ELP’s Trilogy with Two Side 1s (Columbia House Pressing foul up)

by

Can somebody please explain how this could happen? I could understand them accidentally putting two side one stamps in the press, but if they did that, the track bands should both be correct for side 1’s songs. But side 2 has has the correct track bands for side 2’s songs. It has the correct label for side 2 – but the audio content is from side 1! How did this happen, and is it worth anything? Feel free to comment (comments are disabled here – view video on YouTube to comment).

Here’s my theory: Columbia Records created a faulty lacquer for side 2 (when the actual audio was being cut into the lacquer by the cutting lathe). What gets me are the track bands. Google says they are manually created by the engineer to create the space between songs. The lacquer cutting is done in real-time as the audio is sent through the cutting amplifiers. Supposedly, the engineer listens for the end of a song a manually moves the cutting stylus over a bit to create the space between the songs. I don’t know…maybe Columbia Records had automated the creation of the track bands because they appear to be correct for the audio that should have been on side 2. In any case, the track bands on side 2 have audio cut into what should be the silent section between songs.

In the coin collecting field, such a manufacturing foul up of this magnitude would make the coins extremely valuable. I’m just wondering if the same is true in the vinyl collecting field. This is definitely a failure in the manufacturing and quality control processes at Columbia Records in the 70s. I wonder how many other ELP fans received one of these faulty records?

Share

Nobody Cares About Oscar

by

Well, I included an excerpt of this song on my Spring 2025 YouTube trailer, so I figured I ought to upload the song. I never uploaded it before because I thought I might take another shot at it, but just never got around to it. This is something I recorded the night the Oscars were being presented on TV, which explains the title.

Note: at the beginning of the video, I am playing the top keyboard (the Behringer Poly D), but you are also hearing the bottom keyboard (the Moog Mavis and Spectravox modules mounted in the NiftyKEYZ keyboard enclosure), which were being controlled via midi and being blended with the Poly D through the mixer. At one point, I turn the volume down on the Poly D and kick in the mod wheel. The bottom keyboard is soloing at that point, even though I am still playing the top keyboard. Later, you can see me turn the Poly D volume back up and switch on all of its oscillators, which adds some bass to the mix. I’m also tapping the BeatBuddy pedal (on the floor) during all of this to add drum fills and switch to different sections of the drum track. The BeatBuddy was also connected to the midi chain in order to keep it in sync with the synths.

Share