what is the CRACKLIEST record you own?

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ok i have a cd AND a cassette tape of recordings from the 1890s but they are "cleaned up" somewhat >>> anyway the answer = the [xth]-hand copy i haf of SOFT MACHINE'S THIRD, which i just put on >>> IT IS SO FUCKED!

"Out-Bloody-Rageous" = Soft Machine's (or anyway Mike Ratledge's) beliefs include Terry Riley?

― mark s, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

(oh yeah i've got an old melodya 78 somewhere which so badly cracked that it actually has a jagged HOLE in it => i didn't chuck it because it is "irreplaceable", unless george soros bought up a consignment...)

― mark s, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The Saints (I am) Stranded! It sounds as though there's sand on zee vinyl. Totally appropriate, non?

― nathalie, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

BONGO MADNESS!
i have it for the cover

― Paul, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

(spring cleaning is fun: all these records i nevah listen to!)

― mark s, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Real but cheating ans: 'Footsteps' by Christian Marclay - my copy still has a nice dusty bootprint embedded in it.

I've also have a 2nd hand copy of one of the 'Super Disco Breaks' bootlegs which has obv. been used and abused by previous owners - 'Funky Drummer' jumps, skips and pops all over the place.

Then there's my 2nd hand copy of 'Mothership Connection' which I found in a Record and Tape bargain bin - it looks totally knackered but plays perfectly - in fact it's one of the best sounding vinyl albs I own. "It goes to show you never can tell..."

― Andrew L, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh and I've got a David Grubbs CD w/ a massive crack in it that still plays fine.

― Andrew L, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have my mom's very very scratchy copy of the everley bros. greatest hits from her youth and these songs sound completely wrong to me in any other form.

― fritz, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have a 45 of "Incense and Peppermints" that is so scuffed, the vinyl is actually white! I think someone may have used the record to level their kitchen table. You can just barely make out what song it is. Paid 10¢ for it at the Village Thrift on Clark Street in Chicago. Why do I remember that? Because that is where I also found my copy of "Swingin' Thom" - a Thom McAn in-store promo for the new line of shoes "Soho" - cashing in on the British invasion craze.

"Soho is in new London town
Soho - where you're never put down
Soho- where a man's a man and
Soho is a flash new shoe, from Thom McAn."

― Dave225, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I played my vinyl copy of Chairs Missing till the grooves nearly wore out, and THEN it got water damage during my parent's wedding (long, long story). It's unplayable but I keep it around for nostalgia purposes.

― Michael Daddino, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I've also got those Thomas Brinkmann recs which seem to be v. v. crackly - I must take them back to the shop...

― Andrew L, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Heh - I'll stop hogging this thread in sec, but talking of water damaged albs - Danny Baker once said on his radio show that his dad used to borrow vinyl from the local library and then wash them under the tap before playing/returning 'em!

― Andrew L, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh tons of sleeveless oldies and 78s on 7" inch.. especially those cheap colored 78s that are childrens' songs. Easily the best.

― Brian MacDonald, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Can I submit fucked up CDs? I have a Belle and Sebastian bootleg, wherein "Judy and the Dream of Horses" sounds like the entire band are rubbing emery boards up and down their instruments.

― Judd Nelson, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Christian Marclay! (HA HA not not really)

True answer: the copy of Dexys' Searching for... that I bought last week second-hand for €4.

― Jeff W, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

hi-larious anecdote: my ex had this record as a child which she described as "sounds like the devil, but not in a good metal way." apparently her brother used to play it loud to torture her, keeping her up all night with visions of demons looming overhead visiting ohio, we discovered its actually an old blues 78 that they could never play on the right speed. i think i ended up with it. maybe its worth some cash...

― jess, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Have a bunch of 45s from my fiancee's mother, including Elvis "Heartbreak Hotel." Completely unplayable. Kids didn't take care of their records. Also always looking to replace my extremely scratchy and damaged version of Getz/Gilberto. That smoothness is lost w/ the extreme surface noise (it's a good think Stefan Betke didn't think that way!)

In the "Quite scratchy, but intentionally so" department is Terre Thamelitz' 7-inch "A-Muzak" on A-Musik.

― Mark, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have a really crackly copy of The Best of Stan Freberg, but I think the crackliest one I have is probably one featuring the amazing sounds of the drag races, which is an album my dad had but didn't have a sleeve for, for some reason. I keep it around now to remember him by, but also because I have no clue why anyone ever thought a record with drag racing sounds would ever have been a good idea (it was on Capitol, of all things).

― Sean Carruthers, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Dusty in Memphis. I would have disposed of it ages ago, but she looks so good on the sleeve and cd can't replicate that. It makes her eyes look so much smaller for starters.

Anyone know who the guy is who cuts up old records and reassembles them to make new ones (that's cuts up as in a saw and glue, not two turntables and a mixer style)? And are there any mp3's available?

― Billy Dods, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

crackly due to orig material: weird Rolling Stones bootleg consisting of what sounds like radio interviews taped off a crystal set

crackly due to the thing itself: Bill Cosby - I Started Out as a Child

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i have a genuine yen for collecting tv tie in albums more for the nostalgia value than the irony. thus huge suathes of doctor who tat and the like. my most treasured and battered is a WONDERFUL basil brush album produced by george martin, where basil calls him "mr george" throughout. fantastic stuff...

also loads of my early jazz albums are fairly scratched to buggery, but this is a problem i'm willing to go through for hutch, al bowlly and henry hall...

― chris browning, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Some of my old Cosby is pretty crackly too. I don't know why, but I find that comedy records are usually a lot more fun on vinyl, especially if they have a bit of the crackle.

― Sean Carruthers, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Salvador Dali insisted on playing an interviewer his "favorite record", and cranked up an old 78 on the Victrola. The record was incomprehensibly crackly. "You hear?" Dali said. "Just like the sound of sardines frying in oil!"

My "sardines in oil" record: first copy of "Highway 61 Revisited".

― briania, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Little Richard's Ready Teddy / Rip It Up. i kinda like the way its really crackly. i prefer crackles to skipping. at least with crackles theres this kind of hmmm already-been-loved-and-appreciated feel.

― di, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

my iggy 'lust for life' rekkid will not play anymore because there are SPARKLES jammed into the grooves!! from when i played it at a party four years ago maybe? this party where sparkles and 30 pounds of confetti fell like snow from the ceiling. also i spilled beer on it. when i did try to play it it was like the needle was trying to pull itself through maple syrup: "i will lo-v-v-v-v-v-e her- r-r-r-r til i die die die die die die die i will see her her her her her her in the sk sk sk sk sk sky to to to to to to to to to to to..."

― geeta, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

which was the only song that would really play at all, even while skipping. the rest of side a is just an incredible hissing static buzz (which is actually kind of cool)

― geeta, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

if you did that to metal machine music maybe it would turn into a hear'say record?

― mark s, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

It's a tossup between the first Them album and an Edith Piaf 10" that's actually broken, and must be carefully repaired before each play. They both sound fine to these ears, though.

― Andy, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I forgot. My mom gave me her collection of 45s from the '50's. These records have been stored for decades WITHOUT sleeves, with each record rubbing against the other, in a box of splintery wood. There's some great stuff in there -- Elvis, Fats Domino, doo-wop, Atlantic-era Ray Charles -- and it's all utterly unlistenable.

― Michael Daddino, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

my copy of Dance Dance Dance: Chic's Greatest Hits (Rhino 1991) skips like a motherfucker on the last three tracks, but I never listen(ed) to them anyway.

― M Matos, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Andrew: I used to wash my LPs under running water, too. However, I did take them out of the sleeve before doing so.

― Christine "Green Leafy Dragon" Indigo, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have a 7" of Siouxsie's Hong Kong Garden which sounds like it was dragged across rocks. The crackles are louder than the music. Luckily it only cost 50 cents.

Also, the Famous Boyfriend compilation CD is rather crackly, due to it being mastered off vinyl, but my vinyl copy sounds considerably better than the CD, heaps less crackles. It sounds like they used a pretty crap copy of the record.

― electric sound of jim, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Curtis Mayfield soundtrack to Superfly found at thrift store. Contains no more that 15% of the original recording...but worth it!

― turner, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The Woodstock Soundtrack. My first 3 record set with triple gatefold sleeve. But not my last. Wonder what ever happened to my copies of Leon Live and Yessongs?

― Arthur, Monday, 6 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Pat Benatar, 'Crimes of Passion'

― dave q, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My old copy of Queen II -- it looks like someone went after "Side Black" with a pair of pliers and a vengeance. I suspect my older brother. At any rate, "March of the Black Queen" is now either infinite or thirty seconds long, depending on the weight of the tone arm used.

― Colin Meeder, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Wire= 154. Saw it in a LP sale for £2.

― Julio Desouza, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Fergal Sharkey's solo LP, bought second hand. I don't usually buy second hand vinyl, but I reckon a CD reissue is unlikely.

― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Probably my mum's old copy of Françoise Hardy's 'All Over The World'. It sounds better like that, though.

― N., Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Brian Jonestown Massacre's _Courtney Taylor_ 12". Damn thing came out of the shrink wrap with a giant scratch.

― Chris Barrus, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

pearl jam/neil young, 'i got shit' 7" [ducks] play it almost every single motherfucking day

― stevie, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Procol Harum's A Salty Dog. "Wreck of the Hesperus" unfortunately skips midway through. Forget about "Juicy John Pink."

― Andy K, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I had a dodgy tape that I listened to like every day until it wore out completely. When I went and bought the CD I got bored of it v.v. quickly because it sounded THE SAME every time.

I've managed to snap my Daft Punk Discovery CD in HALF, if that counts. I know not how, when I TRIED to snap an AOL CD I bent in 180 degrees and it just sprang back.

― Graham, Tuesday, 7 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Francoise Hardy's En Anglais - it looks fine but sounds awful...& seems to be her only Disque Vogue album not to have been rereleased on CD.

― Jez, Wednesday, 8 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My father didn't have a lot of rock albums, but he did have some Beatles...including *two* Abbey Roads (I never asked why; maybe it was Mom's).

The copy of Revolver was really crackly. I was listening to "She Said She Said" one day, very very loud, and the crackliness inspired me to spontaneously begin picking leaves off of a nearby plant and dropping them over the record as it spun, which I think counts as the only time I deliberately fucked up a record while playing it.

― C C, Wednesday, 8 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The record of David Bowie's "Aladdin Sane" is completely fucked, warped entirely out of shape. The Doors' "LA Woman" is very very crackly - but luckily we have them both on CD now. I'd test others, but my phonograph's useless head has packed up. I tried to record The Who's "Meaty Beaty" on tape, it was useless but probably the phonograph not the record. And my brother dropped one record, not sure which one, breaking it into pieces!!

― Anna Rose, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

DJ SS - Breakbeat Pressure

― gareth, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

crackly records are often just dust (at least until you play them while still dusty and the dust gets stuck in the grooves as the vinyl melts under the stylus). you should wash records in the sink in warm water and clean them with a little paintbrush and Fairy liquid

― michael, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

Lee Morgan's Cornbread -- I've grown so accustomed to that ratty-old album that i don't know if i could hear it any other way.

― christoff (christoff), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 19:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Arlo Guthrie Alice's Hotel

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 20:08 (twenty-one years ago)

a marty robbins record with El Paso on it. I've had it since I was a kid, and before that, my dad had it when he was young. I don't think it was ever played on anything with a half-way decent needle. It sounds like shit! I still play it.

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 20:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Now there was Alice's Big Bass Pro Shop, Alice's Greazy-Tire, Alice's Botanical Accoutrements, Alice's Strap (Leather Goods), hell, even Alice's Restaurant; but never Alice's Hotel.

I had a friend who sent me a postcard upon visiting that groovy church from the movie (Massachusetts, i think). Still makes me think getting a donkey is the only the best idea ever!

― christoff (christoff), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 20:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I have a really bad 78 of Turkey in the Straw.. you can barely make out what song it is. Also, it was vinyl and not shellac - so it wasn't made to be played on a Victrola - but I *did* play it on a Victrola, Blanche, I *did* play it on a Victrola. And little shavings of vinyl came off as the nail (that is, needle) scored the grooves into submission.

― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 20:50 (twenty-one years ago)

SOME GIRLS.

I got it for free and it's entirely covered in fuzzy crackles.

― Ian Johnson (orion), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 21:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Momus Tender Pervert

― fcussen (Burger), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 21:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh I realize I have a more crackly record than Alice's Restaurant and that would be Manu Dibango's Soul Makossa, which I got from a guy who got it from a yard sale. It sounds like a bowl of rice krispies.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 21:18 (twenty-one years ago)

The Best of Mose Allison

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 21:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Moog Plays the Beatles

― Jole, Wednesday, 14 January 2004 15:12 (twenty-one years ago)

William DeVaughn - Be Thankful for What You've Got LP on Roxbury. I am afraid to play it more than once a year for fear of what it will do to my needle.

― pete from the street, Wednesday, 14 January 2004 15:31 (twenty-one years ago)

the crackliest record that i play regularly is a copy of nina simone's little girl blue. the crackliest that i own would probably be one of the hundreds of 45s that my father gave me. he would buy them and throw out the sleeves, so most of them are in appalling shape. then there's the vanilla fudge "season of the witch" 45 that i bought without noticing that there's A PIECE MISSING...

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 14 January 2004 16:12 (twenty-one years ago)

When my brother and his first wife merged record collections out popped Dark Side Of The Moon as a duplicate, so I got it. So shockingly crackly was it, that I never gave it another chance, so I try to keep my gob shut when the album pops up in audiophile/prog/punk discussions. Not never 'eard it.

Most warped: Tilt (do have that on CD) and two Verlaines LPs sent to me by Pam when she still lived in DC. I think they sat in a USPS truck on the tarmac at Dulles on a steaming July day.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 14 January 2004 16:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Excluding the contents a couple of boxes of horribly battered and abused vinyl that my partner & her daughter brought with them when they moved in and which I refuse to allow to come anywhere near my precious stylus; of my own it has to be the original copy of "New Rose" by The Damned that got carried around with me all over the place during '77 and '78 and which has been completely unplayable for years but which I just can't bring myself to part with.

My most crackly record from new 'though has to be a toss-up between the Electric Chairs "Blatantly Offenzive" EP in allegedly gold vinyl and The Cars' "My Best Friend's Girl" picture disc.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 14 January 2004 17:00 (twenty-one years ago)

I have a mint copy of Scratchy and the Records' "The Scratchy Record Record" and it sounds grebt.

― jazz odysseus, Wednesday, 14 January 2004 18:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I have been listening to a slightly warped vinyl copy of Miles Davis's *On the Corner,* my favorite jazz album ever, for decades now. I now have the CD reissue, too, but it doesn't sound quite right to me -- the warps are PART of what made it my favorite jazz album ever, I think.

― chuck, Wednesday, 14 January 2004 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

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