Funky Collector?

[jam master jay]

Is the Funky Collector series of CD's (18 of them in all) that rare to find these days? I never bothered to pick them up a few years ago as they were released, and now I can't find any of them around anywhere (except a few of the later volumes). The one or two early volumes I actually found online were also very expensive ($70+ per CD). Does anyone know of a place to buy these discs? How cool would a box set be of all 18 volumes?

Funny how the music industry is dying, no one is buying CD's anymore, and the ones I actually want to buy I cannot get.

funky collector @ Disco Music.com:

[Noman]

They are Out of print and are not obtainable from Universal france any longer. What is to be found is what's out there....

[DonaldCleveland]

Originally Posted by jam master jay

Is the Funky Collector series of CD's (18 of them in all) that rare to find these days? I never bothered to pick them up a few years ago as they were released,Funny how the music industry is dying, no one is buying CD's anymore, and the ones I actually want to buy I cannot get.

funky collector @ Disco Music.com:

Place yourself in a record companies shoes.

Lets say that you are a bakery. Customers know about your special cakes (that your started baking SEVEN YEARS AGO), but too many of them seem to pass by your store. Enough of them ARE buying to allow you for the next FOUR years, to make MORE SPECIAL CAKES.
Unfortunate for YOU the baker, about two years ago more people became sensitive about their weight and even the ones that supported you still come but MUCH LESS. You cannot make the special cakes anymore. Too few buy them. More turn stale and have to be discarded. You are losing money. You may have to close soon, there is ALSO a general economic downturn, different types of desserts.....it's getting to be too much.

Now, it's 2008. A guy that you have NEVER SEEN BEFORE is looking for all of your variations of special cakes. He has purchased your earliest cakes from a collector who kept a special pastry freezer and charged 70 dollars per cake. And NOW here he is on a website wanting to know why the bakery cant sell him what you couldnt sell him SEVEN YEARS AGO....because he just kept walking by. Now multiply that thought process by ONE MILLION.

Now ask yourself? Do you REALLY understand why you can't find those discs?

[Disco Funk]

Did those CDs get domestic distribution, or were they always sold at import prices? I bought mine off the net. I think a large problem for the hardcore collector was that a lot of the tracks on Funky Collector and Disco Collector (I think that was the name of the other series by the same people) were that most of the tracks were already owned on other compilations, so there was no reason to buy those CDs. And the tracks were just not as well known to appeal to casual disco music listeners. I think some compilation CDs also go out of print because of legal action. Maybe one of the artists didn't approve their song being on it, so it goes out of print.

I tend to buy up CDs nowadays as soon as they're released, because their lifespan on the market is getting shorter. I personally prefer having a CD to downloading a song because the sound quality is much better. I don't like dealing with compressed audio, but I will buy it if I can't find it anywhere else, like those Philly Groove instrumentals on iTunes.

The moral of the story, like with any kind of shopping, if you suspect something is not going to be sold for a long time, or to a mass audience, snatch it up early because it may not be around (for a good price) next time you see it.

Disco Funk

[jam master jay]

DonaldCleveland - point taken. I was actually just venting a bit, even though I completely agree with what you said.

I guess what's out there is it - and I will get what I can. I really don't need all 18 discs, as I have much of the music in other discs and vinyl, but if I could buy them at a reasonable rate I would. I don't ever remember these getting domestic distribution, to answer your question Disco Funk.

[eddie]

Hey Disco Funk:

I have a CD on Javelin of Philly Groove Orchestra and features instrumentals. It was pressed in 1995 and I've seen on used on Amazon and found these one at a bargain chain clothing/odd merchandise retailer named National Liquidator. Here are the tracks!

Didn't I blow your mind
La La means I love you
When the bottom falls out
I'll stay right here
Smarty Pants
Newsy Neighbors
Who am i
Ain't easy
Guilty
Love Freeze
Are you ready for me
Armed and extremely dangerous
Face the future
So long goodbye, it's over

Here's a link to Amazon!
Amazon-U.S. | Amazon-U.K.

Back to the topic at hand. I don't have any of the Funky Collector discs as they were never at Tower or any other chain but I have seen them on Amazon. I also had a hunch they used many 45 edits so I wouldn't be too thrilled about that.

[paul]

Originally Posted by eddie

I also had a hunch they used many 45 edits so I wouldn't be too thrilled about that.

Hey eddie. I share your thoughts. I have a vague memory of that series and I'm thinking they were radio edits. I generally avoid that.

[jam master jay]

Originally Posted by paul

Hey eddie. I share your thoughts. I have a vague memory of that series and I'm thinking they were radio edits. I generally avoid that.

Actually, one of the things I liked about the volumes I heard was that the original long versions were used. I don't want the 45 edits either.

[sfbeary]

i bought about half of the Funky Collector series. of course i now wish i bought all of them, but i passed on the others because those were the ones dominated by tracks i had elsewhere. i found a few volumes in NYC when they were new, then bought the rest of them directly from the french version of amazon. i don't ever remember seeing any of them at san francisco's amoeba records, which is massive and extensive, and that leads me to believe that they weren't imported into america in significant numbers like some european comps. the sound quality fluxuates - much of the stuff not found elsewhere is clearly mastered from vinyl. but they do include LP and 12" versions - i don't remember a single radio edit. they're designed for the european collector of disco-funk, not the casual american consumer, and it makes sense that they've already become collector's items.

[paul]

Originally Posted by jam master jay

Actually, one of the things I liked about the volumes I heard was that the original long versions were used. I don't want the 45 edits either.

Perhaps I'm mixing up my series here. Hey, I've been wrong before

[Disco Funk]

Originally Posted by eddie

Hey Disco Funk:

I have a CD on Javelin of Philly Groove Orchestra and features instrumentals.

I definitely got that CD! I bought it over a decade ago. On iTunes, however, there are more instrumentals. I'm talking about the entire Flashlight/Quickest Way Out and First Choice's 'So Let Us Entertain You' albums in instrumental form! I would prefer to have those on CD too, but they're pretty good quality as downloads, so I ain't gonna complain too much.

Disco Funk

[eddie]

My hunch was wrong at least for the most part. Full-lenght versions including 12" versions were often used for the Funky Collector series. There was someone on Amazon a while back who said that and wasn't too thrilled with the series. I looked at the time lenghts on allmusic and those tracks are rarely edits. You don't usually see French imports and perhaps some cuts were from decent vinyl but I've never seen these at Tower or specialist shops. Rarely do non-dropshippers have these listed at Amazon when in print so there are few in circulation.

[jam master jay]

That was the only drawback for me - that some of the tracks are from vinyl sources. Perhaps its because master tapes for those tracks weren't available, but I can think of a couple that I know have appeared on domestic CD's in better quality. Still, when taken as a whole, this series is pretty well balanced between songs you know, and songs you may have forgotten about. Too bad it is essentially impossible to find all 18 volumes at this point.

[Pierre Declercq]

Some tracks are from vinyl sources ? Almost every track is ! And the others are from existing cd's. No master tapes here!

The three series (Disco collector, Soul collector and Funky collector) have to face four problems:
1- When they were released in 2001 in their native France, a big problem occured because three cd's had the wrong sleeves (and tracklists): when you thought you were buying «Disco collector #1» the actual cd was «Soul collector #1», when you thought you were buying «Soul collector #1» it was «Soul collector #2» and finally when you thought you were buying «Soul collector #2» you had «Disco collector #1»! The company (Universal) withdrew the wrong items and issued new ones with cd matching the sleeves but they couldn't avoid all the bad publicity.
2- In France, digipacks are considered nice but in some other countries people think they are cheap. Another bad move so Universal re-issued the series in a standard case in 2002 and 2003. But this alienated the first buyers because all their cd's didn't match anymore.
3- The guy who wrote the liner notes is a nobody. The liner notes are awfully written, very incomplete, with many errors and only in French (with many spelling errors in French). As usual in France, disco-soul-funk music doesn't have the prestige of rock music, French chanson or classical music, so people interested in it are not as articulate as in other countries (For instance there is no French David Nathan for soul music or French disco music specialist).
4- The tracks were apparently chosen at random. Besides, many tracks are not the 12" version: many album versions, instrumentals or Disconet remixes are featured on the cd's with no apparent reason. «Happy People» by the Temptations on «Soul collector #2» is even an edit mixing vocal and instrumental versions (without warning anywhere). Some tracks like «If You Feel It» by Thelma Houston or «Feeling Lucky Lately» by High Fashion were pretty hard to find at the time but they aren't anymore.

Add the source problem to all of this.

The songs are not what the sleeve says: «original extended remastered rare tracks».

Well, IMO, these so-called collectors are are not worth their current price specially when you think that in 2001 they were cheaper than the average cd's: 80 francs, more or less 12 euros each.

That's all the story about it but we all know that we can buy an awful compilation for just one track and be happy. So...