Do you still vinyl?
All of this talk about vinyl leads me to share this story, originally shared with BleuDaughter (she wanted a turntable for Christmas, so we obliged), about when I was in radio in the 70s. I also gave her a copy of the Rancho Deluxe soundtrack (she's a Parrothead too) that I have held on to for years:
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When I was working in radio, we would get new albums every week. We actually “spun records” and had a wall of color-coded albums on shelves that we could pick from depending on the color segment on the hourly clock. New albums were opened, inspected, and then tagged with a color to indicate when you were allowed to play them. "Hit" 45s were kept in a box next to the desk where the turntables were installed. They were also color-coded.
When the albums arrived each week there were several copies just because they’d get scratched or warped. These records could not be sold and often had an identifier (like the clipped corner on this album cover) indicating they could not or should not be sold. The extra copies were up for grabs, so we’d go through the shipment every week and pick what we wanted. Since I was a junior member of the on-air staff, I wouldn’t get to go through the pile until late in the week.
Soundtrack albums were popular because they’d often have more than one Top 40 track and we could play those tracks at multiple points in the clock.
Rancho Deluxe (1975) wasn’t very popular at the time though. Jimmy Buffett was just becoming a recognizable name. Livingstone Saturday Night is probably the most recognizable track on the album and didn’t even chart the year the album came out. The film didn’t play everywhere despite the star power, so I didn’t see the movie until it came out on VHS and I rented a copy.
It was not a Golden Globe or Oscar winner. And the soundtrack, other than having JB as the chief musician, is not something really to write home about. Such was the 70s.
Regardless, I was already a Parrothead before there was a word for it. I owned A White Sportscoat and a Pink Crustacean (He Went to Paris), Living & Dying in ¾ Time (Come Monday), and A1A (A Pirate Looks at 40). I had purchased these at the record store in the mall.
The week we received Ranch Deluxe we had 6 or 7 copies and no one at the station had claimed any of the five leftovers even by the time I saw the pile. I took two for no really good reason. I opened one and it was in the regular rotation on my record player. The other, the one you hold in your hands, has made the move with me ever since. I put it in an extra plastic sleeve at some point because the original wrap was getting torn.
After a while, albums were such a pain in the keester to move. I got rid of a lot of albums including those I had that belonged to your grandparents. CDs and streaming guaranteed we’d always be able to hear those albums so instead of lugging them around I downsized. For whatever reason, having the albums wasn’t all that important to me. (I kinda’ regret that a little now.) But I kept this one because it was unopened and memorable to my radio station experience. It turns out now that this album is a little rare and can often go for a decent amount of money on auction sites if you can find a buyer.
Now it is yours. You can stream the soundtrack or you can place this album on your turntable. Either way, I hope that you enjoy it.
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Someone in the thread spoke about the value of older albums so I did a little research. The Rancho Deluxe soundtrack has sold from $28 - $399 lately. Of course, the higher-priced sales were mint, never opened, still in original packaging. I could speculate on why this was able for such a high price but none of the conditions would include "highly sought after". I'd bet that 98%+ vinyl collectors don't even have this on their list. 100% of vinyl collecting Parrotheads do.
It is the same discussion we've had about collectible items and their worth, like football cards. Value is only based on what someone is willing to pay for an item and they are willing to pay certain prices because of several factors. Drew Brees' rookie card meant nothing to us in terms of value until we traded him away from the Chargers.