Sounds
Here I’ll be posting rad records from my collection. They aren’t for sale, sorry…
- Billy Stewart: Summertime (Live at the Nixon Theatre)
Jimmy Bishop on Stage Live at the Nixon Theatre (Meka)
Billy Stewart’s hit 1966 recording of “Summertime” is one of the very best. However, this virtually unknown live version from 1967, recorded here in Philadelphia, is even better, and remains one of the greatest live performances I’ve heard on record. Wait until he starts playing with the echo… Unreal!
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Clarence Taylor & the Estate Singers: Sinner Man
Clarence Taylor & the Estate Singers: Sinner Man (Su-Ann)
One amazing thing about black gospel is how often, and how unself-consciously, it tinkers with and stretches song-form. It’s a generous, not a loose approach. I love how easily this tune repeats itself.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Hayne Davis: She'll Come Around
Hayne Davis: She’ll Come Around (Mother Cleo)
Peculiarly wasted early 70s artifact on Mother Cleo, an obscure South Carolina label. Check out the phased guitar and syrupy tempo and the guy’s epic lack of ‘tude. You should listen to this on a loop while reading Charles Portis and let me know what happens.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- The Challengers: Honey, Honey, Honey
The Challengers: Honey, Honey, Honey (Tri-Phi)
Beautiful early record from underrated singer Ann Bogan, who later joined The Marvelettes and, in the 70s, New Birth.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Susie Klee: Mr. Zero
Susie Klee: Mr. Zero (Polydor)
Baroque, teenage ice-queen cover of the Bob Lind song. On UK Polydor, but Susie Klee was Swiss.
Why are cheap scanners allergic to red?
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Head Cheese: Jungle Jam/ Teenage Idol/ Non-Melodic
Head Cheese: Jungle Jam/ Teenage Idol/ Non-Melodic (Burn Potential)
Very cool, primitive Philly post-punk/synth ep from 1981. “Jungle Jam” features an ultra-basic groove and rather disturbing lyrics. For me the prize here is the brief “Non-Melodic”, whose strange, inept shimmer simultaneously charms and haunts.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Nora Guthrie: Emily's Illness
Nora Guthrie: Emily’s Illness (Mercury)
Woody’s daughter. 1967. She was 17. Beyond that, I’ll let the song sing for itself…
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Errol Dunkley: Please Stop Your Lying
Errol Dunkley: Please Stop Your Lying
Old-school Jamaican dj’s often personalized their records in ways that -at least for me- somehow evade defacement. The record is signed because it is loved. I like that.
Dunkley, who would go on to become one of the greats, was fourteen years old when he recorded this beautiful tune.
Especially moving, perhaps because so unexpected -such an unexpected formulation- are these lines directed at the fickle woman:
“Every night you’re on the beach with another guy/ And the poor guy works so hard to make you big and strong.”
Works so hard to make you big and strong… Dunkley’s vocal innocence fits perfectly the real sweetness of those words, which are peculiar, if you think about it, only in evading stock romantic tropes.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Doria: Love Comes and Goes/ The Lost Road
Doria: Love Comes and Goes/ The Lost Road (Heart)
Who isn’t a sucker for lonesome female folk-rock from the 60s? On “The Lost Road” especially, Doria gets to that special sad spot… Never seen another copy of this privately-issued 45 despite years of looking. And I was never able to track down Doria…
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Los Socios del Ritmo: La Gallina
Los Socios del Ritmo: La Gallina (Capitol)
Smokin’ cover of “Funky Chicken” by a Mexican group. The guitar player shreds his solo. Needs to be heard LOUD.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Roger Rodier: My Spirit's Calling
Roger Rodier: My Spirit’s Calling (Columbia)
Great, spooky Roger Rodier tune. This one appears on his rare lp. I love the mellotron and the strange heaviness (what is it?) that suddenly descends at the 3:28 mark. Sorry about the blurry photo –my scanner can’t handle that typeface (and has difficulties with orange).
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Paul Ryder & Time Machine: If You Ever Get to Heaven
Paul Ryder and Time Machine: If You Ever Get to Heaven (Bellaphon)
Poppy glam or glammy pop -whichever, I want more. Sadly, the a-side is leaden and charmless. These guys never did anything else.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- The Satyrs: Don't Be Surprised
The Satyrs: Don’t Be Surprised (Wal-Mor)
Without teen hysteria the world would be a poorer place. Check out a sublime example at the 1:15 mark… The plaintive vocal pushes the song into classic territory for me. I’ve been unable to learn anything at all about this garage rocker from Asheville, Any information appreciated!
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Reece: Thinkin' Bout Many Things
Reece: Thinkin’ Bout Many Things (Starprobe)
He’s not thinking about many things. He’s thinking about one thing: her. How lonesome he is without her. How, without her, he feels like he’s losing his mind. How different his future seems now that she’s gone. How dark the days have grown. How… oh wait.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Terry Knight: Lullaby
Terry Knight: Lullaby (Capitol)
Nightmarish, to my ears. If you think it’s groovy, you shouldn’t be allowed to babysit.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Curtis M. Carrington Family: One Big Family
Curtis M. Carrington Family: One Big Family (Ken-Yatta Gospel Records)
I find this song incredibly moving, and listening to it while looking at the pic sleeve can draw tears. I really want to believe that this family, unlike so many (including mine), stuck together and had happy lives.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- The Thompson Community Singers: Jesus is Just Alright
The Thompson Community Singers: Jesus is Just Alright (Hob)
Turn this one way up, then give it a minute or so. What is that dark, nasty guitar doing in this song? Incredible. Believe me, this 45 kills at high volume -computer speakers can’t do it justice.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- The Real Pros: Ballad of a Broken Down Power Line
The Real Pros: Ballad of a Broken Down Power Line (Cinema Records)
Song-poems -of which this is a particularly “good” example- have been around nearly as long as the music industry itself. In the early 20th century you could send your lyrics to a publisher, one of whose hired stable of (usually) hack musicians would instantly produce a banal melody “fitting” said lyric, and voila -sheet music with which to bore and bewilder your friends. By the late 50s the practice had evolved, with the customer receiving his/her song in the form of a 45, usually pressed in tiny quantities (you could order as few as ten). Needless to say, most song-poems are, therefore, rare, making this the perfect moment to point out that “rare” is not the same thing as “desirable”. The vast majority of song-poems are bad in every way: sentimental/inane/cliched lyrics, indifferent music, poor production. However… not every budding songwriter, it turns out, was sane.
Some song-poems are also sonically interesting, most notably those for which Rodd Keith -the Brian Wilson of the genre- composed the music. This isn’t one of his productions.
Years ago I was lucky enough to stumble upon an entire box of these strange creatures. I’ll be posting the dozen best over the next few weeks.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Noah's Arc: Nasa Fly Me to the Moon
Noah’s Arc: Nasa Fly Me to the Moon (Medical Records)
Obscure oddball 70s pop, one of my favorite genres -and this, with the requisite wtf break, is a great example.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- The Famous Butleraires: Abraham, Martin & John
The Famous Butleraires: Abraham, Martin & John (Century Records)
Another record whose immense charms I’m afraid don’t survive translation through computer speakers. Recorded live in a church in 1968, the performance is sadly muffled.
Imagine the circumstances, and the setting, and listen to how raw the vocal gets after the break… I’ve seen hard, hard people cry over this 45.
The label, Century, is what’s known as a “custom”, or vanity, label. Artists recorded their own material and paid the label to press it, usually in tiny quantities.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Jevaneti: I Said I Said/ Got To Get Higher
Jevaneti: I Said I Said/ Got to Get Higher (Kresla)
Nice mix of sounds here: early 70s Italian-American soul, Rodriguez, Neil Diamond, a bit of Dylan, a bit of lounge… “Got to Get Higher” is especially good.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Lord Sundance: Pretty Lord Sundance
Lord Sundance: Pretty Lord Sundance (Triode)
Probably no more than a creepy novelty record -but I wear latex gloves when I handle it, just in case.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Belkis Unluses: Lambaya Puf De
Belkis Unluses: Lambaya Puf De (Netfon)
Great Turkish 45. Dance-floor killer.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Watts Little Angel Band
Watts Little Angel Band: New Orleans/Land of a 1000 Dances/Nik Nak Paddy Whack (M.J. Records)
Small, moving document (and one of my favorite picture sleeves). This version of “Nik Nak Paddy Whack” is a deejay staple for me -sounds great loud.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Duke: Runaway Girl
Duke: Runaway Girl (Joy Records)
Mysterious 45… The a-side is a forgettable version of “Malaguena”. But on the b-side we get a very early use of a drum machine, bracketed by an intro and outro of lovely, reverby guitar.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Jackie Opel and the Troubadours: Every Word I Say Is True
Jackie Opel and the Troubadours: Every Word I Say Is True (Wirl Records)
Heart-stopping song from one of the great voices of Jamaican music (though Opel hailed from Barbados, he recorded in Jamaica).
He died in 1970, age 32, in a car crash.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Rodier-Gauthier: L'Herbe
Rodier-Gauthier: L’Herbe (Pax)
Roger Rodier recorded one excellent, now very sought-after, expensive lp: Upon Velveatur, released in Canada in 1972. This 45, a collaboration with Claude Gauthier, dates from a few years prior. The liquid, dreamy guitar tone is unlike any I’ve heard elsewhere.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Shirley Bates: Crimpton, Krompton, Canary Bridge
Shirley Bates: Crimpton, Krompton, Canary Bridge (Fabor)
Great great revenge tune! Her gun is named “Elsie”… Shirley Bates has another, much more common 45 on Fabor, that features on the b-side an otherwise unrecorded song by visionary and psychedelic godfather Eden Ahbez.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- The Lunatics: Oh Lord, Why Lord
The Lunatics: Oh Lord, Why Lord (Teo)
Though I’ve owned this record for years, it remains as profoundly affecting as the first time I heard it, one of those songs I turn to in dark times… The band, from Trinidad, has two other 45s, which nobody I know has ever seen or heard.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Tommy: A Matter of Fact
Tommy: A Matter of Fact (Phonograph Records)
One of my strangest recent finds, a late 60s Christian garage-rock 45 concerning which I’ve been able to learn absolutely nothing… Give it a minute -the song takes a very unexpected turn.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Marshall Hill: Shapes
Marshall Hill: Shapes (Millenium: Short Hills, NJ)
Obscure New Jersey cover of the Michel Polnareff tune. I like this better than the original..
Every song called “Shapes” is good.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Hubert Pattison: Bare-Back Ride
Hubert Pattison: Bare-Back Ride (Pye)
I’ll let this one speak for itself… Rare!
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Wayne, Pat & Keith: I'm Tired of You, Satan
Wayne, Pat & Keith: I’m Tired of You, Satan (Country Happy-Tones: Atlanta)
Turn it way way up. Absymal recording. This completely great song features gnomic explosions and accuses Satan of stealing cars.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Smokey and His Sister: Creators of Rain
Smokey and His Sister: Creators of Rain (Columbia)
Lovely song, better than anything on their lone lp.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Dalton, James & Sutton: One Time Around
Dalton, James & Sutton: One Time Around (National General)
Yearning Byrdsy country-rock tune from 1967. Ringing guitars and a painful hook.
Never seen a stock copy.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Tylers & Boyd: Childhood Memories
Tylers & Boyd: Childhood Memories (AlberQoyd)
I love this record because the lyrics and the music are completely at odds. Sepulchral music (check out the doomy backing vocals) married to an ostensibly uplifting (if nostalgic) lyric. You can’t tell me this song is happy. I wonder if you could tell her?
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- The Browning Brothers: Nearer My God to Thee
The Browning Brothers: Nearer My God to Thee (Browning Brothers)
Fantastic, raw gospel tune by a group whose lead singer can’t be older than twelve… Sorry about the audio quality -the record is hammered.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Scott Wesley Brown
Scott Wesley Brown: Backyard Song and Legions of the Sun
Very rare 45 ep by a songwriter who went on to some success as a Christian AOR popster. None of his later stuff sounds anything like these two strange songs. Perhaps listen to the second song first, to get the full effect…
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
- Damian & Co: There's No Horizon
Damian & Co: There’s No Horizon (Galco Records)
This bleak song gets it. But a song called “It’s All Horizon” would have been just as bleak.
Sad locals, long ago. Rare!
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
