Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Recommendations/Featured albums
Forum Description: Make or seek recommendations and discuss specific prog albums
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=111979 Printed Date: April 17 2024 at 17:29 Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: An LP you bought knowing nothing about the bandPosted By: ColinCool
Subject: An LP you bought knowing nothing about the band
Date 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?
Replies: Posted By: The.Crimson.King
Date 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
------------- https://wytchcrypt.wixsite.com/mutiny-in-jonestown" rel="nofollow - Mutiny in Jonestown : Progressive Rock Since 1987
Posted By: Jeffro
Date 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.
My face IS a maserati
Posted By: BaldFriede
Date Posted: September 25 2017 at 09:10
My brother, who is ten years older than me, did it all the time, and made lots of discoveries that way.
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BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue.
Posted By: Quinino
Date 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
Posted By: mechanicalflattery
Date 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
Posted By: Saperlipopette!
Date 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.
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Posted By: Guldbamsen
Date Posted: September 25 2017 at 09:51
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.”
- Douglas Adams
Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: September 25 2017 at 10:29
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.
Posted By: The.Crimson.King
Date 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
------------- https://wytchcrypt.wixsite.com/mutiny-in-jonestown" rel="nofollow - Mutiny in Jonestown : Progressive Rock Since 1987
Posted By: presdoug
Date 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!
Posted By: condor
Date Posted: September 25 2017 at 10:58
Larks' Tongues in Aspic
Posted By: Quinino
Date 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
Posted By: verslibre
Date 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.
Posted By: rushfan4
Date 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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Posted By: Cosmiclawnmower
Date Posted: September 26 2017 at 14:31
I bought 'Tertio' by Atoll in a second hand shop in the early 80's knowing nothing about them.. it led me to a lot of European Prog.
I have taken a lot of chances on lps over the years, some ok some brilliant, only a few really Cr*p
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Posted By: Rednight
Date Posted: September 26 2017 at 15:20
Symphonic Slam and Maxophone.
------------- "It just has none of the qualities of your work that I find interesting. Abandon [?] it." - Eno
Posted By: omphaloskepsis
Date Posted: September 26 2017 at 15:27
As a teen ager, I purchased a used dollar copy of Birth Control- Operation
Posted By: hellogoodbye
Date Posted: September 26 2017 at 16:35
Alan Sorrenti's second album. I had never heard anything about RPI. A difficult and unloved music but the beginning of a love story with Italy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlyTI4KHZ3U
Posted By: AZF
Date Posted: September 26 2017 at 17:01
In the days before YouTube I bought "H To He Who Am The Only One" second hand.
Posted By: Kepler62
Date 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..
Posted By: stegor
Date Posted: September 26 2017 at 19:21
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.
Posted By: Magnum Vaeltaja
Date 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
Posted By: Cristi
Date 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. :(
Posted By: Rushman
Date 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.
Posted By: moshkito
Date 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! www.pedrosena.com
Posted By: maryes
Date Posted: September 27 2017 at 10:10
AMBROSIA "Ambrosia" 1975
RICARDO ZAPPA "Celestion" 1977
etc...
Posted By: bender99
Date 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.
Posted By: Slartibartfast
Date 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...
Posted By: Tom Ozric
Date Posted: October 07 2017 at 20:41
I do it often. Only copped out on very few occasions.
Posted By: Blacksword
Date Posted: October 09 2017 at 06:41
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!
Posted By: miamiscot
Date 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.
Posted By: Lewian
Date 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.
Posted By: Lewian
Date Posted: October 19 2017 at 09:47
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.