The Scrounger's Report

Jun. 12, 1999

An interesting, mostly analog, day

I hit the annual vinyl sale put on by the local PBS
affiliate. The CD selection was, as expected, pure
crap. I don't normally buy vinyl, but I was able to
find a whole bunch of stuff that has never been on
CD (as well as a few things that I'm pretty darned
sure *were* released on CD, but are rare enough that
I'll never see them). Everything was $1 each, so it's
not like I was risking the farm.

The first few were just "neat shit":

 1. a 45 RPM of the "Batman Theme" from 1966, complete
    with sleeve.

Remember the movie-related book/record combos? Basically
a 45-rpm-sized 33 along with a book containing the story
and still photos from the movie.

 2. "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." 1984.

 3. "The Hobbit." 1977.

 4. Walt Disney's "The Black Hole". 1979.

The vast majority of the vinyl stuff I bought was gambles
in the form of "wow! this looks different" or "I've never
seen this before".

 5. First Degree - Youth. 1987. Dark Records.
    Straight-ahead mid-80s CCM hard rock.

 6. Matthew Ward - Armed & Dangerous. 1986. Live Oak Records
    I think this is available now on CD as part of KMG's
    2-on-1 reissue series. I have another of his albums on
    CD... Very Kansas-like.

 7. The Newsboys - Read All About it. 1988. Refuge Records
    Extremely poppy. Almost Euro "new wave"-ish...

 8. Bryan Duncan - Whistlin' in the Dark. 1987. Modern Art Records
    Still Sealed.

 9. September - Lines are Falling. 1984. Sugar Records.
    Female-fronted poppy keyboard-driven lite AOR.

10. Arkangel - Warrior. 1980. Joyeuse Garde Recordings
    CCM Celtic Prog (if there is such an animal).

11. Barren Cross - Rock for the King. 1986. Star Song Records.
    CCM Iron Maiden clone. I have this on CD, but with reissue
    artwork. I like the artwork on this vinyl better...

12. Rick Cua - No Mystery. ??? (guessing mid-1980s). Sparrow
    I had some of his later stuff on CD, which didn't thrill
    me all that much. This is a bit more rocking, but poppy
    nonetheless.

13. Oden - Invisible Man. 1986. Frontline Records
    Keyboard-driven CCM pop AOR. Fairly decent stuff.

14. John Waite - Mask of Smiles. 1985. EMI Records.
    I figured I'll never see this on CD, so I might as well
    snag the vinyl for a buck...

15. Kayak - Starlight Dancer. 1977. Janus Records.
    CSN does disco....it's "different".

16. Various Artists - California Metal Vol. II. 1988. Regency.
    CCM Hard rock/melodic metal.

17. Bad Boy - Electric Eyes. 1984. Epicenter Records.
    This is pretty good stuff! Heavy AOR is what I'd call it.

18. The Babys - Broken Heart. 1977. Chrysalis Records.
    Classic AOR.

19. The Babys - S/T. 1976. Chrysalis Records.
    Ditto.

20. Backstage with Michael W. Smith. 1987.
    An hour-long radio special with MWS. Interviews
    and some live stuff.

21. Crumbacher - Incandescent. 1985. Broken Records.
    Good shit, Maynard! CCM pop AOR, heavy keyboards.

22. David and the Giants - Under Control. 1985. Myrrh Records.
    One of their early albums just BEGGING for a release on
    CD...

23. Daniel Band - Rise Up. 1986. Refuge Records.
    I don't think this ever saw the light of day on CD...

24. Greg X. Volz - The River is Rising. 1986. Word Records.
25. Greg X. Volz - Come Out Fighting. 1988. Myrrh Records.
    Former lead singer of Petra. These are available on CD,
    but tough to find. *sigh*

26. Tempest - The Coming Storm. 1987. Pure Metal Records.
    Still Sealed!! I'm tempted to leave this one sealed for
    collectibility purposes. Anyone know if Jamie Rowe is
    on this one or just on "Eye of the Storm"?

27. Oracle - Danger Zone. 1984. Tunesmith Records.
    Fairly typical underproduced mid-1980s CCM hard rock.

28. Jerusalem - Ten Years After (2 LP set). 1988. Refuge Records
29. Jerusalem - Dancing on the Head of the Serpent. 1988. Refuge.
30. Jerusalem - Can't Stop Us Now. 1983. Refuge Records.
31. Jerusalem - In His Majesty's Service (live). 1985. Refuge.
    More stuff that, although some was at some point released on
    CD, is LOOOONG out-of-print. Needs a reissue.

32. Gideon's Army - Warriors of Love. 1985. A&R Records.
    Still Sealed. Not sure what this is; cover art grabbed me.

33. Various Artists - Underground Metal. 1988. Regency Records.
    Hey John! Armada is on this one...along with a whole BUNCH
    of bands I've never heard of...:)

34. Stryken. 1986. Crystal Records.
    Not sure exactly what this is. It's 2 songs, "Rock On"
    and "Surprise". The flipside is the same 2 songs, just
    in reverse order. Well, the logo looked cool anyway...

35. Trytan - Celestial Messenger. 1987. R.E.X. Records.
    I have "Sylentiger" on CD, and have been searching for
    this on CD since, well, forever...so I was thrilled to
    find this. Trytan is a CCM clone of Rush, and they do
    a pretty damned good job of it too...
 
36. Stryper - The Yellow and Black Attack. 1984. Enigma Records.
    Of course I already have this on CD, but what piqued my
    curiosity is that the cover art is *completely* different
    from that on my CD. This has a giant hand pointing missiles
    at a globe of planet Earth, with the continents in yellow
    and black stripes. Different.

37. Stryper - To Hell With the Devil. 1986. Enigma Records.
    Clearly my favorite album from this group, I've had this
    on CD for a LOOOOONG time, so I really didn't need it, but
    this is the "Angel Cover" variant of the album. IMO, this
    artwork is *clearly* better than that which ultimately
    is recognized as the artwork for this album.

After the record sale, I still felt like doing some "shopping"
so I drove across town to a new used-CD shop just opening up,
and lo and behold, found a few things to spend my cash on.
After dealing solely with vinyl for a few hours, I desperately
needed some CDs to "cleanse my pallate" :).

1. Holy Soldier - Last Train. 1992. Word Records.
   This one is a fairly tough find. I already have it, but picked
   it up for trade bait. CCM melodic metal; the cover of the
   Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter" is without a doubt the
   best version of this song I've ever heard!

2. Air Supply - Now and Forever. 1982. Arista Records
   What can I say...as a "child of the '80s" I'm slowly but
   surely completing discographies of many the bands of my
   youth...sugary pop groups included...:)

3. Jag Panzer - The Fourth Judgment. 1997. Century Media.
   I already have "Age of Mastery", and I have "Dissident
   Alliance" en route, so we'll shortly hear how this power
   metal act sounds from start to finish...

4. Riot - Restless Breed/Tyrant's Reign - Year of the Tyrant.
   1993. Reborn Classics.
   I'm always on the lookout for stuff on this bootleg label,
   as it tends to be fairly hard-to-find stuff. Since the 
   Riot album has just recently been reissued on CD, I got
   this primarily for the "Tyrant's Reign" material...

and lastly, a nice little gem to round out the day...

5. Scorpions - Tokyo Tapes (2-CD set). 1978. BMG Ariola (Germany).
   I saw this lying in the bin and virtually dived across the
   distance separating me from this CD set. It is a TOUGH find
   (goes for $40-75 on Ebay). It cost me $15 (which for me is
   a bunch of money to spend on a CD...I'm a cheap sonofabitch). :)
   It's in gem mint condition to boot....:)

It was a long day, but a productive one.. That's all for now...

-Dan