GREG SHAW – Record Collection
I have written about bootleg albums before, but I haven’t mentioned that the Pebbles Series is also a group of bootleg albums (as are many of the retrospective albums and compilation albums of garage rock and psychedelic rock records that have been started since). The recordings on the Pebbles Series were taken from one of the world’s greatest record collections, that of music historian and Bomp! Records founder Greg Shaw. He began collecting records at a time when last year’s albums were regarded as being not much above trash, when whole boxes of albums and 45’s could be purchased for a few dollars. He has written of his joy at owning a complete set of all of the records that were released by legendary music companies like Phillips Records and Sun Records. The Pebbles albums were his way of getting some of the impossibly rare songs in his collection out to the general public; the series was started in 1978, about 6 years after the Nuggets compilation was released.
(August 2012)
