Hello, Ekadasi. Didn’t see ya standin’ there.

And boy howdy do I have a treat for you! We’ve got TWO records today! And a slew of All-Stars as well!

Both releases were by the American Golden Avatar Productions label. I have a feeling that there were more releases than the three that I own, but this is what I’ve got.

For starters, there’s a 7″ (45rpm). It was released in 1975 and produced by Krishnakanti das Adhikary and performed by the “Radha Krishna Temple (Los Angeles)”. The catalog number was GAP 1002. GAP 1001 was the Every Town & Village LP I reviewed a couple of months ago.

Side A – Gopinatha 3:00
The first cut has Agnidev dasa Adhikary on vocals. This may be the earliest Agnidev recording. And it’s really well produced. It’s much higher quality than the European stuff. There’s a guitar, mrdanga, flute, possibly a violin, it’s pretty impressive! The scratchiness at the beginning of the song is from my copy of the record. There’s a huge chunk taken out of it. Go figure.

Side B - Ohe Vaisnava Thakura 3:45
Mangalananda dasa Adhikary takes over vocals for this folk rendition of an ISKCON favorite. It’s mostly vocals and guitar, with faint mrdanga and kartals in the background if you listen carefully.

Not much more to say about it, but it’s certainly a treat.

Let’s move onto the LP…

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that pretty much every devotee has heard this one.

The LP, entitled simply “Govinda,” was also released by Golden Avatar Production. First in 1973 and then (seemingly) rereleased in 1975. I’ve managed to find both of them (lucky me!). The catalog number for both releases was GOPI-108. Because of the obvious “one-offness” of the catalog number, I assumed this was Golden Avatar Productions first release, however, I think Every Town & Village was released before this. So basically, I have no idea.

Srila Prabhupada provides vocals, harmonium and kartalas on all of the songs. It was recorded at Annex Studios in Hollywood, California. Krsnakanti dasa also produced it. The cover of the 1975 version was painted by Pariksit dasa.

Side A
1) Prayers to the Six Gosvamis 13:05
The opening notes have accented many devotee projects, DVDs and videotapes. You’ll recognize it right away. I’ve heard this many times before, but I can’t figure out which CD it’s been released on recently. In addition to Srila Prabhupada’s contribution, this first song features George Ruckert on sarod and Ann Ruckert on Tampoura. They were both from the Ali Akbar Khan School of Music.

2) Gour and Nitai 7:01
On the 1975 release, this song is retitled “Lalsamayi.” This is simply Srila Prabhupada with a harmonium. Again, I can’t figure out which CD this has been released on. Maybe it wasn’t.

Side B
1)Chintamani 9:11
The 1975 release spells it “Cintamani”. Again, it’s Srila Prabhupada on vocals and karatalas. Ann Ruckert plays tampoura as well. This is a really sweet recording, you’d think that the BBT would have released this on one of their CDs, but I can’t find it.

2) Chintamani – text 12:10
Srila Prabhupada nicely explains the purport to the song “Chintamani.” Oddly, this recording showed up on the Vintage Series CDs, Volume 16. The song “Chintamani,” appearing on this LP, however, did not. What gives? I don’t know.

The 1975 release of this LP came with an insert:

And I guess that pretty much does it.

Tune in next Ekadasi for another exciting episode of…
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