Questions about a couple special vinyl releases
 

There might only be a couple people here who would know (and I might already know who you are!), but I've had a couple questions about a couple of vinyl releases that I've never found an answer to.

First: The Root Down EP (http://www.beastiemania.com/discog/s...2blue,root12ca)
When this was sold in stores brand new, was there any way to tell if you were getting a black copy or a blue copy? Also, any idea if one was more rare than the other, or how many blue copies there were?

Second: Fight For Your Right purple 7" single (http://www.beastiemania.com/discog/s...=ffyr7capurple)
Basically... what's up with this record? As far as I know only one person has it, but I'm assuming they didn't press just one. Besides being Canadian, is anything else known about it? Did Def Jam confirm pressing colored copies of this?

Thanks fellow nerds! Feel free to piggy back on this thread with your own oddball questions.

Re: Questions about a couple special vinyl releases
 

I have blue Root Down. I don’t remember it having anything on it saying it was blue. I can double check.

I didn’t even know there was a purple fight for your right. That be a nice find.

Re: Questions about a couple special vinyl releases
 

I'd have to double-check my copies but I don't remember any dead-givaway on Root Down. It's normally something like making sure its a "Grand Royal" press vs. a "Capital Records/Grand Royal" press (or there's some other tell on the packaging) but I remember there not being anything on the packaging itself that would tell you if it was blue or black. That being said, the record store owners seemed to have a way to know what they were ordering because when I bought mine the store owner had stickered it as "blue vinyl". The same was true with the Love American Style repress.

Re: Questions about a couple special vinyl releases
 

Interesting about the Root Down ordering at your local record store. Maybe this was indicated on some wholeside order form or something, but not shown to the public unless (like at your place) the seller put a little sticker on it.

That's also super interesting about Love American Style reissue. I always thought that the colors were just random, but black was most common. I remember buying it brand new and being surprised that it was red. My buddy was a DJ at the time so I bought one for him for his birthday, and when he opened it it was white, which blew me away because I didn't know about the color differences. Maybe this was the same deal as with Root Down. Either way, the record store owners you knew obviously had that info.

The FFYR purple 7" I only know about because of the exhaustive library at Beastiemania. And as far as I know, only one copy has been positively identified. That damn single (FFYR) was so heavily pressed that even today, you can get your hands on all kinds of different versions of it for pretty cheap. So the fact that there is this super rare version always fascinated me. Like, why is it rare? Why didn't they make a million like every other FFYR release? I also wonder how it was verified as authentic. It makes sense that if someone bootlegged a hundred purple copies just for fun, it would be rare, although less valuable.

Re: Questions about a couple special vinyl releases
 

You could always contact the one single owner on discogs - https://www.discogs.com/Beastie-Boys...elease/9712617

Find out where he/she got it maybe. From the images it looks pretty legit. Strange release all the same.