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

J. Geils Band - Blow Your Face Out.

Back cover says " Made Loud to Play Loud"

 

Two from Horslips:

Nothing to do with playback, but the rear cover of Dancehall Sweethearts (1974) features the classic note:
FILE UNDER REASONABLY POPULAR

The rear cover of The Unfortunate Cup of Tea (1975) contains the following message:

Historical Note:-
Down through the ages the quest for the unfortunate cup of tea has stirred the imagination of poet and pauper alike. Now with the discovery of the "24th Track" we can begin to grasp its potent symbolism and, hopefully, chart its course from ritual to romance, with a bullet. This is a mixed metaphor but it can be played on mono reproducers provided either a compatible or stereo cartridge wired for mono is fitted. Or you could use an oxymoron.

 

The live side of Mountain's Flowers of Evil is recommended to be played loudly because it's extremely long for one side of an LP and the overall base volume is lower than average.

Frankly, I've always thought that these "play loud" instructions really had little relevance in most cases, and were just another way of saying, "THIS ALBUM ROCKS, DUDES!"

 

"Side I Is Much Longer Than Side II, Therefore Is Not As Loud. So Turn It Up!" Rush- Presto

 

I'm not a serious fan, but when I got the CD reissue of We're Only In It For The Money (fall of 1993, I believe), I was going to grad school and lived near campus, so the main library wasn't too far away. So on reading the notes before playing the disc (which, just to be clear, I'd never heard before), I went to the library, took out a volume of Kafka's short stories, and read "In The Penal Colony" just before playing "Chrome Plated Megaphone". I don't know that it added a lot to my appreciation of the track, but I did feel good that I'd put in the effort.

 

Here's the back cover of the Out of Vogue EP by ur-hardcore band the Middle Class: yes kids, play at maxium volume!

 

Wow!

 

The incredible new Old 97s CD "Most Messed Up" comes with play it loud instructions.

 

Hey, I note you live in Montreal so I can give you even more thrilling context: I was attending McGill and lived in a residence right at the corner of University and Pine, which is maybe a two-block walk from main McGill library at the corner of Sherbrooke and Metcalfe. So I was able to dash out, get the book, and be back in front of the stereo in about 30-40 minutes.

 

Roger Waters - Amused to Death
"This recording was mixed in Q-Sound (Trademark), a new audio technology producing a wider, more natural sound field. To hear the Q-Sound effect you must be positioned centrally between the two speakers. If the dog barking at the beginning of the record doesn't sound like he's in the yard next door then your speakers are out of phase."

 

Not really a suggestion how to play the record but some info anyway
Thin Lizzy - Live Life

 

The verbal instruction to "Kick out the jams."

 

"...come to us, soaring"

 

The Tubes--The Completion Backwards Principle...Fee says on the record "If you can manage the time, please play both side at one meeting"

 

The Flaming Lips Zaireeka - Meant to be played on 4 boomboxes simultaneously.

Big Brother and The Holding Company Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968 - Bear gives speaker placement reccomendations.

 

If he wanted it to sound that tinny, why didn't he just master it that way?

 

Lynyrd Skynyrd never had to write instructions on their albums to turn it up.

 

I guess I should add to my profile that I am a failed comedian.

 

Jim O'Rourke's The Visitor asks : "Please listen on speakers, loud".

But the most unusual listening instruction came with a CD of Haydn's clavichord music asking to be played at low volume, so as to preserve the delicate instrument's timbre (you shouldn't hear much of a note's attack, is what I think it was).

 

Certainly most of their CD reissues said on the back cover "WARNING: Extreme electronic music - please acquire with due caution." Given the content of the music, I found this polite concern to be kind of funny.

 

And the liner notes to Reed's "New York" say that the disc should be listened to straight through in one sitting, as though the listener watching a movie or reading a novel. (I don't have the disc handy, so I can't quote the exact wording.)

 

On Laughing on Judgement Day by Thunder it reads: To enjoy this record in true stereo reproduction, our engineer recommends that you go out and buy another copy.

 

The Prison by Mike Nesmith
Eskimo by The Residents

Both come with text to be read while you listen to the music

Then there's Another Record by Genesis - in which the lyrics tell you to "Put another record on"

 

Lou Reed's New York liner notes tell the listener:
"It's meant to be listened to in one 58 minute (14 songs) sitting as though it were a book or a movie."
Better do as he says!

 

I created a system just like this in 1971, though I had no idea Hafler had come up with this circuit at the time.