Annual event kicks off holiday record buying season
Record Store Day organizers have announced the list of Black Friday 2021 releases. RSD Black Friday will be held November 26th at participating independent record stores worldwide. Aerosmith, U2, Fleetwood Mac, Poison, Jimi Hendrix, Lana Del Rey, Alice Cooper and more are among the artists releasing special limited edition releases.
“We work year-round to shine a light on the independent businesses in your local community that sell you records and other things that make you happy, make you smile, make you sing, bring you comfort, bring people together (with proper safety protocols in place, of course!),” organizers share. “This year that has felt more important than ever, as local businesses of all kinds face unprecedented challenges, and we’ve been so happy to see how you’ve all supported them. Everything you find in a record store (or on a record store’s website) would make a great gift for someone, so in this year when the holiday season may be a little strange, but also a little special, and it may feel even better to wrap up and give a little something to someone, helping record stores be a part of that ‘shopping season’ makes more sense to us than ever.”
Aerosmith is releasing an RSD First of 1971: The Road Starts Hear on LP and cassette. The set features a historic early recording of the Boston rockers in their rehearsal room – just the band, crew and friends captured on Joe Perry’s tape recorder. This never-before-heard performance showcases the early, raw talent of this future Hall Of Fame band, one year before signing to Columbia Records, and two years before their eponymous debut, which featured many of these songs, including their enduring anthem “Dream On.” Ten thousand LPs and 2,000 cassettes will be available.
U2 is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its single “Gloria,” originally released as a single in October 1981, the second single to be taken from the second studio album October. This 40th anniversary limited edition EP includes the studio version of “Gloria” plus three live versions from three different decades, including a 1990 New Year’s show from Northside Dublin. Two previously unreleased live recordings of “Gloria” – recorded at the Fleet Center in Boston during the Vertigo tour in 2005, and at London’s O2 Arena during the third night of their run of shows in the English capital as part of the iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Tour in 2015, are featured on side B. The set is an RSD First and limited to 7,000 pressings.
Fleetwood Mac will release Alternate Live, a 14 song LP pulled from the Fleetwood Mac Super Deluxe release, including a further seven songs from the Tusk Tour, four from the 1977 Rumours Tour and three from the 1982 Mirage Tour. Released for RSD Black Friday for the first time on double vinyl and limited to 6,000 units.
Poison’s Flesh & Blood will be released as a Black Friday Exclusive French Import. Originally released in 1990, the album peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard charts and sold over 7.2 million copies worldwide, spawning two top 10 singles: “Unskinny Bop” and “Something to Believe In,” as well as the blockbusters “Ride The Wind,” “Life Goes On,” and “(Flesh & Blood) Sacrifice.” This deluxe vinyl packaging for RSD Black Friday includes an OBI strip, a gatefold jacket, printed inner sleeve and specialty color vinyl with original record labels. The pressing is limited to 4,000 units.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience will release Paris ’67 as an RSD Exclusive on red and blue mixed vinyl limited to 13,200. Another amazing release from the official Hendrix “bootleg label” Dagger Records, this raw, direct to two-track, live recording from the Olympia Theatre in Paris was captured for French national radio and documents the Experience’s triumphant return to France almost one year from the date of their 1966 debut. Recorded on October 9, 1967, The Experience were in top form, roaring out of the gate with “Stone Free,” and following with vibrant renditions of “Hey Joe,” “Fire,” “The Wind Cries Mary” and “Catfish Blues.” “Rock Me Baby” and a compact “Red House” prefaced a grinding, muscular take of “Purple Haze,” followed by “Wild Thing,” replete with a rousing, tongue-in-cheek lead vocal that emphatically closed the show.
Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club album will see an exclusive exclusive translucent cobalt vinyl with an alternate cover, limited to 15,000 units.
Alice Cooper will release his 14th solo album, originally issued in 2011, for the first as a 2 LP 45 RPM pressing. Coming first to record stores for RSD Black Friday on “color in color” double vinyl and is limited to 1200 copies.
Less than 150 titles will be available. The entire list can be viewed at RSD’s website.
