I like the Beatles a lot.
I own most of their 45s, EPs, LPs and CDs. I even own a few cassettes. So I have their official musical library covered, but I want more!
Circa summer of 1970, I discovered bootlegs in, of all places, the army-navy surplus shop on Commercial Street in Provincetown.* I had read about bootlegs in Rolling Stone, but this was my first encounter of illegal vinyl in the flesh. I did not buy any because there were no Beatles’ bootlegs for sale. But arriving on the UCONN campus the following autumn, what was the first thing I checked out after moving into my dorm?
The library? No.
The classrooms? No
The football stadium? No.
The local record store? Yes!
The store had Beatles’ bootlegs and I bought every one that they sold during my two-year stint in Storrs (my first two years at UCONN were spent at the Waterbury branch).
After Storrs, I continued to purchase bootlegs via mail order, switching from LPs to CDs and over the years, I amassed a large collection. I probably own more Beatles’ bootlegs than legitimate recordings.
But I still want more!
Don’t know how they get away with it, but Amazon sells bootlegs. Perusing their Beatles’ bootlegs, I found something new: an 8 CD set of Beatles’ bootlegs for only $21 (typical Amazon, the price fluctuates and as I write this, it’s now $25). Anyway, I probably have half the contents of those eight CDs already, but not the other half, so I made the purchase and the CDs arrived the next day and I have been enjoying “new” Beatles’ tunes the past few days.
* What was I doing in Provincetown in 1970? Going on a fishing charter boat, believe it or not.
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| Wearing New York & Company |
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| Wing Han taking a break while shopping in Singapore |
