Free Records

I was in Rainham and did a charity shop visit (on the way back in Sittingbourne) and purchased a shirt and four books f or a fiver!

The books are -

H.G Wells “Kipps” (Penguin)
Mervyn Peake “The Gormenghast Trilogy” (Mandarin) - all 953 pages of it!
Clare Tomalin – Samuel Pepys, The Unqualified Self” (Penguin)
Francis Wyndham “Trotsky, A Documentary” (Allen Lane)




I got loads of free albums again, Tuesday afternoon, all from the same shop as last time, with the sign outside, “Please take, free records”. A dozen in all , although the George Benson one was a double 12” single.

The albums are -

Biddu Orchestra – Futuristic Journey
Dave Swarbrick – Swarbrick 2 (Transatlantic)
Level 42 – The Early Tapes (Polydor)
Various - The Best of British Jazz Funk Vol. 2 (Beggars Banquet)
Various – Beauty and The Beat (Fourth & Broadway)
George Benson – Shiver (Warner Bros 2 x 12”)
Murray Head – Shade (Virgin)
Creedence Clearwater Revival – Chronicle, The Greatest Hits (Fantasy)
Aztec Camera – Stray (WEA)
Vangelis – Opera Sauvage (Polydor)
Dan Hill – If Dreams Had Wings (CBS)
Gallagher & Lyle – Breakaway (A&M)
Spectacular Sound Effects (EMI)
Jane Morgan and The Troubadours – Fascination (Kapp)

As the great GC once said “We love free!”

These will go on the Discogs site. I sold the Nina Simone LP over the weekend and that too was from the same place in Rainham.

My tweets

• Tue, 15:12: Picked up fourteen albums for free in Rainham today
• Tue, 21:56: I favorited a @YouTube video http://t.co/J7mAcMao The Biddu Orchestra - Journey To The Moon.wmv
• Wed, 05:08: Free Records http://t.co/DOobEhIw
• Wed, 05:14: Damn, I'm awake early! Probably fall asleep later, lol
• Wed, 05:28: Forgot to add the photo to the blog entry http://t.co/L0PlGxIA
• Wed, 05:36: Spot will need somebody to talk to as i will be out again. Sitting in front of the Bourne identity. That's a clue.
• Wed, 05:41: Interesting article in Guardian G2 yesterday with Noam Chomsky http://t.co/UWyuPgZW
• Wed, 05:46: Will be writing a blog on another finished book later today. Just need to gather my thoughts.
• Wed, 05:48: Favourite music related books at vg+ forum http://t.co/MaoOPhzu

( Read more... )

20 Cool Tracks (Soul, Garage, Mod, Psyche)

1. Tangerine Peel - Solid Gold Mountain -
A club night is nothing without it's punters. Tangerine . A groovy number kicks the proceedings off, the opening notes sounding like we were going to get an alternate take of 'Champ' before moving onto wild guitars and well placed horns.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=254lPiw1Tpo

2. Driftin' Five - Hard Headed Baby - Think a harder and gruffer ' I Haven't Got the Nerve'..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD-_dK5nW1M
..

3.The Hunters - The Hun Russian Spy and I.
Forget back drops and spins. This absolute belter of a Dutch garage track is a favourite of mine I and should have everyone doing the Kazachok from Glasgow to St. Petersburg and back
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOUt6m1iox4

4. The New York Rock Ensemble - Running Down The Highway' 
Funky psych n' that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHAkyjY7g7A


5. The Shotgun Express - Curtains
UK Mod Hammond instrumental from a group with some sort of Rod Stewart connection. Sounds like Young Holt Trio or is that Young Holt Unlimited with the slightly off key groove of Spooner's Crowd.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH48aAut6Z0


6. The John Bull Breed - Can't chance a Breakup.
Keeping the UK mod theme going here. Has the soulful elements of St Louis Union/Spencer Davis and a band I will be checking out a bit more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RvWdFtAfmw


7. Luther Ingram - Oh Baby Don't You Weep
A welcome return to blues based soul although this is more R&B than Northern. New Great tune, whatever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ocb1SVo8V1Y

8. Judy Clay - Do You Think it's Right -
Waaaah Waaaah goes the sound of the mouthy as the R&B stomper with hints of Big Mama Thornton get the foot a' tappin'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOoPRh8VDkg

9. Tobi Lark - Sweep it Out In the Shed -
Great vocals and harmonies here in this soulful R&B number.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO3dPu4mKq8


10. Lee Fields - Take Me Back
And certainly it does...soul tracks like this remind me of what it was that first hooked me Northern Soul all those years ago and eventually led me down the vinyl obsessive road.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTKA_UO50LM


11. The Terrible Frankie Nieves - True Love -
Nothing terrible about ths record.. The backing track is a Latin version of 'Am I the Same Girl/Soulful Strut' but with a completely different melody. Great stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3hQ6-_aetk

12. Willie Tee - First Taste of Hurt
Another great choice and a fin e piece of soul music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjJ5syON0T8

13. Marcela Griffiths - Feel Like Jumping / 14. Laurel Aitken - Reggae 69 - A couple of reggae reggae saucers here which only emphasize the eclectic feel of the music i spin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjHvLwee-CQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEJMzs8iSbY


15. Ray Frazier - I Who Have Nothing
Nowt this really is infectious and makes me want to do one of those funky things with my shoulders that make my head look like it's on rollers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3zavYivxwM

16. Elaine Armstrong - Sad but true
More funky town here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6i4uBfqk5M

17. Dana Gillespie - You Just Gotta Know My Mind
One of the best girl group sounding tracks ever? I would have been disappointed if I had went onto popsike and saw this never went for big money
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8mkMuMMDQQ


18. Jenny Rock - Mal -
French Language version of Hush. One of the best versions of this track I have heard, has an extra psychedelic edge and a few phased ooooooooows that has Billy Joe Royal quaking in his boots.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo2To3GNupY


19. The Dirty Filthy Mud - The Forest of Black
Nothing to see here. Please move on. Honestly walk away. You really don't want to come into this forest. Trust me. You will get lost in this forest. Wait...come back...noooooooooo!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFAyydSXskE


20. Jon Lucien - Search for the Inner Self
After all that forest i shall end with this. Jon Lucien's smooth voice guided us to find our Inner selves which apart from those nuggets of vinyl, is the one thing that each and every one of us is looking for. A really nice track to finish what has been a great CD compilation..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD5E3rsx_bI

A Day For Feeling A Bit Blah!

A much cooler day. Less interesting in some ways. I felt somnambulist all day after feeling quite perky in the morning. I think being in a stuffy office in the afternoon didn't help either making me feel even more lethargic.

Fell asleep for an hour or so this evening, after dinner and Fran turning up before she went to do her shift at the pub.

Cousin has been feeling depressed again. Says he sees nobody and now has turned down the offer of going up the pub from Phil. So he better not complain about seeing nobody tomorrow when I am out “computer buddying” at the library He needs interests other than sports and music.He is in what i term a "deep funk"..

At least, I have finished the Bruce Chatwin book, “The Songlines”, and now very close to the very end of the Montaigne book.

Sold the “Instant Whip” single by The Tremeloes which I picked up for 50 pence a few days ago. This track is a VG+ classic hiding away on the B side of the single.

Book 18 - Bruce Chatwin "The Songlines"

Bruce Chatwin "The Songlines" (Picador)

The Australian Aboriginal songlines, or dreaming tracks, are a fascinating part of a mythology that, after reading this book, I only partly understand. They are geographic paths of stories which cut across Australia in different directions from end to end, marking, within the story, every significant natural landmark. A person who knew the songlines would learn the stories about places he or she would probably never see, and then he would pass these on through a complicated cultural system. Later, someone otherwise unfamiliar with these areas could use the songs as map, maybe to find waterholes, and, essentially, as an information source. The songs were kept constant on some level even as the language dialects changed. So, two people from different parts of Australia would know the same songs. Further, there is a larger mythology behind and around the songs, and a whole cultural system that they are an integral part of…at least that’s what I got from Bruce Chatwin.

Chatwin visited Australia in order to gain a more intimate understanding of the songlines. With some help, he wandered through central Australia interviewing various people he came across. However, he wasn’t simply out to learn and report about this mythology. His explorations were a means to end, a part of an ongoing search he had obsessively set himself on. Early in the book Chatwin mentions a manuscript that he had written on nomads. He burned the manuscript, but kept the notes. Now, in Australia, he is continuing along the same themes, observing, for example, the similarities between these Aboriginal Songlines and the Homeric epics. He postulates that the ancient Greek mythologies are the remains a similar type of mythological atlas.

Perhaps it’s in the book somewhere, but I didn’t read closely enough to gather exactly what Chatwin is looking for. At one point he gets stuck, partially by choice, in a tiny isolated village, and goes through his notebooks and this book either explodes or dissolves in to a list of notes on nomadism and, in general, on some search for some kind of deep understanding of humanity. He later wanders back to the Songlines, but a conclusion is elusive.

I fell in love with the idea of Chatwin’s pursuit, and with his intense sincerity. Of course, this is a work of fiction (or “a truth and a half”, as Chatwin’s biographer Nicholas Shakespeare put it), which, at least for me, leaves element of confusion. Also, I was left with a sense of incompleteness and of needing, and wanting, to go back here again to try to understand Chatwin and his notes better..as it is a bit like Montaigne's Essays , discursive and open ended notes.. This was a memorable read, and one which I would like to upgrade to a hardback or Folio edition.