I am one of those record collectors who loves affordable, playable albums. I don’t keep records because they’re valuable, coveted, cool, rare or weird. My goal is to have a collection that I can reach into, pull out some randomly chosen wax — and find I’d be delighted to put it on.
Since the pandemic, I’ve been getting rid of a lot of my vintage pressings and replacing them with newer remasters which usually sound better, are in nicer shape and are almost always more affordable. Why would I have a $40 copy of an early ’80s pressing of Dark Side Of The Moon with no posters or stickers, when I can have a $28 remaster from 2016? People get caught up in this silly, self-imposed value structure. But, this is my credo: I don’t care about the value of the records I have, I care about the value of the records I sell — so I can buy more records I love.
The way I price the records I sell is that everything gets a sticker — except the $5 albums. When I watch people flip through my crates of records, those $5 albums get passed over pretty quickly by most would-be buyers. People seem fixated on finding a rare and valuable record, foolishly underpriced. Trust me. You won’t find one in my inventory. What you will find, however, are scores of great albums priced to move. In the five years I’ve been doing this, I’ve made a few friends who do the same. One of my favourits is Dead City Records — moves way more albums than I do, and I check his inventory a couple of times a day for his constant new additions. He knows I have a fondness for “great albums that aren’t worth anything for some reason.”
These are the records that sit in your inventory forever, despite the fact that they’re only $5. For me, $5 is really nothing because, if I don’t like the album, I can just add it to my own inventory. I usually road test them on Spotify or YouTube first, though.
So I thought I would come up with a list of these kinds of records — albums that you should have in your collection, and probably won’t have to pay more than $5 to acquire. These are all records that have value well beyond the $5 they’re actually worth.
Brian Auger
Genesis
This 1974 compilation features an unbelievable selection of tracks by keyboardist/bandleader Brian Auger and The Trinity, with singer Julie Driscoll. Their best record together is the two-LP Streetnoise (1969), with its incredible album artwork by Ralph Steadman. That album will set you back around $20, but Genesis is $5, and has four of the Streetnoise songs on it. There’s a whole slew of Auger albums you can find for dirt cheap. If you like this kind of stuff, Befour (1970) is also excellent. Like, come on:
The Monkees
Headquarters
The first and only album that all four Monkees recorded together as a band, actually playing their own instruments. They played their own instruments many times after this, but time constraints due to the TV show forced them to rely heavily on session players. Nobody had much confidence that the warts-and-all band could match the success of their first two albums, which were performed almost entirely by high-end, seasoned studio musicians. But they did. Released in 1967, Headquarters was a No. 1 album in both Canada and the U.S., and reached No. 2 in the U.K. It sold more than 2 million copies in the States alone, and that’s probably why there are so many $5 copies of this gem to be found. There are a bunch of songs I love on this album, but none more than the closer Randy Scouse Git, written by Mickey Dolenz. It features Mike Nesmith on his custom Gretsch 12-string electric, Dolenz on lead vocal, drums, timpani and percussion, Davy Jones on backing vocals, and Peter Tork on backing vocals, organ and piano. The only additional musician is former Turtles bassist Chip Douglas, who also produced it.
Max Webster
High Class in Borrowed Shoes
I can’t think of any Max Webster record that gets priced higher than $5, and this one is my favourite. The Toronto band were pals of Rush, with a similar sense of humour and humility. They could do pop songs, hard rock and prog as good as anyone and fall into the category of “bands that might have been huge if they weren’t Canadian.” (See also: April Wine.) This 1977 release is the group’s second studio album of five. They all went gold in Canada, except 1979’s A Million Vacations, which went platinum thanks to the title track and followup single Paradise Skies. Whenever I listen to High Class, I get Firehose feelings. This just rocks:
Elton John
Rock Of The Westies
Speaking of rock, here’s Elton John’s last great album, and the first one he made after canning his original rhythm section of Dee Murray and Nigel Olsson. EJ kept guitarist Davey Johnstone and percussionist Ray Cooper, brought back former guitarist Caleb Quaye and drummer Roger Pope, and recruited Barnstorm bassist Kenny Passarelli and keyboardist/synth player James Newton-Howard. They decamped to Caribou Ranch studio, where his two previous albums were recorded, and made this wonderful, rockin’ and rootsy record. It only has two stinkers — the hit single Island Girl and the deep cut Feed Me. One of my favourite all-time Elton songs is on this 1975 album: Dan Dare (Pilot Of The Future). He never made an album like this ever again, and nothing anywhere near as good. The followup, with the same musicians, was the languid double album Blue Moves.
The Guess Who
The Best of the Guess Who
When Randy Bachman quit the band after 1970’s American Woman album, the group needed to keep going. American Woman was their best-selling album to date, even going gold in the U.S. They replaced Bachman with two guitarists, Greg Leskiw and Kurt Winter, and put out the excellent Share The Land just 10 months after American Woman and only five months after Bachman’s departure. Perhaps as a flip-off to Bachman, they put three of the tracks from Share The Land on this 1971 compilation. Every song on this is a banger. Just excellent pop-rock. My personal favourite is the Share The Land track Hang On To Your Life, which Burton Cummings co-wrote with Winter. It’s the closest they ever got to being KISS.
Joe Cocker
Joe Cocker
The more I work away at this, the more it becomes clear that practically all of these artists have multiple albums that can be easily sourced for a fiver. I know a few places you could go with a $20 bill and walk away with Joe Cocker’s first three studio albums and still have $5 left over for J-Cloths to clean them. Most people are aware that his first two records, With A Little Help From My Friends (1969) and Joe Cocker! (1969) are quite good, but I bet few have even heard his third studio album, made after the Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour, film and double LP. I can’t fathom why he thought it would be a good idea to call his 1972 record Joe Cocker — like the previous one, except with no exclamation point — but he did. But here’s the thing… It’s kind of awesome. Surely this track alone is worth five bucks:
Esther Phillips
From A Whisper To A Scream
No matter what you dig, Esther has given it a go. I’m a particular fan of her 1966 album The Country Side of Esther Phillips, but that one will set you back more than $5. Not this smooth, funky, soul album on the gorgeous Kudu label — a subsidiary of Creed Taylor’s CTI Records. Creed produced this record, of course. It is so so so slick, especially the title track — one of two Allen Toussaint songs on the album, which opens with Gil Scott Heron’s Home Is Where The Hatred Is. It’s not easy to keep me keen on a funky soul record with loads of strings and horns. Sometimes Isaac Hayes can do it. Creed has it down to a science on this 1971 gem.
Robert Palmer
Clues
The version of From A Whisper To A Scream on Palmer’s 1980 record might even be better than Esther’s version. I love this goddamned album. I see it all the time. Nobody buys it, and it’s so good. Chris Franz of Talking Heads is on it, returning a favour for Palmer adding percussion on Remain In Light. Gary Numan is also on the album, and wrote or co-wrote two of the tracks. It came five years before Palmer’s smash hit Addicted To Love, and five years after he broke out as a blue-eyed soul solo artist when Vinegar Joe broke up.
My pal Dave Merritt (Golden Seals) did a cover of my favourite track, Woke Up Laughing. You should check it out. Here’s the original with Palmer on vocals, guitar, bass and keys.
Genesis
Abacab
Probably my favourite Genesis record — initially because I was a little kid when it came out and my brother played it constantly. But I developed a newfound individual affinity for it during my final year of college. Nobody listened to this then. It was all Beck’s Mellow Gold, U2, Oasis, Alanis Morissette and Radiohead. Abacab was a secret. Like Simpsons porn. But this record is loaded with killer songs — bangers even. It has those commercial Genesis bits, but it slaps. I guess of all the other albums in their discography, it’s closest to Duke (1980), as it has way fewer ballads than Wind & Wuthering (1976) or And Then There Were Three (1978), and it has better songs and less commercial appeal than Genesis (1983) or Invisible Touch (1986). Killer tracks include Abacab, Dodo/Lurker, Me & Sarah Jane, Man On The Corner, No Reply At All, Like It Or Not, even the weird Who Dunnit? But my favourite of all is Keep It Dark — one of seven band compositions on the 1981 album. Nine songs, and seven were written by the trio of Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins.
Rare Earth
Get Ready
Used record shops can’t seem to give this album away, and I have no idea why. My best guess is buyers are looking for the band’s 1971 hit I Just Wanna Celebrate, which was still two albums away from happening. 1969’s Get Ready was the Detroit band’s second album — the first on Rare Earth Records, a subsidiary of Motown named after the band. One of the most popular songs in the band’s live set for years was their cover of Smokey Robinson’s Get Ready, which was already made famous by The Temptations. They recorded a three-minute version for their 1968 debut, and re-recorded it for this record, but that version was scrapped in favour of one the band produced themselves — 21 minutes long. The album also sees Rare Earth doing credible covers of Tobacco Road, Savoy Brown and Traffic’s Feelin’ Alright.
Donovan
Open Road
Those who know this 1970 record love it. Those who don’t know it can easily find one for $5. Open Road was actually the name of the band Donovan started; naturally, they’re featured on this album. It’s nice, dry glam rock mixed with the kind of impy stuff the singer-songwriter was known for. This is basically a mix of early T.Rex, Hunky Dory-era David Bowie, Village Green-era Kinks and early post-Peter Green Fleetwood Mac. It’s quite rightly.
Live Album
Grand Funk
This one makes me angry. Not only is this a $5 DOUBLE ALBUM, but it’s killer. It rocks — and critics universally hated it. Everyone except fans hated Grand Funk Railroad, but there were enough of those fans to fill Shea Stadium even more quickly than The Beatles did. You’ll see a lot of Grand Funk records for cheap, but only a few of them are around $5. This one is a bargain at five times the price. A live album with no overdubs. Get it. Crank it.
BB Gabor
BB Gabor
Hungarian-born BB Gabor’s family fled to Canada when he was little. He made two albums in the early ’80s and died in 1990. You’ll see this 1980 one all the time in used record shops, best known for its hit single Soviet Jewellery — which is worth five bucks all on its own. But this record is loaded with really great new wave. And you won’t find it on Spotify, either.
J. Geils Band
Live Full House
The dirt-cheap bins at your local used record store probably have five or six different J. Geils Band albums, but this 1972 release is the only one you really need. You might be tempted by the hit singles on Freeze Frame (1981) or the riff-tastic title track of Love Stinks (1980) — but this is the record you’ll put on again and again. It’s like being at a live show. Definitely one of the best live albums of all time. Much tighter than the Grand Funk Live Album, and basically a top-tier bar band firing on all cylinders. Crazy good fun.
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Area Resident is an Ottawa-based journalist, recording artist, music collector and re-seller. Hear (and buy) his music on Bandcamp, email him HERE, follow him on Instagram and check him out on Discogs.
