Sunday, November 22, 2009

What's Wrong With This Picture?


Q
uick!! A scooby snack to the first person to tell me what's wrong with this famous 45 label. Don't think too hard on it now...

So you're probably there sipping on your coffee reading this post and wondering, "How does such an error pass muster? How can this classic song have its label fall victim to a careless proofreader?" Well, Berry Gordy was always a good businessman, and since Motown was an independent company, they didn't manufacture their own records. The manufacturing was farmed out to multiple pressing plants, who once in a while didn't work in synchro- nicity with each other. Also included here is the more traditional label image, approved by someone who wasn't in such a rush to sell Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through the GRAPEvine" to all the teens that basic spell-checking went out the window.

When I found this variation years ago in a thrift store, my mom asked me if the error on the label would make the record more collectible someday. Probably not, because a) its previous owner decided to identify it as hers by writing on the label, b) the playable condition of the record is less than sterling, and c) the record is pretty darn common; it's not exactly an obscure classic from the 13th Floor Elevators. But it's a cool curio from a bygone era.

On an unrelated note...


This song by '60s UK hitmakers The Move is amazing; whoever engineered the bass did an AMAZING job; it's like a Bronto- saurus is actually marching through my basement. Not only that, the song is killer. This song makes it easy to see why Cheap Trick is such a big fan of this group. Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne are alumni of this group; the Move eventually evolved into the Electric Light Orchestra, but please don't hold that against them. "Brontosaurus" is a lumbering ode to a lovely lady, and when it kicks into double-time, they add an excellently scuzzy slide guitar to the end of it. Highly recommended; grab it!!

1 Comments:

Blogger RollerCoaster said...

Darn onthe Marvin Gaye not begin worth something due to the error. Thought for sure that was going to be my nest egg in retirement! LOL!

November 23, 2009 8:04 AM  

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