Elektra Records Master Discography: Browse

Elektra EKL 300 (Mono) EKS 7300 (Stereo)

Released: August 1965

Production: Mark Abramson and Jac Holzman

Some sleeves say that this album was recorded in concert at Town Hall, New York, March 21 1964. That is not the case. The Concert album was recorded then ... as you might think.

Elektra EKL 301/2 (Mono)

Released: 1965

Production: Compiled and annotated by Laurence Cohn

Engineering: John A and Alan Lomax

Boxed set of three discs with booklet.

The discs are configured for an autochanger with sides 1 and 6, 2 and 5, 3 and 4 on the three discs so you could stack' em and flip 'em in the correct sequence.

Elektra EKL 303 (Mono)

Released: October 1965

Production: Norman Dayron with the Assistance of Pete Welding

UK release on Bounty BY6009 in 1966.

Elektra EKL 304 (Mono) EKS 7304 (Stereo)

Released: 1966

Production: W Gordon Smith

Licensed from Waverly Records in Scotland. The original (ZLP 2050) has different tracks. 'I Saw Three Ships', 'The Gift o' Gawd' and 'The Cherry Tree Carol' were not on the original, which had instead 'Shoals o' Herrin', 'Queen Mary' and 'Uist Tramping Song'.

Elektra EKL 305 (Mono) EKS 7305 (Stereo)

Released: October 1965

Production: Jac Holzman and Paul Rothchild with the assistance of Paul Nelson

Recorded: Mastertone Studios, New York City

Elektra EKL 306 (Mono) EKS 7306 (Stereo)

Released: 1965

Production: Mark Abramson assisted by Paul Rothchild

Joshua Rifkin was later to bring Scott Joplin's rags to serious attention on the Nonesuch label, and with it's serious cover painting (by Roger Hane) this could be mistaken for a Nonsuch disc ... maybe. This disc takes Lennon/McCartney songs and takes them back 400 years or so, complete with a delightful dedication letter.

Here's one of those connections: Elektra needed permission from the Beatles to record these versions of the songs so Jac Holzman met with John Lennon and Paul McCartney. They'd heard Koerner, Ray and Glover, thought that Elektra were 'OK' and so gave permission.

From the credits it seems that folklorist Edward Tatnall Canby, who had been connected with Elektra in the early 50s, directed the chorus in the Cantata. A credit to Murray the Klavierkitzler is given on the Epstein Variations: an homage to legendary DJ and Beatles fanatic Murray the K.

Elektra EKL 307 (Mono) EKS 7307 (Stereo)

Released: 1966

Production: Paul Rothchild and Peter Siegel

Elektra EKL 308 (Mono) EKS 7308 (Stereo)

Released: March 1966

Production: Mark Abramson

Tom Rush finds electricity! This album is a little gem of an example of the cross-over from folk to rock ... but Tom never does manage to growl effectively. The spine doesn't bear the sleeve title: it just says 'The New Album'.

Elektra EKL 309 (Mono) EKS 7309 (Stereo)

Released: 1966

Licensed from Transatlantic Record in the UK.

Elektra EKL 310 (Mono) EKS 7310 (Stereo)

Released: 1966

Production: Mark Abramson and Jac Holzman

Engineering: David B Jones

Recorded: Boston and New York

Recorded at a series of concerts in Boston and New York during the winter of 1065/6. The album sleeve famously features poems by Mao Tse-Tung (as he was then spelled) with the note: 'Is this the enemy?'

The song 'There but for Fortune', in a version by Joan Baez, became a world-wide hit.

Elektra EKL 311 (Mono) EKS 7311 (Stereo)

Released: October 1966

Production: Peter K Siegel

Elektra EKL 312 (Mono) EKS 7312 (Stereo)

Released: 1967

Production: A Wild Indigo Production, produced by Bill Szymczyk and Harvey Brooks for the Elektra Corporation

After tuning your instrument, you could play along with Harvey on these six tunes. The tracks were on the disc three times: with a simple bass line, an advanced bass line and finally no bass line. Instruction booklet included but bring your own bass guitar.

Elektra EKL 313/4 (Mono) EKS 7313/4 (Stereo)

Released: 1966

Boxed set of three discs. UK version included an EP of local effects. A version was released in Spain (in 1974?) titled ‘133 Autenticos Efectos De Sonido’.

Elektra EKL 315 (Mono) EKS 7315 (Stereo)

Released: August 1966

Production: Mark Abramson and Paul Rothchild

Elektra EKL 316 (Mono) EKS 7316 (Stereo)

Released: 1966

Elektra EKL 317 (Mono) EKS 7317 (Stereo)

Released: 1966

Production: Paul Rothchild

Tom Paxton's first, and unsuccessful, foray into folk/rock was on a single version of 'One Time and One Time Only' released in the UK (EKSN 45003). He disowns it in the sleeve notes to this album which includes a more subtle and suitable arrangement of the song.

Elektra EKL 318 (Mono) EKS 7318 (Stereo)

Released: August 1967

Production: Jerry Yester

Engineering: Bruce Botnick

Recorded: Los Angeles

This version was the first edition and had a gate-fold sleeve with lyrics in the US. In the UK (some?) copies had a standard sleeve with the gatefold-inner material moved to the liner. I have seen two different versions of the American sleeve, with different photographs and layout inside. The LP was moved to the pop/rock 4000 series at a lower price: EKS 74028.

Elektra EKL 319 (Mono) EKS 7319 (Stereo)

Released: 1967

Elektra EKL 320 (Mono) EKS 7320 (Stereo)

Released: November 1966

Production: Mark Abramson

Label credit for Joshua Rifkin as arranger/conductor. There's a simlar credit on the sleeve, which is larger than the production credit. Note the Leonard Cohen songs: Judy was a great champion of songwriters.

Also released with catalogue number EKS 74027. There are two sleeves featuring the same photo (taken in the garden of the Glory Hole Bar in Central City, Colorado) but in the 300-series release the photo is full-page while in the 4000-series version both this and an inset and windowed version is used.

Elektra EKL 321 (Mono) EKS 7321 (Stereo)

Released: 1967

Production: Bill Leader

Subtitle: A Calendar of Ceremonial Folk Songs. Scratched-out matrix numbers on the disc for EKS 7318 suggest either a change of number (318 is Tim Buckley 'Goodbye and Hello') or a simple mistake in the mastering. Licensed from Topic Records, UK (12T 136). UK original has a different sleeve showing a black and white oblique overhead shot of a river. The US sleeve, showing a moody photo of the goup, could have fitted a garage band rather than a trad folk quartet, and perhaps demonstrates a willingness of Elektra's buyers to look at the back of discs in the shop racks. The Watersons (including married-in Martin Carthy) were (are?) to British folk music what the Carter Family were to country.

Elektra EKL 322 (Mono) EKS 7322 (Stereo)

Released: 1966

Production: Joe Boyd

Engineering: John Wood

Recorded: Sound Techniques Studio, London

The original UK issue (EUK 254) has a different sleeve to the US, although the CD reverts to the UK cover and I have seen a German pressing with this catalogue number (322) and the American sleeve. In the UK, this number was used for the album 'U' with a different prefix denoting 'double': EKD 322.

Elektra EKL 324 (Mono)

Released: February 1967

Engineering: Peter K Siegel

A tutorial disc designed to be good to listen to as well. This was Stefan's first recorded output as a soloist - he had been a member of the Even Dozen Jug Band - and on some tracks he is helped by fellow-guitarist Sunshine Kate (SK).

In order to make it easy to drop the needle on a particular track as you learn it, the inter-track scrolls are much wider than usual. The disc came with a substantial booklet with tablature and other information. The cover art was by Moselle Thompson.

Elektra EKL 325 (Mono) EKS 7325 (Stereo)

Released: 1967

Production: John Court

The word Baul means 'Afflicted with the wind disease', in other words 'mad'. The Bauls are wandering musicians who dress in both Hindu and Moslem clothes. They can also be seen on the cover of Bob Dylan's "John Wesley Harding" album.

Elektra EKL 326 (Mono) EKS 7326 (Stereo)

Released: 1967

Production: Alex Hassilev

The Pennywhistlers are Francine Brown, Shelley Cook, Joyce Gluck, Alice Kogan, Deborah Lesser, Ethel Raim and Dina Silberman.