Only once in a very great while does this item emerge. It is considered the Holy Grail of 1960-era Texas Garage Rock Bands records, believed to have less than 8 in existence. What makes this so rare in addition is it is nearly 60 years old, still unplayed, still in it s original plain brown paper wrapper sleeve, produced and recorded in San Antonio. The Runaways were one of the hottest bands in San Antonio in the middle 1960 s.. There are still articles on the web about them, and this record has been included on some Best of Texas Garage Rock Bands compilations on CD. Here are some exerts from one article.
The Runaways
Not to be confused with
the sexy female Runaways of the 70 s, these were four guys from Jefferson and Lee
and Edison High who could rock your socks off. Being in junior high, these high
school superstars were the closest thing to The Beatles we thought we would
ever see. We even asked for their autographs
The Runaways really blew
out some shoppers eardrums on July 23, 1966. Maybe that s why the Auto Show
people pulled the plug on them after two songs. The merchants were complaining
and the band was told they could continue outside if they wanted to play some
more. The car show stayed inside and we followed the band outside, where they
set up by the front entrance to Montgomery Wards. There wasn t much room on the
sidewalk after the guys set up, so we stood out in the parking lot under that
wonderful Texas July sun. The Runaways played
nothing but cover versions of the current hits, and that was just what we
wanted. They did all the rockers, Gloria , Wipe Out , The Stones, The Kinks,
The Animals they did a killer version of We Gotta Get Out Of This Place .
They also did the only hard rock version of Charlie Rich s Mohair Sam that
I ve ever heard.
But the song that really
blew us away was Hungry, by Paul Revere The Raiders. The bass player,
Mike, had that mean bass line down perfect and sang great too. The
lead guitarist, Kent, did a great breathless Mark Lindsay vocal. The
rhythm guitarist, Chris, was the cut-up of the band, but was right
there with the back-up vocals and some leads as well.
But the real rock star
and heart-throb of the band was sitting back there on the drums. His name was
Tim and I m sure he broke his share of hearts back then.
Two copies of the estimated 8 were sold on EBAY way back when for around 2,000 each. A third, used version, was sold for 800. That was years and years ago.
This copy turned up while preparing for a retirement move and holy crap when it was discovered that it was still there, sitting as it did nearly 60 years ago, it was just a WOW moment. This is just something a TRUE collector needs to have, not an item sitting packed away in a box. The important memories are there to take it s place.
I have it because I was very close to this band, these amazing 4 guys. There are stories I could tell. They only did one record, and it was done in a studio on HIldebrand Avenue, with just one mic and one very primitive recorder for back in those days, they didn t have much to record with. Nothing even remote to what they had just a few years later when recording became serious with multi-track recorders and studio sound boards. This was rock and roll completely RAW as it started.
This is indeed, a true treasure, and it is worth adding to someone s highly elite collection around the world.
One side is the incredible 18th Floor Girl and the second side is Your Foolish Ways, both vocals by Chris. God bless him and let him forever rest in peace
There will be no reserve, a very reasonable starting price for this ultra rare record and delivery will be by UPS overnight worldwide at 30.00 domestic and 50.00 UPS Overnight to the rest of the world. The sale will be final, as returns will not be allowed since it is a totally untouched item, untouched by a record needle or human hands other than to pack it up.
