Nice!! Wish I could have been around to check those stores out. I discovered J&R Music during one of my trips and I was able to find a lot of gems there. It was also a great store.
Whenever I used to visit NYC, I made a ritual of going to J&R on Sunday mornings. I could easily spend a couple of hours there before a matinee. And they always had something that I couldn't find in my city.
I miss that store so much. My last visit was right before they closed and it was rather sad. The pickings were slim and the only cds they had were by artists that I never heard of.
I Hear Ya! I used to work a few blocks from J&R Music World and I went there all the time during the '80s & '90s. They were the place to get all the latest hits along with reissues of Classic R&B/Soul Music [everything from the 'pricey' imports from Japan & England to the Motown 'budget' catalog LPs]. It was a real shame when they closed in 2008 and I went there one last time before they closed their doors.
I remember there being another smaller record store next [[left?) to J&R that had a great selection of r&b lps and cds at nice prices.
That store was called Bondy's and they were on Park Row a few doors up from J&R Music World. They were a smaller store that did have a good selection of records [sometimes for better prices than J&R]. Also remember that J&R Music World had an annex on Nassau St. [one block away from the main store's Park Row location] that a had a decent selection of music. However my favorite store in that area was J&R's main store since they had the Soul Music Import LPs that were coming in from overseas during the early 1980s. I also bought cut-out albums at a discount by Kool & The Gang, Aretha Franklin, The Rascals and others at J&R during that time.
I remember visiting Bondy's as well.
There was also a really nice record store on 125th Street in Harlem, across the street from the Apollo. I can't remember its name but I stumbled in there one day and couldn't believe all of the great cds and dvds. I remember leaving with, amongst other things, a dvd of a concert with Denise LaSalle and Shirley Brown, and feeling so lucky that I had found this place. I can't tell you how disappointed I was to go back one year and found the store closed.
I actually purchased this - had it on pre-order since October. It sounds fabulous both the original album and the second disc cut in Mono with materials that was on the Deluxe cd release from a few years back. Keep in mind that there is always a new generation that will discover this masterpiece and that modern analog equipment is contiously being refined which present opportunities to re-present classic material to its best sonic advantage. In any case, Kevin Gray did an excellent job on this. My copy was flat and quiet, no problems with the pressing - the soundstage was just miles above the previous versions I own [[ a first edition Tamla repress, a 1982 Motown reissue, and Motown digitally mastered delux cd set.). I jump for the anlaog reissues when I can - I picked up a number of Motowns over the last six months - the Marvelettes - Sophisticated Soul, Tammi Terrell - Irresistible, Temptations - Sing Smokey, MLK - Speech inWashigton, Syreeta - One to One, Jackson 5 - Greatest Hits [[quadrophonic mix), the Supremes - Reflections [[mono). So there's hope that more will be released.
Thanks for your input!
I ordered it and cannot wait until end of april. The only thing I dont get why the price in Europe is higher than in the USA.
Thanks for your review, Blaksoulfire! I'm glad to hear that you got a flawless pressing, as I've been reading some mixed reviews. It sounds like a handful of people ended up with copies that have some sort of loud repeating noise at the end of side 1, during the last minute or so. I am thinking of picking this one up. I noticed that there's a limited edition version that comes with a set of lithograph prints, but it's an extra $25. Seems like a bit much, price-wise, for a few prints.
It just so happened that I finally got my hands on an original Canadian vinyl pressing of What's Going On this week. My copy sounds pretty good but strangely, there's a high frequency type of hissing sound throughout the entirety of the LP, on both sides, which is not something I've experienced before. I'm thinking it may possibly be a bad pressing. It's not overly distracting or horrible, but definitely noticeable. It will be interesting to compare this 50th anniversary edition to this original pressing and the CD reissue that I have. Kevin Gray's work on this has been receiving great reviews online.
I got it yeaterday and just played record 1. Vey quiet pressing and no noticible pops. The 2 records are in seperate plastic inner sleeves and not in the included paper sleeves like the US pressings. So Universal Europe [[which btw is near my house) must have read the complaints.
One question that stays on my mind: the 50th Anniversary was in 2021 and that is the release date on the recordsleeve. What was the delay?
Hey Jack,
Not sure if you have seen the comments online, but it seems that European fans are up in arms, as the vinyl version of this release for the EU market was sourced from different digital files, instead of being directly cut from analogue by Kevin Gray. You may want to check the run-out on your discs, as they should show Kevin Gray's name [he initials as KG], but the EU version is instead showing Lawrence Dunster [signed as Lawrie]. It's unclear if this was a mistake or if Universal was being intentionally deceptive. Fans in the EU have been understandably upset by this switch-up, since the marketing for this release and the front hype sticker have clearly disclosed this was cut from analogue by Kevin Gray. Some have gone as far as to dub this scandal as "Marvingate" and some retailers in Europe have stopped selling this release until Universal figures out how to address the issue. The following article briefly confirms this issue in its review of the release. The second link below will take you to the Discogs listing for the European version of this vinyl release, showing all of the comments/reviews towards the bottom.
https://www.analogplanet.com/content...mofis-one-step
https://www.discogs.com/release/2306...=Android%20App
I was on holiday in Canaries until today so I missed most of this. Glad I also have the MOFI LP but will still try to get the KG version.
New release date for Europe is oct.7 2022 says FNAC.