I’m not sure if this has been asked before but I’ve been wondering about this over the past few days. Spurred on by my daughter now owning a Nirvana tee-shirt (because she’s a teenager) I was reminded of a time back in October 1993. Along with a couple of friends I was travelling through India, backpacking for a few months as a means to escape getting a proper job. My music format of choice at the time were cassettes and so my rucksack was filled with all manner of stuff I’d taped off of friends especially for this trip. I suspect it was mainly indie stuff from the late 80’s/early 90’s, perish the thought I’d have been listening to anything from the subcontinent itself.
Anyway, whilst in the city of Shimla up in the Himalayas we found a shop that had a collection of cassettes of western bands, amongst other things. They appeared to be official releases (unlike bootlegs we found in bigger cities) and so I came into possession of a copy of the Indian release of Nirvana’s third album In Utero (because I was a teenager). It cost the princely sum of 45 Rupees (about a quid at the time) and I still have it now, although it now looks a bit battered from being in my rucksack. The album itself has the same 12 songs in the same order as the regular release, same sleeve (although it credits Steve Albini as producer). It used to have a little insert in it advertising other releases available in Indian department stores (Michael Bolton and Phil Collins featured if memory serves, I lost the insert). I think that its fair to say that this is the most obscure version of an album that I own and that it was bought in the most obscure place that I have ever picked up music.
I know that are a lot of you are widely travelled (and live in many different places) so I wonder- What’s the most random version of an album you own and where was the most obscure place you’ve bought music?
I kick myself for not buying the Elton Jack compilation on sale in Temple St market in Kowloon back in 2006. IIRC, as well as hits by the Pinner tunesmith, there were also a few from Billy Joel and some chanteuse. As the divine Oscar once said, “We always regret our economies, never our indulgences”.
I once saw a Max Boyce album in Woolworths in Nairobi. I didn’t buy it
You couldn’t have a Woolworths without a Max Boyce album present somewhere in the building. Company policy
Kenyans love singing along to a song about a rugby trip to Scotland or one where an English fan at Twickenham is passed a bottle of urine to quench his thirst. Especially in the 90s which is when I saw it.
I didn’t know Sarah Miles was a rugby fan 😲
That wasn’t actually a Max Boyce record, or a Woolworths for that matter. It was a magic shop, that changes form and stock, depending on who enters it. If it had been me, it would have been a Billy Connolly record, while if it had been Moose, it would have been a Housemartins record. You get the idea. The important thing is never, ever to buy the record.
I have the Yugoslavian pressings of Rum Sodomy and the Lash and Queen’s Greatest Hits, bought when I went on holiday there in 1986.
Don’t look for it on the map, it’s not there anymore.
The Pogues album feels a bit niche to be behind the iron curtain, although if memory serves a mate of mine from secondary school had the Yugoslavian version of Psychocandy on cassette.
Mrs M was in Mostar about that time. The town she saw no longer exists.
While we all knew she was a powerful force for change, we didn’t know just quite how much power she packed
That bridge didn’t stand a chance. Her words: “Fucken hate bridges”
Oh, the first album I ever bought with my own money was on holiday in Yugoslavia. Club Classics vol 1 by Soul II Soul, so it must’ve been 1989.
A shout out for Wilson Squared! How it’s hangin’?
Japanese version of Swagger by the Blue Aeroplanes, purchased s/h in Hong Kong circa 2008.
My Dad’s got a Melodiya record from 1958 – proper Stalinist vinyl. I think he got it in Leningrad when he was in the merchant navy. It’s Richter playing Tchaikovsky. Atrocious fidelity but bostin’ tunes.
Street market in Goa. Talking Heads Live cassette, I’ll have that. Back home to discover it’s Coldplay with at least seven versions, demos etc of Yello.
You mean Yellow. Chris Martin trying to sound like Deiter Meier is not something that has any right to exist.
It will always be Yello to me cos that’s what it said on the inside track listing
A Rush of Blood to the Five Iron
The best that I can come up with is buying Transformer and Aladdin Sane in Sorrento. They were cheap but the quality of the vinyl was even worse than we were getting in the UK at the time.
White label cassette of Luna’s Penthouse bought in Boston and the full Laurie Anderson United States 4 cassette set bought in New York – they were played back to back all the way from Chicago to San Francisco, then back to Philadelphia. Not so exotic, but still two of my most treasured possessions.
I was in Himachal Pradesh in 1992, but went to Dharamsala, not Shimla, so I bought a Free Tibet t-shirt and some tiger balm, not anything musical. Anyway, I spent my time listening to the World Service on a cheap tranny – my flight home was due soon, and I was booked on Ariana (Afghan Airlines) via Kabul – the Mujahadeen had just taken over the country and I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to fly.
I picked up a copy of New Boots And Panties, not long after it came out, from a neat record shop in Venice. When I got home again a few months later I was surprised to find that none of my friends’ copies contained Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, while there it was on my copy, the first track on side 2. Result!
Similarly, my parents mysteriously have the United Artists version of Family’s Anyway. Side two track one is…. In My Own Time. Ace!
If I remember correctly the first pressing of the LP didn’t contain the song but later ones did
I bought Peter Tosh’s album Equal Rights in South Africa in about 1979 but it was only when I repurchased the record in the UK in 1982 that I realised the track Apartheid had been left off the South African version. I am surprised the album was sold at all in South Africa to be honest, and presumably Tosh was unaware this had happened.
The track was reinstated for the CD version of Equal Rights released in post-apartheid South Africa in 1994.
Just less than 7 years ago we went to Moscow for my 60th. As is my wont we went to a record shop that I had located seemingly close to the hotel. Except that when we got there we couldn’t locate it even though Google maps said we weee there. We enlisted the help of a young Russian man who. surprisingly spoke English. Strangest music shop I have been in – was not playing any music on a shop which if first for a record shop. Second had some writes stuff not least Kop anthems from Anfield.. I located 2 box sets or. Los lobos mas y mas and a Doug Sahm boxset I had never seen before. I took them to the counter to get them price up as they were not shown.
The pricing shocked me a little as they total led around £220.00 for the two. I put the Doug Sahm back as it was price at around £15 which was more than I wanted to pay,
When we got back to Hotel I Googled the album on Amazon and was showing more than £300 – we were flying home next morning otherwise I would have gone back.
i have a Russian pressing of Swordfishtrombones’ by Tom Waits on vinyl… the cover is a painting of the original cover bought in a marche au puces in Paris many years ago
I’ve also got a Russian pressing of an album, though I have no recollection of where I bought it. I only ever went behind the Iron Curtain once, travelling through Yugoslavia on my way to Greece, but I certainly didn’t buy any LPs on that trip, they wouldn’t have survived it, and I haven’t been to Russia at all.
It’s the first album by H. P. Lovecraft, which kicks off with a great version of Wayfaring Stranger, though for some odd reason the album is mislabelled on the spine as being the second album of theirs.
I bought some cassettes of Youssou Ndour’s Etoile De Dakar in a market in Kainantu which is in the highlands of Papua New Guinea.