Car Boot Christmas Countdown - Day 1

Welcome to the first installment of the Car Boot Christmas Countdown!  Over the next ten days (taking us up to Christmas Eve) I'll be posting about all the festive records I've been gathering together from car boot sales and chazzas during the year in readiness for the season, not to mention the Car Boot Christmas Special cloudcast.

First up then, costing £2, A Very Special Christmas:

Various Artists - A Very Special Christmas (1987)

This star studded album was released in October 1987 in aid of the Special Olympics and attracted a host of big-hitters from both sides of the pond including Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, U2 and Stevie Nicks.  Songs include both the traditional and more modern, from Alison Moyet's Coventry Carol, through Whitney Houston's Do You Hear What I Hear? to the magnificent Christmas In Hollis from Run DMC.

Producer Jimmy Iovine's desire to put out an album of Christmas music in memory of his father, and his wife Vicki's idea that proceeds support Special Olympics athletes worldwide resulted in not just this quadruple platinum record, but an entire series over the past 27 years.

The rest of the series to date

Like the performances, production and other costs, artist Keith Haring's striking cover image was provided free of charge, meaning that 100% of proceeds from the whole series have enabled athletes in hundreds of countries to take part in coaching programmes and competitions.  You can find out more about the albums and the charity here: http://www.averyspecialchristmas.org/

With such a great line-up on this record, when trying to pick out a couple of tracks for the Car Boot Christmas Special I was spoilt for choice and ended up using four!  I'll certainly be keeping a lookout for the other albums on my travels - I'd no idea that there was such a large series. As the second installment didn't come out until 1992, it's only Volume 1 that can be found on vinyl.  The rest are readily available on CD from the charity's website and online retailers.

Tracklisting

Side 1.
1. The Pointer Sisters - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.
2. Eurythmics - Winter Wonderland.
3. Whitney Houston - Do You Hear What I Hear?
4. Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Merry Christmas Baby.
5. The Pretenders - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.
6. John Cougar Mellencamp - I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.
7. Sting - Gabriel's Message.

Side 2.
1. Run DMC - Christmas In Hollis.
2. U2 - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).
3. Madonna - Santa Baby.
4. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band - The Little Drummer Boy.
5. Bryan Adams - Run Rudolph Run.
6. Bon Jovi - Back Door Santa.
7. Alison Moyet - Coventry Carol.
8. Stevie Nicks - Silent Night.

Make sure you come back tomorrow (Tues 16th Dec) for Part 2 of the Car Boot Christmas Countdown, featuring two more festive LPs for the cheapskate record collector.

Hear me playing selections from this album and loads more Christmas music on vinyl gleaned from the boot sales and charity shops of Suffolk in the Car Boot Christmas 2014 cloudcast:

Car Boot Christmas 2014 by Car Boot Vinyl Diaries on Mixcloud

See you tomorrow!

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/

Episode 6 of the CBVD Cloudcast now online!

The newest installment of the Car Boot Vinyl Diaries Cloudcast has been uploaded to Mixcloud.  It showcases lots of my boot sale and chazza vinyl finds including The Doors, Chic, Sonic Youth, The Monkees and lots more, including a fantastic long song at the rear end of the show for The Boot of Loot.

Car Boot Vinyl Diaries Episode 6 by Car Boot Vinyl Diaries on Mixcloud

Hope you enjoy it!

Cloudcast number two now on Mixcloud

Episode 2 of the Car Boot Vinyl Diaries Cloudcast is now on Mixcloud for your listening pleasure!  Use the widget below to listen, or follow the link to go to the page where you can find the tracklist and leave a comment/like.

This one features Donna Summer, David Bowie, Lee Hazlewood and lots more.

Car Boot Vinyl Diaries Episode 2 by Car Boot Vinyl Diaries on Mixcloud

The CBVD Cloudcast has landed!

The first ever episode of the Car Boot Vinyl Diaries Cloudcast has now been uploaded to the Mixcloud page.  Here you can stream nearly an hour of me playing some of my boot sale and charity shop finds, strictly on vinyl and complete with crackles!

Follow the link below to go to the page, where you can find the track-listing as well as listen, or simply use the widget:

Car Boot Vinyl Diaries Episode 1 by Car Boot Vinyl Diaries on Mixcloud

Car Boot Vinyl Catch-Up

I'm getting a bit of a backlog of car boot/charity shop vinyl yet to appear on the blog, so last Sunday's records will all appear here, in a quick run-through in order to catch up a bit. Here goes:

A double album that includes five songs leftover from the "Darkness..." sessions,  Bruce Springsteen's The River  reached no.1 in the US and no.2 in the UK.

Bruce Springsteen - The River (1980)

It's listed as number 250 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and I bought it for £1.50.         Spotify:  Bruce Springsteen – The River

Next was Flanders and Swann's At The Drop of Another Hat, bought for £1.

Flanders & Swann - At The Drop of Another Hat (1964)

It features 14 selections from their musical revue of the same name which debuted at London's Haymarket in 1963.  Produced by George Martin it includes such delights as The Gas-Man Cometh and Song Of Patriotic Prejudice .


An Elvis compilation is always a good thing to have around and at £1.50 this collection of 40 songs was a good £s to hits ratio:

Elvis' 40 Greatest (1978)

On double gatefold pink vinyl, it looks good too:

Also for £1.50 was Fire Brigade by The Move:

The Move - Fire Brigade (1972)

It's a compilation of Roy Wood et al's hits including Blackberry Way and  Brontosaurus .


Finally for £1 was Pelican West, from eighties popsters Haircut One Hundred:

Haircut One Hundred - Pelican West (1982)

Nick Heyward and co's debut album of brassed-up new wave includes the singles Fantastic Day and Love Plus One.  It still had the "free booklet and 2 Bandfax cards" tucked inside the sleeve.  I got Graham and Les (Les!).

Spotify:  Haircut 100 – Pelican West Plus

In addition I bought a copy of Bruce's Darkness On The Edge Of Town for £1.50 to send to my brother.

Six great albums including two doubles, all in great condition for a total spend of eight of your English pounds, a sunny couple of hours spent rifling through records with other keen vinyl hunters, plus a jumbo hot dog on the way out - my favourite way to spend a Sunday morning!

Something In The Night

A few months ago I got this brilliant LP on eBay, for about a fiver, after seeing a documentary about it on TV:

Bruce Springsteen - Darkness On The Edge Of Town (1978)

Fans had to wait three years after Born To Run for it's arrival, due to legal/contractual troubles.  It concentrates on the frustrations of small-town working class life, and many songs are about escapism.  Key to this escape was the car, in particular drag racing and driving at night.

Some songs are about hopelessness, like the beautiful title track, while others are full of hope for redemption through hard work. e.g. Badlands. 

Much has been written about this album, more eloquently than I ever could, so here is Rolling Stone magazine's original 1978 album review:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/darkness-on-the-edge-of-town-19780727

The album reached no.14 in the UK and no.5 in the US.  I absolutely love it, and here are probably my two favourite tracks:

Spotify:  Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band – Candy's Room

                 Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band – Darkness On The Edge Of Town