Sometimes an object ceases to be about just it but everything that was around it, times, events and people and for me two records, technically superceeded, come in to that category.
Music when I was very young eminated from a three foot piece of wood called a Radiogram which was literally a radio and record player all in bigish console, occupying the second most important space in our first house to the 19 inch black and white television which could get a grainy BBC 2 given the state of UHF transmission back then.
In the UK unlike the US the Beach Boys were not has bins, no longer hip in world of San Francisco hipper bands like Country Joe and the Fish, the Doors and naturally the Jefferson Airplane but respected by their UK pop peers, able to sustain large concert audiences.
Because of how things went, not least when Pet Sounds, lauded over here just didn't make much of impression over there, Capitol Records decided the best thing was to resell old hits issueing The Beach of the Beach Boys.
The UK issued it but with substancially different track list, that told more of the development of their sound and at that point a number of earlier albums hadn't been released.
This was the record my Aunt had and was borrowed by my parents the odd time which taped which is where I first heard it in its tiny white box holding a three inch reel.
I grew up learning to thread tape so liking music of various sorts I could play the tape all by myself as I read comics and played.
It had hits and the off "deep" album track. It reach the #2 for a massive 142 weeks on the UK album charts in November 1966.
As things had hardly improved in the States, a second volume was prepared and the UK issued another varient which like the previous album had some 14 tracks.
It was issued in "stereo" too but back then stereo also included fake stereo and our version had two mono tracks for good measure.
These albums remained on catalogue unto the late 1970's gaining different label designs from the 1969 black One Box with the capitol logo in a box with the EMI logo at the bottom, a 1970 Lime Green target design and Salmon Pink mid 70's.
Over the years and two house moves those tapes came with us and as I was able to get money I replaced them with original records because being sat playing them took me back to my earliest days.
