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STEELY DAN "Reelin' in the Years" (1987) BBC Radioplay TAIR 87066 

TITLE

"REELIN' IN THE YEARS"

ARTIST

Steely Dan

Year

1987

Label/cat no

BBC Radioplay TAIR 87066

Country of issue

United Kingdom

Condition grading

Record: NM/NM

Sleeve: NM 

Label: NM/NM

Other information

This LP contains some unique recordings by Steely Dan

BBC Radioplay LPs were produced solely for broadcast by BBC radio stations and featured  recordings that were free from Copyright, containing tracks recorded by the BBC (or partner organisations in Europe, USA etc). A number were live recordings, but there are also versions of well known songs recorded in their studios. The front sleeves were usually of exactly the same design, with a picture of the featured artist & title. The rear sleeve notes the title, tempo, intro, duration, end, composer, publisher and blurb related to the track (so the presenter could appear knowledgable!) 

BBC Radioplay LPs have some unique recordings, and as they were usually pressed by companies like Nimbus and were for broadcast, the quality is very high. (read the article by George Hulme for IAJRC below)

Tracklist

A1

Do It Again

5:52

A2

Peg

3:54

A3

Pretzel Logic

4:28

A4

Razor Boy

3:10

A5

Rikki Don't Lose That Number

4:04

B1

Reelin' In The Years

4:29

B2

Only A Fool Would Say That

2:51

B3

Josie

4:30

B4

King Of The World

4:59

B5

Change Of The Guard

3:32

B6

East St Louis Toodle-oo

2:45

(Informative aritcle on BBC Radioplay LPs by George Hulme, published in IAJRC journal in Dec 2009)

"At one time, the UK Musicians Union entered into an arrangement with the BBC that restricted the amount of time during which the BBC could play commercial records. This was known colloquially as the "needle time" restriction. The objective for the Union was that the BBC would employ more musicians providing live music in programmes. Initially this was the case but there were consequences that were unforeseen by the Union.

Firstly, to overcome the logistics of the restriction, the BBC and many other broadcasting organisations in Europe, who were facing a similar restriction, began to produce their own records with material that was free from the copyright of the commercial companies and could therefore be used freely in programmes. These records were distributed to programme presenters to use in their programmes. The records had information on the back sleeve in each case to facilitate the material.

The second and more damaging consequence both for the Union and for the BBC was the establishment of private radio stations based on ships anchored in the North Sea outside the territorial waters of the UK and therefore beyond the jurisdiction of both the UK authorities and the Union. The first of such stations was Radio Caroline. These stations could play as much top 20 material as they wanted.

The BBC records that were created to overcome the Union restriction were all 12-inch LPs on the BBC Radioplay Music label and were never released to the public. The European organisations were joined by similar organisations in Australia, Canada, the United States and elsewhere. The Canadian records were released on the Talent label.

The BBC and the other organisations used a number of sources for their recordings. They made transcriptions of their own orchestras and also used similar records from other broadcast organisations. Where a company had broadcast a programme, it was able to make records of that programme for further radio use and it shared these with other broadcasters despite the fact that, sometimes, record companies had the rights to release the material on commercial records. Sometimes an agreement was reached with a commercial record company to copy one of its records to create a recording that was not covered by the "needle time" restriction.

One other common source was from motion picture companies who leased the sound tracks from films to the BBC and others as they considered that playing music from a film was useful publicity for the film itself.

The range of styles of music on these recordings was considerable and included jazz, MOR (middle of the road, now known as easy listening), pop and popular, country, ethnic (now known as world music) and a wide range of classical music. The BBC catalogue for its Radioplay Music series ran to several hundred discs. When, in the later 1980s, CDs replaced LPs, the BBC ordered its radio stations to dispose of the LPs to make room for the CDs and most went into rubbish skips. Fortunately a few escaped and exist in private collectors' holdings."

The grading standard used is the UK Record Collector magazine gradings as described below 

Mint: The record itself is in brand new condition with no surface marks or deterioration in sound quality. The cover and any extra items such as the lyric sheet, booklet or poster are in perfect condition. Records advertised as Sealed or Unplayed should be Mint.??

Excellent: The record shows some signs of having been played, but there is very little lessening in sound quality. The cover and packaging might have slight wear and/or creasing.??

Very Good: The record has obviously been played many times, but displays no major deterioration in sound quality, despite noticeable surface marks and the occasional light scratch. Normal wear and tear on the cover or extra items, without any major defects, is acceptable.

All items are securely packaged and sent via a trackable method.