To quote Junior Kimbrough, God knows I tried. Two lunchtimes, 6 LPs, 1 single, a smattering of birthday money, 2 friends who utterly failed to restrain me, storm conditions yesterday and 0 sandwiches. Yup, if I had a ‘Sandwiches Eaten’ database* I’d be recording ‘nil’ in the columns for Thursday and Friday this week.
I blame the record shops for their seductive wares, I blame my unusual mid-month solvency**, I blame emotional upset at Mrs 1537 being in New York, I blame society, I blame the crooked media, I blame my upbringing, I blame the additional emotional upset at Wales being beaten by Ireland last week^, I blame the sunshine, I blame the moonlight and I blame the (endless) boogie. True story.
So anyway, here’s what I ended up with:
Neil Young Roxy: Tonight’s The Night Live
Recorded in 1973 a full 2 years before TTN saw the light of day, this is a blisteringly good record. Early days yet, but for me this utterly surpasses the studio versions, both versions of ‘Tonight’s The Night’ are just really far out there and I haven’t got the superlatives for ‘Tired Eyes’. Great to hear Young in a daft, good mood between tracks and the closing take on ‘Walk On’ is superlative. My new fave 3-sided LP.
Man Maximum Darkness
Once you go Welsh, you won’t go back – as the ancient saying goes. This is a great improvisational 1975 live LP featuring John Cipollina as a special guest. The track ‘Many Are Called But Few Get Up’ is just genius+. A brilliantly bonkers insert helps too.
Pentangle Basket Of Light / Fairport Convention Liege And Lief
Somebody traded their folk collection in to the second-hand shop. Both of these highly-acclaimed beauties have been snapped up.
Talking Heads Fear Of Music
I had no idea I wanted this so much until I picked it up and realised that the cover is textured (for my pleasure?). A couple of duds on this one but more than made up for by the utterly classic ‘Life During Wartime’ and the sinister as hell ‘Memories Can’t Wait’.
Sting Dream Of The Blue Turtles
I am a bit embarrassed by this one, I shouldn’t be, there are a few absolutely cracking tunes here – I dreamed about the song ‘We Work The Black Seam’ a couple of weeks ago for no apparent reason and I can always skip ‘Russians’ – EVERY SINGLE TIME!!
Brian Eno Apollo Atmospheres And Soundtracks
The second side of this LP is just incredible music. ’nuff said.
Hawkwind Shot Down In The Night
7″ bought because it had been almost 24 hours since I’d bought a Hawkwind record and for the version of ‘Urban Geurilla’^^on the B-side, which is not on Live Seventy Nine.
I quite fancy a sandwich but I’m too frightened financially to get up out of this seat …
981 Down (among the dead men).
*and why the hell haven’t I?
**now remedied, you’ll be relieved to hear.
^I’m a more emotional person that I realised, I now realise…
^^once the most appallingly timed sequel to a hit single ever.
Brilliant haul. Ab Fab.
The Hawkwind LP that single comes from is terrific.
The Eno re-issue is splendid. I went for the CD, as I often do for ambient music. Still have the LP, of course.
That Sting is OK, really. I excused my purchase of it by claiming the blue vinyl was special.
Those two folk albums are the real shit, and no mistake. Well done indeed. Geez I love Pentangle.
Man I struggle with Man. A work in (slow motion) progress for me… I want to hear progressive soaring but only find stodgy plodding. Maybe I need to hear their music in Wales?
Don’t know the NY. There have been a few archival releases from Mr Young, haven’t there?
Good times for all. The NY is incredible, better for my money than the studio LP of ‘Tonight’s …’. If you have NY’s Shakey biography, there’s a great account of the night(s) the gig was taped from.
What I need him to do is to rerelease ‘Weld’ on vinyl – it’s far too expensive for me now.
Im late to this party. Three things:
1) Maximum Darkness is a hell of an album. Brilliant stuff.
2) Talking Heads. Yasss.
3) Sting. You should have spent that money on lunch. I am banning myself from visiting your site for 15 minutes.
“Sandwiches Eaten database”. I like that one. I will have the give the Man a go. Missed them. I have a take involving one of your country women coming up soon.
You ended up with a bunch of cool stuff and it’s only money… right????
Hmm, right. Unless the medusa finds out …
I sawe Man on that tour with Cipollina so that album is a treasured reminder. It was rumoured that Cipollina’s guitar was so out of tune on this gig that he was edited out of the recording but apparently that’s not the case, you can certainly hear his distinctive style and it’s great that there are two QMS songs (although covers) on the album.
Brilliant – my dad saw them a year or two later and raves about them still. Did Cipollina have chemical issues at the time then?
Nice find with Liege & Lief – and no need to be embarrassed about liking Gordon Matthew Sumner!
Shhhh, people are listening!
The Mrs goes to New York and you go on a record binge! Atta boy Sir!
Shhhh! She might be listening.
Great stuff! I always thought the saying was…”Once you go Welsh, there’s nothing elsh”
Pentangle is a great score. I’ve got loads of their stuff. I get more out of them than I do Fairport to be honest (although I love them too.)
Only given a brief listen so far but liked it. The Fairport one, Tam Lin is heavier than most metal tracks I have.
Like heavy, maaan.
(goes all fiddly-diddly-dee)
All the folk stuff is heavy. Ghost stories, murder, mining disasters, apes of hell… that kinda stuff. Awesome.
Not a bad one there, I want that Lanois and Eno but it’s always too expensive although one day I will succumb I know it. That is my most favorite Man album of all time.
Apollo is amazing, don’t bother spends any extra on the 2LP version: the new stuff isn’t half as good as the original.
Man are such an underrated band, man.
The Legendary Bill Graham loved them
Rightly. My dad saw them in ’75-ish in Carmarthen and said they were incredible. Deke Leonard’s book is supposed to be great. They supported Hawkwind and REO Speedwagon (oddly) a lot.
Fear of Music and Liege and Lief are both great scores. I only have a CD copy of Fear of Music, so I haven’t experienced the textured cover.
IMO Sting jumped the shark on 1999’s Brand New Day – I find most of his solo stuff pretty good up until then,
It’s worth a stroke, so to speak!
The Fairport is really heavy, I didn’t expect that.
Swarbrick and Thompson are very good musicians, and those olde murder ballads are dark.
I blame it on the boogie too. And weather!
I got drenched to the bone yesterday, kept my new records dry though!
Those were the right priorities.