Extremely Rare Vinyl LP: Poetry – Charles Bukowski Steve Richmon (1968)

This Vinyl LP from 1968 is one of the rarest Charles Bukowski works. Even rare vinyl record collectors (with no particular interest in Bukowski) will tell you it’s one of the most elusive LPs that is in high demand among the vinyl faithful.

I was produced by Steve Richmond and sold only at his Earth Rose bookshop in Santa Monica, California. There are differences of opinion on how many were actually produced, with some saying 20 and others saying 100. One thing’s for sure: There are few still in existence.  Even back in January 1969 when A Bibliography of Charles Bukowski was released, author Sanford Dorbin had only seen four copies of the recording.

Like many works after the advent of the internet, more copies appeared on the market, but the count is probably less than 20.

There are two versions of the cover. This is the version with photographic image of what appears to be a human face imposed on a dog’s face. Some say it’s a bat, others say it’s all three. On the back cover, it reads:

POETRY –

CHRLES BUKOWSKI

STEVE RICHMOND

II am not qualified to grade vinyl records, but here is my description The white covers are very bright with very light rubbing, except the left hand side of the rear cover where it shows some handling. There are small bumps to all four corners and a small split on the lower right front cover. I wanted to capture this, but it does like lok the canyon my photo makes it out to be. It’s about 2” long and it only visually separates when pressure is applied, such as remove the record.

The sleeve is protected by a thin black material that feels like cloth when you run your finger across it. The sleeve appears to be intact but toned. The records does have some visible scratches, but they don’t look deep. I don’t think it will skip, but it may impact the sound.

The five Bukowski poems on his side of the record are as follows: