What's the best cd/lp you never had?

1. Tommy Chase Quartet 'Groove Merchant'. Nicked by someone off my desk at work in the early 90s. Was re-issued recently so have got a new copy at last.
2. David Jackson/Hugh Banton 'The Long Hello' VDGG without Peter Hammill, just hoping it gets a re-issue.
3. There are always lots of others who record radio broadcasts, and if you look hard enough you will find them. But it took over 20 years to get a recording of Yes at Wembley 1978 from the BBC broadcast. There are many forums and websites dedicated to just these sort of recordings.
4. Thanks to members of this forum I found it, I started a thread and asked for suggestions, and in the end it turned out to be This Mortal Coil 'Fyt' from 'It'll End in Tears'.
Also heard an amazing piece of echoey guitar music on a 'Look North' local news piece about caving in the mid 70s, and a couple of years later discovered it was 'Pink Floyd' Crazy Diamond (I was about 12 when that 'Look North' was broadcast).
Not to mention the original broadcasts of 'Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy' which also had Pink Floyd, Jean Michel Jarre and Kraftwerk, yet to be discovered at 12.

If you search long enough you can track down almost any piece of music.

Jamie,

Thanks for being the first to respond to my thread.

So, are you telling me that if something appeared on the BBC's "Live In Concert" that was broadcast on R2, then there is a known source somewhere on the web where you can pick the recording up? Both the Phil Lynott concert and the Big Country concert were broadcast on that BBC show.

Unfortunately detailed discussion of bootleg websites and methods of collecting such recordings are strictly forbidden on this fourm.

A Google search for the band name, year, BBC, possibly any track names should bring up some results. There were always people out there with cassette decks grabbing shows like the BBC sessions.

Real easy one for me ....

Years ago [1970's] I heard Sean O'Riada 'Nomos no 2' on medium wave radio [Radio Eireann now RTE]. It's a choral setting of Oedipus at Colonos .. it has never been issued on record and I don't think it has been performed since.

Years ago I asked RTE would they sell me a copy but they said that for copyright reasons they could not !!

That's about as rare as it gets ...

James H.

So James, that would be your musical equivalent of The Golden Fleece?

It's so long since I heard it I might well be disappointed !!

The question seems almost odd, in that if you have not heard the said recording, then how can you know it is or would be great?

I have a wish list of recordings from known artists in known repertoire, where I suspect that the commercial release might prove to be a revelation. The reasons why something is never released are numerous, from technical failings in the recording to some flaws [serious or not] in the playing and sometimes as sad as such an issue of a recording being done for 78s on wax, and then never released because the LP overtook the release situation and the old [unreleased recording] is commercially superseded by a new tape recording for LPs, which may or may not have been artistically finer.

Two revelations that came my way because of format issues due to LP coming along were the lovely Mozart Violin Concerto recordings of Szymon Goldberg with the Philharmonia, where the great three [in G, D, and A] were only finally completely released fifty years after the recordings. Two of them were released on an LP but the third had to wait for CD, as there was no natural coupling for the odd one! The other was the lovely recording of Bach's E Major Keyboard Concerto by Edwin Fischer again with the Philharmonia [recorded for 78s] and not released on LP because there was no natural coupling, and so the recording was never given a make-up session as there is one side with a mistake in the solo part, so slight that it clearly does not matter. Released after nearly sixty years in the vault!

One recording that was made and seems permanently lost is part from the live 1927 recording at Hereford Cathedral of The Dream Of Gerontius, where Elgar conducts the Festival Chorus, a fine team of Soloists, and the LSO. The aim was to record about half the performance, and most of the records failed the wear test. The whole effort was more or less a technical disaster, as can happen with pioneering efforts, but fortunately Elgar's test records still mostly exist, and show the basic recordings to have been fine, albeit beyond the acoustic sound-boxes of the contemporary gramophones to replay well.

One section that has been lost is the Demons' Chorus from Part Two, which would be a prized release if it could have happened, but Elgar's own test discs are lost. At least this would have been a posibility with better luck, but the most really interesting [non] recordings would for me have what would be the result of Bach performances captured in recording! That would be beyond price.

George

1. Flaming Lips-- LP version of Hit To Death In The Future Head. I've had the CD version for years, and am guessing that the vinyl version would be stupendous! As an aside, I ordered a vinyl copy off gemm a while ago, and the seller informed me a week later that he no longer had the copy to sell. Then, a couple days later I saw he had relisted it on gemm for more than twice the previous price!

2. Steve Miller (Band?)-- Love Is Strange. I heard him sing Love Is Strange (just him and acoustic guitar, from what I remember) on a TV show. Sounded great. Have searched for a recording of that over the years, and still haven't found it anywhere.

George,

I agree, perhaps my question is a little odd. I suppose really, it's all about how a piece of music touches you at the time. At the time being the crucial point. You remember something you heard, or once had and lost. And maybe it seems all the sweeter for having lost it.

Dear Kevin,

I quite agree about a sweet memory of music that seems lost as finding it again sometimes does prove impossible! Sometimes the rediscovery is a disappointment as well! Sometimes the time is as important as the music remembered!!

George

Reply to Kev and George ...

In my case I would just like to have a recording of the O'Riada piece [any recording]. As I said I heard it yers ago on medium wave [VHF existed but I just had a medium wave radio -- and I really liked the work].

Years ago I heard a live performance of some of the Ligeti piano edudes .. after the concert I went to all the local record shops looking for a performance [any performance] rather than a copy of the performance [or the pianist] I had just heard .. I was disappointed; none existed [they were new then -- now I have two different performances].


James H.

Another comment [mainly for George] ...

It could be a radio concert [which you have heard] and you would like a recording [and none is available].

ends==

Dear James,

Yes the radio does throw up so much that is unheard on commercial recordings! I count the radio as more important than recordings as a way of dicovering things! The broadcasters have much more imagination that the record companies, or even most concert promoters!

George

quote:

Originally posted by GFFJ:
Yes the radio does throw up so much that is unheard on commercial recordings! I count the radio as more important than recordings as a way of dicovering things! The broadcasters have much more imagination that the record companies, or even most concert promoters!
George

Well, yes, at least they had. In Denmark, I think, there has been a fatal decline of imagination during the last years.

Led Zeppelin IV - "Lost" in my collection for 2 years!
and
Double Tape of Monty Python's Greatest Hits - Sadly she rolled her car and killed herself.