Car Boot Christmas Countdown - Day 3

Christmas music lends itself very well to instrumentals, and a few of my seasonal car boot finds fall into this category.

Let's start with this thing of wonder from Wout Steenhuis and the Kontikis; Hawaiian Christmas:

Wout Steenhuis & The Kontikis - Hawaiian Christmas (1981)

Dutch multi-instrumentalist (but primarily guitarist) Wout released this album of Hawaiian-flavoured Christmas tunes (as well as versions of Greensleeves and Amazing Grace for good measure) in 1981, and as you can see from the sticker it was given away as a free promo with his Hawaiian Paradise LP.  I paid £2 for it at a boot sale this summer.

Although 'The Kontikis' are credited, I'm fairly sure that such a band never really existed and that Wout himself was responsible for playing every instrument.  Youtube comments suggest he was a "multi-tracking wizard", and he performed on stage alone with just his guitar and instrumental recordings made in his studio.

Top tracks here are It Came Upon A Midnight Clear and The Holly And The Ivy, but the album as a whole is a mellow festive delight; just the thing to go with a couple of large brandies and a mince pie.  Or maybe a Piña Colada.  Mele Kalikimaka, Wout!

Tracklisting

Side 1.
1. The Holly And The Ivy.
2. Silent Night.
3. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear.
4. Away In A Manger.
5. Ding Dong Merrily On High.
6. Amazing Grace.

Side 2.
1. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.
2. Noel Tahitien.
3. Jingle Bells.
4. Shepherds Carol.
5. We Wish You A Merry Christmas.
6. Greensleeves.


Another instrumental album, bought for 50p is Christmas With Love from Geoff Love and his Orchestra:

Geoff Love & His Orchestra - Christmas With Love (1972)

Yorkshireman, composer and arranger Geoff Love is best known for his popular arrangements of easy listening and film music released on budget label Music For Pleasure in the 60s and 70s.  Here he turns his attention to a dozen Christmas classics, and I have to say that this collection has gone straight into my Top Ten favourite Christmas albums of all time.  From the bouncy Sleigh Ride, through the dramatic God Rest... to the sweeping Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas it's a joy from start to finish and definitely worth rescuing from your local chazza should you spot it. 

Tracklisting
Side 1.
1. White Christmas.
2. Sleigh Ride.
3. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.
4. Ding Dong Merrily On High.
5. Mary's Boy Child.
6. The Christmas Song.

Side 2.
1. Jingle Bells.
2. Little Donkey.
3. Winter Wonderland.
4. Coventry Carol.
5. The Little Drummer Boy.
6. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.

Tune in tomorrow (Thurs 18th Dec) for Part 4 of the Car Boot Christmas Countdown, featuring possibly the best instrumental Christmas album of all time!

Hear me play my favourite car-boot Christmas picks on the cloudcast using the widget below.  Alternatively follow the link to be taken to the mixcloud page.

Car Boot Christmas 2014 by Car Boot Vinyl Diaries on Mixcloud

2014 Catch-Up Part 4

Welcome to the fourth and final part in this short series of posts where I run through the as-yet unblogged records found during this year's car boot season.  This at least takes us up to August 31st - I've a whole pile of vinyl from after this date waiting to appear too!

First up, a couple from the late, great Donna Summer:

Donna Summer - A Love Trilogy (1976)

A Love Trilogy (which cost me £1) was Donna's third album and the first of two released in '76 (the other being Four Seasons Of Love).  Produced by Pete Bellotte and Giorgio Moroder, Side 1 follows in the footsteps of previous album Love To Love You Baby with a single long track, Try Me I Know We Can Make It, which unlike the trilogy it purports to be is actually composed of four movements.  It doesn't quite hit the mark as well as the game-changing Love To Love you Baby, but at almost 18 minutes long and with a pounding bass, relentless disco beat and Donna's decorative vocals, it certainly serves its purpose.  Side 2 keeps up the pace with three more disco tracks including a breathy Could It Be Magic.


Also for £1 was album number seven - Bad Girls , which topped the charts in the US and made no. 23 here in the UK:

Donna Summer - Bad Girls (1979)

Donna's records with Bellotte and Moroder were mixed for non-stop dancing, and the opening one-two punch (Hot Stuff and Bad Girls) on the first side of this double album are a perfect example of this.

It's not until Side 3 that we get to have rest when Donna delivers a quartet of slowies, then things pick up once again with a trio of disco tracks.  The electronics are squelchier on this final side - and distinctly farty in the case of the 'I Feel Love'-aping Lucky.

Bad Girls - their only crimes were those against fashion.

Way back at the beginning of June I was delighted to find a copy of Van Morrison's Moondance in excellent condition for £1:

Van Morrison - Moondance (1970)

I'd already bought it on CD last year, but the thought of leaving it behind was unbearable. Morrison took a 10-month break after the release of Astral Weeks before he begin writing songs for this soulful, often delicate follow-up record of folk, rock and R&B.  My top track: the achingly beautiful Into The Mystic, which you can catch me playing on Episode 5 of the Car Boot Vinyl Diaries Cloudcast.  Moondance takes its rightful place at no. 65 on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.


If you're a regular reader of the blog you may remember that in my post on boot sale and charity shop perennials I was keen to snap up the next copy I saw of the the Carpenters' Singles 1969-1973, because as well as having some slightly different mixes and re-recorded vocals, an online source promised "newly recorded bridges and transition material so that each side of the album would play through with no breaks".  I found a very nice copy at a boot sale not long after for 50p:

Carpenters - The Singles 1969-1973 (1973)

There are in fact very few of these transitions; the first side opens with an excerpt from (They Long To Be) Close To You, then goes into the lovely We've Only Just Begun.  After this we have to wait through three songs before Superstar glides into Rainy Days and Mondays, which then drifts beautifully into Goodbye To Love, ending the side.  There are no segues at all on Side 2, although each track is edited closer together than normal so it flows nicely.

This minor disappointment aside, the songs are of course peerless, so my 50p was still very well spent.


I picked up a copy of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' 1976 debut for £1 at the beginning of June:

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (1976)

It's a solid album of American heartland rock, with perhaps a couple of more forgettable tracks, but with songs like the riff-tastic Strangered In The Night, the Springsteen-esque Hometown Blues and Byrdsian closer American Girl, it's a must-have for even casual fans of Tom & co.


Yorkshire-born arranger Geoff Love's prolific career included several albums of music from the movies, including this one:

Geoff Love & His Orchestra - Big Western Movie Themes (1969)

Big Western Movie Themes perfectly conjures up the desperate, lawless inhospitality of the great American West of the movies, as well as the quiet beauty of the arid landscapes that films like How The West Was Won, The Magnificent Seven and The Good, the Bad & the Ugly brought to screens in glorious Technicolour.  A total of 12 themes are presented here by Geoff's versatile orchestra, from the older classics to spaghetti westerns.  I didn't have to pay a fistful of dollars for it either - this neat package evoking the romance and danger of the mountains and prairies cost me 20p.


Also costing just 20p was this double album of South African pop:

Various Artists - Sounds Of Soweto (1987)

This collection of songs may have an upbeat cheerfulness, but subject matters are more serious, ranging from murdering gangsters to apartheid, not to mention food and fuel shortages.  There's plenty of love and sex too, all boasting a distinct 80s sound.  My favourite tracks are those by Lumumba featuring Alexandra-born singer Condry Ziqubu, especially Kiss Kiss, the tale of "a rich old woman slaking her appetites on young men". Lawks!


Don't forget you can hear tracks from many of these albums, and more besides, on the Car Boot Vinyl Diaries Cloudcast archive: http://www.mixcloud.com/CarBootVinylDiaries/

Cloudcast Episode 8

Episode 8 of the Car Boot Vinyl Diaries Cloudcast is now online featuring all kinds of tunes sourced from boot sale records in various states of crackliness.  And a Flumps reference.

Car Boot Vinyl Diaries Episode 8 by Car Boot Vinyl Diaries on Mixcloud

I really hope you enjoy listening.

All the leaves are brown...

...but on Sunday the sky was NOT grey!  I am with transport once again so we headed up the coast to a car boot sale.  The weather was roasting and the skies clear and blue:

The place was heaving but despite the many stalls, vinyl was thin on the ground.  I came away with two LPs, bought for £1 each.  First was this:

Geoff Love & His Orchestra - Themes For Super Heroes (1979)

This is a collection of orchestral versions of superhero film and TV themes, including Wonder Woman, Dr. Who and Batman.  It's both hilarious and brilliant, and has recently been released on CD along with his Big Terror Movie Themes. 

Spotify:  Geoff Love & His Orchestra – Superman 'Theme From Superman'
              Geoff Love & His Orchestra – Wonder Woman (Theme From TV Series)

Next I got Talk Talk's third studio album, The Colour Of Spring.  It marked a transition in style between their earlier synth-pop efforts and final two albums Spirit Of Eden and Laughing Stock. 

Talk Talk- The Colour Of Spring (1986)

Top tracks:  Talk Talk – I Don't Believe In You           Talk Talk – Life's What You Make It