My Goodwill/Value Village CD Shopping Guide

Once again, some great stuff coming through the thrift store channels. It helps to have a little background in music retail to find the jewels, but lately that's been changing as savvy techies use their smart phones to look up prices and collectible status online. Heck, where's the fun in that?

That being said, I've developed my own strategy for combing the shelves:

1. Don't take chances. I know, it seems like a great opportunity to experiment -- it's so cheap! -- but in my case, I just end up with a stack of losers. Maybe, maybe once in a while it might pay off, but like winning the lotto, the odds are against it.

2. Avoid the budget labels. This one's easier said than done if you don't know which record companies were originally cheap -- in the thrift store rack, every CD is equal. Budget labels retail for half the price of regular labels, and the reason is that they're usually always not very good. Greatest hits albums that feature remakes of the hits, jazz collections that are bootleg recordings of live European tours, or new recordings by big bands still on the road long after any original members have died, classical recordings done by less-than-talented orchestras, even repackaged 'original' recordings that have fallen out of copyright -- there's a lot of junk out there. (LaserLight, I'm looking at you.) Sometimes a classical budget label turns out great; Naxos started out poorly (their stuff sold for $4.95 when major labels were still going for $16.99), mostly with recordings of the standard repertoire by Eastern European ensembles. Later though, Naxos' quality improved so that their releases were showing up on many "Best of the Year" lists.

3. Stick with the budget labels. Wait, what? Okay, here's my point: classical labels that have been around for a while amass a huge catalog. How do you sell a Beethoven symphony recorded in the '70s (or earlier) when there's 10 other versions of the same symphony on your label alone? Sell it cheaper. Every major classical label has their budget line, and if you can read the tiny print (harder and harder for me these days), you'll see what parent label is spinning off titles at the budget price. The Handel pictured above isn't the CD I found, but is the original on Teldec. I found the 'Ultima' release, but I still noticed the red triangle that's Teldec's trademark. A 2 CD set, recorded direct-to-digital in 1983, resissued in 1997, and bought in 2013 for $1.99! The performance is a hoot, too. I first heard "The Messiah" in raise-the-roof versions where everyone was singing for their life. This original-instrument version is much, much quieter; I told my wife the chorus of "For Unto Us a Child Is Born" sounds like the downstairs staff singing in the hallway just outside the nursery -- don't want to wake anyone up!

4. Small, unknown labels can hold treasures. Rule of thumb is: countries with a 'relaxed' attitude toward copyright produce an abundance of repackaging. That's why you see so many Bob Marley CDs released by anybody with a pressing plant in their garage. And Bob of course was no help, re-recording many of his own songs multiple times so that it's hard to tell if you're buying the version you know and love or some bad demo version. I lucked out with the Gabby disc. My vague notion of the Hawaiian music industry was that there wasn't really much of an 'industry' but rather a loose network of tiny boutique labels. I recognized some of the Gabby songs from the soundtrack to "The Descendants" -- another score for under 2 bucks!

5. Expect seredipity. Yes, this whole post is full of the worst, most contradictory advice, it would seem... I'm not talking about taking chances, but sometimes you get totally gob-smacked by what you can find. Last week, I found a primo copy of "Epsilon in Malaysian Pale" by Edgar Froese. I know! (It's the second solo CD by the Tangerine Dream founder, as if you didn't know.) Anyway, not what you'd ever expect to find in a Mount Vernon Value Village!

I hit Value Village a week later and the shelves were decimated, but I'll try it late next week and see what awaits. I can't imagine this gold rush will last much longer, but I'll keep mining until it taps out.

Huh?

Got this from the library. The booklet/liner notes never made it past processing, I guess, so I have no idea who's playing on this. Word is that it's "Bryan Ferry" in name only; no vocals and no input into the arrangements. And the arrangements -- someone had the idea to retool Roxy Music & Bryan Ferry songs as if they were performed in the 1920's, so we can imagine F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda at the bar as "The Bogus Man" and "Love Is the Drug" play in the background.

I'm sure that seemed like an interesting idea, but...um, who wants to listen to this? What's the target market? Who the heck would BUY THIS??? The arrangements are spot on, the engineering sounds like tinny, scratchy 78s, but...WHO WOULD BUY THIS??? It's a "great idea" that I'm guessing nobody cares about.  I forced my family to listen to this 2 1/2 times, and our vote: HUH??

Next entry: hardly any capital letters!

Revisiting John Martyn

"Ain't No Saint" is a John Martyn box packed with alternate takes and live versions of songs throughout his catalog, and I was tempted to cough up the cash and order it, but instead I ordered the remastered (again!) "Solid Air" double-disc set, "The Tumbler" (his second album -- produced by Al Stewart!), and a DVD of interviews and live broadcasts. We'll see how those sort out when they arrive, but it did give me an opportunity to relisten to John's catalog.

If you only buy one John Martyn CD, you could get by rather nicely with "Sweet Little Mysteries: The Island Anthology" (and yes, technically it's 2 CDs.) The bulk of John's career was spent on Island Records, until his later years when he bounced around a lot. The ultimate John Martyn anthology would probably be a licensing nightmare, but the Island collection manages to snag the good bits. As always in anthologies, there are treasures tucked away on the original releases that didn't make it to the Island set, but it is programmed well, something you can't always say about the original albums.

"Bless the Weather" may not be my favorite John album, but it's probably the one I listen to the most, just because it's a good collection and there aren't any stinkers to jar the flow. It also is the album that introduces John's work with the echoplex, which allowed him to "duet" with himself on guitar, something he explored in more depth in his concerts. "Weather" was a transitional album that showed him just beginning to break with the 'folk' tradition, and the follow-up "Solid Air" firmed up that direction. "Solid Air" is also considered John's ultimate achievement for many people, but I always have to hop up and skip "I'd Rather Be the Devil" because my wife hates it! "Inside Out" was next, and this one is where John's slurred vocal effects (supposedly based on John attempting to sound like a sax) are pushed to the extreme. This and "Sunday's Child" also pump up the harder edged guitar work on a few tracks. "Live at Leeds" holds up pretty well, and it offers some of John's ummm... mercurial? stage banter.

 

"One World" is more slickly produced, John's fronting a real band now, and the acoustic early work is all but a distant memory. Best part for me is the longer instrumental version of "Small Hours" (10:19!) on the second disc of the Deluxe Edition.

After this, John went through some personal turmoil, and though his records were even more slickly produced, old fans fell by the wayside and new ones were slow to respond. "Grace and Danger" was produced by Phil Collins, and John's described it as "me and Phil working through the breakup of our marriages". Not easy listening even with Phil's studio sheen. Phil was back at the board for "Glorious Fool", which is patchy but the good songs are...good.



John and I parted ways around this time; since I worked at record stores, I heard some of his albums but nothing I really needed in my collection. Got back on board with 1999's "Glasgow Walker" (albeit patchy again), and 2004's "On the Cobbles" (a better collection to my ears). The posthumous "Heaven and Earth" (thanks, Bowling Joe!) doesn't reverse the trend, but you gotta treasure his last songs.

It's a tie for my wife and I for whose work we've enjoyed the most over the years, John Martyn or Van Morrison (she'd go more with the Van vote, while I'd lean towards John). There may be some albums by other artists that hold a higher spot in our hearts, but thinking in terms of a career retrospective, I'd stick with these 2 guys. Sad that John's rough and rowdy ways brought him all sorts of grief (even in many of the reminiscences by fellow travellers who knew and loved him dearly, phrases like "drunken craziness" and "boozed-up fistfights" recur far too often.) Like many artists whose personal demons made them less-than-easy to live with, John's music stands apart from his personal mistakes, and it's a wonderful and heartwarming achievement.