#cd longbox

Taped-together panels taken from the CD longbox packaging of two albums: History Never Repeats (The Best Of Split Enz) by Split Enz (front of longbox) and from Crowded House by Crowded House (back of longbox).

CD longbox for the 1991 reissue of Galaxie 500′s debut album, Today, by U.S. label Rough Trade.

I hereby declare this Longbox Week here on the blog. Why? Because I was one of those weirdos who kept those cardboard sheaths from that short-lived transitional period from LP to CD dominance from the 1980s to early 90s. (My Game Theory longbox post couple of months ago has more on that history.)

I was inspired to post this particular example based on my volunteer activity this past weekend. I was among the music fans, librarians and data nerds helping the Harvard Library (with the Boston Public Library) add data to Wikimedia about The Arthur Freedman Collection, a treasure trove of live recordings by Boston bands from the late 1970s to the early 90s. While I didn’t add any data for Galaxie 500 (alas, not present in that collection), I created an entry for Busted Statues and enhanced the Gigolo Aunts entry with record label info.

As for this longbox itself, my acquisition of it in 1991 with the CD purchase of Galaxie 500′s first album was... a bit anti-climactic. Of course I’d bought the LP in 1988, when it was first released by little Boston label Aurora Records. But then, on a trip the following year to Los Angeles, I spotted in the CD racks of Aron’s Records: a CD version of Today! It had been issued by a European label called Schemer that year. The price was painfully high ($20, IIRC), but—using a trick that I’d later fall for many times over with Japanese CD releases from my favorite bands—this disc included two, non-album bonus tracks. One was “King of Spain,” which I had on the b-side to the “Tugboat” single. But the other track was “Crazy,” a song that I’d never heard. I just had to have it. So I forked over some of my dwindling vacation cash, and the disc was mine.

Paper insert for the CD packaging of Rhyme by Marty Willson-Piper, released by U.S. label Rykodisc in 1989.

I almost described this as the insert for a “longbox,” but that’s not quite accurate, even if that term tends to get used as shorthand for the long packaging CDs (mainly in the USA, I think) briefly came in from the late 80s to early 90s. I suddenly recalled the name for discs that were packaged in long plastic sleeves: “blister packs.” And this was the associated paper insert.

CD longbox for the Chris Bell retrospective, I Am the Cosmos, released by U.S. label Rykodisc in 1992.

As previously documented on this blog, I have been a longtime fan of the music of Alex Chilton and Big Star. So I was greatly anticipating the Big Star reissue campaign of 1992 from Rykodisc, which included Third / Sister Lovers, a live radio performance from 1974, and this disc of “lost” recordings from the late Chris Bell.

Up until then, I’d only heard two Chris Bell songs: “I Am the Cosmos” and “You and Your Sister,” both sides of his lone solo single released in 1978 by Car Records. I bought it at the late, great Hideout Records (aka Subterranean Records) in 1990 or 1991, somewhat reluctantly shelling out $20 for the privilege. (I just looked up the current asking price for that 7″ on Discogs and... whew!)