Old friend (Jack Bog's Blog)

I've been spending time these days converting some more of my vinyl record albums to digital. I'm concentrating on titles that are hard to come by on CD. The joy of hearing them in the revival process is matched by the satisfaction of knowing that the digital files will be there for the clicking any time I'm in the mood to play them again.

Today I'm working on an exquisite 1970 album by folk singer-songwriter Tom Paxton: Tom Paxton 6. In my view, this is Paxton's best work, and that's saying a great deal given the many fine songs he has penned over the decades. The dozen tracks on this collection have worn extremely well. The question "Whose Garden Was This?" is every bit as poignant as it ever was, and "Jimmy Newman" could be about an American soldier in Iraq as much as it was about one in Vietnam.

But the album's nowhere to be found these days. I suspect that Paxton had a falling out with the record company machinery (a label called Elektra, in those days -- who knows who owns it today), and that this title is a casualty. Perhaps to Paxton's ear, the album's overproduced. There's much fancier instrumentation than is found on most of his other recordings. Maybe he had to work with producers and musicians with whom he wasn't all that comfortable. But the end product is so very well done.

If you're a fan of this kind of sound, you must figure out a way to hear it. If you've got a phonograph to play it on, you may be able to track down a copy of the LP on eBay. That's where, miraculously, I got mine.

Comments (7)

Oddly enough, I've spent a couple of evenings this week making digital copies of obscure vinyl tracks as well. Mind you, my collection's a bit more mainstream, but I have a lot of singles that never made it to CD...

Posted by GreyDuck | November 5, 2005 2:48 PM

Elektra and its catalog is owned by the Warner Music Group (no longer a part of Time-Warner, it went "indie" a couple of years ago).

Warner's main archival record label is Rhino and Rhino has a botique internet-only label (stuff like live Captain Beefheart albums and Iggy Pop box sets) called Rhino Handmade. On the Handmade website, there's a form where you can request a specific title for reissue. That's about as close as you're gonna' get without knowing someone in A&R.

Along those lines, Universal (who own something like 1/3rd of all recorded sound) has its own version of the above called Hip-O Select. They're doing something you might be interested in, Jack - releasing the A and B-side of every Motown single from 1957 to 1971.

I won't like directly but you can find both URLs with some rudimentary Google-Fu.

Posted by Murray | November 5, 2005 5:03 PM

Rhino has a limited edition release of Paxton that, I think, includes most of Paxton 6. Elektra gave us the Doors and, my hero, Phil Ochs. (In fact, Paxton has a song "Heroes" about Ochs.)

I caught Paxton at the Aladdin several years ago. It was good to see him still at the top of his form (the show was double-billed with Phil Ochs, who didn't fare so well, on tape.)

Posted by Frank Dufay | November 6, 2005 9:43 AM

Must be something in the air. I've recently digitized my favorites from my old record collection and had a wonderful time doing it. I have that Tom Paxton record as well.

I've gotten a tremendous amount of enjoyment out of putting the digitized versions in random order on CD's to play in the car. You can get about 26 songs on each. It almost makes driving fun. 4 CD's even without MP3 format is about 5 hours of music.

Other hard to find artists I put on were Micky Newbury, Steve Noonan, Eric Andersen, Johnny Horton, Marty Robbins and Buffy St. Marie among many others.

Posted by Walter Hellman | November 6, 2005 4:24 PM

You may already know this, Merge Records (a "major-indie" label) is trying out a new means of distributing LPs on both vinyl and in digital form. If you purchase certain vinyl albums, they come with a certificate which allows you to download a digital copy of the same album from the Merge website; thus satisfying the desire to hear an album on vinyl but giving you the ability to carry it with you on your I-Pod. If it catches on they may try it with more albums. As far as I'm concerned this is a fantastic idea, and if it catches on maybe more labels will issue new releases (and re-release some old favorites)on vinyl.

Posted by Bill | November 7, 2005 9:30 AM

Digitizing vinyl appears to be fairly easy, but not entirely clear. A short comment about the process and equipment/software you use would be interesting.

Posted by Cam Richardson | November 7, 2005 10:32 AM

http://bojack.org/mt-arc/002374.html

Posted by Jack Bog | November 7, 2005 12:52 PM

About

Search

Clippings

Archives

Links

E-mail, Feeds, 'n' Stuff

Saturday, November 5, 2005

Old friend

Comments (7)

Sponsors

In Vino Veritas

The Occasional Book

Road Work