We’ve written a lot about expensive record collections, valuable records, and the world’s most kick-ass record stores. As you can probably tell, we have a thing for records. Well, now two of our favourite kinds of stories are meeting in a beautiful and very expensive harmony.
Amoeba Music, one of the world’s most iconic record stores, are known for their extensive collection of records as well as stocking some pretty rare cuts. However, their Hollywood location has just announced the sale of possibly the rarest and definitely the most expensive in the store’s 25-year history.
Only four other copies are said to exist of this test-pressing of Bob Dylan’s classic 1975 masterpiece Blood On The Tracks, which Amoeba currently have listed at $12,000. But as is the way with these things, this so much more than a record – it’s a piece of history.
According to the Amoeba site, the record was the crown jewel of a 4,000-record collection acquired through a sale from an “iconic industry family” based in New Jersey. What’s more, it’s a completely different record to the Blood On The Tracks that we all know and love.
This ultra-rare LP contains unreleased alternate takes of classic tracks like ‘Lily, Rosemary & The Jack Of Hearts’, ‘Idiot Wind’, ‘If You See Her, Say Hello’, and ‘Tangled Up In Blue’. According to Amoeba, these are the versions that were weeks away from making the final album.
“The story goes that in the fall of 1974, Bob Dylan went home for the holidays with a copy of his newly recorded album Blood On The Tracks, which was set to release in weeks,” a bio on the Amoeba site reads.
Image via Amoeba Music Facebook
“The album had been written after touring with The Band and becoming estranged from his wife, Sara, and though the resulting album delves deeply into troubled relationships, Dylan himself has denied that the album is autobiographical.”
“Upon listening to the record, which was recorded at A & R Recording in New York, Dylan’s brother, David Zimmerman, suggested that Dylan re-record some of the songs because too many sounded the same.”
“Dylan then stopped production of the album to re-record half of it at Sound 80 in Minneapolis with different musicians, ending up with a 10-song album evenly split between the two sessions. The ultra rare pressing was made at a Columbia Records plant in Santa Maria, California.”
So if you want to complete your Bob Dylan collection, you can head on over to Amoeba Music in Hollywood, California. Just, good luck convincing customs that $12,000 in a duffel bag is for an ultra-rare Bob Dylan LP and not, well, something else.
