Motown produced and distributed BMI composer/lyricist Alfred Lloyd Reed, Jr. "pka Al Reed" copyrighted composition "Message From Maria" unauthorized in 1981.
Hi, Roger, what you said may well be the case, but hey, didn't we benefit from it? You there in England and me here in Australia. Look at the goodies we were able to snap up! Did you manage to find any original late-60s issues among the early-80s stuff? I'd imagine it'd be a "mixed bag" of vintages. For me I'd found these LPs at various places and at various times from the mid-70s to the late-90s or thereabouts. And who knows, I may yet stumble across some more and so may you also. Let's keep a sharp eye out, ay?
@ Neil Forbes. It sounds to me like a U.S. warehouse was having a clearout in 1975 and a lot of the L.P.s ended up in Australia.
I found a lot of the early 1980s reissues around 1989/90 on a record stall in Brixton Market, London which was awash with 1980s U.S. Soul/R&B releases.
I'm looking forward to seeing what you are about to upload. If you want help with issue dates then a lot of them are in the discographies at bsnpubs.com .... This is the top page for their Motown discographies.
Hi, Phil, Just looked at the run-out area(deadwax, as you call it) and I think I detected a faint "I" stamped in there. The X4RS matrix is stamped in, the HS-matrix has been etched in, as was the LP's catalogue number. Thought you might be interested. I've another 1969 Motown issue I'm about to upload. When you see it, tell me what you think, okay?
HI Neil, the X4RS numbers are RCA's pressing matrices. You should also check the deadwax to see if there is a stamped 'H' (Hollywood), 'I' (Indianapolis) or 'R' (Rockaway) to indicate which factory pressed it. More info at Discogs. My copy was pressed in Hollywood, which stands to reason, as the import shop I bought most of my albums from dealt with one-stops in L.A. I'm not sure if the "HS" signifies Hitsville Studios or something else, as Motown continued to use that after they moved to California. I can't help with the numeral 4 below the trademark either, as my copy doesn't have that.
Roger, All you needed to do there was "copy and paste!" The contents and track order are exactly the same. I remember where I bought my copy, I've had it since about 1975 or so, I bought it at a Tandy Electronics shop when it was located in Hunter Street West, Newcastle, NSW Australia. Tandy was selling quite a few of these Motown LPs, another I bought a few weeks later was GS-942 - TAYLOR MADE SOUL(Bobby Taylor, post-Vancouvers) on the Gordy label, also issued in 1969. I've got a few 1969 vintage Motown issues I'll be uploading in the next few days. Watch This Space!
@ Neil Forbes .. that small white strip gives the issue date of the original release and reads "Originally released 5/29/69". All of those Motown early 1980's reissues seemed to have the dates of the original issues on them (very handy for discographers). I've now put in the same track details for the 1969 release.
I have the original 1969 issue of this, the catalogue number was MS-685. Two sets of matrix numbers are shown at right on the original 1969 version's label, they are: Side 1 - HS-1596-2 and X4RS-2731; Side 2 - HS-1597-3 and X4RS-2732. Make of those what you will. The front and rear covers are the same except that on the 1969 issue, a small numeral, 4 appears below the Motown trademark in black on white against the black background of the artwork. On the new version, next to the word "Ended" in the title, there's a small white strip that contains some print that I can't decipher.