What a find!

[Michael Hagerty]

Browsing through the used vinyl at Half Price Books in Phoenix Thursday night, I found a white label promo copy of Stillness for $4. When I pulled the inner sleeve (the correct "Preserving The Sound Outside"), I found something else....a multi-page Sergio bio (on "News from A&M Records" letterhead) and an 8x10 promo glossy of Sergio and Brasil '66 (with Lani, not Grachina).

As a former DJ/program director, my memory says A&M stopped shipping stuff like that in promo copies around '71 or '72...and those things rarely stayed with the LPs.

Needless to say, I bought it!

---Michael Hagerty

 

[Dave]

Congratulations, Mike! artyhat:

Like you said, Record Company Letterheads, Artist Biographies, and 8 X 10 Promotional Photos really are a thing of the past, especially when the record they're contained in "switches hands"...!



Dave

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Needless to say, indeed! Great find...Can you scan the bio and post here?

 

[Mr Bill]

As a former DJ/program director, my memory says A&M stopped shipping stuff like that in promo copies around '71 or '72...and those things rarely stayed with the LPs.

Great find, Mike!

I'm not sure about your dates, though they may apply to radio stations... I was finding A&M materials like that as late as 1988. Perhaps it ended after the Polygram or Uni disaster happened to A&M. Of course, I had the good fortune of perusing used record shops in the Los Angeles area which may have helped in landing such finds.

Now, if you could only scan these items and get the scans to one of us moderators we could post them here!

--Mr. Bill

 

[LPJim]

That's a major find, indeed, especially for a major artist like Sergio, rather than one of the more obscure ones.

I have a white label promo of Roger Kellaway's CENTER OF THE CIRCLE (SP 3040) released in 1972. There's a cover letter review, glossy black-and-white photo, 3-page bio on yellow paper, and seven more pages of discography, brief review quotes and copies of full-length newspaper articles.

Chances are good nobody ever played the record or took anything out of the sleeve.

JB

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Guys:
Sorry to be so long in replying...I'm only checking the Corner every week or so (new project and a job search).
Anyway, I don't have access to a scanner, but I was able to do a few cell-phone shots of the treasure:

A real find for only $4.00...though, as I recall, I bought my first copy for only $2.49 back in 1970....


---Michael Hagerty
[/img]

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I bought my first copy for only $2.49 back in 1970....

That would've been a real bargain! I think the list price on LPs was either $4.98 or $5.98 at that time, if memory serves.

Anyway - great pics - congrats again on a great find.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

I bought my first copy for only $2.49 back in 1970....

That would've been a real bargain! I think the list price on LPs was either $4.98 or $5.98 at that time, if memory serves.

Anyway - great pics - congrats again on a great find.

Mike:
There was a record store called Crane's in Inglewood, California in the late 60s and early 70s. $4.98 list was $2.49, $5.98 list for $3.29...singles 53 cents.

From what I've learned about the record business since then, I suspect an enterprising rackjobber leased a storefront and sold stuff retail at the same price they charged wholesale for clients like Sears, The Broadway and The May Company (which tacked on a dollar or so to make a profit).

Lord only knows if it was legal, but from the time I discovered them (late '69) until I started getting radio station promo copies (early '72), Crane's was my favorite store. I could walk in with $20 and walk out with 7 albums and change.

---Michael Hagerty

 

[Terry Lattimer]

Mike H,
Your detective work of George Crane's operation was true. I worked and trained at Cranes Inglewood store in 1970 for $1.00 an hour from 10 am to 10 pm Mon thru Sun for 4 months - and then became manager of Cranes Palos Verdes store at $4.00 an hour and much better hours. Before my employment at Cranes, I too was a devoted customer, which was a much-needed source for the music-fiend that I was and still am. Just a slice of times when magic was afoot.
Terry Lattimer

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Mike H,
Your detective work of George Crane's operation was true. I worked and trained at Cranes Inglewood store in 1970 for $1.00 an hour from 10 am to 10 pm Mon thru Sun for 4 months - and then became manager of Cranes Palos Verdes store at $4.00 an hour and much better hours. Before my employment at Cranes, I too was a devoted customer, which was a much-needed source for the music-fiend that I was and still am. Just a slice of times when magic was afoot.
Terry Lattimer

Wow, Terry! I probably bought records from you! So help fill in the gaps, if you will...what was George's story? Was he a rackjobber? And were there other Crane's stores besides Inglewood and Palos Verdes?

 

[Terry Lattimer]

Mike, I guess there's no harm in relating the environment on that little side street in Inglewood. I was just out of Westchester high school when I hooked up w/George Crane so I was a little green and loved the music and culture so much that I did pretty much what he asked. I even went to people's houses to collect on bad checks and picked up all orders from the distributors One Stops and main companies (ABC, WB, etc.)! Sooo, if you remember he had his "employee girlfriend" working with him there all the time and from my viewpoint he very well could have been rack jobbing as he would come and go frequently for long periods and she'd manage in his absence.
(I eventually moved on to Record Rack a one-stop downtown as a Rack Jobber myself for several years before hooking up with Bernie & Liz Nifoussi of Grammy and Grannys (the Grammys sued and they changed to Disc-Connection) in Westwood and Westchester.
Back to Crane - he was in bed with another guy in Venice who set up just as you described Crane's operation earlier and I'm sure there was some shady stuff goin' on but remember back in those days things were different, everything was new so there may have been some clandestine product movement as well as the under the radar re-selling that no one was even aware of. He may have had an interest in his "partner's" Venice store but I'm pretty certain that he only had those two stores. Oh, AND he began selling high end stereo equiptment, but not big time which always made me think that the acquistion of that stuff was probably out the back of a warehouse - catch when can. This was kinda evident when he sold me a Sansui 4500 quad system and 4 Altec Lansing speakers - for cost. Who does that? Oh and a Teac 2340 simul-sync 4 channel tapedeck for cost (I still have it - the Beatles recorded Sgt. Pepper's on a Teac 3340 I do believe)! I used it to make several whacked but cool radio commercials on it that aired on KLOS? KMET? (one of those or both).
So yeah, it was definitely an underground operation, but really, who knew or cared back then I know neither you or I did as it was THE place to get your vinyl fix!
Good times - and they only came around once - as our culture was fully exploited by big biz - and they took over - don't get me started on the cost of concert tickets - at Brooadway from a small machine for $3.50 and $7.50 for the "expensive" seats. Sheesh, we were extremely fortunate to experience those times. Extremely fortunate.
Peace Brother.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Terry: Wow. If I'd known, I probably would have chickened out and not gone in there!

I lived in Inglewood from age 2-9 (1958-1965), then moved up to Bishop in the Sierras. But we'd come back to L.A. every six weeks or so. I didn't start buying records until '68. At first, I went to the big old traditional record store on Market Street in downtown Inglewood (what was the name of that place?). But in the summer of '69, a friend of mine told me about Crane's. I was 13. A totally different environment, that's for sure. I don't remember the high-end audio gear, but I may not have been paying attention. After the spring of 1971, I was working in radio and getting my records free, so I didn't stop in anymore.

But man...at the time, Crane's was amazing. 53 cents for every single on that week's KHJ Boss 30. $2.49 for $4.98 list LPs, $3.29 for $5.98 list LPs. I think I got George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass" (a 3-record set) for $5.49. I went in there the day after Christmas, 1970 with $40 in Christmas gift money and walked out with the entire Boss 30, "All Things Must Pass" and 8 other LPs and still had change left.

I know you moved on to the Palos Verdes store in '70, but do you know when the Inglewood store closed?

 

[Harry]

Was George any relation to Ken Crane? I spent a fortune for LaserDiscs at Ken Crane's, and even visited the store once when we were out at Disneyland.

Harry

 

[Terry Lattimer]

Mike,
Interesting, I moved to Mammoth in the summer '71 - we would go to Bishop for our grocery shopping! Moved back down to L.A. after surviving what locals were calling the worst (most snowfall) winter in a decade.

Do not recall the trad. Inglewood store, I was a Westchester kid we had the Westchester Music Store a big corner building just before LAX, got the Boss 30 there.

Ahh, free records - cut, punched, promos and white-labeled promos - I started acquring those as I made friends with the distributors, I had a really nice group of peop out at UA that would always have whatever new releases waiting for me when I made Crane's pick-up of legit LPs - and most all dist. were loose with the promos back then - word of mouth was excellent marketing, if the LPs were good!

You know, I'm not sure when Crane's closed. Through Crane's I made friends at Record Rack one-stop and left Crane's to Rack Job there so I pretty much got any LP I wanted and then joined up with the Nifoussi's who specialized and the $2.99 and $2.49 and $1.99 LP promo cut-outs (OOP) - that kept me fully-loaded - by the time I left their store, Grammy and Granny's in Westwood, I think Crane's was closed and that would have been 1977. It could have closed anytime in between - same for Palos Verdes - the times changed and maybe some shadiness caught up and spoiled all the fun.

Harry,
About George Crane, he was a character for sure, he was a little guy with very red thick straw hair and kinda buck teeth, I won't say weird, but well, unique. I liked him.
I don't believe that he was related to Ken Crane unless there was some Cain and Abel drama as I never heard him mentioned. Like I said before, I was 19 and while I was aware of a kinda shady air about the place it was never to a degree that felt illegal or dishonest even - and I was serious about the job and it paid off in the long run - besides it was the '60s we were making the rules!

Also an A&M related tid-bit; I was a USPS "Postman to the Stars" in Malibu back in the '80s and sometimes delivered to Herb Alpert and Lani Hall at the northern-most estates at Broad Beach - Cheech Marin was a neighbor - weren't Cheech & Chong on Ode Records? Wasn't that an A&M-owned label?

As you all know; life is so much sweeter and enjoyable with music. Amen.

 

[Rudy]

Mike, I guess there's no harm in relating the environment on that little side street in Inglewood.

You could write a book with stories like this. That era was unfortunately long past when I started buying records. I still could find deals (even in the 80s, one store would sell new releases at $4.95 for a week--I got Synchronicity that way), and there was a record club I belonged to that had their discounted pricing printed on the back of a Schwann's catalog.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Rudy: Record prices started accelerating with the oil crisis in 1973 and they just didn't stop. Back issues of Billboard (availiable online through Google Books) show how, even after the oil crisis eased, the labels would add an extra dollar to the price of an LP, and if there was no discernable slowdown in sales, six months or a year later, they'd add another dollar. By the end of the decade, they were at $9.98. Even discounters like Tower were hard pressed to get their prices below $6.98 at that rate (because the wholesale price went up with the retail). Sheer greed, given that an LP cost about 88 cents to make.

Terry: The winter of '68/'69 was wayyyyy worse. Ode Records was owned by Herb Alpert's longtime friend and sometime business associate, Lou Adler. He started it in '67, after selling his previous label, Dunhill, to ABC Records. For the first three years, Ode was distributed by Columbia. Then, from 1970-1976, by A&M. After '76, distribution went back to Columbia, but Cheech and Chong signed with Warners and took their masters with them, so re-issues of catalog product were on WB.

 

[Rudy]

Rudy: Record prices started accelerating with the oil crisis in 1973 and they just didn't stop. Back issues of Billboard (availiable online through Google Books) show how, even after the oil crisis eased, the labels would add an extra dollar to the price of an LP, and if there was no discernable slowdown in sales, six months or a year later, they'd add another dollar. By the end of the decade, they were at $9.98. Even discounters like Tower were hard pressed to get their prices below $6.98 at that rate (because the wholesale price went up with the retail). Sheer greed, given that an LP cost about 88 cents to make.

I remember part of the delay with Steely Dan's Gaucho was that MCA bumped up the list price by a dollar, a dollar more than other LPs released during that year (1980), as part of a "superstar" series. No such luck--it went out with the new $9.98 list price.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

And today I just heard an aircheck of Steven Clean on KMET in December, 1973 with an ad for a Beach Boys live album. The after-commercial tag? "Available at all four Crane's Record and Tapes Stores". Inglewood, Palos Verdes...so where were the other two?

 

[JMK]

Michael, could you repost scans of the Mendes PR sheets so that those of us who didn't see them the first time 'round could see them?

 

[Terry Lattimer]

And today I just heard an aircheck of Steven Clean on KMET in December, 1973 with an ad for a Beach Boys live album. The after-commercial tag? "Available at all four Crane's Record and Tapes Stores". Inglewood, Palos Verdes...so where were the other two?

Mike, thanks for clearing-up the Ode history.
Ahhh, yes, that tripped the meme file - Crane did have a Santa Barbera, Isla Vista(?) store - wow - I forgot all about that - I never was involved with that store - I kinda think it was an "excuse" investment as I think Crane was married but he definately had a double life with his "store wife" and the trips north to the SB store were perfect getaways - weird - I could be wrong but everything was a little hinky around the edges with that whole "enterprise" - as were so many ventures back then when trying to make a go of alternate lifestyles and businesses. (I sold candles to Broadway's notions dept. back in the early '70s - no re-sale #, no credit check, purchase orders, just walked in told 'em how much, paid me and put them on their shelves for sale - true and true for the times.)
I'll bet that Crane hung his store name on his buddy's in Venice, wait, I think it was on Lincoln Blvd - that was prob the fourth store . Wow, trippy catalysts for memories. Once I was managing the Palos Verdes store I was pretty busy and no longer at nerve center in Inglewood.
The list price increases affected by the gas (oil) shortage signaled the end of an era and if we all remember the LPs got thinner, way easy to bend AND began to have visible imperfections within the vinyl (especially Columbia releases). Previously I would obtain virgin vinyl imports from mostly Tower but from Moby Disc too , but then started getting import issues just to have good unpoppy copies of favorite releases. I remember trading in LPs at Moby Disc to get a mint A&M virgin vinyl English import release of Humble Pie's "1st(?) LP "Humble Pie" so that the intro to "Live With Me" would be flawless - and it was.

 

[Rudy]

For sure, that vinyl got to be horrendous. A lot of it was reclaimed and went through a regrind (label and all, such as with MCA). To its credit, RCA's dynaflex vinyl was as thin as a National Geographic sound sheet, but it played quieter than some thicker species of its time.

At least it has come full circle, and most of today's vinyl is back to being quiet. I have a couple 180 gram issues that are so quiet, you'd think you were playing back the master tape. It took them, what, 50 years to perfect the process?

Those were the days of business back then--a handshake, a nod and a fistful of cash were all the "contract" you needed to conduct business.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Michael, could you repost scans of the Mendes PR sheets so that those of us who didn't see them the first time 'round could see them?

JMK: I'll try. It'll be a few days, at least.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Mike, thanks for clearing-up the Ode history.

The list price increases affected by the gas (oil) shortage signaled the end of an era and if we all remember the LPs got thinner, way easy to bend AND began to have visible imperfections within the vinyl (especially Columbia releases). Previously I would obtain virgin vinyl imports from mostly Tower but from Moby Disc too , but then started getting import issues just to have good unpoppy copies of favorite releases. I remember trading in LPs at Moby Disc to get a mint A&M virgin vinyl English import release of Humble Pie's "1st(?) LP "Humble Pie" so that the intro to "Live With Me" would be flawless - and it was.

A friend of mine in San Diego in '75 went through seven copies of Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road on MCA from Tower Records...we kept going back and forth, exchanging it. Every copy was lousy...and the 7th copy was such poorly recycled vinyl that we could actually (as Rudy says above) see bits of an old label mixed in with the recycled vinyl. That was it...back to Tower...where we made them look at the paper in the grooves, and where he popped the extra few bucks for an import copy, which was flawless.

 

[Terry Lattimer]

A friend of mine in San Diego in '75 went through seven copies of Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road on MCA from Tower Records...we kept going back and forth, exchanging it. Every copy was lousy...and the 7th copy was such poorly recycled vinyl that we could actually (as Rudy says above) see bits of an old label mixed in with the recycled vinyl. That was it...back to Tower...where we made them look at the paper in the grooves, and where he popped the extra few bucks for an import copy, which was flawless.

I did the same with the Beatles white album, prob took about as many to get a playable copy but the grooves were so close together with the inclusion of so many songs that sometimes the needle would literally jump to a fatter groove (!?!) Everyone I knew had to return 'em.
The return rate on "defective" LPs was ugly and yes that was vinyl-coated paper bits that were visible in LPs back then - sheesh.

Just a side observation: I had a 4 year gig in the late '90s designing and sculpting action figures out of my home studio and listened to CDs all day and night long. When my player failed I brought out my LPs and turntable (I had one of those tables that played like the way the LP was mastered and cut - the arm ran parallel to the LP, not at an arc) the first LP I put on was Spark's "No. 1 Song In Heaven" - I was blown away; it was light years away in quality all the way around from the CDs I had been listening to. We all know this as a true fact - it was just under those circumstances that it was glaringly obvious of analog over digital. Which leads to Joe Walsh's new (?) song "Analog Man" seek it out - typical clever Joe lyrics to typical righteous Joe rock - a fun tune!

 

[Michael Hagerty]

.

Just a side observation: I had a 4 year gig in the late '90s designing and sculpting action figures out of my home studio and listened to CDs all day and night long. When my player failed I brought out my LPs and turntable (I had one of those tables that played like the way the LP was mastered and cut - the arm ran parallel to the LP, not at an arc) the first LP I put on was Spark's "No. 1 Song In Heaven" - I was blown away; it was light years away in quality all the way around from the CDs I had been listening to. We all know this as a true fact - it was just under those circumstances that it was glaringly obvious of analog over digital. Which leads to Joe Walsh's new (?) song "Analog Man" seek it out - typical clever Joe lyrics to typical righteous Joe rock - a fun tune!

There's actually a basis in science here. I read recently that our brains actually work overtime trying to reconcile digital audio. It sounds like sound but something deep in the synapses knows it's not natural and has to work overtime to "translate" for us. It actually creates "digital fatigue".