My favorite album?

Hi folks, sorry haven't been around in a while, kind of down a bit, but I'm trying, I'm trying.
Anyway I was thinking of my favorite albums and what would be my favorite, my all time favorite album?!?!?!? Like a lot of people, I don't think I can just pick one! But one that rises to the top if not number one, most definitely number two! LOL!

I would say that the album in my collection that gets the most play is, The Rolling Stones: "Exile On Main st.". First let me say, that I have been a "Stones nut" since the Summer of 1968, when I first heard my older sister playing the single of "Jumping Jack Flash"! The sound of the guitar was what got me even at that young age, (I was 9 years old). Anyway, I remember when my sister left her room I ran in there to look at her stereo to see what record she was playing and there it was! The Rolling Stones, Jumping Jack Flash"! While she was out I played the record a dozen times or more! I was "entranced" by that sound of the guitar and the overall sound of the whole record!

Anyway, that lead me on a life of listening, collecting and seeing in concert the "Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World", the Rolling Stones! I had a friend growing up that seemed very "hip" to music and in the later part of the '60's and early '70's, he further introduced me to the sounds of the Rolling Stones and again in the summer of 1972 he came home with the Rolling Stones, "Exile On Main St.", I went over his house to hear the new sounds of the Stones and was floored!!!! Again the sound of the guitars knocked me OUT!!!!! So the next weekend, I hurried over to the record store and picked up my own copy of "Exile", when I got home and opened the album, I was dismayed and disappointed that my copy did NOT have the "postcards" that were included in my friend's album. Anyway, I sucked it up and carried on listening to the music that would be an integral part of my life. But, I did a few months later get another copy of "Exile" to get the "postcards" of course, I am Half-Baked Wax you know! LOL!

Having said that! I am presently on my fifth vinyl copy of "Exile"! Well the fifth copy was kind of a given, since it was part of an anniversary edition that included the vinyl, CD's, an extra CD containing some out takes and unreleased songs from the "Exile" sessions that were recorded at Keith's house in the South of France and in L.A. Also, included in the set was a DVD and a book. which was given to me as a Birthday present from my wife. But, barring that edition I went through four vinyl copies of "Exile"!

I got to see them at Madison Square Garden in July of '72, with my fellow Stones nut and his older brother. Under the guise of sleeping over my friends house, (Because my parents wouldn't let me go to a concert) I saw the 2 PM afternoon show AND the 8 PM evening show!!!! As can be guessed, a good time was had by all! LOL!

Now, to this record. It's a double LP gatefold with custom inner sleeves and a custom label. As soon as you put the needle down on side one, the record BLASTS off!!!! Starting with "Rock Off"! A blazing splatter of guitars, drums and hyped-vocals. Wide ranging lyrics of life on the road, drugs and women!
Sorry to end here, but part two tomorrow, I promise! This adventure will probably take a few days, perhaps a week to go through, as I voice my opinion of MY favorite LP! Until then, may you always find the hidden track, cheers and all is well.

                                                                                                                  Half-Baked Wax

Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums Part 2!

So, last night I took a deeper look at Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums. Well, as I found out it's not just Rock and Roll, it's Jazz, Hip-Hop, Soul and Country and other musical tastes. There was an introduction to the magazine by Elton John, it seemed more of a commercial for the albums that are in the magazine. ANYWAY, as I used to say to a friend of mine. I looked at all the 500 albums and I counted the that I have and or had, so out of the 500 albums I have/had 133 of them. Not bad, not quite half that list. But my collection is WAY better than the 500 here. LOL!

On another note, the last page of this magazine had a bunch of interesting stats!For instance believe it or not Michael Jackson's "BAD" album had the most number one hits! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!?!??! Also, another interesting fact is that the Grateful Dead album, "Live Dead" Was released Nov. 10, 1969 and it wasn't until August 24, 2001 that it finally went GOLD! Also, out of this list of the 500 greatest albums the majority of the greatest albums came from the era of the '70's! Like THAT was a surprise!!!!!! LOL!!! The groups or individuals with the most number of albums in the 500 greatest albums was Bob Dylan with 10, The Beatles with 10, the Rolling Stones with 10, Bruce Springsteen with 8 and The Who with 7. Interesting, eh?

I'll give you their top 10.
1. SGT. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band- The Beatles
2. Pet Sounds- The Beach Boys
3. Revolver- The Beatles
4. Highway 61 Revisited- Bob Dylan
5.  Rubber Soul- The Beatles
6. What's Going On- Marvin Gaye
7. Exile On Main St.- The Rolling Stones
8. London Calling- The Clash
9. Blonde On Blonde- Bob Dylan
10. "The White Album"- The Beatles I have the White Album in Parenthesis because we all know the real name of this album is called. "The Beatles". Anyway, That's the top 10 of the greatest 500 Albums of ALL Time! After 10 the list starts going down hill fast! With 11 being an Elvis album a collection of his SUN Records recordings called "Sunrise" which came out in 1999!!!! Guess what? I have never heard of this record. I know of "The Sun Sessions" which surprisingly is on this list as well. Number 12 in Miles Davis' "Kind Of Blue". 12! Don't you think it should have been ahead of a repackage of SUN Session recordings??

As, I have said yesterday, once you make list of 500 albums there has to be some clinkers and BOY are there! A band like Arcade Fire is on this list coming in at number 151 with their album "Funeral". I saw them on SNL a while ago and I really didn't like them. But that's just me.

Well, I think that's enough for now. Tomorrow will be part 3, with what I didn't like on the list and maybe someone out there can tell me the opposite and why. Well, cheers and may you always find the hidden track.

                                                                                    Half-Baked Wax

Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums.

Recently I picked up Rolling Stone's The Greatest Albums Of All Time. I was curious as to what would be in it and to pick 500 albums! THAT would be an accomplishment even for me! But I don't know what to make of this list, I don't know if it's just Rock albums or something else? I don't know, because the back cover of the magazine says, "Rock's Greatest Albums Come Alive". So, is this just Rock albums or all music? I don't know, but we'll find out together. If anyone has looked at this magazine feel free to comment. Because I think I will break this up in parts.

Now, first 500 albums is a lot of albums and to list them from 1 to 500, is a feat in itself! Plus the fact I could guess that maybe the first 100 or 150 would be the coolest albums then after that I think one would be hard pressed to come up with another 350 of equally cool albums. Maybe it's me. How 'bout you, could anyone out there come up with 500 COOL albums?!?!? Hmmmmm.

I glanced at this list and it was just a casual glance and from that couple of quick looks, I could see right away that some of the albums near the top could be ranked lower and visa-versa.

So, what should I do start at number 500 and work to number one or start at number one and go to 500? That's the question. So, for now, I'll leave it at that and start the list tomorrow. After I give it some thought and take a look at the albums they have listed here and decide from that.

Anyway, cheers for now, see ya tomorrow and may you always find the hidden track!

                                                                                Half-Baked Wax

My first record

Hi everyone! Today I was thinking of the first record in my collection! I heard this song a number of times on the radio. I don't remember how old I was, I think I was 5 or 6, but probably closer to 5 years old. I also believe my older sister had the record and she ended up giving it to me. I no only listened to the record hundreds of times, but I also carried around wherever I went! With no sleeve, just the record itself! (I know GASP! right!) LOL!

Anyway, I'm sure by now you are wondering what great record this was. It was Chubby Checker's "Pony Time"! I don't remember the "B" side. But I do remember it had an orange label. Alas, I do not have that record anymore. As I said I carried this record everywhere! One of these times was a trip in my sister's boyfriend's car. We went to a park and was there a while and I left the record in the car. I know what your'e thinking. "Oh, no the heat got to it!" No, I left the record on the car seat. The drivers side seat and as I got in the car and started to reach for it my sister's boyfriend sat down and cracked it in half! Of course he told me he was going to buy me a new one. But as you can guess, he never did!

Anyway, years later while I was record hunting in a local store, as an after thought I asked if they had a copy of Chubby Checker's "Pony Time" and they did albeit a re-issue. It was on a ABKCO label and made into a double "A" side hit single. the other side was "The Hucklebuck" a song I gather made popular buy one of "The Honeymooners" episodes, if anyone remembers that. On a little side note about that "Honeymooners" episode. I think the kid "Tommy Manicotti" the kid that lived upstairs and was on a few episodes. The kid that played "Tommy" was Van Dyke Parks, who later became a partner in songwriting with the famous Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys! On the fate of "Parkway Records", the whole Cameo-Parkway catalog was bought up by ABKCO. ABKCO was the record label of Allen Klein, who managed the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, not at the same time. Right now ABKCO only releases Cameo-Parkway records in various Greatest Hits packages.

I still haven't bought an original issue of Chubby Checker's "Pony Time", but I haven't really looked hard for it either. I still have the ABKCO re-issue of "Pony Time" though. Other records That I got after "Pony Time" was a bunch of kids records my mother picked up for me whenever she went to the Dept. Store. I still have a few of those. One called, "The Crazy Mixed Up Zoo", which I guess explains a lot about me. A few others were these "Play-A-Long" records where you played along as an Astronaut and other things like that. It was fun. Because it continued on side B and I remember as a kid rushing to turn over the record to get to side B as fast as possible, because at that time I guess Ihad a real work ethic! LOL!!!!

Anyway, that's my first record story. Peace be with you and may you always find the hidden track!
                                                                                 RB

Old and new style of record collecting.

Hi everyone. Hope all is well in the vinyl community. As I have said in my introduction. I started collecting in the mid-70's and basically stopped by the late 80's. I have started up again around maybe 2006. Yeah, I know a long layover! LOL! Also, the fact that I have lost more than half my collection in that time. Even though at my highest point of record collecting I had no where near the size I see on some of you guys sites! Like FatBackFunk, Lazzerus, EoLoVoX, Vinyliciousness and DereckVon. To mention a few. These guys have are "All Out" To say the least!

"Back in the day" I had a little over 600 LP's not counting singles and cassettes. singles I probably had close to 600. Cassettes not much, maybe 200 or less. 8-Tracks I could count on one hand and have fingers left over! I HATED 8-Tracks!!!!!! (Oh, was that too rough?) I bought 8-Tracks when I really wanted an album and when I go to the record store, a few times that's all they had, just the 8-Track. On 8-Track I had Alice Cooper's "Muscle of Love" album. Because I really wanted it and when I got to the store that's the only way they had it. :( Also, Boston's second album, I think it was called, "Don't Look Back", because once again that's all they had. So, I only had 2 albums on 8-Track. The reason for my utter disdain for 8-Tracks is two-fold. Well, actually maybe three-fold.

My first disdain for 8-Tracks is, when a song is long and it's the last song on "Channel One". First you get the "fade-out", then you get the "Whrrrr" sound the you get the "Click, click, click" sound, the you get the "fade-in". By this time you lost the "groove" of the song. My second disdain for 8-Tracks is that if you don't play them in a while they break. The third disdain is they were cumbersome to carry around. Well, lets just say I didn't like 8-Tracks. LOL!

Lets talk a little about collections. Once you get them home. You clean them up if need be.Then you would put them in those heavy, thick, cloudy bags. Which at the time you thought was the "Cat's Meow"! LOL! I used to buy these bags and when I worked for some of the record stores around the neighborhood. I used "borrow" their bags. I like the LP bags with the flap and I used to have the flap at the top and yes, that meant taking the whole album out of the bag. Which isn't bad, because you always looked at all the photos and read all the liner notes and all the credits, over and over again and again! LOL! Am I lying?? LOL! Not only did I use the flap I also "Scotched Taped" them closed! Now, I'm hearing in the vinyl community of these "Blake" bags. I've seen the reviews by DereckVon, Lazzerus and a few others and man they do look good! So eventually I have to get those.

So, the style of old and new record collecting has come down to Thick, heavy, cloudy bags to clear, shiny, I gotta get me some Blake bags? Is that what it has come to? A part two of this tomorrow will be how I catalogued my albums, when I had them.

Also, on a closing note. Of course "back in the day" I was mainly a "Rock Head". But, now I'm getting into Jazz. Both listening and playing. I play a bit of Jazz guitar. Anyway, I have to contact Teddy of Vinyliciousness about getting some Jazz! I have started a small collection this far. But I need that to grow! So, anyway, bye for now, peace be with you and may you always find the hidden track!
                                                        Half-Baked Wax

Ever wonder.........

           Ever wonder when you bought or saw an album with  a notch in it like in the picture above or a hole punched in the corner or a corner cut off or a notch in the spine? How about a 45 single with a hole drilled in the label or a cassette with a hole burned through the outer cassette case and a hole punched in the paper insert? Have you seen or bought a CD with a notch cut out on the side of the CD case?

These are albums, singles, cassettes and CD's that didn't sell in a retail store and they are sent back to the record companies or wholesalers. They in turn put a "mark" on the product and then they are re-sold to retailers and discount houses at of course discounted prices. They are marked so the retailer cannot return them again to try and get the full price back.So, it's a preventive measure by record companies and wholesalers, so they don't get ripped off.

Sometimes in rare instances some albums are "punched" or "cut-out" to send to radio stations as "Promo" albums.

As far as the "collectability" goes for such records, does it lessen the value. Yes and no, I would say. If the record is rare or scarce and you have a cut-out album it could still be valuable. But if the album is common. I would search for a non cut out album. I myself have a few cut-outs in my collection. I use them as place holders until I find a non cut out. But, alas I have a few cut outs that I cannot find a non cut out edition. So, for me of those albums the search continues..........................................

And as always, peace be with you and may you always find the hidden track!

                                                                                                            RB

Lets talk Pat Martino: STARBRIGHT

     As a young guy learning guitar in Queens, N.Y. I first heard of Pat Martino through Guitar Player magazine. It was some time in 1976, when I picked up a copy of Guitar Player and read an article on Pat Martino and talked about his new album, "StarBright". A little while later I went down to the local record shop which basically carried Rock & Roll records. I was surprised to see that they had the new Pat Martino album, "StarBright" on Warner Bros. I picked it up right away. It was my first "Jazz Buy"!

I listened to this album quite often that after a few years I bought a second copy, because the first was wearing out. Getting that crackly sound that us in the VC end to dislike. Pat's next release was the album "Joyous Lake". But for some reason that escapes me this album became the more popular of the two! So much so that in 1998, Pat recorded the album "Stone Blue" and used the same musicians from the "Joyous Lake" album. Both "StarBright" and "Joyous Lake" were released in 1976, but "Joyous Lake" is the more popular of the two! As I just stated above.

To me "StarBright" is a wonderful album and has a bunch of wonderful musicians on it. Pat of course. On this album Pat is not only playing guitar he is also playing Synthesizer and Percussion for the first time. Gil Goldstein on Keyboards has played sessions for many artists and has won 3 Grammy's. He is currently a Professor at NYU for Jazz Studies. There was also, Warren Bernhardt, Mike Mainieri on Synthesizers. Charles Collins & Michael Carvin on Drums. Alyrio Lima Cova-Percussion. Marty Quinn on Tablas. Al Regni-Flute. Will Lee on Bass, who has done a ton of session work and is currently in the "The Most Dangerous Band In The World"! The Late Night with David Letterman band! Last but not least was Joe D'Onofrio on Violin, who strangely enough is Pat's manager.

Whew!!!! That was exhausting and FUN!!!!! Anybody out there have "STARBRIGHT"? Or at least have heard it once or twice? Please feel free to comment on it. Like it, hate it? what's your viewpoint on this to me great Pat Martino album? This album to me is a masterpiece! It has a very special place not only in my heart but my mind as well and a very special place on my shelf! This album not only has great memories, but new ones at each listen. Not only do I have this album on vinyl, but also CD and iTunes download as well.

This album did not make me play guitar like Pat Martino. But I did learn to acknowledge his skill which is unmatched in many ways! Well oddly enough all this while Pat was playing with a brain tumor and had to get operated on which he did and of course was successful. Pat recovered but when he came out of surgery and a few years after that he didn't remember how to play guitar he had to learn all over again and he is back to burning up the fretboards!!!!!

Well, my friends, post comments and such. Peace be with you and may you always find the hidden track. RB.

The Rolling Stones 50th Anniversary!

Hello everyone today is July 12, 2012! Which means 50 years ago today the Rolling Stones had their first gig at the "Marquee Club"! So, boys & girls is the 50th Anniversary of The Rolling Stones!!! YAY!!!!!!!

50 years ago today Mick, vocals, Keith, guitar, Brian, guitar, Ian Stewart, piano, Dick Taylor (Who later went on and played with the band, "Pretty Things") bass and Mick Avory (Who later went on to be the drummer for "The Kinks"). Made their way down to Oxford St. London and played their first gig. at that time they were known as "The Rollin' Stones" they added the "G" to Rolling when and Irish Jug Band of the same name threatened them in some fashion. So, "The Rollin' Stones" just added the "G" to become "The Rolling Stones" 

Now, I've always heard that the Rolling Stones got their name from the Muddy Waters song. "Rollin' Stones Blues" but I have read a book and a friend of Mick's at the time his name is Dave Godin said they definitely got the name from the Muddy Waters song, "Mannish Boy" in which there is a line that says, "I'm a rolling stone". Which ever story. song is the right one we can all agree that "The Rolling Stones" are the "World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band"! But I'm a bit biased since I AM a BIG Rolling Stones Stones fan, since the summer of 1968, when I heard my sister playing the "Jumping Jack Flash" single from her bedroomimgres

Welcome to my Introduction.

Hello everyone in the VC or just a tad bit interested in the Vinyl Community, record collecting, trading, selling, hoarding and such. How you all doing?

Let me introduce myself. I'm Half-Baked Wax! I'm half-Baked because I had a fairly vast vinyl collection. But through the years of moving, friends "borrowing" and selling in hard times as if this isn't a hard time! I started seriously collecting in the mid-'70's and a massed a large collection of some classic and rare vinyl. I have also worked in a number of record stores and have sold records at "Flea-Markets" and or 'Swap-Meets"! Mainly I collected Rock & Roll, Blues, some Jazz and very little Classical. At the time in the mid, late '70's my Jazz collection consisted of Pat Martino's "StarBright" George Benson's "Breezin'" and a compliation of Wes Montgomery called, "Groove Brothers" I'm pretty sure that was the name. It was a double album, with gatefold and the cover was a dark blue with some black. That's all I remember, since it is no longer in my possession.

I tell you about the Jazz aspect of my meager Jazz collection. Because around 2001 I started getting heavily into Jazz! Now, I have a VAST Jazz collection albeit on CD. I have a few Jazz pieces on vinyl and I intend to correct that! That's where you guys come in. I would love to share music, stories, photos, writings. Anything to do with vinyl records. My main focus will be Jazz, todays Jazz, yesterdays Jazz. BUT, I am not limited to just that aspect of vinyl recordings.

I have lots of stories to tell and I assume you guys out there as well, have great vinyl stories to tell. Especially I love the stories of the ones that got away! On that note! I am going to sign off and hope to see all tomorrow! Thanks for dropping by, take care and may you always find the hidden track!

                                                                                                                                 Half-Baked Wax