I’ve since acquired a copy of Never Mind the Bollocks, but true to my long-held hang-up I had a friend buy me a used copy!
This post initially appeared 4/25/08.
True confession: I don’t own Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols. The reason is pathetic: by the time I realized I needed to buy my own copy, the album was a good 10 years old, and I feared any record store clerk worth his or her salt would have scoffed at me for coming so late to the party, maybe even scribbling my name in a notebook for his or her next report to The Cool Patrol.
The reason I never got around to buying Bollocks, however, is because I lived off my oldest friend and bandmate’s copy while hanging out with him in high school and, later, when we shared a house with two other bandmates. That house was great, with access to the record collections of 3 other music lovers. Circa 1985, along with his 10th grade purchase of Bollocks, Andyr, also known in the Halls of Rock as the Velvet Foghorn and our leading expert on Greatest Hits collections, had already amassed a remarkable amount of greatest hits albums, primarily those of British Invasion bands not worth spending what few dollars we had on full albums. I’d walk upstairs to Chickenfrank‘s room if I wanted to hear Big Dipper‘s Boo-Boo ep. Sethro owned the debut ep by ESG, which he bought right from 99 Records on a trip our naive proto-band took to NYC in hopes of that elusive label deal. On occasion, they visited my messy room to borrow an album they didn’t own.
As you get older and no longer live in group housing, you find yourself having to buy records you used to have “borrowing rights” to spinning. It’s one of the reasons we develop a strong work ethic and try to earn more money. Roomie’s no longer down the hall.
So I ask you, Rock Town Hall, What’s an album you dearly cherish that you long counted on being in a roommate’s record collection?
I just picked up Never Mind the Bollocks on cd not long ago. I always figured if the record store clerk tried to intimidate me, I could point out that I have the original vinyl missing the one song on the back cover (Submission? I don’t remember), so my cool points would still be in the low double digits, but they’d still be there. I wanted it on cd for less than five bucks, but nice, and I finally found it.
I had to go look, and I see now what you mean. I need to go buy my own damned Pixies albums. I’ve only got Death to the Pixies. What kind of weenie am I? Don’t tell Mr. Mod, but I’ve only got The Velvet Underground and Nico. I should start fixing that, too.
Worst of all, for me being a Clevelander and all, I don’t own any Dead Boys on cd. I’ve only got Night of the Living Dead Boys on vinyl, too. I do have some Pagans and Mirrors and stretching way back, that Damnation of Adam Blessing Box set. Man, that’s gonna bug me now. But I’m still gonna pay top dollar for that True Believers album and one or two other weird things next. I’m actually kind of surprised at some of the things I do have that I used to listen to at friends houses.
I’ve pretty much lived by myself since I moved out of my parents house, but I’ve been meaning to buy some of those Montovani and Ray Conniff Singers albums they used to have.
When I was displaced and living with my buddy in Alabama, that was when I discovered the grooviness of the 5th Dimension. I passed on the original 5D albums he cherished, but I bought a very nice 2-disc best-of, which I recommend to other wannabe aquarians.
I never owned any REM or Violent Femmes albums. Now that I am married to a woman who has them, I have no desire to listen to them.
There are records owned by my parents that I miss – some of them are Xmas or classical records. One album my dad owns that I don’t is Thriller. Should I own that one? I dunno…
THRILLER is one of those albums were if you were between, say, 11 and 15 in 1983, you don’t really need to own it because it was so omnipresent that it’s already burned deep into your memory. I’ve never owned a copy myself, but I find I still know it backwards and forwards.
The Great 48 wrote:
Luckily I was well past that age range when that album was released. Is therapy recommended for what you describe?:) It’s no wonder Neverland Ranch was surrounded by such controversy.
Townsman Massimo had a bunch of Pretenders LPs that I loved and still haven’t bought. Pretenders II, interestingly, is higher up on the must-buy list than the debut, which I find pretty ubiquitous.
I met Townsman mockcarr when I went down to his dorm room because I heard he had a copy of “Quadrophenia” I might borrow. Ever the gentleman, he lent it to me readily.
Who owns Dark Side of the Moon? For one the best selling albums of all time, I never have, and I don’t remember any of my friends owning it.
That Died Pretty album with “Land Sakes” on it…man, that was in my roomie’s collection for like, a nano-second and I adopted it after hearing that song.
after a two year lease, nobody even believed him when he would claim it was his.
i think i also horked his “New Day Rising” and his “Perfect Prescription”.
That’s okay, he got my “Daydream Nation” gatefold and my “HI, How Are You?” vinyl, on Homestead.
Chickenfrank, you want to borrow my Dark Side? A few years ago a neighbor let me pick through her small college record collection before she threw her mainstream vinyl out. I grabbed Dark Side, the second live Seger album (slave to humor), what’s now my fourth copy of Let it Be, and Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall (or whatever that album’s called).
I bought Dark Side, finally, because I gained access to a surround sound system. If you’re gonna own one album in surround, it should be, well, actually, I bought Avalon. But somebody made off with that disc. But I have Dark Side, still.
I don’t think I have any AC/DC. I probably went about 12 years without immediate access to Blue Meanie’s couple albums. I may have played Riff Raff in a band setting as much as any-non Bakshi-penned song without ever really knowing how it was supposed to go.
For two and a half years, I lived with a roommate in Hoboken who had a great record collection and since he was hardly ever around and didn’t mind if I borrowed his stuff for listening purposes, I would frequently do so. That’s how I got into the first 2 dB’s albums, Captain Beefheart, the Smile sessions, Eno’s Here Come the Warm Jets and lots of other stuff. In return, I’d play tons of stuff for him, too. Oh that’s also how I first got into The Undertones as well. It should be noted that all of these records are on vinyl. I’ve bought Here Comes the Warm Jets and Positive Touch on vinyl even though I already had them on other formats so that I could recreate the listening experience that I had when I got into those albums. I sure do miss having Captain Beefheart vinyl at my disposal though I have his entire discography on CD, especially a record like Trout Mask Replica, which is much better experienced that way.
Very cool, Townsman Berlyant. You get what I’m talking about here.
I had a roomie in college who had a strange collection of around 400 records. His tastes tended to lean towards the vaguely- prog/jazz-rock side. No Beatles or Stones, but remember the Ides of March and their one-hit wonder “Vehicle” (“I’m the friendly stranger in the black sedan..”)? He had all six of their albums. You might recall Ginger Baker’s Air Force – a bad all-star jam album from around 1970. But did you know there was an Air Force 2 album? My roomie had it. How about every Lee Michaels album? Anyone heard of a concept album called California ’99? Spooky Tooth’s Ceremony? Mark-Almond? In Cold Blood? Trying to recreate Mark’s record collection would be akin to hunting down the Holy Grail – but considering some of the bad music, it would be like finding out that the Grail was really a DQ soda cup.
I think most people over the age of 45 have owned Dark Side at some time or another. I have it, but to me it’s one of those albums I’ve heard about 1,576,346 times over the years, so I never play it and I don’t really need to hear it again. I keep it for “reference”. I treat Sgt. Pepper in the same way. However, I do sometimes listen to my other Floyd albums, particularly the pre-DSOTM stuff.
That’s funny stuff!
Wow, this is an oldie. I still haven’t found a True Believers album, but I did grab a copy of Young, Loud and Snotty right away. I still haven’t gotten around to getting any more Pixies, and I really like them. I should at least get off my ass and get Surfer Rosa. I wish I could run into this guy that used to sell weed way back when and had the best Punk record collection I’ve ever seen. I’m sure he still has those perfect first pressing Buzzcocks, Clash and Damned albums and 45’s. Some of them used to be mine! He was the first person I ever met with a Discwasher and kept his records in plastic sleeves. It would be so cool to flip through those records and make a mental list of things to be on the lookout for.
Tonyola, that friend of yours had a weird record collection. I’ve read about some weirder ones over on Audio Karma’s turntable forum. There are people in the world that refuse to pay more than a dollar for a record and only scour thrift shops and garage sales and but all sorts of hideous things and actually listen to them. At least your friend had to work a little to get that many Ides of March lp’s!
Nah. That’s one of those records that were so fashionably all-prevalent for a time they became annoyances. Others of the ilk included:
Saturday Night Fever soundtrack
Frampton Comes Alive
Rumours
Nevermind
Born in the USA
Boston
The list goes on…
The problem with some record collectors is that they purchase obscurities out of “ironic hipness” rather than any intrinsic merits that the music might have. It’s like when Kurt Cobain said that the Shagg’s “Philosophy Of The World” was one of his favorite records. Uhhh, really, Kurt? Of course, then all the groovoid hipsters just had to buy it. Inevitably, now there are plenty of blogs exclusively devoted to so-bad-it’s-cool music.
I have that colorful set. It’s GREAT!
TB
I hate to don the Pince Nez, but I believe the initial interest in The Shaggs came from Zappa instead of Cobain. I think he mentioned it in an interview with Playboy and immediately sparked interest in a record that would have otherwise laguished in obscurity. Cobain or Zappa, the result is the same.
And, yes, I own that Shaggs record on CD. As Dewie Cox is wont to say, “Guilty as charged!” I still don’t count myself as groovoid hipster. I just have a morbid curiosity toward horrible records/films.
TB
The late Lester Bangs also praised this record in a 1981 Village Voice article. But then, Lester thought that Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music was wonderful too. All the more reason to read Bangs’ works strictly for entertainment and not take his opinions seriously.
I will say that I enjoy that Shaggs record. Of course it’s “bad” on 999 levels, but it’s fascinating, charming, and out of this world, which can count for something. But no, it’s nowhere near my “favorite record” list.
“Maybe Dwacula will be there…”
TB
I haven’t lived in a roommate situation since immediately after college when I lived with a friend who was a bassist in some local bands who had a pretty good collection. Before we split I went on a taping binge and still have all of the original Jam studio records, the 1st 4 Ramone’s LPs and quite a few others solely on cassette. I’ve since re-purchased GH collections on CD or MP3 of the two mentioned but I’ll still yank out the tapes occasionally.
As a corollary to this, when I moved in with my wife who is 1 1/2 years younger than I, we had One(!) CD is common. U2 Achtung Baby. She’s a full-on classic rock / hippie chick (what was she doing with U2?) and to we see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, but not-so-much music. As usual, I picked up more of her tastes than she has of mine.
I had “better” or more varied musical tastes than my college/grad school roommates and they always seemed so annoyed that I was interested in, say, what label the group was on or who produced it. I had no interest in their Celine Dion or whathaveyou. However, Mr. Royale, my roomie and husband, had/has a much more extensive music collection on cd so I have slowly been able to do some retroactive research and finally listen to that “Never Mind the Bollocks,” or other classic records/bands that I couldn’t find in boyfriends’ collections.
The collection I miss: the stacks at WRIU where I dj’d from about 1989 to 1991. Even at that time there were several rooms of albums and it was GREAT to be able to browse through, pull out something that looked interesting, look at who had played what tracks and decide whether to play it myself. I was introduced to a lot of music that way.
I can find a lot of people quoting Zappa on the Shaggs, but I can’t find the original citation anywhere. The re-release of the Shaggs album is due to Terry Adams and Tom Ardolino, the record collector nerds in NRBQ, who put it out on their Red Rooster label via Rounder in 1980.
I suppose it may depend on how old a person is, but I’m glad you wound up with a guy that owned Never Mind the Bollocks. I’m not sure I’d trust a guy with a rock collection that didn’t have that one.
Rumours is great, though. I lose a lot of Cool Points for liking Fleetwood Mac (and not the cool Peter Green one, either), but you should be able to get a perfect copy of Rumours for a quarter, and it’s just a great sounding record. I never get annoyed by Nirvana, either.
Oh, I can listen to Fleetwood Mac with pleasure now that the gross overplaying has faded into the past. Rumours is a pretty fine album. But I still draw the line at Frampton Comes Alive.
I paid two bucks for a new Japanese pressing of DSOTM ages ago. It just seemed like something I should have.