Don't Leave Me This Way

The blog has sat neglected for quite a while (the last proper post was almost a year ago!), as my spare time has been spent elsewhere, but the seemingly unquenchable thirst for bargain vinyl remains, and I've continued to scour car boot sales and charity shops for records.  There's a lot to catch up with, so let's make a start...

Cher released her 19th album Heart Of Stone in 1989, and I bought a copy at a chilly boot sale last spring for 50p.

Cher - Heart Of Stone (1989)
This artwork, a painting by Octavio Ocampo,
was changed not long after release for a
much less interesting, conventional studio portrait.
Look carefully at the image to see a skull.

This collection of synthy soft rock and blistering, blustering power ballads is front-loaded with its three best songs; Just Like Jesse James which got to no. 11 in the UK, If I Could Turn Back Time which reached no. 6 and of course spawned that video filmed aboard the USS Missouri, and You Wouldn't Know Love, which amazingly only got as high as no. 55 here, despite being a stonker of a tune.

The title track is actually a Bucks Fizz cover, which was news to me, although it did come out at the fag-end of their career, in 1988.  Their version barely scraped into the chart at no. 55; Cher's fared slightly better the following year at 43.  Does Anybody Really Fall In Love Anymore? sounds terrifically like Livin' On A Prayer, which unsurprisingly turns out to have been written by two members of Bon Jovi.

The cheesiest moments come courtesy of a cover of Desmond Child's Love On A Rooftop and the none-more-80s Emotional Fire featuring Bonnie Tyler and Michael Bolton on backing vox.  It must be said that the album as a whole is firmly of its time, but Ms Sarkisian belts out its mostly well-written songs with a satisfying gusto.  Heart Of Stone peaked at no. 7 in the UK, and remained on the album chart for a staggering 82 weeks. Here's that video:

At an Easter Sunday boot sale last year I got Roger McGuinn's self-titled solo debut as part of a 3-for-£5 deal.

Roger McGuinn (1973)

I say solo, the four other original members of The Byrds all appear on the jazzy My New Woman, about a new squeeze who aspires to be "more than a lay".  The album boasts an eclectic mix of styles; acoustic folk-pop opener I'm So Restless is my favourite track, name-checking Dylan, Jagger and Lennon, and even featuring Mr D himself on harmonica.  Like many of the songs here it was co-written with Jacques Levy, who had already collaborated with McGuinn on Chestnut Mare, and who'd later work with Dylan on his Desire album.

Bag Full Of Money is a country tune that expands on the true story of "DB Cooper" who in 1971 hijacked a Boeing 727 and extorted $200,000 from the authorities before parachuting away, never to be seen again.  Aside from his ex band-mates, McGuinn's other guests include Spanky McFarlane on backing vocals for the traditional sea shanty Heave Away, Bruce Johnston joining David Crosby to provide harmony vocals on another trad cover The Water Is Wide, and Bruce again both singing and playing piano on the sunny, unsurprisingly Beach Boys-esque Draggin'.  There's plenty of musical variety to keep things interesting; as well as the jazzy feel of the aforementioned My New Woman courtesy of Charles Lloyd and his sax, sci-fi ballad Time Cube even has a bit of Moog squelching between the banjo picking.  The rather sickly Jimmy Joyce Children's Chorus blight the beginning of Stone, a cover of the Oldham/Penn gospel track, here featuring Spooner himself on piano, but thankfully they disappear for good after about 30 seconds.

Altogether it's a great album, due to its diversity of styles and McGuinn's unfussy production, as well as some strong songwriting and cover choices.

Found nestling amongst the Tijuana brass and bought for just a pound last April was this Ride album:

Ride - Meltdown (1991)

Recorded live at Wembley Arena and the Town & Country Club in early 1991, and drawing on their three EPs from the year before (Ride, Play and Fall) as well as material from '91's Today Forever EP and debut album Nowhere, Meltdown is a snapshot of a band arguably at their peak.  It manages to capture their gigantic, rolling wave of sound, combining a distorted but melodic jangle with hazy harmony vocals.  It's thrilling, and made even more exciting by the fact that it's a fairly rare bootleg, on XS Records (did I mention it was a pound?).

Deadwax etchings 

On the same day last April I picked up The Communards' second album Red for 50p, a couple of months after finding their self-titled debut in a local hospice shop for £1.

The Communards - Red (1987)

The Communards - Communards (1986)

These were the duo's only two albums, between Jimi Somerville's short stay in Bronski Beat and his subsequent solo career, and of course some time before Richard became the Rev Coles.

Inner gatefold of 'Communards'.

Both albums consist of Hi-NRG synth-pop interspersed with thoughtful piano ballads, and the best-selling single from each album was a disco-inspired cover of a cover; Don't Leave Me This Way (Harold Melvin & the Bluenotes→Thelma Houston) stayed at no.1 for 4 weeks in September '86, and Never Can Say Goodbye (Jackson 5→Gloria Gaynor) peaked at no. 2 the following year.  Red boasts the particularly moving For A Friend, written in memory of the band's close friend Mark Ashton.

Flowers by Julie Felix cost me just 20p, bought the same day as the Roger McGuinn record.

Julie Felix - Flowers (1967)

The Californian folk-pop artist of Native American and Mexican descent found fame in Britain when she signed with Decca in 1964.  Flowers is her sixth album overall and her second on Fontana, to whom she switched in 1966.  She became a regular guest on The Frost Report as their resident singer, and even hosted her own TV variety programmes on the BBC between 1968 and '70.

I mainly bought the album for the two Dylan songs (Chimes Of Freedom and The Gates Of Eden) but there are several other pleasant enough covers including two Donovan numbers, as well as her own composition Berlin, featuring a jazzy sax outro. There's nothing outstanding here, but since I was only expecting acoustic hippie strumming/warbling, the harpsichord, organ and flute on some of the tracks came as a nice surprise and keep things interesting.

On the same morning as I found Ride and The Communards' Red (not to mention four different LPs with the word 'Tijuana' in the title, but more of that another day...), I bought Missing... Presumed Having A Good Time by the Notting Hillbillies. It was the end of the morning and my pocketful of car boot change was much depleted.  The record was supposed to be £2, but the seller kindly accepted my last £1.79.

The Notting Hillbillies - Missing... Presumed Having A Good Time (1990)

The is the sole release from Mark Knopfler's country-rock side project formed in 1986, and consists mainly of covers, plus a couple of originals in Your Own Sweet Way with Knopfler taking lead vocal for the only time, and Will You Miss Me? written and sung by Steve Phillips.  The band sound great throughout, playing the sort of laid-back pre-rock 'n' roll Americana that fans of Dylan's 21st century albums will likely enjoy.  Banjo, keys, Knopfler's unmistakeable guitar sound and some beautiful pedal steel from Paul Franklin combine with agreeable vocal harmonies on eleven tracks of country, bluegrass, calypso and blues, although it may be a little on the smooth side for some tastes.

Back in 1990 my dad and my eldest sister went to see the Notting Hillbillies play locally at Snape Maltings (as did the future Mr Breakfast), which was broadcast on TV (Channel 4 I think) and is now on youtube in full, with three extra songs:

Last (for now) but by no means least is Dylan's live Hard Rain album, found in May last year for £1.

Bob Dylan - Hard Rain (1976)

I spent much of 2015 (and a little of 2016) listening to Dylan's back catalogue via the 47-disc Complete Album Collection box set, blogging my impressions as I went.  You can read what I thought of Hard Rain here:

http://bobsbigbox.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/19-hard-rain-1976.html

and find the rest of the BobBox blog here:

http://bobsbigbox.blogspot.co.uk/

That's it for now, I'll be back soon with more car boot sale and charity shop vinyl.  If you'd like to keep up with my bargain hunting in 'real time', follow me on Twitter @VinylCarBooty (there's a button at the top of the page).  I generally tweet boot sale records on a Sunday evening, and charity shop ones as and when I find them.  Please do share your bargains with me either here on the blog via the comments, or over in Twitter land, I'd love to hear about them!

CBVD Cloudcast Episode 11

The latest Car Boot Vinyl Diaries cloudcast, the first for 2015, has been uploaded to Mixcloud.  There are loads of great tunes, all found at car boot sales and charity shop here on the Suffolk coast, plus The Boot Of Loot and brand new segment Novelty Island!

Use the widget below to listen, or click the link to go to the CBVD Mixcloud page.  I hope you enjoy it!

Car Boot Vinyl Diaries Episode 11 by Car Boot Vinyl Diaries on Mixcloud

Hit Me With Music

Welcome to the first proper Car Boot Vinyl Diaries post of 2015!  I hope you enjoyed the four-part Little Box Of Horrors series (although 'enjoyed' might be overstating it given the subject matter), but it's now time to get back to the car boot sale and charity shop finds, which have been coming thick and fast in recent weeks.  I've picked out a few of the records that I've been listening to over the last few days, starting with this from Carlene Carter, bought at a boot sale last autumn for £1:

Carlene Carter (1978)

This was her debut album and was recorded in London, with members of British pub-rockers The Rumour both playing and producing.  A song each was also written by The Rumour's frontman Graham Parker (Between You & Me) and Carlene's brother in law Rodney Crowell (Never Together But Close Sometimes).  Also making a couple of appearances is ex Brinsley Schwarz member Nick Lowe, to whom Carter became married the following year.

It's solid collection of polished country-rock, accompanied by the strong, clear and expressive vocals she shared with her mother June.  Despite the stellar contributors my two favourite songs are final tracks Slow Dance and the lovely Who Needs Words, both written by Carlene herself.  The album is dedicated to Maybelle Carter, her grandmother and original member of the Carter Family folk group, who sadly died later that year.

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Car boot season is not yet in full swing and pickings have been slim, so I've made a few visits to local charity shops lately.  The St. Elizabeth Hospice shop in my hometown prices all its LPs at 50p, whereas its sister shop four miles up the road in the tourist-attracting seaside town of Aldeburgh has a rather different policy of pricing the dreck at £1, and anything else at the highest sale price found on eBay that week, regardless of condition.  This leads to some rather optimistic price tags on your normal charity shop fayre.

Last month I spied a rather dirty, well-played looking copy of Bob Marley & The Wailers' Live! album.  It had a noticeable scratch on Side 2, but I reasoned it'd be playable, plus the falling-to-bits sleeve could be easily mended with some double sided tape.  When I turned to read the rear cover I was rather surprised to see that the price tag read £15!  A bit much for something that can usually be found in better condition and for less than half the price on Discogs. I put it back in the box and left with a couple of other, more reasonably priced records. When I popped in again a couple of weeks later the offending label had been removed and the LP had magically found its way into the pound box.  So I grabbed it, obviously.

Bob Marley & The Wilers - Live! (1975)

After a good clean and some TLC it came up pretty well, except for a few crackles from the scratch.  The album was recorded in the summer at London's Lyceum Theatre, and is an exquisite snapshot of a band at their sizzling peak.  Bob, the band and the wonderful backing singers The I-Threes give a reggae-as-rock live makeover to seven songs, the likes of which I'd not heard before, except for No Woman No Cry, as the version here has become the definitive one (as heard on the compilation Legend).  Well known hits such as Get Up, Stand Up and Lively Up Yourself are performed with passion and given a new energy while retaining a joyous laid-back groove.

To me, it's an album to rival the likes of Sam Cooke at the Harlem Square Club or Donny Hathaway Live, and the Marley fatigue I induced in myself during my late teens was washed away by the thumping bass and the sound of the ecstatic crowd.  My top tracks are.... well, it's too hard to choose just two, so I'll pick the whole of Side 1; Trenchtown Rock, Burnin & Lootin', Them Belly Full and Lively Up Yourself.

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Another week, the same shop had a copy of Van Morrison's Saint Dominic's Preview. The record was in better condition but the sleeve was tatty, and certainly not worth the £10 tag.  I asked the lady behind the counter if she'd take £3 and she immediately agreed, showing that it's often worth pointing out damage and questioning some of these OTT asking prices (I do realise that charities want to get the best prices for their donations, but overpricing scratched records is more likely to keep crate-diggers away).

Van Morrison - Saint Dominic's Preview (1972)

SDP was Van's 6th album, coming after 1971's Tupelo Honey which I have yet to hear (sadly Spotify is largely a Van-free zone).  I'd only previously heard Astral Weeks and Moondance - both car boot vinyl finds - and on first listen of SDP was surprised by its variety of styles.

R&B opener Jackie Wilson Said was immediately familiar, no doubt mainly because when I was eight my Dad bought Dexy's Too-Rye-Ay which contains a cover version.  Less excitable but equally soulful are the celebratory, nostalgic Redwood Tree and the Ray Charles-y piano blues of I Will Be There, while the title track is infused with gospel-inspired piano.

There are just seven songs on the album as it contains two 10 minute-plus meditative pieces that wouldn't be out of place on Astral Weeks; the atmospheric Almost Independence Day and my favourite, Listen To The Lion.  During the latter Van improvises much of the vocal, incorporating grunts, moans and the occasional growl, which although I'm sure is meant to evoke the lion inside him, gives me visions of the great man trying to cough up a tricky furball, during which I can rarely keep a straight face.

The album as a whole is a rich and beautifully performed and produced record, and one of my favourite finds of the last 12 months.

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More lightweight, but still very enjoyable is this recent 25p find from a local church's charity shop:

Various Artists - Deep Heat 90 (1990)

Compilation telemarketing label Telstar Records began their Deep Heat series in 1989. Deep Heat 90 gathers together chart-bothering hip-hop and dance tracks from the past year that had appeared on Volumes 5-8, and as you might imagine, Kraftwerk samples and Run DMC's ubiquitous 'Ah-Yeah!' abound.  As you can see from the tracklist, there's only one number one record, in the shape of Beats International's mega-hit Dub Be Good To Me: http://www.discogs.com/Various-Deep-Heat-90/master/53187 

This copy is a bit scuffed on Side 3 and skips a few times, so I use an old stylus reserved for such cases.  I'm currently operating a 3-stylus system, labelled X, Y and Z (since I found some alphabet stickers in a drawer!) with X for brand new records, Y for car boot/chazza ones and Z for dodgy/potentially dodgy discs.  It works for me!

There's lots to enjoy here, but my top tracks are Snap's Ooops Up (note the triple-o), Queen Latifah & De La Soul's Mama Gave Birth To The Soul Children and this from En Vogue (principally for the James Brown guitar sample, I must admit):

Least favourite are the rubbish Sixth Sense-Latino Rave - a megamix originally used to promote Deep Heat Volume 6 - and of course Candy bloody Flip, whose version of Strawberry Fields Forever's only redeeming feature is the echoey Funky Drummer sample.

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Towards the end of last year I saw a copy of Bob Dylan's Saved at a car boot sale in a box of LPs marked £1 each, so I picked it up to take a closer look.  Although a relative Dylan neophyte, the release date of 1980 was enough to give me second thoughts and I put it back.  It was still there the following week and by now the combination of colder weather and the end of booting season meant that vinyl was thin on the ground.  I took pity on it, paid my quid and took it home, with fairly low expectations.  I'm glad I did.

Bob Dylan - Saved (1980)

This was Bob's twentieth studio album and the second in his overtly religious trilogy which began with Slow Train Coming in 1979 and ended with 1981's Shot Of Love.  He'd undergone a conversion to Christianity in late '79, initially sparked by an audience member throwing a silver crucifix onto the stage at a gig.

'Saved' is an album of gospel-rock and modern spirituals, recorded at Muscle Shoals early in the year with his current touring band.  Side 1 is by far the best, with the rousing title track and Solid Rock plus the very moving What Can I Do For You? particular highlights.  Side 2 is a bit of a let down, especially the plodding Saving Grace.  The most off-putting aspect is Dylan's rather patronising, often self-righteous tone.  Oh, and the cover.  Overall though, it's not half as bad as I'd been led to believe, and certainly worth a quid!

If you're a Dylan fan - or even if you're not - you might like to pop over to my new blog where I've just begun working my way through the enormous Complete Album Box Set, a 47-disc set stretching from his debut up to 2012's Tempest.  I'm up to 1965 at the moment!  You can find it here: http://bobsbigbox.blogspot.co.uk/

You'll be able to hear tracks from all of these albums, plus much more on the next Car Boot Vinyl Diaries cloudcast, coming soon.  Catch up with previous episodes here: https://www.mixcloud.com/carbootvinyldiaries/

That's it for now, thanks for stopping by.

Win "An Americana Christmas" on CD!

Car Boot Vinyl Diaries is feeling in a festive mood, and is excited to present a very special Yuletide competition.  I'm giving away a copy of brand new album "An Americana Christmas", which features songs from artists new and old, including Bob Dylan, Valerie June, The Band and The Common Linnets.

Various Artists - An Americana Christmas (2014)

More info on the album here: http://theboot.com/johnny-cash-emmylou-harris-dwight-yoakam-americana-christmas/

All you need to do is enter your name (real or internet!), email address and the message "Merry Christmas" in the contact form at the top right of the page, click "send" and you'll be entered into the Grand Draw which will take place at 8pm (GMT) on Monday 8th December.

The competition is open to readers from all countries and the prize will be despatched double-quick so that the winner can enjoy the excellent tunes in the run-up to Christmas.

Tracklisting

1. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (Luther Dickinson)

2. Everything Is Cool (John Prine)

3. Pretty Paper (Robert Ellis)

4. The First Noel (Emmylou Harris)

5. The Gifts They Gave (Johnny Cash)

6. Just Me And These Ponies (For Christmas This Year) (Corb Lund)

7. Run Run Rudolph (Dwight Yoakam)

8. Must Be Santa (Bob Dylan)

9. Winter Wonderland (Valerie June)

10. Everybody Deserves A Merry Christmas (Ronnie Fauss)

11. Season Of My Memory (Max Gomez)

12. Les Trois Cloches (Ben Keith w/ Neil & Pegi Young)

13. At Christmas Time (The Common Linnets)

14. FaLaLaLaLove Ya (Nikki Lane)

15. Here It Is Christmas Time (Old 97 s)

16. Christmas Must Be Tonight (The Band)

Also, tomorrow (Weds 3rd December) will see the launch of the Car Boot Christmas 2014 Cloudcast, especially made for you, presented by me and jam-packed with almost 1½ hours of festive tunes from vinyl found at car boot sales and charity shops.

Merry Christmas all, and good luck!

2014 Catch-Up Part 2

This is the second in a four-part catch-up of the records I got from this season's car boot sales here on the (mostly) sunny Suffolk coast.  Part 1 can be found here: http://carbootvinyldiaries.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/2014-catch-up-part-1.html

In July I picked up Bruce Springsteen's debut album Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. in great condition for £1:

Bruce Springsteen - Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ
(1973)

Although it received positive reviews upon release, the spirited, industrious rock'n'roll of Greetings.. only sold an initial 25,000 copies in its first year.  Since then it's deservedly sold much better and has won the position of no. 379 on Rolling Stone's '500 Greatest Albums of All Time' list.  I have this on CD already, but couldn't leave it behind for the sake of a quid.

Another Bruce record I have on CD and again couldn't resist on vinyl, this time for £3 from a boot sale in August, was 1982's Nebraska:

Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska (1982)

Famously written and recorded as a series of demos, the ten tracks that make up the album were released unaltered from the cassette Springsteen made at home on a 4-track recorder after sessions with the E Street band failed to capture their rawness.  It's a dark, haunting record with mainly bleak, often harrowing stories of violence, escape and death. If you don't already have it, I recommend it highly.


More lightweight but equally good fayre next, in the shape of the Average White Band's second album AWB:

Average White Band - AWB (1974)

Released forty years ago (in the year of my birth), AWB was Scots funksters The Average White Band's debut for Atlantic after leaving MCA, reaching no. 6 in the UK album chart. Sadly, drummer Robbie McIntosh died the same year of an accidental heroine overdose so this album represents his best, last work.  Steve Ferrone took over the sticks and the band's subsequent LPs Cut The Cake and Soul Searching also entered the top ten.  I paid £1 for this corker of an album.


Another £1 bargain was this album from sophisticated chanteuse Françoise Hardy:

Françoise Hardy - In English (1969)

'In English' is exactly what you'd expect - Ms Hardy taking a break from her native tongue and singing a selection of her material in English, including her biggest UK hit All Over The World.  Note that this is a slightly different version of her 1966 album of the same name and more confusingly, uses the same cover photograph as 1967's Ma Jeunesse Fout Le Camp.  My top track: the beautiful Autumn Rendezvous.


One particularly hot Sunday in July saw me spending £4 on this 1980s repress (with the CBS 'Nice Price' inner sleeve) of Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home:

Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home (1965)

Containing such classics as Subterranean Homesick Blues, Maggie's Farm and It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding), it rightly takes its place at no. 31 on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.  You can hear me playing On The Road Again (and lots more besides) on Episode 7 of the Car Boot Vinyl Diaries Cloudcast here: http://www.mixcloud.com/CarBootVinylDiaries/car-boot-vinyl-diaries-episode-7/


Also featured on Episode 7 is a song from South African male choral group Ladysmith Black Mambazo's 25th album, 1987's Shaka Zulu, which I bought for £1:

Ladysmith Black Mambazo - Shaka Zulu (1987)

The soothing a capella recording consists of new versions of previously released material, this time produced by Paul Simon with whom they forged a musical relationship during their appearance on Graceland the year before.  Some of the songs are sung in English, and this accessibility, coupled with Simon's involvement, made it a hit in the US leading to a Grammy award for Best Traditional Folk Recording.


Lastly - for Part 2 of the Catch-Up at least - again for £1, was Difford & Tilbrook's self-titled release from 1984:

Difford & Tilbrook (1984)

I can't find a chart placing for this sole album as a duo made two years after Squeeze split, so I'm assuming it didn't do that well, which is a shame as although it has a rather dated 80s quality that's quite brittle in places, there's melody aplenty.  Standout tracks are singles Hope Fell Down and Love's Crashing Waves.  It's hard to find these days, so grab it if you see it.


Part 3 of the Catch-Up to follow soon-ish; in the mean time keep up with my boot sale finds on Twitter @VinylCarBooty and listen to the CVBD Cloudcasts here: http://www.mixcloud.com/CarBootVinylDiaries/