Vinyl

	The Brothers Johnson – Right On Time
	Commodores – Midnight Magic
	Dazz Band – Keep It Live
	Earth Wind And Fire – Spirit
	The Isley Brothers – Shout! (1990 reissue)
	Jimmy Castor Bunch – Butt Of Course…
	Newcleus – Jam On Revenge
	Sly & The Family Stone – Stand!
	The Best of The Stylistics

VHS
Now, I’m not really into VHS. As far as home video formats go, it is rather awful, and the tapes don’t age well (although a played out VHS tape has a built-in “back in the day” vibe, it is generally undesirable). With that said, rifling through a ton of decomissioned VHS tapes can often turn up some rare gems if you’re into oddball cult b-movies (I am) that are either unavailable on DVD or need to be special ordered through people that are more obsessed with this stuff than even I. I’ll take a chance on anything that looks truly awful, as I clearly have some sort of weird masochistic relationship with film. Anyway, here’s what I brought home today:

Let it be noted that what I was really after was a copy of Superfly T.N.T. I picked up Friday Foster and Willie Dynamite, which are both readily available on DVD but I don’t have them, but no luck with Superfly. The search continues…

	Friday Foster
	Willie Dynamite
	Lady Terminator 1980s Indonesian action film. Ridiculous premise and horrible acting. A winner.
	The Weird Ones Apparently a retitle of 1971’s The Irv Carlson Show starring Arch Hall, Sr. The one review I’ve found makes it sound painful to watch, so it should be great!
	Secret Agent 00 Soul Looks like a lousy Billy Dee B-film. Looking forward to checking this one out.

All in all, some decent loot for 18 bucks.

It was common practice in the late ’70s to retool some of the soul greats for the disco era, and this record is a prime example. Sure, it’s nowhere near the same league as The Dramatics’ work for Stax, but there are a few decent tracks here nonetheless. Definitely a few nice samples to be harvested, and that’s really part of what this little vinyl excavation project is all about: finding ultimately forgettable records from decades ago, and digging out a few gems. Even though it’s kind of sad that what these guys put at least a few months of work into only produces a few seconds of truly enjoyable music 30 years later, it shows that there was still something there in what was probably a contractual obligation. As long as it provided a paycheck for them, I’m happy. I sure love tracks like What’cha See Is What’cha Get, and I would feel good if putting out what amount to ultimately sub-par records put food on the table, ya know? You’ll notice that Love Birds starts out an awful lot like In The Rain.

Anyway, here are a few of the better tracks to check out.

I Think About You

Stranger (In My Life)

Love Birds

Tracklisting:

1. I Just Wanna Dance With You
2. Bottom Line Woman
3. That’s My Favorite Song
4. I Think About You
5. Get With the Band and Dance
6. Life Is Just a Playground
7. I’m Hooked on You
8. Stranger (In My Life)
9. Love Birds
10. Marriage on Paper Only

Although he’s probably best known for his forays into lounge/exotica, Martin Denny released a TON of records, many of which have never been subsequently released. This one is a collection of standards from 1966, simply titled “Martin Denny!” Nothing ground-breaking, but a very nice set of standard tunes showcasing Denny’s unique style.

My copy isn’t exactly pristine in nature, so there is a bit of noise on the tracks. I cleaned it up and compressed to keep it to a minimum, though, and it just adds to the ambience, right? Relax and enjoy!

Tracklisting:

1. Lisbon Antigua
2. Stranger In Paradise
3. Under Paris Skies
4. Love Is A Many Splendored Thing
5. The Song From Moulin Rouge
6. Moonglow
7. Ruby
8. The “In” Crowd
9. April In Portugal
10. Autumn Leaves
11. The Poor People Of Paris
12. A Taste Of Honey

Most of the tracks are standard early ’80s R&B, with a little more rock flavor than usual for 1982. I guess Ray was just ahead of his time as it sounds more like late ’80s/early ’90s pop to me. With that said, there is some good stuff there that still holds up well. For my money, the hot track on this one is “Let’s Get Off.” Superb ’80s synth funk at its best. For what it’s worth, the lyrics aren’t bashful either. Even a nod to Behind the Green Door. Nice!

The three singles from this record, “The Other Woman,” “Let Me Go,” and “It’s Our Own Affair” all charted, with the title track going number 4 in the top 100 and number 2 R&B. In any case, there are plenty of nice synth-pop hooks to be had throughout (oh how many things I could sample from the instrumental “Just Havin’ Fun”), and plenty of ’80s nostalgia factor to go around. All in all, worth the 96¢ I paid for it. Here’s a few highlights:

Let’s Get Off

Just Havin’ Fun

Tracklisting:

1. The Other Woman
2. Stay The Night
3. It’s Our Own Affair
4. Let’s Get Off
5. Streetlove
6. Let Me Go
7. Stop, Look Before You Love
8. Just Havin’ Fun