Inside Music: Believe It Or Not

Shoot-‘em-up: Carlo Rossi, known as a “colorful character,” owned the Satellite Lounge in Cooktown, NJ from the 1960s through the ‘90s. When the band Foghat ignored Rossi’s repeated order to turn down the volume, local lore has it that he “emerged from his office enraged and brandishing a handgun which he used to shoot out the band’s amplifiers.” You can read more about this incident and others--- like the time Bruce Springsteen played the club in ‘74 under Rossi’s threat of “the kiss of death” if he didn’t, in Weird NJ Magazine, #45.

A vinyl postage stamp plays music: Stamp collectors may want to know about the 1967 Dutch issued postage stamp commemorating a popular Dutch singer that actually plays music; or, the country of Bhutan’s “talking postage stamps” that double as playable vinyl records. Created in the early 70s, the stamps could be stuck on a letter and then later played on a turntable. One stamp plays the Bhutanese national anthem, and another delivers a “very concise” history of Bhutan. Clips of the Bhutan stamps can be heard on radio--- Thanks to WFMU .

More recently, the Swiss postal service issued a vinyl stamp that can be played on a smart phone. The 5fr stamp is designed to look like a vinyl record. A sheet of the stamps printed by offset using a special varnish on wood-free cardboard can be played on a turntable set to 33 rpm. It plays the Swiss national anthem. Even the individual stamps, if removed from the sheet, can be played.  (Ask your grand or great-grandparents about the cardboard pop music records sold in the 1930s and 40s. I have one that plays, “Josephina, Please No Lean-a On-a the Bell!”) Click here for more on the playable stamps.

The bottom of this article shows images of Bhutanese playable stamps.

One has to wonder why, with all our country’s technical prowess, the U.S. Postal Service has yet to introduce a playable version of its beautiful commemorative stamps featuring Elvis, Ella, Sinatra and others.