Drawings of stage configurations for a band called “Sweat” and a drawing of Darth Vader found inside a copy of KISS’ ‘Rock And Roll Over.’
 
The Instagram account, thingsifoundinrecords, run by Jeff Ogiba—co-owner of Brooklyn’s Black Gold record shop— has only been at it for a few months, but it’s already one of the best things on the Internet (if you’re a complete record nerd). The account is a repository for—as the title would suggest—weird things that people have found inside of record sleeves.

Jeff tells Dangerous Minds that he first got into collecting the ephemera found in old records when he found a clipping in a copy of Electric Warrior outlining the death of Marc Bolan.
 

 
He goes on to detail the craziest thing he ever found—a cache of handwritten letters between two married men who fell in love in 1975, Los Angeles. One man was an airline pilot and the other an actor. “I wouldn’t want to upset your family either. Let this memory be ours to keep.” These were found inside a copy of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Jeff views crates of used vinyl as conduits for making connections to the past—both with the recorded music, and with the prior owners of the physical product itself: “finding stuff in records just enhances your connection with the previous owner. Buying collections is, in a sense, a modern archeology of sorts concerning the person you got the records from.”

“And it’s fun,” he adds.

If you have your own weird shit found inside record sleeves, you can post it to Instagram and tag @thingsifoundinrecords—they’ll add your treasures to the collection. Personally, I’ve got piles of things I’ll eventually get around to submitting, but I’ll share this one here first as a Dangerous Minds “exclusive”:

A copy of Raven’s 1986 album The Pack Is Back that contained a sealed envelope addressed to “Parents of Paul West.” Inside the envelope was a failing pre-algebra test with Paul’s pencil-drawings of the Batman logo and some rocker dude who I’m going to go out on a limb and guess is Motley Crue’s mascot: Allister Fiend.
 

 

Uh-oh, Paul.
 

“Thought you might like to be aware of Paul’s 1st grade of the 4th six weeks and his artwork again. Any suggestions?” Paul scored a “50” on the test.
 
And here’s some of our favorite posts from thingsifoundinrecords. Check them out for loads more:
 

A crude drawing of who we assume is Nick Knox, and a Cramps logo found inside a copy of The Cramps’ ‘Off the Bone’ LP.
 

Drawings of Sir Paul found inside one of these Beatles albums.
 

8"x10” glossy signed “To David, Love always. For private parties Contact! 1-578-4513”—found in a copy of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller.’
 

Super sad tale of unrequited love found written on the inner sleeve of Pink Floyd’s ‘Piper at the Gates of Dawn.’
 

Strange photo of a young woman found inside a copy of Genesis’ ‘Foxtrot’ LP
 

An actual photo of Duane Allman found inside Allman Brothers Band ‘Beginnings’ LP.
 

A list of New Year’s resolutions from 1974 found inside a copy of Beach Boys’ ‘Pet Sounds.’
 

A touching letter found inside a copy of The Pretenders’ ‘Extended Play’ EP.
 

A leaf from a strange plant found inside a copy of The Surfaris’ ‘Wipe Out’ LP.
 
Via: thingsifoundinrecords