Word: record
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...Step one: fixate on an artist. Perhaps a friend passes on a compilation cassette. Gee, what was that great cut with the chugging synth line? Main title from " The Never-Ending Story," a German kid-fantasy, huge in Europe, bomb in the States. Artist: Limahl. Of course, Limahl. Every record outlet has a Limahl section, right...
...Thus began one of my most satisfying obsessions - a 20-year search of any vinyl archive I could uncover. In collectors' shops, record fairs, flea markets, and Pennysavers, I sought my self-appointed Holy Grail. But more on that in a minute...
...SHORTLY AFTER MY EXPOSURE TO THE GENIUS of Phil Spector - the producer of "Be My Baby" - Warner Brothers Records released the double-LP "Phil Spector's Greatest Hits." I picked it up. Great record: the surreal "Wall of Sound," Spector's trademark, meaning maybe three guys playing the same bass line, four or five rhythm guitarists strumming away, two pianists playing the same chords in different registers, percussionists plugging away on maracas and castanets, a full symphony string section, and underneath it all the drums of Hal Blaine ("my five favorite drummers", according to Max Weinberg) piped through the galactic...
...interest me, however, was LP number 5: "The Phil Spector Wall of Sound Vol. 5: Rare Masters." To an obsessive, of course, the words "rare master" are Pavlovian triggers like "never released", "obscure B-side" and "the Beatles butcher-cover." That it turned out to be a great record was irrelevant - I had no choice. I was Ahab, the white whale was off the starboard. Somehow I got the money (probably around six or seven dollars) and "Rare Masters" was in my hands...
...When the talk turned to health insurance, you could almost see Gore licking his chops. Bush gave a pat response about policy initiatives, and Gore launched into an attack on Texas? record: "Texas ranks 49th in the nation for children with healthcare, 49th in the nation for women with healthcare and 50th for families with healthcare," he crowed. The Governor looked miffed, as if Gore had just insulted him personally, which perhaps he had. Bush responded with an attack on Gore?s role in Hillary Clinton?s disastrous universal health care proposal, noting that Texas had done a better...