http://www.gregwilson.co.uk/2012/05/living-to-music-talking-heads-stop-making-sense/
Car Boot Vinyl Diaries
Thursday, 31 May 2012
Living To Music June 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 Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense from 1984.
http://www.gregwilson.co.uk/2012/05/living-to-music-talking-heads-stop-making-sense/
http://www.gregwilson.co.uk/2012/05/living-to-music-talking-heads-stop-making-sense/
Wednesday, 30 May 2012
A pair of Wings
Sunday's car boot sale was hot and sunny, and there was a fair amount of vinyl on offer. Much of this was of course the usual piles of easy listening and country LPs that had belonged to the late parents of the baby-boomer stallholders, but I still came away with a few decent records.
Paul McCartney & Wings recorded seven albums during their time and I bought two of them for £1 each, both in great condition. First was Band On The Run:
This was their third album and best selling one, reaching no.1 in the UK and US as well as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Spain and Norway. It was recorded in Lagos, with only Denny Laine joining Paul and Linda; the other two members Henry McCullogh and Denny Seiwell left the group - Seiwell just the night before they were due to leave for Nigeria. The LP came with a poster with photos of the recording trip.
Clive Arrowsmith took the photos for the famous cover which includes Michael Parkinson and Chrisopher Lee in the line-up of criminals.
The two big singles Jet and Band On The Run open the album then the tempo is dropped by Bluebird; a love song with a little sax break. Mrs. Vandebilt (more sax) and the Lennon-esque Let Me Roll It finish off Side 1 quite nicely.
Side 2 starts with the long, dreary Mamunia, then relief is provided by No Words and the quirky Picasso's Last Words which reprises Jet and whose tempo changes and musical about-turns are reminiscent of the Abbey Road medley (albeit a duller one). The piano-rock of final track Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five is the strongest of the side, reprising Band On The Run at the very end.
Band On The Run was remastered and re-issued in 2010 as part of an ongoing series of Paul's Wings and solo remasters (Ram came out this week). It stands at number 418 in the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list and was said to have marked a return to form for Paul. It's certainly not my favourite of the two Wings albums that I picked up the weekend however.
Back To The Egg rocks harder and is for me far and away the better record:
The idea of Back To The Egg was to go back to a more basic rock'n'roll ethos, as well as a new beginning for Wings as a whole. In terms of the music this was true - it's a vibrant and consistent album of pop, rock, soul and funk. On songs such as Old Siam, Sir (a stonking rocker) and We're Open Tonight, Macca's voice never sounded better. The celebrity jam of the Rockestra Theme (starring among many others Dave Gilmour, Pete Townshend and John Paul Jones) is a gleeful, backslapping bit of fun.
But the new beginning was not to be. After Paul was arrested in Japan for possession of dope and deported, plus John Lennon's murder later that same year, the band eventually unravelled and Wings never completed another album.
Critics generally slated Back To The Egg, with Rolling Stone being particularly grumpy using words like "lazy", "slipshod" and "drivel". I'm too young to remember but I gather there was a fair bit of Macca-bashing going on around this time for whatever reasons. I thinks it's a great album and the public seem to agree, as it reached a respectable no.6 in the UK and no.8 in the US.
Predictably neither album is on Spotify, so here's a medley on the 'tube:
Paul McCartney & Wings recorded seven albums during their time and I bought two of them for £1 each, both in great condition. First was Band On The Run:
 |
| Paul McCartney & Wings - Band On The Run (1973) |
 |
| Back cover and inner sleeve pic |
This was their third album and best selling one, reaching no.1 in the UK and US as well as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Spain and Norway. It was recorded in Lagos, with only Denny Laine joining Paul and Linda; the other two members Henry McCullogh and Denny Seiwell left the group - Seiwell just the night before they were due to leave for Nigeria. The LP came with a poster with photos of the recording trip.
The two big singles Jet and Band On The Run open the album then the tempo is dropped by Bluebird; a love song with a little sax break. Mrs. Vandebilt (more sax) and the Lennon-esque Let Me Roll It finish off Side 1 quite nicely.
Side 2 starts with the long, dreary Mamunia, then relief is provided by No Words and the quirky Picasso's Last Words which reprises Jet and whose tempo changes and musical about-turns are reminiscent of the Abbey Road medley (albeit a duller one). The piano-rock of final track Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five is the strongest of the side, reprising Band On The Run at the very end.
Band On The Run was remastered and re-issued in 2010 as part of an ongoing series of Paul's Wings and solo remasters (Ram came out this week). It stands at number 418 in the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list and was said to have marked a return to form for Paul. It's certainly not my favourite of the two Wings albums that I picked up the weekend however.
Back To The Egg rocks harder and is for me far and away the better record:
 |
| Paul McCartney & Wings - Back To The Egg (1979) |
The idea of Back To The Egg was to go back to a more basic rock'n'roll ethos, as well as a new beginning for Wings as a whole. In terms of the music this was true - it's a vibrant and consistent album of pop, rock, soul and funk. On songs such as Old Siam, Sir (a stonking rocker) and We're Open Tonight, Macca's voice never sounded better. The celebrity jam of the Rockestra Theme (starring among many others Dave Gilmour, Pete Townshend and John Paul Jones) is a gleeful, backslapping bit of fun.
 |
| Back cover, inner sleeve pic and egg labels (Sunny Side Up and Over Easy) |
But the new beginning was not to be. After Paul was arrested in Japan for possession of dope and deported, plus John Lennon's murder later that same year, the band eventually unravelled and Wings never completed another album.
Critics generally slated Back To The Egg, with Rolling Stone being particularly grumpy using words like "lazy", "slipshod" and "drivel". I'm too young to remember but I gather there was a fair bit of Macca-bashing going on around this time for whatever reasons. I thinks it's a great album and the public seem to agree, as it reached a respectable no.6 in the UK and no.8 in the US.
Predictably neither album is on Spotify, so here's a medley on the 'tube:
Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Calling all young vinyl fans...
Please stop calling records "vinyls". It's grammatically incorrect and gets on the nerves of the over-30s!
Click on the link: http://thepluralofvinyl.com/ That's all :)
Click on the link: http://thepluralofvinyl.com/ That's all :)
Sunday, 20 May 2012
I know you got soul
Today's car boot sale was disappointing in both the weather (grey and chilly) and the lack of vinyl. Luckily things were better a fortnight ago and I found a couple of decent albums over the bank holiday weekend.
Young Hearts Run Free was Candi's fifth album, coming two allbums after the excellent 'Candi Staton' that I found at a boot sale last year and her second with Warner Brothers after leaving Fame. The title track reached no.2 in the UK and no.20 in the US and is a disco classic that has been covered by several other artists.
Candi has a voice like no-one else; it manages to convey heartbreak and strength, vulnerability and determination, pain and grace, all in the space of a few syllables.
Next was James Brown:
An excellent compilation, this album was pressed in Italy, hence the sleeve notes:
The songs span his career from the sixties throught to the early seventies, including what some call the first true funk song; his 1967 hit single Cold Sweat. It's a fab collection of R&B, soul and funk and a great introduction to his music.
Top tracks: james brown soul classics
 |
| Candi Staton - Young Hearts Run Free (1976) |
Young Hearts Run Free was Candi's fifth album, coming two allbums after the excellent 'Candi Staton' that I found at a boot sale last year and her second with Warner Brothers after leaving Fame. The title track reached no.2 in the UK and no.20 in the US and is a disco classic that has been covered by several other artists.
Candi has a voice like no-one else; it manages to convey heartbreak and strength, vulnerability and determination, pain and grace, all in the space of a few syllables.
Next was James Brown:
 |
| James Brown - Soul Classics (1972) |
An excellent compilation, this album was pressed in Italy, hence the sleeve notes:
The songs span his career from the sixties throught to the early seventies, including what some call the first true funk song; his 1967 hit single Cold Sweat. It's a fab collection of R&B, soul and funk and a great introduction to his music.
Top tracks: james brown soul classics
Sunday, 13 May 2012
Not me baby, I've got you to save me
Today I've been watching some of the epic four-hour documentary "Runnin' Down a Dream", the story of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, which was repeated on BBC4 last Friday night. It reminded me that I'd picked up a copy of Tom's debut solo album a couple of weeks ago at a car boot sale for £2:
His first post-Wilburys work, it is in fact produced by fellow Wilbury Jeff Lynne, who also provides background vocals, bass, guitars and keyboards. In addition George Harrison plays acoustic guitar and sings on I Won't Back Down, and Roy Orbison contributes backing vocals on Zombie Zoo. Most of the Heartbreakers feature as well, so it may be termed a "solo" album, but it's clear that Tom likes to have his band members around him.
It's a great set of songs and it sounds like just what it is really; a Heartbreakers' album with a heavy dose of Jeff Lynne i.e. polished, radio-friendly heartland rock, full of hooks, riffs and harmonies. The album sleeve is a bit boring but the inner is better, with a great drawing of Tom in Native American headgear:
The album sold very well, reaching no.3 on the US Billboard chart and no.8 in the UK, making it his best-selling LP and providing five singles in all. Here's the excellent vid for Yer So Bad, followed by the whole album on the new super-whizzy Spotify embeddable player:
 |
| Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever (1989) |
His first post-Wilburys work, it is in fact produced by fellow Wilbury Jeff Lynne, who also provides background vocals, bass, guitars and keyboards. In addition George Harrison plays acoustic guitar and sings on I Won't Back Down, and Roy Orbison contributes backing vocals on Zombie Zoo. Most of the Heartbreakers feature as well, so it may be termed a "solo" album, but it's clear that Tom likes to have his band members around him.
It's a great set of songs and it sounds like just what it is really; a Heartbreakers' album with a heavy dose of Jeff Lynne i.e. polished, radio-friendly heartland rock, full of hooks, riffs and harmonies. The album sleeve is a bit boring but the inner is better, with a great drawing of Tom in Native American headgear:
 |
| Front, back and inner artwork |
The album sold very well, reaching no.3 on the US Billboard chart and no.8 in the UK, making it his best-selling LP and providing five singles in all. Here's the excellent vid for Yer So Bad, followed by the whole album on the new super-whizzy Spotify embeddable player:
Tuesday, 1 May 2012
Living To Music May 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 Augustus Pablo's 1976 'King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown'.
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