The original story ran in November 2012
This is the Scepter acetate version of “Run Run Run” by Velvet Underground. The story goes that the Velvets went into Scepter Studios on April 25, 1966 to cut tunes for their upcoming debut album. All of the songs on the acetate made it onto the final album, although some were totally different takes and the mixes were different than the final version. Cut to 2002, where record crate digger Warren Hill of Canada was looking at records at a flea market in the Chelsea section of New York City, when he came upon the only known copy of the record and purchased it for 75 cents. Several years later, he put it up on EBay where it sold for $25,500. The acetate has finally received its first official vinyl release as part of this year’s Black Friday Record Store Day. For those who don’t know what Record Store Day (RSD) is, it’s when the record companies put out limited pressings of collector’s vinyl titles and distribute them to participating Mom & Pop record stores throughout the world to entice record collector’s to shop. Geeks like me usually line up at said stores to buy whatever titles actually make it onto the shelves. It’s a crap shoot, because although record stores order them all, the fill rate is low because the titles are limited, so many stores only get one or two copies of a title, and many don’t get any at all. There are two RSD per year, and last April I waited outside a record store in Evanston, Illinois (Home of Northwestern University) for several hours. By the time the store opened, I was fifth in a line of about 150 people. Yesterday, I went to a much smaller store in a small Northern suburb of Illinois where I was again fifth (out of 10) in line 30 minutes before the store opened. I scored some nice RSD vinyl titles including a 2-record set by Grateful Dead recorded at Winterland in 1971, the aforementioned Velvet Underground Scepter Acetate release (low number 56 out of 5000 worldwide), a Mono pressing of Miles Davis’ “Sketches Of Spain,” an EP by Eric Burdon (of the Animals) and The Greenhornes (mostly members of Raconteurs), a Beach Boys 10” 78rpmi, a Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros 2LP live album, three Captain Beefheart 45rpm singles, a Zappa 45rpm single, a red-vinyl White Stripes 45rpm single and a 45rpm single of Bob Dylan’s “Duquesne Whistle.” A pretty good haul for this RSD!
