Posted on 09/22/2006 8:08:52 AM PDT by weegee
The odd northern soul single might have sold for $10,000, but a 60s garage punk record fetching that amount has not been seen until now. But this is what "Boy, What'll You Do Then", by Denise & Company, a 1966 recording on the Wee label out of Oakland, California, recently sold for. This raucous recording, only the second copy known to exist, was initially featured in an eBay auction, where it garnered intense interest from collectors and received bids of over $4,000, until the item pulled by the site due to incorrect auction procedure. A dealer then privately bought the single for $10,000.
The Denise record has legendary status in garage/psych circles. The only known copy (before this current one surfaced) was in the hands of an eccentric collector, who let a cassette recording of it slip out in the mid-1980s. The song circulated amongst various folks and eventually ended up, in dubious sound quality, as the lead track on the first volume of Girls In the Garage, a bootleg LP series issued in the wake of similar compilations like Nuggets etc, but focusing on, all-women garage records of the 60s. At that time (circa 1988) the tune was known as "Take Me As I Am", and the bootleggers had no clue who "Denise & Co" were, or where they were from. Some years later, the record was correctly identified as "Boy What'll You Do Then" in an article in Bay Area 60s fanzine Cream Puff War, where it was revealed that the backing was provided by Berkeley garage band the Answer, and that lead singer "Denise" was Denise Kaufman, future Merry Prankster and founding member of the Ace Of Cups, the pioneering all-women psych outfit who graced the ballrooms of late 1960s San Francisco. A wild child who blew harp on the streets of Berkeley and partied with the Hells Angels, Denise had written "Boy What'll You Do Then" as "a total attitude song", in response to an ex-boyfriend who had insisted they settle down.
Of course, a much cheaper way to hear this amazing record, which pre dates riot girrl and chick rock by a full three decades, is on Big Beat's Ace Of Cups anthology It's Bad For You But Buy It (CDWIKD 236) or the critically acclaimed garage rock sampler Uptight Tonight (Big Beat CDWIKD 255).
PS the boyfriend in question was none other than future Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner!
Well I guess we found out what he would do then, turn gay.
As Poison Idea once not-so-famously declared: "Record Collectors are Pretencious A******"
Thankfully John Fender Kerry's high school album doesn't draw nearly these kind of figures.
POISON IDEA! Hell yeah!!!! One of the best live shows I've ever seen.
Hey! I have quite a large record collection.
I am sort of a pretentious ass, though.
:-)
Depending on what part of my collection, I am as well (but I'll never shell out 10k for a single...you'd be lucky to get me to shell out $10.00)!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.