When I was a wee lad, I was raised on a diet of classical music. I had a 24-record "library set" that my parents had ordered for me on a "record-a-month" plan, complete with the little booklet biographies of the different composers and a brief history of the piece. A few records of the Chipmunks, a couple others... One in particular was the green vinyl pressing of David Bowie narrating "Peter And The Wolf". I loved my record collection and would spend hours playing them. I turned 8 years old and received a mono cassette deck as a gift along with a hand-copied tape containing those current hit albums (which shall date me severely): Men At Work's "Business As Usual" and Hall & Oats' "Maneater"... and then I started listening to pop radio... Casey Kasem's American Top 40 right at the high tide of new wave. Trumpets blew, angels (or was it David Byrne?) sang, so on and so on. David Bowie's rock music amazed me -- yet it was the same fellow who was on my symphonic release! What other surprises does Rock & Roll have in store for me? I discovered blank tapes and would wait with anticipation and a finger hovered over the "record" button.
Of course, the radio single of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall Pt 2" was in heavy rotation. "We don't need no education! We don't need no thought control!" became an anthem for a new generation of coming-of-awareness kids in the post-punk age -- or at least I thought to myself. Van Halen, right now, was hot for teacher -- but rock had a history and I started getting into exploring discographies to get a better appreciation of various bands. I also thought it was interesting how people stuck to their favorites -- I became obsessed with Pink Floyd for a while -- others could have their Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, The Who... By the time I made it back to Syd Barrett's era, I knew that my love lied with the more psychedelic side of rock.
Fast forward... Mid-90's. Chicago House/Industrial music leads down the rabbit-hole of trance techno. Birth of the internet. CD-ROMs are finally cheap and plentiful. I stumble across the existence of Pink Floyd live and remix albums. I feed my addiction and start snatching them up when I see them in record stores. Over time, I have several live recordings.
Several.
Like... "Whoa, I thought *I* was into Floyd!" from the ghost of Timothy Leary kind of "several".
How many freakin' live recordings of "Dark Side of the Moon" do I really need, for cryin' out loud!
Now, years later, I unpack the trance remixes and live shows and my first thought is "eBay". Time for them to find new homes.
Searches show very few other "ROIOs" for sale. Off we go to listing!
Five days into the auction, I wonder where the live Wall recording and the lot of trance remixes went... "eBay has removed listings which violate our intellectual property and copyright rules".
Oh snap. Whoops.
Well, so much for selling them! The remixes are... ok. As someone who's dabbled with electronica, just between you, me and the fencepost... I could do better.
Five live recordings apparently passed the blessing of the legal department. But, as if the inflatable pig-god above Battersea wanted to add more insult to injury -- a few watchers, but in the end, not a bid made.
Ha ha, Pink Floyd. Charade you are.
And yet, I get an email from a friend-of-a-friend sort of thing asking about the Led Zeppelin LPs. Hopefully they'll at least find new homes.
On the receiving end, I'm enjoying hearing David Bowie's "Diamond Dogs" on 8-track.
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