It is hard to explain the rush of finding a track you have been on the lookout for to someone who does not collect records themselves, and I usually have quite a few items on my wishlist that I am searching the internet or recordfairs for. But - however pleasing it is when you find and get that elusive record you have been longing for so long on eBay or at a dealer finding one you did not expect to find, or maybe even did not know that you were looking for, is even better.
That's why I love cratedigging. The feeling of entering a thriftstore, yardsale or whatever it may be and seeing one or several boxes of LPs and 45s, not having any idea whatsoever of what you are going to find before you start flipping through them.
Make no mistake though - cratedigging takes effort and a certain amount of dedication. The trick is to go hunting on a regular basis (or actually more like go whenever and as often as you can), go to as many and different spots as possible, whether they usually have records or not, and to have patience. Of course living in a mediumsized town that is big enough for these kind of records to have found their way here, yet still small enough to not have too many others than yourself looking for them also helps.
Most of the times you come home with nothing or with something you took a chance on and that turns out not to be very good. But then on the odd ocassion you find something that makes all the other times you've gone digging and came home empty handed worth it.
Such as this one: a 45 that I came across this last saturday at a small local thrift shop that I frequent almost every weekend. Ken Boothe's Can't You See, issued in 1968 on the british FAB-label. A great rocksteady track so rare that I had never even thought of thinking of wanting it. I believe I've seen it for sale twice on the internet during the last two years. None the less, there it was - lying in a pile of 80s pop and dance 45s and in a condition so great that it can hardly ever have been played. Incredible to say the least.
I've made a few other hard to believe finds throughout my years of digging through crate upon crate of crap, but this one definitely ranks in the top together with the promotional version of Sue Lynne's northern banger Don't Pity Me and Ruby Andrews legendary funk/soul LP Black Ruby (more on those in future posts). It's time like these that makes it worth having an aching back, sore knees and not getting enough sleep during days off because you "need" to get up early for digging.
Song of the day:
Ken Boothe - Can't You See
