When you first started collecting records, assuming you did, what method did you use? If you started in the 1970s when hearing new rock or progressive music was difficult in the UK. We only had a couple of radio shows and the Old Grey Whistle Test of course.
How I put together my lists of wants was simple. I used the NME book of rock. The 1976 edition, I wrote the titles of the albums by bands, even if I had never heard the band, but they sounded cool.
This approach meant my list had hundreds of albums on it and is how and why I ended up with Commander Cody and Brewer and Shipley albums. They were plentiful and cheap secondhand, and no one seemed to want them. Incidentally, you should be able to get the latter's Seeds album cheap. Copies are quite easy to come by now, just as they were 49 years ago. It’s superb. Quiet, acoustically psychedelic. Garcia plays on it, and it does make it a ‘Dead-ish’ sounding record.
It was a good way to educate myself and I read and read that book from cover to cover. I still have a copy and it’s fascinating because you know how things turned out, how long bands lasted, who lived and died.
You had to be prepared to acquire some poor records doing it this way. I got some real stinkers though I thought they sounded interesting. I got the debut record by The Illusion, who were described as hard rock. Released in 1969, I thought it’d be stunning lead guitar, but it wasn’t and is more like 60s psychedelic pop. Quite cheesy. It actually got to #69 on the Billboard chart. It was on the Steed label.
I collected hippy San Franciscan bands from the late 60s and I thought Mother Earth would be far out, but their debut Living With The Animals wasn’t the psychedelic music I wanted, and Tracey Nelson vocals hurt my ears.
I was delighted when I got Chuck Berry Live at the Fillmore, Steve Miller Band backed him, his first on record, but you’d never know. It was just a pickup band to Chuck. Disappointing.
And they gave Helen Reddy an attractive write up, same with Stephen Bishop, but I found albums by both less stimulating.
Then again, you could stumble over cracking albums by accident, like the first Leo Sayer album! I know! Silverbird is excellent singer-songwriter stuff. And he hadn’t quite become the TV entertainer in 1976, so the NME was kind. They were also effusive about John Martyn and Gordon Lightfoot, and I sought them out. It was also where I first read about Return To Forever who I still love, and Spooky Tooth.
I’ve still got the book and I'm pleased to say about 75% of the records I first listed from it.
