Most crucial albums have been released on CD, rare CDs, are going for big bucks

From SFGate:
Most crucial albums have been released on CD, so these days, rare CDs, not LPs, are going for big bucks
- Joel Selvin, Chronicle Senior Pop Music Critic
Monday, January 31, 2005

With compact discs about 20 years old now, most of the great albums from the LP era have been reissued in the digital domain. No really crucial albums remain to be rereleased, although every collector has a couple of favorites yet to appear on CD -- some fondly recalled act that opened a show at the Fillmore once, its obscurity undisturbed by CD reissues; some little known soul group that came and went with one minor masterpiece that nobody else noticed; some precious, arcane jazz session as yet not collected on a boxed set.

But the CDs staying in release have proved to be another matter. In fact, some CD reissues that themselves came and went are pulling down big bucks on the Internet -- higher prices than the original albums ever did. Some CDs readily available for a few dollars only a few years ago, now out of print, can easily command three figures.

It's not just the one-time-only, special promotional items that are fetching premiums. Either of the two major label CDs by the Traveling Wilburys -- a Top 10, multiplatinum hit in 1988 for a group including George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne -- sell for $40 and more because the discs went out of print and the principals can't agree on further licensing rights. British Invasion era bandleader Dave Clark, who owns the rights to all his old masters, leased a two-CD set to Disney's Hollywood Records in 1993, and it is now a pricey collector's item.

Youthful CDs by musicians who went on to greater fame are highly collectable, such as early independent releases by Nirvana or the Cure. Some artists, embarrassed by their earlier work, refuse to allow labels to put the old records out, which is why the first album by singer-songwriter Tori Amos goes for more than $200 on the Web.

Limited editions have second lives. San Francisco radio station KFOG has been putting out samplers of live recordings from the station's broadcasts to raise money for Bay Area food banks for the past 11 years that sell out their small press run almost immediately. Some of the early volumes of that series go for more than $100 now. Prince finally released in a 1994 limited edition his much-bootlegged "The Black Album," originally scheduled for 1987 release and pulled at the last moment. Now copies of the official second edition sell for $100.

Audiophile editions of CDs were always produced in small numbers, but since Sonoma County's pioneer audiophile label, Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs, has gone out of business, prices for all that label's releases have gone through the roof. Boxed sets from the mail order jazz specialists Mosaic, likewise, can command some extraordinary prices, once the label's limited pressings sell out.

As catalogs switch labels, contents often shift in transit. The current Virgin line of David Bowie CDs lacks the bonus tracks that decorated the previous Rykodisc CD reissues from the late '80s, which, of course, has made the early reissues rare and desirable. Motown Records, in the first flush of late '80s CD reissues, pumped out a large number of titles from the soul label's enormous LP back catalog that were quickly pruned from the roster by the more sanguine minds of the next corporate owners. As a result, there are some relatively minor albums by Smokey Robinson or Gladys Knight and the Pips where the out-of-print CD reissues cost more than the original albums ever did on the collector's market.

The major labels have even gotten into the act, making limited edition CD reissues of rare LPs and selling them at premium prices on Internet-only imprints such as Rhino Handmade or Hip-O Select. That rare album that used to cost at least $100 on LP, if you could find a copy, is now available for around $25 on a CD series not distributed to record stores. As with the out-of- print jazz reissues on the mail-order-only Mosaic label, it's only a matter of time before the labels exhaust their limited editions and the collectors start trading the boutique CD reissues at even further inflated prices.

As the once hot topic of what LP would you most like to see on CD dwindles down to the esoteric few, the question is really what albums would you like to see on CD.
Here's a list of some of the albums most conspicuously absent from the CD racks:.

BOB SEGER: "Back in '72"

Too bad Seger hates his vocal performances on this album. It's prime, pre- "Night Moves" Seger, rough and ready and features his concert staple, "Turn the Page," and his hard-rocking Van Morrison cover, "I've Been Workin'.".

THE BEATLES: "Live at the Hollywood Bowl:"

The only Beatles record producer George Martin had nothing to do with recording -- although he did preside over a perfunctory remix of the original three-track tapes when the album was released in 1977, a time when Paul and Yoko had less control over the catalog than they do today..

NEIL DIAMOND: "The Feel of Neil Diamond"

Diamond's sterling debut album featured both his early hits, "Cherry Cherry" and "Solitary Man," but has never been on CD..


BUCKINGHAM NICKS


The outstanding debut album by Stevie Nicks and partner Lindsey Buckingham paved the way to their joining Fleetwood Mac and sounds more like "Rumours" than any of Mac's previous records..

NEIL YOUNG: "Time Fades Away"

Young recently restored four long-missing titles to the digital domain, but he will probably never be able to bring out this 1973 album because he mastered the original album directly to a now obsolete piece of equipment.
These are some of the out-of-print CDs that recently sold for more than $100 on Ebay: .

HANSON: Boomerang

Independent release from their early days in 1994. $709.

AFI: The Days of the Phoenix EP

Only 500 copies were made in England. $306.

TORI AMOS: Y Kant Tori Read

The singer-songwriter's overlooked debut. $215.

RICK JAMES: Cold Blooded

A rare '80s Motown CD of the funkateer's 1983 original. $200.

CARL WILSON: Youngblood

Japanese reissue of Beach Boys vocalist's 1983 solo album. $174.

CLEO LAINE & RAY CHARLES: Porgy and Bess

The 1989 RCA Victor reissue of the 1976 LP set. $163.

PRINCE: The Black Album

The 1994 official, limited edition release of the 1987 album pulled from release at the last minute. $153.

JOHN MILES: Stranger in the City

A German CD reissue of the cultish 1977 British pop-rock album with three bonus tracks. $140.

KFOG Live From the Archives Vol. 2

The 1995 radio station sampler with live tracks by Shawn Colvin, Dave Matthews, Toad the Wet Sprocket, others. $137.


FLYING BURRITO BROTHERS


The Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab version of the 1971 country-rock album. $114.

DAVE CLARK FIVE: The History Of

The 1993 two-CD reissue of British Invasion era group's greatest hits. $103
Here is a list of the albums Joel Selvin hopes to see make it to CD some day: (These audio albums are currently unavailable.).

RON NAGLE: Bad Rice

(Warner Bros. 1970).

JOE SOUTH: Introspect

(Capitol 1969).

SWAMP DOGG: Total Destruction to Your Mind

(Canyon 1970).

BOZ SCAGGS: Moments

(Columbia 1971)

 

Previous thread:
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=47224

 

Good article. I don't buy the reasoning on Time Fades Away, because there are CD-R's of an HDCD version of this floating around (I have one), and it sounds great. So it can be done, Neil has just chosen (in typically mystifying Neil manner) not to release it.

 

Who's selling it for that much - mymusicfix? I did a quick look at Amazon and found copies going for WAY below that amount. It doesn't look difficult to get it in the $30 range...

 

There are two versions of the Black Album. The one that everyone has and isn't worth more than a few bucks, and the rare issue that was recalled at the last minute when the album was FIRST going to be issued. There are only a handful of those, and THOSE are the ones that go for big money...

Kwad

 

No, actually, all versions of Prince's Black Album are fetching high prices on ebay these days. You are correct that the original version is worth more, but there are less than a dozen or so of those out there anyway since Prince cancelled the release after only a few promo copies slipped out, and most of those were on vinyl. The only version that was ever officially released is now out of print, however, and also brings $30-60 on ebay in near mint shape. At least in my book, that's not lottery money, but it's more than "a few bucks."

 

wait, i just checked and saw the black album going between 7 and 44 dollars...quite the crap shoot for the seller. In fact one didnt even sell for $1.88! In the three years Ive been working in a record store Ive probably seen about ten to fifteen of these, so they cant be that uncommon. I would say that the eight dollars weve been selling it for is a bit low.....

 

Re-read what the writer said:

"PRINCE: The Black Album

The 1994 official, limited edition release of the 1987 album pulled from release at the last minute. $153."

I don't see the 1994 release going for $153 anywhere -that's why I commented that the price was way higher than the actual going rate.

I have no idea what 1987 copies sell for these days. I was only aware of one of those CDs being in the public domain - the one that went up for auction circa 1990 or so, I think...

 

Re: the Black Album, it may be that the writer of the article has confused the 2 issues- the official 1994 release and the earlier unauthorized release. While the 94 issue is out of print, copies are fairly plentiful, and I doubt even desparate Prince fans would fork over that kind of dough to get a copy. However, along with the Gold Experience, it does bring a premium on ebay, so that copies selling in the $10-20 range are not uncommon.

 

Since he specifically refers to the 1994 edition, I don't see how he could get them confused. And would one of the extremely scarce 1987 editions go for as low as $153? I doubt it...

 

so i guess finding the dave clark cd last year for 15.00 was a GOOD thing?