Charity Shop purchases have been thin on the ground this year. On the other hand the car boot sale season started earlier than normal, and with all the great weather we have been enjoying every weekend has been a booting opportunity for many weeks now. Last year, by my latest estimate, I purchased 144 pieces of vinyl from chazzas and boot fairs. This year although it has only just clicked into May I see I have already bought 64 of the lovely black round things from boot fairs and the like. (This weekend was, in fact, the first time I have drawn a complete blank whilst wandering around, still half asleep, in a field). Not many of these purchases are in fact Soul or any of the styles that I choose to feature here on Feel It. Hmm.. perhaps it’s time for Feel It to have a sister blog.
It was this time last year that I hit you with some of my, then, latest purchases, one of which was a superb Blues & Soul compilation on the UK budget label Marble Arch. Since then I’m always on the lookout for more albums on that label and, as it happens, I’ve picked up two more for next to nothing in the last couple of weeks.
“Great Wilson Pickett Hits” (Marble Arch 681) has a somewhat misleading title. It is in fact Wilson Pickett’s first album in its entirety. Originally released on the Double L label in 1963(?), and then more widely distributed in the USA on Wand it would pop up later in the Sixties on various labels in other parts of the world. This Marble Arch release dates to 1967. It’s a great album – it could in fact reasonably lay a claim to being the first great soul album - that features Wilson in fine testifying voice. Giving it a few listens there is a Sam Cooke feel to some of the tracks but Wilson Pickett’s voice and the arrangements have a grittier Southern Soul feel. Considering its release date, it seems to me it was very much a signpost for where Soul music was heading later in the Sixties. Having said that, I’m featuring the track “Baby Don’t You Weep” which, to my mind, is slightly different to most of the other tracks on the album inasmuch as it is aimed more fairly and squarely at the dancefloor and has an older R&B feel. I’m sure this would still tear up any dancefloor today.
“Modern Jazz Today” (Marble Arch 725) is a Jazz compilation which in truth is nowhere near as strong as the Blues & Soul compilation I picked up last year, and also has a slightly misleading title as some of the tracks were already a few years old by the time of its release in 1967. Still, it wouldn’t be fair to expect anything more from a budget label. The stand out for me is Illinois Jacquet’s “Bonita” which is taken from Illinois’s 1963 album “The Message”.
2 comments:
You've been busy, I can see. I've never come across Illinois Jacquet before, but that track's lovely.
That Wilson Pickett album is great. Has all the Double L sides plus about 6 others you won't find on vinyl any place else.
Imo, everyone should have a copy.
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