Rare Records on Gemm - an interview with Craig Fenton

Written by Joe Viglione

Sunday, 18 October 2009 14:23

Rare Records on Gemm - an interview with Craig Fenton Direct link here: http://tinyurl.com/rarerecordsongemm Remember to click on highlighted names and album/CD covers to go into Gemm.com itself and find product Gemm prides itself in having some of the most collectible music available on the internet, possibly in the entire world! If you are looking for the Jimi Hendrix Puppet Cover of "Band Of Gypsys" - puppets of the musicians on the album cover instead of the usual , available in Japan and Australia, find it on Gemm. Or how about the ultra-rare Band Of Gypsys 2 with seven songs, not six, and all different? This was a pressing error by Capitol Records and was taken off of the market, much like the original version of The Rolling Stones HOT ROCKS which had the ultra rare Brown Sugar including slide guitar, most likely from Eric Clapton. Now sometimes a record label doesn't have to be in error for a rarity to slip through. John & Yoko mixed "Instant Karma" and rush-released it in England before Phil Spector's mix was pressed and published as the definitive version, and Melanie Safka's terrific "Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)" which was Top 10 (#6) May of 1970 (and seemed like it was #1 in Boston for 5 or 6 weeks, a huge hit here) has a much longer version on her The Four Sides of Melanie album...click on this link to find it on Gemm. It's a delight. And one of the earliest collector's items was the long 9 minute version of "Bluebird" by the Buffalo Springfield only found on their greatest hits package entitled Buffalo Springfield (Collection), not the 1st album by the group which sports the same title. The 4:28 minute version is on their first Greatest Hits lp. Of course there are MANY many re-workings of hits, as Melanie did here, a folky Acoustic Blue rendition of her previous hits. But this article is mainly focused on the juicy rarities that are from mistakes the record labelsmade...the Hendrix, Blind Faith, Nektar, Gentle Giant, Janis Joplin rarities that were never meant to see the light of day! Band of Gypsy's Puppet Cover(first 3 images including picture disc),traditional cover and Band of Gypsys 2 Read more about Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton/Steve Winwood's Blind Faith on Gemm here: http://tinyurl.com/blindfaithbandofgypsys Gemmzine spoke to musicologist / rarities expert Craig Fenton about these issues back in March of 2009 as well as in October of 2009. GEMMZINE: Craig, do you remember when the group Heart left Mushroom Records for Portrait/CBS? Craig Fenton: On vinyl the original Heart LP Magazine (Mushroom) had a different mix than the original release, pulled off of the market. GEMMZINE (Joe V) YES! I purchased the "picture disc" to get that original release. I think Heart was just being difficult at the time that their old label that launched them started competing with their new company. Wikipedia has a good saga about the battles over the original Magazine lp and the product that followed as does SharedMusic.net: GEMMZINE: Craig, you're also a big Gentle Giant fan - and you told me about a GG rarity before. Craig Fenton: On Gentle Giant's 2nd album, Acquiring The Taste, had some CD mixes which have an error on the title track: The Gentle Giant Comp: Edge Of Twilight has a corrected and proper version of Acquiring The Taste. Most notably, this set is the only CD release containing a correct recording of Acquiring The Taste without the defective "bend". GEMMZINE: And what about Nektar? Craig Fenton: Nektar Remember The Future: the mastering to CD was done using the quadraphonic mix. (For those of you under the age of 40, quad was a brief fling with 4-speaker-surround-sound.) The engineer failed to realize this and only used two of the four channels. So huge swaths of Roye Albrighton's remarkable guitar-istry sound like they are occurring in a room down the hall. Particularly tragic because this album has the most magical guitar arpeggios I've ever heard in rock music. Unbelievable that the engineer didn't even notice; unbelievable that this has been common knowledge for over half a decade and the label still hasn't been shamed into correcting it. Original Wrong CD Mix (Latest with bonus) HOT ROCKS ABKCO RECORDS ORIGINAL PRESSING As Bruce Eder says in his AMG review "Bruce Eder writes: There are also some anomalies in Hot Rocks' history for the collector -- the very first pressings included an outtake of "Brown Sugar" featuring Eric Clapton that was promptly replaced; and the original European CD version, issued as two separate discs on the Decca label, was also different from its American counterpart, featuring a version of "Satisfaction" mastered in stereo and putting the guitars on separate channels for the first time" Read more here: The cool thing about "More Hot Rocks: Big Hits and Fazed Cookies" is that it contains a longer "We Love You" and the Jimmy Miller production of "Child of The Moon" which is exquisite ABKCO Rolling Stones SACD Stereo About Craig Fenton Author Craig Fenton's Take Me To A Circus Tent and Have You Seen The Stars Tonite (Jefferson Starship Flight Manual 1974-78 & J.S. The Next Generation 1992-2007) are available on Gemm.com Craig Fenton:http://craigtheairplaneman.wordpress.com/ Send this story around by giving your friends this link:http://tinyurl.com/rarerecordsongemm Previous Craig Fenton article:http://tinyurl.com/jessebarishinterview For more Rare Records on Gemmzine check out: http://tinyurl.com/blindfaithbandofgypsys Band of Gypsys PUPPET COVER Direct link here: http://tinyurl.com/festivalexpresswoodstock Please fly the above link around. To find great Woodstock, Joplin and Festival Express product in GEMM.com just click on the photos or highlighted names RARE JANIS JOPLIN Direct link here: http://tinyurl.com/rarejanisjoplin Remember to click on album or cd covers to go deep within GEMM to find these rarities Direct link to this page is here: http://tinyurl.com/blindfaithbandofgypsys Direct link here: http://tinyurl.com/rarejanisjoplin Remember to click on album or cd covers to go deep within GEMM to find these rarities Direct link here: http://tinyurl.com/festivalexpresswoodstock Read more about Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton/Steve Winwood's Blind Faith on Gemm here:http://tinyurl.com/blindfaithbandofgypsys Please fly the above link around. To find great Woodstock, Joplin and Festival Express product in GEMM.com just click on the photos or highlighted names