Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Vinyl Lust: The Prince Buster Fantasy

[All apologies to Duff Guide to Ska readers for not having posted in a few weeks. I'm in the midst of switching jobs--I'm taking a much better position somewhere else and am currently finishing up at my old one--and I also managed to squeeze in a week's vacation at the Jersey shore with the wifey and kids.]

Here's some insight into how much of a music nerd I am. The other night, while on holiday, I had an incredible ska dream. Tower Records had unexpectedly reopened (!) and was selling all sorts of amazing ska releases that I have never found anywhere else--mostly super rare vinyl singles from Madness and The Specials. But the highlight of this fantasy were these collections of Prince Buster CDs, LPs, and singles that were sold in these clear, hard plastic containers designed to be hung on hooks (like how action figures are packaged and displayed)--with an LP was in the center, surrounded by several 7" singles (for whatever reason, all the sleeves were absent). There were three collections in this series; I forget the names of the first two, but the third, which I picked up, was titled "Funeral." For some reason, the quality of the pressing was poor on some of the singles (they were misshapen and thick as pancakes), but I didn't care--we're talking The Prince here, baby!

I told my wife about my ska vision the next day and she thought it was kind of sad and pathetic. Then again, she doesn't understand why I truly enjoy roaming record stores and collecting LPs and CDs...

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