Copying edition

Apart from more rumblings from the elections which I might write something about  next week as the other elections are on the week has seen me work on a couple of things such as making some minidiscs from my lp collection.

This UK edition of the 1966 It Ain't Me Babe  album of 1964/5 pop hits by the Surfaris, a California  surf garage group is pretty rare and I had this in my early teens which even then was a bit the worse for wear, probably being played at teen parties.
Produced by Gary Usher who worked with the Beach Boys and the Byrds, it - and it was a revelation to me to discover this actually taken from the US album stampers done for US Decca, it's a fantastically produced album that cuts through much of the use my copy had received before I had it.
Thus I decided to copy this to MiniDisc having changed the cartridge to one that works better with vintage mono pressings and ensure the output was in pure mono to the recorder so any pops remained central.

I also did Hollies' Greatest, the first UK Greatest Hits album by the Hollies that as my copy is a 1968 mono original is the only place some of the original mono mixes on the 45's can be found and as there was space for  it on the MiniDisc, I added the US only Beat Group lp of 1966 which I have the Sundazed mono re-issue lp of a few years back that used british mono master recordings of as that title has never been issued on cd.
It contains my theme tune, I'll Take What I Want!

 This album Snakes and Arrows by Canadian heavy rockers Rush is hard  to find in its limited US only 2007 double lp release - I had to find a seller in the States who was prepared to ship it to me as it was virtually unobtainable over here
When I originally copied this that year I has having hum problems with my turntable which if you read this blog you'll know was changed in 2016 in part for those reasons so I re did that one.
It's a album that runs for just over 61 minutes so each side is about 15 minutes long, too long to do properly on a single lp and the reason I bought it was the cd version suffered from having the difference between the loudest and softest sounds squashed, a trend that began in earnest in 1993/4 and sadly very common place but the record escaped it.
Putting it on MiniDisc make sense as it's convenient and portable too.

Rewind to the past

It's kinda funny how you remember not just when and where you first saw or heard something and for me many of what some people call oldies - music from the 1950's and early 1960's - is what I grew up hearing not when I was around as I hadn't been born then but on the radio as revived oldies.
Presented by people who grew up with them first hand, I often spent official day long vacation days listening to their shows as well as whenever I was ill as a child, listening to their stories and gaining at the same time an appreciation of the music that preceded the Beatles and Rolling Stones over in England.
To this end I've been collecting the ACE Records London American label series compilation cds of which this one is the latest instalment.


















This instalment such hits as Little Town Flirt, Then He Kissed Me, Let's Turkey Trot, Be My Baby and I'll take You Home plus others that were bubbling under but none the less are fascinating to hear. The great beauty is this series is in strict chronological order so you hear them pretty much as folk did back then and their from the original UK masters used for the singles which were mono only.
The two previous instalments were 1962 and 1959.

The Surfaris
There was a fairly important surf group in that genres early 60's hayday who had a big hit with Wipe Out and Surfer Joe who hailed from Glendora, California but after the sounds peak in late 1963 issued a number of albums covering contemporary hits no doubt to stay on the label such as Hit City '64 & 65 that are out of print.

 This album, It Ain't Me Babe was issued on Decca in the US in late 1965 and on UK Brunswick in early 1966 covering tracks made famous by the Stones, Byrds, We Five and many others in a mainly folk rock style.
I've had this album since at least 1976 enjoying the impeccable mono production by Gary Usher who did work with the Byrds amongst others.