Record Store Day 2016: Shelby’s Record a Decade — The 1960s

This Saturday is Record Store Day, so I'll be camping out at Downtown Sound on 4th Street in Loveland with 94.3 The X. In the days leading up to April 16, I am posting my top picks by decade from my personal collection of vinyl. 

Kicking things off on Turntable Tuesday with the 1960s, before vinyl was a novelty. I debated which album I should pick for this decade, because, admittedly, I felt like my choice was a little cheesy (and it hails in the progression and popularity of my Velvet Underground album), but I ultimately had to go with the Bobby Fuller Four's I Fought the Law (1966).

Yes, I know. Like I said, cheesy... until you dig into it a little more. The title track was, obviously, covered by The Clash, so I mean I guess the band gets some cred for that.

Sure, the album is your typical upbeat '60s 'proto punk,' but it's kind of an eerie contrast to the band's morbid reality. I'm sitting here writing this post at 24-years-old, which is older than frontman Bobby Fuller ever got to be. At the age of 23, he was found dead in his car next to a canister of gasoline, and it's even speculated that his death was tied to Charles Manson.

Am I a little twisted for having such a piqued love of the band's second and final album because its story is so... tragic? Maybe. But it's also just really catchy classic rock 'n' roll, and I like to throw it on my turntable and dance to it in my apartment (my second pick of the album being, of course, 'Let Her Dance,' re-popularized in 2009 by Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox.)

Bobby Fuller Four

The Clash

This Saturday, April 16 is Record Store Day 2016, so come hang with me from 9 a.m. to noon at Downtown Sound in Loveland on 4th Street. We'll be spinning vinyl all day on 94.3 The X, and giving away vinyl albums and concert tickets for Cheyenne Frontier Days this summer.