It has
been gruelling at the car boot sales lately. 2016 is rapidly turning into the
“...it is now” to 2015's “they think it's all over...”.
It could
just be me. I don't seem to be able to get up quite as early
as I used to so I may miss most of the worms. My lack of any real
finds leads to dejection which leads to apathy and ends up with me
not going so regularly. I am getting more choosy maybe. Oh, and of
course I haven't got the space for any more records anyway – not
that that has stopped me before!
But I am
hearing the same story from other vinyl hunters. We grumbled about
2015 and we are shaking our head over 2016. It's a vinyl desert out
there.
I found
myself bottom feeding last Saturday. Why do I class it so? Firstly, I
missed the start of the booter by a good 30 minutes – first of all
I had to overcome the apathy mentioned above, then I had to overcome
the traffic. So if there were any records the chances were the best
had gone. Certainly, and predictably, vinyl - of any description -
was hard to find. Secondly I found myself on a known dealer's pitch
looking through every last single he had on offer in a couple of
boxes. It was odds on it would be a ragbag of well known rock and pop
in questionable condition he just wanted to offload. But I needed to
look through some records. So I did, and I was pleasantly surprised
to come away with seven 45s for the grand sum of £1.50. Included in
this seven were The Hollies, The Troggs, Nancy Sinatra, Ronnie Lane,
and the Mo-Dettes which were representative of the spread of much of
the singles in the boxes.
The
other two 45s to make up my seven 7s were these two slabs of funk
goodness on the UK Atlantic label – both released in 1973 and
certainly atypical of the rest of the material in the boxes. They are
not particularly rare, and the artists should need no introduction,
but I am very happy to have found them, and they have gone a little
way towards restoring my faith in trawling the car boots.
In fact
I think I may already have this Betty Wright 45 on its original US
Alston label. But there is always a little thrill in finding a
superior slice of funk/soul on a UK label, and it always leads me to
wonder how few copies it probably sold when it was released. Be sure
to listen all the way through and not miss Betty's impressive shriek at the end.
The Dr
John track I remember hearing on the radio when it was released –
John Peel, Alexis Korner would have undoubtedly played it, probably
Emperor Rosko too – a time when I had yet to appreciate the
mightiness of New Orleans funk. And it's a Promo, and that big A gets
me every time.
For the
picture I thought I would lay this brace of Atlantics on a bed of
shells very recently collected from a Portuguese beach (yes, I will
collect anything!).
2 comments:
Really enjoyed both these tracks this Saturday morning. And love the pic.
A couple of crackers Darcy
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