Loss Leaders from Warner Brothers/Reprise: An album by album thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Seederman, Sep 14, 2015.

  1. pickwick33

    pickwick33 Forum Resident

    I've always considered the "Playback" series to be Columbia's answer to the WB Loss Leader series. Just like WB, the Playbacks were advertised on the innersleeves of CBS albums ("be a Columbia/Epic A&R advisor!"), contained tracks from upcoming releases, and can be found regularly in used stores today (depending on the featured artists).

    Unlike the Loss Leaders, these were 7" EPs.

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    As I stated earlier, these do pop up used for cheap, but not the mega-collectible discs that featured Dylan, Springsteen or Iggy & the Stooges. However, the discs featuring the mid-level or unknown acts like, say, David Bromberg or the Manhattans, are fairly easy to find.

    The first time I saw these, I had no idea what they were out of context. There used to be a stereo chain called Playback ("the electronic playground"), and I thought they were in cahoots w/CBS on these records.
     
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  2. marmil

    marmil It's such a long story...

    What's the next one gonna be (I'm impatient!)
     
  3. florandia

    florandia Forum Resident

    Location:
    Florida
    I look on with envy at these wonderful Loss Leader posts !
    I was living in the UK at the time all the WB loss leaders were available , I had visibility of the various issues due to my subscription
    to Rolling Stone magazine [ Can you imagine, Rolling Stone , was considered counter culture back in the dawn of time!].
    I racked my brains thinking of ways that I could divert these wonderful items of interest into my sweaty grasp but there was no way ,then,
    that I could transfer payments across the Atlantic.
    I have lived in the USA for the last 15 years and have only rarely come across copies of the loss leaders and even then they were in poor condition.
    After all these years I am loss leaderless . but have compensations with the British labels compilations.....................
    You can all join in/Nice enough to eat/ Bumpers/El Pea ........Rock machine ..2 volumes / Gutbucket...2 volumes.......and much more on various labels.
     
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  4. Victor/Victrola

    Victor/Victrola Makng shure its write

    About the imitators, I recently found a copy of Wings - a Capitol records sampler, distributed by TG&Y (a dime store chain). It's a single LP, 10 songs and my first exposure to Lothar and the Hand People. Also appearing are Bob Seger System, Glen Campbell, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Joe South, The Corporation, The Stone Poneys AND Linda Ronstadt.
     
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  5. misterdecibel

    misterdecibel Bulbous Also Tapered

    If they sound decent I imagine it's largely down to the source material. Warner's roster of artists in general seemed to have been treated well by the recording process.
     
  6. Folknik

    Folknik Forum Resident

    I have that one,too. I bought it at TG&Y for $1.00 in 1969. A really nice little comp. "Machines" by Lothar and the Hand People is a killer song.
     
  7. Seederman

    Seederman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Zappéd (PRO368 - 1970)


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    Zapped (PRO368 - 1970)
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    We come to a very special album in the Loss Leaders universe. Or very special albums, to put it more accurately. There are two separate versions, with different album covers and four songs replaced with other ones. So, a completist would have to hunt down both to have a truly complete Loss Leader collection.

    The cover of one features a collage while the other is a glamour shot (the first is popularly called "The collage cover", while the other is called "the Hot Rats cover") There is a subtle difference in the title, as well..

    Willard's site gets into the nitty-gritty of why he believes Zappéd was the first one and Zapped the second, and it sounds plausible to me. It really doesn't matter that much, but if you want to see his rationale, check out his Zappéd page.

    This pair, taken together, mark the 6th loss leader entry. The first, second and fourth albums all featured an X-rated (or R-rated) side, spearheaded by Frank Zappa and some of his Straight Records and Bizarre Records artists. The third album was a fluke single album, which dropped the weirdness side for space. The fifth album was aimed more for the middle aged audience who were unlikely to tolerate such noise.

    The purpose of this album appears to be twofold. To give the people who liked the freakiness a whole album of the stuff, and (probably much) more importantly, to promote Zappa's roster of Straight and Bizarre signings, who after all counted as Warner product too. The next album in the series (and the lone triple album) Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies would once again restore the weirdness side.

    This album seems to be a little better researched than any of the others on the web, with a little more info plugged into Discogs for example. I attribute this to Frank Zappa collectors, who probably would consider this an important record.

    John Mendelsohn, who provided the notes to October 10, 1969, returns.

    Notes:


    Track Listing

    Zappéd

    A1 –Alice Cooper Titanic Overture 1:09
    A2 –Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band The Blimp (Mousetrapreplica) 2:04
    A3 –Judy Henske And Jerry Yester Horses On A Stick 2:10
    A4 –Tim Buckley I Must Have Been Blind 3:40
    A5 –Wild Man Fischer Merry-Go-Round 1:56
    A6 –Alice Cooper Reflected 3:10
    A7 –Tim Dawe Little Boy Blue 2:15
    A8 –Lord Buckley The Train 2:24
    B1 –Jeff Simmons Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up 3:14
    B2 –Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band Old Fart At Play 1:54
    B3 –The Mothers Of Invention Valarie 2:15
    B4 –GTO's Do Me In Once And I'll Be Sad, Do Me In Twice And I'll Know Better (Circular Circulation) 2:19
    B5 –Frank Zappa Willie The Pimp 9:25

    Zapped

    A1 –Alice Cooper Titanic Overture 1:09
    A2 –Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band The Blimp (Mousetrap Replica) 2:04
    A3 –Judy Henske And Jerry Yester St Nicholas Hall 3:41
    A4 –Tim Buckley I Must Have Been Blind 3:40
    A5 –Wild Man Fischer Merry-Go-Round 1:56
    A6 –Alice Cooper Refrigerator Heaven 2:17
    A7 –Tim Dawe Little Boy Blue 2:15
    A8 –Lord Buckley Governor Slugwell 5:02
    B1 –Jeff Simmons Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up 3:14
    B2 –Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band Old Fart At Play 1:54
    B3 –The Mothers Of Invention Holiday In Berlin, Full Blown 6:27
    B4 –GTO's Do Me In Once And I'll Be Sad, Do Me In Twice And I'll Know Better (Circular Circulation) 2:19
    B5 –Frank Zappa Willie The Pimp 9:25

    Song Commentary:

    The way I'll handle this is by writing up the entries for Zappéd, and then tacking on the remaining four songs from Zapped.

    A1 –Alice Cooper Titanic Overture 1:09 We begin this strange album with "Titanic Overture", which was also the introduction to the band's self-produced debut album Pretties for You (1969), on Straight records. This is an immense (titanic, even) sounding piece, consisting of what sounds like pipe organs at a demented carnival. So the mood is set. Ian Underwood and Herb Cohen of the Mothers produced. Alice Cooper (the band) hadn't yet become what they were to become (the GTO's would dress them up and help them create their image), and Alice Cooper (the man) is very dismissive of Pretties for You; he stopped playing the songs live early in his career. However, fans of circa-1970 psychedelic hard rock often speak highly of the album. Pretties for You was not a commercial success and peaked at #193 on the charts; the band would not become a significant commercial force until 1971.

    A2 –Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band The Blimp (Mousetrapreplica) 2:04 An exciting track from the Zappa-produced Trout Mask Replica (1969), the second chosen for the series, this consists of a tight bass-organ-drums Mothers backing track (to "Charles Ives") set to Van Vliet's poetry read by Jeff Cotton in near-falsetto, recorded through a telephone to Zappa's studio (first line of the song: Master master, this is recorded through a fly's ear...) The recording eventually breaks into Zappa on the phone telling the caller he "sure did" record it and "I think we have enough on tape that we'll just use it as-is on the album..." while the drum track, now sounding disembodied and clearly on tape, clatters in the background. All this, and to think that Rolling Stone doesn't even include Captain Beefheart in its Record Guide books anymore. Trout Mask Replica never did chart in America, but it made a very respectable #21 in the UK.

    A3 –Judy Henske And Jerry Yester Horses On A Stick 2:10 Former Lovin' Spoonful members Yester (a Burbank native, incidentally) and Zal Yanovsky, the production team behind The Fifth Avenue Band, whom we've met in this series, are represented here by their previous project. "Horses on a Stick" is from the album Farewell Aldebaran, released on Straight in 1969. Henske and Yester were wife and husband. Henske's career goes all the way back to 1959, and she once was known as "queen of the beatniks" Yester plays nearly a dozen instruments on the album, which has something of a cult. On this song, he plays harmonium in the matter of a fairground steam organ, while Henske delivers a cheery vocal that sounds like a parody of sunshine pop. It is a remarkable cut, actually, although for my money the song on Zapped is even better.

    A4 –Tim Buckley I Must Have Been Blind 3:40 This is the second Loss Leader dip into Buckley's idiosyncratic but lovely Blue Afternoon, a Straight release in 1969. Tortured and regretful, it is one of his best songs, and features one of his most likable vocal performances. Not freaky or especially weird, but the instrumentation is unconventional, featuring David Friedman on vibraphone and Ian Underwood on piano and guitar. Jimmy Madison applies thunderous drums in all the right places in what is essentially a gentle, but heartbroken song. On this album, it provides an uneasy dreamscape before things get loony.

    A5 –Wild Man Fischer Merry-Go-Round 1:56 Things get loony here, with Larry ("Wild Man") delivering a childlike song, punctuated by hoots and hollers and screeches. The Zappa production throws in a wide variety of goofy percussion touches that never quite lose the beat but never quite seem to be there entirely for more than a few seconds at a time, as other percussion fades in and out. Weird stereo effects, whoops for backing vocals. This is pretty much what you were paying for when you paid for An Evening with Wild Man Fischer (1969) on Bizarre. If one ever wants to explore the world of outsider music (and it is a dangerous world, you need a compass), starting here is not a bad idea. Dr. Demento, whose influence we will feel more keenly in the Loss Leaders series soon, has kept Fischer in the public eye ever since.

    A6 –Alice Cooper Reflected 3:10 This is the first real song from Alice Cooper in the series, also taken from Pretties for You. The liner notes don't seem sure what to make with them, and play up the androgynous angle big-time, making them sound like the (still un-formed) New York Dolls. A noisy intro leads us into the song, which is an early version of "Elected". The arrangement is post-psychedelic with hints of the Who's anarchy and Syd Barrett-Floyd's fuzz and sense of off kilter melody. It is very punk too; if someone told me this was a song from 1977, I'd believe it.

    A7 –Tim Dawe Little Boy Blue 2:15 "Little Boy Blue" is from Tim Dawe's Penrod, another Jerry Yester production from 1969, on Bizarre. Dawe is probably the most obscure name on this list. This was his only album. Mendelsohn's liner notes, while witty, offer nothing useful in helping us understand this artist. Little exists about him on the web. "Little Boy Blue" is played primarily on a synthesizer, with conventional instrumental backing as well plus a tinkling barrelhouse piano. Musically, it appears to be a combination of country rock and polka, sung in a hiccupy voice. As awful as that sounds, once you recover from the initial shock it starts to get downright catchy. Not much else to say about Dawe, except he popped up once or twice in the 70's and eventually became a physics instructor at San Francisco State University.

    A8 –Lord Buckley The Train 2:24 Lord Buckley (1906-1960) was one of those characters that's hard to pin down. He was, at various times or even all at the same time, a comedian, a poet, a stage performer, a monologist, a recording artist, and TV personality. Straight released A Most Immaculately Hip Aristocrat in 1970, which was a collection of spoken word, comedy, weird bits, etc. intended as an homage and introduction to his unusual talent, which impressed the young Zappa in the 50's. This track begins with an "all aboard" announcement by a train conductor rattling off station names, with each becoming more absurd then the last. Then, we hear the sound of the train starting to chug, all done with voice. A conductor appears for tickets, the horn blows, a peanut vendor makes his way down the aisle. The train at full speed is delivered in a jazz scat. There's chatter between the engineers. And the train crashes, killing 27 and injuring 14. Yep, all done with voice in a frantic rhythmic style, and spellbinding.

    B1 –Jeff Simmons Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up 3:14 Simmons, who was in the Mothers from 1970-1971, released two albums for Straight in 1969. The first was a soundtrack album called Naked Angels, which features a biker roughing up a woman on the cover. The other was his debut album proper, Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up. Zappa produced it under the name La Marr Bruister. It is a blues song set to a 50's tempo with baritone sax and some shredding guitar from Zappa himself. Simmons lacks a certain vocal presence, but he does pour his heart into this vocal, which is tortured and obsessed. Simmons is also one of the rare people to share a writing credit with Zappa, "Wonderful Wino", which appears on this album and on Zoot Allures and "Dummy Up" from The Roxy and Elsewhere. "Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up" was later re-tooled for Joe's Garage. Simmons is still out there, releasing his third solo album in 2004.

    B2 –Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band Old Fart At Play 1:54 Jeff Cotton, in normal voice this time, recites more of Van Vliet's crazed poetry over busy backing from the band. Trout Mask Replica joins the growing list of albums that have been sampled three times during the series. The album title is drawn from this track, which is like a fever dream or a children's story, relating the story of Old Fart who lives behind a knoll and wears a wooden fish head.

    B3 –The Mothers Of Invention Valarie 2:15 This is a slow, anguished version of Jackie & the Starlites' slow, anguished 1960 doo-wop classic, in which the lead singer, Jackie LaRue, breaks into tears at the end. Even with the weird Mothers flourishes, this is a pretty straight rendition of the tune and nobody cries. This is the second song chosen from Burnt Weenie Sandwich (1970) It was actually considered as a non-LP single, b/w "My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama", but it wound up on the album (and not on a single) instead.

    B4 –GTO's Do Me In Once And I'll Be Sad, Do Me In Twice And I'll Know Better (Circular Circulation) 2:19 This is a Lowell George (Little Feat) composition, from the lone album Permanent Damage, by the GTO's (Girls Together Outrageously). Zappa produced the whole album. Miss Pamela (Pamela Des Barres) handles the lead vocal, and if we ignore her vocal for a moment, the instrumental track could fit just fine onto Little Feat's 1971 debut album. Her childlike, singsongy-but-slightly-flat vocal is actually rather charming. Not sure what the lyrics mean, but they seem to mean something...

    B5 –Frank Zappa Willie The Pimp 9:25 What can be said here? One of my all time favorite songs, sung by Captain Beefheart himself. Taken from Hot Rats, this showcases what is best about both performers. Van Vliet's vocal is possibly one of the top few of his career, and Zappa provides one of the most intense guitar solos of his career. It is a bluesy hard rock track with a funky propulsion, textured and atmospheric. Hot Rats only managed to chart at #173, but it actually attained top-10 status in the UK, peaking at #9. It was the first album after Zappa dissolved the original Mothers, but Ian Underwood is still aboard and plays a key collabortive role.

    Zapped alternate tracks:

    A3 –Judy Henske And Jerry Yester St Nicholas Hall 3:41 "St Nicholas Hall", another song from the cult classic Farewell Aldebaran, is a Gothic-sounding anti-clerical song, with Henske showing off her impressive range with gusto. There are a smorgasbord of exotic instruments here, including early electronic ones. This one borders on both spine-tingling and disturbing at the same time, which is probably close to the desired effect. One thing I can absolutely promise you: this is not another Lovin' Spoonful rip, that is for damn sure. Pretty stunning.

    A6 –Alice Cooper Refrigerator Heaven 2:17 Another Pretties for You cut, this one is a whirling, dizzy, post-psychedelic hard rock number, with jarring changes in tempo and canned audience screams at the beginning and end. There's a certain purity in the band's primitivism at this point, which was probably what Zappa liked in them. He probably liked the lyrics too, which are told from the perspective of a cancer patient in cryogenic suspension.

    A8 –Lord Buckley Governor Slugwell 5:02 This is another skit from A Most Immaculately Hip Aristocrat, also done completely solo with voice. This is a frenzied account of the fanfare and parades and hysteria in the grandstands on the occasion of a speech by Governor Slugwell. I'll save the jokes for any listeners, because it gets very involved over 5 minutes. There are accents and voices and sound effects galore. Buckley is kind of the one-man-band of comedy sketches.

    B3 –The Mothers Of Invention Holiday In Berlin, Full Blown 6:27 This is another track from Burnt Weeny Sandwich (making the third in the series so far) It is also the first "serious music" composition of Zappa's we've seen so far (unless "Peaches en Ragalia" on October 10, 1969 counts), after a lot of doo-wop songs. This is a stunningly complex piece of music, one that might strike the listener as "weird" at first, but one that actually harbors moments of great beauty. It opens with a Stravinsky-esque section, strolls through a waltz-time section on celeste, and finally a guitar solo with heavy percussion. If the solo on "Willie the Pimp" is in contention for one of Zappa's best solos, then this one is one of the ones it is competing with.

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    Additional Thoughts:

    Whew, what a ride! These are great albums, ones I presume any hardcore Zappa fan already owns, and ones that would work fine as a primer on Zappa's world. It might be a great way to convert a newbie to Zappa as well. I know it has me hungry to dig in deeper to his catalog, 'cept I have a pile of Loss Leaders to play first...

    What I especially like about these discs is that they are unlike the "weirdness sides" we've seen so far. For one thing, Zappa doesn't have to share the weirdness with the unrelated Fugs, who were on their own trip. All of these are elements of his musical vision. This means there's a cohesiveness of sound that doesn't exist anywhere else. Loss Leaders completely aside, this really is a unique passport into Zappa's music that is pretty easy to digest and provides many leads for further investigation. It is an important Loss Leader.


    Next up, the whale of them all, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, a triple album set, the only one of the series. Might take a bit longer than usual, but at some point before the weekend is over.
     
    Last edited: Sep 19, 2015
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  8. GLENN

    GLENN Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kingsport,TN, USA
    Our local TG&Y had a ton of those and kept cutting the price to get rid of them. I think they were less than 50 cents by the time my mom bought one. I know I heard it a couple of times but I was pretty young so I don't remember much about the actual music.
     
  9. stephenlee

    stephenlee Forum Resident

    Location:
    East Coast, USA
    About The Big Ball ...
    I can't put my hands on my copy of the album right now (it's apparently misfiled), but my recollection is that the notes don't indicate this song is from Sunflower. Rather, the album cover pictured is that of Add Some Music, the original unreleased incarnation of the album. Can anybody confirm that? And if so, is that the situation with all copies or just the first run? Anybody know?
     
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  10. Seederman

    Seederman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    You can see a scan of the liner notes in the link below the album cover in my post. The booklet identifies the album as Sunflower, but the picture is indeed of Add Some Music.
     
  11. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    Refrigerator Heaven is from Easy Action

    Lord Buckley's Hip Aristocrat, unlike his albums on World Pacific and Elektra is not live. I have no idea where Frank got them, but they seem to be rehearsal/work tapes done on a home recorder.

    Judy Henske was a mainstay of the NY village folk scene including albums on Elektra. She was also part of the group Womenfolk on RCA and Dave Guard's Whiskeyhill Singers(post Kingston Trio).
     
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  12. CCrider92

    CCrider92 Senior Member

    Location:
    Cape Cod, MA
    I bought a ton of records because of these loss leaders! I still have them and still listen to them! A lot of record buyers that I meet and talk to who are now in their 60's and 70's had a likewise experience.
     
  13. Folknik

    Folknik Forum Resident

    I missed out on Zapped, but I have 8 of the songs on the albums from which they were taken. Some great stuff there. I always thought "Titanic Overture" sounded a lot like Little Anthony's "Goin' Out of My Head." I wish I could find that Jerry Yester and Judy Henske album.
     
  14. EddieMann

    EddieMann I used to be a king...

    Location:
    Geneva, IL. USA.
    So I see this picture and I think to myself, that looks familiar. Into the basement I go to search through the boxes of records that never seemed to get sorted and filed. Sure enough there it is. But, the record inside is Zappa and the Mothers at the Fillmore East 1971. So I don't have this after all. Next up, Loony Tunes. Which, I KNOW I have...without a cover :confused:.
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  15. alchemy

    alchemy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sterling, VA
    And to think I bought my copy at full price back in the day.

    You could only get it on on cd as a Japanese import CD.
     
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  16. pbuzby

    pbuzby Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL, US
    The first run doesn't mention the Sunflower title, yes.
     
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  17. pbuzby

    pbuzby Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL, US
    Couple of minor corrections regarding Zappéd:

    Although Tim Buckley did use some former Zappa sidemen, the guitarist on Blue Afternoon was Lee Underwood (not Ian). Also, the recitation on "Old Fart At Play" was by Beefheart himself. Jeff Cotton had the high pitched voice from "The Blimp" as well as "Pena," maybe the most off-putting track on the whole album.
     
  18. 99thfloor

    99thfloor Senior Member

    Location:
    Sweden
    I wouldn't go as far as saying that this is an "early version" of "Elected", it is really only the melody of the verse that was reused, and of corse the only slightly altered title.

    Again a song that served as inspiration for a later number, the concept of "refrigerator heaven" makes a slight reapperance in "Cold Ethyl". As noted this song is from the second Straight album, Easy Action. (Does the liner notes make this mistake?)
     
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  19. Seederman

    Seederman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Naw, I made it all by myself. If posts allowed editing for an hour instead of half an hour, I would have caught that. I was rushing to finish because a little voice in the next room kept saying "How long are you gonna be at the computer?" :D
     
  20. 99thfloor

    99thfloor Senior Member

    Location:
    Sweden
    Ha, ha, ok I see where your coming from. :p

    I too wish the editing window would be longer, half an hour is not enough for my endless copying and pasting and rearranging, and only when I hit "reply" do the good ideas really start to come. :)
     
  21. pbuzby

    pbuzby Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL, US
    I found Fischer's album a few years ago and for me the interaction between his songs and that percussion (presumably from the same session as similar percussion rumbling heard here and there throughout Uncle Meat and Burny Weeny Sandwich, I believe played by Art Tripp) is the most interesting part, since Fischer himself wears thin for me quickly.
     
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  22. Danby Delight

    Danby Delight Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    My father was a manager for TG&Y. I remember seeing a box of copies of Wings in the stockroom of one of his stores as late as 1978.
     
  23. Seederman

    Seederman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I think this album is revelatory in helping the listener understand Zappa's production style, because it is spread among primitives here. On his own album, his complex compositional style PLUS his production on top can be overwhelming and confusing. This album, by highlighting his production, makes his own music more accessible by lifting a veil.
     
  24. Folknik

    Folknik Forum Resident

    I like An Evening With Wild Man Fisher a lot largely because much of it is basically a field recording. I see it as sort of a kindergarten counterpart to Trout Mask Replica.
     
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  25. Folknik

    Folknik Forum Resident

    I remember being in TG&Y several weeks after I bought Wings for $1.00. One of the managers was telling a sales girl who worked in the record department to mark them down to 57 cents. It's a really nice album. I still listen to it.
     

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