Grand scale examinations of the human condition tend to be preachy, didactic and obvious. The more interesting observations tend to be small scale and personal—in other words, how individuals deal with human foibles and circumstances beyond individual control generally are more compelling and interesting.

Editor's note: It now appears that some of the "story" below may not be 100% accurate. We have updated some of it based upon an email just received from Sundazed's Bob Irwin and as facts come in we will further update the story as necessary).

The story that has been handed down through the decades goes like this: Simon and Garfunkel’s vinyl LPs were originally produced using master tapes. Because S&G became so popular, over time the tapes would show signs of wear, so Columbia engineers would make a copy, toss the original, and begin cutting lacquers using the copy.

I’ll tell you how I got into medieval era dance music similar to what’s on this record and on la Spagna: back in 1969 when I worked in the downstairs record store division of Minuteman in Harvard Square, a salesman named Duane who worked upstairs selling audio gear I could not at the time afford, insisted I buy a record on Deutsche Grammophone’s Archive Production label.

Thanks to an analogplanet.com reader I got a copy to review of the two LP deluxe edition of Sticky Fingers (Rolling Stones Records 376-484-4).

The packaging is fine, including a real zipper, along with the original inner sleeves. The two records here are very well-pressed at GZ Media in the Czech Republic, though on Amazon there was plenty of bitching about noisy vinyl and even vinyl with glue balls (which strikes me as an appropriate addition to the cover's paper dick).