So at least once on ebay and once somewhere else I saw the Benny Sigler record that came out on Phil La of Soul on some other flowery looking (maybe even hand drawn) label called "Red Star". Last Sunday I was talking to Howard Ravitsky, who owned the Lash label and who produced the Benny Sigler record and Alfreda Brockington record for Phil La of Soul. I mentioned that the benny record came out first on some other label and he said that was not possible as he produced it directly from Phil La of Soul. Looking at the scan of the red star label:
you can see that Ravitsky's name isn't on it anywhere. Some random producer is listed and even though Ravitsky was one of the writers, he's not listed. I sent him an image of the label via email and this was his response:
"I'm just about 100 percent that record is a bootleg."
Does anyone have any idea what the deal is with this pressing? it's also not mentioned at all in the manship 5th edition guide which includes bootleg information. I don't think it's a one-off because I think I've seen it at least twice (unless it was the same copy changing hands). Are the recordings identical to the Phil La of Soul release (the song titles are)? Was this pressed for the northern scene (in which case, it would be more common and not sell for a lot and be in Manship's book). Was this some sort of bootleg contemporaneous with the original release? I can't figure out who would bootleg this and what audience it would be for, except for the northern scene, as this record isn't really "known" on any other scene and is even obscure for a northern record. But it doesn't appear to be a northern bootleg.
Totally weird, I would appreciate any info. Thanks.