Morning Final No. 7
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Morning Final No. 7 When I first started reporting the status of 7” releases, BAR I had some inquiries as to the whereabouts of all the 12” releases..as If I had forgotten something!!...well, fret no longer, cause this is the issue of the Twelve Inchers. HOT AIR With only two markets pressing the big singles, the US and UK, there have been at least a few neat col- from hollywood lectibles for the die-hards out there looking for some by melne more rare stuff to listen to. The first 12” singles were pressed in 1975 when Disco was unleashed and DJ’s needed special longer ver- sions of the otherwise too short radio hit singles, which Well Albie! This issue has an answer averaged a mere 3 minutes per tune. In the eighties, to the many inquiries on the exploits of though, the record companies realized they could BÖC’s most prolific member, Albert woo the consumer with all kinds of remixes, edited ver- Bouchard, and a profile of the newest sions and B-sides to make the sale of 12 inchers a lucra- öyster, Chuck Bürgi! As you receive this tive business and no longer the exclusive terrain of pro- issue, rest assured that your editor is motion or DJs. beginning a lengthy, much-needed va- In 1972, though, Columbia Records had already cation in the homeland of Minnesota. released the Live Bootleg EP for radio stations and crit- After so many years in southern ics/reviewers to whet their appetite for Tyranny & Mu- California, it’s time for a dose of real win- tation. In a sense this is a forerunner of the 12” single, ter! (Noble words now, but we’ll see an EP, with four songs presented in the 12" album for- when the blizzards hit). In the öyster mat. camp we have hope for a new album, as It wasn’t until 1978 and Spectres when Columbia rumour flies of writing sessions among the issued the first B.Ö.C. 12” single. The great (It’s Not Ray- members, so keep your fingers crossed. mond Burr) “Godzilla Live” had a picture sleeve of the (albeit black and white) Green dude trashing Tokyo from the original movie. The B-side was the studio ver- sion culled off the album. This was also released in an identical 7” version, so it was a neat introduction to collecting Big Disco Singles on our band. Some Canadian Bootleggers quickly copied this rare release and it was available for a year around the ews Flash: N world on various traders/dealers lists. The pirate copies are easy to spot, they have no CBS Gold stamp on the back cover. I think that it is harder to find the actual The live CD and video are released in Europe as of the first week of Goldstamp copy from Columbia than the pirate ver- November! The European version will contain the song "Born To Be Wild," sion, but there is basically no difference, so I assume which won't be contained on the American version. Hopefully this means any of the copies will do the same trick with this rare the U.S. release won't be far behind. live cut. Spectres also brought the boys around the world for We've received word that Italy is releasing a double-live CD of a the tour of 1978, and CBS UK began a trend and put June 16, 1981 BÖC performance at the Bond's International Casino in out a limited edition 12” of “(Don’t Fear) The New York. A limited number of these may be available through the fan Reaper/R.U.Ready 2 Rock” to commemorate the U.K. club. Tour. At the cheapo price of 99 pence, they couldn’t go wrong. The great cover art on this one is a red Thanks to all of you who sponsored an Eastern European Fan! We've skeleton holding a scythe on a black background, just received a letter from our first actual Russian, who loves BÖC! and on the back the album covers for Agents & SINGLES Spectres. package, minus the stencil and full-length version. Both covers list the U.K. It wasn’t until 1981 when we got to see the next 12” release, tour dates on the back. which was the pre-release for Fire Of Unknown Origin. A four-cut November of 1985 was once again time for a U.K. tour, so the brand new selection of what would possibly be the singles, it held “Burnin’ cuts “White Flags” and “Rock Not War” off the forthcoming album Club Ninja For You/Joan Crawford/ Sole Survivor/Veteran Of The Psychic were released. Once again, CBS tried to cash in on the previous single by Wars”. To this day the band is still playing all of these songs live, including the full length album version of “Shooting Shark” as the B-side. The except Sole Survivor, which they sadly enough never played live. cover was the same on both 12” and 7”, The Ninja Death Star in the shape of As with all the American 12-inchers, (excepting Godzilla live) this Kronos. comes in a plain black cover with a hole cut to show the label. In The U.S. Columbia held off on the release until the band returned from CBS England waited until the band toured Europe again in Europe for the first U.S. single, “Dancin’ In The Ruins.” By 1986, the record August of 1981, then they released “Burnin’ For You” but backed industry had come to the conclusion that DJ’s weren’t capable of reading, it up with two choice live recordings from Westwood One, “Dr. so they started placing the same song on both sides, so that no matter what Music” from the same show that is the Black & Blue Movie, and side you threw on the turntable, you’d be playing the intended radio cut. A “Flaming Telepaths” recorded live at The Bond’s International second single was pressed, this time “Perfect Water” with of course the same Casino in New York just weeks before winding up on this disc. B-side. SINGLES Picture cover is a great close up of Greg Scott’s extra terrestrial Perfect Water became the last 12” single to be released from the Vinyl cultsters from the cover of Fire Of Unknown Origin. Era in the States, but England still had more plastic to melt into 12” shapes, so After the band had played the Country Club in Reseda (Los Angeles) for Imaginos “Astronomy” & “Magna Of Illusion” were released on 12”, 7”, California with Robbie Krieger on “Roadhouse Blues,” things were uncertain and CD format with, would you believe it, “The Reaper” (again!) thrown in on as to what was going to be the next album. Since Buck was doing Flat Out, it the 12” and CD to boost the sales. was decided to send out this live recording to Radio stations, so test pressings The picture sleeve is an awesome shot in Black & White of an electrical of a full length version as well as an edited shorter, more radio oriented mix storm over the sea, and a really classy shot to put on a record cover. But wait were pressed. a minute, it’s not over yet...The band went across that Sea to promote the Later, when it became clear that E.T.L. was going to be released, album, and of course a special tour package was put together. Columbia pressed a revised version of this 12” with one more added song on The same cover now housed a remixed dance-oriented version of the B-side to give the Radio programmers a choice of songs to play. With this “Astronomy,” called “Wild Mix,” which is like an assemblage, selecting bits addition, a live version of “Veteran Of The Psychic Wars,” was also released and pieces of the tracks while keeping the beat going. It has a bit more of promo videos for each of these two songs to promote this upcoming Live Albert’s original vocal thrown in, which makes it interesting. Side two holds effört. that rare Radio Only version of “Astronomy,” here called the Wild King Mix, 1983 bore us yet another 4 track Promo EP in the US, this time after the which is the album version with a spoken introduction by Stephen King. release of the album The Revölution By Night with a long & a short version of Surprisingly the second song on side B remained “Magna Of Illusion.” (what— “Shooting Shark” backed with “Take Me Away” and “Eyes On Fire.” no Reaper?) CBS England Picked “Take Me Away” as their choice of a first single in the U.K, and this time they too released it in the 4-Track EP style, trying to cash in once more on “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper,” and “Burnin’ For You.” The same 7” additions: I thank my friend Simon Wilson from Australia for supplying me live version of “Dr. Music” that was released previously graced the B-side, with 3 rare White Label Promo singles released by CBS Australia. Although although by this time it had actually been released on the E.T.L. album, mak- rumour has it there are 6 singles pressed in Australia, I have so far only seen 3 ing it not such a hot collectable Item. The cover is straight off the back cover actual singles, and all three are promo only copies. It makes me wonder if drawing from the Revölution album.