He had a very short heyday that lasted about 9 months and it was over right? It did not seem that long after no.
He was big for a year or two there. Then he did something called "The War Song" that I never heard on the radio.
Well TODAY I picked up, for 3.99 in NM condition "The Works". The only ones left I do not have according to the Dustbury site are Peaches II and '58 Musicians. These are great samplers and all the ones I have are all NM which makes it nice to be able to read the inner covers without sneezing from the dust. I have been seeing many of the series for sale lately and I am hoping for the two I need to pop up. Mostly great music throughout the series. The Works has a Beach Boys song "Child Of Winter" that I have never heard(I am on side 2 now). There are a lot of other b-sides and singles on many releases. Lots of good info on the artists. They cut the photos in the later releases for cost-cutting, but still have a pretty good writeup in the notes. These are nice to play when I want a variety and do not have any expectations about sound or anything like that. It is also to hear a lot of artists that may not otherwise be heard. Especially now in 2018 where very few of the track are ever on the radio anymore.
While it is fun to include any double sampler at all related to Warner's distribution, 58 Muscians was never a Loss Leader album. In fact as far as I know it was sold at retail - and not strictly a mail order item, if at all. I never saw it listed inside of WB / Reprise album with other LL titles. We may as well stop now from calling it one.
I tend to agree due to the fact it concentrates only on a specific genre of music. The official stance by Warner however it is part of the series. The catalog number begins with PRO which was a promo or sampler release.And being the last or near the last it would not have been mentioned on inner sleeves. By the late 70s the inners were a plain white. I am in no hurry to pick this one up BTW.
Not only a specific genre of music, it is an ECM label compilation. Afaik, no Warners, No Reprise acts at all.
Some of the late Loss Leaders had a mail order pamphlet. I found one going as far as Troublemakers and it is true that it doesn't mention the ECM compilation.
You are right on the no Warner/Reprise acts and it is a specific to ECM. Sort of like the Peaches sets are geared to the Capricorn Label artists. The PRO 850 was released in 1980 to mark Warner's distribution deal with ECM. I overlooked the Peaches sets for years while collecting the others because of the label specific artists, but I finally count is as part of the series. I guess the ECM set is in the grey area, but I will still buy it and put in on the shelf between Eclipse (PRO 828) and Troublemakers (PRO 857).
I'm not a big Southern Rock devotee so will likely skip the Peaches sets. I've considered the ECM set but haven't yet found it in the right condition for the right price on the right day. (I have most of the albums represented anyway.)
Cookbook and Troublemakers concentrated on specific genres of music, too. That was definitely a Loss Leader album.
Naa don't skip it you should have it if you have the rest. At least I wouldn't be the only one! Maybe in the true spirit of the series it will introduce songs you may never have heard and set you out looking...
The ECM sampler,while attempting to gain similar results as the LLs,just doesn't belong. It has a PRO prefix,but probably just a way to deflect artist royalties.
Too much serious listings around to laugh. Discogs and Dustbury both include the ECM sampler as a LL. They are wrong. I suspect the higher ups at WB already knew that Troublemakers would be the end of the line. Inflation,cassette markets, and MTV right around the corner(parent Warner Communications played a big part in incubating MTV),I suspect that WB/R was finding new streams to p*** money into start-up acts.
The idea of the sampler record / CD / cassette will always be a great way to show off and promote the new acts not previously exposed to a potential listener. Its just the WB/Reprise took it to another level in concept and they had a ton of acts bubbling under, as they call it. A more expensively designed and executed record label sampler. If they did lay off of the concept for a while, they did do more of the sort later in digital. The CDs in the "Just say Yes" series is a Warner Division Sire Records series. Very cool" Just Say Yes It's as cool as the LL series - but of course a much different era of music of course. It also included rare import mixes, live and b-sides a-plenty.
A previously unmentioned Loss Leader got dropped into my mailbox that is not listed on the Dustbury - Inside the Warner/Reprise Loss Leaders site. This CD is Loss Leaders Re-Visited from 2009. Covers tunes from Warner, Reprise, and Sire No mention of copies made like like 3,500 for Re-Visited (1995) and 2,500 for Loss Leaders 2 (1999). I guess it's still debatable on whether the CD's are true Loss Leader compilations but they are listed (except this new find) on Dustbury which seems to be accepted as the Loss Leaders authority.
Those LL CDs were not available to the public. No retail price. On a regular basis,WEA put together comps for solicitation of accounts. These were just an artistic throwback to folks in charge of making buying decisions for stores/chains that might have remembered the old days. As I mentioned in post #863,Record Store Day 2018 had a CD giveaway,The New Whole Burbank Catalog, using the old artwork and Captain Beefheart quote. available to the public,free,just kinda got lost with the other freebie stuff for RSD. Yuor store may still have a copy or two lying around or behind the counter. As for Dustbury being the "authority",I think this forum has much more info than Dustbury. Dustbury is a good starting place but it hasn't been updated since 2011.Heck,even the good doctor(Demento) showed up here for a take or two. A shame the market doesn't exist for a book and Stan Cornyn has passed but there is a book in all of this. Just following WB/Reprise from 1969 to 1980,basically the Mo Ostin years, saw a growth that will never be equaled. And for all of the attempts of parent Warner Communications for World Domination of film,TV,super hero stuff,cable & gaming/computers,the record division was always the little engine that did. A list floating around of the top LP sales of albums released in the '70s(excluding comps,shows that WEA distributed around 40 titles(sure,a couple of astericks and including Rolling Stones Records to 1978).
I didn't know Devendra Banhart did a record for WB, must have been when Eliot Roberts was managing him.
Bought it about the second week of availability,since the price kinda took me back a bit. I was expecting $25 bucks but the $40 price took me a couple of days to finagle into the budget. Still have the Borders sticker:5 12802,which meant that the store got five copies for Aug. 12,2002. Currently looking at the used paperback @ Amazon for under four bucks just tears me up. I might just get a second copy so I don't have to be so neat about my copy. The softbound version has one of the crappiest covers I've ever seen. Jagger? Madonna with the cone bra? Who cares. it was Jim Conkling,Mike Maitland,Mo Ostin,Joe Smith(aka the Mo & Joe Show),the Erteguns,Jac Holzman,David Geffen, Bob Krasnow & Steve Ross that few knew yet they were the guys who made WMG. The reason I bring Stan up is that after reading it,there were more questions I wish he had delved into. This is a sign of a great read:The more you know,the more you know you don't know. He did a newsy column before he left us,but once again,he was the guy with the secrets. And a complete collection of his liner notes would be sublime!
