Notes from Dave’s Old CD Ordering Page

Notes

The discs on the other order page are furnished to me for a price by the manufacturers/distributors of the discs. The discs on this page are currently out of production. The copy you buy will have been burned by me on my own computer for your personal use only.

Lest you think I’m running my own little Napster, here’s the rundown on these discs:

1. All the tunes are protected by BMI or ASCAP or are held by my publishing company under copyright control. The writing artists will be paid. See COPYRIGHT NOTES for more info on this subject.

2. Tony and I own the master to “Ashes In My Whiskey,” it having come to us upon the bankruptcy of the American branch of Rough Trade.

3. I own the master to “Snake Eyes,” the company that originally distributed it having failed to execute a contract for it and having, apparently, gone out of business.

4. “Picture Has Faded” and “One Foot In The Groove,” may still be owned by Tim/Kerr Records, which I am assuming is out of business. I can’t get in touch with anyone representing the company. I’ve bought out all the remainder copies I can find. We got handsome front money for both these pieces, but have never been paid any royalties, including Federally-mandated mechanical monies. We’ve only received a couple of royalty statements on these sides; my assumption is that the company was unable to sell any of our records because they couldn’t get along with any distributors. If T/K or their legal successors would like to contact me, perhaps we can work out a deal for the copies I am furnishing of these otherwise unobtainable cds.

5. “What Was The Question” is another cd that was supposed to be handled by Tim/Kerr, but they never paid me for it so it’s mine to do with as I see fit.

6. The “Snake Band ’78” disc is mine by default, recorded at my studio, Sweet Jane, Ltd. and never commercially released.

7. “Legends In Their Spare Time” was released as a limited edition LP of six-hundred copies. Ownership resides mutually among me, Tony and the producer, Treehouse Records.

8. “Kid Man” was self produced and distributed by Mountain Railroad, which licensed it to Flying Fish. This happened in the mid-’70s and I haven’t heard anything about either company for a long time. Anyway, I don’t have any contracts from anyone on this piece.

9. The three sides that were originally issued by Elektra, “Snaker’s Here,” “Fine Soft Land” and “Bamboo” are not about to be reissued by whatever phantasmagorial company thinks it might own them because there’s not enough money in them to attract the thieves who think they own them. Ditto the “Spider Blues” side. If there is some entity with a contract, send me a copy and I’ll negotiate or cease and desist.

Finally, before some corporate legal beagle with nothing to do sends me the suit papers, please consider I sold about a buck-two-eighty worth of cds last year from my Web site and personal appearances, so please don’t think I’m retiring on the proceeds from retail sales. I offer these only because I get an occasional request from a diehard collector or fan for releases they need to complete a personal collection and will never find anywhere (except for a once-in-a-while siting on E-Bay).

What You Will Get

When you order one of these, I sit at my computer and burn you a 44.1k, 16-bit, uncompressed (PCM), stereo, Redbook-standard copy on my Plextor Plexwriter 10/12/32A. I’m burning here, not stamping.This can be a real pain in the ass if something goes wrong. It took me about a month to get it installed and running properly, so I don’t think the replacement of the retail mall operation by small-time producers is quite yet in sight. I don’t listen to each copy I burn, but the one I mail you I guarantee to play in your cd machine (not in your DVD machine). If it doesn’t, send it back and I’ll make you another one and another one and another one until you get one that plays. I don’t want to, but I will send you a cassette if you can’t play the cd. Don’t write and ask me for cassettes, though, because they’re a REAL pain in the ass.

I sign each copy and label it with a cd-safe felt marker. Don’t use it as a coaster. I don’t use a printed label because the consensus seems to be that 1) they sometimes slip or come off completely inside the drive, and 2) unless you are scrupulously careful, you can get them placed off-center and this may make the disc wobble in the drive and prove unplayable. I’m scrupulous, but not that careful, so, no printed labels. Ink-jet labelers for cds are beyond my means and require specially coated blanks that are more expensive than the ones I’m using.

I print black-and-white j-cards on my Xerox XL2120 laser printer. I have Office Max or Kinko’s print the color jcards. I made the jpegs in Photoshop from the original LP cover. Some of my records are old and the jackets are mutilated. Of course, this comes over on the copy you get. Also, you will need your own personal Hubbel to read the notes since they’re reduced to cd size from the 12″ LP. The Xerox is not a commercial printer and I’m using 300dpi and plain paper, so some of the colors are, like, lurid. I don’t fool around with U-cards for the back of the jewel case since it’s a pain in the ass to fold them so they’ll fit. You might not get all the notes that came with the original. These are posted (click the heading under the front cover photo) and you can download them if you really care what some hired gun had to say about the recording (Paul Nelson’s notes on the Elektra recordings are great). I haven’t bothered yet to include the full contents of any booklets that may have come with the cds–all I’ve scanned is the front and back j-cards or album sleeves. You can print the back covers from this site and, with your magnifying glass, read the notes. Without a great command of origami, you can fold this to fit into the jewel case or sleeve you get when you order

You may or may not get a jewel case. Maybe your copy will come in a plain sleeve and if you want it put in a jewel case, you’ll have to go to the Mall and buy your own. I don’t like them because they’re an environmental insult and they snap, crackle and pop every time you look at them sideways. Also, they’re a pain in the ass to mail. The only use for them is as a theft deterrent in the retail store and a way to see (from the spine printing) what’s on your shelf. Since you can’t read the printing without a pair of binoculars, the latter use is marginal.

By the time I buy the blank, print the cover, allow for depreciation on the hardware involved, escrow for the mechanical royalties and sit here watching the burn at my usual hourly rate of a buck-two-eighty, I’ve got nearly the same cost in these units as I do in the ones I buy through normal distribution channels. So, NO, I’m not ripping you off. Anyway, where else are you going to find these sides?

One aspect of this operation I find amusing is comparing it to the Sweet Jane Ltd. record company I co-owned with the ex- and her aunt in the Seventies. We produced some great records at our little commune-in-the-woods. The first one, Music Is Just A Bunch Of Notes, by John Koerner and friends, had a plain white jacket. Our Sweet Jane collective would sit around the picnic table with eight or ten rubber stamps, imprinting the jackets so we could mail them out. This was, like , ‘way pre-barcode. I’m doing the same thing (with slightly improved technology) thirty years later. Among other punchlines, “What? And quit show business???” comes to mind…