Some of the first records Lou ever bought were compilation albums. Let Lou define his terms. Greatest hits packages by a single artist are not compilation albums. You need a collection of various artists bound together by theme or genre. For Lou, a book collector at heart, a compilation LP is like an anthology. Not a collected, selected, or complete as you see in poetry books. As the books Lou was missing got more expensive and difficult to find, LPs seemed cheap and plentiful. So, some of the first LPs Lou bought were the various ESP Samplers, which gathered the artists on the ESP label of Bernard Stollman. An independent that issued the weird and wonderful in the 1960s. This was the home of William Burroughs and the Fugs, two interests of Lou. These comps were the gateway drug into buying LPs more obsessively and further afield from spoken word.
Generally, compilation albums are not collectible. They were usually stamped on cheap vinyl with cheap packaging. The sound sucks due to all the compression required to get 20 plus songs crammed on a single LP. In some cases, the songs are cropped or edited to get even more slop on the platter. A popular song might not actually be by the original artist but instead a cover. For all these reasons, comps are looked down on in record collecting circles. There are exceptions, especially comps that have a deep cut by a particular artist that may not have seen wider release. The exceptions prove the rule. Comps are the ugly stepchild of record collecting.
But comps were wildly popular with the general listener. While comps existed from the genesis of recorded sound, they exploded in the single-driven world of 1960s popular music. Companies like K-Tel and Ronco issued comps constantly on a seemingly endless supply of themes and genres. The public’s demand for these albums was insatiable.
That is why comps are always lurking around in any used record shop. Vinyl Vogue is no exception. A copy of RCA’s Freedomcaught Lou’s eye. The Who, Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix. The track listing goes on and on over two-LPs. And what brings all these renowned artiststogether? Why, the theme of freedom apparently.
From the record jacket: “The emergence of the New Freedom Music in 1966 brought with it a quest for freedoms that hasn’t been exercised since the founding of this country. A quest to be free. To be unencumbered by decisions and ideals of others. It was the quest for freedom of self-determination. The freedom to decide what’s right and best for each of us.” Heady stuff. Heavy, man. The Who’s “Join Together”, Jefferson Airplane’s “Volunteers”, Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction”, Country Joe & the Fish’s “I’m Fixin’ to Die”. Those are just songsplucked from Side A. You could spout this bullshit in 1966, when, if you were naïve, you believed in a spirit of freedom defining the Sixties. From the record jacket: “The targets were war, politics, greed, and poverty. The ammunition was love, understanding, peace, and change—the explosion was cloaked in music which promised there was a new day coming. A day built of freedoms.”
Many of the songs on Freedom may have been from a time and creative place when and where this was true. Debatable. But this comp was issued by RCA in 1975. The heart of the Me Decade. That “new day coming” was long gone. Freedom of speech, free love, free your mind. All that shit was in the past. Those dreams had failed and were over in 1975. What freedom meant in rock and roll was now the free market. The rock industry was fully formed. Stadium rock, corporate rock. Your radio airwaves programmed according to market studies, computer analysis, and ad revenue. The opening track of Side C of Freedom has it right: Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “Takin’ Care of Business”. Freedom, like all comps to be honest, wasabout the freedom to do business. Not to mind your own business, because everyone was watching and putting you under surveillance, but the freedom to buy and sell without regulation or restriction. Thus, the royalty structure on these comps was generally crap, and the most important liner note on Freedom isthe following”: “For Additional Copies of “FREEDOM”, Send Check or Money Order to: FREEDOM, 1424 Brook Drive, Downers Grove, Ill. 60515. Two-Record Set $5.98. 8-Track or Cassette Tapes $7.98.” Downers Grove indeed.
That said this comp plays great at a frat house 60s-themed party where you dress up like a hippie and flash peace signs at each other all while drinking out of red Solo cups. As The Door sing on the album “Get Up and Dance”.
Suggested Sites and Sounds:
Capo Fetish on Mail Order Comps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8hG4RLIEEY
K-Tel TV ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jOCzuuvmcs
Ronco TV ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt0BHvp9Q7U
Rock Goes Corporate in the 1970s: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/69315/the-mansion-on-the-hill-by-fred-goodman/