COLLECTION SELECTION: Sophie Burton
This last month of 2013, we are proud to close the year’s Collection Selection series at Trenchermen with a casual DJ set by another prime exemplar of the music/hospitality industry crossover, Sophie Burton, whose earliest Chicago operations were with legendary local music family Empty Bottle Presents, on her way to current FOH shifting at Big Star and The Dawson. A couple weeks ago, the enthusiastically literate collector gave us a nice glimpse into the library she’s amassed between New Mexico, Seattle, and Chicago; a fine stockpile pre-viewable below and audible at her live DJ set on Monday December 16th, 2013.
We’ll start with the first record Burton ever purchased, Jimmy Rushing‘s Five Feet of Soul, which she still has yet to open. She first heard Rushing’s sad soul belting at a young age via her mother.
Burton inherited a ton of great music from her mother, including this classic by the late singing poet Gil Scott-Heron.
Her father was a musician, also a record collector, and the source of her copy of The Velvet Underground and Nico. She finds it amazing that he was able to refrain from peeling the banana.
Burton has preference for collecting records that come with detailed liners, art, info, etc. Her co-worker Dan from Big Star says “if it comes with reading material, it’s a Sophie record.”
Detailed inserts drew her to a handful of Parliament records, a band notorious for conceptual collectible artwork. Burton especially digs the comic characters in The Motor Booty Affair.
And of course, the grand villain of the Parliament/Funkadelic universe, Sir Nose D'Voidoffunk, who’s sole existing purpose was to kill the funk. Burton got her hands on this poster (and the mint copy of Funkentelechy vs. The Placebo Syndrome that contained it) by trading an ex-Empty Bottle colleague who was dying for a rare YACHTrecord she happened across. I think we can all agree Burton got the far longer end of the stick in this deal.
A reflection of her affinity for records as experiential learning tools, her favorite store in Seattle (where she lived for 3 years) was Neptune Records, whose owner stuck all sorts of educational info on the dust covers. Fyi, this “1st press” is an old MGM-released Hank Williams record.
Burton played this burning Count Basie big band record for me, which has a misprint on the front cover (apparently unacceptable for the previous owner, who aggressively scratched out the incorrect date with pencil).
We went on a typo tangent; she also owns an Otis Redding record that credits “Nick” Jagger as the writer of “Satisfaction.” This one was also corrected by a previous owner.
And a Canadian pressing of Ride The Lightning that includes the long lost Metallica B side “For Whom the Bells Toll.” Not corrected.
Before we go, please enjoy Sam Cooke looking creepy as hell wearing an orange sherbet-colored cardigan on the cover of this 1988 Pair Records reissue.