I haven’t captured the images for them all as they’re pretty dull specimens (for one thing the “Broadway” acetate labels aren’t as special as the “Savile Row” labels), but you can see them for a limited time here.

And so what’s this we have here? R6015, Let ‘Em In by Wings, on Apple?!

It’s an Irish mispressing – nothing more to it than that, alas – just a tiny glimpse of what might have been. Someone’s flogging it on Ebay right now, and surely going to do rather nicely out of it (Record Collector have, elsewhere, claimed it’s one of McCartney’s rarest singles).

Seems a shame Jacob’s Ladder didn’t do better, back in the Autumn of 1970: as I’ve commented elsewhere, there was a lot of spritual stuff going down, from Spirit In The Sky to Let It Be to Hare Krishna – to name but a few. Jacob’s Ladder is a very fine bit of punchy soul. However, for me, the standout track on Doris’s Apple album is still her thundering version of Buffalo Springfield’s Special Care: interesting to see how, playing the song live in 1974, Stephen Stills sticks closer to Doris’s rendition, than the slower and more bluesy original on Last Time Around.

There may have been a bit of confusion with Dear Angie over time, since I moved it from Blogger.com to here. Though all of the posts were successfully imported, I’m sure the place is littered with broken links. I also regret the loss of the earlier design, when DA moved into Relocution, and might do something about that, over time. Meanwhile here is the original Dear Angie logo (based on the scans sent by Han Schomaker).

It is, of course, everybody’s favourite proto-concept album, Sgt Pepper, translated into Venloos, a dialect spoken in Venlo. The project was the brainchild of reporter Twan Mientjens, who translated the English lyrics to the whole album, and then worked on a recording of same, which has just been released. More information at http://www.paeper.nl/ (if you read Dutch).

Here’s the track listing for anyone who wants a taste of Vanloos. There’s also one bonus track: can you guess what it is?

1. Serzjant Paepers Oeits Haos Sterre Band
2. Met ein bietje vrindschap en h�lp
3. Lucy in de l�ch vol druime
4. �t Geit weer baeter
5. �t Gaat gestop
6. Weg van ho�s
7. Veur �t benefiet van Breure’s Doortoch-ho�s
8. Deep in dich en deep o�t dich
9. As ik veerentachtig bin
10. Moe�je Mia
11. Waer wakker
12. Paepers Club van Zengers Z�nder Band
13. Eine daag in �t laeve
14. Roe�zig Veld veur ieuwig. Bonus

So we’ve just discovered that it’s ok to like ELO – but will it ever be ok to like ELP? Well, if you’re an Apple Acetate collector you might have to bite the bullet: there’s an Apple acetate of ELP’s Tarkus album on Ebay right now. The album proper was released on Cotillion Records in June 1971, and looks bonkers – something about a bionic armadillo, apparently. Tracks (on the acetate?):

1 Eruption (2:44)
2 Stones Of Years (3:44)
3 Iconoclast (1:16)
4 Mass (3:12)
5 Manticore (1:52)
6 Battlefield {Lake} (3:51)
7 Aquatarkus (4:04)
8 Jeremy Bender (1:51)
9 Bitches Crystal (3:58) (H
10 The Only Way
11 Infinite Space (Conclusion) (3:20)
12 A Time And A Place (3:02)
13 Are You Ready Eddy? (2:10)

Nice sleeve picture and design: many similarities to Mary Hopkin’s “Prince En Avignon” released shortly afterwards.

I commented a while back that I’d narrowly missed a chance to see Billy Preston when we were in Nice last year. And now sadly it looks like I won’t be seeing him at all: he died earlier today.

Needless to say the news wires are already filling up with all that “fifth Beatle” stuff. (Just how many fifth Beatles were there anyway?) But let’s not forget he was a protege of Ray Charles, with an impressive pedigree before he worked with the Beatles and Stones. Both of his Apple albums are very enjoyable soul records – looks like maybe I should seek out some more.

Probably the best obit so far is in the LA Times.