Following opening remarks by Making Vinyl co-founder Larry Jaffee, Record Store Day founder Michael Kurtz opens programming on day two of "Making Vinyl" Berlin followed by British, French, Italian and Dutch RSD organizers to give you a detailed picture of the continent's activities on this past April's Record Store Day.
Adele's 25 sold 22,000 vinyl copies in its first week. Yes, that's a fraction of the total sales of 3.8 million copies sold but it's still impressive in our niche world (photo taken during video shoot for "It's a Vinyl World After All" DVD).
At first you might think "Can these tracks really have come from the same session that produced A Night in Tunisia?" That’s the claim, so you'd be expecting the same level of raw intensity, the same Van Gelder generated echoey backdrop and the same sense that this was a “cutting session” for the ages.
This is part of an interview I conducted with the great recording engineer Bill Porter back in 1987. I met up with Porter at Denver audio dealer Listen Up! We chatted and listened to some of his recordings. The remainder of the interview will be posted at a later date, along with listening session notes.
In part I of my interview with legendary Nashville engineer, Bill Porter, I wrote, “In one month of 1960, Porter-engineered recordings accounted for 15 of Billboard's Top 100 Singles.” That was a mistake. In fact, Porter had 15 charted singles in one week.
At the end of Part 1, Mr. Porter had just left RCA Studios.
MF: Why did you leave?
BP: I left RCA because they tried to dictate to me and I wasn't gonna be dictated to.
MF: Dictate to you what?
BP: I had a small publishing company and they told me it was a conflict of interest. I said, 'How can that be, everybody else has got one. Chet has one.” “yes, but you work with a lot of different clients.” “Yes, but I'm not abusing the privilege.” So they said either the publishing company or you go. So I made my decision. The legal department said there was nothing wrong, but personnel did. Steve Sholes called and said “Now Bill, please don't leave.” “ I said story Steve.”
The most deluxe record wall display units are probably those from Art Vinyl. The hinged plexiglass fronted frames hang on the wall and are easily opened so you can change the displayed album in a few seconds. Unfortunately they are expensive at around $50.00 each or 3 for $140 (on Amazon.com).
Lou Reed’s bleak Berlin album dropped with a thud when first released back in 1973. The fans were probably expecting Transformer 2 and a “Walk on the Wild Side” reprise, but Lou was having none of that. He was moving on and down (both chart-wise and thematically) but times eventually catch up to vision and that’s the case with Berlin.