I found something this weekend that I haven’t seen for a long time — a garage sale with actual pretty good CDs for sale, and cheap. This is one of those cases where you don’t want to have a greedy eye, just because the albums are only $2 apiece ($1.84 US) and in near-mint condition. So, I whittled them down to sixteen, and when I went to pay for them, to my surprise, the lady said, “It’s late in the day. I’ll take a buck apiece for them.”
I’ll spare you some of the more mundane acquisitions. But I seem to have picked up a lot of classic British prog and semi-prog rock (is there such a category?), so I’ll stick with five of those …
TRAFFIC – LOW SPARK OF HIGH HEELED BOYS (1971): Every time I hear anything by this group I really like it, and then promptly forget to track down any of their albums. Good playing and good singing, and more interesting than, say, Pink Floyd — although I can say that I picked up the live disc of Floyd’s Ummagumma last week, and really liked it. The problem is that I keep getting sidetracked with things like girl group psych/garage acts from Norway like the Launderettes, which are neither British nor prog and shouldn’t even be mentioned here, except that they don’t play songs like “Astronomy Domine” because they play songs like “What Would Joan Jett Do?”
PROCOL HARUM – BEST OF (2002): So they made albums? I thought they only had one song: “A Whiter Shale of Pale.” I’ve played this once now, but I’m going to have to spin it a few times to get the hang of it. Actually, I bought this because I was fascinated with the production credits. Denny Cordell produced the first six songs on this album, which sound nothing like the work he did on the first two albums by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
EMERSON LAKE AND PALMER – BRAIN SALAD SURGERY (1973): I’ve got this on vinyl, so I got the CD primarily for ease of access. Admittedly, though, I’m still not sure where I stand with this. “Jerusalem” and “Still You Turn Me On” are great, but the barrelhouse piano on “Benny the Bouncer” and all that “Karn Evil Nine” stuff doesn’t do it for me. Well, into the shelf somewhere.
CREAM – GOODBYE (1969): A decent farewell from this ’60s supergroup. At least no “Pressed Rat and Warthog” to be found here. Best moment: their live dismantling of “I’m So Glad.” Did they ever play a double-bill with the Who by any chance? That would have been the best British classic rock jam show ever.
THE WHO – QUADROPHENIA (1973): Speaking of the Who — ha ha — the joke’s on me! Only the second CD was in the case. I finally succumbed to the greedy eye. I should have looked more carefully. Still, I guess it’s a matched set for my Rolling Stones 40 Licks album I bought two years ago which only came with the first CD. Like a boss.
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