Car Boot Vinyl Diaries
Tuesday, 27 November 2012
Living To Music December 2012
Join in if you can, alone or with friends, this Sunday at 9pm with Greg Wilson's Living To Music worldwide communal listening experience. This month's selected album is Rufusized by Rufus and Chaka Khan (1974).
Wednesday, 21 November 2012
Ants in my pants and I need to dance
I managed to hobble round last Sunday's boot sale on my crutches and picked up a couple of good records. I haven't actually got round to cleaning them yet, let alone listening to them, so here's one from a few weeks ago, bought for £3:
Released in 1979, Uncle Jam Wants You was Funkadelic's follow-up to their bestselling album One Nation Under A Groove from the year before, and their 11th release overall.
Subtitled Rescue Dance Music from the Blahs, Uncle Jam Wants You is a concept album whose loose theme is just that - Thrill Sergeant Dr. Funkenstein aka George Clinton's mission to revitalise dancefloors worldwide with his patented P-Funk.
The first two-thirds of the album is a mixture of funk, diso and rock. Best is Freak of the Week; the story of a "disco lovin' mama" with some really funky guitar from "The Funkadelic Rescue Dance Band: Axe Force". The 15-minute (not just) Knee Deep, famously sampled by De La Soul on Me Myself & I reprises Freak of the Week at the end.
Uncle Jam Wants You reached no.2 on the US R&B chart. Here's Freak of the Week:
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| Funkadelic - Uncle Jam Wants You (1979) |
Released in 1979, Uncle Jam Wants You was Funkadelic's follow-up to their bestselling album One Nation Under A Groove from the year before, and their 11th release overall.
Subtitled Rescue Dance Music from the Blahs, Uncle Jam Wants You is a concept album whose loose theme is just that - Thrill Sergeant Dr. Funkenstein aka George Clinton's mission to revitalise dancefloors worldwide with his patented P-Funk.
The first two-thirds of the album is a mixture of funk, diso and rock. Best is Freak of the Week; the story of a "disco lovin' mama" with some really funky guitar from "The Funkadelic Rescue Dance Band: Axe Force". The 15-minute (not just) Knee Deep, famously sampled by De La Soul on Me Myself & I reprises Freak of the Week at the end.
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| Inner gatefold |
Later comes Holly Wants to go to California; a forgettable gospel-ish ballad with background party chatter, then final track Foot Soldiers; a pseudo-militaristic dance drill (the main instruction being "move it") with a nursery-rhyme synth line.
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| Rear cover |
Uncle Jam Wants You reached no.2 on the US R&B chart. Here's Freak of the Week:
Monday, 12 November 2012
Pardon My Heart
Now in possession of the family crutches (we're a clumsy lot) I was able to get out yesterday and have a look round a car boot sale. I got this album for £2, which funnily enough I'd recently bought on CD:
This was Neil Young's seventh album overall and the second to be credited with Crazy Horse. It contains just two acoustic songs; the gentle, harmonic country of Pardon My Heart (albeit with electric solo) and the brief Through My Sails taken from aborted sessions with C.S.N.
The rest is a variety of electric rockers, from the leaden beauty of Danger Bird through mid-paced numbers like Barstool Blues to the seven-minute epic that is the glorious Cortez The Killer. It's on this loose description of the Spanish defeat of Mexico by conquistador Hernan Cortez in the 16th century that Young is able to stretch out, with an exquisite long intro before the vocal only coming in during the 4th minute.
This track would have gone on longer if the tape hadn't run out before the last verse could be recorded; instead it fades out rather abruptly. Neil claims to have never much liked this final verse anyway, and doesn't include it when playing live.
Zuma reached no. 25 on the U.S. Billboard chart. It's one of the few Young albums not to feature on Spotify, which is a shame as I really rate it. Anyway, here's Cortez The Killer:
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| Neil Young - Zuma (1975) |
This was Neil Young's seventh album overall and the second to be credited with Crazy Horse. It contains just two acoustic songs; the gentle, harmonic country of Pardon My Heart (albeit with electric solo) and the brief Through My Sails taken from aborted sessions with C.S.N.
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| Rear cover |
The rest is a variety of electric rockers, from the leaden beauty of Danger Bird through mid-paced numbers like Barstool Blues to the seven-minute epic that is the glorious Cortez The Killer. It's on this loose description of the Spanish defeat of Mexico by conquistador Hernan Cortez in the 16th century that Young is able to stretch out, with an exquisite long intro before the vocal only coming in during the 4th minute.
This track would have gone on longer if the tape hadn't run out before the last verse could be recorded; instead it fades out rather abruptly. Neil claims to have never much liked this final verse anyway, and doesn't include it when playing live.
Zuma reached no. 25 on the U.S. Billboard chart. It's one of the few Young albums not to feature on Spotify, which is a shame as I really rate it. Anyway, here's Cortez The Killer:
Friday, 9 November 2012
Don't Touch Me There!
Due to a combination of bad weather and a broken toe I've not been car-booting for the last two Sundays, so here's an album I picked up at a boot sale a few weeks ago for £3:
This is a double live album recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1978 by San Francisco new wave-punk-rock-caberet group The Tubes.
Their dynamic live shows combined their music with a full-on theatrical experience complete with costumes, props, dancers, audience interaction and S&M imagery. They were the cause of some hysterical newspaper headlines on both sides of the Atlantic at the time, despite their rather tongue-in-cheek attitude.
They never became huge, but their success can be measured in longevity; they formed in 1969 and four of the original members still tour to this day.
My top track, rather befitting my current status is Don't Touch Me There, a duet between lead singer Fee Waybill and Re Styles.
Full album here: The Tubes – What Do You Want From Live
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| The Tubes - What Do You Want From Live (1978) |
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| Inner gatefold |
This is a double live album recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1978 by San Francisco new wave-punk-rock-caberet group The Tubes.
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| The Tubes in '78 |
They never became huge, but their success can be measured in longevity; they formed in 1969 and four of the original members still tour to this day.
My top track, rather befitting my current status is Don't Touch Me There, a duet between lead singer Fee Waybill and Re Styles.
Full album here: The Tubes – What Do You Want From Live
Thursday, 1 November 2012
Out Of Time
On holiday from work this week, I paid a visit to Out Of Time Records, an independent shop in Ipswich that deals in secondhand music; the only such place for miles around.
To my shame I hadn't been in here for about ten years, and in the intervening time had assumed it had closed, what with the recession badly affecting the high street and also the plight of record shops in particular. I happened to stumble across its website a couple of weeks ago and was delighted to see it still going after 25-odd years of serving music fans.
To my shame I hadn't been in here for about ten years, and in the intervening time had assumed it had closed, what with the recession badly affecting the high street and also the plight of record shops in particular. I happened to stumble across its website a couple of weeks ago and was delighted to see it still going after 25-odd years of serving music fans.
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| Out Of Time Records, 46 Fore Street, Ipswich, Suffolk |
It's packed tight with racks of CDs and vinyl from tons of genres and decades, with rows of DVDs and cassettes on shelves. Music posters and album sleeves cover up any remaining wall space and piles of yet-to-be filed vinyl perch on the floor by the counter. It was in one of these piles that I found a copy of Patti Smith's 1975 debut Horses.
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| Patti Smith - Horses (1975) |
Plus I got a few CDs that had been on my to-get list for a while:
Out Of Time Records (also known as Out Of Town Records, as it's away from the main drag) seems to be surviving due to excellent, varied stock, sensible prices and that fact that it's a rare oasis in a desert of soulless internet shopping and now almost CD-less HMVs. The above purchases came to £22.84 (all in spanking condition) and the friendly, helpful proprietor rounded this down to a flat £20. I could have spent hours in there, and certainly more money, but due to a sofa/foot interface last Saturday evening I am now rocking a walking stick and my toe was ready to go well before I was!
If you're ever in the Ipswich area please have a look in, so it stands a chance of another 25 years. Info. here: http://www.outoftimerecords.com/ and http://www.facebook.com/pages/Out-Of-Time-Records/170012253018951?ref=stream
Tuesday, 30 October 2012
Terrible album art
Like many fans of vinyl, there's nothing I like better than a great album cover. Nothing that is, except for a really terrible one. I bought this irresistible book a couple of weeks ago and I've been mesmerised ever since by the horrors within:
Here are a few of my favourites:
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| Ahh, bless 'em. |
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| An ideal Valentine's gift. |
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| No. |
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| A long-time favourite of mine, the classy Ms. Jackson. |
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| Eek! Apparently Miss Joyce is popular on the internet. One can see why. |
Don't have nightmares........
You can find the book here.
Monday, 29 October 2012
Living To Music November 2012
Join in if you can, alone or with friends, this Sunday at 9pm with Greg Wilson's Living To Music worldwide communal listening experience. This month's selected album is the brilliant Hunky Dory by Dame David Bowie.
Friday, 19 October 2012
Monkberry Moon Delight
It's been a couple of weeks since my last post. I turned 38 and was given lots of music for my birthday, plus I bought several CDs with some birthday money, so my ears have been very busy for the past fortnight. This of course hasn't stopped me from vinyl-hunting, and last weekend turned up a couple of Beatles-related LPs. Firstly, bought for £3, I give you Moog Plays The Beatles:
American composer Marty Gold interprets twelve Beatles songs using the then very new Moog synthesizer accompanied by electric guitar, bass, harpsichord, a Lowrey organ, drums and percussion (unlike the pure Moog-ness of the Star Wars soundtrack by The Electric Moog Orchestra).
Highly comic in places, it works best on tracks such as Penny Lane, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds and surprisingly, Norwegian Wood. It relies more heavily on guitars for rockier tracks like Get Back and Day Tripper. The cover art is both inexplicable and explicit, and I like it.
Like most Beatles covers though, it just makes you want to hear the originals. Here it is on Spotify - see what you think.
The next find, also for £3 was Ram by Paul & Linda McCartney:
This pre-Wings album was Macca's second release post- Beatles. He and Linda wrote the album during time spent at their Scottish farm and recorded it in New York with Denny Sewell, Dave Spinoza and Hugh McCracken.
Like his first solo album McCartney, the songs on Ram have a homegrown feel about them; probably a reflection of the domestic bliss that Paul and Linda were enjoying at the time. A quirky set of relaxed, melodic and whimsical compositions show an intimacy that the pair's seclusion encouraged, yet they don't forget to rock, too. There are also a couple of thinly-veiled jibes at his former bandmates; this is illustrated by the beetles photo on the rear cover:
The cover photography is Linda's work, but the awful artwork is credited to Paul - he may be a talented man, but this doesn't extend to graphic design...
Ram reached no.1 in the UK and no.2 in the US, and produced three singles. Here's Monkberry Moon Delight:
And the album on Spotify: Paul McCartney – RAM
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| Marty Gold - Moog Plays The Beatles (1970) |
American composer Marty Gold interprets twelve Beatles songs using the then very new Moog synthesizer accompanied by electric guitar, bass, harpsichord, a Lowrey organ, drums and percussion (unlike the pure Moog-ness of the Star Wars soundtrack by The Electric Moog Orchestra).
Highly comic in places, it works best on tracks such as Penny Lane, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds and surprisingly, Norwegian Wood. It relies more heavily on guitars for rockier tracks like Get Back and Day Tripper. The cover art is both inexplicable and explicit, and I like it.
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| Rear cover |
Like most Beatles covers though, it just makes you want to hear the originals. Here it is on Spotify - see what you think.
The next find, also for £3 was Ram by Paul & Linda McCartney:
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| Paul & Linda McCartney - Ram (1971) |
This pre-Wings album was Macca's second release post- Beatles. He and Linda wrote the album during time spent at their Scottish farm and recorded it in New York with Denny Sewell, Dave Spinoza and Hugh McCracken.
Like his first solo album McCartney, the songs on Ram have a homegrown feel about them; probably a reflection of the domestic bliss that Paul and Linda were enjoying at the time. A quirky set of relaxed, melodic and whimsical compositions show an intimacy that the pair's seclusion encouraged, yet they don't forget to rock, too. There are also a couple of thinly-veiled jibes at his former bandmates; this is illustrated by the beetles photo on the rear cover:
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| Rear cover. Note the two beetles - said to be how Paul felt he'd been treated by the other Beatles. |
The cover photography is Linda's work, but the awful artwork is credited to Paul - he may be a talented man, but this doesn't extend to graphic design...
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| Inner gatefold |
Ram reached no.1 in the UK and no.2 in the US, and produced three singles. Here's Monkberry Moon Delight:
And the album on Spotify: Paul McCartney – RAM
Friday, 5 October 2012
Beatlemania!
Today marks fifty years since the release of the Beatles' debut single Love Me Do. It's hard for those not around at the time to imagine just what an impact the Beatles had on young people once they'd broken through with their early 1963 singles. The levels of complete hysteria that they induced when playing live or even just being spotted are almost unbelievable; teenagers screaming, crying and fainting at the very sight of their heroes.
At last Sunday's car boot sale I bought a copy of The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl (£5) and was able to get a real sense of the madness that could surround them.
Released in 1977 to serve the as-yet unsatisfied hunger for a Beatles live recording (bootlegs aside), this LP was painstaking put together by George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerik from recordings made at LA's Hollywood Bowl in 1964 and 1965. As George says in the sleeve notes, the sound itself is unimpressive due the poor quality of the recordings, but the tapes still managed to capture the "electric atmosphere and raw energy" given off from the band playing live at the height of Beatlemania.
Oh the screaming! Although the band didn't have on-stage monitors with which to hear themselves, I doubt it would have made much difference. The sheer volume and incessance of the thousands of screaming fans is incredible; they couldn't have heard a note the boys made!
The album features thirteen songs including Twist & Shout, Dizzy Miss Lizzy, She Loves You, Can't Buy Me Love and Ticket To Ride.
Here's some amateur footage from the 1964 concert - to say that the excitement is palpable would be an understatement; just take a look at the shots of the crowd.
At last Sunday's car boot sale I bought a copy of The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl (£5) and was able to get a real sense of the madness that could surround them.
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| The Beatles - At the Hollywood Bowl (1977) |
Released in 1977 to serve the as-yet unsatisfied hunger for a Beatles live recording (bootlegs aside), this LP was painstaking put together by George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerik from recordings made at LA's Hollywood Bowl in 1964 and 1965. As George says in the sleeve notes, the sound itself is unimpressive due the poor quality of the recordings, but the tapes still managed to capture the "electric atmosphere and raw energy" given off from the band playing live at the height of Beatlemania.
Oh the screaming! Although the band didn't have on-stage monitors with which to hear themselves, I doubt it would have made much difference. The sheer volume and incessance of the thousands of screaming fans is incredible; they couldn't have heard a note the boys made!
The album features thirteen songs including Twist & Shout, Dizzy Miss Lizzy, She Loves You, Can't Buy Me Love and Ticket To Ride.
Here's some amateur footage from the 1964 concert - to say that the excitement is palpable would be an understatement; just take a look at the shots of the crowd.
Thursday, 4 October 2012
Living To Music October 2012
Join in if you can, alone or with friends, this Sunday at 9pm with Greg Wilson's Living To Music worldwide communal listening experience. This month's selected album is Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not.
http://www.gregwilson.co.uk/2012/10/living-to-music-arctic-monkeys-whatever-people-say-i-am-thats-what-im-not/
http://www.gregwilson.co.uk/2012/10/living-to-music-arctic-monkeys-whatever-people-say-i-am-thats-what-im-not/
Monday, 1 October 2012
The 100 Club
After about 14 months of keeping this blog, today marks it's one-hundreth post. In this relatively small space of time I've fallen in love with several artists, and come to appreciate many more. Here's a selection from the last few months:
And to celebrate Car Boot Vinyl Diaries' century, here are 100 songs by the Fabs in five minutes:
And to celebrate Car Boot Vinyl Diaries' century, here are 100 songs by the Fabs in five minutes:
Thursday, 27 September 2012
All Aboard!
Back in May of this year the restored Yellow Submarine was released on DVD and despite being a Beatles fan I'd only ever seen a few clips, so I bought a copy. This psychedelic animated adventure stars the Fab Four and other assorted fantastical beings, and naturally has an excellent soundtrack.
A couple of weeks ago I came across a vinyl copy of the Yellow Submarine LP. It was priced at £10 but I couldn't resist, especially when the seller threw in Bruce Springsteen's Human Touch album for free.
This copy is a UK issue which was pressed in 1973 under contract in France by Pathe Marconi. At the time EMI's pressing plant in Hayes was undergoing refurbishment, so many albums were produced this way. The sleeve was made in the UK as usual.
Yellow Submarine was the Beatles' 10th studio album. It contains two Harrisongs; It's All Too Much and Only a Northern Song. Where the title track seems out of place on its parent album Revolver, in context here it sounds much better. My favourite song All Together Now is followed by the heavy romp of Hey Bulldog. Side 1 closes with All You Need Is Love; a 1967 no.1 single from the Magical Mystery Tour EP.
Side 2 is a collection of excerpts from the film's score, written and arranged by George Martin. Titles include March of the Meanies, Pepperland Laid Waste and Sea of Holes. If you've never seen the film I'd highly recommend it. Here's my top track:
A couple of weeks ago I came across a vinyl copy of the Yellow Submarine LP. It was priced at £10 but I couldn't resist, especially when the seller threw in Bruce Springsteen's Human Touch album for free.
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| The Beatles - Yellow Submarine (1969) |
This copy is a UK issue which was pressed in 1973 under contract in France by Pathe Marconi. At the time EMI's pressing plant in Hayes was undergoing refurbishment, so many albums were produced this way. The sleeve was made in the UK as usual.
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| Side 1 label. If you look either side of the stalk it reads Made in France by Pathe Marconi. |
Yellow Submarine was the Beatles' 10th studio album. It contains two Harrisongs; It's All Too Much and Only a Northern Song. Where the title track seems out of place on its parent album Revolver, in context here it sounds much better. My favourite song All Together Now is followed by the heavy romp of Hey Bulldog. Side 1 closes with All You Need Is Love; a 1967 no.1 single from the Magical Mystery Tour EP.
Side 2 is a collection of excerpts from the film's score, written and arranged by George Martin. Titles include March of the Meanies, Pepperland Laid Waste and Sea of Holes. If you've never seen the film I'd highly recommend it. Here's my top track:
Thursday, 20 September 2012
Golden Years part 2
We all love a good music compilation. Well I do, anyway; they can act as a gateway into an artist, genre or even time span. Recent CD purchases have included best-ofs by The Fall, Ella Fitzgerald, The Small Faces and Nina Simone - all artists with a lengthy back catalogue where a compilation can give the listener a fair overview of their career. Others include collections of doo-wop, 60's garage/psych and Chicago house, which can provide a toe-dip into a vast ocean of music.
Recent car boot sales have thrown up a few good comps. I was very pleased to find Island Life by Grace Jones for just 50p last Sunday:
This is a great compilation of songs from her debut album Portfolio (1977) through to 1985's Slave To The Rhythm. I love Grace and my favourite tracks here are those dubby ones from her collaborations with Sly & Robbie, e.g. Walking In The Rain and of course the smash hit Pull Up To The Bumper. If Island Life also included Warm Leatherette it would be perfect.
Glen Campbell's Greatest Hits cost £1 a couple of weeks ago:
This covers a dozen hits from 1967's By The Time I Get To Phoenix up until 1971's Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream), taking in the evergreen Galveston and Wichita Lineman.
A Shirelles greatest hits from Pye's Golden Hour series cost £1:
This comprehensive collection from the original girl group packs 26 hits into a "Golden Hour" of listening pleasure, including songs written by Goffin & King, Del Shannon, Burt Bacharach and Phil Spector. Hits include Mama Said, Baby It's You, Tears On My Pillow, I Met Him On A Sunday and one of the most perfect pop songs of all time Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow.
I rarely buy cassettes these days but couldn't resist this sixties comp. at just 50p:
Like part one of this series which I got on vinyl in a charity shop earlier this year, it's a continuous mix of top ten 60s hits, boasting 60 tracks from The Applejacks, Animals and Amen Corner to, er, Zager & Evans. With a cassette player in the car, we listened to it all the way home last Sunday. This kind of thing was very popular in the eighties, providing a non-stop mix for parties, except of course for turning over/changing the record or tape!
Here are the Shirelles...
Recent car boot sales have thrown up a few good comps. I was very pleased to find Island Life by Grace Jones for just 50p last Sunday:
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| Grace Jones - Island Life (1985) |
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| Inner gatefold |
This is a great compilation of songs from her debut album Portfolio (1977) through to 1985's Slave To The Rhythm. I love Grace and my favourite tracks here are those dubby ones from her collaborations with Sly & Robbie, e.g. Walking In The Rain and of course the smash hit Pull Up To The Bumper. If Island Life also included Warm Leatherette it would be perfect.
Glen Campbell's Greatest Hits cost £1 a couple of weeks ago:
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| Glen Campbell's Greatest Hits (1971) |
This covers a dozen hits from 1967's By The Time I Get To Phoenix up until 1971's Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream), taking in the evergreen Galveston and Wichita Lineman.
A Shirelles greatest hits from Pye's Golden Hour series cost £1:
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| The Shirelles - Greatest Hits (1973) |
This comprehensive collection from the original girl group packs 26 hits into a "Golden Hour" of listening pleasure, including songs written by Goffin & King, Del Shannon, Burt Bacharach and Phil Spector. Hits include Mama Said, Baby It's You, Tears On My Pillow, I Met Him On A Sunday and one of the most perfect pop songs of all time Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow.
I rarely buy cassettes these days but couldn't resist this sixties comp. at just 50p:
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| Sixtie Mix Two (1988) |
Like part one of this series which I got on vinyl in a charity shop earlier this year, it's a continuous mix of top ten 60s hits, boasting 60 tracks from The Applejacks, Animals and Amen Corner to, er, Zager & Evans. With a cassette player in the car, we listened to it all the way home last Sunday. This kind of thing was very popular in the eighties, providing a non-stop mix for parties, except of course for turning over/changing the record or tape!
Here are the Shirelles...
Monday, 17 September 2012
Charisma
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| Peter in 1978 |
Firstly was 1978's Peter Gabriel, the second of this run of albums and also known as "Scratch".
Produced by Robert Fripp, this is an album of eccentric piano-rock, with Roy "The Professor" Bittan from the E-Street Band behind the piano.
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| Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel (1978) |
As well as bestowing some excellent guitar solos Fripp makes use of his synthesiser skills and tape-looping techniques (Frippertronics).
The opening song "On The Air" is the story of Gabriel's character 'Mozo' broadcasting his amateur radio show from his secret riverside shack.
Another of my favourites is "A Wonderful Day In A One-Way World", which is bouncy, bassy and fun, even though it appears to be about a man becoming trapped in a supermarket (you never can tell for sure with Gabriel's lyrics). The tender "White Shadow" is another standout.
"Scratch" is not widely regarded as one his best records but I disagree, although it does tail off a bit towards the end with the exception of "Home Sweet Home", a tragic tale of loss and gain.
Peter Gabriel no.3 was released in 1980. Also known as "Melt", I found it at one of last year's boot sales. No.4 was released two years later and is often referred to as "Security"; it's official name in the US and surely better than Scary Face:
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| Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel (Security in USA) (1982) |
Opener "Rhythm Of The Heat" is wonderfully percussive with a thrilling finale. On the album as a whole and in particular with this song, Gabriel's gorgeously husky voice is allowed to soar, in marked contrast to "Scratch" where is seems reined in.
Long-time collaborator Tony Levin's bass is always a joy to hear and is well used on songs such as the twinkling "San Jacinto", "Kiss Of Life" and "Wallflower". The latter is a dark description of life for a political prisoner held in a psychiatric instiution, the white-coated staff chillingly portrayed;
"Their eyes are all as hidden as their Hippocratic Oath".The dark themes continue with a disturbing depiction of a wedding-as-voodoo-sacrifice in "The Family And The Fishing Net". The human need for physical contact is explored in "Lay Your Hands On Me" and "I Have The Touch". The single "Shock The Monkey" reached no.29 in the US but only 58 in his home country.
From his five albums on Charisma, only number 1 (or "Car") has yet to turn up at a car boot sale so far. I must fight the urge to get it from eBay. Here's "A Wonderful Day..." followed by "San Jacinto".
Monday, 10 September 2012
Nobody's Children
During Ceausescu's rule of Romania, attempts to boost the country's population included a ban on abortion and contraception. This led to thousands of unwanted children being abandoned by their parents. With their already pitiful resources orphanages were unable to cope and the result was an unimaginable toll on the physical and mental health of a huge number of Romanian children.
At the end of 1989 Ceausescu and his wife were executed after the government was overthrown. The wider world became aware of the terrible conditions in these hundreds of orphanages and the suffering that was taking place.
Many charities were spurred into action and many new charities formed.
George Harrison's wife Olivia founded the Romanian Angel Appeal (RAA) along with the other Beatle wives Linda McCartney, Barbara Bach and Yoko Ono. Together with a raft of friends and contacts they organised a fundraising album called Nobody's Child in 1990, a copy of which I found at one of yesterday's car boot sales for £1:
It consists of fourteen songs "donated" by an array of musicians including Elton John, the Traveling Wilburys, Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder and the Bee Gees, but the crowning glory of the album must surely be the epic "Civil War" by Guns 'n' Roses. I was in high school at this time and thoroughly obsessed with G'n'R. I remember that this song was also used as the b-side to the single "You Could Be Mine", which I still have somewhere on cassingle!
The RAA Foundation was registered in Romania in 1991 and continues it's work with vulnerable children to this day. Since a secondhand purchase of the LP wasn't really in keeping with the original spirit of the album I donated £10 to UNICEF, one of the RAA Foundation's partners/sponsors. You can too here. Here's "Civil War".
Many charities were spurred into action and many new charities formed.
George Harrison's wife Olivia founded the Romanian Angel Appeal (RAA) along with the other Beatle wives Linda McCartney, Barbara Bach and Yoko Ono. Together with a raft of friends and contacts they organised a fundraising album called Nobody's Child in 1990, a copy of which I found at one of yesterday's car boot sales for £1:
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| Nobody's Child - Romanian Angel Appeal (1990) |
It consists of fourteen songs "donated" by an array of musicians including Elton John, the Traveling Wilburys, Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder and the Bee Gees, but the crowning glory of the album must surely be the epic "Civil War" by Guns 'n' Roses. I was in high school at this time and thoroughly obsessed with G'n'R. I remember that this song was also used as the b-side to the single "You Could Be Mine", which I still have somewhere on cassingle!
The RAA Foundation was registered in Romania in 1991 and continues it's work with vulnerable children to this day. Since a secondhand purchase of the LP wasn't really in keeping with the original spirit of the album I donated £10 to UNICEF, one of the RAA Foundation's partners/sponsors. You can too here. Here's "Civil War".
Monday, 3 September 2012
Animal collective
Yesterday brought a bright and sunny car boot sale with a scattering of vinyl to flip through, and I left with four records. The first was The Animals' self-titled debut from 1964:
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| The Animals (1964) |
This debut, like so many others of the time consists of nearly all cover versions, with songs from the world of blues and R&B e.g. John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom", Fats Domino's "I've Been Around" and Larry Williams' "She Said Yeah".
The only original song is "Story of Bo Diddley", with lead singer Eric Burdon doing the spoken word parts not in his native Geordie accent,
but a faux American one, which is highly amusing.
Oddly, neither of their two first singles from that year, "House of the Rising Sun" and "Baby Let Me Take You Home" (another cover) appear here.
My next buys, for £1 each were a 1980s budget re-issue of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds and The Monkees' debut album (like The Animals, also self-titled).
Pet Sounds is often hailed as one of the greatest and most important albums of all time. It was put together virtually single-handedly by Brian Wilson while the other Boys were on tour and contains some of their best-loved songs; "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "Sloop John B" and the magnificent "God Only Knows".
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| The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds (re-issue, originally 1966) |
Next to these stone-cold killers some of the rest pales into filler, e.g. the instrumental title track, although this is probably an unfair comparison, plus Wilson's compositional abilities and production skills are undeniable and frankly astounding.
The Monkees' debut album was released here in the UK in 1967, the year after it's US release. It topped the charts in both countries and spawned one hit single "Last Train To Clarksville". I remember taping this song from the radio as a kid in the eighties and it's still a big favourite.
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| The Monkees (1967-UK) |
My last buy of the morning, again for £1 was Talk Talk's second album It's My Life:
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| Talk Talk - It's My Life (1984) |
This album is from Talk Talk's early incarnation as a synth-pop band, before they began to evolve via The Colour Of Spring to their late-period albums Spirit Of Eden and Laughing Stock. I really like this early stuff as well as their later work, so I was pleased to find it, particularly as I'd bought their first album The Party's Over at another boot sale a couple of weeks ago, also for £1:
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| Talk Talk - The Party's Over (1982) |
My last find of the morning was The Encyclopedia of Albums:
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| Encyclopedia of Albums - M. Heatley, P. Lester & C. Roberts (1998) |
In his foreword Du Noyer talks about the different album formats over the years. Although digital downloads are mentioned, it is dated by his prediction that the Mini Disc would eventually be the format we would take to - who knew?!
Such a book might now seem a bit pointless given the wealth of online information at our disposal, but not only does it provide a concise overview of each album, it's a book that's enjoyable just to flick through - indeed, I got lost in it for a good hour or so yesterday afternoon.
Wednesday, 29 August 2012
Living To Music September 2012
Join in if you can, alone or with friends, this Sunday at 9pm with Greg Wilson's Living To Music worldwide communal listening experience. This month's selected album is the KLF's Chill Out (1990).
Wednesday, 22 August 2012
Heart attack
Sunday's car boot sale was hot, dusty and very busy. There didn't seem to be much vinyl at all, until I reached a pitch belonging to a guy selling off a small chunk of his 3000+ record collection for £1 a pop. I left with a pile of LPs, none of which I've had time to listen to, as in my free time I've been immersing myself in two new vinyl releases; Bloc Party's new album "Four" and Yeasayer's latest release "Fragrant World" on double gatefold coloured vinyl - yum!
However, I have got round to playing two more albums from the previous weekend's boot sale - both cost £3 and both are by US hard-rockers Heart.
Heart were, and still are, fronted by sisters Nancy and Ann Wilson. My own memories of them are from their hugely successful 80s comeback, with power ballads such as "These Dreams" and the stonking "Alone", whose soaring crescendo I'm convinced was ripped off by ad execs in the early 90s for the Bodyform adverts.
I kind of knew that they were a Big Deal in the US, but their earlier work was unknown to me. When I saw the albums for sale I was keen to hear them as I'd recently read an article in Classic Rock magazine's 1977 special about the complicated legal dispute surrounding Heart and their music at the time.
Magazine was originally released in 1977 by Heart's former record company Mushroom Records as a collection of live and demo tracks, as well as a b-side.
This 1978 copy of Magazine is a completely re-vamped version of the album put out by Mushroom. Songs were subject to re-recording and remixing, and sequenced differently until they resembled Heart's original vision as much as possible.
As Heart technically still owed their former employers an album this seemed the best way to meet their contractual obligations.
It's a polished mix of hard rock and ballads, only marred by the inclusion of a bored-sounding cover of "Without You". After the way they were treated by Mushroom it's not surprising that they couldn't summon up much enthusiasm at this point, especially with a security guard employed at the studio to make sure they didn't nick the master tapes.
At the time of Mushroom's initial release of Magazine, Heart had just released their second album proper on Portrait Records - Little Queen:
Little Queen was finished in record time, with over 40% of the album recorded over the space of a very, very busy weekend before Mushroom could apply for a court order preventing them from doing so.
Like Magazine, it's also an album of tight rockers and romantic slowies, but it also has a mildly medieval minstrel/folk tinge to some of the acoustic ballads, the intention being that tracks like "Dream of the Archer" and "Sylvan Song" be their answer to Led Zep's "Battle of Evermore".
Both albums are a little too well polished for my taste, but I can't deny Heart's talents and ability to rock. Although Ann takes the lead vocal on the majority of songs, both sisters have incredible voices, giving Heart an unmistakable sound. On balance I prefer Little Queen to Magazine, but they're both well worth a listen. Here they are on Spotify:
However, I have got round to playing two more albums from the previous weekend's boot sale - both cost £3 and both are by US hard-rockers Heart.
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| "Whooaaaah, Bodyfor-orm!" |
I kind of knew that they were a Big Deal in the US, but their earlier work was unknown to me. When I saw the albums for sale I was keen to hear them as I'd recently read an article in Classic Rock magazine's 1977 special about the complicated legal dispute surrounding Heart and their music at the time.
 |
| Heart - Magazine (1978) |
This 1978 copy of Magazine is a completely re-vamped version of the album put out by Mushroom. Songs were subject to re-recording and remixing, and sequenced differently until they resembled Heart's original vision as much as possible.
As Heart technically still owed their former employers an album this seemed the best way to meet their contractual obligations.
It's a polished mix of hard rock and ballads, only marred by the inclusion of a bored-sounding cover of "Without You". After the way they were treated by Mushroom it's not surprising that they couldn't summon up much enthusiasm at this point, especially with a security guard employed at the studio to make sure they didn't nick the master tapes.
At the time of Mushroom's initial release of Magazine, Heart had just released their second album proper on Portrait Records - Little Queen:
 |
| Heart - Little Queen (1977) |
Like Magazine, it's also an album of tight rockers and romantic slowies, but it also has a mildly medieval minstrel/folk tinge to some of the acoustic ballads, the intention being that tracks like "Dream of the Archer" and "Sylvan Song" be their answer to Led Zep's "Battle of Evermore".
Both albums are a little too well polished for my taste, but I can't deny Heart's talents and ability to rock. Although Ann takes the lead vocal on the majority of songs, both sisters have incredible voices, giving Heart an unmistakable sound. On balance I prefer Little Queen to Magazine, but they're both well worth a listen. Here they are on Spotify:
Monday, 13 August 2012
Warm and fuzzy
I went to two boot sales on Sunday. The first was absolutely huge - almost twice the size it usually is, even in fantastic weather like yesterday. Among other things I picked up this record by The Fuzztones for £2, purely on the basis of liking the cover art as I'd not come across them before:
The Fuzztones were (and still are) a psych/garage/punk band that were part of the 60s garage revival in the eighties. Originally from New York, they gained a big following in Europe and despite a few temporary break-ups and several line-up changes over the last 30 years still record and tour to this day.
Lysergic Emanations was their debut LP on ABC Records UK, and is a mix of covers and original songs. Founder Rudi Protrudi named the band after the fuzzbox effects pedal so clearly beloved by its members. The album is a heady affair, combining grungey guitar, swirling Vox organ and Rudi's "lead snarl". In thrall to 60s garage-psych, they have a punk edge to add to their Doors-y sound.
This is definitely in my top ten favourite finds this year. It's one of those hypnotically addictive albums that as soon as it finishes makes you want to turn it over and play it again, which is pretty much what I've been doing since yesterday. I think I'll go play it again now - bye! Oh, here's Ward 81.
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| The Fuzztones - Lysergic Emanations (1985) |
The Fuzztones were (and still are) a psych/garage/punk band that were part of the 60s garage revival in the eighties. Originally from New York, they gained a big following in Europe and despite a few temporary break-ups and several line-up changes over the last 30 years still record and tour to this day.
Lysergic Emanations was their debut LP on ABC Records UK, and is a mix of covers and original songs. Founder Rudi Protrudi named the band after the fuzzbox effects pedal so clearly beloved by its members. The album is a heady affair, combining grungey guitar, swirling Vox organ and Rudi's "lead snarl". In thrall to 60s garage-psych, they have a punk edge to add to their Doors-y sound.
This is definitely in my top ten favourite finds this year. It's one of those hypnotically addictive albums that as soon as it finishes makes you want to turn it over and play it again, which is pretty much what I've been doing since yesterday. I think I'll go play it again now - bye! Oh, here's Ward 81.
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