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Taped-together panels taken from the CD longbox packaging of two albums: History Never Repeats (The Best Of Split Enz) by Split Enz (front of longbox) and from Crowded House by Crowded House (back of longbox).

Freshman year of high school and wanting to decorate the inside of my locker, I somehow figured out that CD longboxes were the perfect width to fit inside the door. So I cut up the two for these Crowded House and Split Enz albums, among my earliest compact disc purchases. I actually think these were part of a triptych, with the front of the Crowded House album as the top panel, as evidenced by the paper residue attached to the bit of tape at the top of the Split Enz panel.

#Crowded House #CrowdedHouse #Split Enz #SplitEnz #CD #compact disc #longbox #CD longbox #high school #1986 #1987

CD longbox for the 1991 reissue of Galaxie 500′s debut album, Today, by U.S. label Rough Trade.

I hereby declare this Longbox Week here on the blog. Why? Because I was one of those weirdos who kept those cardboard sheaths from that short-lived transitional period from LP to CD dominance from the 1980s to early 90s. (My Game Theory longbox post couple of months ago has more on that history.)

I was inspired to post this particular example based on my volunteer activity this past weekend. I was among the music fans, librarians and data nerds helping the Harvard Library (with the Boston Public Library) add data to Wikimedia about The Arthur Freedman Collection, a treasure trove of live recordings by Boston bands from the late 1970s to the early 90s. While I didn’t add any data for Galaxie 500 (alas, not present in that collection), I created an entry for Busted Statues and enhanced the Gigolo Aunts entry with record label info.

As for this longbox itself, my acquisition of it in 1991 with the CD purchase of Galaxie 500′s first album was... a bit anti-climactic. Of course I’d bought the LP in 1988, when it was first released by little Boston label Aurora Records. But then, on a trip the following year to Los Angeles, I spotted in the CD racks of Aron’s Records: a CD version of Today! It had been issued by a European label called Schemer that year. The price was painfully high ($20, IIRC), but—using a trick that I’d later fall for many times over with Japanese CD releases from my favorite bands—this disc included two, non-album bonus tracks. One was “King of Spain,” which I had on the b-side to the “Tugboat” single. But the other track was “Crazy,” a song that I’d never heard. I just had to have it. So I forked over some of my dwindling vacation cash, and the disc was mine.

So when Galaxie 500′s U.S. label, Rough Trade, finally got around to reissuing Today in 1991, I... bought it anyway. They were just one of those bands about which I was a completist. And hey, what a spiffy longbox! Sure, it features a zoomed-in, cropped segment of the LP cover photo on the front that I’m sure violates the original art direction intent. But it’s still worlds better than the crappy, cut-inducing, plastic blister pack that housed my Schemer disc.

#Galaxie 500 #Galaxie500 #Rough Trade #RoughTrade #Rough Trade US #cd #compact disc #longbox #CD longbox #1991

Paper insert for the CD packaging of Rhyme by Marty Willson-Piper, released by U.S. label Rykodisc in 1989.

I almost described this as the insert for a “longbox,” but that’s not quite accurate, even if that term tends to get used as shorthand for the long packaging CDs (mainly in the USA, I think) briefly came in from the late 80s to early 90s. I suddenly recalled the name for discs that were packaged in long plastic sleeves: “blister packs.” And this was the associated paper insert.

As this is just a piece of paper, it doesn’t sit quite as nicely next to my other longboxes. But it’s managed to survive 30+ years of moves and storage nonetheless.

#Marty Willson-Piper #MartyWillson-Piper #The Church #TheChurch #cd #compact disc #longbox #CD longbox #Rykodisc #1989

CD longbox for the Chris Bell retrospective, I Am the Cosmos, released by U.S. label Rykodisc in 1992.

As previously documented on this blog, I have been a longtime fan of the music of Alex Chilton and Big Star. So I was greatly anticipating the Big Star reissue campaign of 1992 from Rykodisc, which included Third / Sister Lovers, a live radio performance from 1974, and this disc of “lost” recordings from the late Chris Bell.

Up until then, I’d only heard two Chris Bell songs: “I Am the Cosmos” and “You and Your Sister,” both sides of his lone solo single released in 1978 by Car Records. I bought it at the late, great Hideout Records (aka Subterranean Records) in 1990 or 1991, somewhat reluctantly shelling out $20 for the privilege. (I just looked up the current asking price for that 7″ on Discogs and... whew!)

This opportunity to hear ten entirely new Chris Bell songs felt like a real gift. I went out and bought the CD the week it was released. And two years later, I would end up mentioning Rykodisc’s Big Star reissue campaign in the cover letter with my internship application to the label. Did it help get me the internship? Who knows. Regardless, it was a sincere expression of how much this music meant—and still means—to me.