w.atching the w.orld unw.ind

Now that I’ve virtually exhausted my collection of vinyl to be burned to CD, my attention is turning to my old C90 audio tapes..

Admittedly, many of them are just copies of albums to be played in the car (this was waaay before mobile CD players) so they’ll be discounted straight away.

But there are some gems – lots of live stuff lifted from the radio – that sort of thing.

The first two are compilations of so-called punk bands:

We do ‘em our way

This is a collection of covers, with the Stranglers doing “Walk on by” and the Slits (I saw them live – they were truly godawful) strangling “I heard it through the grapevine”.
The Hollywood Brats’ version of “Then he kissed me” is camper than a camper van offloading a collection of pink tents – marvelous stuff.

Live Stiffs

This is a live showcase of some of the bands signed to the Stiff label and includes Elvis Costello (whatever happened to him?) singing Bacharach and David’s “I just don’t know what to do with myself”. Nick Lowe’s Led Zeppelin knock out “I knew the bride when she used to rock and roll” and the incomparable Larry Wallis (see Today’s Lyric” sings “Reconnez Cherie?” (probably his most popular track), “Semaphore signals” and the carefully-crafted “Police car” – full of menace.