Albums with instructions for playback (i.e. This Record Should Be Played Loud)

On all Pulp albums;

" N.B Please do not read the words while listening to the recordings"

 

BTW...I believe Let It Bleed was the first album with the play it loud instruction (Nov. '69). Does anyone see anything earlier than that?

 

Jeff Beck Truth, "Shapes of things- Rearranged, but the same Yardbirds hit. This must be played at maxium volume whatever phonograph you use. Makes very appropiate background music if you have the Vicar over for tea."

 

The "Cold Turkey" 45 was like that also...

 

Live at Leeds had something like "Crackling noises O.K.do not correct."

 

Hot Tuna-America's Choice

Warning:
This Album
To Be Played
At Full
Volume
For Maximum
Effect

 

So far most advisories have been "PLAY LOUD". Maybe rock just ain't that complicated .

 

The CD release of Slint's Spiderland let people know they might not have made the ideal choice ...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/trintagufv7ggas/slint.jpg

 

Don't have it in front of me, but the Grand Funk WAAB album have a "suggestion" to play loud/maximum volume?

 

Seems like Closer to Home did, too. If it didn't, it should have

 

Robert Wyatt - Cuckooland

Between tracks 8 and 9 there is a track called Silence (0.30) with the description:

A suitable place for those with tired ears to pause and resume listening later

Excellent advice - 75 minutes of music needs a break in the middle.

 

Bob Dylan Live 1966

Instructions are given from the stage.

 

It smokes! Whatever phonograph you use.

 

Yes! "Lyrical Gangbang" was the track. Great use of the drums from "When the Levee Breaks", gives it that real heavy sound.

 

Ha, I forgot about that. I had that CD back in high school, lent it to a guy and never got it back. A sad story that has been unfortunately repeated with many other classic albums over the years.

 

Insert with engineer Steven Desper's instructions on how to listen to The Flame LP in quad:

 

Well an explanation....does that count?

The Monkees
Magnolia Sims

Recorded as a low-fi song with deliberate surface noise and skipping as if it came from a 78 RPM record. On the stereo mix, this track is heard only on the left channel.

 

Small Faces - Ogdens'... was May 1968

 

That's a good one. During Brian Eno's ambient series, he talked some about his pseudo-surround ambient recovery system, and then detailed it some on the great Ambient 4: On Land, with Michael Brook, Jon Hassell, Bill Laswell and Daniel Lanois (among others). From the notes:

I regard this music as environmental: to be experienced from the inside. Accordingly I considered releasing a quadrophonic version of it, an idea I abandoned upon realising that very few people (myself included) own quadrophonic systems.

However, I have for many years been using a three-way speaker system that is both simple to install and inexpensive, and which seems to work very well on any music with a broad stereo image. The effect is subtle but definite - it opens out the music and seems to enlarge the room acoustically.

In addition to a normal stereo hifi system all that is required is one extra loudspeaker and some speaker cable. The usage of this speaker in the three-way system is such that it will not be required to handle very low frequencies: therefore a small or "mini" speaker will be adequate.

As shown in the diagram, the two terminals of the new speaker are connected to the two positive (red) speaker connectors on the amplifier. This speaker is located somewhere behind the listener - at the apex of a triangle whose base is formed by the original loudspeaker set-up. One of the unexpected benefits of this system is an increase in the usable listening area - almost any point in the room will yield good (although not necessarily "accurate") stereo sound.

I arrived at this system by accident, and I don't really know why it works. What seems to happen is that the third speaker reproduces any sound that is not common to both sides of the stereo - i.e., everything that is not located centrally in the stereo image - and I assume that this is because the common information is put out of phase with itself and cancels out.

More technically, the lower the impedance of the added speaker, the louder it will sound. If it is found to be too loud (although this rarely seems to happen), you can either insert a potentiometer (6-12 ohms, at least 10 watts) into the circuit, or move the speaker further away.

Ambient Sound System Diagram
http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/enoass.gif

 

Apart from all the Decca mono records which tell me they can be played on stereo equipment. Pete Shelley: XL.1 has a lot of "instructions" as the final track is ZX Spectrum Code

"COMPUTER PROGRAMME INSTRUCTIONS
L.P.
The Computer Programme on Side 2 suits
the ZX Spectrum Home Computer.
Transfer the programme to your computer
cassette player or cassette.
Start programme in sync with the first track
of the L.P.
NOTES
1. for ZX Spectrum type load " " code.

 

"Please listen in the dark"

The Beach Boys - Mount Vernon And Fairway (A Fairy Tale)

 

Julian Cope's Skellington LP has ' PLAY THIS RECORD LOUD AS HELL' on the spine (or something similar, I can't remember exactly)

 

I really want to try this now.

 

I remember In Utero having recommended treble and bass settings. I seem to recall the treble being really cranked. That Albini.