It must be incredibly satisfying to work in that kind of printing environment. Also, hypnotic.

view more of Jim’s stunning work at www.jimtierneyart.com

_{{ by way of Agence Eureka }}

The Last Time I Saw Paris

I’m 15 years old and Max Blechman and I are contemplating the basement level of Tower Records on West 66th and Broadway. Two kids who have no idea why they’re considering venturing down into an area of the store reserved for such oddities as Jazz and Classical and in all likelihood - Show Tunes.

Through the double glass doors we go and as we do we’re hit square by the crisp lilting tones of a bygone era. Without a word between us we make our way to the counter where we ask in unison, ‘What is this?’ A counter jockey  who appears to be in the final moments of a death throe pulls himself together long enough to reply, ‘That? That’s The Coward’.

Holy shit. We don’t know what that means but we know we have just discovered something epically cool. We hunt around the ‘Ts’ for close to twenty minutes before one of us realizes that obviously ‘The Coward’ will be homed under the ‘Cs’. The closest we can find is someone by the name of Noel who shares the surname. We each grab a copy of More Compact Coward, have our suspicions confirmed by an exasperated, yet ever perishing counter jockey and head off to our respective homes; new purchases in hand. Somewhere between ‘Poor Uncle Harry’ and ‘Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans’ I know gold has truly been struck.

Above is a scan of recently acquired 78 featuring the classic ‘London Pride’ on one side and ‘The Last Time I Saw Paris’ on the other. Though lacking in the mirth of other Coward recordings, T.L.T.I.S.P does not want for charm. For those interested I digitized the track above using the Ion iPTUSB portable turntable. The record isn’t in the best of shape so I’ve done a rough clean up by running it through Audacity. A large version of the sleeve is available to view here and wow what a sleeve it is.