Today is a thrift store find from Mankato, MN. Thrift stores are usually horrific experiences for me. Crappy merchandise galore aside, the record bins are often among the most mistreated section in the store, and I swear there are NO policies on what they will take. (For example, I found some rare 70's Maranatha records in this same store that go for good money in mint condition on Ebay and they all had DEEP gouges in the records. I am not sure if they were there when donated or if some special kind of 'tard did that to the records as they sat on the shelf, but still...there are all kinds of records in those bins in unacceptable condition.)
So when I found this...I think it was for a quarter...in good condition, I couldn't pass. It was not only a Christmas record, it had actual ORIGINAL songs on it....not a cover version in sight. It's a 4 song 7 inch EP, 33 rpm. And not only that, but it was a CHRISTIAN recording with original songs on it! So, a record in a thrift store without a ton of scratches on it, original cover not damaged or written on in crayon, a Christmas record, a Christmas record with original songs, a Christian Christmas record with original songs....surely this was the rarest of rare finds.
And I also love it because I love any record where the mother's hair is bigger than the daughter's head. Good times, good times. You know regardless of songs on the album, you're in for a real treat when you see that.
And the songs are actually fairly well written and capable. Not really unearthed treasures that will make you wonder why they haven't been covered a thousand times by everybody and their brother and have become staples of Christmas radio, but listenable songs and rather enjoyable, and for a quarter...well...you can't really go wrong. I could spend more on that on a single download on line that turns out to be complete crap. And I am offering them up for free here, so none of you can complain at all!
Another curiosity of the record is the back cover lists "It's Christmas" and "Little Stranger In A Manger" as being on side one and the label on the actual record lists those as on side two and vice versa for the side two songs listed on the back cover. I guess I don't know the rule for collectors when this type of thing happens but I am going with the listing on the back cover. And I think "It's Christmas" and "Little Stranger In A Manger" are a bit stronger tracks, so they feel like side A tracks to me.
This was released on the family's own Lundstrom Records, and judging from the hair styles, right smack dab in the middle of the 70's.
Lundstroms-It's Christmas
Lundstroms-Little Stranger in A Manger
Lundstroms-The Messiah Has Come
Lundstroms-Born to Die
And here is a little info on Daddy Lundstrom...link.
And mom's hair shrank over the years (doesn't it for all of us???)
3 comments:
The Swedish Indie group Testbild! has a sweet mp3 to close out the year in pleasant style, "New Year's Eve," offered up free from their label, Friendly Noise.
http://www.friendlynoise.se/mp3-releases
My family travelled with the Lundstroms during those years when Connie's hair was bigger than life.
I'll never foget seeing her hair sitting on the dresser in the back of their tour bus and being shocked to realize it was not truly her own. I think she looks much nicer now with her own hair even though it doesn't quite reach the hights of wonder her wig did.
If you ever find a lundstroms record that has the song with these words.... "I've been travelling down this long lonesome highway, travellin to help my fellow man.... we'll keep travelin on, singing this happy song until we reach God's promised glory land." I'd love to hear it again.
I think it's called lonesome highway.
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