Life's Rich Pageant (is safe in the rack...)

Record collectors know that life will mix some rough in with the smooth…that oh-so-audible scratch that was invisible before you handed over far too much  cash at the fair…the fondly remembered disc which proves, on reacquaintance, to be completely unlistenable (Amazing Adventures of the Liverpool Scene, anyone?  I thought not.)...

    

...or assuming you’re buying a copy with the gatefold sleeve you recall and not thinking to check (Principal Edwards Magic Theatre’s Soundtrack ...

just ain’t the same without it)…

I could of course go on.

But there definitely are some smooths in there too.  Like eventually tracking down via eBay, in that renowned Krautrock hotspot of Land O’ Lakes, Florida, a lovely near-mint copy of Can’s Ege Bamyasi. And securing it for just $37.11.  (My previous copy, foolishly sold some 35 years ago for rather less, had come from a great secondhand record shop in Blackburn, and probably went back there.  I needed to keep things circulating then, buying and selling, to try to keep up with everything I wanted to hear – back in the days before downloading, with the buying power of my paper round wages stretched to breaking point and beyond…) 

Anyway, the postman brought the replacement on Thursday and it looked and sounded exactly as it should.  What a record:  Jaki Liebezeit’s extraordinary drumming;  Damo Suzuki shouting and moaning and pleading;  taut funk;  the luminous beauty of 'Sing Swan Song';  a pervasive self-confident and self-sufficient weirdness – fully confirmed by its title (apparently Turkish for ‘Aegean okra’) and the sleeve (what else? a close-up of an okra tin).  I’d had the CD for years and it is firmly lodged on my iPod.  But now I had it properly again.  Joy.

Yesterday was our labradoodle Douglas’s first birthday.  Labradoodles are renowned for being manic buffoons – entertaining, intelligent and friendly, but deeply daft.  We had confidently been telling people that  he was starting to settle down.  Doug’s previous triumphs included eating through our internet cable and  shredding a door mat.  He had form – but he did seem to be improving, we seemed able to trust him more…

I was having breakfast in the kitchen and realised Douglas was not in the room with me as he usually is.  Then I heard some strange noises and a rapid patter of paws in the living room.  I went to investigate. The dog had Ege Bamyasi in his mouth, worrying it like some animal prey whose last moments were imminent.  The cover was ripped apart, the black vinyl was between his teeth.  He seemed very happy.  I was not.  Anguish.  Existential hollowness.  Aaaaghhh. 

Eventually the roller coaster begins to ascend again.  Some sort of equilibrium returns to one’s soul.  I am listening to Ege Bamyasi as I write.  It actually plays pretty well.  Once the stylus has bounced over the tooth marks at the start of 'Pinch'.  The music is as good as ever, of course.  But I think I might have a look on eBay to see if I can get a better condition copy…