He followed me home Mummy, Can I keep him?
Hot on the heels of the Japanese pressing of The Prettiest Star that went on eBay for five USA grand recently, (12.09.2008 NEWS: JAPANESE PHILIPS PRETTIEST STAR FETCHES $5,100 USD) a
A scarce double-sided mono promotional 45 of All The Madmen issued in December 1970 has turned up a couple of times a year over the past few years on eBay, and has fetched anywhere between $75 and $350 USD, but this is the very first time I’ve personally seen a stock copy.
As with the promo, the stock copy is edited from 5:38 down to 3:14. Like the US Space Oddity edit before it, All The Madmen still kind of works, despite the savage edit, particularly if you weren’t familiar with the original.
The edit omits the section right after the second verse, from “So I tell them that…” including the wonderfully sinister spoken section “Where can the horizon lie…” and instead goes straight from the second verse into the verse that starts: “Day after day, They take some brain away…”. The fade is also shorter.
I’m not sure if the B-side, Janine, is identical to the album version. But, with a running time of 3:18 it’s unlikely that it has been tampered with.
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I bought this two weeks ago. Some lady I talked to mentioned she had three cases of 45s that came from an estate, so I wasted no time getting over there the next day. The 45s that impressed me were the soul & psych ones on odd labels.
I’ve had several stock copies of Space Oddity over the years and being that this 45 I bought two weeks ago was a cut-out with an LP cut led me to believe it probably wouldn’t sell, but I listed it anyway!
About three days before the auction ends some guy e-mails me and says he’s going out of town for a few days and asks me if I’d sell it to him for $100. Usually when that happens they go much, much higher. At that point the bid is only up to $15 with fifteen watchers and I told him to go ahead and place his bid of $100. I don’t think he did.
Anyhow, I’d seen DJ copies of this for about $200 but NO stock copies and I was rather more frightened than surprised when I saw the final price and wondered if it’s really for real. Needless to say, as a dealer/collector/die-hard musician myself, having been a dealer since ’76, this is definitely the highest price I’ve ever sold a record for. This will make a nice car payment for me that I need really bad.
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There you go, a heart-warming tale of good fortune for the festive season. Thanx for taking time to tell us your story, Nathan. Also thanx to the people who e-mailed in about this auction.