Man posts 58-year-old unreleased record he found at thrift store — and the band, now in their 70s, finally realized their teenage dream
'I was 18 years old. I’m 77 now. What we were hoping to do was be rock stars,' Roth explained.
A man named Marcus Pollard loves buying damaged, old records from thrift stores. He believes he would stumble upon something special, something unusual. But more often than not, he would find unlabeled records with nothing extraordinary. "Because every time I go, I think, 'There might be something cool on that,' and there never is. Never," he told CTV News. However, that changed when he discovered one particular record earlier this month, turning a decades-old musical dream into reality.
When Pollard first played it, he felt a "visceral rush" run through his veins. "It instantly hit me like a brick," he confessed. He immediately felt the urge to know the person who made it. He asked whoever he thought could answer him, but nobody knew the owner. However, after two years of continuous search, Pollard finally found his answers on a small music blog. He realized the record belonged to someone called Norm Roth. "This guy goes, 'Hey! That’s my record,'" Pollard recalled. Roth, he said, is a 77-year-old warehouse manager who never released the record. In fact, he hadn't even heard the songs in more than 5 decades. Roth was shocked when Pollard reached out. "I’m flabbergasted. I really am flabbergasted," he said. Roth said he was 18 years old when he recorded the music with his teenage band, "The Glass Cage." "I was 18 years old. I’m 77 now. What we were hoping to do was be rock stars," Roth explained.
However, long before they could achieve their dream, the band broke up. And this particular recording was misplaced over the years. Pollard, who found it years later, also had the opportunity to meet all the living band members. He was so fascinated by the record that he even proposed to bring their music back to life. Just like Roth, many well-known musicians also have unreleased albums; for instance, the legendary artist Michael Jackson. A report by The Guardian says there might be hundreds or even thousands of his songs that never got released. In fact, in 2017, a New York-based auction house planned to sell an unreleased track by Jackson starting at $50,000, but later they changed their minds and offered only private listening sessions.
While some artists pass away before they can release their music, others feel demotivated and abandon music forever. In fact, research published by Wei Liang on PubMed Central has proven that dissatisfied musicians tend to brush off their creativity because they are no longer motivated by their work. "Tutors and musicians in institutions that encounter resistance to innovation are unable to follow and apply creative ideas in music products," the study concluded. Sometimes, the high cost of recording an album also demotivates the musicians. In fact, according to a report by Business Insider, recording an album can cost somewhere between $250,000 to $300,000, making it difficult for artists to release their songs.
"I feel like everyone has done something in their life that was dismissed. And I wanted them to feel like what they created was actually important," Pollard explained. He then spent the next 8 years with professionals to refurbish the damaged record. Finally, after so many years, the unreleased record is ready to debut at public release parties on Vancouver Island and Vancouver. The man who discovered Roth's record said he isn't looking for accolades or superstardom. "That’s long gone. It’s just saying to the world, 'I was here.' And I hope they enjoy it," Pollard said.
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