Do you...

[TakeMeOnYourFlight]

I made an incredibly lucky find recentley at a used record store, an original mono pressing of After Bathing at Baxter's. I've been trying to find one the last few years. My dad had one but it was worn out to the point of being unplayable from all the static and skipping.

[Susan Butcher]

I've never seen an American copy of Baxters. Is it a gatefold?

[Jon_G]

I've uploaded a CD copy of 'Takes Off' onto my tiny mp3 player. The sound quality is a bit 'toppy' and I am on the lookout for an enhanced release, one that's perhaps been remastered -

[TakeMeOnYourFlight]

It is yeah, with all the surreal pictures of Jefferson Airplane members, crew and hanger-ons on the inside.

[babson]

I just have one vinyl "Worst of the Jefferson Airplane".

[JoeD80]

I've never seen an American copy of Baxters. Is it a gatefold?

Yes. The outside of the gatefold is the Ron Cobb piece of the "Jefferson Airplane" flying the banner "After Bathing at Baxter's" over a junkyard. The inside of the gatefold has one photograph of each of the six band members set up and distorted in different ways (by Alan Pappe), with the credits hand-written on both sides (songs on left; producer etc. on right). The inside dust jacket is double-sided white paper with the After Bathing at Baxter's poem and art drawn in black on both sides by the band, signed on both sides "Nosreffej Enalpria '67".

[redrabid]

You forget to mention the most hilarious fact about the sleeve of Baxter"s: The cupcake drawings that RCA thought looked like a cunt! (Tamarkin page 155)
Great album cover!

[redrabid]

ALL OF THEM.
Some of them in more than one copy. When played often, the sound quality of vinyl records detoriates quickly. So you had to buy the records you really liked more than once. I own 2 vinyl copies of Pillow , 2 of Crown (including one with the Brumus innersleeve, with a picture of a dog owned by the Kennedy family), 3 of Baxter's, BIPLH and Volunteers.
What to say? I am a wealthy man because of that, don't you think?

[Susan Butcher]

Yeah, records wear out, but I've got so many now most of them will still sound great when I'm dead. I also have a secret weapon for dealing with worn records...

[Susan Butcher]

Here's a picture of my record player. It's a Philips GA202 from 1969, and I found it on a rubbish dump. That's the fate of so many good turntables these days. I like it because it has a very fine spherical stylus that can get good sound out of worn records. In effect, the stylus contacts the record lower in the groove than the part which is normally worn.

[starfire II]

I have some, though not as many as I'd like, as I'm quite choosy about getting hold of good condition originals with all the relevant gatefolds/inners/booklets etc., so the vinyl collection is very much an ongoing project.
I have LJS with the stash box sleeve, a really nice Japanese promo copy of Flight Log with booklet, lyric sheet etc., and quite a few of the early Grunt releases, but they're all played and enjoyed regularly, not just stored in plastic sleeves in a temperature-controlled vault.
Probably my favourite Airplane-associated vinyl artifact is Paul's Blows Against The Empire, with the gatefold sleeve and that nice textured booklet with lyrics and illustrations, which looks almost ridiculous when shrunk to CD size. CDs are okay for convenience and durability, but there are downsides: they skip worse than records, and some won't play at all; there's the aforementioned sleeve/booklet shrinkage problem, which ruins a lot of truly great cover art - oh, and the plastic CD jewel case is surely the most badly designed artifact of the twentieth century.
Generally, I just love old vinyl; the look, feel and smell of it, and the sense that there's history aplenty in them thar grooves.
Incidentally, the first Airplane vinyl I ever bought was a cheapo RCA reissue of Crown Of Creation back in the early 80's. The vinyl was so thin it began to warp horribly within hours of me removing it from the sleeve (or so it seemed), and it soon became quite literally unplayable, despite my attempts to flatten it beeneath several heavy objects. To this day, it remains the only record that I've ever thrown away...

[Susan Butcher]

"Blows" came with everything! Mine was cheap because the cover appeared to be torn. In fact, it was a bit of another cover that had stuck, and I removed it with a sponge.

I've been told you can unwarp records by pressing them between two sheets of glass and leaving them in the sun for a while. I've tried this on a 45, and while it didn't come out completely flat, it was at least playable.

[plasticfantastic]

I've been told you can unwarp records by pressing them between two sheets of glass and leaving them in the sun for a while. I've tried this on a 45, and while it didn't come out completely flat, it was at least playable.

I'll remember that... thank you, Susan.

I've got Bark with the poster, which is hanging in a highly visible place on my wall, Long John Silver, Surrealistic Pillow, and Volunteers. I've been looking for Baxter's on vinyl, but the only time I found it, I didn't have the money... quite a shame. I just love reading that Volunteers sleeve though... The Paz Chin-In, and all.

[starfire II]

Susan -
Thank you so much for the advice on how to restore warped records to their natural shape. Not quite sure how the "sun" part would work for me though, as I live in the UK. Would warm rain work, d'you think..?

[PrayForPlagues]

i have a Somebody to Love/She Has Funny Cars 45, After Bathing at Baxters LP, Bless Its Pointed Little Head LP, Red Octopus LP and Hot Tuna Hoppkorv LP.