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Joined: September 25 2017
Location: United Kingdom
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Points: 7
Topic: An LP you bought knowing nothing about the band Posted: September 25 2017 at 08:03
In the early 70's on one of my many teenage Saturdays spent perusing in a local record shop, I came across Foxtrot by Genesis. I had never heard of them but was attracted to the cover & once I read the lyrics in the gatefold sleeve (especially Get 'Em Out By Friday) I just had to buy it & it still remains as one of my all time faves! Anyone had a similar magic find?
Joined: March 29 2013
Location: WA
Status: Offline
Points: 4591
Posted: September 25 2017 at 08:44
I've done it a few times. Oddly enough, I've rarely gone wrong taking the 'cover only' gamble. So, prog albums I bought just from seeing the cover while knowing nothing about the band...
1) Rush - A Farewell to Kings 2) Ethos - Open Up 3) Fireballet - Night on Bald Mountain 4) Marillion - Script for a Jesters Tear 5) Absolute Elsewhere - In Search of Ancient Gods 6) Camel - Mirage (US cover) 7) Nektar - Recycled
Joined: March 29 2014
Location: USA
Status: Offline
Points: 2062
Posted: September 25 2017 at 08:58
I don't think I've ever bought an album knowing nothing about the band. I have bought albums from bands after hearing and liking one song on the radio. That has come back to bite me in the ass a few times.
We all live in an amber subdomain, amber subdomain, amber subdomain.
Joined: June 26 2011
Location: Portugal
Status: Offline
Points: 3654
Posted: September 25 2017 at 09:12
The only one I can remember right now was LP Cordon Bleu (Solution) just because of the colourful cover art (by Hipgnosis) which btw reflects well the "happy" mood inside
Joined: August 08 2016
Location: Seattle
Status: Offline
Points: 1056
Posted: September 25 2017 at 09:38
I've blind bought obscure CD's on Discogs. Forget record stores in the 70's, now anyone with a basic home studio can put out an album it seems, resulting in a lot more great little finds and a helluva lot more garbage. Despite the regretful purchases, I've stumbled onto a handful of great, unknown, underprinted albums that way:
Armchair Traveller - The Perfect Record for the Armchair Traveller
Auditem - Concert For Detuned Piano
Satoru Wono - Sonata For Sine Wave and White Noise
Brigitte and the Hansen Experience - Frau Hansen Am Bass
Crawling With Tarts - Grand Surface Noise Operas 3 and 4
Sudden Infant - Radiorgasm
Edited by mechanicalflattery - September 25 2017 at 09:39
Joined: December 20 2010
Location: Tomorrowland
Status: Offline
Points: 10065
Posted: September 25 2017 at 09:45
Earlier today I bought two 10 inch albums: a japanese folk/enka-thing from 1964 and and another japnese 1958-album of koto music (the latter by and with Michio Miyagi I later found out) at a local second hand store. The coverart was lovely and they were cheap. I liked them both considerably! I've done this countless times in every thinkable genre - but mostly with bargains similar to these. Got lots of jazz, folk, classical and "world music" that way.
Edited by Saperlipopette! - September 25 2017 at 09:46
Herbie Mann's Stone Flute inadvertently ended up in my collection that way - like many others now that I think of it. I used to buy albums on a whim and I still do, but yeah ten years ago it bit me in the ass (Renaissance's Scheherazade) and I have been somewhat reluctant to resort to my old ways. I still do blind buys but not as often.
“The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”
I bet at least one person bought ITCOTCK that way and I'm sure many people bought albums based on the Roger Dean artwork alone. I personally can't remember doing it though. Usually I at least heard of the band.
Joined: March 29 2013
Location: WA
Status: Offline
Points: 4591
Posted: September 25 2017 at 10:43
AFlowerKingCrimson wrote:
I bet at least one person bought ITCOTCK that way and I'm sure many people bought albums based on the Roger Dean artwork alone.
I'm sure you're right. For myself, I didn't buy my 1st King Crimson album because of the cover, though their covers were definitely what made me curious about them in the first place (this was back in '77). I eventually asked a record store employee if he could put something on and he played Fracture...I bought Starless and Bible Black on the spot
Joined: January 24 2010
Location: Canada
Status: Offline
Points: 8115
Posted: September 25 2017 at 10:57
Many of the obscure prog bands I now love, I found on lp in the late 1980s early 1990s while record browsing in Ottawa. And some that come to mind that I knew absolutely nothing about at the time were
Strange Days-Nine Parts To The Wind Dzyan-Time Machine Latte e Miele-Papillon Libra-Libra Passport-Looking Thru Quatermass-Quatermass Terje Rypdal-What Comes After Osanna-Milano Calibro 9 Rdm-Contamination Dedalus-Dedalus Il Baricentro-Sconcerto
these were literally needles in a haystack in Ottawa at the time, but I have always had such great luck in stumbling across prog that is off the radar!
Joined: June 26 2011
Location: Portugal
Status: Offline
Points: 3654
Posted: September 25 2017 at 11:04
It came to my mind another record I bought sometime ago - not prog, though - from the jazz singer Cassandra Wilson, based only on the appealing cover art . It happens the album is superb and the lady became one of my favorite voices of that genre.
This one is from '95 and the one before that (the 1st she recorded for Blue Note, in '93) is even better
Joined: July 01 2004
Location: CA
Status: Offline
Points: 15079
Posted: September 25 2017 at 11:09
I picked up [east German electronic duo] Servi's 2nd LP Pas de Deux in H (1988) because I figured they'd have some things in common with Tangerine Dream. They did, and didn't, but overall, not a bad record for the time.
Joined: May 22 2007
Location: Michigan, U.S.
Status: Offline
Points: 65985
Posted: September 25 2017 at 14:05
AFlowerKingCrimson wrote:
I bet at least one person bought ITCOTCK that way and I'm sure many people bought albums based on the Roger Dean artwork alone. I personally can't remember doing it though. Usually I at least heard of the band.
I can say that I have done this with Roger Dean. I bought a Space Needle album because it had Roger Dean artwork.
In regards to King Crimson, I was a fan of Yes, and I wanted to check out Bill Bruford's "side project". :) I don't remember off hand which King Crimson album I bought first. I think it was Three of a Perfect Pair.
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