Actual Swedish Magazine

April 3, 1988

Uhhhh......about this.......

 Read here........And why don't I have a personal robot butler named Billy Rae?.......

http://documents.latimes.com/la-2013/

Gay & Lesbian Record Labels

One of the SUPER COOL things about vinyl is you'll NEVER run out of strange, unusual and bizarre records from the past to discover. Just when you thought you've finally seen and heard it all, along comes something else that absolutely blows your mind.

It's hard to believe today, but decades ago there were a smattering of independent record labels that catered exclusively to the gay and lesbian community.

These obviously weren't available in any retail record store rack in those days. The times were much more crueler for gays and lesbians. It was something that was kept strictly underground and in the closet. The repercussions for being openly gay in the '60s were unimaginable. So people just mail-ordered these out of underground gay and lesbian newspapers and magazines, where they arrived in a nondescript, plain brown package.

The better known of these was the Olivia Records collective, which specialized in lesbian folk music in the '70s, much of the material pretty much of the hardcore feminist sort. Unable to keep up with the changing tastes of "women's music" (which ranged from riot grrrl punk rock to more conventional rock - Olivia even turned down a 1976 demo from a young Melissa Etheridge!) Olivia quit the record business in the late '90s and is now a travel company for lesbian women today.

But Olivia wasn't the first gay record company. In fact, probably the very first was Camp Records in the '60s.

 

(As a collector, I can't help but notice the striking similarity between the Camp Records label and Pickwick's Design Records - designless? - record label of that same period. Were the Camp records custom pressed by Pickwick?)

In the mid-60s, it was much harder to be openly gay than it was even in the '70s. In contrast to today, where even the smallest towns have open LGBT communities, there were very few options for gay and lesbian people – even in some of the biggest cities. Most states still had enforced sodomy laws, homosexuality was still classified as a mental illness. And it's no small miracle that in that more homophobic age that any of these records survived today. Or that a gay record label was even formed.

It's with this in mind which may explain why all the artists on Camp Records were anonymous, save for one “Rodney Dangerfield” (NOT THE Rodney Dangerfield, the “I don't get no respect” Rodney Dangerfield*. This was likely a totally different person altogether, only the stage name was the same.) And since Camp Records released all recordings without copyright, all of Camp's recordings are now in the public domain.

When I was working in the vintage record store, we came across a Camp label twice. They were never listed in any collector's book and until recently, almost nothing was known about Camp Records (and very little is today.) But we all knew who they were for and they had a value in just their rarity alone. No data from the Camp label remains, but I'm presuming about 3,000 total Camp LP's and 45s were pressed - perhaps significantly less than that.

You can read more about Camp and Olivia records here on J.D. Doyle's comprehensive Queer Music Heritage web site. You can even hear these albums and singles on MP3s. Many thanks to J.D. for clearing up a lot of the mystery surrounding Camp and Olivia Records that's bugged me as a vinyl collector for decades:

http://www.queermusicheritage.us/camp.html

*The very name Rodney Dangerfield has been a prop name/pseudonym in Hollywood for decades before Jacob Cohen adopted it as his stage name and made comedy history. There's a bit of an interview with famous comedian Rodney Dangerfield in the link above where the interviewer confronts him with the Camp Records Rodney Dangerfield......

Playboy Records

Playboy Records was one of the most promising new record labels of the '70s. With the nudge-nudge, wink-wink, backing of Hugh Hefner's empire and finances, what could possibly go wrong?

Well first, everything.

What Playboy knew in what guys want in everything else didn't translate quite so well for it's record company. Playboy albums usually flopped on the charts, most never even appeared. The company did very little to promote it's artists, thinking the Playboy name would sell itself. It sold magazines and a softcore porn cable TV channel, but not records.

Another problem was much of Playboy's roster had only a few recognizable names and the rest were unknowns. Add to the little promotion of their albums and it was a recipe for disaster.

There was also the fact that some independent record stores (namely in the Bible belt) refused to stock Playboy Records - possibly out fear of being accused of smut peddling by clueless church ladies. In reality, Playboy Records had an artist catalog so clean and genteel, it made Mike Curb's uber-conservative management of MGM Records in the early '70s look downright sleazy by comparison and that was the biggest problem of all.

For example, Playboy Records' biggest selling artists were Mickey Gilley and Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds. There was no punk, heavy metal or hard funk on Playboy Records (Even MGM had Elf, Ronnie James Dio's pre-Rainbow band.)

This was the biggest hit on Playboy Records:

With a name like Playboy Records, people were naturally EXPECTING something a little more provocative than soft rock ballads and urban-cowboy country. Perhaps Playboy Records was making the BIG mistake in trying so hard to be a respected major independent label, they had completely forgotten the value of it's own name (a lesson that was not lost on Virgin Records, which - ironically - released albums that were far edgier than anything Playboy Records offered.)

But one #1 hit just doesn't keep a record company going and soon, even Hefner lost interest. The label was soon distributed by Epic Records and was quickly folded into Epic by 1978......

The Warner/Reprise Loss Leaders

The Now Wave Sampler post I made earlier this month reminded me of the Warner/Reprise Loss Leaders.

But I knew to dive into this would be pretty exhausting. Because, next to the NOW CD series and K-Tel/Ronco albums, they were the most successful compilation series ever. Especially in vinyl's golden age.

And Warner/Reprise did it all with mostly new and unknown acts then. Many whom went on to become superstars. Others languished in obscurity, and some became cult favorites.

During most of the '60s, Warner Bros. and newly acquired subsidiary Reprise (which was purchased from Frank Sinatra in 1963) were, next to Decca, one of the most staid and conservative record labels in America. However, by the mid-'60s, Mo Ostin Reprise label president promptly began to shake things up. He signed The Kinks, Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead, Arlo Guthrie, Frank Zappa, The Pentangle, Joni Mitchell - just about every demo tape that came across his desk to a deal with Warner/Reprise.

Most of these new rock acts appeared on Reprise Records while Warner Bros. itself remained mostly a Middle of The Road label. But soon, even rock was invading the schmaltzy Warner Bros. roster.

By 1969, Warner/Reprise had become one of the most (if not THE most) creative and unique commercial record labels of the era. With so many new and creative bands signed, they released their first "Loss Leader" compilation, The 1969 Warner/Reprise Songbook. The albums were compiled by Barry Hansen. You may know him better as radio's Dr. Demento.

There was no radio or TV advertising for the Loss Leader albums. They were promoted in magazines like Rolling Stone and on the stock inner sleeves of other Warner/Reprise albums of that time with sarcastic copy.

"These Warner/Reprise specials are full stereo, double albums in deluxe packaging. The double albums ($2 for two records) average about 28 selections, each of them is filled with the best of the artists' work, plus some extra collectors' items (like unreleased singles, even an Ice Capades commercial by our Van Dyke Parks).

You can't buy these albums in a store; they are available only by mail, for the ridiculously low price of $2 for the doubles, $1 for Zappéd, and $3 for the deluxe three-record set, Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies.

We can get away with that low price because these celebrated artists and this benevolent record company have agreed not to make a profit on this venture. We (and they) feel it's more important that these samples of musical joy be heard.

If you're as suspicious of big record companies as we feel you have every right to be, we avert your qualms with the following High Truths:

This is new stuff, NOT old tracks dredged out of our Dead Dogs files. If our Accounting Department were running the company, they'd charge you $9.96 for each double album. But they're not. Yet.

We are not 100 per cent benevolent. It's our fervent hope that you, Dear Consumer, will be encouraged to pick up more of what you hear on these special albums at regular retail prices.

That you haven't heard much of this material we hold obvious. Over 8000 new albums glut the market (and airwaves) each year. Some of our Best Stuff has to get overlooked. Or underheard. Underbought. Thus, we're trying to get right to you Phonograph Lovers, bypassing the middle man.

Each album is divinely packaged, having been designed at no little expense by our latently talented Art Department...." 

From 1969 to 1980, over 30 Warner/Reprise Loss Leader compilation albums were released, covering the hippie rock of the '60s through the singer/songwriter phase to New Wave.

Here's a listing of all the Warner/Reprise Loss Leaders. Plus info on their rare CDs from the late '90s.

http://www.dustbury.com/music/wbloss.html
     

The Spirit of '76

The McLean Deluxe

Highlights For Children

When I was a little kid (before I discovered Mad and later, Rolling Stone, Highlights was my favourite magazine.

It was fun and simple reading. And who could forget Goofus & Gallant? All I know is who had offspring. And it wasn't Gallant (even then, I was expecting a "coming out" issue of some kind.)

The articles were mostly factoids and basic American history. But it was the way they were written that I liked. Although Highlights avoided controversial topics of any kind (which during the years of Watergate hearings breaking into my favourite afternoon cartoon shows and my mom calling Nixon a duplicitous lying son of a bitch at the TV, wasn't such a bad thing.) I was already hearing enough of it.

  

Playboy Braille Edition

Defeats the entire purpose of Playboy if you ask me!