Additions to the site have been a little infrequent of late which is to be expected at this stage of my collecting but that doesn’t mean I’m not still on the hunt. These days however the focus is more on acetates, test pressings and the like.
Recently I stumbled across an acetate that the seller didn’t seem all that interested in and seemingly neither did other collectors which struck me as a bit odd but hey, that kept the price way down so it was worth a gamble. That gamble paid off.
The label clearly stated the track as “The Story of Rock & Roll”. On one side a vocal and on the other, the musical backing track. Before giving it a spin I fully expected it to be the version found on New Nilsson Songs but as it began to play something was different. After listening to it all the way through I was convinced this was an alternate take but to be very sure I put on my copy of New Nilsson Songs and sure enough it was different.
I reached out to the seller asking how he had come to acquire the acetate. He informed me had met the daughter of legendary producer/engineer Larry Cox after he had passed away and had purchased part of his collection. With this information I began trying to track down Larry’s daughter. It turns out Larry had two daughters and after making contact with Julie, I was put in touch with Gina who informed me she also had several Nilsson reels but the labels were barely legible and they were so damaged they could’t be played so had been disposed of. Argh! Still, I had this acetate and after I made a digital transfer I sent a copy to Harry’s son Kiefo who confirmed it wasn’t a version he’d ever heard before either.
If you’ve never heard the original version of Story of Rock & Roll, point your mouse here and to hear the newly discovered acetate version click here. As Kiefo remarked, “real deep cut stuff”.