Music Nerds

It has been a while since I've given full rein to my inner nerd so far it runs to music but lately it has been picking up and I expect that by the time the next couple of weeks is over that it will be running at full blast as this is the time in which I will be seeing another three concerts of bands who are realistically towards the end of their careers as opposed to being in the early stages. Were you to suggest that I am ticking boxes, then to a certain extent you may be correct although these are bands that I will enjoy watching. 

However that isn't why this blog exists, that is because of a series of events that have taken place recently that haven't really shaken me as such as reaffirmed that somewhere there is someone who really does care who painted the goal posts for the 1959 FA Cup Final in England, for example. How or why I know that I do not know, but I do. His name won't mean anything to anyone, it is just trivia of the minutest sort. And that of course extends to music. All categories. All eras.

Were I to answer questions on my specialist subject for Mastermind (even if that show still exists), 20 years ago there would have been a toss up between 'The Lord of the Rings' and rock music between the years 1965 and 1975. If I could have gone to university on either of those subjects I would be classified a genius by now. Sadly both subjects are relatively useless in the real world... or so I thought until last week.

That was when I discovered Kop's Records in Toronto. And in particular Nick.

I was looking to sell some of my old vinyl records and found them on the internet. I liked the FAQ part in particular as those were clearly written by a sage of some sort. So I stuffed a bunch of records into my carry on and ultimately made it there where I met Chris first (Nick's dad) who spoke non-stop for 10 minutes about northern soul (English northern soul that is, not the generalist stuff) which amazingly I happen to like but Chris told me that his passion lay in the 1965-1969 era...

But that wasn't why I was there, I had mainly rock and blues music albums hence Nick. One thing throughout this that amazed me was Nick's knowledge of arcane details (I have the same disease) for one so young but even though the music was the same, i.e. the band would be say Savoy Brown, a relatively obscure English blues band from the 1960's, he would know stuff about them from a North American perspective whilst I had no knowledge of that, rather a knowledge of arcane details about Savoy Brown from an English perspective. I think I was able to impress him with my having seen the band at the Royal Albert Hall in 1971 when they were supporting Captain Beefheart. 

(Also this is my excuse to include a Beefheart tune!!)

It carried on from there. The first day, Viv and I dragged a bag each containing Cliff Richard, Dionne Warwick, The Eagles, Beach Boys, Beatles, Byrds, Yes, Steve Miller and more with the stand out top of the line album being ... 'Roll 'Em, Smoke 'Em' performed by those luminaries Patto. Yes, the exact same album that I found in that record shop in Tokyo with Indy a couple of years back which was the, sorry THE most expensive album in the store. Bar none. That made me listen to it again to see if it was any better second time around (for I had only ever listened to it the once and I thought it was rubbish). It was still rubbish. So that record which I bought probably in 1973 and played twice was THE standout in all the records I was selling!

It irked me quite a lot, I must say for Nick compounded it by droning on about the progressive guitarist that was very popular with the collectors, namely Mike Patto. And this record was rare in this condition too. 

This is what I found throughout the sale process. The sole Captain Beefhart record I was selling 'Bluejeans and Moonbeams', was a shocker. The concert to promote the album was also a shocker. No Rockette Morton or Winged Eel Fingerling. No Drumbo, just a bunch of hacks playing what sounded like Carpenters music. No matter, Nick said, people will buy ANY Beefhart album. No way were they going to touch any of my other classics, I thought. Anything you think may not sell, will and things that you think will, won't. And its nothing to do with how good the music is. It is all about whether the pressing is original, if its English (in North America that is rare), and so on. So my Spooky Tooth albums also sold well.

It all came as rather a wrench actually to see my treasures leave me like this however I consoled myself in the knowledge that they would in all likelihood go to a good home. The top sellers can run above $500, say for a Led Zeppelin 1 first day release which had unique identifiers on every album cover. So I went back a second day with some more treasures where I met along with Nick another guy who seemed to spend all his time poring through the entire collection of thousand of albums looking for that one.

No idea where the identifier was meant to be, I'm afraid

Unlike Nick, he didn't like to share stories. He just liked to talk and you know when you reach that point when you are with a subject matter expert, and he/she knows waaaay more than you do about that subject, but he/she keeps droning on for sooooo long that along the way even though you are really interested in that subject... you really just don't give a damn any longer? Well I reached that point and I couldn't even be bothered to correct him about his errors to do with The Voice, Paul Rodgers of Free and Bad Company (artful connection with previous post here!) which he just couldn't bring himself to stop making. So it came as quite a pleasant surprise when just as I was leaving he was bragging about finding a really old, original Beatles record and waved it around for at the top of it was Viv's name dated 1964, a present from her dad. I just told him that it was a Hong Kong pressing and as I left the shop I could see him examining the record from all different directions and just knew the old microscope would be coming out soon.

All in all though it was a great experience to just nerd up again and spend time talking absolute pointless trivia with someone who actually was prepared to share knowledge. Thanks Nick. Great to meet you and I will contact my brother who has an even more eclectic collection than I do.... did.... even though I still have more than 200 vinyl albums just lying around.