What caught my attention were, off to one side, several box sets of classical composers. I saw Bach, I think Mozart, and there it was, lo and behold - Beethoven's 9 Symphonies as conducted by ze maestro Herbert Von Karajan. I only hesitated for one moment. Ten bucks! But I did my duty and assessed the condition of each of the records in the set. Just a tiny bit of dust here and there, but these babies looked flawless... shiny and scratch-and-scuff-and-warp-free. The display box and its enclosed book on Karajan and the symphonies were in super nice condition, too. Ten bucks! I've only checked out the first few symphonies so far, but wow, the sound is almost perfect. Barely a distracting snap or pop at all. Best deal ever.
A little something showed up in the mail this week: two gently used records from a Discogs seller here in Canada (always preferable to the pricier shipping from the States). First up is Degüello, the sixth studio album by that l'il ol' band from Texas, ZZ Top. I had done my homework in order to decide which ZZ album to get this time around. I already had their Best Of from '77, and it's a great overview of their early work, but I wanted something from just after that period. Released in 1979, Degüello rocks in its distinctive bluesy way, with notable tracks I Thank You, She Loves My Automobile, I'm Bad I'm Nationwide, Dust My Broom, and Cheap Sunglasses. Yes, I will get some serious mileage out of this one... a winner from top to bottom.
Also in that Discogs package was something I'd been ruminating over ever since I got my turntable back in late 2017. That special something was Fair Warning by the world's greatest party band of all time, Van Halen. Released in '81, this album has always been underrated and unappreciated. Halen fans in the know will certainly cite this as perhaps their grittiest and meanest set of tunes. I'd say Mean Street's got the deadliest guitar intro in all of the VH catalogue... Eddie is in top shredding form on this and the whole rest of the album. Similarly heavy and catchy is Sinner's Swing, Unchained (a chilling guitar tone and technique here), and though the album is rather on the dark side (both thematically and musically), things return to that early Halen good-time vibe with So This is Love? Every song is great in its own way, though there are oddities in the mix as brother Ed fiddles for the first time with synthesizers. Weird but kinda neat.
Then this morning, upon discovering I had some credit with a local record store, I made a trip downtown for some flipping through the bins. I considered but passed on Cheap Trick's Dream Police album (heard it a zillion times as a teen and probably wouldn't give it much attention now) and the soundtrack for the movie Apocalypse Now (a fave movie, but not sure about listening to a recording of snippets of dialogue interspersed with music composed for the movie and existing tunes - both rock and classical. Maybe another day).
As I moved around the store, I did keep close at hand a brand new (2017, sealed) 40th anniversary pressing of David Bowie's Diamond Dogs, an album I've had on my shopping list for a while. With my credit applied to the purchase, it became very affordable. Can't wait to give this a spin... I only really know two songs from Diamond Dogs, the title track and the rowdy Rebel Rebel, so there's a lot of new music to discover. This 180g remastered reissue just happens to be my very first coloured - bright red - vinyl record.
And now.... to clean up some records and get them on the turntable. Cheers!
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