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Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Picture Discs

For my Heavy Metal memory I chose to write about picture discs as in on vinyl. I don't know who came up with the idea, but picture discs were around quite a bit in the 80's, more in the second half of the decade. I would say that I have between 25-30 picture discs, all metal or hard rock bands I believe. I probably have far more singles than lp's though. Almost half of the ones I own were probably bought at discounted prices. Here are some of my favorites:

Raven and Udo-Born to be wild, seven inch single
I got this probably in 85 or 86 new for $2.oo.

Judas Priest-Sad wings of destiny lp
I got this at a yard sale in 1992 for maybe $3.00. Used, but in perfect shape.

King Diamond-Halloween ep
I bought this in 88 or 89. I think it was a limited pressing and it was like $7 new. Has King with a skull on one side and the band looking at a ghostly vision of the King on the other side.

Twisted Sister-Under the blade lp
Got this for $3 new at a place that was going of business around 1990.

Dio-King of rock and roll seven inch single
Has the dragon from the cover of Sacred Heart. Got this at a store that was clearing out their vinyl so it was around 91 or 92.

Really picture discs were just a bit of a novelty. Just pictures to look at, but I thought they were cool. I never played them much because I didn't want to risk scratching them. I have not bought any in probably 13 years as you probably won't find any for bargain prices anymore.

8 comments:

  1. I've never heard of picture discs before. I guess that reflects my age.

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  2. Jeff-I remember seeing some picture discs that were made in 92-93, but not a whole lot after that. You see some going on ebay, but normally at high prices.

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  3. Anonymous6:54 AM

    I was never a big fan of picture disc mainly because you didnt get any real packaging with it. Mostly you would just get a clear sleeve. The only picture discs that I had were Iron Maiden, Two Minutes to Midnight and something by Wasp.

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  4. I don't remember that either, probably because I was busy buying cassettes. :)

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  5. They were not something you would always find in your mall record store. Many of them were imports and the independent record stores seemed to have more of them.

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  6. Hey Mark,

    Thanx for your diplomatic comment on my blog. If that's the case then I made that song part of a Gold Classics series. Ah well, Are picture discs at all like Laser discs? I too have not really heard of picture discs and never really got into records, but went straight to cassettes.

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  7. dpth-It's just the vinyl record with a full color picture on it ad it's normally heavier and shinier then a regular vinyl disc. They usually came in just a clear plastic sleeve. They looked neat, but that's about it. They played fine, but I didn't play mine much because I didn't want to scratch them. They were usually slightly higher in price then vinyl records of the same recording that had no picture on them.

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  8. I don't have any. Sigh. But I'd love that Sad Wings one!

    -- david

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