Wanting and Needing

Crate Diving in Modern Almerica

Of course, you have to know what you want, meaning you have to commit to some degree of intentionality, meaning you have to think sometimes about what you want, need, have to have, or will have despite not having to truly have anything.

You might not know what you want until you invest some time in learning about how, say, one band can last for over sixty years and still want or need to keep playing/recording. Because though you think you know their body of work — okay, maybe you haven’t kept up with all their live albums or greatest hits packages — you still think you understand the essentials for any collection. If you don’t understand but have Apple Music, don’t worry: they will list for you the Essential Albums of any artist you can access through them (but don’t bother looking for Cindy Lee there because she keeps resisting streaming algorithms).

For instance, buried on pp. 403–404 of Bob Spitz’ The Rolling Stones: The Biography (Penguin 2026) is a discussion of the Stones former and longtime label, Decca, releasing an album of old Stones songs without informing the band that they were doing so. I didn’t know much, if anything, about this album, which is fitting because, again, neither did they until the album was released. And I swear, within 48 hours of learning about it, I actually found a used copy of it. Maybe I’d seen it before, but that was before it existed for me.

This all makes sense especially when you’re on a sabbatical and you have more time on your hands than you could ever know what to do with, which means, getting everything you both want and need has a greater probability of being probable. Or at least you have the time to travel to more places that would make the wanting, the needing, and the getting much more likely, and you won’t even have to resort to Discogs or Ebay. Or at least you won’t want to.

I haven’t finished my second cup of coffee yet, so imagine if I were fully caffeinated! You might not want to keep up with me then, but you might also find that what I’m presenting to you below — the results of recent crate dives — is exactly what you want and need, too, not only to fill out your vast LP collection, but to give you hours of entertainment as well that only you and I might know in this moment.

So, none of the records I found in this week’s Crate Diving in Modern America was anything I was looking for exactly. Or at least I wasn’t consciously looking for them, but now you might be, or at least when you find them, you might remember the echo of them from reading about them right here in our very own collected conscience.

Ready?

1. The Rolling Stones, Stone Age (Decca SKL 5084, 1971). They had moved on to their own label, owned by Atlantic Records, by then, but since Decca owned the masters of these songs, it could and did release them in a format and with a cover that would drive everyone from Mick to even Mick crazy. I paid $28.95 retail, which doesn’t seem off when I examine the many copies for sale on Discogs. My copy claims to have been made in England, anyway. The cover is famous for approximating the intended cover of Beggars Banquet, a cover Decca originally refused to use. For those who don’t know, the LP includes “It’s All Over Now,” “Paint It Black,” “As Tears Go By,” “The Last Time,” “Around and Around,” and their cover of “My Girl.” A week ago, it was completely buried in my mind. And now, I’ve dug it.

2. George Jones & Melba Montgomery, Blue Moon of Kentucky (United Artists UAs 6472, 1966). If, as I do, you have several LPs featuring this duo, then this particular record likely contains songs you already have. That won’t matter if you, like me, feel that you need to get what you want, which is every GJ record you can find, and sometimes, because you refuse to consult your list of “already haves,” you have more than one copy of many that you somehow keep finding and buying. I didn’t have this record, however, before last Wednesday, and I really didn’t know much, if anything, about it before then either. So I paid my $12 — a fair price according to Discogs and my copy is either VG++ or NM — and now I have them singing the title song plus “Before you Change Your Mind,” “You Comb Her Hair,” and “Don’t Make Me Build Another Wall.”

3. Sarah Vaughn, Great Hits From Great Shows (Mercury MGP-2–100, 1957). I had been wanting some more Blues, and sometimes when you dig through the Blues section in your vintage record store, you’ll find Blues artists branching out into other territory, like, in this case, Show Tunes. Maybe Show Tunes aren’t your thing, but for $10 (VG), how could you pass up this extraordinary vocalist taking her turn on “Autumn In New York” (from Thumbs Up), “Dancing in the Dark” (from The Bandwagon), “September Song” (from Knickerbocker Holiday), and “Comes Love” (from Yokel Boy)?

4. Glen Campbell, Burning Bridges and Other Great Country Songs (Capitol ST 2679, 1967). Though this album didn’t chart on Billboard, even though Campbell was already famous for “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” maybe the reason is that it covered songs that didn’t hit anyone hard enough. Campbell wrote one song on this LP, “Less of Me,” but did cover some Waylon and some Buck. Or maybe we forget/never heard of this album because the following year, Wichita Lineman made us forget everything else Campbell had done. Anyway, since I feel compelled and actually want to buy his early to mid-career records, I chose to spend my $15 on it; it is also still in the original shrink wrap and in VG++ condition.

5. Merle Haggard and the Strangers, It’s Not Love (But It’s Not Bad) (Capitol ST 11127, 1972). Hank Cochran co-wrote the title song, and Merle wrote most of the rest, including “I Wonder Where I’ll Find You At Tonight,” “I Wonder What She’ll Think About Me Leaving,” “New York City Blues,” and “My Woman Keeps Lovin’ Her Man.” There’s never enough Merle, and I’m not sure how many more of his LPs there are for me to find, but here’s another I checked off my WANT list:

6. Merle Haggard and the Strangers, The Way It Was in ’51 (Capitol R150047, 1978). It is a compilation of Merle doing originals about Hank and Lefty, but also many of their old ‘uns like “I Saw the Light,” “Love Sick Blues,” “Mom and Dad’s Waltz,” and “I Never Go Around Mirrors.” It was only $5, again, still in its shrink wrap from the year I was a senior in college, refusing to believe that I could ever want, much less need Merle records.

The words tell me that “If you try sometime…” and folks, I’m tryin’ and tryin,’ diggin’ and diggin.’

Thanks for reading!