How Did You Research/Inspect/Track /Log/Decide What Records To Buy - Pre-Computer Age?

Before Computers (B.C.), how did you buy your records, was it in any organized manner?

How did you:
Research what albums and singles to buy
Inspect for different releases, versions, and masterings
Log your music purchases
Keep track of your LP collection

Did you carry the Record Guide books (such as the Rolling Stone or Hot Wacks or ICE) around with you as a constant companion, for the ultimate reference?

For me, having a limited budget, I bought very few records, so I could easily remember what I already owned. I was even aware of what records my brothers had; so I didn't need to make duplicate purchases.
I wasn't aware of the inner groove matrix numbers and various release versions.

Basically, how much effort did you invest in your record purchases?

 

Research what albums and singles to buy

Recommendations in interviews with musicians I already liked. Reviews in magazines. FM radio. Having out in cool downtown record stores where they played good stuff I'd never heard of. Paying close attention to who appeared as guests on other albums (e.g. buying's Nico's 'The End' album even though I had no idea who she was at the time just because Eno was on it) or who produced what.

Inspect for different releases, versions, and masterings

Hard to do with sealed LPs, of course. Generally defaulted to the country of origin copy and hoped when I opened it up it wouldn't turn out to be a later copy. I was frequently disappointed. By the time I was about 15 or so I had learned to pretty much always go for the import editions, no matter how much more expensive they were.

Log your music purchases
Keep track of your LP collection

With a typewriter. Kept track of everything I bought: artist, title, label, catalog #, edition, matrix codes, condition. Kept them all in binders.

 

Read Circus, Creem, Rolling Stone, Zoo World, Billboard, and more I can no longer remember the title of.
Word of mouth in school, and in my social life.
Spent literally hours at a time in record stores, in both Chicago, and Nashville.
Didn't keep an inventory, as it never crossed my mind to, until retirement.

What I love now is...

how my grandmother in Chicago, in 1971, bought me a sealed W2/W2 of Who's Next, for my Christmas present.
how I bought an ' RL ' ZZ Top Fandango, sealed, in 1975, from a Nashville Port O' Call.
how I bought a lot of " desired pressings " under the same, sealed circumstances, as a much younger man.
.

 

"Before Computers (B.C.), how did you buy your records, was it in any organized manner?

How did you:
Research what albums and singles to buy"

I started buying albums in the mid 60s. No research.
Bought albums by artists I liked. No FM rock radio, no Rolling Stone. You bought albums based on the singles you heard on the local top 40 radio station.

"Inspect for different releases, versions, and masterings"

Back then...only 1 choice (two if you count mono/stereo)

"Log your music purchases"

No

"Keep track of your LP collection"

I knew what I had

"Did you carry the Record Guide books (such as the Rolling Stone or Hot Wacks or ICE) around with you as a constant companion, for the ultimate reference?"

No guides back then.

"For me, having a limited budget, I bought very few records, so I could easily remember what I already owned. I was even aware of what records my brothers had; so I didn't need to make duplicate purchases.
I wasn't aware of the inner groove matrix numbers and various release versions."

Nobody cared cared about matrix numbers.

"Basically, how much effort did you invest in your record purchases?"

Basically zero. Knew what I wanted, went to the store and bought it.

 

The same way I do it now:

1. Walk into record store.
2. Look at records.
3. Choose records.
4. Give cashier money in exchange for records.
5. Go home.
6. Listen to records.

 

+1. This isn't rocket science. I buy releases from singers I like and if I heard a song I liked on the radio I bought the single.

No need to log. If I found myself not remembering what I had that was a sign I was hoarding vs buying the music for enjoyment.

 

Early 70s - the music press and rock radio. Friends collections.
Late 70s (student years) - music press and books. Friends collections. The Uninversity record library was a revelation and I explored and discovered so many styles of music.
80s - music press (and their "best ever albums lists"), headphones to listen to CDs in record shops.

 

Pen and paper, for logging purposes

parents, friends and cousins for suggestions

 

I buy stuff I like. If I hear something and I like it, I try to get a copy. These days, I'll usually use Soundhound, even if I know the song/artist, so I have a list of things to look for.

But, before the internet, I obviously couldn't keep a list going in a phone app. I have done a lot of driving for my past jobs. When I didn't have a CD or tape player, I would try to listen to the college or off the beaten path radio stations to find new stuff to listen to.
I always kept a note pad & pen in my vehicle to write down any interesting music. Of course it sucked back in those days because you would have to wait for the DJ to come back on the air and hope that he/she announces the names of the songs they played.
I also heard cool new music at the record stores.

Until I found this place, I had no idea of the differences between masterings (or even what mastering was), so I'd just buy the first copy I found of a wanted album. I never kept track of my collection either. I generally know what I have, and I don't have to worry about exactly which copy of an album I have because I vary rarely re-buy an album (unless it's to replace a trashed copy).
I don't log any purchases either. For me, life is too short to worry about how much I paid for a record 20 years ago.

 

All this.

 

Read rolling stone or would check the new releases rack on Tuesdays.

 

Consulted the runes and moon phases

 

As for me (and my methods certainly duplicate a lot of others who have posted here), I subscribed to Rolling Stone and Crawdaddy; I became very friendly with those who worked/owned record stores (which is how I acquired a lot of my boots back in the day); I lived & breathed radio: I listened to Lord Tim's Saturday night show on KFWB (L.A.) during which he played the British top ten (which is how I learned about Cream, for example), and on FM radio, there was KPPC, broadcast from the basement of the Pasadena Presbyterian Church -- and I attended concerts, lots of concerts!

 

I was given a copy of the Rolling Stone Album Guide about 1980 and trawled through it looking for the 5* entries.

For a wee lad from Belfast I had never even heard of Rolling Stone before getting the book from an American uncle.

 

I found the RS guide to be full of crap with personal axes to grind.

 

Back in the 70's:
* FM radio play
* Friend had it and we listened to it
* Maybe a magazine review
* Flipping LP bins at Tower Records and liking the cover or hype sticker as a blind buy

 

Computers simply make things easier. They haven't really added something fundamentally new in the music buying world. There were magazines, radio, television plus the usual word of mouth, parties and friend recommendation. Looking back I knew about easily 70% of all the 60s and 70s acts that are regularly discussed here in 2017. I actually know the current scene less despite the computer.

 

Mostly word-of-mouth, "parties", radio, magazines, and record stores.

As for researching an artist's catalog, that's what that big book in the record store was for, what were those things called?

 

I read a lot of 'History of rock' books and listened to bands that the bands I liked named as influences. That's how I got into Stax and Motown as well as The Velvet Undeground, The Byrds, Dylan and Neil Young

Back in the early 90s I used get every issue of a good magazine called Vox. I always read NME, Select and Mojo when it came along.

Spending a lot of time in as well as working in record shops was good too. I also used to tape records off my friends parents as well as my friends!

 

I used to talk with the people that worked at the record stores or discuss about music with friends.

Also, the usual cassette trading with selections of 'favorites' was a must

 

"Research": AM/FM radio, Rolling Stone (pre-"fashion" era), Creem, Crawdaddy, Hit Parader, Trouser Press, Musician, Guitar Player magazines/fanzines + record stores + reviews/articles/mail order ads in Goldmine. I've never really been a fan of the published *album guides* because they seemed to become outdated almost immediately, or list a lot of hard-to-find titles. Some of the record labels had cool catalogs, though. (Loved Arhoolie )

"Track/Log": I had a few handwritten journals with some record/tape info, and set-lists from live shows, but I wasn't obsessive about keeping track of everything back then, when my collection was much smaller.

Someday I'll take full inventory. Yeah, one of these days...

 

In the 90ies I studied the liner notes and "thanks"-lists of records/bands I liked.

 

In the late 60's and 70's: Listening parties, radio and the local music store sifting through albums and finding some that appeared interesting and worth a shot.

 

Vast majority through listening to the radio or recommendations of friends. A few from articles in Rolling Stone, etc.

 

Goldmine magazine (when it was a monthly).