Originally published at: The Smiths vinyl contains hidden secret messages | Boing Boing
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Sorry, kids, the one with “I’m a fascist,” isn’t a rare press.
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The Eagles Long Run, 1979 had the message ‘Never Let Your Monster Lay Down’ scratched into the center of the album. The metaphorical Monster was your party buzz. And when you let it Lay Down, it meant you were going to sleep and it will go away.
Simpler Times
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Flying Lizards’ album “Top Ten” was etched on side A with “FRIVOLOUS” and etched on side B with “VEXATIOUS”.
I also owned two albums that had multiple grooves on one side.
Monty Python’s album, “Matching Tie And Handkerchief” had two grooves on one side. That is, if you put the needle down on the outer edge of the album, you had no way of knowing which of the two grooves it had landed in until it started playing, and you had to keep picking up the stylus and putting it back down again until it played the one you were looking for.
And the double-album “You’re the Guy I Want To Share My Money With” had three grooves on one side. This was a spoken word collection by Laurie Anderson, William S. Burroughs, and John Giorno. Each artist had one side of a disc devoted to only them. The fourth side had three grooves, one for each, so when you put the needle down, you might hear Laurie Anderson, or you might hear William S. Burroughs, or you might hear John Giorno.
If you search “multisided record,” you can find lists of vinyl records with multiple grooves.
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Pretty sure Firesign Theater did this on at least one record, though I can’t find proof immediately.
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I’ve also heard that about Firesign Theater, but it wasn’t one of theirs that I ever owned.
I also see multiple references that say Kate Bush’s 12" single of “The Sensual World” had two grooves (the second one being an instrumental version of the same track). I’m pretty sure that I still have this (possibly even two copies – one to play, and one to stash away, and also because the sleeve folded out into a poster). But I don’t recall ever noticing that it had two grooves.
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I just checked. I do not have Kate’s “Sensual World” 12" single after all. I have two copies of “This Woman’s Work” (the sleeve folds out into a lovely black-and-white portrait of Kate) and two copies of the “Cloudbusting” 12", but no “The Sensual World.” Oh, well.
But the the play-out on the 12" single for “This Woman’s Work” is etched on one side with the word “Townhouse,” and the other side is etched with a symbol (resembles a capital P that has been mirrored against itself (don’t know how else to describe it). Definitely not the “KT” symbol that she hid on all her album covers, but similar in concept of merging two symbols into one.
Messages etched onto the play-out were not a rare occurrence in my memory. Kate Bush did it, The Clash did it, The Dead Kennedys did it, and others I’m sure I can’t remember off the top of my head.
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Pretty sure it wasn’t Morrissey himself who scratched it in. Probably Porky Peckham (of “Porky Prime Cut” fame).
I remember a friend showing me one that read “if you know what’s good for you, put a bag on yer dickie-doo”. Can’t remember the band, possibly Gaye Bykers on Acid.
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