2014 Catch-Up Part 3

And now to the third part of my car boot vinyl catch-up, covering some of the records I've picked up over the summer months.  The previous parts can be found here and here.

This album by Joe Tex set me back £3:

The Soul Of Joe Tex (1967)

Although familiar with the Southern soul of Joe Tex, I didn't recognise any of the songs from this 1967 LP on Allegro Records.  It is in fact a UK version of Turn Back The Hands Of Time, an album released in the US two years previously on Pickwick/33, with a slightly different cover: http://www.discogs.com/Joe-Tex-Turn-Back-The-Hands-Of-Time/release/4305158 and identical tracklisting.  Joe's discography is staggeringly large; by the time he had a hit with the million-seller Hold What You've Got he'd already released thirty singles.  My top track here: ballad Could This Be Love?


On the last Sunday in June I bought a couple of Grace Jones albums, both in wonderful condition and both £1.  First up, Living My Life:

Grace Jones - Living My Life (1982)

This was the final album of Grace's Compass Point trilogy on Island, following on from Warm Leatherette and the incredible Nightclubbing, whose reggae/dub flavour had marked a successful mutation from her disco years, and suited her vocal style perfectly.  Here she branches out into songwriting; rather than the usual covers, she is credited with writing/co-writing all but one of the tracks; the almost 7-minute long The Apple Stretching by Melvin Van Peebles.  I don't love it as much as her previous work with Sly & Robbie (and of course the other wonderful Compass Point musicians) but it's still a slinky, bassy must for any fan of Ms Jones, although why the title track was left off the album (but still released as a single) is anybody's guess.

It was to be her last album for a while, as film roles took up her time until Slave to The Rhythm appeared in 1985:

Grace Jones - Slave To The Rhythm (1985)
Hula-hoops ahoy!

The striking cover images of both of these albums were created by artist Jean Paul Goude, with whom Grace was in a relationship at the time.  This Trevor Horn-produced LP was originally intended for Frankie Goes To Hollywood and is described by Horn as "a biography".  It's a concept album consisting of a set of varying interpretations of the title track fused together with fragments of Goude's biography and an Ian Penman essay being read by Lovejoy actor Ian McShane, and snippets from interviews with Jones by Paul Morley and Capital Radio's Paul Cooke.   I was glad to find the vinyl version of this because on the CD release not only are these interesting segments left on the cutting room floor, the tracks themselves have been shortened and muddled around.

'Slave...' was Grace's last album on Island, reaching no. 12 in the UK and higher in other parts of Europe.  A great bit of 80s art-pop, and at a quid a blinking bargain.


Next up, bought for a giddy £6, this repress (70s?  80s?  You tell me - please!) of Crosby, Stills & Nash's 1969 debut:

Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969)

Side 1 label

This stunning record went multi-platinum, spawned two singles (Marrakesh Express and the wonderful Suite: Judy Blue Eyes) and currently sits at number 259 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.  The seven minute plus Suite: Judy Blue Eyes was the track chosen for The Boot Of Loot (in no way a shameless rip-off of Craig Charles' Trunk Of Funk) in Episode 8 of the CBVD Cloudcast, which can be heard here: http://www.mixcloud.com/CarBootVinylDiaries/car-boot-vinyl-diaries-episode-8/


The mighty Boney M. spread their brand of disco (or rather that of producer/mastermind Frank Farian) around Europe during the 1970s, and I got one of their most successful albums for 50p at a boot sale in the summer still sealed!  As if no-one had wanted to hear it!

Boney M. - Oceans Of Fantasy (1979)

Complete with fold-out poster sleeve, too:

The M. in all their glory: poster fold-out

Inner gatefold

Oceans Of Fantasy was their fourth album, and followed its predecessor Nightflight To Venus to the top of the charts in the UK.  It contains such delights as Bahama Mama, Bye Bye Bluebird and of course the single Gotta Go Home, as sampled by Duck Sauce for their hit Barbra Streisand.  Music snobs be damned; Boney M.'s music may be a bit naff but it makes me so happy I couldn't care less!


I got this next album for free (originally priced £1) as I'd bought a rather warped Isaac Hayes LP from the seller a couple of weeks before:

Various Artists - The Songs Lennon & McCartney
Gave Away (1979)

It's a collection of material written during the early part of the boys' career, with the majority written with The Beatles in mind but then "given away" to other artists - mostly at first from the stable of Brian Epstein.  So we have tracks from the likes of Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas, The Fourmost, Cilla Black and Tommy Quickly, as well as non-NEMS artists such as Peter & Gordon, whose first three hits were Lennon-McCartney gifts/cast-offs.  All three are included here, as well as their fourth record Woman, written by Paul but under the name Bernard Webb, in an experiment to see if it would sell as well without the L/M writing credit.  It didn't.

The album was first released in 1971, but this re-release from 1979 has an extra track; Ringo's I'm The Greatest, also featuring John, George, Klaus Voorman and Billy Preston. Not only does it not fit with the original album concept of non-Fabs recordings, it's bloody awful as well.  Apart from this opening track, Side 1 is the strongest thanks to the aforementioned NEMS gang and the Applejacks' Like Dreamers Do.


In 1962 jazz organist Jimmy Smith made a studio album with Oliver Nelson and his big band, produced by Creed Taylor, called Bashin'.   A year later this was followed up by another album with the same set-up, this time recorded live over two New York dates in March, a copy of which I got for just 20p:

Jimmy Smith - Hobo Flats (1963)

  
On Hobo Flats, the master of the Hammond B3 tackles a variety of styles from bossa nova on Meditation to country on Don Gibson's I Can't Stop Loving You, as well as some rock'n'roll in the shape of Fats Domino's Blueberry Hill.

When I bought it, the rear cover had most of another album sleeve stuck to it, but with a bit of patience, working on and off over the course of a day I eventually managed to remove it, revealing the all-important sleevenotes:

The half way point

Ta-dah!

That's it for part three of this 2014 catch-up; part four coming soon.  Don't forget to have a listen to the Cloudcast archive where you can hear me spinning tunes from lots of these finds and more: http://www.mixcloud.com/CarBootVinylDiaries/

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...

 

Pull Up To The Bumper

I bought a couple of records at yesterday's car boot sale.  The first was a double album called White Boy Blues:

Page/Clapton/Mayall/Beck - White Boy Blues (1985)

Back cover

Inside

It's a collection of collaborations and jams featuring Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, John Mayall and Jeff Beck.  It's story is best explained by the sleevenotes:

"The incestuous musical situation which existed in the UK during the late Sixties has made an indelible stamp on the music of today. Groups would swap members for recordings, the looseness of the day permitted collaboration, and the prevailing atmosphere owed more to the music than to the music business. This was best typified in the recordings issued by Immediate Records, a company led by then Rolling Stones-manager/producer Andrew Oldham. Oldham encouraged his charges to write songs for one another, guest on each others' recordings, and bring their talented friends in to make records.

One of Andrew Oldham's talented proteges was a young session guitarist named Jimmy Page. Page had been guesting on records by The Rolling Stones and The Kinks, and was also playing in The Yardbirds during its latter stages. Page was given the chance to record his friends - most notably Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton - jamming in a no-pressure situation, trading licks with them, and getting co-compositional credit on most of the twelve-bar blues songs they laid down. All of these players were in the top of their form back then, and these one-take tossoffs now stand among the best of their work. 

The personnel on these tracks varies a bit, but for the most part the rhythm section of the Clapton/Page tracks consists of Rolling Stones Bill Wyman (bass), Ian Stewart (piano), Mick Jagger (mouth harp), and Chris Winters (could this be Charlie Watts?) on drums. 

The John Mayall tracks feature Eric Clapton (guitar), John McVie (bass), and Hughie Flint (drums).

The All Stars were originally Cyril Davies' group, and the one track which he is present on is one of the very few ever made, as this British Blues progenitor met an early death. However, his rhythm section of Cliff Barton (bass), Carlo Little (drums), and Nicky Hopkins (piano) was reunited a year and a half after Davies passed away to make these recordings with special guests Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. Beck and Page were not in the original band, but owed much to Cyril Davies when it came down to the popularization of the genre of British Blues. 

Santa Barbara Machine Head was a short-lived group whose members achieved greater notoriety long after these recordings were issued. Ronnie Wood (guitar) is now in The Rolling Stones, having served time as Rod Stewart's better half in The Faces and The Jeff Beck Group. Jon Lord is currently found in the recently reformed Deep Purple, where his distinctive keyboard approach always had a home. Kim Gardener (bass) played in various ill-fated bands, one of which was the legendary Creation, and drummer Twink made his mark in Tomorrow and the Pretty Things.
Lastly is guitarist Jeremy Spencer, a classic slide guitarist who distinguished himself in Fleetwood Mac, blew everybody's mind, and then retired from the music business.

Long out of print but never out of date, these are the sessions that were. There has never been a white blues explosion to equal this one, and there never will be. Never was so much talent contained in so small a space, but here are the results on two albums." 

(Jon Tiven) 

I also bought the 12" version of Grace Jones' Pull Up To The Bumper, one of my favourite singles.

Grace Jones - Pull Up To The Bumper (1985)

The remix is by Paul "Groucho" Smykle and Side Two contains La Vie En Rose and Living My Life, even though the Side One label appears erroneously on each side of the record.

Here's the video of the radio edit:

Sun and singles

Today dawned bright and sunny, so I headed up the coast in search of vinyl.  The site was almost full and heaving with bargain hunters:

There were quite a lot of records around and for some reason, lots of 80s 12"s.  First I got two Madonna 12" singles at £5 for the pair; more than I would normally like to pay, but they are favourites of mine and in spanking condition:

Madonna - Borderline (US Remix) (1984)

Two statements of independence from Madonna; Borderline, the fifth single from her self-tiled debut album, remixed by Jellybean (John Benitez) who was then going out with Madge.  This reached no.2 in the UK and no.10 in the US.

Then her second single from third album True Blue; teen pregnancy plea Papa Don't Preach (1986), which reached no.1 in both the UK and US:

Madonna - Papa Don't Preach (Extended Version) (1986)

For £1 I bought another 80s gem from the wonderfully unique Miss Jones:

Grace Jones - Slave To The Rhythm (1985)

It's taken from her 1985 Trevor Horn-produced concept album of the same name, which consisted of eight interpretations of "Slave.."  as well as spoken word sections.  Horn had originally intended the single to be recorded by Frankie Goes To Hollywood but it ended up in Grace's capable hands.  It was a top twenty hit in many countries, particularly German-speaking ones where it achieved it's highest chart positions.

Here's the video of the 7" single version:

Lastly was an EP of remixes of the Rebel MC and Double Trouble's 1990 hit Street Tuff:

Rebel MC and Double Trouble - Street Tuff Remixes (1990)

Side A.  Ruff Mix, Time To Rock - The Trouble Dub.

Side B.  Norman Cook Mix, Norman Cook Mix Instrumental.

As you can see from the track list it contains some of Norman Cook's early work from before he became Fatboy Slim.

For me, the making of the original hit (which reached no.3 in the UK) was it's use of the sample of the bassline to The Maytal's 54-64 That's My Number, but this is entirely absent from all of these consequently disappointing remixes.

Here's the original version on Spotify:  Double Trouble & The Rebel Mc – Street Tuff