Essentially, it appeared to be a demonstration record,
presumably designed to accompany the purchase of a Moog synth.
Subsequent research leads me to believe was the1967 Moog 900 Series modular
synthesizer demo record, which is demonstrated here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhgTTav21oI
To cut a long story short, I was pretty broke at the time
and I thought that the price tag on it (5 pounds) was excessive and as such, I
didn’t buy it.
For the ensuing decade, I have never, ever been able to
forgive myself for making that mistake. It wouldn’t be too much of an
exaggeration to say that record has haunted both my waking life and on occasion dreams ever
since.
However, I have learnt that it was an important mistake for
a young record collector to make.
If you collect records and you see something that you want,
it’s important that you don’t let your rational-self take control of the
situation and talk you out of the purchase.
Effectively, if you decide that the main format that you're
going to buy is vinyl, then if you come across something that you want that's
new; it’s usually a (fairly) limited edition. If you come across something that
you want that's vintage... Hesitate and a copy may never never cross your path
again.
Herein lies the rub: If you're a record collector, then your
motto must always be 'carpe diem'. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpe_diem)
A few weeks ago, I checked the new items listed by one of my
favourite vinyl sellers on Trade Me (http://www.trademe.co.nz/). (For the uninitiated,
Trade Me is like a New Zealand-centric version of Ebay or Gumtree).
New Zealand has fairly slim pickings on the charity
shop/op-shop/thrift store records front. I can only speculate that due to the
high cost of importing records based on the geographical isolation of the
country (and accordingly their high retail cost) that most records are sold
back to collectors stores rather than thrown out to charity shops.
As such, I watch Trade Me pretty closely and was very
excited to see a single (45 RPM 7-inch) by The Winstons, called “Colour Him
Father” come up on his listings. I wasn’t familiar with the release but had an
awareness of The Winstons based on their legendary status as a source of a very
popular drum break.
I then clicked through to find further information about the
single before having a heart-fluttering, adrenaline racing moment that only
record collectors will understand when I saw the name of the B-side.
The flip of the single is called “Amen Brother”. (If aren’t
familiar with why that’s important, watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac)
I’ve bought a few tunes off of this particular vendor over
the last couple of years and have developed a fairly good rapport with the
bloke. I had immediately decided that the 7”(which based on both my passion for
drum & bass and soul music) belonged in my collection. It was a righteous
desire – it belonged with me.
Most of the tunes I’ve bought off him in the past have cost
between $3 and $5, a couple $10 at the outside. As there wasn’t a ‘buy it now’
price on the auction, I emailed him and asked if he’d consider putting one on.
(I figured that if he didn’t know what the record was, but knew I wanted it, I
might have to part with $20).
I received a disappointing response from him that a) he
didn’t have a clue what to suggest as a ‘buy it now’ price and that b) the sale
had five registered watchers anyway.
Clearly, I wasn’t the only collector to realise the
importance of the B-side.
I resigned myself to a couple of days discomfort until the
auction closed and set myself a limit of $50. So as to not inflate the auction
ahead of time, I didn’t bid until two minutes before the auction closed.
A bidder had opened at $3.00 five minutes out. Another had
countered and the bidding quickly escalated to $10. I put an auto-bid of up to
$50 on.
I sat back and waited. About 10 seconds later, I had a
horrible moment of panic when I remembered the Moog record.
My internal dialogue went through a process of
self-justification, where a second auto-bid of $150 was quickly weighed against
a queasy sickening feeling every time I heard the ‘Amen Break’ for the next
decade.
The remaining minute and a half passed.
To my enormous relief, the bidding closed.
To my enormous surprise, it closed with me as the winner at
a sale price of just $10.50, less than 10% of what I had impulsively committed to spending.
Sometimes you eat the bar, sometimes the bar eats you.
But don’t forget, sometimes you eat the bar.
I am a muso and record collector. This is the on-going story
of my ever-growing collection.
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