Little Box Of Horrors - Part 3

This third part of Little Box Of Horrors is a bit later than intended due to a bout of the lurgi that absolutely floored me. So much so that I had zero desire to listen to any kind of music for a couple of weeks, and certainly not the type found in the scary Box. So, with strength now returned - and boy did I need it for this next record - let's resume.

First out was this rather dog-eared and much Sellotaped copy of 12 Tops - Today's Top Hits:

12 Tops - Today's Top Hits (1972)

Stereo Gold Award was founded by budget label giant David Leonard Miller, who was previously responsible for the gigantic 101 Strings series in the late 50s and early 60s, as well as other mega-cheapo releases that undercut the prices of the bigger labels. The 12 Tops series ran from 1972-76 and used cheesecake covers and a 50p price tag to sell exploito albums featuring hits of the day (much like Hallmark's TOTP albums, but even worse).

This particular record is the fourth volume in a series that put out an album every month or so during its run. You can see all 30 and read more about them here: http://hitcovers.weebly.com/12-tops.html (the site as a whole is well worth perusing, too).

It's complete dross of course; songs ruined by sub-standard sessioneers include the Bee Gees' Run To Me, Bill Withers' Lean On Me and Procul Harum's Conquistador.  The worst though are a horrible version of Rod's You Wear It Well, the singer apparently chosen for his husky voice but not his vocal ability (he sounds like he's being made to sing from beneath a thick blanket whilst suffering from acute asthma), and an atrocious Too Busy Thinking About My Baby that I'm sure even I could improve upon at karaoke.

This kind of trash sold by the truckload in the 1970s, which just goes to show that sex sells, as do pocket-money prices.

If you see it on your travels for pennies it's almost worth getting for the spiffy version of Popcorn, but otherwise best avoided.


Next out of the box was this offering from The Mike Sammes Singers:

The Mike Sammes Singers with Orchestra -
Love Is A Happy Thing (1968)

During the 1960s musician and arranger Mike Sammes, along with his troupe of trusty singers, was one of the most (if not the most) in-demand and prolific musicians of the period. They  appeared on countless pop songs, radio jingles and advertisements, TV themes and film soundtracks, most notably the Captain Scarlet and Thunderbirds themes, The Beatles' I Am The Walrus and many Disney albums. The Mike Sammes singers were also the voices of Pinky & Perky and Ken Dodd's Diddymen. According to spaceagepop.com  "Virtually every "doo-doo-doo" to be heard on a pop recording made in the UK between 1955 and 1975 came out of the mouth of Sammes and his colleagues".

Singers in the group varied over time, but there were six core members (three guys and three gals) as well as Mike himself, and they specialised in delivering perfectly polished harmonies to order. Although they were terribly busy working for others (often putting in 6-day weeks with several sessions a day), they found time to make 7 albums under their own name.

Love Is A Happy Thing is chirpy easy listening of the best kind; a mainly up-tempo mixture of covers and originals, with a little bossa nova, pretty strings, a dash of big band swing and of course those oh-so-smooth vocal harmonies. It's the kind of record you'd be sure to find in the collection of Austin Powers. Have a listen to the irresistible title track to hear what I mean (I couldn't find it on youtube so digitised and uploaded it myself):

The record also features a lovely version of Up, Up And Away plus a far-out Summertime. Although it's from the Box Of Horrors, it's actually very enjoyable if you're a fan of the groovier end of easy, and if you are, you'll also love the neat album cover. Daddio.


Part 4 of Little Box Of Horrors is due shortly, but in the meantime if you missed the first two installments they can be found here:
Part 1: http://carbootvinyldiaries.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/little-box-of-horrors-part-1.html
Part 2: http://carbootvinyldiaries.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/little-box-of-horrors-part-2.html

Little Box Of Horrors - Part 2

Welcome to the second installment of Little Box Of Horrors, where I delve into a collection of dubious discs found last year in the cupboard under the stairs (Part 1 can be found here).

I'll begin with someone about whom I initially had reservations (as you will understand from the album covers) but have since developed quite a fondness.  For those of you unfamiliar with her work, may I introduce the wonderful world of Mrs Mills:

Pineapple and cheese cubes on cocktail sticks: check. Meat-paste
sandwiches: check. Awesome party music: cher-check!

Mrs Gladys Mills ("call me Glad, everyone else does"), a typing department superintendent from Loughton in Essex, had played the piano since she began lessons aged three. These came to an end when she was twelve after her teacher became annoyed with all the "twiddly bits" Gladys used to add to the tunes she was tasked with playing.

Many years later she was discovered by talent scout Paul Cave while playing piano with her band The Asterons at a golf club event in 1961, and from there became a prolific recording artist and variety TV fixture during the 60s and 70s.  She played a style of piano known as stride on an instrument that gave a honky-tonk or tack sound. The upright Steinway she played in the studio at Abbey Road became famous as "Mrs Mills' Piano" and was used by label-mates The Beatles on several songs including Lady Madonna and Penny Lane.

The lovely gold and black Parlophone label from the early 1960s,
which among other things, Mrs Mills shared with The Beatles.

EMI paired her up with arranger and master of easy listening Geoff Love, and she released many albums of sing-along pub-style party music - as you can see from the album covers the word "party" features heavily! She was a gifted pianist and it was those "twiddly bits" so disliked by her teacher that injected such life into her playing. This is explained very well in the affectionate and highly entertaining BBC4 documentary Let's Have A Party - The Piano Genius Of Mrs Mills: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FBIMVD_DDc which is definitely worth an hour of your time.

I found five of her albums in the box in the stair cupboard; the four pictured plus another called Especially For You tucked into the sleeve with Summer Party. My top pick is from her debut album Mrs Mills Plays the Roaring Twenties; her rendition of the American popular song Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue:

The next bit of wonky wax from this exploration into the ropey side of 60s and 70s popular music is probably the one I was least looking forward to playing. "Even less than Des O'Connor?", I hear you cry? Well, yes. It's worse. Much worse. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Mr Max Bygraves:

Max Bygraves - Sing Along With Max (1972)

This was Max's fifth album, coming after 1969's The World of Max Bygraves and before he abandoned the space bar entirely and gave us 97 volumes of Singalongamax. No, that number's not a typo. Dear Mr Bygraves felt we needed NINETY-SEVEN albums of subpar crooning, not to mention many others including Singalongaxmas, Discologamax, Lingalongamax (no, me neither) and two volumes of SingAlongAWarYears, the first of which got to no.5 in the UK album chart in 1989.

Max, born Walter William Bygraves, was a comedian, actor and variety performer as well as a singer, and appeared on British TV from the 1950s up until the mid-90s. From a look at his discography it appears that he specialised in the nostalgia medley; song-length cheese-fests of between three and five different popular standards, wartime favourites and show tunes. For instance, here on Sing Along... we get the abominable mashup of Bye Bye Blackbird/Bill Bailey Won't You Please Come Home/Ma He's Making Eyes At Me/Oh You Beautiful Doll/Alexander's Ragtime Band followed by the vomit-inducing quartet of I'll Be With You In Apple Blossom Time/If I Had My Way/Edelweiss/The Whiffenpoof Song.

The sleevenotes state that,

"This is an album for all those millions of people throughout the world, who have succumbed to the charms of Max Bygraves on television, stage or radio"

and his sales figures seem to bear this out, as over 30 of his albums went either Gold or Platinum, frequently outselling Elvis, Bing Crosby and Sinatra.

It will come as no surprise that this first Sing Along album was recorded at the suggestion of his mother, and was

"calculated to raise a heart warming nostalgia in all the people who listen and remember....which will bring memories flooding back to their minds."

Little wonder then, that his records sold in such numbers to a certain generation.

I won't inflict any of the above on you; instead here's a Max Bygraves song I'm quite fond of, which I last heard on Christmas Day 2014 on Stewpot's Junior Choice special on BBC Radio 2:

That'll do for now, I'm off to cleanse my palette with some Nirvana and strong drink, but do pop back soon for Part 3 of Little Box Of Horrors featuring more terrible tunes and rotten revolvers.

Little Box of Horrors - Part 1

A few weeks ago me and my other half finally got round to the long overdue task of clearing out the cupboard under the stairs. (When I say "we", what I really mean is that he did most of the work while I pointed at each item as it came out, shouting "KEEP!", "RECYCLE!", "CHAZZA!" or "DUMP!" in an authoritative yet endearing manner.)

Lurking at the back was a box full of old records which once belonged to his parents. You must know by now that such a thing is like catnip to a crate digger like me, so in I went, completely unprepared and with no warning of the horrors it contained. Actually, there were some good records mixed in with the crap; half a dozen Dean Martin LPs and a handful of budget disco and soul compilations, but these were in the minority. Over the past few days I've been cleaning the least-scratched ones and giving them a spin. It's been quite an education. Let's have a look (don't worry, listening is not compulsory) at the worst offenders.

We begin with a name I'd never seen before: Gerry Monroe and his 1970 album Sally - Pride Of Our Alley:

Gerry Monroe - Sally - Pride Of Our Alley (1970)

Gerry (real name Henry Morris) was from South Shields, and after some time as a singer in working men's clubs he entered the ITV talent show Opportunity Knocks where he found favour and was signed to Chapter One Records. This was his first and most successful album and features three Top 40 hits, the best known being a cover of Gracie Fields' Sally.

The rather disturbing cover image (What's he looking at? Why doesn't she run away?) gives little clue as to the contents. Yes, he's head-to-toe in man-made fibres; yes, the rear sleeve lists mainly popular standards such as Danny Boy and Johnny Ray's Cry, and even as the first track began, it all seemed like very predictable, rather dull MOR. And then it happened. The man began to yodel. Not every word, but just now and then, carefully timed to cause maximum startlement and alarm in the poor, unsuspecting listener.

Doris Day's Secret Love is an early casualty and I'll never again be able to enjoy Gene Pitney's Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart without it inducing flashbacks of the performance here, but the most heinous crime is that inflicted on Bridge Over Troubled Water. Luckily for you, dear reader, it isn't on youtube, so here's the title track instead:

The final track on the album is called She Taught Me How To Yodel. Oh did she Gerry, DID SHE?

The next slab of vicious vinyl to land on the turntable was by a face familiar to us all; Des O'Connor:

Des O'Connor - By Special Request (date unknown)

Chestnut-hued family entertainer Desmond Bernard O'Connor was a mainstay of British television from 1963, beginning with The Des O'Connor Show on ITV (that channel has a lot to answer for) and ending with Today With Des & Mel in 2006. This compilation on Music For Pleasure represents just a (mercifully) small proportion of his 36-album singing career, and is quite, quite dreadful.

Side 1 of By Special Request opens with a tune named Dick-a-dum-dum (I shit you not), which has to be heard to be believed, and managed to reach number 14 in the UK singles chart in June 1969, where it nestled between Jethro Tull's Living In The Past at 15 and Cliff Richard's Big Ship at 13. Number 1 that week was Tommy Roe with Dizzy. 

What follows is some very accomplished and cheesy crooning which includes another 1969 Top 20 single Loneliness, blooming Danny Boy again and a God-awful cover of George Harrison's Something.

Here's Dick-a-dum-dum, brought to you on the very same album by some mad person on youtube. Don't say I didn't warn you:

That's all for today - the second part of Little Box Of Horrors will be with you soon. Come back if you dare!

It's what's in the grooves that counts

Many soul albums, particularly those of the 1960s, contained a couple of great singles padded out with filler tracks.  Also, the explosion of soul during this time meant that due to the sheer number of records being made, many artists only released one or two songs before disappearing from view.  This means that often, soul music is best consumed via the compilation.  I've picked up some of the more popular ones at boot sales over the last few weeks.

Everyone with a working pair of ears loves a bit of Motown, and I got volumes Three and Six of the Chartbusters series for a pound each:

Motown Chartbusters Vol. 3 (1969)

Motown Chartbusters Vol. 6 (1971)

As well as being stuffed with super choons, Volume 3 includes some bewildering sleevenotes from DJ Alan "Fluff" Freeman, while the rear cover of Volume 6 pictures an amusing look ahead at the Motown Revue in 2008:

Also for a pound was this Motown double:

Motown Dance Party (1988)

The cover art simply screams "1988!", and from that and the description "Specially sequenced for continuous dancing" you'd be forgiven for thinking that the album is some monstrous Jive Bunny-esque cut-up mix that butchers the songs in order to run them all together.  Thankfully this is not the case at all; the tracks are just edited a bit more closely together, with each one fading in proper Motown fashion before the next kicks in - perfect for a dance party in fact!

Next up, again for £1 is a Ronco Teleproducts album called Black Explosion:

Black Explosion (1974)

As well as selling kitchen gadgets like the Veg-O-Matic, Ronco put out budget compilation albums which it advertised on TV, much like its competitor K-Tel.  This particular record is a great all-round collection of popular soul licensed from Stax, Atlantic and Philly Groove among others.

Also from Ronco, also bearing the legend "As seen on TV" and this time bought for 50p is the soundtrack to the 1977 movie Black Joy:

Black Joy (1977)

Black Joy was a British culture-clash comedy about a Guyanan living in 1970s Brixton starring Norman Beaton, the late star of 80's sitcom Desmond's.  I've never seen it, but the soundtrack is terrific, featuring 22 tracks of 60s and 70s soul, reggae and R&B.

I've already included songs from some of these comps in the Car Boot Vinyl Diaries cloudcasts, which you can find here: http://www.mixcloud.com/CarBootVinylDiaries/ so dip right in - there are six episodes to date that include all kinds of music gleaned from car boot sales and charity shops over the years, featuring rock, pop, soul, disco, folk, blues and more.

• If you're a soul fan, you may also want to enter the current Super Summer Giveaway to be in with a chance of winning Stevie Wonder's brilliant Innervisions on LP.  It's open until 9pm on Sunday August the 3rd 2014: http://carbootvinyldiaries.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/super-summer-giveaway-final-part.html 

• Keep up with my car boot finds on Twitter: https://twitter.com/VinylCarBooty

Album cover slideshow

Here's a selection of some of my car boot vinyl finds from the last few years...

...featuring three different Top of the Pops themes!

Ooh La La

Formed in 1969 from the ashes of the Small Faces along with Ron Wood and Rod Stewart, rowdy bar-room rockers the Faces released four albums during their relatively short career.  The final one was Ooh La La, which I picked up at a boot sale on Easter Monday for £2:

Faces - Ooh La La (1973)

Rear cover

Gatefold

With Rod on the verge of leaving the band due to the success of his solo career, it's Ronnie Lane whose stamp is all over this record, particularly on Side 2, where he is credited with writing or co-writing every cut.

The front cover art is a Python-esque novelty with instructions to "squeeze top of album down".  This makes the top-hatted feller's jaw drop to reveal a set of gnashers, and literally minutes of fun can be had making him laugh while his eyes roll.  70s album covers were so much more fun!

My top tracks - The title track of course, co-written and sung by Ron Wood:




and the album openers; Silicone Grown and Cindy Incidentally.


Next up, for £1 was Millie Jackson's 1978 album Get It Out'cha System:

Millie Jackson - Get It Out'cha Sytem (1978)

It opens with the funky title track, which is then followed with the three-song suite of Keep the Home Fire Burnin'/Logs and Thangs/Put Something Down On It, where our Millie takes the fire/log/forest metaphors to the saucy max.  A heartfelt cover of Dolly Parton's Here You Come Again opens Side 2.  Sandwiched between this and Kenny Rogers' Sweet Music Man are three soulful ballads, two of which were co-written by Millie and her long-time collaborator and co-producer Brad Shapiro.

Get It Out'cha System reached no. 14 on the US R&B album chart.  My top track:

Lastly, for 50p was Street Life by jazz- funksters the Crusaders:

Crusaders - Street Life (1979)

By the time Street Life was released, the Crusaders had been around for 20 years.  This album was their biggest success in terms of sales and is worth the admission price alone for the wonderful 11-minute disco-favourite title track featuring the vocal talent of Randy Crawford, the single version of which featured in 1997's Jackie Brown:

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.

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.

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

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:

Ahh, bless 'em.

An ideal Valentine's gift.

No.

A long-time favourite of mine, the
classy Ms. Jackson.

Eek!  Apparently Miss Joyce is popular on the
internet.  One can see why.

Don't have nightmares........

You can find the book here.

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.

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.

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:

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:

Grace Jones - Island Life (1985)

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:

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:

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:

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...

 

Charisma

Peter in 1978

After leaving Genesis in 1975 Peter Gabriel released five albums on the Charisma label, the first four of which were self-titled.  I bought the second and fourth of these albums at a recent car boot sale for £1 each.

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.

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:

Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel (Security in USA) (1982)

"Melt" was written using digital equipment and Security continues this new-found way of making music (well, it was the 80s), adding elements from his travels; namely Latin rhythms and African drumming.

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".

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:

The Animals (1964)

The Animals were originally from Newcastle and were part of the sixties British invasion of the US.

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".

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.

The Monkees (1967-UK)

My last buy of the morning, again for £1 was Talk Talk's second album It's My Life:

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:

Talk Talk - The Party's Over (1982)

My last find of the morning was The Encyclopedia of Albums:

Encyclopedia of Albums - M. Heatley, P. Lester
& C. Roberts (1998)

Bought for £4, this excellent book covers over 1000 albums and is edited by Mojo founder Paul Du Noyer.

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.

Midnight Rambler

I bought a copy of the Stones' 1969 behemoth Let It Bleed a few weeks ago for £5:

Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed (1969)

It has as many lines on it as Keith's face, but luckily they're much lighter so only provide some atmospheric crackle on the quieter parts.  In fact on their cover of Robert Johnson's "Love In Vain" it sounds particularly appropriate.

Let It Bleed is probably my favourite Stones album.  Although a bit patchy (Monkey Man for example being one of the weaker tracks) it contains Midnight Rambler, You Can't Always Get What You Want and the incredible sinister groove of Gimme Shelter; proof positive of the Jagger/Richards alchemy that provided the run of classic albums from Beggars Banquet to Exile.

The cover is of course iconic, even appearing on a Royal Mail stamp two years ago.  The back cover with Robert Brownjon's sculpture (featuring Delia's cake) in a despoiled state is equally good:

Let It Bleed back cover

Released in the December, the album reached no.1 in the UK and no.3 in the US.  The original Rolling Stone magazine review is here, followed by Gimme Shelter on youtube:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/let-it-bleed-19691227

Gimme Shelter: