Show Your Bones

2020 Charity Shop Purchase 13 - Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones

Thrilling - Q
Magnificence - Uncut
Effortless rock'n'roll -Mojo
A vital album - The Observer

Absolutely no debate about whether  the second recently purchased CD is a keeper.
Show Your Bones the 2006 second album by Yeah Yeah Yeahs on the Fiction label joins fellow charity shop purchases 2003's  Fever to Tell and 2009's It's Blitz on the shelves alongside the 2001 self-titled debut EP.
Named as the second best album of the year by the NME when it was still a reasonably relevant point of reference
Cheated Hearts is the 3rd single from the album , the others being Gold Lion and Turn Into.
Phenomena featured in the 2008 horror film The Ruins and also in a Cadillac TV advert.
It would not have been out of place as a single but then again there is not a duff track on the album.

A find.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Cheated Hearts

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Phenomena

Death Cab For Cutie

2020 Charity Shop Purchase 12 - Death Cab For Cutie - Plans

My local Charity Shop is now doing 5 CDs for a pound. On my last visit I could only see two that piqued my curiosity. They still charged me a pound! I decided to let it go.

One of the two was Plans the 5th album by Death Cab For Cutie from 2005 on Atlantic/Barsuk.
A band named after a Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band song and obviously a name which sticks in the memory even if you are not familiar with their work.

They first crossed my radar when their song A Movie Script Ending appeared on Treats a Barsuk Records sampler When I featured it I said that some further exploration was required so it was a no- brainer when I saw this one.

It was released to generally favourable reviews. I think that it is probably one which will benefit from a few plays but after an initial listen it looks like a keeper.
After a slow start I Will Follow You Into the Dark subseqently became their best selling single to date. It was the track which most caught my attention first time out.

Death Cab For Cutie - I Will Follow You Into The Dark

Death Cab For Cutie - Brothers On a Hotel Bed

Covers 6 - Not Nina Simone, but Wilson Pickett

There are many country covers of Beatles songs, so in my usual thraun way I have chosen,   a soul song instead. There is not a single purchase (or copy) of any Beatles album here on the shelves, and if this was to be changed, let me tell you this and tell you no more, it would not be the 1968 album The Beatles. Yes, I have heard it all the way through, and through the B&Ws, but it was not my (or my partner’s) record.

Today’s version is not  by the gregarious, life-and-soul-of-the-party singer Nina Simone, unfortunately, whose song Revolution is a response to the original, not a cover. And you’d be right in thinking I thought Nina Simone’s song was a cover until I listened to it again.

So instead you have a simply tremendous version of Paul McCartney’s song about John Lennon’s son. Well, I think that’s what it’s about. And the original, I have come to realise is a great song, that change at 50 seconds  ( And anytime you feel the pain...at that moment) is genius. It’s a pity it  na nas for so long, but the first three minutes or so are sublime. So here’s Mr Pickett’s version, with a quite famous guitar man playing out the song:

Wilson Pickett - Hey Jude

And, if CC allows this series  to run for a wee while longer this will not be the only time Wilson Pickett features. ( ok seeing as it is Wilson - Ed)

Wait! You want Nana Mouskouri’s version too? (of course you do - Ed)

And here’s the now-obligatory portuguese version. And let me tell you this, they have played fast and loose with those lyrics

More next week

The Blues Collection - Buddy Guy

2020 Charity Shop Purchase 11  - Buddy Guy - Stone Crazy

Apologies for non- Blues fans (probably the majority of you) but I am still trying to post my 2020 charity shop purchases chronilogically. Unfortunately for you then in addition to Bessie Smith (and Laura Marling) the third Troon purchase was another Blues number Stone Crazy by Buddy Guy.
Although, in fairness, I snuck Sandy Denny in in-between.

Another one from The Blues Collection; number 4 in the series and the 55th to appear on the shelves.
Given that such magazine series' topload the big hitters early doors it would appear that George (Buddy) Guy is held in great esteem.
Indeed, some boy called Eric Clapton proclaimed him to be the best blues guitarist alive.Mr Guy has been active since 1953 and is very much still with us at the age of 83. He is also ranked at number 23 in Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.

The CD sleeve states that it was only in 1991 that he received the accolades from the likes of Clapton, Jeff Beck and Mark Knopfler. However the CD concentrates on his work from the 1960s

On these pages, it is not just Buddy who has to suffer with the Blues!

Buddy Guy - Watch Yourself

Buddy Guy - I Got a Strange Feeling

Buddy Guy - I Suffer With the Blues

Solo Sandy

I was quite surprised to discover that Sandy Denny has never graced these pages as a solo artist before . She has of course featured as part of Fairport Convention with the majestic Who Knows Where The Time Goes.

On the  Dutch Disky label from 2003 Heritage seems to have been part of a Folk series  with albums of the same name by The Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention, Tim Hart & Maddy Prior and Renaissance also appearing A charity purchase from a few years back, it is the only one in the series that I have.

A few years ago I  posted some different versions of Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor featuring Lucinda Williams,Gillian Welch and Mississippi John Hurt.
Not sure how I managed to miss out Sandy but better late than never I suppose.


Sandy Denny - The Last Thing on my Mind

Sandy Denny - Make Me a Pallet On Your Floor

Bessie Smith The Empress of the Blues

2020 Charity Shop Purchase 10 -  Bessie Smith - The Empress of the Blues 

No not The Blues Collection although Bessie Smith has featured as part of that series before
Oxfam in Troon has proved to be a happy hunting ground for Blues CDs and this visit was no exception.
The Empress of the Blues is a cheap and cheerful 23 track compilation of songs by the most popular female Blues singer of the 1920s and 30s.
Popular and controversial both in her lifestyle and in her songs.
Not only was she the Empress of the Blues she was also the Queen of the Ephemism and the Duchess of the Double Entendre.
I have not posted Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl as I am conscious that there are children and people of a nervous disposition out there. For the same reasons I shall forego Nobody in Town Can Bake a Sweet Jelly Roll Like Mine

According to Wiki  Smith advocated for a wider vision of African-American womanhood beyond domesticity, piety, and conformity; she sought empowerment and happiness through independence, sassiness, and sexual freedom. Although Smith was a voice for many minority groups and one of the most gifted blues performers of her time, the themes in her music were precocious, which led to many believing that her work was undeserving of serious recognition.

Here are a couple you may be familiar with and one which I suspect may well involve ephenisms.

Bessie Smith - Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out

Bessie Smith - T'Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do

Bessie Smith - You've Been a Good Ole Wagon (But You Done Broke Down)

50 Americana Albums You Should Hear Before You Die - The Droma Tapes

Seven weeks into this series and man of Leith Dean Owens becomes the first artist to have appeared twice following him featuring in week two as the lead singer of the Felsons
Described by Irvine Welsh as Scotland's most engaging and haunting singer-songwriter


The Droma Tapes from 2001 is his first album as a solo artist and was recorded when he and the other artists who contribute to the album (Kevin Maguire,Marianne Campbell and Gary Martin)
 retreated to  a studio in an isolated cottage at Loch Droma in the Scottish Highlands . .
I actually won my signed copy in a Radio Scotland competition , one of two such albums acquired in this manner, the other being A Happy Pocket by The Trashcan Sinatras.
It has a wee bit of a folk and Celtic feel about it given the use of strings but he remains on the Americana shelves as opposed to the folk section chez CC.


I've decided not to feature the song New Mexico as it has featured here twice before once as part of George's epic State of the Union Series and once as a series of it's own New Mexican Monday a follow up to a series I did back in 2013 called Mexican Monday


Dean is an artist I've seen on numerous occasions both with the Felsons and in his own right, from his appearance at Hopeton House where he was rightly excited to besharing a stage with the likes of Little Feat, Steve Earle and Emmylou Harris to a pub in Glasgow in front of less that 20 paying punters.


I've got the first three of his records listed here but The Droma Tapes is the one I  have listened to most often and the one I keep coming back to.
He is still doing the rounds, Indeed one of my pals saw him recently and gave some positive feedback despite not recognising many of his newer tunes.


You should make a point of catching him if he pops up anywhere near you


Dean Owens - Strangers Again

Dean Owens - Anything