FOR 2013’s Record Store Day, there was speculation that Kate Bush would release her cancelled 1993 single Eat The Music. This year it’s finally happening, on a 10-inch picture disc. More miraculous, Bush has been announced as 2024’s Record Store Day (April 20) ambassador for the nation’s independent vinyl outlets. “I hope,” she said, “you get to celebrate music that’s been specially released for you.”
This year, it’s easy to think it has. Who wouldn’t want a copy of David Bowie’s Waiting In The Sky (Before The Starman Came To Earth) (Parlophone)? Taken from Trident Studios 1/4-inch stereo tapes from December 15, 1971, it makes for an alt-tracklist, parallel universe version of Ziggy Stardust. Also reverse-engineering a classic, The 1975 Sire Demos (Rhino/Warner) by the Ramones collects early sketches for the first time on ‘Ultra Clear With Black Splatter’ vinyl. The rewiring continues: 50 years from its original release, Gene Clark’s No Other Sessions (4AD) presents the original tracklist in nine alternate versions and nine first full takes.
Augmenting old favourites with bonus tracks is, as ever, popular: LPs promoted to doubles with contemporary out-takes and rarities include Elton John’s Caribou (UMR, on ‘Sky Blue’ vinyl), Parliament’s debut Osmium Deluxe Edition (Demon, on green vinyl), and Captain Beefheart’s The Spotlight Kid (Rhino, on ‘Milky Clear’ vinyl), whose second disc of alternate takes includes the unreleased, nine-minute version of I’m Gonna Booglarize You Baby.
Elsewhere, there are newly minted records which will slot nicely into any collection: Faces’ The Complete BBC Sessions (Rhino) compiles the beloved entertainers’ rare recordings for the national broadcaster in hi-fi on clear wax. Yardbirds’ Psycho Daisies – The Complete B-Sides (Demon) curates the blues rockers’ flipsides on purple vinyl with orange splatters (there’s also a translucent red repress of the Yardbirds’ Five Live (L.M.L.R.)). The Fall’s Country On The Click (Alternative Version) (Cherry Red) brings the original mix of MES’s 2003 triumph to vinyl for the first time, on translucent orange wax, using original unused sleeve art. Does Ian Hunter’s brand-new Defiance Part 2: Fiction (Sun), out on April 20, fit the brief because its RSD LP incarnation includes three tracks unavailable elsewhere?
Who could resist Lennon’s Mind Games on luminous glow-in the-dark 12-inch?
Eye-catching visual novelty is everywhere, with bold new colour schemes for LPs including Black Sabbath’s Paranoid (Sanctuary, ‘Red and Black Splatter’), The Who’s The Story Of The Who (Polydor, pink and green), The Roches’ wondrous self-titled debut (Real Gone, ‘Ruby Red’), Little Richard’s Right Now! (Omnivore, ‘Sunflare’), and, 60 years on, The Rolling Stones’ first LP (UMR, ‘Blue/ Black Swirl).
And who could resist Queen’s Cool Cat on pink 7-inch (EMI) or John Lennon’s Mind Games on luminous glow- in the-dark 12-inch (UME)?
LP picture discs, meanwhile, include Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours (Rhino/Warner), The Cure’s The Top (UMR) and, from X Ray Spex, Germ Free Adolescents (Secret) and Conscious Consumer (Do Yourself In). Marc Bolan & T. Rex’s Zinc Alloy (Demon) arrives on a 50th Anniversary Zoetrope Picture Disc edition: other Zoetrope presentations – when the spinning record produces a dynamic optical illusion when lit with a strobe – include Blur’s Parklife (Parlophone) and Electronic Sound and Wonderwall Music by George Harrison (Dark Horse).
There’s loads more, of course. This year’s gig recordings include The Doors’ triple-LP Live At Konserthuset, Stockholm, September 20, 1968 (Rhino, blue vinyl), De La Soul Live At Tramps, NYC, 1996 (Chrysalis), and, formerly a radio-only promo double LP, Talking Heads’ Live On Tour (Rhino/Warner). In the jazz corner, try Sun Ra’s At The Showcase – Live In Chicago (Jazz Detective/Elemental) and Inside The Light World: Sun Ra Meets The OVC (Strut): reggae-wise, there’s Dub Syndicate’s Mellow & Colly (Echo Beach), Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s rare dub set Skanking With The Upsetter (Trojan, on yellow vinyl) and Prince Far I’s Cry Tuff Chants On U (On-U Sound).
Or you could bag four coloured Ennio Morricone OSTs (BTF Italy), a heart-shaped disc of Pete Wylie & The Mighty Wah!’s Heart As Big As Liverpool (Chrysalis) or the three-LP The Legendary Recordings, 1975- 1985 by 94 East Featuring Prince (Charly). Or how about a two-disc half-speed master of Scott Walker’s Tilt (UMR), a 50th anniversary edition of Harmonia’s Musik von Harmonia (Groenland) or a repress of The Chills’ The Lost EP (Fire)? Let the vinyl gods decide!
The full list of this year's releases is below, to see participating record shops visit: recordstoreday.co.uk
