If you've hung around used record stores, you've seen 'em.
From '69 to about '80, Warners used to put out these $2 compilations of their artist roster, and they were usually sold through magazine ads and Warner/Reprise innersleeves. While sitting through Gordon Lightfoot to get to T. Rex is my idea of the iPod Shuffle From Hell, every now and then these weird combinations worked! I especially like the first two, SONGBOOK and RECORD SHOW. In addition to the artists I already like, there are surprisingly good tracks by those I don't (like Neil Young's "I've Been Waiting For You"). And the Pentangle song (I forget the title) on one of these albums has me curious about the rest of their work.
In addition to the grab-bag LP's every now and then they'd do a specially-themed comp like TROUBLEMAKERS (their "new wave" anthology, and as such the most collectible, from what I've seen), COOK BOOK (their R&B sampler), MUSIC WITH 58 MUSICIANS (collection of ECM artists - Warners distributed this new-agey jazz label), and SCHLAGERS! (which gave the spotlight to Warners' loungier acts like Frank Sinatra and Petula Clark, although a few of their mellower rock acts snuck onto this album as well).
Strangely enough, the ZAPPED album (featuring acts from Frank Zappa's Warner-distruted Bizarre and Straight labels) probably works the LEAST, from my perspective...
― Rev. Hoodoo, Saturday, 19 January 2008 00:10 (eighteen years ago)
TROUBLEMAKERS (their "new wave" anthology, and as such the most collectible
Really?? Wow, guess I should have kept mine. (At least I still have Propaganda on A&M; is that worth anything? No Wave and Permanent Wave and the I.R.S. Greatest Hits comp with Henry Badowski on it are long gone too, sad to say.)
― xhuxk, Saturday, 19 January 2008 00:26 (eighteen years ago)
I figured Chuck would be the first to say something, since he seems to be all about the genre mixing and the unlikely juxtapositions...
"TROUBLEMAKERS (their "new wave" anthology, and as such the most collectible
Really?? Wow, guess I should have kept mine. (At least I still have Propaganda on A&M; is that worth anything?)"
I'm assuming it isn't, since I always see it in used stores. TROUBLEMAKERS, on the other hand, always has a $10-15 price tag...
― Rev. Hoodoo, Saturday, 19 January 2008 01:07 (eighteen years ago)
the warner ones were always cool. i am a sucker for label comps though. even labels i don't pay attention to. ANY label really:
hey scott, what old label sampler are you playing right now?
― scott seward, Saturday, 19 January 2008 01:14 (eighteen years ago)
Yeah, a lot of those label samplers do look fun, even if you already have the good stuff and everything else is by artists you wouldn't cross the street to see. At least most of those Warners albums conceptualized each side so the transitions wouldn't be as shocking - HOT PLATTERS, this 1971 album I have, has a side of male singer-songwriters like Randy Newman; a "roots music" side with Big Mama Thornton, Ry Cooder and Ronnie Milsap; and a side of groups who have at least two members who are related to each other!
― Rev. Hoodoo, Saturday, 19 January 2008 03:15 (eighteen years ago)
There are always some of them at Penny Lane in Pasadena. Was never much moved to get them when they were fresh and somewhat less so now. "Troublemakers" was always an ehhhh set for me. The trouble was, if you were a genre fan you probably already had all the stuff they cherry-picked that you liked. An old friend of mine liked Zapped, mostly because it had Alice Cooper's Refrigerator Heaven on it and he couldn't find a copy of "Easy Action."
The packaging was more enticing -- they did and still do look fun -- but it eclipses the reality on the vinyl.
― Gorge, Saturday, 19 January 2008 04:14 (eighteen years ago)
plus, they were cheap. that was the draw. a dollar or two for a double album.
― scott seward, Saturday, 19 January 2008 04:21 (eighteen years ago)
For me, the earliest ones appear to be the best. When Warners first started getting into rock in a big way, they were releasing some of the quirkiest shit they could find. At some point during the seventies, the L.A. singer-songwriter thing seemed to take over from everything else, and that is why I have been reluctant to buy any of those sets made after 1971 (although some here might think different).
I wonder if anybody ever bought one of the lesser-known Warners LP's simply because they loved that one track. And then they plunk down the $5.99 (considered a lot of money back in the '70s) for the album, only to find out that the rest of the LP was pure malarkey?
― Rev. Hoodoo, Saturday, 19 January 2008 04:25 (eighteen years ago)
I never bought one of these but I certainly thought about it while looking at the ads for them on the record sleeves.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Saturday, 19 January 2008 04:26 (eighteen years ago)
I used to own "Burbank" - had a cover that looked identical to Chicago's 2nd album. Pretty good stuff inside too - Deep Purple, Hendrix, Meters, Captain Beyond and John Fahey. Also some folky stuff that wasn't my taste at the time, alas. Which is why I don't own it any more.
There's a webpage devoted to those compilations, goes into pretty great detail. I was looking at it just a month ago or so:
http://www.dustbury.com/music/wblist2.html
― Myonga Vön Bontee, Saturday, 19 January 2008 04:36 (eighteen years ago)
THE DAYS OF WINE AND VINYL.
that was always my fave title, anyway. never actually owned any of these. It was interesting in that they pointedly avoided any of the actual "hits" from any of the records represented, and instead threw on album tracks, presumably because everyone would already know the hit, so WB wanted to give us a further taste.
― Stormy Davis, Saturday, 19 January 2008 05:56 (eighteen years ago)
Every now and then, WB would include an actual hit - I believe that Fleetwood Mac's "Rhiannon," James Taylor's "Fire & Rain," and Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band's "Love Land" all made appearances on one of those LP's.
― Rev. Hoodoo, Sunday, 20 January 2008 02:08 (eighteen years ago)
They always seemed to be heavily stocked with the Newman cuts, in my recollection. Not a bad thing, I guess...
― dell, Sunday, 20 January 2008 02:11 (eighteen years ago)
Even Richard Pryor appeared on one of those compilations...
― Rev. Hoodoo, Sunday, 20 January 2008 03:38 (eighteen years ago)
I just bought one of these -- Pentangle's Sweet Child -- and it's pretty good. A little dirty though. The inner gatefold is pretty funny:
http://tralfaz-archives.com/coverart/P/pentangle_sweetIN.jpg
― i drive a wood paneled station dragon (La Lechera), Monday, 5 September 2011 18:51 (fourteen years ago)