I’d buy that for a dollar…

So I’ve been a bit quiet of late, mainly because I’ve not had much work and consequently have been pretty poor, which has meant that I haven’t really bought any vinyl for a while. I’ve still been nosing round charity shops however, mostly coming away empty-handed, but today my luck changed… I was in one of my usual spots, looking through the same old rubbish they had last week, when on another rack, I spotted a Chic record. My heart quickened slightly, but I wasn’t too excited, because as brilliant as Chic are, their stuff does crop up in charity shops fairly frequently. So, I looked behind it, only to see a TK Disco sleeve. Behind that, another Chic record. Well that did it for me, I scooped up the 30 or so records in that section, got comfy sat on the floor, and started to flick. Anyway, you can probably guess where this is going, so here’s what I scored – most of these were £1, a couple were £1.50.

Worthy of first mention was something straight off my wants list, T-Connection’s “Do What You Wanna Do” on TK Disco, a much sampled disco bomb with superb percussion and synth work, and plenty of drama. Then, on the mighty Prelude, and again in near mint condition, was Sharon Redd’s “You’re a Winner”, backed with “Activate”, boogie action, nice! Next up, Third World’s “Now that We’ve Found Love”, produced by the legendary Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, unplayed copy!! It’s a nice mid-tempo disco number with a slight reggae feel, very cool. Now, Chic, as mentioned…. Can I take this opportunity to say that anyone who doesn’t dig Chic is probably not worthy of this earth, Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards are 2 of the greatest producers that ever lived! Firstly, and currently wowing the masses in the form of a Todd Terje edit, I found an “I Want Your Love” remix, backed with two other crackers – “Le Freak!” and “Chic Cheer”. Personally I’m not fussed about Terje’s effort, I will stick with the original and the superb “I Can’t Kick This Feeling When It Hits”, a dazzling hypnotic builder which craftily sampled it, by ISM favourite Moodymann. Another Chic 12″ yielded something I’d never heard before, it’s called “Jack Le Freak”, and as the title suggests, it’s a version of the classic “Le Freak!”… basically this sounds like a Fast Eddie remix!! It’s got all the bumping bass attitude, the Chi-style drums, a looped up Jack-ja-jack-jack vocal, and of course the original track sliced and diced to pieces! What the fuck! This has house party written all over it. Now onto something that might divide opinions – I certainly know some people that hate it, but it melts my heart and I love it to pieces – the full, 10’45’ special disco version of Mcfadden & Whitehead’s “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now”, the UK pressing, but I’m not too precious about stuff like that, it’s in great condition and is another one ticked off the wants list! I’ve been on the lookout for the LP with “There’s Only So Much Oil In The Ground” on it for quite a while, and while I didn’t find that, I did find another Tower of Power LP, “Monster On a Leash”, a much later album; this unfortunately sounds a little disappointing, although I’ve only had a brief flick through it so far. Also grabbed a copy of MFSB’s “Love is the Message”: obviously I already have this, but I thought it would make a nice gift for a friend who recently gave me a spare copy of a Stevie Wonder LP I didn’t have. I also picked up a copy of George Benson’s “Give Me the Night”, because although I’m not a huge fan of the title track (Quincy Jones or no Quincy Jones!), it has “The World is a Ghetto” on the flip, which I already have on his LP “In Flight” (Imo his best album), but this looks to be a better pressing, and I absolutely love that track. A Detroit Spinners 12″ came home with me too, on Atlantic, and in great condition – “Working My Way Back to You” (yes, that one!) Finally, a Diana Ross & The Supremes thing which has a medley on the A-side, which I suppose would be cool for weddings or something! But tucked away on the flip- a killer version of “Love Hangover”, with a kinda slow intro section that leads into a mostly instrumental version. Motown goodness…