Larry Levan’s records. When he went through bad times, his collection got split up. The record that really stopped me in my tracks was a special acetate of Syreeta’s “Can’t Shake Your Love” [originally on Motown from 1981]. This was a unique mix that only Larry had, with an a cappella intro. It was given to him personally. So, I took it home, but it was basically unplayable. It was really trashed, like somebody had stepped on it. But this was such a special record that I transferred it to the reel-to-reel, using a quarter to keep the needle from skipping. I then meticulously edited out all the pops, using a clean copy of the regular version for some parts. When I saw Larry again and told him what I’d found, he got really excited and insisted I give him back the acetate. I told him to calm down, he could have it back, but there was good and bad news: “The bad news is that your acetate is unplayable. The good news is that I cleaned it up and it’s being re-pressed.” And that rescued version is the one that most people play today. .
This article originally appeared in Wax Poetics Issue 6, 2003.
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