A Look At The Famous Warner-Reprise "Loss Leader" Albums
only available by mail from the world's hippest late '60's-mid '70s record label
Warner Brothers got into the record business in the late '50s releasing a series of super-corny records half-heartedly aimed at the growing "audiophile community". It was a "catch up" effort and too little too late. The label did it without its own recording studio or much of an A&R department and it showed! However, someone there knew good sound—not surprising since WB invented "The Talkies"—movies with sound.
A few years later, Warner-Reprise was the hippest label on the planet with the most complete counterculture catalog featuring: Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention, Captain Beefheart, Randy Newman, The Kinks, Alice Cooper, Pentangle, Van Dyke Parks, James Taylor and on and on! In this video I do some some "record holding up" and much more talking about Warner Brothers Records' rise from cultural irrelevance to prominence as a counterculture musical leader with the richest roster of rock and folk talent of any label in the world (well, maybe Island U.K. gave WB some stiff competition).
Between the late '60s and mid 1970's the label released a series of "loss leader" compilations that consumers bought directly from the label for $2.00 each. You'll see them all in this video. So, after watching, next time you're record shopping if you see any, if you weren't already familiar with them, you'll fully understand what these records are and why they are musically and culturally significant.
Check out the two headed guy in the Spike Jones cover. Do you think it inspired "Men In Black" director Barry Sonnenfeld or someone else involved in that great comedy/sci-fi flick?
