Christmas Top 5 2011 #2

From fast funk to slow groove, here is something a little different for Christmas. I do like to play this song by Morphine over and over again as one listen is never enough.

Christmas Top 5 2011 #3

Our number three Christmas song this year combines funky good times with social comment. Take it away, Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings.

 

Christmas Top 5 2011 #4

Dan Hicks did it too. Did what, you ask? Record a Christmas album, that’s what. His came out last year and features this laid back scat version of Carol Of The Bells. Close your eyes if you don’t dig the animation and just unwind to this carol.

Christmas Top 5 2011 #5

Another year, another Christmas Top 5. Now, these are by no means the greatest Christmas songs of all time, but just another 5 good Christmas songs that I think should get some airplay, and believe me they will, at my house. My love of Christmas songs stems a great deal from my affection for the “Blues” and they are so many Christmas songs by “Blues” artists. So to kick off the Christmas Top 5 this year, here is Lowell Fulson with I Want To Spend Christmas With You.

Runaway with Del

Sunday gone was the last Belmont Swap Meet for the year. I came away with one book, one record and one CD; that sounds like a blues song. I’ve since been listening to that CD all week. I spotted this CD amongst a lot of dreck in a small box at a stall I had already passed and just happened to be walking past again. It was the familiar Raven Records logo on the CD spine that caught my eye. Now, my basic policy is to buy anything that Raven Records puts out. Generally I love pretty much everything this reissue label has ever done, with perhaps the exception of a Roy Hamilton compilation and Christy Moore 2fer; I haven’t given those a second listen yet, but I digress. Basically Raven is a label that I trust.

And this CD on this day was a double CD called Del Shannon: A Complete Career Anthology 1961 – 1990. The woman selling it let me have it for $2.

Now, like most people, I knew Del for Runaway, that song with the wo-wo-wos and the why-why-whys and that strange but compelling piano/organ solo. Turns out, thankyou informative Raven booklet included with the CD, that this part of the song was done on an early synthesiser called a Musitron.

But what else did Del sing? Quite a lot as this CD shows. He worked with Tom Petty in later years, which I never knew, and also Jeff Lynne, and then as I read it came back to me.

I remembered a night in the early 90′s, well before I got into seriously into music, I happened to watch “Hey Hey It’s Saturday” (in my defence, so too did a majority of the nation back then; and I was young). I recalled Daryl Sommers doing an introduction to a music act; Daryl said “Remember the song Runaway? That guy is back with a song called Walk Away!” And sure enough up next was Del Shannon with what was his 90′s come back single, a song awash with the stamp of Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty. I never heard it again until I bought this CD. And sadly Del took his life shortly after this.

Apart from Tom and Jeff another significant music figure that Del worked with was Andrew Loog Oldham and included on this compilation were some songs they did together that were heavy on Beach Boys influence. For me these songs are the stand out tracks and I have one of them here today for the Friday song.

The only copy of it that I could find online was part of a medley of so using TubeChop I have edited it so that just the song Friendly With You is played. Apologies to whomever put this clip on YouTube as a medley. To hear the song click on the first link below.

With Andrew, Del also recut Runaway, as a string laden ballad which gave me chills with it’s stabbling violins. Interesting, but not as good as the original. A copy is also below.

Plus, continuing the Del obsession for the week, I’ve also found that Hey Hey It’s Saturday performance, sadly without the introduction.

Enjoy!

http://www.tubechop.com/watch/242997

Modesty Prevails

I’m back, and let’s continue where we left off with another Girls and Guns cover. Today, we have Modesty Blaise.

I think the publishers chose a model with a striking likeness to the comic stip character. Whatever you may think of Modesty Blaise I feel you have to give credit to Peter O’Donnell. Not only did he create the character but he wrote the comic strip and numerous novels for decades.

Shall we turn to the back cover to see adventure Modesty is in for in this book? 

I can’t really tell you what the story is about based on the back cover blurb other than that it is set in Africa and has killers and gorillas. I feel the New York Times says it best though when they point out that this novel has it all, including medicine.

Hiatus

Well, I’m about to go on leave and I can’t guarantee that I will be able to blog regularly over the next month. But I will be back in December with a Christmas record display and a Christmas top 5.

To wind up for now, how about a little slice of Scott Walker?

Treats in time for Halloween

No need to update the record display as I already prepared my Halloween inspired trio last week. Today is the day so I will keep it up for the rest of the week.

So, on with the post for today, which recounts yesterday’s outing to the Belmont Swap Meet, my first such outing for a while. How did I go?

First up, what is going on with the prices of second hand records these days? CDs are cheaper. It wasn’t until I reached the last aisle of the carpark that I found people selling their records for less than $5. Meanwhile CDs were all either one or two bucks.

Also, Cliff Richard fans were in abundance. I had no idea Cliff has done so many records. Just about every seller had Cliff albums to sell. I thought Cliff fans were meant to be life long devotees? Perhaps it is the grandchildren who are selling the records?

So what did I get? I finally got a copy of Led Zeppelin III with working rotating picture display wheel.

Led Zeppelin III with Spinng Wheel! Note: Not the song by Blood Sweat & Tears

Also got some Otis and Detroit Spinners

The Detroit Spinners are big fans of the Ladies Baseball League

As welll as The Roches and Phil Seymour, one of power pop’s missing heroes . The guy who sold me this remembered seeing Phil on Countdown back in the day as he had a hit song in Australia from off this album.

Good thing your shirt does not clash with the background

It was also a good day for Reggae with a Bob Marley find and some Aswad.

So Bob, how big was that fish you once caught?

Casino Royale, the soundtrack from the film from the 60’s, is an album that I have long been after, not from some fondness for the film you understand but for the Bacharach music.

Hey I could almost include this record cover in my Lost Library Thing feature Girls With Guns

Also, I finally bought Rod Stewart’s Blondes have more fun. Yes it is the epitome of his 70’s blonde period but for only a buck I don’t have much to complain about and also now that I own it perhaps I will stop coming across it.

Do I really need to make a comment here?

I also came an album by Rita Jean Bodine but it was her first album which I already have and not the second album that I am trying to find. The hunt continues.

On the CD front I picked up Tom Jones’ blues album that was released last year, a steal at $2.

Who to praise and who to blame for someone selling this for two bucks?

And yes, my Christmas music obsession continues with the purchase of a Christmas CD featuring some Rosemary Clooney and Johnny Preston performances.

I just can't stop buying Christmas music...

I also picked up a Flying Dutchman funk jazz compilation for a dollar, Flying Dutchman being a 70′s jazz label. This would be about the third such Flying Dutchman jazz funk compilation that I have, and yes there is some repetition with the tracks featured here also being on the other compilations but there is also some stuff I don’t have. Who knows; if I keep buying these I might end up with all the tracks from one Flying Dutchman album spread out across a half dozen compilations.

Flying Funk is what they called this compilation, and yes I do give a Flying Funk for jazz funk.

Now, to put aside some time to listen to all this stuff.

I don't know about you but nowadays whenever I hear the word Nerds I think of Liz Lemon

Got Gun? Fur Sure!

Girls with Guns continues on. James Hadley Chase, a prolific thriller writer of the 20th Century provides todays book. Publishers the world over seem to think that thrillers are made more thrilling by including a scantily clad woman on the cover. Give her a gun though and you have sex and violence. And if she is a cold blooded killer at least she is warm with that fur coat on.

 

I do love the interaction on this cover between the model and the authors name. Are you checking out her legs or checking the spelling of Hadley?

Dem Bones

Halloween; a great excuse for a vinyl display. And so I have gathered together some records with a skull and bones connection for the creepy occasion.