The Bargain Buy
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THE BARGAIN BUY: The Doors; Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine
4 Aug 2014 | 1 min read
Those of us who lived through what I call "the Doors Wars" of the late Sixties (I remember waking up on the floor of a Ponsonby flat to the full-volume "Father, I want to kill you, Mother I want to ....") were sometimes bemused by Jim Morrison being considered a "poet". My line has been consistent on that since then: Jim is a poet to people who don't read... > Read more
The Wasp (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)
THE BARGAIN BUY: Dolly Parton, The Box Set Series
28 Jul 2014 | 1 min read
Songwriters have long recognised Dolly Parton among the greats: she is accomplished at writing sassy songs (Dumb Blonde) heart-tuggers (Put It Off Until Tomorrow) and catchy country-pop (Something Fishy). And those examples are just the opening three in this four CD set, two thirds of the 41 songs being penned by her. Her classic hits are here (Coat of Many Colours, the dark Down from... > Read more
Down from Dover
THE BARGAIN BUY: Elvis Presley; The 1950s
21 Jul 2014 | 1 min read
With songs from the rock'n'roll era coming out of copyright and record companies shoving out old catalogue as CD sales decline further, you can expect to see many more collections like this. In fact this four CD collection (48 songs which might have actually fitted on a double disc) is subtitled The Box Set Series, and that self-same imprint includes about 10 other similar collections which... > Read more
Baby Let's Play House
THE BARGAIN BUY: Yes; The Triple Album Collection
6 Jul 2014 | 2 min read | 2
Here's a story from the battleground of fun: In recent months I have -- for purely academic purposes, you understand -- been buying up cheap vinyl by prog-rock and glam-rock bands. It's kinda fun (although I hope I never heard any more songs by Mud to be honest) and I realise now I was lucky enough to miss most prog when it rolled around in the late Sixties/Seventies. But here's the... > Read more
A Venture
THE BARGAIN BUY: Ornette Coleman; To Whom Who Keeps a Record
23 Jun 2014 | 1 min read
There are many obscure or out-of-print albums in Ornette Coleman's vast catalogue but this counts as one of the least familiar, even to Coleman collectors. Unless you ponied up the cash for the '93 six-CD box set Beauty is a Rare Thing; The Complete Atlantic Recordings or have old vinyl chances are you've never seen or heard of most of this music, sessions from '60 when Coleman was... > Read more
Music Always
THE BARGAIN BUY: Eddie Floyd; Knock On Wood
16 Jun 2014 | 1 min read
One of the classsic Stax songs from the mid-Sixties, the title track here was among singer Eddie Floyd's best known songs and down the decades has had numerous covers (Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, David Bowie and Amii Stewart among the most notable). Co-written with Steve Cropper at the Lorraine Motel where the Stax label would often put up its out-of-town guests, Floyd saying in Robert... > Read more
I Stand Accused
THE BARGAIN BUY: Weather Report, Original Album Classics
9 Jun 2014 | 1 min read
Although there is another set of Weather Report albums in this Original Album Classics series which is better (it includes I Sing the Body Electric, Sweetnighter and Mysterious Traveller), the five albums here kick in with their self-titled debut of '71 and include Tale Spinnin', Heavy Weather and (the lesser) Mr Gone which mop up some pretty substantial material from their innovative... > Read more
Badia
THE BARGAIN BUY: Clarence Carter; The Dynamic Clarence Carter
2 Jun 2014 | 1 min read | 1
One part smooth Otis Redding, one part the more sedate end of James Brown and steeped in Southern soul, the great singer Clarence Carter was one of the finest interpreters of a song, even if he only rarely cracked mainstream attention. In the late Sixties and early Seventies he enjoyed a number of US rhythm and blues -- and even pop chart -- hits (notably Slip Away and Patches) but in New... > Read more
Look What I Got
THE BARGAIN BUY: The Dave Brubeck Quartet, Original Album Classics
25 May 2014 | 2 min read
Over the decades, jazz critics and followers have waxed and waned over the late Dave Brubeck's place in cosmos: there is one school which will never forgive the fact he, a buttoned-down and classically-influenced white guy, was the first jazz musician to appear on the cover of Time (not acknowledging that Brubeck was as embarrassed by it as anyone when so many great black artists should have... > Read more
Unsquare Dance
THE BARGAIN BUY: Joe Harriott Double Quintet; Indo-Jazz Suite
19 May 2014 | 1 min read
Long before there was the new John Mayer, there was the violinist/composer John Mayer from India whose name is on the cover of this album from '66 when the great and often overlooked Jamaican-born British saxophonist Joe Harriott linked up with him for this, the first of three such albums, to attempt a fusion of jazz and Indian music. There was a lot of Indian music in the air at the time... > Read more
Raga Megha
THE BARGAIN BUY: The Byrds, Original Album Classics
12 May 2014 | 2 min read
While it's true to say the best of the Byrds as a folk-rock act moving into psychedelia came before the albums in this set of somewhat diminishing returns, there's a case to made for these years – from '68 to '71 during which their sound changed markedly -- being the overlooked era of that band. Certainly the first album in this set, Sweethearts of the Rodeo with Gram Parsons, is... > Read more
Precious Kate
THE BARGAIN BUY: Jeff Beck: Original Album Classics
5 May 2014 | 1 min read
Although Elsewhere stands by its belief that Jeff Beck has never made a truly great album, we'd also make the case for his Blow By Blow of '75 as being among his most truly satisfying, enjoyable and interesting. In fact we made that album one of our Essential Elsewhere albums some while back (see here) . . . . and now it appears as th centrepiece in budget price five-CD collection. Also... > Read more
Led Boots
THE BARGAIN BUY: Dave Edmunds: Original Album Classics
28 Apr 2014 | 1 min read
The final album in this five CD box set -- I Hear You Rockin' from '87 -- reminds you just how popular, rockabilly and rocking Edmunds was back when he was mentioned in the same breath as his running mates Elvis Costello, Graham Parker and Nick Lowe. It opens with Costello's Girl Talk then its into his own rockabilly Here Comes the Weekend, later he covers Otis Blackwell's Paralyzed (a hit... > Read more
I Hear You Knocking (live)
THE BARGAIN BUY: Laura Nyro: Original Album Classics
21 Apr 2014 | 2 min read
The recent documentray King of Hollywood about music and movie mogul David Geffen painted the picture of a complex, often ruthlessly driven man who would do anything to succeed. And of course he did. From office boy to king of Hollywood via steering record companies, discovering artists, wheeling and dealing, driving a mean bargain but also giving away tens of millions of dollars to Aids... > Read more
Stoned Soul Picnic
THE BARGAIN BUY: Bob Dylan: Original Album Classics
7 Apr 2014 | 1 min read | 1
Every few years or so, some writer or magazine kicks off the idea that Bob Dylan's horrible Eighties need reconsidering. So the search is on for lost gems but, just like gold nuggets in a mountain, they are hard to chivvy out. This five CD set covers his mid and late Eighties -- skipping quite a few albums in the middle. And while we can simply say the Dylan and the Dead album found... > Read more
The Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar
THE BARGAIN BUY: Neil Young; On the Beach
24 Mar 2014 | <1 min read
It always gives Elsewhere special pleasure when one of our Essential Elsewhere albums turns up going cheap, and possibly never more so than in the case of this Neil Young album from '74. The album remained unavailable on CD until a decade ago but longtime Young fans circulated burns from the vinyl for many years. It is a deep and dark album, fairly cynical you might say and contains some... > Read more
Vampire Blues
THE BARGAIN BUY: Stiff Little Fingers: Original Album Series
17 Mar 2014 | 1 min read
A few years ago while we were in Belfast one of the local identities, a well-known taxi driver Billy Scott who was taking us around, stopped to point to a door down an alleyway where he said the Undertones first recorded. But he moved on too fast for me to snap a picture (got Van Morrison's doorway at his childhood home though) but it wasn't much of a door anyway. At the time of the... > Read more
Johnny Was
THE BARGAIN BUY: Frankie Miller: Original Album Series
10 Mar 2014 | 2 min read
Curious how some artists can command a ferociously loyal audience but remain unknown to most. I know of Brits who hold Frankie Miller in the pantheon of great soul, rhythm and blues and rock singers, but also know of many more -- especially outside of the UK -- who've never heard a note he's sung. Miller, originally from Glasgow, will sing no more after a huge brain haemorrhage in '94... > Read more
I'm Falling in Love Again
THE BARGAIN BUY: The Meters; Original Album Series
3 Mar 2014 | 1 min read
When the Funky Meters -- the trickle-down of this band -- played the Powerstation in Auckland about three years ago, the New Orleans grooves just didn't stop. But, as I said in this review, that was actually the problem. Their set just went on and on, was rather shapeless, and those who had greeted them so enthusiastically ended up just standing around nodding their heads after about the... > Read more
Honky Tonk Woman
THE BARGAIN BUY: Various Artists; Psychedelia
24 Feb 2014 | 3 min read
For many people the golden era of psychedelic music was before the drugs kicked in. There was that period from late '65 through to maybe mid '68 where many bands retained a pop economy and allowed only the virtuosi guitarists to spin out those long solos. Bands like the Small Faces and the Move broached the psychedelic era with caution in Britain while the Blues Magoos, Jefferson Airplane... > Read more