I, THE UNDERSIGNED…
i.e., on autographs once again

⌈ AUTOGRAPH The word autograph comes from Ancient Greek (αὐτός, autós, "self" and γράφω, gráphō, "write"), and can mean more specifically:
˻ 1 ˺ a manuscript written by the author of its content. In this meaning the term autograph can often be used interchangeably with holograph.
˻ 2 ˺ a celebrity's handwritten signature. Autograph collecting is the activity of collecting such autographs.
Entry: ‘Autograph’ in: Wikipedia, →, accessed: 25.07.2025. ⌋

I TRY AGAIN AND AGAIN, but I can't seem to get it together... For a long time, I've been wanting to write about the phenomenon of record labels more and more often offering CDs, LPs and test pressings signed by artists. I even managed to sneak in a few related thoughts a few times while writing other texts. Furthermore, when I focused inward, I remembered that such an editorial had already been written before and that I was its author. The article Ile wart jest autograf? was published on 1 May 2021; more → HERE https://highfidelity.pl/@numer--156&lang= . And yet, there's something about this topic that has been bothering me, gnawing at me, and making me want to take another look at it.

⸜ VOLBEAT’s album God of Angels Trust, Vertigo | Universal Music Group 7577267, comes with a signed art print.

I've been thinking about it for a while, but I still couldn't start because "I just ordered something", "something is on its way", and "something new will probably show up soon". And that means I'll know more, that I'll understand better. So, a year passed, or even longer. However, when the latest album by the band VOLBEAT, God of Angels Trust, arrived at my place, I said to myself, "Stop!" and pulled out older, newer and the latest examples of album releases where the artist (or artists) left their physical mark, listened to them, and sorted out the thoughts that had been bothering me for quite some time.

And there are quite a few possibilities for artists to "mark" their work and extract it from a mass of similar objects. The history of the autograph is rich and dates back to antiquity, with examples including clay tablets like the often-cited Sumerian tablet from 3100 BC, which mentions the scribe's name, or descriptions of materials with autographs used for decorating homes and temples in China. Collecting signed books began as early as the Renaissance, but it became more widespread in the 19th century. In the description of the Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections, we find a quote that partially explains this phenomenon:

Strange that the mere identity of paper and ink should be so powerful. The same thoughts might look cold and ineffectual in a printed book. Human nature craves a certain materialism and clings perniciously to what is tangible, as if that were of more importance than the spirit accidentally involved in it. – Nathaniel Hawthorne

In music, autographs have been primarily associated with the concert setting until now. Like you, I've probably stood outside dressing rooms, the stage, or the building entrance many times, dreaming that the artist would appear, even for a moment, and sign a CD, ticket, or any scrap of paper I happened to have on hand. This signature somehow validated my experiences; it was a kind of a "seal" confirming that I was indeed there, that I saw, and perhaps even shook hands with someone I enjoy listening to.

⸜ A framed photograph of Gahan with an autograph, next to it the single Heaven; a set prepared by the Tank Attack company

And I have quite a few of these signatures. However, over time, I started buying albums that were already signed, without personalized dedications, just with autographs. This shifted emotions from the direct "presence" of the artist to a mediated presence. This didn't prevent this type of communication from spreading quite quickly between us and the contractor. It quickly turned out that I wasn't the only one who likes to have a special edition of a disc in their hands. In recent years, most record labels and bands, mainly through their "home" pages, which also serve as online stores, have started offering this option, alongside regular releases and merchandise.

However, something kept bothering me, which caused the Dave Gahan photo I bought, signed by the Depeche Mode frontman, to sit in a closet for almost twelve (!) years. It's about authenticity. The online store kulturalnysklep.pl, answering the question "How to assess the authenticity of an autograph on a record?" writes:

Ideally, a signed album should have a certificate of authenticity (emphasis added by the Editor). It usually takes the form of a seal or sticker. On a computer, it's a license number. An authenticity certificate can be made in many languages, so it can even be called an art passport. A certificate of authenticity can only be obtained for an original disc with an original autograph.

Unfortunately, even if an online seller states that a record has a certificate of authenticity, caution is still needed, and even more so the bigger the bargain seems. Sellers can cheat in order to inflate the price of the record and earn more. You should be particularly careful about autographs from deceased artists or those you know don't give them out easily. Such original autographs have the highest value, so it's no surprise that they are the subject of the most scams.

⸜ Jak sprawdzić ile jest warta płyta z autografem?, → KULTURALNYSKLEP.pl, 1.08.2023, accessed: 12.06.2025.

I'm mentioning this review because it captures the most important points in a short post and also because I bought a few cool signed CDs there myself. Today, the authenticity of a signature is almost trivially easy to determine, although very few companies use this solution – a chip with an NFC (Near Field Communication) tag. You can find it on Siltech and Crystal Cable cables, as well as on numbered editions of Polvinyl label records. It's impossible to forge such a certificate, yet it's still rare in the music world.

⸜ SETH MacFARLANE’s new album Lush Life. The Lost Sinatra Arrangements, Verve Records | Republic Records 602478075445, is delivered with a small, signed piece of paper.

But, really, what do we need a signed album for? The straightforward answer is that an autograph increases the value of the record, turning a disc worth little into a unique item for which you can get more money. So, it's an investment, rational action with motives that could be approved of by our wives, husbands, girlfriends and boyfriends, who usually view the quirks of their loved ones (us) related to their hobbies – any hobby – as a harmless mental illness.

But I don't think that's what we're aiming for, at least not me. Do you remember the episode of the comedy series The Big Bang Theory where Sheldon is sick and has to stay home, and his friends try to cheer him up by bringing him various gifts, including a copy of Harry Potter's wand? Sheldon is ecstatic. However, Rajesh Koothrappali, who plays the role of a child untainted by the adult world here, shouts – metaphorically – "the king is naked!" upon seeing an ordinary stick. And that would be a typical reaction from our surroundings to the music-loving, audiophile antics of getting autographs on records.

However, Sheldon, posing as a "grown-up who knows better", replies almost affectionately to his friend who is at a lower developmental stage and therefore requires care, that it's a "limited edition." At this moment, the mood of the scene changes completely, and from a piece of stick carved from a bush somewhere along the way to the parcel locker, an "object," an "artifact," is created, far exceeding the cost of its "production" in value. It's no different with signatures on LPs and CDs.

There's something about an artist or creator "confirming" an object that changes how we perceive it in our minds. It's supposedly the same, but it's not the same anymore, actually becomes completely different. After all, even a ticket signed at a concert or even a piece of paper becomes a valuable souvenir, and often a valuable "something". We keep it, supposedly because "it will be worth something", but really just to remind us of that specific moment.

Besides – it doesn't have to be signed at all, just something like a note on the base of the aforementioned wand is enough, or like the stamp on the last page of the album by the graphic artist Frans Masereel, just published by the Lokator publishing house, which indicates that this is one of 250 numbered copies from an edition of 600 (yes, bibliophiles have the same cosmos in their heads as we do). But it’s a stamp with a handwritten (!) number, which is one step higher than if the number was machine-stamped.

I've noticed that I not only store these types of records differently, I also listen to them differently, more carefully. It's as if the mark placed on them by the author – this could be an artist, producer, sound engineer, or even the head of a publishing house – they are all the collective author of the work – as if that mark anchors the album (book) in my world. And because of that, the author hasn’t just made the work more valuable in terms of money, but also deeper in content, more valuable emotionally and intellectually.

We listen differently to music by the artists we've seen and heard in concert, don't we? It's not even about comparing the sound, but about transferring the emotions of a concert to music listened to at home. So – it’s getting closer to our imagined "zero moment" when the music was created. And even if we know that studio production isn't and actually can't be a documentary, but a new work of art, the association of the album with a memory results in us suspending that disbelief.

And that's what audio is all about – accepting the illusion created by sound reproduced at home as reality, as truth – not in an absolute sense (as in Aristotle's view), but temporarily. I'll remind you that the Greek claimed a statement is true if it corresponds to the state of affairs it describes. In other words, what we say must align with what truly exists. Today we know that it's a much more complex issue and it's difficult to point to a reference point, or "objective truth", but I think you understand what I mean.

⸜ Three albums of the Universal Music Group (UMG): ANOUAR BRAHEM After The Last Sky, YUJA WANG Shostakovich: The Piano Concertos | Solo Works and SHEKU KANNEH-MASON Shostakovich & Britten.

I noticed that while the strategy a particular label adopts regarding the CD (or LP) version sold with an autograph is important, ultimately, I don't care whether the album comes with a beautifully printed art print on archival paper signed by ANOUAR BRAHEM (ECM Records), or if it's a small but nice photo, like the one I received with the albums by YUJI WANG (Deutsche Grammophon) and SHEKU KANNEH-MASON (Decca). Mindfulness and a certain kind of sensitivity – yes, I am a Polish philologist, and this category is an important part of the philological "discourse" of recent years – accompany me to the same extent each time.

Maybe just...* I'm adding this, although with an asterisk, because it's true that bigger things make a bigger impression at first. That's why art print wins. And out of the two photos I mentioned, the one of the British cellist wins because it's numbered (my number is 30/400). However, I see that, after a while, size and even greater uniqueness cease to matter to me, and all these albums are equally important to me; I simply distinguish them based on how much the music resonated with me. However, I repeat, all three "weigh" more in my mind than those without a signature.

That snobbery, because that's what it is, is a good thing. It is creative, not regressive. It's obvious that we want to share our little gems with others; it's natural – that's the "hard" aspect of snobbery. But it’s not because we want to "show off", but because we want to share our joy – that's the "soft" part. Like me, who is doing it right now. And the autograph itself makes us perceive the music more deeply.

⸜ The Limited Edition version of SUZANNE VEGA’s album Flying With Angels, Cooking Vinyl COOKCD943X, comes with a card signed by the artist.

That's how it should be; after all, as many people like to emphasize, we are rational beings. However, this Enlightenment paradigm has already worn out, and today we know that we are equally logical and emotional. And only together do these values constitute us as we are. And the autographs on the albums touch both sides of me, which is good and what I wanted to share with you.

So, I hope I haven't bored or disgusted you by referring to my own experiences. I draw the courage to write this text from a passage I recently read in Jarosław Mikołajewski's reportage titled Syrakuzjańskie. The poet, translator from Italian, passionate about travel and literature, journalist for "Gazeta Wyborcza" and director of the Polish Institute in Rome from 2006 to 2012, writes:

And in general, what's the deal with the thematic focus of reportage? Do I have the right to write about the Roman episode of Julia Hartwig's poetry in a Sicilian text, when she has never been to Sicily? (...) Wouldn't it be better not to ask such questions, but just write down the associations, since something like that came to mind in connection with someone like that? Can absence be presence? (Austeria, 2019, p. 19)

So, I use the wisdom of others and do not delete what I've already written. Music, audio equipment and autographs – these are all interconnected in my perception of music. I tried to explain to you how, but I'm not sure if I succeeded – I'm not even sure of these methods myself. But I clearly see a connection between the artist's personal endorsement of the album and the way it is treated. I feel a connection between the characters written on the paper and the music I'm listening to.

⸜ Polish record labels also offer albums with autographs, such as: (below) KARAŚ & ROGUCKI 2019-2024, ARMIA Wojna i pokój (to the left) and KOMBI (with Łosowski) Minerał życia. In all the cases, the booklets are signed.

That's why an autograph, which is now a sales tool for record labels, invented a bit on the principle the English call a Hail Mary, is a nice addition to a discography. Not everything needs to be signed, but – please check – autographed records "play" differently than those without a signature. Which I, the undersigned, am pleased to report -

Chief editor