Youth Of Today – Can’t Close My Eyes

So I recently got my last two major Youth of Today wants in the mail the other day (as well as another major want).  Now before I get to the actual records I want to talk about the shipping of the records. First off the guy I bought these off, Sam, got these shipped out super fast for me. He told me he would "pack these 7"s like they're going to the moon", and boy did he! Now when the records arrived I was amazed at the level of care that went into packing them.

So the package was a much larger box than I was expecting. As you can see below the box (on the left) was filled with styrofoam and contained a smaller box (the box on the right). This was also filled with Styrofoam.

The records were then wrapped in bubble wrap as you can see here.

Then under the bubble wrap the records were actually SEALED in plastic, making them water proof. This blew me away. Then the records were separated from the covers and placed in-between cardboard AND foam.

This is easily the best that anything has been packaged that I have received. It was a good thing that it was packaged so well as when I picked it up from the post office, the post office worker droped the box and KICKED it with me standing in front of her, i was not happy to say the least.

Since I have had some pretty bad experiences with getting records deliver (I’ve seen the posties try to bend 12” records to fit them in the mail box and I’ve had numerous records left on my doorstep or on top of my mail box in the rain), I was amazed to have records packed so well. Thanks again Sam, your a champ!

Ok now onto the records! I was luck enough to pick up 3 of my top wants. Two of these were Youth of Today 7”s. I picked up Can’t Close My Eyes - Some Records and Can’t Close My Eyes - Gold vinyl with Batman stamp.

Picking these up now almost completes my wants for the Can’t Close My Eyes 7”. Here is my collection so far. There are so many different variations of this 7” I’m not crazy enough to try and collect them all, just the main versions.

Here you can see the first press and what is sometimes called a second press or a later pressing. As you can see here the first press on the left has the red letters on the sleeve and black and white labels. All later presses have white writing on the cover. My second press has the blue and white labels, but there are also ones with black and white labels (like the first press), this is where the confusion with if this is a second press or not comes in.

The next copy is one I picked up on eBay last year. As part of a pressing plant error part of the second or third press had a bunch (apparently around 12-20 copies) with blank b-side labels. These had either random messages written on them, pictures drawn them or some had stamps on the label.

Now I bought this copy for pretty cheap because it is significantly water damaged. The cover and insert are water damaged as is the b-side label.

The b-side label on my copy has “RAY Lost the scissors!”. Unfortunately the label has actually come off from the record.

The A-side label is in fine however.

This version actually comes with a different insert from the other presses. As you can see here the regular insert is on the right and insert for the blank b-side record is on the right.

And the other side.

Now here is my copy of the 3^rd press Some Records 7”. There were 100 of these made, 47 of them were numbered, leaving 53 un-numbered. My copy is not numbered.

Instead of having stamps on both labels, my copy has a stamp and handwriting on one side and just handwriting on the other label.

Now the cover of my Some Records pressing is pretty beat up and someone has stapled the corners of the cover. I’m not really sure why as this makes it harder for the record to fit in the cover.

Last, but definitely not least, is the 4^th press, Can’t Close My Eyes on Gold vinyl with a blank b-side with Batman stamp. This was one of my top wants for 7” and I never thought I would actually own a copy. I can’t even find the words to describe how stoked I am that I actually own this record. My copy is in incredible condition, it looks amazing.

There are actually 4 Batman stamps on this copy. One on the b-side label and one on the dust sleeve.

Then there are also 2 on the cover. One under the album name.

And one on the other dudes face.

I still can’t believe that I have 4 of, if not the 4, most sort after Youth of Today records and not only that, but that I have picked them all up in less than a year. At this rate I will almost complete my entire want list in a year or two.