BB Express
"Summertime Blues" b/w "Blues Stay Away From Me"
The current state of my life means that a lot of my digging and discovery has to be done digitally on eBay. This record was one that showed up originally at a $49.99 opening bid, was described as psych and from Michigan and that's enough to pique my interest.
But with no sound clips attached and a cursory Google search yielding no substantive information, I was quite apprehensive to blindly pull the trigger.
The record went unsold and was quickly relisted at a $39.99 starting bid.
Tempting...but still a bit high for a blind buy.
Going unsold again, it was immediately relisted at $29.99.
Hmmm...I hold out again and it remains unsold.
This reminds me of a manner of auction that I believe John Manship is the only dealer to utilize. "Drop Down" auctions are actually set-sales where the record starts at a fixed price. And every week it goes unsold, the price drops an increment ($10, $15, whatever). Kinda like a game of "how bad do you want this record" in the form of Chicken, Marty McFly "Back to the Future" style. It requires confidence on the dealer's end, both in selecting a starting price and that demand for the disc will prevent it from going for nothing. I tend to like this approach.
Listed at $19.99 I'm a sucker as the winner and only bidder.
Once the disc is in my hands, the "psych garage" designation written on the outer sleeve gets me more optimistic. The aging on the label makes it look older than it did in the auction pics...another good sign. And the address on the label (which I'd previously overlooked) is Lambertville, Michigan...a locale I guessed was near Ohio because of the Secor Road mention, but otherwise had never heard of before in my life.
The fact that the single is two cover songs is a red herring....could be great, could stink. The fact that KILLER versions of "Summertime Blues" exist (the Outsiders on "Back From the Grave", Blue Cheer) feels promising. I'm unfamiliar with Ace Cannon's "Blues Stay Away From Me" is a toss-up.
I put the needle on the A-side and am immediately sour-faced at the quasi-"Footloose" sound. Ugh, yuck, boo, horseshit. So far from psych or garage I'm appalled to have fallen, once again, for an unreliable eBay description with a Michigan address. The b-side is equally as bad.
This will go in a box with a bunch of other tepid Michigan mediocrity and I will continue onward, hoping to find a gem slip through the cracks.
