Second Hand News / July 2013
It’s that time of the month! We’ve been shopping for used records. Here’s what we’ve found…
Swing Out Sister / Surrender US 12″ (1988)
Picked up this US twelve-inch version of Swing Out Sister‘s Surrender because it contains the Pop Stand Remix (by Justin Strauss and Murray Elias) which wasn’t issued in the UK. In fact it also contains the standard Stuff Gun Mix and the seven-inch version, as well as B-side Who’s To Blame, so all in all, a nice item (if you can forgive the horrendous cover). The Pop Stand Remix runs for 7.05 and didn’t appear on last year’s It’s Better To Travel reissue. It probably should have, to be honest, since it’s rather good, and not one of those ruined-for-the-dancefloor mixes. But we’ve given Swing Out Sister enough advice in the past, so let’s not go there.
The Bangles/ Walk Like An Egyptian UK CD Single (1990)
The person who previously owned this Bangles CD single, was obviously freaked out by the card sleeve, and got a pair of scissors out and butchered it, forcing it into a jewel case! Despite this travesty, it’s an excellent item. The Bangles 1986 single was reissued in 1990 to coincide with their greatest hits, and this four track collection includes the original Extended Dance Mix, Acappella Mix, and single version of the song as well as the Ozymandias 7″ Remix. A twelve-inch version of the latter was also issued at the time on vinyl.
Faithless / Sunday 8AM Saturday 3AM limited 2CD (1999)
The second album from the now-disbanded Faithless was reissued a year after its 1998 original release, as this two-CD special edition. The bonus disc (Saturday 3AM) contains ten remixes.
The Moody Blues / Days Of Future Passed SACD/CD deluxe edition (2006)
This out-of-print Moody Blues deluxe edition was found just days after we photographed the new Timeless Flight box. Unlike that set, this contains a hi-res surround sound mix of the album, on the SACD format. A second disc (standard CD) has alternate versions and outtakes. Probably should have cost us much more than the £7.99 we paid, but this one wasn’t bought in a charity shop, so we don’t feel too guilty!
Nick Mason / Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd (2005)
Okay, so it’s an audio book. But the rock credentials of Nick Mason’s ‘personal history of Pink Floyd’ allow it ‘entry’ into this list. He reads an abridged version of his book (running time 3 hours 20 minutes), and it comes on three CDs. Even better, the packaging is great. A hardback eight-panel presentation with a 30-page booklet containing some great pictures, including that photo (taken by Mason) of Syd Barrett, when he dropped in on the Wish You Were Here sessions in June 1975.
Sting / We’ll Be Together UK CD single (1987)
We promise not to mention Swing Out Sister or Sting again next month (honest, guv) but who could resist this excellent CD single from 1987. The four tracks here do not appear on any other Sting CD; they are an extended, ‘previous’ and instrumental versions of We’ll Be Together (the lead single from his second solo album Nothing Like The Sun) and the wonderful B-side Conversation With A Dog, which could easily have been an album track. It’s a three-inch CD in one of those adapters.
Various Artists / Red Hot + Dance CD (1992)
The ‘various artists’ charity album released in summer of 1992 to raise awareness and help fight the HIV/AIDS virus. Red Hot + Dance was notable for featuring three new George Michael tracks (including UK number one Too Funky) and its track listing included remixes of tracks by Madonna, Seal and Lisa Stansfield.
Paul McCartney / All The Best! US CD (1987)
On the face of it, nothing too interesting about Paul McCartney‘s 1987 hits collection All The Best! on CD, but the well-trained eye will spot the Capitol Records logo on the back indicating that this is the US release. That’s significant, because the US CD omits UK single Once Upon A Long Ago, Mull Of Kintyre and We All Stand Together – preferring Junior’s Farm, Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey (a US number one, let’s not forget!) and Goodnight Tonight. Coming Up is also the Live in Glasgow version, which didn’t get a European CD release until the McCartney II deluxe edition of 2011. Not John Lennon’s favourite version however. He told Los Angeles Times music critic Robert Hilburn that he liked “the freak version that he made in his barn, better than that live Glasgow one…. I thought the record company had a nerve changing it round on him”. Brilliant. Proof that The Beatles would have got back together. Probably.
Madonna / Dress You Up US 12″ 1985
The US twelve-inch of Madonna‘s Dress You Up, has different artwork to the UK version but includes the same 12″ Formal Mix and The Casual Instrumental Mix. A third track is the album version of Shoo-Bee-Doo.
Glenn Gregory and Claudia Brucken / When Your Heart Runs Out Of Time 7″ (1985)
The theme song from Nic Roeg’s 1985 film Insignificance was issued by ZTT Records and featured Propaganda‘s Claudia Brucken and Heaven 17‘s Glenn Gregory singing a rather bombastic song by Steve Winwood co-writer and soundtrack specialist Will Jennings. In true ZTT fasion the B-side is a ‘drumless’ version, which is basically as described…
See you next month, with more Second Hand News!
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Lanny, While I’m sure it’s not up to the best in London, I am always turning up gems in the Midwest. The best part is that some of the younger shop owners don’t their older (20th Century) music, so a lot of items slip through their fingers. Here are some recommendations:
Chicago – Reckless, Dusty Groove, Delmark, Half-Price Books
Champaign – Exile on Main Street, Record Swap
Springfield – Recycled Records
Normal – Waiting Room, North Street
St. Louis – Euclid, Vintage Vinyl
Excellent Web Site!
Love these articles! Makes me wish I was shopping where you are!
Oddly i bought that yesterday too, the Ozymandias mix is rather poor and baggy 1990 like, rare cd single though.
What is the Ozymandias 7″ mix of Walk Like an Egyptian like?
I so wish I could go music shopping with you in the UK. The music shopping here in the midwest of the US is so horrific. It’s such a dying past time and it makes me so sad. Downloading will NEVER be as fun.
That’s a shame. I have to say it’s not great here, even in Central London. You need to be willing to ‘pop into’ charity shops regularly to find the odd interesting item. There is obviously a lot of dross out there too!
Some nice finds! Make sure the Bangles CD-single still plays, as a lot of CBS ones from that era (1988-1990) have fallen foul of disc rot, even if they look okay. He says from bitter experience, haha.
I love things like the Macca US edition being different; I may actually have to track one down now….
Yes, it looks terrible (bronzed) but seems to play okay!
My copy sounds awful. The 1988-90 CBS/Polydor CD singles in card sleeves (Eighth Wonder, Miami Sound Machine, Siouxsie’s Peek-a-boo, etc.) seem to have suffered from CD rot. I have 5 copies of Gloria Estefan’s Anything For You UK 3 track CD single, with the exclusive 10 minute megamix, and only one of them will play/rip. I bought one myself at the time of release, the others about 18 months ago, one by one, trying to find a copy that worked still. Madness! Not sure what’s different with these pressings, but there’s a good few more I can’t remember off the top of my head. Also, that Ozymandias 7″ Remix is rather rubbish, no?
Yup – I have an All About Eve single from that period that sounds like static.
Coincidentally, it also came in a card sleeve like that Bangles CD and the previous owner had also butchered the card sleeve and forced it into a jewel case. This was odd on two counts: 1) the card sleeve single belonged in a card envelope with some postcards (all intact, so what was the point in cutting anything to fit a jewel case?) and 2) the guy I inherited it from claimed to be “a serious collector”! He was a serious idiot.
Paul, your local secondhand/charity shops yield much more interesting results than mine!
Anfunny, you must have been unlucky with your Anything For You CD singles – mine has only very light discolouring and plays fine. However, my copy of Gloria’s 123 CD single is looking pretty brown. Presumably some pressings were more susceptible to bronzing than others. I think there was a dodgy CD pressing plant that was still causing bronzing problems for some CD singles, especially those on the Mercury label, up to the mid-1990s.
The Ozymandias mix of Walk Like an Egyptian sounded like they’d filtered the song through The Farm’s Groovy Train – I’m not sure it works but it’s an interesting attempt to update the song with a 1990 flavour.
I never understood why people got so irked by card CD single sleeves that they felt the need to cut them up and force them into a jewel case. It might then fit into a CD rack but it still wouldn’t have a readable spine. I always preferred the card sleeves to the jewel cases anyway – they looked more like 7″ and 12″ sleeves.
That Nick Mason audio book is fantastic. He’s got a great radio voice, and the inclusion of some transitional sound effects makes it feel like a Pink Floyd work. I also read the print edition, and I don’t remember much of significance missing from the CD.