I’m the concert-poster guy for Heritage, of course, but I gotta say, participating a bit in the David Swartz Vintage Vinyl Collection auction (coming in mid-March) has been a sweet trip down Memory Lane for me.
AUCTION PREVIEW: 2022 March 12 – 13 The David Swartz Vintage Vinyl Collection Entertainment & Music Memorabilia Signature® Auction #7233
As a few of you might know, I was a huge record collector in the 1970’s, when I worked for CBS Records’ manufacturing plant on the West Coast and proudly assembled the best Bob Dylan record collection in the world. Through much finagling and infinite patience, I even finally got a precious, coveted 20-minute phone call with early Dylan producer John Hammond, although he couldn’t answer any of my OCD record-collecting questions.
Heck, I started seriously collecting Dylan vinyl even before Goldmine magazine was born; I used to put up little handwritten notes on L.A.-area record-store bulletin boards saying “Wanted: the original Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan with the four rare tracks.” There was no other way to reach people back then! Did it work? Well, within weeks I proudly bought my first original Freewheelin’ AND ragged first-state Beatles butcher cover for $50 total! (Sorry, John, if you’re still alive and reading this.) But hey, those were the days when you could buy a decent lunch for $1.50.
AUCTION PREVIEW: Bob Dylan The Freewheelin’ Mega Rare Mono Vinyl LP With Four Deleted Tracks
But I digress like mad. The thing is, this rare record auction on March 12 & 13 is full of the exact stuff I was chasing down 40-50 years ago. The original Freewheelin’ is often called the rarest/most desirable record in the world, and yep, here is one of the world’s few specimens in the auction. There’s almost no other experience in record collecting like dropping a needle and, right after “Blowin’ in the Wind,” hearing the back-up band version of “Rocks and Gravel” instead of the acoustic “Girl from the North Country.” It’s just so devastatingly rare. Who cares if the four rare tracks are now available in remastered CD, MP3, and probably even NFT form? (LOL) Those are all hollow reproductions. To have an actual disc that was pressed when Dylan was still a 22-year-old total unknown is the very DNA of record collecting. It’s like owning an original Van Gogh painting vs. his artwork reproduced today on a drug-store calendar.
Just about every other Dylan record rarity is found in this auction. It’s terrific to see the uber-rare Columbia promotional-only picture sleeves for “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” On the latter, I love the way John Lennon was talking about the Freewheelin’ and said, “We all went potty on Dylan.” Um, can you say “endorsement”? The four Beatles??
My closest friends know that as a CBS Records employee in the late 1970’s, I snuck into the pressroom late at night a couple of times and pressed up one or two copies of a Dylan album on colored vinyl. It was a job-risking caper, but I had a burning desire and “inside help” from a press operator-friend. So it tickles me to death to see the one-off colored vinyl specimens in the Swartz auction, such as the multi-colored Desire album. Don’t even use the term “rare”; its true descriptor should be, “Huh? What? Really??”
And of course, the Beatles stuff (first-state stereo butcher cover), the doo-wop gems, the Hendrix rarities, the R&B goodies, the ’tates and test pressings, the Stones collectibles… wait, another “Street Fighting Man” picture sleeve? Why not… we pulled down 80 grand for the last one. And this is the unique, uncut, and not-yet-pasted-together sleeve with various production elements? That’s off the charts. The Stones are not only still playing this landmark song 54 years later, they’re opening their shows with it. Every generation going forward is going to know this song. And yet this original picture sleeve was pulled off the market in about 12 seconds.
And then, of course, there’s the ’Oo. For the uninitiated, that would be the British pop combo better known as The Who. David Swartz is the world’s biggest Who collector, the go-to person for everyone on earth who discovers a Detours or High Numbers rarity. So you can imagine what a glowing provenance any Who item he puts up for sale has. David’s not moving out his smashed Pete Townshend guitars or Keith Moon drum kits yet, but it’s fabulous for Heritage to be getting a taste of his meaty, beaty, big & bouncy wax.
So have a smash-up good time! I know I’ll be watching and hanging on every hammer.