Expensive listeners,
I really like the unpredictability of strolling right into a file retailer with a commonly replenished New Arrivals part. You by no means know what you’ll discover: possibly that obscure rarity you’ve spent years looking down, possibly a well-recognized traditional discounted too low to withstand, possibly an opportunity buy that sends you down a rabbit gap of associated artists. To honor this spirit of musical serendipity, right here’s the primary of a recurring Amplifier section, My File Haul, that includes playlists from my current finds at brick-and-mortar file retailers.
I’m going to start near house, with a go to to considered one of my favourite file shops on the planet (possibly considered one of my favourite locations on the planet, full cease) the Princeton File Change: an unlimited 4,300-square-foot music lover’s paradise tucked down a facet road close to Princeton College’s campus. I attempt to swing by the PREX (because it’s identified to regulars) as typically as attainable; stock there turns over so shortly (by some estimates, they transfer 40,000 objects a month), the New Arrivals cabinets are at all times contemporary.
A few of my current finds speak to one another in sudden methods. Pay attention alongside right here on Spotify as you learn, and listen to 12 new songs out this week within the Playlist.
1. Linda Ronstadt: “You’re No Good”
“Working at a retailer like this,” one of many managers informed me on the register, “you actually get a way of who was promoting huge portions of information again within the day.” He was speaking about Billy Joel (“so a lot Billy Joel”), but in addition Linda Ronstadt, whose 1976 assortment “Best Hits” went seven-times platinum — which implies there at the moment are sufficient used copies floating round to make it an inexpensive funding. ($2.99, on this case.) I do know that Ronstadt is at the moment having fun with an uptick in reputation with a youthful technology because of her 1970 ballad “Lengthy, Lengthy Time” being featured on an episode of “The Final of Us,” however — being woefully behind on just about all TV reveals — what impressed me to dig deeper into her catalog was the improbable, heartbreaking 2019 documentary “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice.” (Pay attention on YouTube)
2. Stevie Marvel: “Superstition”
My colleague Jon Pareles’s improbable Fiftieth-anniversary commemoration of Stevie Marvel’s 1972 album “Speaking Guide” made me understand it’s most likely the traditional Stevie launch I’m least conversant in. How serendipitous, then, to discover a mint-condition used copy in one of many first stacks of recent releases I flipped by! I’m, in fact, not suggesting that you may be discovering “Superstition” by this playlist. I’m merely suggesting that it has been far too lengthy because you’ve actually listened to “Superstition,” even for those who listened to it 5 minutes in the past. (Pay attention on YouTube)
3. Broadcast: “Goodbye Women”
Final October, on a trip in Nashville, I discovered myself fiddling round with a small classic keyboard within the hands-on “novelties lounge” on the splendidly curated Third Man Data retailer. Its sound was heat, staticky and viscerally harking back to a specific album I couldn’t place till the stroll again to my resort, when it hit me — it was the British digital group Broadcast’s singular “Tender Buttons” from 2005, which for some cause I hadn’t listened to in ages. I’ve been correcting that error within the months since, and although I principally purchase used information, I couldn’t resist dropping $22 on a brand new urgent of this child. If solely that synthesizer had been priced as fairly … (Pay attention on YouTube)
4. Merle Haggard: “The place No One Stands Alone”
I’ve been going by a Merle Haggard section for the previous few months, since studying the just lately launched second version of David Cantwell’s glorious e-book on the Hag, “The Working Type.” Whereas I didn’t discover the precise Haggard file on my want checklist (his eclectic 1979 midlife disaster file “Serving 190 Proof”), I did discover an LP that ranks excessive on Cantwell’s listening information: “Songs for the Mama That Tried,” a 1981 assortment of gospel requirements devoted to the long-suffering mama name-checked in considered one of Haggard’s most well-known songs. I discover his bare-bones association of Mosie Lister’s gospel customary “The place No One Stands Alone” fairly shifting. (Pay attention on YouTube)
5. Stevie Marvel: “Massive Brother”
This tune has such a stunning lead vocal melody, the intricate layering of musical components that makes “Speaking Guide” such a symphony of self, and lyrics that (“I reside within the ghetto, you simply come to go to me ’spherical election time”) are as sadly related as ever 5 a long time later. (Pay attention on YouTube)
6. Merle Haggard & the Strangers: “The Fightin’ Facet of Me (Stay on the Philadelphia Civic Middle)”
The Nation part at PREX actually doesn’t get pleasure of place — I really needed to sit on the ground to flip by it — however that additionally means you’ll find some gems for fairly low-cost. Along with “Songs for the Mama,” I picked up the rollicking 1970 reside album “The Fightin’ Facet of Me (Stay on the Philadelphia Civic Middle),” which in fact has a fiery rendition of the title observe, a Haggard reside staple. I like how, within the sequencing of this playlist, Marvel and Haggard appear to be speaking again to 1 one other … (Pay attention on YouTube)
7. Broadcast: “America’s Boy”
… and the way Trish Keenan, on this icy indictment of American navy may, appears to be speaking proper again to Haggard. (Pay attention on YouTube)
8. Linda Ronstadt: “When Will I Be Beloved”
A current argument I had with a buddy: Is Kelly Clarkson her technology’s Linda Ronstadt? (As in, “an skilled interpreter of acquainted materials, and an effortlessly fluent liaison between the worlds of rock, pop and nation,” as I put it in a chunk final 12 months about Clarkson the quilt artist.) Talk about! (Pay attention on YouTube)
9. Bonnie Owens with Merle Haggard & the Strangers: “Philadelphia Lawyer (Stay on the Philadelphia Civic Middle)”
I’ll depart you with this charming cameo from Haggard’s spouse on the time, the nation singer Bonnie Owens, topically tackling Woody Guthrie’s “Philadelphia Lawyer.” I really like how she admits to flubbing the lyrics — “Oh I forgot to say what the Philadelphia lawyer stated to Invoice’s Hollywood maid!” — and launches again into the tune with out lacking a beat. (Pay attention on YouTube)
Very superstitious,
Lindsay
The Amplifier Playlist
Pay attention on Spotify. We replace this playlist with every new e-newsletter.
“File Procuring at Princeton File Change: Hear My Haul” observe checklist
Observe 1: Linda Ronstadt, “You’re No Good”
Observe 2: Stevie Marvel, “Superstition”
Observe 3: Broadcast, “Goodbye Women”
Observe 4: Merle Haggard, “The place No One Stands Alone”
Observe 5: Stevie Marvel, “Massive Brother”
Observe 6: Merle Haggard & the Strangers, “The Fightin’ Facet of Me (Stay on the Philadelphia Civic Middle”
Observe 7: Broadcast, “America’s Boy”
Observe 8: Linda Ronstadt, “When Will I Be Beloved”
Observe 9: Bonnie Owens with Merle Haggard & the Strangers, “Philadelphia Lawyer (Stay on the Philadelphia Civic Middle)”
Bonus tracks
“The shop has withstood the approaching of CDs. Now it should face the web.” Right here’s a Occasions report from 2000 concerning the Princeton File Change at a crossroads. (Spoiler: Nearly 23 years later, they’re nonetheless in enterprise.)
Additionally, right here’s my favourite passage from David Cantwell’s aforementioned Merle Haggard biography, discussing Haggard’s 1994 induction into the Nation Music Corridor of Fame: “Merle’s acceptance speech was completely in character. Somewhat than thanking a Younger Nation music trade that applauded him tonight however wouldn’t play his information come morning, he made some extent of recognizing first ‘my plumber out in Palo Cedro … for doing an exquisite job on my rest room.’” (It’s true! You’ll be able to watch the video right here.)
