In celebration of another live taping of Joe McAdam and Nick Rouley's podcast Revolutions Per Minute happening , Joe and Nick are here to talk about some of their favorite records!
Every record collector has their list of "Holy Grail" records. These records are quite rare and are often from limited runs or have been out of print for years. In the back of a collector's mind, they're always thinking about these albums, and if you run into a copy at a record shop or garage sale, you have to buy it no matter what. Some hold sentimental value, others monetary, though ultimately the money's not the point, it's about the hunt. Here are the top 3 Holy Grail records for Joe McAdam and Nick Rouley:
Joe's Picks:
The Beatles - Yesterday and Today (Butchest Cover)
This Beatles classic is clearly one of the most sought after records ever. The story goes that the band dressed in white holding baby dolls and hunks of raw meat for the cover. It was printed and immediately recalled due to it's graphic nature. A few remain in circulation but at a very hefty price tag.
The rabbit hole goes a little deeper though. The replacement cover (the band standing around a trunk that Paul sits in) was universally agreed to be pretty butch. But no one could deny the original was butcher. Though, the true original cover, that only had a test pressing, was hands down the butchest. The band was decked out head to toe in leather chaps, vests and biker caps whipping the shit out of George with nautical chains like a gang of horny longshoremen.
Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music (Original)
I've actually never heard this record, at least not the original version. See, this record has a pretty amazing story. It's a solo album from the legendary frontman of The Velvet Underground, of course, and is full of the same kind of catchy lo-fi melancholy pop they were known for.
Oddly there was a huge mix up at the pressing plant and nearly every copy made was filled with distorted tape loops and amplifier feedback made by Reed's infant nephew while visiting the studio. Apparently some people thought it was art, but it was a massive goof. Lou Reed felt so rotten about it, he quit music after the blunder, and no one has seen him in years. There's still said to be a handful of the original in circulation.
Jack White - Some Old Blues Song No One Knows 7"
He didn't even bother to name this song properly on the sleeve (It's a cover of Son House's "Preachin' Blues"). One side is the song where White plays a home-made guitar made from a peach basket and kicks another peach basket for a drum. The other side is an etching of a poem he wrote about the civil war or something that no one has ever read.
The record itself is printed on remnants of a set of wooden teeth and is limited to half a copy (they ran out of teeth). The only way this is available for sale is from Third Man Records new mobile store, which is a rickshaw piloted by White riding his bicycle (the kind with the one huge wheel and one tiny one). It can only be seen in small southern towns on new moon nights.
Nick's Picks:Alice Cooper - Love It To Death (Original Cover)
Upon its initial release, Love It To Death held all the markings of a classic rock and roll album: hard licks, a "fuck you" attitude and a controversial album cover. Throughout it's life, LITD has had four different album covers. The interesting fact about this album is that most people don't even know about the original original album cover.
Most people are slightly aware of the "fake penis" photo cover. On early pressings Cooper is shown with his thumb sticking out of his fly, which at a quick glance gives viewers the misconception that he's exposed his dinky. While this is quite snarky and eventually censored by Warner Bros it pales in comparison to the true original cover. On the first pressing in the original band photo Cooper is seen bending over backwards with a hole in the bottom of his pants, where he'd placed a glazed donuts inside, thus creating the illusion of a gaping, sticky anus! Very few pressings are known to exist today, so grab it if you ever see one.
Kiss - Peter Criss
If you listen to the show or know ANYTHING about music you know that Peter Criss is not only a drum virtuoso but also the only member of KISS worth investigating. In 1978, the band did the unthinkable: each member released a solo album containing originals and covers.
If you hold them all up now, it's pretty clear that Criss was the winner. As a result, you can barely find this record anywhere. There's certain records out there that were bought in HUGE numbers and people just refuse to get rid of them. I like to believe that this is the record that started it all. Even crazier, is that Criss wrote a lot of the material way back in 1971 for his old bands Lips, which means he was sitting on these gems for a solid 7 years. Thank goodness he finally gave the people what they want, solo Peter Criss!
Michael Jackson - Thriller
Despite having spent his entire lifetime in the spotlight, Michael Jackson fell into obscurity for a period of the early 1980s. Like many artists trying to find themselves as solo artists after breaking off from their former groups, MJ got a little experimental which resulted in the rarely seen, highly sought after Thriller.
Get this, he essentially conceptualized a post-disco pop version of the monster mash. Obviously, it was a commercial failure and almost no one bought it. Even worse, Mike released an video for the song where he turns into a scary zombie. Of the few fans that remained, many straight up destroyed their copies for fear that the King of Pop had tapped into the dark arts. All this results in one of the rarest records on earth. If you see a copy, nab it, regardless of the price!