I was thinking about this recently when thinking about my awesome grandmother who was born in 1917 and passed away in 2002 (R.I.P.!!!). I was going through her tape-collection once back in the day when I was like 9 and it was just Frank Sinatra and the Platters and swedish entertainment-orchestras and accordion-players and whatever. However, amongst all this, I found an unmarked tape that contained a cool full album by utterly obscure british '77 punk-rocker Johnny Moped!!! (BTW, I didn't know it was Johnny Moped until I got on the internet a decade later and could search song-titles; as I said, it wss unmarked).

Not exactly a masterpiece of a record but still... what the hell was that album doing in my grandmas tape-collection??? She had no explanation (my grandma wasn't exactly a punk-rocker); SO fucking weird and I still don't get it; she had two children and my mom sure as hell wasn't banging punk-rock not to mention that she was like 35 in 77 and her younger half-sister was a mod in the 60's but turned James Taylor/Neil Young in the 70's... Basically, that tape must have arrived from the sky or something, it's impossible to explain, I guess she must have found it on the street or something (and what are the odds for finding *johnny moped* on the street?)...

Do y'all have some strange findings like that?

I had this amazing Grandmaster Flash "Greatest Hits" record in high school. I lent it to a friend who basically totally destroyed it. It was an import with this really cool cover with NYC graffiti shots on it.

I never saw it again.

Years later, I'm in Amsterdam on Queen's Day, which is their independence day and a huge party, with music…the whole city basically shuts down and has a good time, people have garage sales, etc. I'm walking down the street with my friend who lives there at about 4 AM and we see all these people with flashlights looking at records that some guy was selling….again at 4 AM. We start looking and almost the first thing I saw was the Grandmaster Flash record. I got it for like the equivalent of $2.

I still have that copy, but I don't think I've ever seen another copy.

I wanted this record her pop had and I asked her if he'd sell it, and she said she wasn't going to ask him
anyway I went to her parent's house for a cookout, and they were playing old stuff, right?
well after her people had passed out drunk we were up watching MAD TV and whatnot, and while she was talking I shoved her head in my lap after I pulled my dick out
after that we went into the living room, which 'just so happened' to be where they were playing the albums and 8 tracks
I had her in the Melvin, then I flipped her around and started backshotting, then her uncle woke up halfway and said "A Harold, he hittin your daughter"
her pop woke up and said "Who? Oh" and went back to sleep (they was gone off that brown liquor)
kicked it into overdrive and when she told me her ass was mine I said "I want that Machito album too, whore"
soon as we was done she went and got that album for me and told me to get out before they woke up
still have that shit too, helluva Cuban jazz joint

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CHOP-THESE-BITCHES!!!!
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Garhart Ivanhoe Poppwell
Un-OK'd moderator for The Lesson and Make The Music (yes, I do's work up in here, and in your asscrease if you run foul of this

we stopped for bathroom/water-food break (these places have little shops selling some souvenirs & other assorted stuff since it's the road most tourists are taking on their way to do their sahara desert excursion)--radio signals were weak, our car had a tape deck..and this one shop had a stack of cassette tapes for sale. the selection was a mix of local artists and the usual american/uk suspects (beatles, frank sinatra, michael jackson, etc)... but sitting in middle of stack? The Feelies - 'Crazy Rhythms' (it still takes me right back there every time i listen to it)