Observations : Junk Shop Junk Records

A while ago I read an article/blog by an American Writer on the records that he kept seeing in second hand stores and junk shops.  In recent years while Jan is looking for that bargain piece of crockery, hand bag etc I ask - "have you got any records?" and get directed to the darkest and dustiest corner of the shop with records piled in stacks (don't they no anything!).  I pull up a chair and then am usually disappointed at the lack of imagination there must have been when people were buying these - or maybe the people in the shops have the same taste as those throwing out the records and think - "that will sell".

In the last week in NZ as we passed through small towns TeKuiti, Waihi, Coromandel, Thames, New Plymouth we ventured in and I made a mental list of the recurring artists in these dusty piles.

• James Last - just about everything
• Richard Clayderman - Piano by Candlelight anyone?  Apparently  not anymore
• Roger Whittaker 
• Neil Diamond - in particular Jonathan Livingston Seagull
• Jim Reeves - anything goes 
• Val Doonican - ditto
• Mantovani - so much blandness
• Gene Pitney
• Charley Pride
• The Seekers

One alarming thing though is that I reckon I could have restocked Mum and Dad's Radiogram in the last week for less than $10.  The only ones I did not see were Peter Ustinov's great solo record of a Grand Prix and the Album of Sea Shanties - perhaps the only two I have not got that I might have bought.

When browsing every now and then a record jumps out that is worth checking out and that too usually ends in disappointment with badly ripped covers, huge scratches or just clearly worn out records.  But occasionally luck holds out and for 50c or $1 you pick up something worth a second look.  This trip it did that in Coromandel where I picked up some great Waylon, Johnny, Tom T Hall and Bobby Bare. Gave them $3 and told them to keep the change!