I think, was inspired by Bruce Langhorne. Bruce was playing guitar with me on a bunch of the early records. On one session, (producer) Tom Wilson had asked him to play tambourine. And he had this gigantic tambourine. It was like, really big. It was as big as a wagon-wheel. He was playing, and this vision of him playing this tambourine just stuck in my mind. He was one of those characters…he was like that. I don’t know if I’ve ever told him that.”

Bruce also made important contributions to albums by Richard & Mimi Farina, Joan Baez, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Tom Rush, Richie Havens, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Gordon Lightfoot, John Sebastian, Carlos Santana, the Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem, and many others.

Below is a message from Bruce’s close friend Cynthia Riddle, who is helping to organize his care.

Bruce Langhorne is preparing for his final curtain call.  He is in the care of hospice and his days are numbered. He is in a peaceful state at home, filled with joy and love. A steady stream of old friends is coming from near and far to play some music, pay their final respects and have a few more laughs.

End of life care is extremely expensive and we would appreciate any support you could offer. If you would care to contribute to Bruce’s care, you can make donations and purchase Bruce’s CDs here.

On behalf of Bruce, we offer you our deepest gratitude. Thank you, and keep the love flowing. Or, as Bruce might say, “Carry on Nurse!”

_____

Jeff Gold

December 29, 2015

I love set lists–the list of songs an artist puts together to perform at a particular concert.  To me, they’re among the most compelling of all music collectibles — ideally, handwritten by a musician, used on stage during a performance, and documenting a specific moment in that artist’s evolution.

Some artists play the same songs every night.  Others, Bob Dylan probably foremost among them, play different songs every night, to suit their mood, the city they’re in, what they think the crowd will react to, or for a hundred other reasons.

In the pre-computer age, set lists were always handwritten, and virtually never saved. That’s why vintage ones are so rare and sought after.  Today they’re mostly computer printouts; far less exciting to see, and near impossible to tease meaning from.

Below are some extraordinary handwritten setlists from some very important artists.  We hope you enjoy them, and should you be looking to add one to your collection, they’re all for sale.

A Velvet Underground set list in guitarist Sterling Morrison’s hand, from a show circa 1968/1969.  Only a handful of Velvet Underground set lists have survived, all preserved by the late great Morrison.  I don’t know the exact show this was from, but it includes songs from the Velvets’ first three albums, as well as some tracks unreleased until much later.

This is an exceptionally rare Rolling Stones set list handwritten by Mick Jagger, almost certainly for rehearsals for the group’s secret show as “The Cockroaches”, at Sir Morgan’s Cove, Worcester, Mass on September 14th, 1981.  During August and September of that year, the Stones rehearsed for their first tour in three years at Long View Farm in nearby West Brookfield, Mass.  On short notice, they decided to play a secret warm up date at a local club under an assumed name. At the last minute, word leaked and the area around the small club was mobbed by up to 4000 people.  At the top, Jagger has written “Blues, CB’s + Encore” indicating this is a list of blues songs, Chuck Berry songs and possible encores.  The list includes four Chuck Berry songs, six blues standards, and four Stones originals (most of the non-originals have been covered by the Stones).

Mick Jones’ handwritten set list for The Clash’s January 25, 1982 concert at the Festival Hall in Osaka, Japan.  Written on a 3″ x 7″ torn piece of paper, as usual it differs slightly from the set the band played. As many bands do, The Clash used set lists as a plan, but regularly added the occasional unplanned song.  The silver duct tape probably attached this to the stage or an amplifier.  (We have a Joe Strummer set list from the same tour elsewhere on the site.)

A Bruce Springsteen handwritten set list from his acoustic performance at the first annual concert to benefit The Bridge School, at the Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, Ca., October 13, 1986.  The Bridge School benefit concerts are annual non-profit, acoustic shows organized by Neil and Pegi Young.  We acquired this set list from longtime Neil Young associate Joel Bernstein, who noted “At the time, I was working as a guitar technician and occasional musician on a tour of the U.S. with Neil Young and Crazy Horse…Bruce arrived from new Jersey in the late afternoon with, as I recall, eight acoustic guitars, four of them twelve strings, and all desperately needing new strings to be stretched and tuned (by me) in time for Bruce to do a soundcheck before doors..Bruce wrote out this list in his dressing room, brought it with him onstage, and placed it at his feet during the set.  In the end, he added “Mansion On The Hill” between “Darlington County” and “Fire”, otherwise he held to this sequence.  Between his set and encore…I made sure to retrieve the set list, as a memento of the day, and especially of Bruce’s short moving, and powerful set”.

A Neil Young handwritten setlist for the Shocking Pinks section of his July 1, 1983 show at the Kansas Coliseum (during his 1983 Shocking Pinks tour). Joel Bernstein was Neil’s guitar technician on this tour, and after Neil’s solo set, he would dash off stage and decide if he wanted [his band] the Shocking Pinks to play. If so, he’d quickly put together a setlist, have it delivered to Joel offstage, and he’d get his guitars ready for that sequence.

A setlist handwritten by Joni Mitchell, for her 1995 performance at the Gene Autry Museum in Los Angeles on January 26, 1995. This was a date to promote her Turbulent Indigo album, and was broadcast live on the radio.  Joni’s longtime friend and collaborator Joel Bernstein was her guitar technician at the time and she gave him this list to prepare her guitars for the show (at the left are her indications of the guitar she wanted for a particular song.)

For those interested in more, see our 2010 post on the subject.

Jeff Gold

In May, my wife Jody and I drove across the America, coast to coast, from Los Angeles to Savannah, Georgia–a bucket list dream of mine.  And much to my wife’s delight, I ended up driving the whole 3000+ miles.  We spent about 19 days, stopping in 10 cities, seeing the sights, visiting friends and for once, not looking for records.  We had a fantastic time and saw some great music related sights, which I thought I’d write about for those who may be thinking about a little music tourism. For this post, we’ll focus on Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee.

If you’ve never been to Memphis I highly recommend it.  Soulful people, great food and much to see.  We visited the National Civil Rights Museum, which is at the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated–an incredible and moving museum that I can’t recommend enough.  And for music fans, there are a number of essential stops.  On this trip, I was luck to visit Sun Studio and the Stax Museum.

Sun Studio is of course where Elvis Presley first recorded, where he was discovered by Sam Phillips, and where Phillips also cut Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins,  Howlin’ Wolf and so many more greats.  Incredibly, though the building had housed other businesses over the years, the actual studio baffling and control room had just been covered up–so when it was turned into a museum, it was easily restored to its original state.  It’s a working studio today, and they’ve got a great display of memorabilia including some of Phillips’ original equipment, memorabilia belonging to Elvis, vintage Sun acetates, and a re-creation of Memphis DJ Dewey Philips’s broadcast studio.  The tour guide’s patter was a little cheesy for me, but there is much to see and the vibe is definitely there.  It was well worth visiting.

Also in Memphis is the Stax Museum of American Soul Music and the Stax music academy.  The original Stax building was torn down, but the museum is an exact recreation on the same site, built from the original blueprints.  There is a tremendous amount of great memorabilia here, including Otis Redding’s draft card and suede jacket, Isaac Hayes’ custom Cadillac and stage outfits, Booker T & The MG’s instruments and an exact recreation of Stax’s original movie theatre studio.  Lots of memorabilia from artists who recorded at Stax and Memphis artists too, including Al Green, the Staple Singers, Ike and Tina Turner, Carla and Rufus Thomas–even James Carr.  Next door there’s a music academy where young people learn to play music.  Well worth a visit.

Other essential Memphis music pilgrimage sites include Graceland and Al Green’s Full Gospel Tabernacle Church, where Reverend Green preaches most Sundays.  But I’d visited both a number of times (and worked closely with Al Green while at A&M Records) so this trip I visited places I hadn’t been. But both are highly recommended.

From Memphis we drove to Nashville, where we visited the Country Music Hall of Fame and Jack White’s Third Man Records.  The Hall of Fame was a bit of a disappointment, as the main draw for me was their Dylan, Cash and the Nashville Cats exhibit.  The exhibition’s premise was that Bob Dylan’s decision to record in Nashville brought many other non-country artists, including the Byrds, Neil Young, the Beau Brummels, Joan Baez etc. to record in Nashville, with the cities’ exceptional session musicians.  While it’s an interesting story, I found the exhibit largely centered on the session musicians– the “Nashville Cats”, with a scattering of Dylan and Cash artifacts.  There was a lot to see, but I thought the layout was difficult to follow, and exhibit overall a missed opportunity.  I wasn’t much interested in the museum’s other mainstream country offerings, but was thrilled to spot Gram Parsons’ Flying Burrito Brothers Nudie Suit while walking to the Nashville Cats exhibit.  As iconic a piece of stage wear as you’ll ever see, covered in marijuana plants and pills.

Jack White’s Third Man Records was much more to my taste.  It’s clear White and his cohorts love records and music, and Third Man has refined and reinvented the form in an extraordinary way.  Our tour guide was the great Ben Blackwell, who helps run Third Man and is a true vinyl visionary.  Parked outside the Third Man retail store is their “Rolling Record Store”, which travels to gigs, festivals, and other places fans congregate.  The retail store carries all of Third Man’s releases, and an incredible number of Third Man branded artifacts, including everything from Dead Weather playing cards to a high end yellow & black custom turntable.  Located in the store is their Voice-o-Graph recording booth–the actual booth in which Neil Young recorded his 2014 album A Letter Home–and where you too can record a song and take it home on a custom 6″ record, for $15.  The Third Man complex also includes a live concert venue, just behind that a recording studio (which has the lathe from King Records, and is the only place in the world you can record live, direct to disc), a video studio and editing suite, photo studio, art department, warehouse, direct mail operation, and much more.  We were blown away by their reinvention of the music business.  Don’t miss it when in Nashville.

From Nashville, we drove to Athens, Ga., home of R.E.M., who I had the good fortune to work with at both A&M and Warner Bros. Records.  We visited with some of our friends from those long ago days, and briefly stopped by Wuxtry Records, where clerk Peter Buck met customer Michael Stipe — and the rest is history.  They’ve got some great early R.E.M. posters on the wall.  Then on to Savannah, a photo standing on the rental car at the end of the road, and on the last day, my karmic reward for not looking for records along the way.  In a bin of LP’s at an antique store, voila–a near mint UK first pressing of The Who’s debut album, My Generation, on Brunswick, for $25!

So, as Van Dyke Parks recommended with the title of his second album, Discover America!

Jeff Gold

July 2015

There’s been a lot written about Bob Dylan’s new album of songs sung by Frank Sinatra, Shadows in the Night.  People seem to love it or hate it, and I can’t understand why.  I think it’s a masterpiece.

I’ve listened to Shadows more than any new Dylan album since Time Out of Mind.  I play it over and over and it just blows my mind.  So incredibly soulful.  Heartfelt. Melancholy.  The songs (most of which I didn’t know) are all so great.  The inventive arrangements, just guitars, bass, light drums and occasional horns, with steel guitar as the lead instrument.  And incredibly recorded by the great Al Schmidt.  Live in the studio, with no overdubs.

Bob’s singing better than he has in years.  Decades in fact.  Yes, his voice breaks occasionally as he reaches for a note, but he’s singing as soulfully as ever.  It’s a late night record.  One friend said it required “active listening”.  Not made for driving or playing while you’re doing something else.  It’s an album to sit down and listen to.  My wife and I play it constantly, different songs stuck in our heads at different times.  We’ve bought 15 copies to give to friends.

Admittedly it’s not for everyone.  I’m not a big Sinatra fan; I like some of his work and some I’m ambivalent about. But the songs Dylan has chosen, mostly from the 40’s and 50’s, I love.  I have friends, thought, who see Sinatra as the enemy of rock, and can’t stomach an album of Bob “paying tribute” to him.  Others can’t understand why a writer as great as Dylan would do a covers album of “old” chestnuts like these.  To me, it’s just Bob.  Inscrutable as always.  Like the photo on the back cover, of Bob holding a Sun Records (Elvis) 45, with a woman wearing a mask.  Sinatra and his then wife, Mia Farrow, were pictured wearing masks at Truman Capote’s “Black and White” ball. What does it all mean?  Who cares?

It’s been an amazing year-and-a-half for Dylan fans.  Two incredible Bootleg Series Box Sets–Another Self Portrait and The Basement Tapes Complete, a great tour,  Shadows in the Night, Dylan’s first interview in 3 years in the AARP Magazine (that’s right, the American Association of Retired People), probably the most straight-ahead interview he’s ever given.  Then the remarkable and unprecedented speech he gave at the Grammy Tribute–really the only speech of length he’s ever given.  And then–unbelievably–a follow up interview, clarifying some of the things he’d said in the speech, posted on his website.  Again, being completely up front and straightforward.  And the hidden gem of Daniel Lanois’s interview with the Vancouver Sun.  Lanois tells of how Dylan visited him and talked of music when he was growing up.

UPDATE: All have been identified, and very quickly at that.  See results at the bottom of this post.  Thanks to everyone who helped out.

Here’s an experiment in crowd-sourcing.  We recently acquired two original Frank Zappa music manuscripts, and a lead sheet for a third composition, all of which were handwritten by the great man himself.  The two original manuscripts are untitled, and the lead sheet is for Arabesque, a 1966 song we can find  no reference for. (These originated from the collection of ex-Mothers road manager Marty Perelis.)

We’ll happily offer $300 in Recordmecca credit to the first person who can identify these compositions (and tell us if Arabesque was ever released with a different title.)  If you can only identify one or two compositions, we’ll pro-rate the prize.

Just post a comment below, and be sure to include your email address.  And to state the obvious, only the first person who submits a correct answer through the comments section gets the prize.  And of course, the music on these manuscripts belong to the copyright holder.

We’ll post the answers here as soon as we have them.

“Part II” (first two pages; double click to enlarge)

Second Composition (first two pages)

Arabesque (Dated 1966)

We have a winners on all three manuscripts–thanks to everyone.

For Part II–Robert Mangano identified it as “The Rejected Mexican Pope Leaves the Stage” from the album “AHEAD OF THEIR TIME!”

We have a revised winner on the Second Manuscript (thanks to Matthew Galaher who pointed out his answer wasn’t exactly correct.) The new winner is Duncan James Mitchson who identified it as “Music For Electric Violin And Low Budget Orchestra” from Jean-Luc Ponty’s King Kong album (though with slightly different orchestration).

And for Arabesque–Pat Buzby, who wrote “Arabesque” was released later under the title “Toads Of The Short Forest.”

Thanks to everyone who helped out.

All the best,
Jeff Gold

Sorry to have been away so long, and I promise to post more frequently in the new year.  Today, I want to write a bit about the reaction to my last post, detailing my discovery of the 149 Bob Dylan Houston Street Studios Acetates.

I assumed this would be a big story in the Dylan collecting community, but was astounded at the overwhelming reaction from the mainstream media.  Before writing about the acetates here, I spent a few months documenting and transferring the music with the help of two friends.  When I finally wrote about the discovery in June, I was incredulous when the very next day it showed up on the front page of RollingStone.com.  Even more surprising is that the Rolling Stone writer hadn’t reached out to me, but instead simply paraphrased my blog post.  I know some of the writers there, and it would have been extremely easy for them to have contacted me.  In the past, at the very least Rolling Stone would have a fact checker call to verify all the information.  But in today’s instant media age, they just went with it.  Everybody wants to be the first on a story.

The next morning, I was contacted by a reporter at The Wall Street Journal for a short phone interview about the discovery.  Soon the floodgates opened–it went viral.  In all probably 100 newspapers, blogs, and other media outlets around the world published the story, including The Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, The Guardian, and Billboard.  In almost every case, they simply rewrote my blog post and copied the acetate photos from my blog.  I think the only people who actually spoke to me about the story were reporters from the Journal, Daily News and The New York Times.

I’m writing about this, because it blew my mind how the internet has changed the way a story is reported.  I’ve done many interviews over the past 35 years, as a record company executive, music historian, and collector.  But I’ve never, ever experienced anything like this–reporters, en masse, simply re-writing a blog post, with no fact checking or any attempt made to contact the author.

A few weeks after the media frenzy died down, it dawned on me–I could have made this whole thing up, and nobody would have been the wiser.  Of course I didn’t; the whole thing is true.  But probably 100 newspapers, websites and magazines for the most part just went with a story on a blog that sounded true.  It does go to show, you can’t believe everything you read on the internet–or in a newspaper.  (Happily, though, you can believe everything you read here.)

A few of the Houston Street Studios Acetates are available at Recordmecca.

Jeff Gold

January 29, 2015

Treasure hunting.

It’s what I love most about my work as a music historian, collector and dealer. Nothing matches the rush of discovering something previously unknown and historically significant, which adds to the collective understanding of a great musical artist.  And three months ago I made one of the great finds in a lifetime of looking.  149 unknown Bob Dylan acetate records, discs that Dylan himself used during the making of Nashville Skyline, Self Portrait and New Morning.

It started with a referral from a friend.  For everyone’s privacy, I won’t use names, but  I was put in touch with a gentleman from the Northwest.  His sister had recently died and he was the executor of her estate.  She  owned a building at 124 W.Houston Street in Greenwich Village and while selling off her personal items so the building could be put up for sale, he discovered two boxes labeled “Old Records” in a closet.  The boxes were filled with 10″ and 12″ acetates; he had never seen an acetate before and while he recognized them as some sort of records, he didn’t really know what they were.  Most had labels with Bob Dylan’s name, the address of Columbia Records, and a song title.  He knew Dylan had rented the ground floor of the building in the late 60’s and early 70’s as a studio space, and theorized Dylan had either left them when he’d moved out, or thrown them away and his sister had rescued them from the trash (at the time Dylan rented the space, he lived two blocks away at 94 McDougal St.)  In either case, they had been sitting, boxed up in the closet, for more than forty years.  He took two home with him, and eventually discovered what they were, and we were put in touch.

The acetates were found in these boxes

124 W. Houston St. NYC Dylan’s studio was on the ground floor

After some discussion, I flew to New York to inspect and hopefully buy the collection. The executor didn’t have an inventory and wasn’t even sure that all the acetates were by Dylan, but I’m a fanatic Dylan collector and love rare records, so I made the trip.  When I opened the boxes and took a quick look at the contents, I was blown away.  They were indeed all by Dylan, all were in excellent condition, and many had handwritten notes on the sleeves.  They all dated from the sessions for Dylan’s albums Nashville Skyline, Self Portrait and New Morning, about equally split between 10″ discs with a single song and 12″ discs with multiple songs. Though I couldn’t listen to them on site, I knew this was a major discovery, and made an offer for the collection more than double what I had expected to pay.  The executor was thrilled and we quickly made a deal.   He told me he’d found the boxes on his fourth (and final) pass through the building, in a small closet in a loft above the bedroom, which he hadn’t noticed before.  We took a moment to contemplate what might have happened if he hadn’t found them.  The building would have sold, the new owners would have hired a crew to gut and renovate the place, and the boxes tossed into a dumpster from a third floor window.   Phew.

I hand-carried the most interesting looking ones home, and had a friend ship the rest.   Acetates are  individually cut on a lathe in real time, in a process that is basically the reverse of playing a record.  A blank aluminum disc coated in lacquer is put on a turntable, and the master tape of a recording is played, the signal of which is sent to a heated needle which cuts a groove into into the revolving disc.  Acetates are made so an artist or producer can listen to a recording that is a work-in-progress; they can be played on a regular turntable, but after 20 or 30 plays the sound quality begins to deteriorate.  But the sound on a carefully preserved acetate can be incredible–it’s a first generation record made in real time directly from the master tape.  And that was the case here.

Since these acetates were remarkably well preserved, it was important we document what was on them.  After auditioning everything, my friend Zach Cowie made a high quality digital transfer of the most interesting discs.  We photographed each disc to have a complete visual record, and inventoried everything.  Then, with the help of friend and noted Dylan collector Arie De Reus, Zach and I began the exacting process of comparing the music on the acetates to the released versions of each song.  We discovered many of the acetates were unreleased versions of songs, in some cases with different overdubs, sometimes without any overdubs, many with different mixes, different edits and in a few cases completely unreleased and unknown versions.  There are outtakes too, including electric versions of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” and “Folsom Prison Blues” recorded during the Self Portrait sessions, and a gospel tinged version of “Tomorrow is Such a Long Time” recorded during the New Morning sessions.

These 149 acetates provide a remarkable look into Dylan’s working process at the time.  Dylan recorded Nashville Skyline in Nashville;  Self Portrait in Nashville and New York and New Morning almost entirely in New York. Dylan’s producer at the time, Bob Johnston, worked out of Columbia Records’ Nashville studios.  These acetates were for the most part cut in Nashville and sent by Johnston to Dylan in New York for his comments and approval.  This kind of collection is very unusual; usually an artist and producer would make decisions about takes, mixes and overdubs while together in the studio.  But Dylan was living in New York and Johnston headquartered in Nashville–so acetates were a simple way for Dylan to monitor what Johnston was doing.

Bob Johnston’s handwritten sequence on sleeve

Dylan makes changes to Johnston’s sequence and writes BLUE MOON.

On a number of sleeves, Bob Johnston has written sequences, timings and in a few cases instructions for remixes  (Johnston confirmed for us that he’d had these acetates cut for Dylan, and which handwriting was his.)  Dylan himself has made a number of notations about which versions he liked, which he didn’t and what he wanted changed.  It’s clear these discs were the result of many discussions Dylan had with Johnston; he’d ask for changes, Johnston would have acetates of new mixes, versions or sequences made and send them to Dylan.  While Dylan once claimed he made Self Portrait as an album his fans “couldn’t possibly like” he clearly spent a great deal of time refining and perfecting it. The Houston Street Studios acetates include probably ten different sequences of that album, and many different sequences for New Morning as well (including one version with only 10 songs.)  These acetates were Dylan’s working tools, and it’s easy to understand why he didn’t keep them–they were used to get the albums to the point where he felt they were finished and ready to release, but once the albums had been released, these became redundant.

Dylan doodles and makes notes about changes to songs for New Morning.

New Morning acetate with unreleased gospel version of Tomorrow is a Long Time and Dylan’s handwritten notes.

The music on these acetates covers much of the same time period as last year’s exceptional Bootleg Series Vol. 10: Another Self Portrait (I’ve always loved Self Portrait and New Morning and it’s great to see these albums get their due as a result of the release of this great box set.  Go buy it if you haven’t already.)  We’ve provided transfers of all the music on these discs to Dylan’s office; the multi-track master tapes of these songs likely still exist in the Columbia Records tape library, but Bob Johnston’s original unused mixes may not exist elsewhere.

I’m keeping many of the acetates, but am offering some of these truly unique discs via Recordmecca.  It’s been a remarkable experience to work with these discs, previously owned and used by Dylan himself, to create three of his classic albums.

Jeff Gold

June 30, 2014

On April 30, the news broke that Sotheby’s would be auctioning Bob Dylan’s original handwritten lyric manuscripts for Like A Rolling Stone and A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall in June– big news in the Dylan community.  As someone who’s written more than his fair share about Dylan and his manuscripts, I’ve gotten many calls and emails about these–and I can happily confirm they are indeed the real thing (unlike many dubious “Dylan handwritten” items that have surfaced.)

Last year I was fortunate to have brokered the sale of two other Dylan manuscripts from this same cache, for similarly legendary songs (as these were private sales,  I can’t say more about which songs or the selling prices.  Suffice to say they were equally important songs in Dylan’s canon.)

It’s rare to see authentic Dylan lyric manuscripts on the market, and these are as good as it gets.  According to The New York Times, Sotheby’s “expects “Like a Rolling Stone” to fetch as much as $2 million. That would double the current record price for a rock manuscript at Sotheby’s, held by John Lennon’s “A Day in the Life,” which the house sold in 2010. “Hard Rain” is expected to sell for $400,000 to $600,000.”

That might be a bit high for Like A Rolling Stone, but maybe not.  I think these are certainly in-the-ballpark estimates for these two enormously important cultural artifacts.

And since authentic Dylan manuscripts rarely surface,  I thought I’d share two more genuine ones, from his 1966 masterpiece Blonde on Blonde.  Below are working manuscripts for I Want You and Absolutely Sweet Marie.  While the Sotheby’s manuscripts are pretty much finished versions, these  illustrate Dylan’s working process in a different way.  Absolutely Sweet Marie is probably Dylan’s earliest attempt at the song; here he’s working out lines and verses, coming up with rhymes, but leaving dashes where he’ll later fill in words.  I Want You is further along, with Dylan likely refining a previous draft, but still not having written the “Queen of Spades” verse.  In both cases, he hasn’t written out the chorus; I’d guess the chorus was the starting point for each, and he didn’t feel the need to write it out.

Dylan finished most of the lyrics to his Blonde on Blonde songsduring the recording sessions at CBS’s Nashville studios.  Musicians who played on the sessions reported they sat around killing time for hours, playing ping-pong, taking naps and watching television while Dylan worked late into the night on his lyrics.  These two manuscripts were part of a group of lyrics that Blonde on Blonde engineer Charlie Bragg kept after the sessions, and later gave to a friend.

If you’re interested in reading more about Dylan manuscripts and handwriting, put “Dylan” in the Search Blog box on the top right for a number of other posts.  And if you’re really got time on your hands, you can read about (and watch me) authenticate Dylan lyrics on the PBS show History Detectives.

Jeff Gold

Last year I posted Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland—Exposing the ‘Blue Type’ Hype, about people’s mistaken notion that the UK version of Hendrix’s masterpiece with the blue type was the true first pressing.  If you’re one of the 98% of collectors who couldn’t care less about this, I invite you to move on to something more interesting.

If you care about this arcane issue read on, because the answer has emerged.  To recap, there are two major variations of the UK Electric Ladyland album cover.  Most copies have white type and small photos of Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell inside the gatefold, but some have blue type and larger photos of Mitch and Noel.  On the “blue” copies, the type is a mottled blue, which looks like a printing problem of some sort.

Since the advent of Ebay, some have maintained that the blue text copies are the true first pressings. In my previous post, I disputed this for a variety of reasons.  The vast majority of copies have the white type.  Hendrix was a superstar when Electric Ladyland was released, and it was a immediate best seller.  If the blue copies were the first, there would be far more blue than white ones.  As I wrote last year, I own Hendrix’s personal copy of Electric Ladyland–surely he would have had an original–and his is the white type version.  And well known English illustrator Edwin Pouncey (aka Savage Pencil) still has the copy he had special ordered prior to the album’s release—and it too has white type.

In late October, I had the good fortune to visit David King, the art director who designed the UK Electric Ladyland cover, as well as the covers for the single disc versions, Electric Ladyland Part 1 and Part 2.  David is a hero of mine, and also designed the covers for Axis:Bold As Love, The Who Sell Out and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown–in my opinion some of the greatest album covers ever created (I look forward to writing more about my visit with David at his London home.)

Obviously David was the man who could solve the blue/white mystery for once and for all.  He told me that in the 60’s recording artists were rarely involved with their album covers.  They were usually on the road or in the studio, and he typically had only a few days to come up with an idea and create the artwork.  In the case of Electric Ladyland, the Hendrix Experience had been touring the US for three months prior to the album’s October 25, 1968 UK release, and didn’t return until after the album was out.

King, the Arts Editor at the Sunday Times Magazine was a friend of  Track Records co-owner Chris Stamp (also co-manager of The Who.) Stamp liked King’s aesthetic and hired him to design various album covers for Track.  For Electric Ladyland, King recalls having only three days from concept to turning in the finished art.  Stamp was enthusiastic about King’s idea to picture nude girls on the cover, and happily anticipated the controversy it would undoubtedly cause.  King told me Hendrix had no involvement with the cover, and even disavowed it after its release, saying “I don’t know anything about it.  I didn’t know it was going to be used.”
King hired photographer David Montgomery to shoot the nineteen nude models, and on the inside used an existing photograph of Hendrix (he’d previously hired Montgomery to shoot the photo for a Sunday Times Magazine article that never ran.)  King added the small photographs of Mitch and Noel as an afterthought.  His original design had the white type and smaller photographs of Redding and Mitchell; in fact King showed me his white type printed samples, stored in his flat files since 1968.

So why was there a blue type/larger photos version ?  It turns out the problem was the size of the photos.  King told me that when Redding and Mitchell saw the finished cover, they were very upset that their photos were so much smaller than Hendrix’s.  Consequently, Chris Stamp had the printer to enlarge their photos for the next run.  The printer mistakenly used blue type instead of white—perhaps because the text on the Part 2 album cover was the same shade of blue—but in the process of “fixing it” created the blotchy blue type on the blue versions.  King was not involved in the “fix” and would never have approved it the way it was printed; he told me “until you mentioned it a few weeks ago, I’d completely forgotten about the blue type, that it ever existed even for a moment.”

Chris Stamp died last year, so there is no way to definitively know what happened next, but we assume that since the printing job turned out badly, and the Experience broke up in mid 1969, Stamp made the decision to go back to the original version—which at least was printed properly.  The white type version on Track was still in print in the early 1970’s, and was the version later reissued on Polydor.  Last month, an ‘interm version’ was sold on Ebay, with white type but bits of blue, particularly in the slashes between songs.

So for those who share my obsession with things like this, we now know the pressings were-

1. White type/smaller photos
2. Blue type/larger photos
3. White type/smaller photos (with a bit of blue)
4. White type/smaller photos (Same as #1)
5. Polydor reissue; White type/smaller photos.

And there you have it—case closed !

-Jeff Gold