Hope you enjoy it!
Car Boot Vinyl Diaries
Showing posts with label paul mccartney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paul mccartney. Show all posts
Sunday, 20 July 2014
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.
Hope you enjoy it!
Hope you enjoy it!
Friday, 19 October 2012
Monkberry Moon Delight
It's been a couple of weeks since my last post. I turned 38 and was given lots of music for my birthday, plus I bought several CDs with some birthday money, so my ears have been very busy for the past fortnight. This of course hasn't stopped me from vinyl-hunting, and last weekend turned up a couple of Beatles-related LPs. Firstly, bought for £3, I give you Moog Plays The Beatles:
American composer Marty Gold interprets twelve Beatles songs using the then very new Moog synthesizer accompanied by electric guitar, bass, harpsichord, a Lowrey organ, drums and percussion (unlike the pure Moog-ness of the Star Wars soundtrack by The Electric Moog Orchestra).
Highly comic in places, it works best on tracks such as Penny Lane, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds and surprisingly, Norwegian Wood. It relies more heavily on guitars for rockier tracks like Get Back and Day Tripper. The cover art is both inexplicable and explicit, and I like it.
Like most Beatles covers though, it just makes you want to hear the originals. Here it is on Spotify - see what you think.
The next find, also for £3 was Ram by Paul & Linda McCartney:
This pre-Wings album was Macca's second release post- Beatles. He and Linda wrote the album during time spent at their Scottish farm and recorded it in New York with Denny Sewell, Dave Spinoza and Hugh McCracken.
Like his first solo album McCartney, the songs on Ram have a homegrown feel about them; probably a reflection of the domestic bliss that Paul and Linda were enjoying at the time. A quirky set of relaxed, melodic and whimsical compositions show an intimacy that the pair's seclusion encouraged, yet they don't forget to rock, too. There are also a couple of thinly-veiled jibes at his former bandmates; this is illustrated by the beetles photo on the rear cover:
The cover photography is Linda's work, but the awful artwork is credited to Paul - he may be a talented man, but this doesn't extend to graphic design...
Ram reached no.1 in the UK and no.2 in the US, and produced three singles. Here's Monkberry Moon Delight:
And the album on Spotify: Paul McCartney – RAM
 |
| Marty Gold - Moog Plays The Beatles (1970) |
American composer Marty Gold interprets twelve Beatles songs using the then very new Moog synthesizer accompanied by electric guitar, bass, harpsichord, a Lowrey organ, drums and percussion (unlike the pure Moog-ness of the Star Wars soundtrack by The Electric Moog Orchestra).
Highly comic in places, it works best on tracks such as Penny Lane, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds and surprisingly, Norwegian Wood. It relies more heavily on guitars for rockier tracks like Get Back and Day Tripper. The cover art is both inexplicable and explicit, and I like it.
 |
| Rear cover |
Like most Beatles covers though, it just makes you want to hear the originals. Here it is on Spotify - see what you think.
The next find, also for £3 was Ram by Paul & Linda McCartney:
 |
| Paul & Linda McCartney - Ram (1971) |
This pre-Wings album was Macca's second release post- Beatles. He and Linda wrote the album during time spent at their Scottish farm and recorded it in New York with Denny Sewell, Dave Spinoza and Hugh McCracken.
Like his first solo album McCartney, the songs on Ram have a homegrown feel about them; probably a reflection of the domestic bliss that Paul and Linda were enjoying at the time. A quirky set of relaxed, melodic and whimsical compositions show an intimacy that the pair's seclusion encouraged, yet they don't forget to rock, too. There are also a couple of thinly-veiled jibes at his former bandmates; this is illustrated by the beetles photo on the rear cover:
 |
| Rear cover. Note the two beetles - said to be how Paul felt he'd been treated by the other Beatles. |
The cover photography is Linda's work, but the awful artwork is credited to Paul - he may be a talented man, but this doesn't extend to graphic design...
 |
| Inner gatefold |
Ram reached no.1 in the UK and no.2 in the US, and produced three singles. Here's Monkberry Moon Delight:
And the album on Spotify: Paul McCartney – RAM
Wednesday, 30 May 2012
A pair of Wings
Sunday's car boot sale was hot and sunny, and there was a fair amount of vinyl on offer. Much of this was of course the usual piles of easy listening and country LPs that had belonged to the late parents of the baby-boomer stallholders, but I still came away with a few decent records.
Paul McCartney & Wings recorded seven albums during their time and I bought two of them for £1 each, both in great condition. First was Band On The Run:
This was their third album and best selling one, reaching no.1 in the UK and US as well as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Spain and Norway. It was recorded in Lagos, with only Denny Laine joining Paul and Linda; the other two members Henry McCullogh and Denny Seiwell left the group - Seiwell just the night before they were due to leave for Nigeria. The LP came with a poster with photos of the recording trip.
Clive Arrowsmith took the photos for the famous cover which includes Michael Parkinson and Chrisopher Lee in the line-up of criminals.
The two big singles Jet and Band On The Run open the album then the tempo is dropped by Bluebird; a love song with a little sax break. Mrs. Vandebilt (more sax) and the Lennon-esque Let Me Roll It finish off Side 1 quite nicely.
Side 2 starts with the long, dreary Mamunia, then relief is provided by No Words and the quirky Picasso's Last Words which reprises Jet and whose tempo changes and musical about-turns are reminiscent of the Abbey Road medley (albeit a duller one). The piano-rock of final track Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five is the strongest of the side, reprising Band On The Run at the very end.
Band On The Run was remastered and re-issued in 2010 as part of an ongoing series of Paul's Wings and solo remasters (Ram came out this week). It stands at number 418 in the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list and was said to have marked a return to form for Paul. It's certainly not my favourite of the two Wings albums that I picked up the weekend however.
Back To The Egg rocks harder and is for me far and away the better record:
The idea of Back To The Egg was to go back to a more basic rock'n'roll ethos, as well as a new beginning for Wings as a whole. In terms of the music this was true - it's a vibrant and consistent album of pop, rock, soul and funk. On songs such as Old Siam, Sir (a stonking rocker) and We're Open Tonight, Macca's voice never sounded better. The celebrity jam of the Rockestra Theme (starring among many others Dave Gilmour, Pete Townshend and John Paul Jones) is a gleeful, backslapping bit of fun.
But the new beginning was not to be. After Paul was arrested in Japan for possession of dope and deported, plus John Lennon's murder later that same year, the band eventually unravelled and Wings never completed another album.
Critics generally slated Back To The Egg, with Rolling Stone being particularly grumpy using words like "lazy", "slipshod" and "drivel". I'm too young to remember but I gather there was a fair bit of Macca-bashing going on around this time for whatever reasons. I thinks it's a great album and the public seem to agree, as it reached a respectable no.6 in the UK and no.8 in the US.
Predictably neither album is on Spotify, so here's a medley on the 'tube:
Paul McCartney & Wings recorded seven albums during their time and I bought two of them for £1 each, both in great condition. First was Band On The Run:
 |
| Paul McCartney & Wings - Band On The Run (1973) |
 |
| Back cover and inner sleeve pic |
This was their third album and best selling one, reaching no.1 in the UK and US as well as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Spain and Norway. It was recorded in Lagos, with only Denny Laine joining Paul and Linda; the other two members Henry McCullogh and Denny Seiwell left the group - Seiwell just the night before they were due to leave for Nigeria. The LP came with a poster with photos of the recording trip.
The two big singles Jet and Band On The Run open the album then the tempo is dropped by Bluebird; a love song with a little sax break. Mrs. Vandebilt (more sax) and the Lennon-esque Let Me Roll It finish off Side 1 quite nicely.
Side 2 starts with the long, dreary Mamunia, then relief is provided by No Words and the quirky Picasso's Last Words which reprises Jet and whose tempo changes and musical about-turns are reminiscent of the Abbey Road medley (albeit a duller one). The piano-rock of final track Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five is the strongest of the side, reprising Band On The Run at the very end.
Band On The Run was remastered and re-issued in 2010 as part of an ongoing series of Paul's Wings and solo remasters (Ram came out this week). It stands at number 418 in the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list and was said to have marked a return to form for Paul. It's certainly not my favourite of the two Wings albums that I picked up the weekend however.
Back To The Egg rocks harder and is for me far and away the better record:
 |
| Paul McCartney & Wings - Back To The Egg (1979) |
The idea of Back To The Egg was to go back to a more basic rock'n'roll ethos, as well as a new beginning for Wings as a whole. In terms of the music this was true - it's a vibrant and consistent album of pop, rock, soul and funk. On songs such as Old Siam, Sir (a stonking rocker) and We're Open Tonight, Macca's voice never sounded better. The celebrity jam of the Rockestra Theme (starring among many others Dave Gilmour, Pete Townshend and John Paul Jones) is a gleeful, backslapping bit of fun.
 |
| Back cover, inner sleeve pic and egg labels (Sunny Side Up and Over Easy) |
But the new beginning was not to be. After Paul was arrested in Japan for possession of dope and deported, plus John Lennon's murder later that same year, the band eventually unravelled and Wings never completed another album.
Critics generally slated Back To The Egg, with Rolling Stone being particularly grumpy using words like "lazy", "slipshod" and "drivel". I'm too young to remember but I gather there was a fair bit of Macca-bashing going on around this time for whatever reasons. I thinks it's a great album and the public seem to agree, as it reached a respectable no.6 in the UK and no.8 in the US.
Predictably neither album is on Spotify, so here's a medley on the 'tube:
Thursday, 18 August 2011
Synthesis
Two more LPs bought on Sunday both make use of the synthesiser. As the 70s progressed, the synthesiser became a more and more popular instrument, and both of these albums were recorded during this decade.
The first is Paul McCartney's McCartney II, which I got in excellent condition for £1.50. I was anxious to hear this as it's been remastered this year and has thus been written about quite a bit.
The first is Paul McCartney's McCartney II, which I got in excellent condition for £1.50. I was anxious to hear this as it's been remastered this year and has thus been written about quite a bit.
Paul McCartney - McCartney II (1980)
Recorded in the summer of 1979 at his farm on the Mull of Kintyre, this album is an odd collection of synthpop, blues and more recognisable McCartney-esque ballads. And some other stuff that defies brief description. The experimental use of a synthesiser throws up instrumental tracks like Frozen Jap which many seem to hate, but this is one of my faves. Another couple of great pop efforts are the early electronica of Temporary Secretary and the UK chart no. 2 hit Coming Up.
Not available on Spotify, here are some youtube links, including the video for Coming Up which features Macca and Linda in a variety of guises.
Frozen Jap: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b-TplCXNx4
Temporary Secretary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdqZccgaXyU
Coming Up (video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDBkySeyiDo
The next album is pure synthesiser through and through:
Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene (1976 France, 1977 rest of world)
This cost me £1. French composer Jarre reached number 2 in the UK charts with this, his biggest success to date. It features six tracks named Oxygene parts I to VI. Part IV is probably the most well known track from this suite of analogue synthesised instrumental music. In the UK it was used as the theme to an 80s medical programme called 'Where There's Life', which is certainly where I first heard it! Here's the link:
Spotify: Jean Michel Jarre – Oxygène, Pt. IV
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