Record Show (or, "The Dog goes shopping... yet again)

[BrunoRepublic]

Well, I don't often go to these record shows, since most of them are a complete joke. More "collectables" than records, and what remains are usually overpriced, beat-up, mainstream 70s rock albums, or scores of Aerosmith bootlegs and the like. Most times I'm lucky if I can find more than one vendor who has some decent stuff.

However, this one just blew me away! Of course there was the usually shitty collectables/Hungarian vinyl pressings of Zeppelin albums... but they had an entire room of soul/funk/disco/R&B/dance!! I wound up spending all my money, and there was still soooo much more there. But although reasonable, the prices weren't quite dirt cheap enough for me to buy without caring if I liked them or not, and there was also no way to preview anything. So I had to stick to things that either sounded or looked really cool. Here's what I made off with...

• Martin Stevens: Siempre Hay Amor (vocal/instrumental) -- Cnd 12" (Love Is In The Air, en Español)
  Cyclades: Fire To Desire/Ah! Ah! ...Encore -- Cnd 12"
  Kalei-Disco: Colorblind (2 versions) -- Cnd 12" -- An early Tony Green production. The original owner wrote "très bon!" on the label. :D
  Swan Song: Birds Of A Feather -- Cnd 12"
  Salsoul Orchestra: Nice 'n' Naasty/Salsoul 3001 -- Cnd 12"
  Sassy: Theme From Disco 77 -- Cnd 12"
  Ferrara: Shake It Baby Love/Love Attack -- US 12"
  The Fatback Band: Night Fever -- US cover but Cnd LP inside... damn...
  Phyllis Hyman: Living All Alone -- US LP
  Phyllis Hyman: Under Her Spell (Greatest Hits) -- US LP
  Imagination: In The Heat Of The Night -- Cnd LP
  Giorgio (Moroder): Knights In White Satin -- Cnd LP (still looking for a US copy...)
  Payola$: Eyes Of A Stranger -- Cnd 12" (this was a big pop/new wave hit in Canada in the early 80s... not really danceable, but I was feeling nostalgic, okay?)
  Hot Ice: Stone Disco -- US LP An entire LP of disco versions of Rolling Stones songs! As aghast as I was by this, just a few seconds later I came across...
  The Average Disco Band: Music Of The Beatles Goes Disco -- Cnd LP -- and it's produced by John Ferrara!
  Fire & Ice: [self-titled] -- Cnd LP -- been looking for this one for ages!
  DC Larue: Cathedrals c/w Pat Lundy:Day By Day/My Sweet Lord -- US 12"
  Eastside Connection: You're So Right For Me (vocal/instr) -- US 12" -- and it appears to have still been sealed...
  John Davis and The Monster Orchestra: Night & Day -- Cnd LP
  Soirée: You Keep Me Hangin' On: Close To You -- Cnd 12"
  Debra Dejean: Are You Lovin Somebody/You've Really Got A Hold On Me -- Cnd 12"
  Moment Of Truth: Lovin' You Is Killin' Me (2 versions) -- US 12"
  Evidence: The Evidence -- Cnd LP
  Daddy Dewdrop: The Real Thing (vocal/instr) -- US 12"
  Davis Import: DJ Devilish (Turn This Disco Hot)/How My Love Goes -- US 12", missing sleeve :cry:
  Carl Harvey: Ebony Lady (vocal/instr) -- Cnd 12"
  Carol Williams: No One Can Do It Like You (vocal/instr) -- US 12"
  Mimi: Shaking (vocal/instr) -- Cnd 12"
  Heatwave: Boogie Nights/Too Hot To Handle -- Cnd 12"
  LaSo: LaSo Square (Are You Ready)/Happy Smoke -- Cnd 12"
  P'Zazz: I Heard It Through The Grapevine/You Taught Me To Dance -- Cnd 12"
  Sounds Of Inner City: Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (stereo/mono) -- Cnd 12"
  Freddie James: Dance Little Boy Blue (vocal/instr) -- Cnd 12"
  Charo: Cuichi Cuichi -- US LP
  and coolest of all...
  Martin Circus: Shine Baby Shine/I've Got A Treat -- French 12" on blue vinyl with the grooviest generic sleeve you've ever seen! I just had to have it...
  

[sirius]

Dear Friend!
This is a very interesting list, and a few tracks are really rare
here in Europe. Another tracks are unknown for me. I think,
I have to search for them...hope I´ll get some...
Cosmic Love & Kisses From SIRIUS & DARKTUNES

[sfbeary]

hey graham,

you got some goodies in that pile! i'm always interested in canadian shopping lists because i keep seeing songs on 12"s that were lp-only in america, so thanks for the info.

i was just listening to a dj mix with that daddy dewdrop on it, and although that act had a notoriously cheesy novelty hit much earlier in the '70s, "the real thing" is a bonefide, if underrated, disco groover.

also, i'd like to know what you can tell me about:
Evidence: The Evidence -- Cnd LP

i've seen that on ebay and nobody ever bids for it, but it sure has an interesting cover that suggests thematic eurodisco with some prog-rock touches. have i guessed correctly?

enjoy your booty!
barry

[BrunoRepublic]

also, i'd like to know what you can tell me about:
Evidence: The Evidence -- Cnd LP

i've seen that on ebay and nobody ever bids for it, but it sure has an interesting cover that suggests thematic eurodisco with some prog-rock touches. have i guessed correctly?

I was up late last night listening to this one... it is AWESOME. Just goes to prove that there are still more gems out there to be found.

You are correct in your assumptions. It is over-the-top Euro-Space-Disco with prog-rock pretension in parts. The main track (which appears twice, once in a normal version and once in a longer "dangerous" version) is an absolute storm. It starts off slow with a spoken-word intro over somewhat-dated spacey synth effects... but once it kicks into high gear, hold on to your seat! Massive orchestration, high-paced rhythm, and a Vangelis-like chorus shouting out "Behold! They're coming back!".

Curiously, this isn't as obscure as I had figured it to be. It was released in the US on Mercury (the Canadian version is on Philips and would seem to have not been distributed outside of Québec). There are several copies available on GEMM...

[SandraDee]

Graham, that lot sounds brilliant. There are 3 of those tracks that I've come across & bought recently: 'Cathedrals' - DC LaRue, 'Ive Got a Treat' - Martin Circus & 'Disco 77'- Sassy. This last track is I think very good & is produced by Ray Martinez of Passion fame. Happy listening!

[Bernie]

Graham,

Thanks for the heads up on the "Evidence" LP. Pretty sure I don't know this one. Just placed an order for the Mercury (US) edition based on your review.

[NickNack]

I believe Jussi was talking up or looking for "Evidence" the last month or so. I pulled it out then and gave it a listen after too many years. I remember thinking shades of Costandinos but not as grand and a lot more strange. Good stuff.

[BrunoRepublic]

Now having listened to a few more of them...

- "Night Fever" by The Fatback Band is excellent; my fave LP from them of all the ones I've heard so far. Groovy and funky!

- Kalei-Disco is very old-school instrumental, with the melody carried by the strings. Very different from anything else I've heard by Tony Green.

- Stones Disco is... actually, pretty good. The arrangements are quite well done, and they don't camp it up all that much. Only problem is that the quality of the pressing is horrid. The music gets obliviated by the thunderous ripping sound of non-fill every few seconds. I don't think I can salvage this one.

- Theme from Disco 77 is much more understated than I was expecting, but I love it... yeah, baby, yeah!

- The John Davis LP is mostly covers of Cole Porter songs. Surprisingly, the two original numbers that he wrote on the LP are far better than the Porter tunes.

But the biggest surprise thus far...

- "Swan Song" by Birds Of A Feather -- as the name imples, it's a disco cover of part of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. Now, that in itself isn't very remarkable; there are plenty of (mostly third-rate) disco covers of the classics. At first, I was thinking "Oh Jeezuz, how hokey is this gonna be?..."

But there's something about this one that I was totally unprepared for. Perhaps it's just me, but I haven't had any listening experience like this -- ever. This record took me to place and state of mind completely unlike anything I've ever encountered before. It's cheesy yet classy, cheap yet elegant, kitsch yet high-art, laughably ridiculous and yet still so incredibly beautiful, all at the same time. The dynamics and emotion from the original piece are preserved, instead of flattened or muted as is usually the case with this sort of thing. The overall effect was overwhelming. The only thing that even comes close to this experience are some of (Isao) Tomita's albums (the whole familiar-yet-strange experience) and those are still very different.

[ol'skinflint]

Well, I don't often go to these record shows, since most of them are a complete joke. More "collectables" than records, and what remains are usually overpriced, beat-up, mainstream 70s rock albums, or scores of Aerosmith bootlegs and the like. Most times I'm lucky if I can find more than one vendor who has some decent stuff.

However, this one just blew me away! Of course there was the usually shitty collectables/Hungarian vinyl pressings of Zeppelin albums... but they had an entire room of soul/funk/disco/R&B/dance!! I wound up spending all my money, and there was still soooo much more there. But although reasonable, the prices weren't quite dirt cheap enough for me to buy without caring if I liked them or not, and there was also no way to preview anything. So I had to stick to things that either sounded or looked really cool. Here's what I made off with...

• Martin Stevens: Siempre Hay Amor (vocal/instrumental) -- Cnd 12" (Love Is In The Air, en Español)
  Cyclades: Fire To Desire/Ah! Ah! ...Encore -- Cnd 12"
  Kalei-Disco: Colorblind (2 versions) -- Cnd 12" -- An early Tony Green production. The original owner wrote "très bon!" on the label. :D
  Swan Song: Birds Of A Feather -- Cnd 12"
  Salsoul Orchestra: Nice 'n' Naasty/Salsoul 3001 -- Cnd 12"
  Sassy: Theme From Disco 77 -- Cnd 12"
  Ferrara: Shake It Baby Love/Love Attack -- US 12"
  The Fatback Band: Night Fever -- US cover but Cnd LP inside... damn...
  Phyllis Hyman: Living All Alone -- US LP
  Phyllis Hyman: Under Her Spell (Greatest Hits) -- US LP
  Imagination: In The Heat Of The Night -- Cnd LP
  Giorgio (Moroder): Knights In White Satin -- Cnd LP (still looking for a US copy...)
  Payola$: Eyes Of A Stranger -- Cnd 12" (this was a big pop/new wave hit in Canada in the early 80s... not really danceable, but I was feeling nostalgic, okay?)
  Hot Ice: Stone Disco -- US LP An entire LP of disco versions of Rolling Stones songs! As aghast as I was by this, just a few seconds later I came across...
  The Average Disco Band: Music Of The Beatles Goes Disco -- Cnd LP -- and it's produced by John Ferrara!
  Fire & Ice: [self-titled] -- Cnd LP -- been looking for this one for ages!
  DC Larue: Cathedrals c/w Pat Lundy:Day By Day/My Sweet Lord -- US 12"
  Eastside Connection: You're So Right For Me (vocal/instr) -- US 12" -- and it appears to have still been sealed...
  John Davis and The Monster Orchestra: Night & Day -- Cnd LP
  Soirée: You Keep Me Hangin' On: Close To You -- Cnd 12"
  Debra Dejean: Are You Lovin Somebody/You've Really Got A Hold On Me -- Cnd 12"
  Moment Of Truth: Lovin' You Is Killin' Me (2 versions) -- US 12"
  Evidence: The Evidence -- Cnd LP
  Daddy Dewdrop: The Real Thing (vocal/instr) -- US 12"
  Davis Import: DJ Devilish (Turn This Disco Hot)/How My Love Goes -- US 12", missing sleeve :cry:
  Carl Harvey: Ebony Lady (vocal/instr) -- Cnd 12"
  Carol Williams: No One Can Do It Like You (vocal/instr) -- US 12"
  Mimi: Shaking (vocal/instr) -- Cnd 12"
  Heatwave: Boogie Nights/Too Hot To Handle -- Cnd 12"
  LaSo: LaSo Square (Are You Ready)/Happy Smoke -- Cnd 12"
  P'Zazz: I Heard It Through The Grapevine/You Taught Me To Dance -- Cnd 12"
  Sounds Of Inner City: Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (stereo/mono) -- Cnd 12"
  Freddie James: Dance Little Boy Blue (vocal/instr) -- Cnd 12"
  Charo: Cuichi Cuichi -- US LP
  and coolest of all...
  Martin Circus: Shine Baby Shine/I've Got A Treat -- French 12" on blue vinyl with the grooviest generic sleeve you've ever seen! I just had to have it...

I've been going to record shows for years but haven't been going often recently because I now own most of the records I want. But getting good records at good deals at record shows is the same as getting good records at good deals at used music stores. You have to be there at exactly the right time, and that's tough. I've temporarily switched my focus from stores to flea markets. I've found 3 copies of Tom Browne's hard to find album "Love Approach" at local flea markets.