By Ben Marks — “If you remember the ’60s, you weren’t there.” So goes the stoner cliché. Despite this paradoxical measure of authenticity, Jorma Kaukonen’s (St. Martin’s Press) is filled with richly detailed recollections of that landmark decade, although Kaukonen does confess to forgetting big chunks of the 1970s and ’80s. “That's true,” the lead guitarist of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna confirmed when we spoke recently about his memoir and memory lapses, “for better or worse.” “We were in the...

Subversive Sounds: The Straight Men Who Made America's First Gay Record

By Hunter Oatman-Stanford — When “Love Is a Drag” hit record-store shelves in 1962, it was decidedly not a sensation. Only a few shops carried the album, which featured jazz standards performed by an anonymous singer and band, and its label flopped shortly after the release. But beneath this mundane veneer, the record’s content was remarkably provocative, becoming the first major release to feature a male singer crooning love songs about other men. "It was subtle, under the table almost." Like a magic mirror held...

Behind the Scenes With Janis Joplin and Big Brother, Rehearsing for the Summer of Love

By Ben Marks — A few months from now, millions of Baby Boomers will be seized by the same disorienting flashback, in which they’ll be hurtled through time and space to San Francisco in 1967, at the height of the Summer of Love. The trigger will lurk in the coverage of this cultural watershed by news organizations, magazines, and websites, all of whom will to be tripping over themselves to celebrate the 50th anniversary of what was, in fact, a marketing gimmick designed to capitalize on a scene that was...

Music of the Presses: How an L.A. Printer Kept the Art of the Album Cover Alive

By Ben Marks — While most of the buzz about the resurgence of vinyl records has focused on the skyrocketing sales of grooved discs designed to spin on turntables, the vinyl renaissance has reminded many of us old-timers how much we missed the album-cover art on record jackets. Whether it was using the gatefold of “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band” to clean a Baggie of pot or getting lost in the psychedelic lettering of “American Beauty,” album-cover art was an important part of how multiple...

If You're Too Young to Remember the Magic of Tower Records, Here's What You Missed

By Ben Marks — Listening to music is a deeply personal experience. Some songs will always make certain people happy, while those same tunes will just as reliably make other people cry. Incredible as it may seem today, the mundane act of acquiring music also used to be personal, or at least required a personal investment: You’d hear a song on the radio or see a band at a local dive, decide you want more, and then make your way to your favorite record store to buy an LP or 45. Physical effort was required,...

Anita Pointer: Civil-Rights Activist, Pop Star, and Serious Collector of Black Memorabilia

By Lisa Hix — At one point, Anita Pointer—lead vocalist and writer for the Pointer Sisters’ Top 10 hit “I’m So Excited”—was one of the most famous women in the world. During the early ’80s, she and her sisters June and Ruth tore up the pop music charts with singles like “Jump (For My Love),” “Neutron Dance,” “Automatic,” “He’s So Shy,” and “Slow Hand.” If you search for the girl group on YouTube and watch videos from the height of their popularity, you’ll be whisked back on a buoyant romp of sequins,...

When Rock 'n' Roll Loomed Large Over the Sunset Strip

By Hunter Oatman-Stanford — The enormous, unblinking chrome eyeballs stared down from their perch above L.A.'s famous Sunset Strip as record producers, nightclub owners, and movie stars sped by in their convertibles. The sign included no words, but in 1972, everyone was familiar with "Tommy," the rock opera about a "deaf, dumb, and blind kid" who plays a mean game of pinball. It didn't really matter if passing motorists didn't know these meticulously painted pinball eyes signified the release of the London Symphony...

Like Iggy Pop? Thank Your Grandparents

By Lisa Hix — If you had to choose an image to define “rock ’n’ roll,” what would it be? Elvis’ pompadour? A psychedelic rock poster? A Flying V guitar? The last thing you might picture is a young woman in the Great Depression, wearing her Sunday best, smiling modestly as she poses with her saxophone. But when Jim Linderman, a collector of vernacular photography and folk art, finds a photograph like that, he sees the seeds of the rebellious music known as rock. Linderman, an author and former librarian...

Why Nerdy White Guys Who Love the Blues Are Obsessed With a Wisconsin Chair Factory

By Lisa Hix — In the 2001 movie “Ghost World,” 18-year-old Enid picks up the arm on her turntable, drops the needle in the groove, and plays a song yet another time. She can’t get over the emotional power of bluesman Skip James’ 1931 recording of “Devil Got My Woman.” If you know anything about 78 records, it only makes sense that a nerdy 40-something 78 collector named Seymour would have introduced her to this tune. As played by Steve Buscemi, Seymour is an awkward, introverted sadsack based on the...

Meet the Irreverent Librarian Who's Taking on the Music Nerds

By Hunter Oatman-Stanford — When Sarah O’Holla started her blog “My Husband’s Stupid Record Collection,” its title was a playful nod to the 1,500-album elephant in the room, poking fun at the snobbish seriousness of collectors like her partner, Alex Goldman. Despite packing and unpacking Goldman’s vinyl collection for five different moves over the course of their nine-year relationship, O’Holla had only listened to a small sliver of his music. So in a recent moment of inspiration, O’Holla set out to conquer the entire...

Good, Clean Fun: This Rock Star Parties Hard (with Hot Wheels and Wacky Packs)

By Ben Marks — Dave Schools is not your typical Hot Wheels collector. Certainly, his passion for toy cars was not why I called him up last fall, when I was writing a story about a new book called Poster Children,” which covers 25 years of concert posters produced by the band Schools co-founded, Widespread Panic. But as we spoke, it became clear that Schools was no mere casual hobbyist. “I've been collecting Redlines since I was 4 years old,” he volunteered at one point, “and I have every Wacky Package ever...

Should Record Store Day Exclude Online Shops?

By Lisa Hix — Vinyl record geeks and turntable enthusiasts all over the blogosphere have been digging in their couches for coins all month to save up for tomorrow. Why? Well, it's Record Store Day. Musical artists of every stripe—rock, hip-hop, soul, country, jazz, punk, and metal—are releasing special limited-edition albums, mostly vinyl LPs and 45s, for this event, now in its fourth year. Here are just a few of this year's most anticipated releases: Nirvana's "Hormoaning" EP, only offered on the...

Black History Shared Through Vinyl

By Savoychina1 — In case I haven't shared the beginning, here it is in a nutshell: My son came home from elementary school, and said, "Dad, I need something to take to school for Black History Month.” That was the beginning of collecting black history as a specific area. My son was in second or third grade then and now he is in his first year of college, so let’s call it about 10 years. Now I have a black history collection that includes art, books, records, and anything else that I think will impress...

Jack White foils eBay flippers, angers fans

By Lisa Hix — Jack White's Third Man Records produces a large number of standard all-black vinyl records for every album it releases—but those LPs and 45s aren't the ones that drive fans wild. No, what the fans go crazy for are the limited-edition versions, made in two- and three-colored vinyl. The trouble is, scalpers or "flippers" have been profiteering off of the fans' insatiable appetite for these rare multicolored records, snatching them up and selling them on eBay for hundreds of dollars....

Secrets of the Blue Note Vault: Rediscovering Monk, Blakey, and Hancock

By Dean Schaffer — When I was a jazz DJ in Philadelphia, Blue Note was always my favorite label. Naturally I had a lot of jazz-musician friends, and many of them told me that they’d played in a lot of Blue Note sessions that were never released. I started to keep a list of these sessions in a little notebook, and in 1973 I started banging on the door of Blue Note to find someone to show it to. My inquiries fell on deaf ears until 1975, when I met a guy named Charlie Lourie, who had just joined Blue Note. He...

Your Turntable Is Not Dead: Inside Jack White’s Vinyl Record Empire

By Dean Schaffer — When the White Stripes got signed, Jack White created Third Man Records as an insurance policy. With the White Stripes and, later on, Whirlwind Heat and the Raconteurs, the bands only licensed their music to record companies—the labels didn’t really own it. So in case things went sour, Third Man was a way for Jack and the bands to be able to maintain ownership of their masters and their records. You hear so many stories about that damning phrase, “in perpetuity,” on contracts. Jack was...

Stephen M. H. Braitman on the British Invasion, from the Beatles to the Sex Pistols

By Dean Schaffer — I was a Hollywood kid. My father was a TV and radio editor in the San Fernando Valley, and he allowed me to do my first writing to review concerts and shows for the newspaper. But as a younger kid, I really hated rock ’n’ roll music and pop music, and I disliked the Beatles and all that. I have a younger sister who was a total Beatlemaniac. She started getting into the ’60s scene, but I was more influenced at that time by my father’s interest in classical music. I was, however,...

Vinyl Is Smashing Again

By Dean Schaffer — I know I’m going to date myself when I say this, but the Smashing Pumpkins’ “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” is my favorite album of all time. Yes, I know it was released in 1995. Yes, I know that there are “better” albums out there (like the Beatles' “Sgt. Pepper’s,” of course), but it’s still my favorite. But enough about me. A vinyl LP of “Mellon Collie” in near mint condition sold the other day on eBay for £147 (or about $221). (Here’s the link if you want to check out the...

Psych Out: The Trippy Side of Vintage Vinyl

By Maribeth Keane — I’ve been interested in psych records for about 25 years now. It started with just 1960s music, the Beatles and stuff like that, and then I kept on checking out new things and finding new music that was unknown or not very well known that I thought was really good. The Beatles started with the Revolver album in 1966, which was an influential early psychedelic record. They were definitely one of the most influential psychedelic bands, but psychedelic stuff was just a small part of what they...

Beatles 45s To Make You Twist and Shout

By Maribeth Keane — About 12 years ago a coworker told me that they saw a picture sleeve on eBay from The Beatles selling for 500 dollars. My sister had given me a Beatles 45 picture sleeve when I was quite young. I went to make sure I still had it, and it was similar and still in excellent condition. So that started up my interest again. I had a couple of more Beatles 45s and albums, and I did a little research on the internet and found out they were worth some money. Then I realized I was missing some Beatles...