I made the following two purchases, for the following reasons, at Rocking Horse Records yesterday morning. (Of course it was exchange, not hard cash.)
1) Wilmouth Houdini - Calypso Classics ($26.95 or thereabouts)
It's calypso, dude! Easy living but with a strong social message usually attached. It's from Trinidad, dude! Full of songs about now-forgotten Trinidad sportsman, pilot and all-round hero Mickey Cipriani, drinking, cooking and the English overlords set to a bluesy calypso beat. It's historic! (It says so on the front, dated 1928-1940.) The dude's dressed up like a prototype Screamin' Jay Hawkins on the sleeve! I've never heard any Houdini before but this comes highly recommended by a source I implicitly trust (the record store as taste-maker has been a long-acknowledged phenomenon). Man, this is gonna be great.
2) Buzzcocks - Chronology ($8.99 or thereabouts)
It's Buzzcocks, dude - and I ain't talking no lamebrain paint-stain reformations either! You can NEVER have too much Buzzcocks, never. When I was 21, I owned three of their highly collectible vinyl bootlegs - including one that cost the princely sum of £15: and man, I was proud of 'em. There was a killer solo quavering Pete Shelley song called 'Oh Maxine' which I never encountered before or since. This one is outtakes, the usual stuff I'd decry except... yeah, you got it. Krautrock reinvented as a Mancunian punk band with lovelorn lyrics and chokingly-good riffs. Boy, this is gonna be so great.
Reviews to follow.
[...] Tom Beaumont works in one of the finest record stores it’s been my privilege to order calypso and Buzzcocks records from (Rocking Horse)… oh wait, that’s The Heels. Hmm. That would [...]
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