The Collection

It wasn’t shrinkwrapped, but appeared to be new. The cover sported a black-and-white photo of The Beatles dating from 1969. There was no title on the front. On the back, there was an odd cartoon drawing of a guy with headphones, and endless text, most of which seemed to be gibberish or some elaborate inside joke. The title read “Hahst Az Son: Two Weeks in January Nineteen Sixty Nine.” I pulled out the discs (it was a double album) to read the track lists, but found that the sloppily-applied labels were blank. The vinyl itself felt odd; it was unusually thick and stiff, the antithesis of those awful RCA “Dynagroove” records you could virtually see through. I wondered if thick vinyl meant “better.”

I looked again at the back cover, and started to read the song titles.” No Pakistanis.” “Back to Commonwealth.” “Hi Heeled Sneakers.” I wasn’t much of a Beatles historian at the tender age of fourteen, but I knew enough to realize that what I held in my hands was something about which I had previously only heard whispers. A bootleg…

So began a lifelong obsession…

Note: The above was the introduction to a part of my web site that I maintained meticulously from the mid 1990s until around 2005 or so. While I certainly still listen to bootlegs, these days I can’t honestly say that I collect them any more. The list of several thousand titles is thus offline. If you’re really, really, interested, drop me a line (contact info can be found near the bottom of this page’s right-hand sidebar).