Koppy and paste

One of the many things I love about rummaging for records at boot sales and charity shops is the randomness of it all; what you find depends entirely on what someone else used to have in their record collection.  This is made up of purchases both thought-out and impulsive over the years, as well as records received as gifts or freebies during the owner's lifetime, so the range of taste and quality is wide, particularly bearing in mind that a lot of this old vinyl will have belonged to someone's late parents (hence the endless Jim Reeves albums).

Yesterday I was lucky enough to come home with several LPs, one in particular bought out of pure curiosity:

Beatles Hits - artist uncredited

Side 2 label

A single disc in a plain white paper sleeve, called simply "Beatles Hits" with no credited artist, so obviously a covers album.  But what is it like?  I had to know, so spending a pound to find out seemed fair enough.  It's on the Philips label, cat. no. 88074 DL and published in 1965.  I did a brief online search, and all mentions of the record stated that it has a plain paper sleeve and no proper cover, which made me think that perhaps it was part of a box set.  Several results suggested that it might be by a Merseybeat band called Ian & the Zodiacs who were popular in Germany during the 1960s and sometimes recorded Beatles covers under the name The Koppycats.  I had a listen to a few snippets of Koppycats material and it certainly sounds like they could be the same combo as on the mystery disc.

No releases under either band name listed on web resources such as Discogs match this record, but further digging revealed an old eBay listing that seems to shed a bit of light. The listing offered a 3-disc set called "Philips Family Music Album", with Disc 1 being the Beatles Hits record, Disc 2 a collection of songs from musicals such as The King & I and Oklahoma titled "Highlights from the Shows" and Disc 3 consisting of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty.

It certainly seems like the kind of thing that manufacturers of record players would have given away with their products fifty years ago as a promotional item* - something for mum & dad plus some slightly dodgy-sounding pop covers for the kids - so although all the information I have is unconfirmed, it does seem most likely that Ian and his Zodiacs a.k.a. The Koppycats knocked out a dozen Fabs tunes for their label, who also happened to make electrical equipment - very handy!

I seem to remember that at the back of the crate of records were a couple of old box sets, but as the rest of the contents were mainly Charley Pride and Mrs. Mills LPs I didn't get that far.  Next time I'm at that particular boot sale (hopefully in a fortnight) perhaps I'll seek out the seller and see if I can find the rest of the Philips Family Music Album so that they can be reunited.

It's not a brilliant set of covers, by the way, but not bad either.  Since there's little about it online, I've digitised it for posterity.

Tracklist:

Side 1.
1. I Want To Hold Your Hand - 0.00
2. Can't Buy Me Love - 2.25
3. I Should Have Know Better - 4.34
4. Love Me Do - 6.46
5. All My Loving - 9.12
6. She Loves You - 11.15

Side 2.
1. From Me To You - 13.25
2. Please Please Me - 15.17
3. I Feel Fine - 17.15
4. No Reply - 19.40
5. Baby's In Black - 21.47
6. Eight Days A Week - 23.55

(*thanks JQW of The Afterword!)

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

Living to Music January 2013

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 Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

http://www.gregwilson.co.uk/2013/01/living-to-music-the-beatles-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-3/

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:

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

Beatlemania!

Today marks fifty years since the release of the Beatles' debut single Love Me Do.  It's hard for those not around at the time to imagine just what an impact the Beatles had on young people once they'd broken through with their early 1963 singles.  The levels of complete hysteria that they induced when playing live or even just being spotted are almost unbelievable; teenagers screaming, crying and fainting at the very sight of their heroes.

At last Sunday's car boot sale I bought a copy of The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl (£5) and was able to get a real sense of the madness that could surround them.

The Beatles - At the Hollywood Bowl (1977)

Released in 1977 to serve the as-yet unsatisfied hunger for a Beatles live recording (bootlegs aside), this LP was painstaking put together by George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerik from recordings made at LA's Hollywood Bowl in 1964 and 1965.  As George says in the sleeve notes, the sound itself is unimpressive due the poor quality of the recordings, but the tapes still managed to capture the "electric atmosphere and raw energy" given off from the band playing live at the height of Beatlemania.

Oh the screaming!  Although the band didn't have on-stage monitors with which to hear themselves, I doubt it would have made much difference.  The sheer volume and incessance of the thousands of screaming fans is incredible; they couldn't have heard a note the boys made!

The album features thirteen songs including Twist & Shout, Dizzy Miss Lizzy, She Loves You, Can't Buy Me Love and Ticket To Ride.

Here's some amateur footage from the 1964 concert - to say that the excitement is palpable would be an understatement; just take a look at the shots of the crowd.

The 100 Club

After about 14 months of keeping this blog, today marks it's one-hundreth post.  In this relatively small space of time I've fallen in love with several artists, and come to appreciate many more.  Here's a selection from the last few months:

And to celebrate Car Boot Vinyl Diaries' century, here are 100 songs by the Fabs in five minutes:

All Aboard!

Back in May of this year the restored Yellow Submarine was released on DVD and despite being a Beatles fan I'd only ever seen a few clips, so I bought a copy.  This psychedelic animated adventure stars the Fab Four and other assorted fantastical beings, and naturally has an excellent soundtrack.

A couple of weeks ago I came across a vinyl copy of the Yellow Submarine LP.  It was priced at £10 but I couldn't resist, especially when the seller threw in Bruce Springsteen's Human Touch album for free.

The Beatles - Yellow Submarine (1969)

This copy is a UK issue which was pressed in 1973 under contract in France by Pathe Marconi.  At the time EMI's pressing plant in Hayes was undergoing refurbishment, so many albums were produced this way.  The sleeve was made in the UK as usual.

Side 1 label.  If you look either side of the stalk it reads Made in
France by Pathe Marconi.

Yellow Submarine was the Beatles' 10th studio album.  It contains two Harrisongs; It's All Too Much and Only a Northern Song.  Where the title track seems out of place on its parent album Revolver, in context here it sounds much better.  My favourite song All Together Now is followed by the heavy romp of Hey Bulldog.  Side 1 closes with All You Need Is Love; a 1967 no.1 single from the Magical Mystery Tour EP.

Side 2 is a collection of excerpts from the film's score, written and arranged by George Martin.  Titles include March of the Meanies, Pepperland Laid Waste and Sea of Holes.  If you've never seen the film I'd highly recommend it.  Here's my top track:

Nobody's Children

During Ceausescu's rule of Romania, attempts to boost the country's population included a ban on abortion and contraception.  This led to thousands of unwanted children being abandoned by their parents.  With their already pitiful resources orphanages were unable to cope and the result was an unimaginable toll on the physical and mental health of a huge number of Romanian children.

At the end of 1989 Ceausescu and his wife were executed after the government was overthrown. The wider world became aware of the terrible conditions in these hundreds of orphanages and the suffering that was taking place.

Many charities were spurred into action and many new charities formed.


George Harrison's wife Olivia founded the Romanian Angel Appeal (RAA) along with the other Beatle wives Linda McCartney, Barbara Bach and Yoko Ono.  Together with a raft of friends and contacts they organised a fundraising album called Nobody's Child in 1990, a copy of which I found at one of yesterday's car boot sales for £1:

Nobody's Child - Romanian Angel Appeal (1990)

It consists of fourteen songs "donated" by an array of musicians including Elton John, the Traveling Wilburys, Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder and the Bee Gees, but the crowning glory of the album must surely be the epic "Civil War" by Guns 'n' Roses.  I was in high school at this time and thoroughly obsessed with G'n'R.  I remember that this song was also used as the b-side to the single "You Could Be Mine", which I still have somewhere on cassingle!

The RAA Foundation was registered in Romania in 1991 and continues it's work with vulnerable children to this day.  Since a secondhand purchase of the LP wasn't really in keeping with the original spirit of the album I donated £10 to UNICEF, one of the RAA Foundation's partners/sponsors.  You can too here.  Here's "Civil War".

And Your Bird Can Sing

No car boot today; I have no transport and it's been pretty wet too.  Last Sunday however, was dry and I got a couple of records.  First for £1 was the 12" of Comfortably Numb by the Scissor Sisters:

Scissor Sisters - Comfortably Numb (2003)

As well as the single version of my favourite Scissor Sisters record (sorry Floyd fans!) there are two remixes.  Unusually this 12" singles plays at 33.3rpm instead of 45 and the wider groove spacing allows for a wider dynamic range and therefore better sound quality.  This slower speed really enhances the low end, which makes the bassy Paper Faces Mix sound fantastic.

Next was one of my all time favourite albums; the mighty Revolver:

The Beatles - Revolver (1966)

Rear of sleeve

After delving in to the fascinating, complicated and often contradictory world of online Beatle record label and matrix number bingo I figured that this is a fourth UK pressing, probably from 1971.

It's a stereo two-box "The Gramaphone Co. Ltd. ..." label, matrix numbers Side 1 Yex 605-1, Side 2 Yex 606-2, Doctor label which meant nothing to me until now and which I'll probably have forgotten by the time I finish typing this sentence.  It's probably worth about £15-20 in it's excellent condition, which is fab because the seller was asking £16 and I haggled her down to £12.50.

Beatle-nerdery aside, as well as being in lovely condition, the sound is absolutely sublime.  I'm no audioslave but even to these cloth-ears it sounds wonderful - full, fresh and vibrant from the opening "One, two, three, four..." of Taxman to the cacophonic close of Tomorrow Never Knows.

Here's my favourite song from Revolver, with on-screen lyrics if you fancy a bit of Beatles karaoke:

Ticket To Ride

I bought The Beatles' Help! a couple of weeks ago, a seventh pressing (Oct 1980-Oct 1982) for £4.  First released in 1965 it was their fifth album and features seven songs from the film of the same name on Side 1.

The Beatles - Help! (1965)

It produced two number one singles at the time; Help! and Ticket To Ride, which were both Lennon and McCartney songs.  The album also features two cover versions; the country song Act Naturally sung by Ringo and Larry Williams' Dizzy Miss Lizzy sung by John.

Two Harrisongs are also present; I Need You and I Like You Too Much.  Paul's evergreen Yesterday (recorded by Paul alone) wasn't released as a single in the UK until 1976 once their contract with EMI had expired.  The Beatles had originally refused a release because they felt it was really a solo record that didn't fit in with their work as a whole.  It then reached no.8.  The song is famously one of the most-covered songs, with versions running into the thousands!

The front cover does not actually spell out 'help' in semaphore as originally intended, as the sequence was deemed not aesthetically pleasing.  The UK version actually spells out 'nujv', although it is a partial reverse print of the original photos that spelled 'lpus' or 'help us'!

The album reached no.1 in the UK.  The US version is very different, featuring only songs from the film plus parts of the original score.  It also reached no.1 on the Billboard chart.

Top tracks:

 

Birthday!

Its my 37th birthday today, so to celebrate, here are the Fabs:

The Beatles - Birthday (1968)

Perfect.

Love Me Do

Now it's September and the weather is already taking a turn for the worse, car boot season is coming to an end.  This gives me the opportunity to post about vinyl that I've found at car boots sales and charity shops before I started this blog back in July.

I'll start with my favourite buy of all, a mono copy of the Beatles' debut album Please Please Me (1963), bought for £2 earlier this year.

The Beatles - Please Please Me (1963)

It has a little bit of crackle (just the right amount in my opinion!) and jumps once on Twist & Shout, but I'm as pleased as anything with it 'cos it's a brilliant record, still so vibrant and exciting.  The beginning of an amazing story, too.

Here's a little film of I Saw Her Standing There:

The Beatles - I Saw Her Standing There

The fact that it spent thirty weeks at number one, only to be knocked off by their next album With The Beatles, is incredible.  No artist these days could comprehend such a statistic, unless of course their name is Adele!