WTH is a run-out groove, anyway?

As you might expect, we're all Eagles trivia buffs. Recently we ran across an interesting tidbit about the Eagles carving "secret messages" into their albums, so we featured it as a trivia question in our Facebook group. Only one member got it right. How would you do?

You never know what you’re going to run across on the Internet. Being Eagles aficionados, all of us spend at least some time each week idly perusing various anecdotes about the life and times of the Eagles and its various members.

Recently the topic of run out grooves presented itself during one such surfing session. For those of you that aren’t familiar with the term, you may have heard it called “dead wax” or the matrix, but whatever you call it, it’s the ring of wax with no grooves around the label.

Artists and engineers alike have gotten creative with that wasted space, but especially the Eagles (as did Joe Walsh. A lot.) The album that our trivia question referred to was The Long Run, and each side had a different message; “Never let your monster lay down.” on Side A, and on Side B, “From the Polack who sailed north.” (Only one of our group members knew the answer – shoutout to Kathy!)

Just as interesting, while researching dead wax trivia, at least a few of us learned that the Monty Python album The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief randomly played two different routines, depending on where the needle landed.

CDs and downloads seem rather banal in comparison.

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