CBVD Cloudcast 16

The latest episode of Car Boot Vinyl Diaries is now on Mixcloud, with all sorts of car boot bangers and chazza choons.  The Featured Album is a collection of BBC Sporting Themes, there's a a great French-language Kinks cover from Petula Clark, and the rest of it runs the gamut from Tom Waits to Tweety Pie.

Use the player below or visit the CBVD Mixcloud page https://www.mixcloud.com/CarBootVinylDiaries/

Teenage Wildlife

Rooting through a box of records at a car boot sale in May last year I enquired as to their price, only to be told by the very nice lady seller that they were "Two pound for the big 'uns, a pound for the little ones".  I bought two "big 'uns", the first of which was Reproduction, the debut album by The Human League.

The Human League - Reproduction (1979)

Reproduction came out in 1979, before Martyn Ware and Ian Marsh split to eventually form Heaven 17, and pre-dating the addition of vocalists Susan Ann Sulley and Jo Catherall.  It's an austere album with equally bleak song titles e.g. Circus Of Death, State Human, Blind Youth, the latter containing the dreadful couplet,

"Dehumanisation is such a long word,

It's been around since Richard the third".

Yikes!  The mood is overwhelmingly dystopian, with themes of fear, isolation, frustration and disappointment explored.  Although dark in tone there's sufficient melody, and it ends with the restrained minimalism and sweet bleeps of Morale... You've Lost That Loving Feeling, a deadpan but surprisingly effective cover version.

Reproduction didn't chart on release but climbed to no. 32 when reissued in August 1982 on the back of singles The Sound Of The Crowd and Love Action from the upcoming Dare. 1980's Travelogue also returned to the album chart.

The second big 'un, also two pounds, was released the following year:

David Bowie - Scary Monsters..... And Super Creeps (1980)

Scary Monsters..... And Super Creeps returned David Bowie to the charts in 1980, following the critically lauded but relative commercial failure of the Berlin trilogy.  The phrase "his best since Scary Monsters" has been trotted out in reviews of his albums ever since, probably for good reason, as it's pretty blimming great.

It opens with the sound of a film projector, a "one-two, one-two-two", then the voice of Michi Hirota speaking Japanese, the English translation of which Bowie shrieks back at her; "Silhouettes and shadows, watch the revolution, no more free steps to heaven, it's no game".  What follows is a dense art rock, glam-pop revolution, shot through with astringent percussion and Robert Fripp's squawking guitar.  Bowie's past is referenced time and again; Scream Like A Baby features Laughing Gnome vocals, Major Tom makes his return in Ashes To Ashes, and the intro to Panic In Detroit also returns during Up The Hill Backwards - but backwards!

Side 1 is ridiculously good, so the second half was always going to be a let down, however accomplished.  The weakest link is a cover of Tom Verlaine's Kingdom Come, but by any other standard Side 2 is still excellent overall.  Teenage Wildlife, with its dig at the new wave movement set to a "Heroes"-echoing backdrop, encapsulates the way in which Bowie uses his past to reflect on the present.  His first broadcast of the new decade concludes with an exhausted reprise of It's No Game featuring Pete Townsend on guitar and ending with the sound of the projector's tape cascading noisily onto the floor.

During another May car boot sale last year I picked up a few records from a stall selling them at 3-for-£5, always a good way of shifting stock quickly.  One of those in the stack I bought was True Jit by Zimbabwean group Bhundu Boys.

Bhundu Boys - True Jit (1987)

Now signed to Warner Bros, this was their first major label release following a pair of albums on Discafrique Records.  It was seen as a departure from their original sound, with lyrics in English as well as their native Shona, plus the incorporation of more Western-sounding production.  The follow-up Pamberi was even less well received and then a series of terrible disasters befell the group, including the deaths of three members from AIDS-related illness.

I can't comment on their earlier work, but I really like this album; its ringing guitars, infectious polyrhythms and cheery brass make for great summer listening, whether or not they in fact constitute true jit.

I've been building up my 70s Elton John collection over the past year, and I bought Rock Of The Westies a few months ago for £1.

Elton John - Rock Of The Westies (1975)

This was Elt's 10th album and his last studio release on Dick James Records (and MCA in the US) before joining his own label Rocket Man Records the following year in time for the release of Blue Moves.  It reached no.1 in the US, as did lead single Island Girl.  The inner sleeve sports amusing bios of all eight band members, including Caleb Quaye, half-brother of Finley.

Inner sleeve

Elton's reads,

"A boring little musician who has risen to fame without the aid of payola.  He only has four chords ('People' Magazine) and he is prone to getting fat at Christmas.  Supports Watford (H-E-L-P!)."

Inner sleeve

The album is a rockular affair with just two ballads, and some sterling riffs and solos from guitarists Quaye and Davey Johnstone.  It isn't as tight or as driven as Captain Fantasic, and must have come as a bit of a letdown after its immense predecessor, but considering it arrived just five months later this can be forgiven.  In any case it's a decent addition to his 70s canon, and very much worth having.

At a car boot last month I found a very nice crop of 1970s albums, all in lovely condition and reasonably priced.  One of them was Derek and the Dominos In Concert, and it cost £3.

Derek and the Dominos In Concert (1973)

This double LP was recorded over two nights at New York's Fillmore East in 1970, and consists of long jams and shorter cuts (not that short, though - the briefest is Presence of the Lord at 6:10) ranging from energetic, soulful, and dare I say it even funky R&B, to Clapton's familiar slow blues rock.  The powerful rhythm section of Carl Radle on drums and Jim Gordon on bass drive things along, with Clapton's thankfully widdle-free guitar supported by Bobby Whitlock's invigorating playing on piano and Hammond (I do love an organ).  It may be an Allman-free zone, but I'm thankful it's also free from the over-familiar Layla.  Be warned, though, there's a veeeeeeery extensive drum solo on Let It Rain, but despite this, the 17 minute long version remains astonishingly good.  Six of the nine tracks were later included on 1994's Live At The Fillmore, along with four other recordings.


I'll end with a record I bought last summer for a pound, Tamala Meets Tijuana by the Tequila Brass:

The Tequila Brass - Tamla Meets Tijuana (1971)

When Tamla met Tijuana they seemed to get on quite well, as this Music For Pleasure recording by the usual anonymous session musicians isn't half as bad as I'd hoped feared.   Despite the tacky cover it's one of the more restrained examples of the genre, beginning with a very smooth How Sweet It Is and an equally Easy Tracks of My Tears.  The version of My Guy is more comical with a 70s sitcom theme kind of vibe, and The Happening, which opens Side 2, is a great fit for the Tijuana treatment.  Not so Dancing In The Street, which due to the nightmarish arrangement doesn't sit happily at all, but luckily it's followed by another Supremes winner Stop In The Name Of Love, which works really well within the format.

The album can be found for mere pence on Discogs, and if you've a taste for Tijuana or a penchant for parping, this groovesome disc belongs in your collection, filed under 'C' for cheese.

The sleeve notes boast of Tamla Meets Tijuana, "A more exciting combination would surely be difficult to find".  They've obviously never heard the Torero Band's Tijuana Nursery Rhymes.

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

Nice Enough To Eat!

Today is a Bank Holiday and I'm going nowhere, so instead let me tell you about some of the records I picked up at a boot sale on the previous Bank Holiday weekend.  On the Sunday (May 5th) I took advantage of a seller's 3-for-a fiver offer on LPs.  First was this:

The World of David Bowie (1973)

This is a 1973 reissue of an album originally released in 1970, with an updated cover photo.  A fascinating collection of songs from his 1967 debut on Deram plus other previously unreleased tracks, this cynically re-packaged set of folk and music-hall style material was presumably intended to attract Ziggy fans expecting something quite different.

It's interesting of course, and very enjoyable in places, but essential to only the most hardcore of Bowie-philes.  Many of the songs here feature on the 1985 double album David Bowie - The Collection (which I have on cassette!).

Next up, the 1969 self-titled debut from Santana:

Santana (1969)

Released the same month as Woodstock where they played on the 15th of August, this is an album of powerful, Latin-infused guitar rock, enveloping the listener in a heady fug of Hammond organ, unbelievable percussion and THAT guitar from Carlos.  Its incredible cover image of a line-drawn lion incorporates how many faces?!

Last and certainly not least I chose Nice Enough To Eat, also from 1969:

Various Artists - Nice Enough To Eat (1969)

 An Island Records label sampler of folk rock, prog and hard rock from artists including Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention, Free and Spooky Tooth, NETE originally cost under 15 shillings which was half the price of a regular album at the time.

Tracklist:

Side 1.

1.  Cajun Woman - Fairport Convention

2.  At The Crossroads - Mott The Hoople

3.  Better By You, Better Than Me - Spooky Tooth

4.  We Used To Know - Jethro Tull

5.  Woman - Free

6.  I Keep Singing That Same Old Song - Heavy Jelly

Side 2.

1.  Sing Me A Song That I Know - Blodwyn Pig

2.  (Roamin' Thro' The Gloamin' With) Forty Thousand Headmen - Traffic

3.  Time Has Told Me - Nick Drake

4.  21st Century Schizoid Man - King Crimson

5.  Gungamai - Quintessence

6.  Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal - Dr. Strangely Strange

An important album to many, it served as an ear-opening introduction to the current Island roster and this kind of music in general.  It certainly worked its charms on me - at the Bank Holiday Monday car boot sale the following day I was driven to buy The Best of Spooky Tooth on CD (£4) which includes this HEAVY cover of I Am The Walrus:

Nice!

The Dog's B*ll*cks

It's been a long, cold winter with a couple of false starts, but today's car boot sale had some vinyl worth flicking through and I returned home with a 1981 reissue of Bowie's 1974 album Diamond Dogs (INTS 5068), bought for £4.

David Bowie - Diamond Dogs (1974)

This was his first post-Spiders album and is essentially a glam-rock record, but with a different sound to its predecessors due to Bowie playing most of the lead guitar parts himself (not to mention several other instruments).  Also present are the first signs of the R'n'B/Soul that would inform 1975's Young Americans.

The original concept for the record was based on Orwell's 1984, but when permission for this was denied by Orwell's widow, Bowie kept his head and worked the existing songs into a dark, fragmented narrative of his own, set in Hunger City where,

"Fleas the size of rats sucked on rats the size of cats
And ten thousand peoploids split into small tribes".

Yikes!

The cover was painted by artist Guy Peellaert, and the original artwork featured genitalia on the lower half of the Bowie/dog hybrid.  This was airbrushed out as you can see from this photo, although some copies with the original image did make it onto the shelves.

I love the segue from the epic Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing into its biggest hit Rebel Rebel, but my top picks are the Stones-y title track and the cinematic 1984.
Here's the 30th anniversary album remaster on Spotify:

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.

http://www.gregwilson.co.uk/2012/10/living-to-music-david-bowie-hunky-dory/

http://carbootvinyldiaries.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/make-way-for-homo-superior.html

Make way for the Homo Superior

Hunky Dory was David Bowie's fourth album and his first after moving to RCA from Mercury.  I got a copy on eBay a few weeks back for around a fiver:

David Bowie - Hunky Dory (1971)

It's one of Bowie's most accessible records, front-loaded as it is with the monster trio of Changes, Oh! You Pretty Things and Life On Mars.

After modest success with Space Oddity and The Man Who Sold The World, Bowie seems to have really knuckled down to his songwriting, for Hunky Dory is his first masterpiece.  Acoustic folk-rock like Quicksand and Song For Bob Dylan ("voice like sand and glue") is well represented, my absolute favourite being the sweet, touching love song to his new baby son Duncan, "Kooks".

 

Elsewhere the piano reigns, Bowie making maximum use of the talents of Rick Wakeman before he left to join Yes.  Electric riffage is provided by guitarist Mick Ronson, where on tribute to Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground "Queen Bitch", the path to Ziggy Stardust is revealed.

It's a very English album, and Bowie employs his always- amusing "Cocker-ney" accent on final track The Bewlay Brothers.

Bowie in '71 (yum)

It wasn't a huge commercial success at first, but when Ziggy Stardust was released in June 1972, Hunky Dory's sales were given a deserved boost, peaking at no.3 in the UK.  To pick a few top tracks is too much of an ask, so listen to it all on Spotify here: David Bowie – Hunky Dory


Original Rolling Stone review here: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/hunky-dory-19720106

Happy Birthday David Bowie.

The Dame, Ziggy Stardust, Halloween Jack, Aladdin Sane, The Thin White Duke, The Actor.  Whatever you know him best as, David Bowie turns 65 today.  Here he is with his Spiders from Mars on Top Of The Pops in 1972.

Happy Birthday Ziggy xxx

Return of the Thin White Duke

I was pleased to find David Bowie's Station To Station in excellent condition for £1 at a recent boot sale:

David Bowie - Station To Station (1976)

Bowie's tenth studio album was partly influenced by his recent role in the Nicolas Roeg film The Man Who Fell To Earth, a still from which is used as the cover art.

A transitional album, Station To Station develops the "plastic soul" and funk grooves of Young Americans towards his later "Berlin Trilogy" which were influenced by cold German electronica and motorik rhythms (Neu!, Kraftwerk).  His alter ego here is the "Thin White Duke" who comes over as a drug addled aristocrat; an emotionless alien character whose impeccable style and poise were only eclipsed by his massive cocaine intake.

Original Rolling Stone review here:  

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/station-to-station-19760325

It's hard to pick out favourite songs from the six on the album, but my two favourite at the moment anyway, are Stay for it's brilliant intro and his cover of Wild Is The Wind, which is just gorgeous.

Spotify:   David Bowie – Stay        David Bowie – Wild Is The Wind

Station To Station reached no.5 in the UK and no.3 in the US Billboard Pop Album chart.





Golden Years

I received belated birthday presents from my little brother last week, bought from a second hand vinyl stall on Cambridge market.  The first is Alice Cooper's Greatest Hits:

Alice Cooper's Greatest Hits (1974)

This is a collection of singles from Alice Cooper the band's (as opposed to Alice Cooper the solo artist) third to seventh albums, from 1971's Easy Action to 1793's Muscle Of Love, their final album.

The songs appear in chronological order and it's easy to track the development of Alice Cooper the singer in a Detroit hard rock band, to Alice Cooper the theatrical horror-rock superstar, now everyone's favourite scary golf-mad uncle.  All of the songs were remixed by producer Jack Richardson especially for the album.

The illustration on the cover is by Drew Struzan.  The band are seen lounging against a car in front of a 1930's garage.  Film stars to spot include Jean Harlow, Humphrey Bogart and Groucho Marx.

The development in their sound can be heard by listening to the first track from each side of the LP; their first hit I'm Eighteen and 1973's Hello Hooray.

Spotify:  Alice Cooper – I'm Eighteen          Alice Cooper – Hello Hooray

The album reached no.8 in the US Billboard chart.

My brother (who is, by the way, both clever and handsome) also bought me David Bowie's compilation Changesonebowie:

David Bowie - Changesonebowie (1976)

This is a fantastic collection of singles and album tracks  from 1969-76, including the single John, I'm Only Dancing, which had not yet been included on an album and not released in the US due to it's supposed "risque" lyrics.

Spotify:  David Bowie – John, I'm Only Dancing

The album reached no.2 in the UK and no.10 in the US Billboard Pop album chart.