Back from travels, here's a sampling of some of the inexpensive as usual vintage vinyl I scrounged along the way:
Joe Wilder Quartet - "Jazz From Peter Gunn" [Columbia, '59] Small combo renderings of Mancini's soundtrack tunes with Milt Hinton and Hank Jones, perhaps surprisingly not including the famous title theme
The Everly Brothers - "The Hit Sound Of" [Warner Bros, '67] Late mono pressing, all cover tunes including killer 'House Of The Rising Sun' and 'Good Golly Miss Molly', certainly not their best on the label but all the post-Cadence (and British Invasion) WB material typically goes underappreciated if you ask me
The Hobbits - "Down To Middle Earth" [Decca, '67] Garage-psych silliness souvenir
Webb Pierce - "Cross Country" [Decca, '61? stereo] An all time great jacket photo of Webb in blue and gold custom suit and even more outrageous car interior (cowhides, fancy tooled leather and - get this - hundreds of silver dollar coins plastered everywhere, plus two pearl-handled pistols, one serving as the shifter), contains big hit 'Heartaches By The Number'
Peter & Gordon - "Hot Cold & Custard" [Capitol, '68] Formerly hitmaking duo's swan song was actually somewhat of an artistic breakout, boasting many originals and flowery-brassy Brit-psych orchestrations -- won't be mistaken for The Beatles, The Bee Gees or The Hollies, but not bad either
Johnny Adams - "Heart And Soul" [Shelby Singleton Int'l] Circa-1970 collection of contemporary Memphis plus vintage New Orleans sides from one of the masters
Show Of Hands - "Formerly Anthrax" [Electra, '70] Mostly turgid and not very interesting organ/guitar psych both heavy and light, with touches of baroque and, bizarrely, bluegrass thrown in for a bit of variety, covers Van Morrison, Richie Havens and Jimi Hendrix but none to very worthwhile effect
Alice Cooper - "The Last Temptation" [Epic, '94] Dutch pressing, surprisingly solid late Alice, concept album to accompany three-part Marvel Comic graphic novel series is just good hard rock first and foremost, sound more palatable than the antiseptic domestic CD (though I don't actually know if an analog master was used)
Marvin, Welch & Farrar - S/T [Capitol, '71] Vocal rock with Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch, two founding members of legendary British instrumental group The Shadows
Billy Taylor Trio - "Right Here, Right Now!" [Capitol stereo, '64] The pianist with Oliver Nelson-arranged big-band backing including Joe Newman, Thadd Jones, Phil Woods, Clark Terry, Grady Tate
The Replacements - "Hootenanny" [Twin/Tone, '83] Had my original vinyl copy of this essential indie classic stolen from a friend's college dorm room the year after I got it, nice to find one again for a dollar
Herb Geller - "Fire In The West" [Jubilee stereo] Lesser-known West Coast altoist early 60's sextet date, title juxtaposes the prevailing "cool" sound of that place and time, with Kenny Dorham (here spelled "Kinny Durham"), Harold Land, Ray Brown, very nice stuff and a mint disk
The Hullaballoos - "On Hullabaloo" [Roulette, '65] Second and final set from the dyed-blond contingent of the British Invasion (possibly the ugliest and least talented too), features mostly Buddy Holly covers and creations from the period American songwriting team Duboff-Kornfeld, including one really great standout track in "I Won't Turn Away Now"
Marvin Hamlisch - "The Swimmer" Sndtrk [Columbia, '68] Starring Burt Lancaster, based on John Cheever's subtly surreal story about a former husband and career man in tragic denial who literally and figuratively tries to swim his way home through a virtual river of backyard pools in toney suburban Connecticut, a very evocative film of the period and a personal favorite of mine, been looking for years in search of this soundtrack if it existed, cheesy harpsichord-pop heaven
Texas Slim - "I'm Gonna Kill That Woman" b/w "Nightmare Blues" [King 10" 78 rpm, '49] Solo guitar/vocal sides by the psuedonymous early John Lee Hooker in seemingly unplayed mint shape, my best find of the trip to say the least (in a roadside garage thrift shop for $.50 cents -- I have no idea as of yet what it might be worth)
Few French-Canadian 60's garage rock 45's, including the Hou-Lops covering (but not crediting) DC's own Chartbusters Beatlesque minor hit "She's The One", Les Jaguars "Supersonic Twist" echo-laden instro guit-mangler workout, and Les Lutins snarling "Laissez-Nous Vivre" (roughly translates I guess as 'leave us alone to live', or vernacular to that general effect)
(Plus scored a small trove of cheap [$3-$5] CD cut-outs, including Lee "Scratch" Perry and Joe Gibbs Trojan label reggae/rock steady collections and several early ones by The Searchers, and Status Quo when they were still a psych-pop band...)
