Are you a part of a digging/knowledge lineage
Murdock
542 Posts
As I sit here and listen to one of my record mentors snore on my couch (surprise visit). I can't help to think where I would be without him teaching me "the record game". I met him through one of his (student - disciple) of his. Back before the internet had all the answers, knowledge would be passed on from one to another. Does anyone else have this experience?
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My digging/knowledge lineage is primarily familial in nature. It started with my father (RIP), who exposed my older brother (William) and I to musical styles such as jazz, gospel, soul, and R&B. Pop's signed up William and I for the Columbia Record Club (as kids, mind you), and would pick out the titles for us. By accident, when dad failed to respond to offer to buy a particular record, the Columbia Record club would send us stuff with which we were unfamiliar (e.g., "Heavy Horses" by Jethro Tull or "Gonzo" by Ted Nugent). Fortunately, we were open enough to listen to the LPs, and we dug them and sought out other such music ourselves later on.
Then, when we got a little older, my uncle Phillip (pop's 2nd youngest brother) cued us into reggae, disco, boogie, and rock. In fact, Phillip and his brother ran a disco, and when they closed it, they gave us a gang of disco singles, some of which were raer private presses. I had those joints as an 11-year old! As we became teenagers, we had friends that turned us on to other styles of music such as punk and new wave, and then I got into hip-hop (and related electro stuff). I started making beats at that point, and then got into collecting seriously. I started collecting all types of stuff such as free jazz, spiritual jazz, prog rock, folk, and such. Will turned me on to a lot of folk stuff, and his friend Charles, an older cat, turned us on to jazz, soul, and R&B that were hadn't heard. Plus, the hip-hop group I was in took a trip to Brooklyn (around 1989) where we met up with Mister Cee (through a show promoter who was trying to get us a deal). Cee hipped me to the break compilations and other raer stuff that I wasn't up on, and that took my collecting to a next level.
Through most of the 90s, I was collecting primarily on the solo tip, though I'd go out to stores in Raleigh, on occasion, with Will and Charles. When I went away to grad school, I collected primarily on my own. I then landed on the Stones Throw crate digging site, and met up with cats like Possum Tom and Aspirin who put me up on different records that I was unfamiliar. Finally, those two turned me onto Soul Strut, and you guys (e.g., Tom Noble, Day, Motown, Phill Most, etc.) have been a great source of record knowledge that further increased my exposure to great music. So, that is my digging/knowledge lineage to this point.
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
My Dad tried hard to instill a work ethic in his kids at an early age. While my buddies were out doing a newspaper route at the crack of dawn for $25 a week my Dad and I would go out one night a week and literally pick people???s garbage. Every Thursday night it was ???big garbage??? night and we would go out and find things to sell on Saturday???s at the big Flea Market at the Drive-In Theater in Farmingdale, NY. We would usually find 3-4 bicycles a week and maybe make 1-2 good ones from the parts. We found things ranging from a large ship???s compass that we got $300 for to a large, very old bible that also brought good $$. I would make on the average about $75-$100 a week which was a lot of money for a 12 year old kid in the 60???s. The flea market itself (110 Drive-In) was an education and my first exposure to record diggers. In order to get a spot in the market we would have to get there at 4:30 AM and wait on line. There was a used record store nearby called Whirling Disc and the owners would be out at 4:30 with flashlights and miner???s hats asking all the sellers if they had records. They would wipe out all the good vinyl before the gates ever opened. Me and my buddy would laugh at these guys. Little did I know that one day I would be one of ???them???.
When I moved to Texas and started buying vinyl I met an older guy who was from Wisconsin and was a serious collector. He took me under his wing and over the next few years we had opened up a small shop and were doing a radio show together. His forte was 50???s Blues, Rockabilly and R&B and I was a sponge, soaking up as much knowledge as I could. He took me on my first record buying road trips and told me lots of tales about the old school collectors/dealers he had known. At some point my enthusiasm and ambition surpassed his and he had other priorities so we parted ways and I became a solo digging fool. But I realized very quickly that doing this by myself was not nearly as much fun as sharing the experience with others who were into it as much as I was. I hooked up with what became my best friend and partner in Rockadelic and for 10 years we were digging partners until his untimely death. During this time we also mentored my younger brother who is now one of, if not THE biggest Heavy Metal vinyl dealer in the world.
Even today I prefer to dig with others and am lucky that I have both a wife who enjoys digging trips and some younger local guys who are fun to dig with. The truth is that when I started the only way to learn was from others and maybe reading Goldmine. Today the Internet allows you to gain all the knowledge needed without having to interact with other humans. It???s actually a little depressing to see dudes out by themselves all the time digging with their I-Phone set to Popsike. Just doesn???t seem like as much fun as what I have experienced. I???ve been digging with quite a few Strutters and I can honestly say I enjoyed it every time and get just as much satisfaction seeing one of them come up with good stuff as when I do.
Great story!
Hey man, thanks for posting that Liquid Sound Company
vid the other day. You put that out right? Anyway, great
stuff. Went on Discogs and bought the discography. So
thanks!
Brooklyn's Jeff Brown (which some of you might know) also had a major impact on me. His collection was off the hook. Also the way he acted I'll never forget, enjoying ever second of the song he played for me. With that huge smile on his face singing Doug Carn's "Higher Grounds" from start to finish. He had records from Japan to Hungary and from Mexico to Belgium...
people i was around in college were my big influence. lot of nyc characters got me deeper into hiphop and a dude who used to write the ditc articles for onthego was definitely the aged mentor who shed light on the deeper crates and spiritual nature of them. then it was just trial and error and listening to lots of things. im thankful that it wasnt internet based in the beginning for me, although the knowledge dropped via internet has obviously been vast and expanded my horizons substantially. there have been a lot of people who have put me up on tons since then of whom i am extremely appreciative.
I was lucky enough to put out the first Liquid Sound Company LP on vinyl.
Glad you dig them....John is a super guy and appreciates any support.
Yeah, my Dad is a good guy....he still hits the local garage sales and makes other people's junk his junk.......I only had to wake up early on Saturdays...those paper boys had to do it 7 days a week.
My mom had rakkords with mega braeks.
I've collected my whole life, but started "diggin" hip-hop stylee before the internet. I had a production mentor but no digging mentor. That was too personal. I wanted to discover stuff, not have someone tell me what to look for.
Ten years later, I still haven't found (or even seen) many things that he had in his collection and remember a few wild titles clearly (despite the haze of weed smoke that was my life at that point). Peace to you D??????d!
I remeber him pulling the Young Holt lp with the Crooklyn Dodgers sample for me, The Flaming Ember lp, i was in awe at all the knowledge he had............We did house calls and went to this guys place in Ct and i remeber Shame pulling a sealed Kool and The Gang s/t and letting me get it for 3 bucks, he knew what it was worth but he was that dude. We both had some great finds that day (he pulled some psych lp out of Puerto Rico that day, i've still never seen it) but what i most remeber was how generous he was.with knowledge of records and records themselves.
Trading with him was always so hard though, if he didn't have 2 copies he wasn't letting it go, looking back now it's funny......back then not so much. BUT, if he had doubles most of the time i'd get first dibs and amzing deals and sometimes he'd just throw records my way (JuJu lp on Strata, Tomorrow lp on Sire!!!!). He moved to FL a couple years back and he's surely missed around these parts, besides a digging partner/mentor, dude was always a great friend and one of the most reliable dudes ever, he always kept his word. Waddup Shamus!
I got into this pre internet like most of you, but being based down under made the shit even harder.
Obviously any info from rap/hip hop mags would be digested and I got to say Phil's World of Beats opened my eyes up alot in the early 90s to what 'digging' was about. I only bought Rap Sheet for that column.
In Sydney there was alot of pioneers in the early to late 80s that paved the way so when I got into it in the 90s we had some basci knowledge about the 101 breaks and records. but Sydney has also always had jazz/funk/soul/ska scenes independant of the hip hop circle so alot of info eneded up crossing over. People like Trevor Parkee, Miguel dSourza, Simon Cadwell, the Creative Vibe teams and countless others had communtiy radio shows that spun a variety of raer shit.
But on a personal tip for me, I got schooled by alot of the dudes from the Lounge Room (the first hip hop shop in Australia) with people like Blaze and Ill Pikl sharing their knowledge and happy to give you some tips. Later on people like Sereck from Def Wish Cast and Dj Myme (local veterans) also helped me learn more about digging and the production side while I had a few contemporaries like my mate R Type and Yvern who were always out digging with me and making the whoel thing much more fun.
Several years ago I hooked up with another vet from the scene, who's a bit more on the DL and he passed on a ton of more knowledge, and we used to do some Digger BBQs in Sydney where lots of us (whats up Kinetic) used to come down and brag/share records and info..
One great moment was sitting in on a long ass conversation between Miguel DSouza and DJ Shadow around 1994-95 where Shadow was dropping some heavy record digging science (shit that took me years to really comprehend).
And my dad was always into his music, so he passed on the passion, unfortunatley his extensive record collection got lost in the wind before we reconciled at a later age, so he could drop some names, but unfortunatley only had a few records left to pass on down.
Other dudes that desrve a bit of mention for sharing some rekkid secrets with me are Sheep, Sandro, Ritchie (I know you still lurk on here bro), Kenny Twist Top, Vik and my mate Alonso (RIP)....
Ive tried to share the shit back with younger kids, but not that many are giving a fuck about digging nowadays.... although I am sharing alot of the music with my gf's kids and they seem to dig the funky stuff.... so who knows.....
They would tell me gems on CTI, Blue Note, Atlantic, CBS etc....all the Donald Byrds, the Mizell brothers, the Ron Carters, the Steve Gadds that I should look out for, before I even know what this whole "digging" actually is. Study the information, the players, the instruments on there...the year! It was Sheep and Hams who really taught me all that.
Then later on, I met these Japanese cats DOWNWELL 79 who used to fill in for Rich Medina at APT. These guys really showed me the sense to find "good music" in general - just the sense and ear for good music, to makes people dance...
I really want to thank all of them for the influences and inspirations.
And record shops. Record shops were usually filled with people happy to share knowledge, whether staff or customers. Lots of great conversations down the years in shops all over the globe.
Oh, the irony.
Fill me in.
So everyone had a crate or 2 of records, including my parents and older brother and sister.
I had a crate filled with stuff I loved.
When I was 23 I started spending a large portion of my pay check on records. Then I met a woman who had more records than most and lots of great stuff I had never heard, Wild Tchopitolus, Howard Tate and Jr Wells. Let me know I had to go deeper. I continued to buy records I liked at a rapid pace. I never really met or shared knowledge with other collectors back then, Just music lovers. Only thing I knew about collecting came from Goldmine.
When I opened my shop I learned about breakbeats/soul/jazz collecting from; Phill's World Of Beats in Rap Sheet, DeeRock and TopStitch, Alan Johnson of Soul Provider and most importantly Rev Shines who did Ryan's Beat Bin for me.
You were depressed about the internet / iphone diggers. He bought the back catalogue off discogs. Can't knock his enthusiasm though, just thought it was amusing coming off your post, thats all.