Do you listen to and collect vinyl records? Well, you're in luck. Welcome to the Vinyl Guide,

the podcast made for record nerds like yourself. Here's your host, the biggest record nerd of them all,

Nate Goyer. Welcome, welcome, welcome one and all to the Vinyl Guide, the podcast where we talk about

vinyl records and all things of interest to the record

collecting community. My name is Nate, and I am very excited about this week's episode because

guess what? It's not just one episode this week, but there are two episodes this week.

Yep, that's right. This week you will be getting two episodes of the vinyl guide podcast. One today on Tuesday and the other on Thursday, two days from now. Think of this as my guns and roses use your illusion phase. Actually, wait, those two were released on the same day. Maybe like what System of a Down did with mesmerized and hypnotized.

Anyway, look, there's a lot of content to get through, and it was hard to put it in one. If I put it all in one episode, it would have been like a two-hour episode, so I decided to chop it up a bit. There's a lot to cover, a lot to talk about. The episodes this week are all about bootleg records. Something many of us may have in our collection, many more may be interested in.

And depending on who you ask, all about bootleg records. Something many of us may have in our collection, many more may be

interested in. And depending on who you ask, bootlegs can be either a terrific addition to your

collection, or they could be a complete pox amongst the record racks. The diametric opinions

are understandable. Bootleg records were of variable quality. Some sounds like directly out of a studio approved by the artist.

Others sound like a muffled tape recorder inside the jacket of someone inside a mosh pit.

So you never know who's kind of behind the bootleg operation. Some of them are great, some of them are dreadful.

But for the next two episodes of the vinyl guide, we are going to be talking

about bootleg records, not so much to try to change your mind or anything, but really

just to introduce new ways about thinking of bootleg records and just influencing a dialogue

on the subject. So let's start off with the definition. What are bootleg recordings?

Bootlegs are recordings of material from an artist that isn't commercially available to the public for purchase.

Now this is very different than say a pirate or a counterfeit record, which really is just a cheaper version of material that is available commercially. Bootlegs represent a desire

for fans of artists to hear more material, to go beyond the released material and hear the

artist in various and perhaps lesser controlled environments. Bootleg recordings are often associated

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