Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Madison Bargain Hunt March 2021

What was found

Chris Ledoux-20 Greatest Hits
Memphis Minnie-I  Ain't No Bad Girl
Johnny Winter-Hey Where's Your Brother
Beyond The Sea Soundtrack (For Mom)
Yoko Ono-Seasons Of Glass
Black Uruah-Red
The English Beat-Here We Go Love
Kevin Welsh-Millionaire
Jackson Browne-World In Motion
Jethro Tull-A Little Light  Music
The Greenhones-Pure Mono
Katydids
Bill Cosby-Himself
Jesus And Mary Chain-Darklands 
Neil Young/Crazy Horse Way Down In The Rust Bucket

And a few 45's 

It's was a actually a very mellow event going up to Madison.  I have never had a drive up there whereas I had something that piss me off and get mad.  But somehow I stayed cool, calm and collected, even though the Dubuque red lights and half wit drivers did their best to try my patience.  For CDs, this might have been one of the more disappointing efforts, tho most were two dollar stuff from Goodwill at various locations.   My intention was to find the Beyond The Sea movie soundtrack for my mom, which enabled me to buy the Memphis Minnie CD.  Strictly Disc had the new Neil Young/Crazy Horse.  Mad City Music X, had the 45's. to which I bought 35 of them.   A few were replacement copies of a few 45's in my collection that had seen better days.  However, the St Vinnies  Pickers Paradise got my donation, and perhaps I should have taken them to the Williamson Street.  I have a bad feeling those 45's were be tossed around and destroyed even more.

Since the Half Price Books still had the latest English Beat CD still there from last year, I picked it up.  Pawn America, which originally was at the location next to Home Depot/Cracker Barrel moved down to the former Rocky Rococco's building on Therier Street but didn't have any DVDs or CDs to speak of.  Half Price Books have started to charge more on their 45's, there's hardly any 50 cent buys anymore, and the prices for juke box copies is a bit outrageous.   Thankfully, the Williamson St Vinnies and Mad City Music X had them for a quarter a piece.  

Replacement 45s.

Lonely Boy-Paul Anka
It's Late-Ricky Nelson
Hello Mary Lou-Ricky Nelson
Where Were You On Our Wedding Day-Lloyd Price
Abraham, Martin And John-Dion
Hitchin' A Ride-Vanity Fair
I Know I'm Losing You-Rare Earth
Kansas City-Wilbert Harrison
Wild Side Of Life-Freddy Fender
Sorry (I Ran All The Way Home)-The Impalas 
Roundabout-Yes

Most came from my dad's record collection, but some got used as frisbees.  The Two Ricky Nelson 45's I had were in poor condition and I needed something more than G- record.  The Rare Earth I had as a 45 years ago but it may have been lifted or donated.  The Impalas, Dad wore the grooves off that record. Kansas City, was one of the original Box Of Records, but we tested to see if the record was unbreakable only to find out that it wasn't.  And the Dion was bought for the B side of Daddy Rollin' In Your Arms, probably the best blues song Dion ever.  The recent purchase of Wedding Day from Lloyd Price from Moondog Music still had a scratch that I couldn't buff out.  Roundabout, my original copy had a deep cut scratch that made the record unplayable.

Which leaves us, 36 other 45's found at either the St. Vinnies and Mad City Music X, to which I spent 2 and half hours going through 10 boxes of quarter 45s and somehow the record dude managed to let me hang 15 minutes after closing talking about the Jesus And Mary Chain best record.  I told him I liked Darklands best but he went with Stoned And Dethroned.   While my distaste for certain record stores and their museum 45 pricing, it's great to know that Mad City Music still manage to have a interchanging inventory of 25 cent 45s, priced to move.   

For the evening, I tried to rent a bike but they had processing issues (like i said, the trip always have one kind of snafu and this was it) so I basically strolled around Lake Monona and hung at the overview looking at the lake and reflect on the 27 years of popping up to Mad City to find music.  I didn't venture into State Street, it was late, and B Sides Records were closed anyway but we didn't have to worry about any riots unlike the last time I was there.  It used to be that Music Go Round had the good stuff, then I discovered The Exclusive Company (say it with me) before they left Madison a few years ago. Then Mad City Music Exchange came around and then the thrift stores, the pawnshops that had cds. It's odd that even in these days and times Madison never lost the music stores unlike Iowa City did.  Times have changed.  The internet was a far off dream in 94, CDs were the rage and people were dropping their record collection.    I didn't start collecting 45s again till 2002 and the floodgates opened.  Then the CDs quit selling, the pawnshops quit buying and the Thrift stores started taking them in.  The original Half Price Bookstore was in the Nakoma Plaza Strip Mall before Home Depor took over that spot. Tommy Thompson was there, then Jim Doyle for most of the early 2000s, then used car shyster Scott Walker came in, and I remember the sit in's, but Wisconsin had worse people in there, Ron Johnson The Fitzgeralds, Paul Ryan, a lovely bunch of GOP goobers.  Tony Evers is now in, but he's stuck with a GOP led congress.  Probably better than what we have for Iowa Yayhoos. But then again, the liberal faction didn't set well with me after they were looking for voters and I told them I was out of state.  Even Ian's Pizza pissed me off to the point I quit eating there.  The homeless and aggressive change chasers on State Street.  After the riots, State Street wasn't the destination anymore.  

Madison also had good times, After all, I participated in the World Naked Bike rides from 2016, 2017 and 2018 and went streaking through the city butt naked with a bunch of other folk.  Even my co workers can't believe I did that, nor Julie for that matter.  2016 and 2018 we took it all off.  And in the process got sunburned in places the sun don't shine.

And here I was on Monona Terrance, still seeing the the shrinking ice on Lake Monona, trying to put into thoughts and feelings on this bargain hunt.  For CDs, we really didn't find much groundbreaking stuff but enough to keep the drive home interesting.  Previous bargain hunts I figured that I would return, but this one felt different.  It felt like it was my final run, as if I was terminally ill person doing one last run before fading off into the sunset.  For once, I managed to grab a parking space next to St Vinnies On Williamson Street and managed to go through their forty fives without anybody going down the aisle.  And Mad City Music, I was left to my own devices and to my own personal space, going through boxes of records like a child on Christmas Day.    A fleeting moment in time, but somehow renders all the way back to 1963 when Mom was sorting through the Woolworth's record selection, to which the lure of the 45's section always turns full circle in this life.  

Somewhat like a 45 ya kno? 


 

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