The Old Timers' Bootleg-Shopping-Recollections Thread

[urasam2]

The comments on here are fascinating to read, because I identify with every one of them! Like others have said, I still remember the unbridled excitement at finding my first Beatles bootlegs, first was Kum Bak in Kensington Market, and the second was Yellow Matter Custard in Richard Branson's Virgin Records when it was above a shoe shop in Oxford Street. Bean bags on the floor with hippies listening on "cans". To this day, I still occasionally have dreams about rummaging through cardboard boxes of albums under the counter in a record shop and finding loads of Beatles bootlegs, the thrill (or addiction) is still there.

[Lord Reith]

For sure. My parents still remind me of the times during family vacations that I would drag one of them to random record stores in 'seedy' parts of strange towns on the off chance they would have something that our local shop didn't have. A couple of those places that I found with great stuff I would later call for mail orders years later. The thrill of the hunt was almost as exciting as the actual content.

Yeah, I used to go on expeditions! I found a lot of stores that way. I actually gave no real thought to the notion that they were "illegal". To me, "Illegal" meant drugs, extortion and that kind of thing. I only thought of them as rare. They were in the record racks for flip's sake, so how could they be so terrible? If I didn't find any in the racks, I would ask the owner plainly, "Got any bootlegs?" Sometimes they had some out the back as it were, and sometimes they would look at me all frightened and reply, "No, they're illegal!" Did they think the feds had recruited me at 15 and sent me there in my school uniform to bust them?

The store owners were a varied bunch. One shop sold nothing but heavy metal records... and Beatles. They knew the money was there. Those were the days when there were thousands of import lps and you could easily slip those up-market bootlegs in there with them. No one would know any different. But those two guys were complete arseholes! They made fun of us because we liked the Beatles. Another owner would sell them but not discuss them. Another guy was more interested in trying to flog me porno magazines... but I only wanted his Beatlegs! Finally I found one guy who was great. He had a copy of the Hot Wacks discography on his counter and I could search through that and ask him about titles. He would put stuff away for me, and let customers listen to the boots before buying. Looking back now I can see he was also fleecing me, but I didn't mind at the time. I was happy to pay premium prices when I could be sure what I was buying was going to be worth it.

Yeah, those 80s boots were a great source of joy. Just holding them in your hands was exciting.

[20YearsAgo]

Back in the late seventies when I was in high school, I used to listen into the wee early morning hours to a weird college radio station. The station introduced me to "The Velvet Underground and Nico." Rest assured, this isn't a post on the merits of "Heroin." But on one occasion, at around midnight, the introduced a special guest who put on a two- or three-hour Beatles show sourced almost entirely from his massive Beatleg collection. I doubt I knew what a bootleg was until that moment. But I was blown away. Very quickly, I pushed a cassette into my tape deck and started recording the show. Among the songs he played were

- What A Shame Mary Jane Had A Pain at the Party
- the extended "Dig It" from the Get Back sessions
- the piano-based "Mean Mr. Mustard" from the Get Back Sessions
- "Teddy Boy" from the Get Back sessions
- George's "Pirate Song"
- "Have You Heard the Word?" (okay, that one turned out not to be the Beatles, but it still awed me)
- "Nowhere Man" from one of the Tokyo '66 shows

Throughout the show, the special guest stressed that these weren't quite "legal" recordings and that people went to jail for bootlegging... Which, I guess, why the illicit factor of boots forevermore registered on my mind. At about 2 AM, I called the station and begged, off-air, for him to tell me where I could buy these records. He hemmed and hawed, exacerbated to be put on the spot, and then said something like, "I hear [record store] has a great Beatles collection" and hung up on me.

Needless to say, I begged my parents to drive me to that store. I grew up in suburban Buffalo. The store was in the university section of Buffalo. Quite not the dodgy section of town, but still about 30 miles from where we lived, we went the following weekend. I recall it being springtime. We parked a couple of blocks from the store, and walked past a Frank Lloyd Wright house.

The store itself was like every indie record store I'd end up visiting for years thereafter. New Records. College-radio records. Used records. This being the seventies and catering to a college-aged clientele, I remember there was incense in the air. But as far as I could tell-- and, brother, I searched-- I couldn't find any bootlegs.

Finally, I approached the beautiful college-aged woman at the front counter. I was very shy at that point in my life. Me being in high school, approaching a woman, especially an older, beautiful woman, used up just about all the courage I had in me.

"Where are the bootlegs" I asked.

The woman blinked. Immediately, I remembered what the "special guest's" warning about the illegal nature of bootleg nature. And there I was, asking her to point me towards contraband that, for all I knew at the time, might've sent her to prison for a lifetime.

But a devilish smirk suddenly came over her. She must have recognized me for what I was: a nerdy high school boy from the 'burbs. She glanced over toward the corner of the store... I followed her glance: and then I saw them, tucked into a poorly lit corner... racks of records that, when I walked over, I discovered were bootlegs.

I bought three records that day... Deccagone Sessions (https://www.discogs.com/The-Beatles-The ... se/2823843 (Smilin' Ears disc with a great 1963 photo of the band on its cover) and Hahst Az Son.

And the third record? Well... Velvet Underground... this one: https://www.discogs.com/The-Velvet-Unde ... se/5014235

Which is about the weirdest record I ever owned. Arty, yes, but way over my head at the time... A few weeks later, I coaxed my parents to drive me back to that store and bought three more Beatlegs...

And as for the Velvet Underground? Well, it would be about fifteen years before I'd buy my next Velvets boot. Didn't want to waste any more money on wierd sh*t...

[WilliamShears]

Back in the late seventies when I was in high school, I used to listen into the wee early morning hours to a weird college radio station. The station introduced me to "The Velvet Underground and Nico." Rest assured, this isn't a post on the merits of "Heroin." But on one occasion, at around midnight, the introduced a special guest who put on a two- or three-hour Beatles show sourced almost entirely from his massive Beatleg collection. I doubt I knew what a bootleg was until that moment. But I was blown away. Very quickly, I pushed a cassette into my tape deck and started recording the show. Among the songs he played were

- What A Shame Mary Jane Had A Pain at the Party
- the extended "Dig It" from the Get Back sessions
- the piano-based "Mean Mr. Mustard" from the Get Back Sessions
- "Teddy Boy" from the Get Back sessions
- George's "Pirate Song"
- "Have You Heard the Word?" (okay, that one turned out not to be the Beatles, but it still awed me)
- "Nowhere Man" from one of the Tokyo '66 shows

Throughout the show, the special guest stressed that these weren't quite "legal" recordings and that people went to jail for bootlegging... Which, I guess, why the illicit factor of boots forevermore registered on my mind. At about 2 AM, I called the station and begged, off-air, for him to tell me where I could buy these records. He hemmed and hawed, exacerbated to be put on the spot, and then said something like, "I hear [record store] has a great Beatles collection" and hung up on me.

LOL I did basically the same thing. Sometime in the early 90s (pre-anthology) I was listening to the local oldies station one night when a radio show came on that started playing what was basically the Sessions stuff. I was floored and couldn't believe what was going on. He was playing them like it was no big deal, just a rarities show. I got up the guts to call the station during the show and the DJ answered. I really just wanted to ask him how he could get away with playing these (he said he wasn't worried about it) but we ended up talking through the rest of the show about what our favorite boots were. He would put me on hold so he could intro the next song or start the commercials!

Finally, I approached the beautiful college-aged at the front counter. I was very shy at that point in my life. Me being in high school, approaching a woman, especially an older, beautiful woman, used up just about all the courage I had in me.

"Where are the bootlegs" I asked.

My high school inquiries were slightly more sophisticated, but no less nerdy: "Do you have any imports from the yellow dog or vigotone labels?" I felt like I had a password to a secret club at that age.

[20YearsAgo]

LOL I did basically the same thing. Sometime in the early 90s (pre-anthology) I was listening to the local oldies station one night when a radio show came on that started playing what was basically the Sessions stuff. I was floored and couldn't believe what was going on. He was playing them like it was no big deal, just a rarities show. I got up the guts to call the station during the show and the DJ answered. I really just wanted to ask him how he could get away with playing these (he said he wasn't worried about it) but we ended up talking through the rest of the show about what our favorite boots were. He would put me on hold so he could intro the next song or start the commercials!

Ha! That sounds like a way cooler experience than I had. At least the deejay didn't hang up on you!

[JPM7756]

I'm really enjoying these stories and definitely had similar experiences. I found the File Under boot at a record show in 1991. That's when I first heard That Means Alot & If You Got Trouble and I really like those tracks. There's something off in them but in a good way. I also like What's the New Mary Jane and the Piece of Mind outfake. My favorite boots were the Sapcor ones. The artwork and titles were a plus too. So very nice to hear this remastered That Means Alot.

[WilliamShears]

Hey williamshears (I'm going to call you Billy from now on, ok?)

Could we hive off all the bootlegs recollections here into a brand new thread? This stuff is too interesting to get lost in an otherwise unrelated thread.

You could call it "The Old Timers' Bootleg-Shopping-Recollections Thread".

Yeah I was thinking about that today when replying earlier...makes for a good re-intro thread too.
Billy is great

[20YearsAgo]

It's like remembering first kisses... this thread...

[Grackleflint]

What great stories! I had heard of bootlegs around 1974-5, when a friend of mine dubbed cassettes for me of "Yellow Matter Custard" tracks. Around 1976, I discovered 3 stores in Canton, Ohio (about 30 miles from my home) , that sold boots. I bought several that day ( and many thereafter ) , but the first I picked up was 1966 Live in Japan, with a blue paper sleeve. Those were the days.

[Egg_Crisis]

I became aware of bootlegs when I went to my first record fair in 1985 but didn't get into collecting Beatles boots until around 1990. I went for tapes only as they were £3 each and vinyl boots had prices of £10/£15/£20 so I could get more for my money, although most of them were probably taped from vinyl. Some of the first ones I got were 3 tapes containing Ultra Rare Trax Vols 1-6 (2 Vols per tape) and since each vol was only about 30 minutes the tapes had extra things on the ends, of course the extra bits were unlabelled so I'd never be quite sure what some of them were until they turned up later on other tapes. Some tapes came with a title but no tracklist or dates so you'd literally have to listen and try and work it out for yourself (Beatles Vs Don Ho was one of those, boy that confused me! Although I was able to identify some of the BBC session tracks as I'd seen some of the titles in Chronicles), one tape labelled "Apple Sessions" containing mainly 1968 session tracks with 15 mins of Toot & A Snore shoved on the end as filler, but unlabelled so I didn't realise what it was until some eejit tried to auction a reel-to-reel copy and the story got in the paper saying it might sell for a million pounds and the article included a transcript of some dialogue and I realised it was the same as the thing on my tape and I phoned the guy who wrote the article and told him it wasn't rare because I had a copy, and he told me I wasn't the first person to tell him that, and that the reel's value had been re-appraised and was probably worth a couple of pounds. Maybe I should dig out some of the tapes and scan the covers if anyone's interested in what some of them looked like.