A look back at 2015

I guess it’s about time for the summary kind of thing of the previous year. I quite enjoy writing these yearly posts and looking back and remembering what went down, so i don’t know why it’s so long overdue this year. Better late than never…

I usually start these posts with reading the one from the previous year, and much like the summary of 2014 this one will also mostly be about books. I’m not sure why and when i started to focus more on the books than the records but it’s must have had something to do with the fact that before i knew it i actually had something that was almost a complete collection. And by then it was of course difficult to not try and see it through to the end. I did manage to pick up a couple of record covers though, not a whole lot and nothing really spectacular but more than i remembered at first.  So why not start with those… The keen observer will notice two, or at least one and a half covers that i have yet to post about. And one of those two is probably the one i’m the most excited about, and more precisely that would be the Love You Live picture sleeve EP kind of thing. I’ve always liked this one for some reason, and even though it’s perhaps not a super rare record i’ve seen less and less of them lately so i was happy to finally get a hold of one. But more on that when i get around to posting it… The other one (or at least half one) that i’ve yet to post is a long awaited upgrade of another of my favourite covers and it’s the one for Both Feet in the Groove. The previous copy i had was, extremely generously, given to me free of charge by fellow collector Kevin Kinney. Thanks again Kevin! I’ve always wanted a fairly clean and nice copy of this though, but as with The Rolling Stones promo they have been a somewhat rare sight lately. At least when it comes to copies that aren’t ridiculously priced.

What else… well, i guess i found the whole thing about the Concert Gems record cover pretty interesting. Granted i will most never know who actually made the drawings of the instruments, but at least i had some fun with Jack Wolfgang Beck and trying to put some of the pieces together. And when all was said i done i actually think i did a decent job of introducing reasonable doubt, but the other way around or whatever… And while on the topic of skepticism that leads us to the next cover. And that’s the one for Violin Concerto, maybe i should be more excited about this one and i know, i know… it’s in Maréchals book now any everything. But i don’t know… i have yet to see something that convinces me that this is by Warhol. But on the other hand i can’t present anything that makes it clear that it is NOT by Warhol, so yeah… Who knows, i’ll borrow the title from one of the best debut albums of all time to sum up my thoughts. And by that i mean that i would put this down as a “Definitely Maybe”. Luckily i got it cheap…

I guess i also have to mention another semi-upgrade of sorts and that’s the cover to Kenny Burrell’s Blue Lights Vol. 1. Without question this is one of the best looking covers and seeing as i previously only had the terrible reissue from the DOXY boxes it was nice to be able to take a small step up the ladder and get one of the stereo reissues. Seeing as MONO might as well be spelled MON(EY)O this will have to do for a long time, most likely forever. Or… maybe i should sell the last cover on this 2015 list, considering that some people are apparently more than crazy in the head this might get me halfway there. And this cover is of course the yellow version of MTV’s High Priority. I’m pretty convinced that these yellow ones are in fact promo copies and even though i had no plans on selling the first copy i had i’ll still gladly admit that in retrospect i felt like an idiot for giving it away. And even though i’m not incredibly excited about finding a second copy it did ease my mind of whatever a little bit, and maybe this should in fact be considered the best find of the year when it comes to the record covers. But in a way i think that says more about what a poor record-cover-year it was rather than how fantastic this particular cover is. Buuuuut, seeing as the dust jacket collection is now as complete as it probably ever will be i guess the good news is that i can now return to putting more focus on the records.

Moving on to books. And when it comes to these it would really be an understatement to say it was an action packed year. I don’t really care for action movies but i guess it would compare to Spectre, Mad Max, Star Wars and San Andreas all mixed together. Or something like that. It’s not easy to single out one or two of all these are mark it as THE ONE. Individually there were all great finds and on a larger scale it was of course absolutely FANTASTIC to actually get to complete a collection that i thought would be forever doomed to be incomplete. I’ll get to this more in detail in a later post… Anyways, there’s nothing wrong with a boring list and thus the jacket finds of 2015 were as follows:

The Adventures of Maud Noakes (New Directions Edition)
Forbidden Childhood
The Immortal (Pocket, Corgi Edition)
The Strange Case of Lucile Cléry
Lolita
The Butterfly Tree
The Summer Dancers

As said it’s difficult to name just one of these, but i guess i have to try… And perhaps suprisingly it’s not one of the best looking and/or most rare ones like The Butterfly Tree or The Summer Dancers. Instead i think it would actually have to be The Strange Case of Lucile Cléry and the reason for this is that i spent such an incredible amount of time trying to track this down and of course also the fact that it was previously unknown. At least unknown in the sense that there were no information or mention of this book anywhere whatsoever online. And even though i would credit Guy Minnebach with the book’s discovery, or at least being the one who brought it to my attention it was a pretty cool feeling to be the one to break the news… To a small crowd of course, but still… And that i was able to find not only one but two copies of this was quite amazing. Honaroble mentions would be Lolita and Forbidden Childhood. The first because it was also a “new” find of sorts, perhaps not a Warhol cover in the true sense of the word or whatever but pretty cool nonetheless. And the latter not because it’s such a great jacket but more because i was able to get it for such a great price. Naturally it was almost unbelievable to be able to find all of the others as well and to ring in the new year with a complete collection, but yeah… they can’t all be at number one now can they? And when it comes to The Butterfly Tree and The Summer Dancers i was fairly certain that if i should be able to keep this thing going for long enough they would eventually turn up somewhere. And as things played out that’s exactly what they did. I also payed more for both of these than i ever intended on paying for any of the books, regardless of how great looking and rare they are i guess this also adds to them not getting the top spot. Going through some old posts i now realize that i forgot about the Moderna Museet exhibition catalogue, i guess that should have been added to the book section of this little walkthrough thing in the image below… When it comes down to it 2015 was the year for books, and as said it really was a fantastic and thrilling year!

Last, but certainly not least we have what is not only the best find of the previous year but perhaps also of my entire “collector-career” up to this point. And this thing is of course what i’ve come to dub as the Giant Size $1,57 Each cassette and booklet. I won’t go on and on once again how rewarding it is to see something you’ve “worked” hard on come to fruition but to finaaaaaally see this thing happen and to get my hands on it was almost mindblowing. In a way i still can’t believe it… Without a doubt the highlight of the year and something that will be hard to knock of the top spot in the future. But there is of course that little book with drawings of children of the cover… I think that pretty much sums it all up. A pretty poor year when it comes to record covers but more than enough dust jackets to make up for this and to make it an awsome year when you put it all together. And of course that little booklet and cassette to top it all off.

There were some other cool, general Warholian events as well. The most obvious was of course the opening of the Warhol by the Book exhibition. As i understand it the show is now also travelling and will open at New York’s Morgan Library & Museum in just a few days on February 5. Sadly i won’t be able to go see it this time around either, i don’t know how these things work but i’m keeping my fingers crossed it will hit Europe at some point, though i guess chances are slim. While on the topic of exhibitions it’s also great to see that Frank Edwards fantastic collection is also travelling and is now on display at the Boca Raton Museum of Art in Florida. And finally it was also great to see that 2015 saw the beginning of Guy Minnebach’s blog – Andy Earhole, although it’s been slow lately *cough* *cough* this will without a doubt continue to grow into an essential source of information.

Last year i ended by saying “With hopes of an equally fun and exciting 2015!” and i guess i have to do the same this time around. I’m not concerned about the fun aspect but i’m not really sure about the exciting part. Seeing as i’m still not a millionaire – how the hell am i supposed to get a hold of something exciting now!? I guess i’ll figure something out… after all, i didn’t think that the dust jackets would be possible on a budget, maybe the magazines are too?

Lets try and find out!