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Topic ClosedAn LP you bought knowing nothing about the band

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Kepler62 View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2017 at 17:25
Too many to mention. It was the only way back in the seventies. Also the guy in the music store actually knew a heck of a lot about music. I have never bought an album over the internet. All my albums have come from a record store and I can tell you exactly where and when I bought each album. I remember picking up Omega's 200 Years After The Last War in  Cheap Thrills when they had their store on Bishop St in Montreal. They used to stamp the records so you could bring them back. It still has the the sticker on it. $2.50 back in the summer of 1978. I was looking for a used copy of Mike Oldfield's Hergest Ridge but came across this weird album with a lady with a fish head and band members with weird names who turned out to be from Hungary. So i bought it, brought it home and was blown away. Did this with so many albums. Just hit and miss. Grobschnitt's first album was another one.  Bought lierally tons of albums this way. Never got rid of them and rarely listen to CD's or downloads to this day..
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2017 at 19:21
Originally posted by The.Crimson.King The.Crimson.King wrote:

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


I also bought that Fireballet album because of the cover, but because it was so bad, plus the song titles and all the info on the back including production by Ian McDonald led me to believe it had to be really good. A bunch of '70's guys from New Jersey doing songs about knights and castles? I was right.

I also bought Nektar's Remember the Future from the cutout bin and loved it.

Also Be Bop Deluxe Axe Victim and loved it.

Ozric Tentacles Jurassic Shift

Just a few that come to mind.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2017 at 22:44
I've had a couple, mostly just in the past year. Some turned out splendidly, some less so.

Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes - Really dig the album art, and while I wouldn't say the album has become a favourite, it's still a nice one to put on for rainy mornings.
Modulo 1000 - Nao Fale Com Paredes - I'm not even sure why I picked this one up, since I find the album art quite strange (even a bit unsettling)... maybe just because it was the only South American thing in the store. Anyway, I can't say that this one's a favourite either, but I enjoy it more and more every time I put it on.
Quicksilver Messenger Service - Happy Trails - Loved the cover (and still do), but I'm pretty underwhelmed by the music. The whole first side is just a two chord jam, and not a very inspired one at that; more along the lines of something the Grateful Dead might have done on one of their "off" days. 
Traffic - The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys - I had heard the name of the band before, but knew nothing else about them - turned out to be a great purchase!

when i was a kid a doller was worth ten dollers - now a doller couldnt even buy you fifty cents
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 27 2017 at 01:20
The Tangent - A place in the queue
ACT - Silence

I bought these two when they came out because the shop-owner recommended them and I trusted his taste, having bought a lot of stuff from his music store, he kinda knew what I was into. The guy never disappointed me. Those were the days, that store does not exist anymore. :(
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 27 2017 at 06:01
Iron Maiden's Killers; based on the cover alone. 
Different times back then, going to your local record shop and flipping through all the albums.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 27 2017 at 07:57
Hi,

Way too many, and they were all worth it ... in 1972 and 1973, almost the whole Harvest listing, specially all the bands listed in the "ingredients" of their album sleeve with the breakfast cereal box.

I miss the European ones ... Cherubin, Tanned Leather, Kayak and so many others ... that went by ... totally forgotten and never heard. And that Cherubin album is really nice. The English portion of it was fine, though a couple of things were not that great ... I have yet to find "East of Eden" worth a listen and why it is supposed to be so different. 

Too much wax in the ears, I think!
Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 27 2017 at 10:10
AMBROSIA "Ambrosia" 1975
RICARDO ZAPPA "Celestion" 1977
etc...
 
 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2017 at 04:40
I bought my first Yes CD in the mid 90's based merely on a paragraph in Pete Frames Rock Family Trees book, where he said "critics called them overblown and pretentious" .

I liked the sound of that, and even though I'd never heard any of their stuff, I went to my local music store and found one which had a pretty interesting cover and promptly bought it. Thankfully, that CD was Fragile, and 20 years later they are still my favourite band.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 07 2017 at 15:51
I always have to sample the album first.

Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 07 2017 at 20:41
I do it often. Only copped out on very few occasions.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 09 2017 at 06:41
Originally posted by Quinino Quinino wrote:

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




I have that album. Nice choice.

As for albums I bought on the srength of the cover without knowing the band..Greenslade. Like the Roger Dean cover. Music didn't do much for me though.

Also, Astra by Asia. Ditto.
Ultimately bored by endless ecstasy!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 19 2017 at 08:00
Before the internet I used to buy blindly all the time. A cool band name or album cover from an artist on the right label and I was all in.

King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King
Nektar - Remember The Future
Kayak - Starlight Dancer (US Version)
Happy The Man - s/t
The Ramones - s/t
XTC - Drums And Wires 

All purchased without hearing a single note. 

Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 19 2017 at 09:44
When I was younger I had more time hanging around on flea markets and in record shops, and I'd occasionally buy things that were cheap enough just from cover and information (back in the day I thought longs tracks are a qualification so I'd look for that, too, making me more likely to buy prog in this way). Examples that come to mind right now are
Pulsar - Pollen
Flame Dream - Out in the Dark
East of Eden - Mercator Projected.
Although far more often I'd have read a little bit about a band or an album in advance or I'd buy because of a listed band member who I know has done other good stuff, which I think doesn't count here.


Edited by Lewian - October 19 2017 at 09:50
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Lewian View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 19 2017 at 09:47
Originally posted by Quinino Quinino wrote:

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

Interesting. I love Cassandra Wilson and the cover isn't too bad to look at but I wouldn't have expected good music behind it without knowing her.
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