A Head Full of Wishes is a site for Galaxie 500, Luna, Damon & Naomi, Dean & Britta and Dean Wareham. With news, articles and lists of releases and past and future shows.
My record collection
[389] Dean & Britta - Quarantine Tapes (LP)
So for Dean & Britta’s appearance in the final run in I’ve managed to pick an album that has already made three appearances in the series. I love Quarantine Tapes, both because of what it is, a fantastic collection of great songs delivered with a sweet, low-key beauty; and because of what it represents, a record of a strange and scary time and of the shows that helped us through it.
But, do I have enough to say about it that hasn’t already been covered in the three previous posts, or in the two Substack posts that I wrote about Dean & Britta’s live-streamed shows during COVID? I suspect not. All of those posts are linked below.
I guess while it was lovely hearing the Luna, Dean & Britta, and Galaxie 500 songs performed during their live streamed shows I guess the treats were the unexpected covers that turned up. Now, we are all very well aware of Dean’s ear for a cover version, and how he manages to pick out the most obscure ones he can, so maybe the real surprises might be the ones that everyone already knew!
“The Carnival is Over” spent three weeks at number one in the UK charts for The Seekers in 1965 and even longer atop the Aussie charts. Apparently it wasn’t a hit in the US so maybe that ticks Dean’s obscurity box?
“Massachusetts” spent four weeks at number one in the UK, and reached number eleven in the US for The Bee Gees.
The LP is a lovely package, with Brian Calvin’s lips on the front, and a lovely picture of Dean and Britta on the back, and being an LP it’s a nice big, lovely picture, although since the sleeve doesn’t mention who it’s by or what the album is called, the shrink-wrap was adorned with a pink sticker to fill in those details. The printed inside sleeve has the track listing in large, colourful type, and the credits on the reverse. The LP itself is translucent green vinyl.
The LP was sold in a double pack with Dean’s then new album I Have Nothing to Say to The Mayor of LA for $55 for the two, but postage bumped up the cost by another 50%. Maybe when this series is over I’ll go back and count how many times I’ve moaned about the cost of international postage.
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 12/083
- Artist: Dean & Britta
- Title: Quarantine Tapes
- Format: LP
- Buy ‘Quarantine Tapes’ on Bandcamp
Previously in my record collection:
- [017] Dean & Britta - Quarantine Tapes (white label LP)
- [118] Quarantine Tapes (lathe cut box of singles)
- [143] Dean & Britta - Quarantine Tapes (CD)
Substack posts: