I came across a re-issue of an album online yesterday that I had wanted to pick up for quite a long time. CD versions are readily available these days, but vinyl versions are hard to find and often expensive when you do. This one was cheap so not sure if it is another new re-issue or what, but I’m happy to finally get a copy of Prince Jammy Destroys the Invaders on vinyl. It’s one of my favorite dub albums and I’ve had a CD version for a few years now and listen to it a lot. However, it was not always so easy to hear this album. It was one of those Lost Classics for many years. It was first released in 1982 in not extremely small quantities but it certainly wasn’t commonly seen or heard at the time. Yet, in the over 30 years before it got re-issued for the first time, its reputation as a great but impossible to find album grew. In this case, in my estimation, the reputation was well-deserved. In other cases, I’m sure the Lost Classics end up lost for good reason.

So I was just thinking about how certain impossible to find/hear albums used to grow their reputations in obscurity over time but how the internet has pretty much put an end to this. Sure, you still may have to search for a vinyl copy or even a CD in some cases, but practically EVERYTHING is available online somewhere. If you want to hear something you’ve heard about, you can readily do so. Things can’t exist out of reach for decades anymore. I’m not sure if this is a good or bad thing. In most ways I think it is good that you can hear music that before you couldn’t. But, on the other hand, those sorts of records held a mystery that music has in some ways lost. The thrill of the hunt is lessened. The excitement and anticipation of wanting to hear something for years before finally getting that first listen is no more.

So anyway, I guess I just figured I’d ask a couple questions. First, do you agree that the Lost Classic is a relic of the past? And secondly, what are your favorite Lost Classics? Or, what are those Lost Classics you’ve still never heard?

I do think that not everything has yet been released, there are still a few lost classics out there yet to discover.

My favorite "lost classics" (some are now available, but still qualify, I think):
The Judy's - Washarama
The ultimate nerd-rock album. Equal parts Violent Femmes and B-52's. And hooks until the end of time.

And pretty much the entire discography from
Los Plugz
You might know a couple of their songs from the Repo Man soundtrack. But I've heard a few other songs from their couple of albums and they were super-excellent. Too bad the only things out there seem to be selling in the $50-$200 range.

I have those Plugz albums, one on vinyl and the other a CD reissue. Let me know if you want copies.

just tracked this down (thanks Google).

I think overall it is a very good thing that we as music consumers get to hear almost anything we're interested if we search hard enough. The value of that far outweighs the romantic notion of just stumbling across something you never thought you'd ever find or the wonderment of imagining what it might sound like. I do miss the ability to find rarities at normal or even bargain bin prices. There is too much information out there now on what things are worth and record stores don't typically screw up and price things wrong anymore.

The real benefit though is for the artists. I love the fact that Bill Fay was discovered and invited to join Wilco on stage at one of their London shows and gets to record again with more attention than he ever got in his prime. I love that Rodriguez was able to learn that he had a huge following in S. Africa and Australia that he didn't know about and went on to play stadium shows there and has sold out the El Rey in Los Angeles. Other bands/artists such as the Left Banke, Nick Garrie, Linda Perhacs and many others I'm sure have resumed musical careers that they gave up on 40-50 years later. I think that is pretty cool and it wouldn't happen without the internet enabling people to discover them and communicate that there is strong fan interest some 40 years later.

I recently found Brigth Engelberts album after looking for it for about 10 years. I'm not nearly the afro funk fan I was ten years ago but still pretty cool to finally get to hear it even if it cost me over $35 for the reissue and I already had half the songs on afro funk comps. There's still a few things I've never heard though. For example, I remember hearing years ago that there were some recordings floating around somewhere of the Crucial Three which were Ian McCullough (of Echo and the Bunnymen) on lead vocals, Pete Wylie on guitar, and Julian Cope on Bass. I don't think anything ever surfaced though so maybe the tapes are truly lost or never existed to begin with.

Probably doesn't classify as a "Lost Classic" but definitely a THANKS INTERNET album:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/in-1991- ... bum,85452/

There used to be a special feeling in finding a certain album you had been looking for forever, and I guess there still is to some extent, but it's not the same. Plus, non-official stuff like Prince's Black Album (which I realize was later made official) and hardcore bootlegs were sold in the back rooms of record stores and dubbed onto cassettes for friends and passed around and talked about. Now there's more unofficial stuff out there than the official albums, and music is downloaded or streamed and listened to at some later date and that's the end of it for much of it (at least in my experience).

Having said that, I have heard a lot of things I know I never would have if it weren't for the easy access of the internet. I've recently been listening to highlife music from Ghana and there's no way--unless a friend came across it somehow--I would have heard such music without the internet.

Bottom line: it's a double edged sword.

Oh and as for "lost classics" I still haven't heard, one for me is Swamp Dogg - Total Destruction Of Your Mind.

I remember finding this album at a record store in Evanston:


I literally did a little dance in the middle of the store and sang "Testify" as I raised it above my head in victory. It was easily the most excited I ever got over finding a record.
Still can't find it very easily. Even today. Although many of those songs/recordings are available on other collections, some of them are still not available anywhere else, as far as I know.

Holy shit

yeah.

Makes me kinda miss that old Renn & Stimpy album. There was some good playing on that.

That's probably the best thing ever.

Although the internet has given birth to the concept of really shitty "lost classics." Albums that were deservedly obscure, subsequently rediscovered because the one guy in the country who bought the album transferred it to digital, and then declared a classic because, y'know, notes and chords.

Personally, I'm really happy that I can easily find stuff that I'd been unsuccessfully looking for over a matter of decades. Artful Dodger's first album was one of them. The Winkies another. Both of them also examples of albums that ended up not being worth the collector prices nor my own obsessive searching.

And even with the full scope of the innernet, I still have never been able to find Billy Swan's self-titled 3rd album from 1976.

OBNER CHALLENGE:

Find a link for the soundtrack to the 1973 movie "Dillinger". Written and Directed by John Milius and starring Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, Michelle Phillips, Harry Dean Stanton, Richard Dreyfuss, and Cloris Leachman.

If you do, I'll send you a link to anything in my collection.

I have to agree this is profoundly annoying. I hate reading about some record compared to all my favorites and then it sucks. Nowadays I mostly just assume if it came from a scene I know decently and I have still never heard of it, it likely sucks.

Ha, I have that somewhere. Some good R&S skits, too.

"Rennnnnnnnnnnnnnnn"

I think most everyone knows my love of Bill Fox/The Mice. This blog post is old, but came across the link today. It's the Mice album (or at least half of it) that never came out after Scooter.

http://panda-basics.blogspot.com/2010/1 ... bells.html