I've gone on way too much on my love for music acts on cards. It's safe to say that if cards of rock musicians were as prevalent as baseball cards were when I was a kid, I'd know as much about baseball as my daughter does -- probably less.
There aren't that many music card sets out there and I've completed the big one from '91 MusiCards. There are the Warner Brothers promo cards from the '70s that I love, but they're not easy to find and not affordable either.
So that's basically all I know that's left. Sure, I could collect the Yo, MTV Raps set, but rappers aren't my thing.
That leaves me to taking whatever custom cards I can find. Fortunately we have some great custom-card makers among us bloggers and I have fine -- actually fantastic -- customs of Joan Jett, Garbage's Shirley Manson, Run DMC and a couple of others.
But maybe the highlight showed up in my mailbox the other day. These customs struck at the heart of my budding radio appreciation as well as my teenage years.
Wonderful. Bitchin' actually.
Ann and Nancy Wilson are the voices on rock radio from my early teenage years. Barracuda, Crazy On You, Magic Man, Even It Up, Straight On, all that stuff played on WAAL or WWWE ("3 Double U EEE!") as I was getting ready for school or while doing homework in my bedroom.
I wasn't old enough to buy "Dream Boat Annie" or "Dog & Butterfly," but I eventually grabbed their greatest hits CD and then when they came back again in the mid-1980s, that self-titled LP was a must-have.
I even like the between albums that most ignore, like "Private Audition" and "Passionworks". The Wilson sisters' pioneering spirit is undeniable, the only women who can perform "Stairway To Heaven" in front of Led Zeppelin themselves and bring tears to their eyes. Ann's voice can't be matched in rock circles, I'm always jealous that I wasn't around when their first song appeared on the radio.
Anyway, back to the cards.
They were created by Gregory at Nine Pockets. If you read his post, you know this, but he was commissioned to create these by someone who then sent them out to get signed by Ann and Nancy! Very cool.
The 1967 design kind of throws me. Ann and Nancy were teenagers in '67 and not known musicians. How about throwing those photos on a Topps design from '75 or '76? But I get it, the '67 set is one of the cleanest ever and perfect for signatures.
Continuing the '67 theme, those are the backs. Just terrific work, with the cartoons and the list of songs and albums (that 1990 song I pretend doesn't exist).
So Gregory had some extras and offered them up to takers. Oh man, can I? How can I refuse? I hoped nobody had snuck in before I did. I really wanted these.
Heart is one of those bands that is wrapped up in my life. There are certain key life moments that are connected to Heart songs.
This is like the second or third time I've taken up Gregory on one of his free customs. I think I'm going to have to find a perfect artist or two and commission him for a project.
It's not like Pro Set is coming back to create another music set.
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But without out a doubt the nicest music cards I have are a set from Mr. Softee ice cream issued in England in 1965. It's got the Beatles, Dusty Springfield, Roy Orbison, and Manfred Mann as well as some lesser-known acts such as Kathy Kirby and Cilla Black.
I do. It's a pretty limited set. I have a lot of the Brockum Rock cards, too.
https://www.tcdb.com/Gallery.cfm/sid/154660/1985-Rock-Star-Concert-Cards
Then the numbering is weird, some cards have writeups on the back and some have puzzle pieces...just bizarre. Perhaps that explains why I don't remember ever seeing them at the time and I certainly didn't buy any. And I was a big card collector and a big rock fan at the time, although none of the four artists were favorites of mine.
You can't ever go wrong with using a '67 design. As much as I am a fan of the '87 set, I would be quite happy to see Topps use the '67 design as much as they do the '87 design.