A Shared Album

I always thought it would be one of Lileks’ posts about the bottom records of a distant era or thrift store vinyl where I would find one of the Nogglestead record library. But, no, it’s Jack Baruth who posted an image of Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson’s 1980 in a post from the beginning of September. I’m catching up on my Avoidable Contact Forever reading even now as I don’t delete them like I do other Substack emails when they pile up (and it’s the only one for which I have a paid subscription).

I bought the record in 2019. And have probably only listened to it once or twice since. Once, certainly, when I first bought it, as is my wont–listening to it before putting the plastic sleeve on it and putting it on the record shelf. Which explains the stack of records on the parlor desk: I still haven’t listened to all the records I bought last month. In my defense, I spend more time in my office these days than I used to.

At any rate, Baruth says:

Some of you know that I consider the earlier Scott-Heron and Jackson effort “Winter In America” to be one of the finest albums ever made. (Not to be confused with the individual track called “Winter In America”, which appeared elsewhere in the Scott-Heron catalog.) “1980” isn’t quite as focused and powerful, but it’s loaded front to back with brilliant soul music made by two of the best to ever do it. You can’t hear it on Spotify or on most streaming services. TheYouTube video at the head of this section will take you to all the tracks. I recommend them without hesitation…

…but I wanted a physical copy of the album. Which is also hard to find in decent shape. It had a short print run and never got reissued. After a few false starts I just paid what it took to get an early demo copy, as seen above. When it arrived I tossed it on the turntable and treated myself to twenty minutes with the sublime first side.

I’ll have to give it another listen upon his recommendation.

Also, I need to remember Baruth is a Pat Matheny fan and not a Pat Travers fan so I don’t keep picking up the wrong Pat.

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