In compiling these entries, I’ve often thought about whether there are any other autographs I’d like to own. It’s an interesting question, because while I consider them novelties I have far less attachment to our autographs than many of our other possessions. Would I value another any more?
Assuming I did, my first choice would be original art, such as a signed work from Frazetta or a mangaka. Theres also certain musicians like David Bowie or Nick Cave that I wouldn’t mind owning an autograph of, especially if it was on one of my favourite records.
Todays entry showcases our autographs of goths and pop stars and ‘genderbenders’ and alternative icons: Musicians. Not one of these did we obtain ourselves, but we’re fairly sure they are all authentic, and a few have somewhat unusual provenance.
This is Dreamscapes, a multi-CD box set released by Alphaville many years ago. As you can see I have one of the earliest, autographed, versions. The signatures are of Marian Gold and Bernhard Lloyd, the two most important members of the band. Interestingly this CD set is very rare and expensive these days. I’ll never sell mine.
Many years ago, shortly after I moved to the USA, we stopped in an unremarkable record shop (remember those?) in Utica, NY and we’re astonished to find two autographed Fields Of The Nephilimalbums just sitting in the racks. They weren’t expensive at all, and we snapped them up quickly. Both are promos, and are autographed by four of the five members around the time of the release of these records. Here’s a detail of Carl McCoy’s autograph:
As you can see they were done in a non-permanent marker (although it’s long since permanent) and smudged a bit. Compared to other examples from the era I’ve seen online I’m fairly sure these are authentic, but it’s a real curiosity how they ended up there and how the shop didn’t even seem to know what they had. Given FoTN is the band that caused Kristin and I to meet, this was quite a find!
Speaking of autographed records, here’s a fully autographed copy of Black Celebration by Depeche Mode. This was Kristin’s since she was a teen, and was obtained for her by a friend in England (who bought it at a record shop after the band made an appearance). The autographs on it are spectacular and a quick search online suggests this could be a fairly valuable item.
Speaking of this record, here’s a photo of the back:
Now you know where the line at the top of my blog comes from!
The above is Pete Burns autograph, again obtained for Kristin by her British friend. This one was obtained in person, and cleverly it’s on the back of a Pete Burns postcard! If you don’t know he was the lead singer of Dead or Alive, and passed away some years ago.
Lastly, here is another contender for our most famous autograph: Boy George! A big, beautiful signature worthy of the artist in his prime, this one was also obtained in person by Kristin’s friend (the mind boggles what his personal collection was like), and is on a page torn from Smash Hits magazine!
There’s also another celebrity autograph somewhere in this house, although try as I could I wasn’t able to find it. The signer in question is Green Gartside (aka Scritti Politti), and KLS obtained the autograph herself on an airplane napkin when she flew from England back to the USA 1985. She had spotted him boarding the plane, and wandered up to first class to ask for his autograph!
And thus ends this five day showcase of our autograph ‘collection’. It was a lot of fun to compile these, and we learned that we had many more autographs than we thought. But in addition to the few I mentioned this week, I still think there may be others forgotten and hidden away somewhere in this house. If I ever unearth any, you can expect an addendum followup one day 🙂
Some years back I referred to my collection of ‘Too 40’ charts I used to get at the record shops. I had dozens of them lasting many years through the 1980s, and wish I still had them.
Recently I found some scanned in a historical website of Australian music. The scans were a little low-resolution, but the charts are still readable. Here’s one from March 1984:
Some iconic songs in that top 10! Also note that Thriller is at week 67 in the top 40 but a Midnight Oil album is at week 69! Incidentally I love how this scan is obviously of a copy once owned by a kid who wrote on it.
Here’s the back of the same chart:
These were about A4 size, always printed in two different colours, and usually sat in piles on a counter free for the taking. The fronts always showed the singles/album chart and the back was usually an ad that often contained lyrics. It was a particularly great week when a band I liked was featured on the back 🙂
Here’s the front and back of another from 1984:
99 Luftballoons spent at least two weeks at number 1 in Australia? I wouldn’t have remembered that, even though I did buy the single (and I believe own it to this day). Since I was a big fan of Nik Kershaw in those days, I’m sure I was thrilled to see him featured on the back.
Here’s one from 1985, in which we see the Countdown (a very famous Oz music TV show) promotion had ended:
And lastly the fronts only of two more:
That’s all I was able to find online, and since it was years ago I no longer remember where. If anything this dip into nostalgia makes me want to get my hands on one even more. Years back I saw one (in so-so condition) for sale in an antique store for some silly price and passed. Next time I may reach for my wallet, especially if it’s got a good band on the back 🙂
I’ve been listening to a lot of Nick Cave recently, and also reading about his life and work. It’s interesting how different people like his catalogue in different ways, but this isn’t surprising since he’s been going for 40+ years now. Coming up with a list of my favourite songs was a herculean task, but I’ve done it. Putting them in order would be impossible, so here I’ll present them chronologically:
The Mercy Seat (1988)
I hear stories from the chamber how Christ was born into a manger
And like some ragged stranger died upon the cross
This is one of his signatures now isn’t it? I was a big fan before this one was released, but when I first purchased and played the (vinyl!) single I had a feeling Nick Cave wasn’t going to remain ‘my’ guy any more. Previously I had tried to turn my friends on to him with no success; after this one it was easy. And rightly so; it’s a fantastic song and a deserved classic.
The Ship Song (1990)
We talk about it all night long, we define our moral ground
But when I crawl into your arms everything, it comes tumbling down
Nick Cave had emerged from the wasteland with his Tender Prey album (in 1988) and now he was on TV and magazine covers and (at least in Australia) most people no longer said ‘Nick who?’ And then this song – the first single from The Good Son album – came out, and the whole world started paying attention. It’s not that he hadn’t written love songs before, but I think this was the first time his signature mix of melancholy and beauty reached a sublime level. I’ve heard this countless times over the years, and it can still bring a tear to my eye. This one will be played at my funeral. (Also this unique cover version is extraordinary.)
Loom Of The Land (1992)
I told her that the moon was a magical thing
It shone gold in winter, and silver in spring
The 7th album Henry’s Dream was a tour-de-force, and while Cave himself apparently was not a fan of the production, it was around this time that I felt the band transitioned from making great albums with a few fantastic songs into fantastic albums with nearly perfect songs. For me this one is the standout of the album, and one of my all-time favourites of his. Here he tells a seemingly simple story of a boy and a girl using poetic lyrics laced with menace and despair. The melody and instrumentation are beautiful, and his vocal is virtuoso. This is a masterpiece and – for me – quintessential Nick Cave.
Do You Love Me (1994)
The moon in the sky is battered and mangled
And the bells in the chapel went jingle-jangle
Another raw ‘love song’ that suggests violence, madness and death. This was the first single from the Let LoveIn album and it’s yet another step in the path that led to MurderBallads. This is a melodic and very singable song that celebrates the darker sides of life and I have loved it since the first moment I heard it.
Do You Love Me? (Pt 2) (1994)
Dreams that roam between truth and untruth
Memories that become monstrous lies
I hesitated to include both Do You Love Me‘s, because I didn’t want to eclipse this one. It’s the last song on the album, and wasn’t released as a single, but for me it’s without question the best song on that album and a fitting mirror of it’s namesake. In lesser hands this would be a dirge, but Cave transforms it into a beautiful and moving chronicle of (his?) lost youth and innocence. Do we love him? Of course we do!
Sail Away (1994)
She came beside me amongst my coat
Her breath was warm against my throat
We clung to each other so very close
For the worst had come true
This was the b-side to the Do You Love Me single, and I’ll never understand why because it is – and probably always will be – my favourite Nick Cave song. There’s so much great about this – the music, the performance, the delivery – but chief amongst them is the wonderful lyric, which contrasts innocence and fragility with literally ‘the worst’ coming true. Like all Cave songs it doesn’t matter to me what it is about, since the emotion it evokes is more important, and here those feelings are painful and so close.
That’s the thing with Nick Cave: his lyrics are so often dark and tortured and describe horrors that most people would run from (he wrote an entire album about murder) but they are also transcendent, and strangely reassuring. The best Nick Cave songs make you happy-sad in the best way: they remind you of life, and how special that is. For me, Sail Away is one of the best examples of this.
Black Hair (1997)
Today she took a train to the west…
For me, The Boatman’s Call is the best Nick Cave album; so good that it was a true struggle not putting half or more of the album on this list. The album – which Cave has since described as a “heroic melodrama born from rejection” – was spun from a turbulent love affair with singer PJ Harvey, and the songs and performances are intentionally slower and simpler than anything he had done before. It’s a poignant and sincere album filled with exquisite examples of his craft, and perhaps more than anything he had previously done it makes the listener feel they are right there with him as he sings. This particular song is a musical mantra, repeating over and over again his wish that Polly (and her Black Hair) perhaps didn’t choose to take that train and leave him. A moving song about failed love.
Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere (1997)
If I could relive one day of my life
If I could relive just a single one
You on the balcony my future wife
Oh who could have known, but no one
This is one the saddest songs he has ever written: the lyrics speak of love and loss and addiction and death and there’s no sunny sky on the horizon in the singer’s world. Put this one on when your overwhelmed or need to be sad, or when you just want to spend a few minutes ‘nowhere’.
Oh My Lord (2001)
They claimed that I had lost the plot
Kept saying that I was not the man I used to be
By now the young anti-establishment punk from Melbourne had become an acclaimed songwriter and performer that was being called the next Leonard Cohen. He was a ‘superstar’; famous worldwide. Of course the more famous one is, the less private one’s life becomes, and if this song is sincere it speaks volumes of the difficulty he had with the intrusions from the media into his private world. A dark topic for him perhaps (at the time), but once again he managed to spin the negative feelings into a marvelous and powerful song.
Nature Boy (2004)
She moves among the shadows
She floats upon the breeze
She moves among the candles
And we moved through the days and through the years
There’s always been that thought in me that Cave writes (and delivers) his lyrics with just a little twinkle in his eye. Could it be that his talent is even greater than we know: that the pain and darkness he puts onto his songs is an act delivered by an entertainer of superhuman ability? If true, then surely he would drop that disguise every now and then and show us the ‘real’ Nick Cave? And if he did, then surely it would be this lovely and wonderfully happy song about love.
(For the record I don’t believe the above. I think the truth is he is an astonishingly talented writer and performer that has always struggled with addiction and loss and even guilt and – to our benefit – has successfully channeled his struggles into verse and song. I don’t think there’s any doubt he’s one of the most talented songwriters of all time, and quite possible the best alive today.)
As I said this was an impossible list to compile, and even writing this I removed and added songs several times. I also omitted cover versions, despite some of them (Long Time Man, Running Scared) being amongst my favourites. You’ll also note the latest song is almost 20 years old now, since Cave’s last few albums haven’t spoken to me like his earlier work (especially the mid 90s stuff) does, despite them being amongst his most acclaimed.
I know a few of you are big fans of his work as well. Which songs did I leave off that should have been on this list?
In the 1970s and 80s, trading cards were packaged in waxed paper that was folded and heat-sealed. The term for such packaging is ‘wax packs’ and generally refers these days to any package of trading cards sold before 1991 (when the last wax pack was used). Importantly to me, all the cards of my youth were sold in wax packs, so these are very nostalgic for me.
Recently I bought a bunch of unopened wax packs from the 1980s, and over the next month or so I’m going to open and blog them all. Let’s start!
Robot Wars (Fleer, 1985)
This is a set of game cards, cashing in on transformers and scratch-off lottery tickets, and conceptually similar to the Super Mario and Zelda cards I have previously blogged.
The pack contains three game cards that no longer work since the scratch-off material has solidified (and I mean solidified; it’s like obsidian)! I expect children would have enjoyed these back in the day though. There’s also a sticker in the pack, but it’s in less-than-perfect condition due to a quirk of wax packs – the gum:
Almost every wax pack – and certainly all of them targeted at kids – contained a stick of gum. Over the 35+ years the gum has at worst become brittle and cracked to pieces or at worst become greasy and moldy. In most cases it’s just a solid inedible stick that has cemented itself to the card it was adjacent to. Removing it usually causes damage, as you can see above.
Incidentally there’s an internet rumour that this ancient gum has become poisonous and dangerous to eat. This is nonsense: it’s mostly just distasteful or extremely bitter. I’ve eaten some before, and I learned then never to eat it again 🙂
What about the ‘win a robot’ contest? Well it was a write-in, as detailed above. I wonder if anyone actually did this and won, and if so what happened to the robot?
Superman III (Topps, 1983)
This is the one with Richard Prior, and definitely not one of the better Superman flicks. But Topps, which had enjoyed in the years before massive success with the Star Wars cards, followed their formula and made a great set here.
The cards are nicely designed with good printing and a lot of action scene for the kids (from a film with a lot of ‘boring’ comedy scenes). The backs are nicely written too:
In addition the pack includes the usual sticker, and these were the days when Topps die-cut their stickers, which from a kid point of view made them just that bit better:
The gum in this pack hadn’t stuck as much to the card, and the pack itself was very easy to open, so I can show just what one of these wrappers looked like unsealed:
Unsurprisingly the wrappers themselves are collectible, and some of the rarer ones are worth big bucks these days in good condition.
Robocop 2 (Topps 1990)
We’re close to the end of the wax pack era, since 1990 was when Topps both moved to plastic and abandoned the gum. We’re also more than ten years after the first Star Wars set, but Topps was still following their standard formula here with Robocop 2:
The eagle-eyed amongst you will note scenes from the first film amongst these cards, and this is explained on the back with a little comment that the set ‘Includes highlights from Robocop’s first adventure‘.
Ah, the 1980’s, where companies didn’t think twice about releasing trading cards for kids based on ultra-violent R-rated films 🙂
Cyndi Lauper (Topps, 1985)
In 1985 Cynthia Lauper was 32 years old and at the peak of her fame. I wonder what it was like for her to open a pack of trading cards all about herself?
The cards themselves are just ok, with underwhelming photos and the usual Smash Hits level factoids on the back. For fans though, I expect these were a real treat.
The stickers are die-cut but a bit ugly (or maybe just very 1980s). That said I’d still love to stick one on a postcard now, but I know from experience that if you peel a 35+ year old Topps sticker off the backing it’ll never restick! As with most sets of that era the backs of the stickers can be used to form a large picture: a nice use for the card even if you remove the sticker.
The gum in here was very unusual. This is the first time I’ve seen a wrapped piece of gum in a wax pack, and it was branded as well! I’ve included the joke from the wrapper to give you a belly laugh…
Indiana Jones (Topps, 1984)
While generically named, these cards are based on Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom, the second film in the series. This is the only pack I’m showing here today that I remember buying as a kid. And just as I’m sure I did then, I’m very impressed with these now.
The cards are wonderfully designed with great stills and the adventure style font compliments the pictures well. The backs all describe the action and preview the name of the next card (once again following the formula they perfected with the Star Wars sets):
Back in our Australian youth we often got the cards before the films, so almost everything in the movie was ‘spoiled’ for us. But it didn’t matter, and in some ways made the films even better since we were seeing the pics from the cards in motion. And afterwards, in an era without internet or video, our cards were a convenient way to relive the movies.
I bought two packs of these cards (and they weren’t cheap at $8 each, but unopened packs from Raiders are much harder to find and often more expensive) and in my second pack got the title card shown above.
The stickers from this set are amazing and once again I wish they still worked. I wonder what I did with the ones I got as a kid? The picture you can assemble from the sticker backs is shown at the right: and as a child if I collected the cards I would have made this and glued (yes glued) the cards onto cardboard to turn them into a sort of mini-poster!
What do you think of these sets? As I said there’ll be more in future weeks. I wonder what other treasures I managed to get my hands on…?
It’s been a whopping eight whole years since I’ve posted a list like this, but yesterday I was thinking that my brother may be having difficulty finding a birthday gift for me. Ever the helpful sibling, I decided to give him some assistance.
So here you go brother, ten simple suggestions!
Let’s start with an action figure! Darth Plagueis was released eight years ago in the 3.75″ ‘black collection’ and as with most figures of that era was frustratingly difficult to find and hardly made it to store shelves. Had I seen it I would have bought it for sure, but now mint-on-card versions are only available for $100+ on eBay. I’d love to put this guy in a box and never look at him again!
Speaking of figures, I recently learned about a series of Guyver statues by Prime 1, including the above showing a Guyver-0 standing atop a defeated T-Rex. It’s an amazing piece, standing almost one meter tall and weighing over 25 kg! Unfortunately it’s sold out but even if it wasn’t the $1300 price tag (not including the insane shipping cost from Japan) is something I would never spend myself but think is entirely appropriate for a birthday expense!
Vinyl is really hot now, and while my record player no longer works I think it’s obvious that I’d love the above vinyl album (not CD!) from 1962. This was long before Pertwee became (the best) Doctor, and apparently he was already famous enough to release an album full of bawdy ditties! You can listen to the songs on YouTube and they are of course abysmal, so the album would be one ‘for the collection’.
Let’s switch to games! I’ve got an impressive Fighting Fantasy book collection but despite my efforts have yet to obtain an original 8-bit FF computer game. There’s a few available, for 4 systems (C64, Spectrum, BBC, Amstrad) so it shouldn’t be too hard for Bernard to get me one (on eBay UK most likely) for around £25! Naturally I want it in the original cassette case and in NM or better condition.
Speaking of games Ive seen the above myself a few times on recent Japan trips, and every time I do I nearly buy it. But the astonishing prices (¥40,000+) have always given me pause, and as a result a hole in my Wizardry collection remains unfilled. Bernard’s going to have to be careful when he buys this one though: ‘discount’ ($200) copies are easy to find, but they almost certainly don’t include the trading card!
Naturally, since Bernard will probably become an expert in navigating Yahoo Auctions Japan for the last item, he should keep his eyes peeled for the above as well. This is the Xevious gamebook released by Namco in the mid 1980s and, much like the game, this book tells the story of Mu and Eve as they pilot Solvalou to travel to Garu Andor Genesis and destroy GAMP. Apparently the game system is very similar to Fighting Fantasy but I wouldn’t know since I don’t own the book. Yet.
Let’s take a sidestep into toys. The LEGO Old Fishing Shack is a masterpiece of design, and several years ago I was with my brother when I picked it up in a shop and said I may buy it. I didn’t, and now it’s $500+ on the aftermarket. But B should realize: a LEGO for me is also a LEGO for him, since one day I’ll take it apart and send it to him so he can enjoy it too. While paying the ludicrous aftermarket scalper prices would be the act of a fool, at least it would be an act that one day benefits him!
We had ministecks as kids and loved them, and it’s time to love them again. Though they are still being released, they’re weirdly hard to find and the few kits I’ve seen for sale here are very kid-centric, like puppies or doll pictures. I reckon B has contacts in Germany that could help him snag me this monster Neuschwanstein kit, don’t you?
Who doesn’t love View-Master? I know I do, and my measly collection would receive a wonderful boost with the addition of the above set. Sadly it’s hellishly rare these days, with single reels (of the three-reel set) going for $25 or more in poor condition. If he gets me this, naturally in the original packaging, I promise I’ll blog it in detail!
And what better thing to end on than a pair of shoes! You didn’t see this coming did you? Yes my friends these are the 2016 limited edition Ultraman Converse All-Star shoes sold at only one store in Japan. Once again condition and packaging are important since I’ll never wear them, and unused examples in the original boxes go for silly amounts on Japanese auction sites these days. Indeed, you’d have to be a damn fool brother looking for a birthday gift to even consider entertaining some of the scalper prices…
So there we go, ten easy items only a click or two away. I wonder how many of these he will get me this year?
