Anyone remember the Warner Brothers promo magazines they used to send out (Wax Paper)

Does anyone remember the old promo magazines Warner Brothers used to send out once a month to those on their freebie list? In the latter years, it was called Wax Paper, and often featured an excellent article by Dr. Demento on some aspect of record collecting or history. In the earlier years it had a different name which is evading me at this moment...

Mostly it featured articles on artists who had new albums coming out that month. But there was also other cool stuff inside.

At any rate, these were pretty nifty magazines--I wish I had a full set, but I don't...

Anyone else remember these?

Kwad

 

Yes I do! I have one issue that has a great article by Dr. Demento on how vinyl lps were made, from start to finish. Quite a process. Very informative. I, like you, wish I had more of these time capsules.

 

Wax Paper must have been, as you say, later in the game. In the early 70s, they sent out Circular every week, usually a 4- to 6-page nearly square piece printed on heavy paper.

They were indeed wonderful...I don't know if I have a full set, but I have a ton of them to this day. Warner-Reprise were far and away the most enlightened record label of that era.

 

Yeah, right, Circular. I couldn't recall that name. I seem to recall that there were sometimes other goodies included with Circular. Wasn't there a Credibility Gap record with one of them?

Boy, I'd love to find a stash of old Circular and Wax Papers to purchase!

Kwad

 

I saved a bunch of them (both Circular and Wax). Here's a scan of the Rutlemania issue. Counting the insert, it's 50 pages. In this issue Demento not only had his regular column, but also wrote the review for the new release, Zappa in New York.

 

That's COOL! FZ put a 'reprint' of one in "The Old Masters Box 2". But that Rutles one....... gotta have it!

 

This takes me back to my young man days when my girlfriend, Judy (Judith) Sims was the editor of Circular. A fine publication with a funny and hip sensibility probably as an extension of the style of writing Stan Cornyn fostered at WB. I don't know if the Credibilty Gap release your referring to had anything to do with Circular but it was a faux Rock Opera about the birth if Jesus called Something for Mary, if memory serves. Great stuff. In those days WB was a very hip company who tried to break major acts and sign the best around artistically. No one these days seems to operate in the same way, but gas was proabably $.35 a gallon and things change.

 

I never heard about these magazines. I guess the closest I ever got was the liner notes in the loss leaders double albums samplers. Great sense of humor was present and the Wax Paper must have been more of that?

Warner Brothers in the very early to mid 70s was one hell of a label for being funny and cool with a touch of edge. A while back Rhino had someone on the website writing notes on upcoming Handmade releases. This person was a brilliant writer and had a cool and almost crazy fun way. You might remember that writer Kwad? Like Dr. D. and the old WB staff.

I still have a fondness for Hot Platters, and Loony Tunes & Merrie Melodies. Wax Paper must have been around this era.

 

Oh yeah. I definitely save that Rutles issue (though where it is right now, I have no idea). I also saved the Rutles press kit they shipped with the album. That was a thick one, with tons of humorous promo pics!

Kwad

 

Just thought of something I hadn't in a long time. In one of those issues of Circular, they threw out a couple of rock trivia questions. I responded with the correct answers and also laid on quite a bit of additional information in the course of it -- just to show I knew where they were coming from.

I got a letter back from someone expressing amazement that I knew what I knew and all but offering me a job writing for them!

In retrospect, I really should have taken it more seriously, but at the time I wanted to stick close to home, and moving to California wasn't exactly in the cards. I did write back and tell them as much, but now I kind of regret it.

But everyone who's remembering here is right on the money...WB had a wonderful approach to all they did in that era...the artists they signed, the way they promoted them. It's almost hard to remember now, but they really were hip in a way that the other labels could only poorly imitate (remember Columbia's "We won't let The Man take away our music" or something ridiculous like that?).

 

Isn't it high time WEA put a complete set of CIRCULAR pdf's online? Do you think anyone there even knows what they were? I only have one left, and it has a great article called "Why Is There A Steamboat On The Reprise Label?" I never ever see these offered on ebay or anywhere else.

And when we're done with that, let's get UA's PHONOGRAPH RECORD MAGAZINE online as well.

 

Oh, wow, YES! I completely forgot about Phonograph Record Magazine. Damn, another thing to add to my "I wish I could find someone selling their collection but I can't" list...

Hmmph...Now I'm PISSED OFF because you're reminded me of something I want and I just can't find it anywhere. No instant gratification. No delayed gratification, either, I'm afraid.

What a weird thing Phonograph Record Magazine was...Funded by UA, but aside from ads for UA artists and the occasional cover story on a UA artist that might not have merited such note from another magazine, it looked like a real magazine. And they got some REALLY good writers to write for them, too, no small thanks to Greg Shaw who edited it. (And then we should go the next step and thank Marty Cerf for hiring Greg Shaw...What ever happened to Marty Cerf, anyway?) I mean, you had stuff like Lester Bangs' "James Taylor Marked for Death" appearing in that (UA FUNDED!!!) magazine...What a screwy place UA was in those days (and I mean that in mostly only the best way). Those were the days when a conglomerate (Transamerica) might think it wise to own a record company (UA) and pretty much ignore them. Of course, a few years later UA had second thoughts and tossed them to the wind, only to have the former UA wind up in EMI/Capitol's laps for a laughably small sum that would be an insult if all UA had represented was Blue Note!

Oh well. Those were the days.

Kwad

 

WEA also had a magazine called Dirt that covered most of the "alternative" stuff in the 80s (?). They also sometimes included a promo pressing of one of the featured artists. IIRC, I still have a couple laying around somewhere...

Cody