9 Tracks from Record Store Day Releases

“Devil Got My Woman” (Skip James)
What better way to kick off Record Store Day than with this blues classic of heartbreak and isolation recorded by Mississippi musician Skip James in 1931? Skip James was rediscovered during the 1960s. Thora Birch’s misfit outcast Enid buys a blues compilation from the hermit obsessive collector Seymour (Steve Buscemi’s best role) and becomes lost in the sad song emerging from the crackles and hiss of old vinyl as she constantly replays it in the brilliant 2001 comedy Ghost World, perhaps the funniest film of the 21st century, thus far. The Ghost World soundtrack is being released as a double LP by the label Shanachie.

“Terraplane Blues” (Robert Johnson)
Another bluesman from the Mississippi Delta, Robert Johnson recorded only 29 songs in two sessions at the ages of 25-26 (1936 & 1937) in Texas and then was doomed to die at the age of 27 on a hot summer night (August 1938) in Greenwood, Mississippi (he may have died of syphilis, but the rumor is that he drank a bottle of whiskey poisoned by a jealous lover.) I recommend reading Nick Treiber’s tribute to Robert Johnson here on the Vinyl Writers website. Traffic Entertainment has reissued two of Robert Johnson’s songs (“Kind Hearted Woman Blues” and “Terraplane Blues”) in a sleeve similar to its original release on the legendary label Vocalion. “Terraplane Blues” was Robert Johnson’s first single–an automobile sex story about a lady “way down in Arkansas.”

“Statesboro Blues” (Blind Willie McTell)
Blind Willie McTell was a bluesman from Georgia who was skillful at both slide and 12-string guitar. Blind Willie McTell was an influence on Bob Dylan (who wrote a song about him) and on Duane Allman, who recorded a famous cover of his track “Statesboro Blues”. Blind Willie McTell recorded “Statesboro Blues” in Atlanta in 1928. Blind Willie McTell’s 12-string guitar on this track is intricate and unique–a style different than the rawer sound that other bluesmen played. Another reissue by Traffic Entertainment.

“Roller Coaster” (13th Floor Elevators)

Reissued on a Picture Disc LP from Charly, the pioneering Texas band 13th Floor Elevators’ 1966 debut was one of the first albums to feature the word “psychedelic” in the title. The artwork on the sleeve is kaleidoscopic green, red, and yellow blobs, bubbles, and letters morphing around an eye within an eye (the third eye?) and the music on the record is just as hallucinogenic with the chugging electric jug, especially “Roller Coaster”. Roky Erickson’s lyrics exhort the listener to embrace the psychedelic experience: “Your ride changes outside view, while it glides you like a neon ray…after you trip, life opens up, you start doing what you want to do…you’re looking at the world from brand new eyes and no one can ever spoil the view…you gotta open up your mind and let everything come through.”

“A Saucerful of Secrets” (Pink Floyd)
Reissued in mono by the Legacy label. After Syd Barrett’s acid damage during the Piper at the Gates of Dawn sessions, the band began to quickly realize that Syd was unable to perform on tour. They asked David Gilmour to join the group. Only one of Syd’s songs (“Jugband Blues”) featured on their follow-up album, a closing farewell. Richard Wright contributed the achingly beautiful, nostalgic, poetic songs “Remember a Day” and “See Saw” and Roger Waters contributed the mesmerizing, mysterious space rock of “Let There Be More Light” and “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun”. The band needed one final piece to fill out the running time of the record. “A Saucerful of Secrets” is separated into four distinct sections: 1.) “Something Else” is bizarre, eerie, strange sounds; 2.) “Syncopated Pandemonium” is Nick Mason thundering out a tribal beat on his drums while Richard Wright hammers on a piano and David Gilmour scrapes his guitar strings creating weird vibrations; 3.) “Storm Signal” is a desolate interlude; 4.) “Celestial Voices” is an ascending climax with an ethereal choir mourning the dead of the universe, elevated to its floating heights by Richard Wright’s church organ and Mellotron.

“Poppies” (Buffy Sainte-Marie)
Buffy Sainte-Marie recorded and released the most defiantly experimental album of her career in 1969: Illuminations. Her vocals are distorted through a Buchla synthesizer which causes a creepy effect. The closing track “Poppies” is bone-chilling, haunting, and shivering, her trembling and wavering singing and lyrics conjuring images that summon the gothic horror of Edgar Allan Poe: “I tippy-toe across your dream each night, so as not to wake you. Asleep in your summer, a garland of flowers, yellow and white around your waist. While I walk these paths of ice, ice my breast, and strings of ice my hair, my hands two hooks of steel. Ice nose, snow eyes, frozen open mouth. Flakes of snow your bridal veils, I come down the soft white path, bouquets of poppies spilling from my heart.” “Poppies” is included on a compilation entitled Poppies: Assorted Finery from the First Psychedelic Age by Craft Recordings that collects tracks from Original Sound, Stax, and Vanguard.

“Tiptoe on the Highest Hill” (Twink)
Reissued in mono on double vinyl by Sunbeam Records, Think Pink was recorded in 1969 and released in 1970. Twink was the drummer for British psychedelic rock bands Tomorrow and The Pretty Things. Twink played on The Pretty Things’ innovative concept album S.F. Sorrow. Twink’s solo debut is an amazing acid trip extravaganza, featuring The Pretty Things’ John Povey on Mellotron. “Ten Thousand Words in a Cardboard Box” and “Suicide” are two of the strongest songs. “Tiptoe on the Highest Hill” is the shining standout of the album: an intoxicating and melancholy wandering through the wilderness that summons the same dazed, misty atmosphere as the record’s cover and features the fuzzed out guitar of Paul Rudolph.

“Les Dunes d’Ostende” (Francois de Roubaix)
Although the characters and plot of this erotic Euro-horror vampire flick are absolutely absurd, the score by prolific French composer Francois de Roubaix is atmospheric and far superior to the film itself. Francois de Roubaix most famously composed the music for Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1967 noir Le Samourai. He tragically died in a diving accident at the young age of 36. Reissued on 7” by Music On Vinyl, the Les Levres Rouges (Daughters of Darkness) soundtrack is coolly distant. The Belgian seaside setting of Ostend–the aristocratic hotel, the nocturnal mood, the windswept ocean coast–are aptly captured in this track. The track starts with 30 seconds of odd noises, followed by melancholy voices. It transitions to delicate plucking, jazzy horns, and somber strings surrounding the listener’s ears. At 2:22, the drums, horns, and strings drop into a hypnotic beat. It’s no wonder this is a favorite sample for hip-hop.

“It’s So Easy” (Hawkwind)
By the time Hawkwind recorded their double live LP Space Ritual at the end of 1972 (released in 1973), the group had been through multiple lineup changes. The band coalesced into its greatest and heaviest incarnation in 1974: Dave Brock on fiery guitar and lead vocals, Nik Turner on saxophone/flute and vocals, Lemmy (Ian Kilmister) on earthquake bass, Del Dettmar on synthesizers, Simon House on powerful violin, and Simon King on jaw-dropping drums. Superior to Space Ritual (yet less well known) was their live album pulled from their March – April 1974 U.S. tour. Fun fact: the band’s gear was damaged when a tornado from the historic Super Outbreak in April tore the roof off the hotel where they were staying. Released for the first time on CD at the end of the 1990s, it is now being released on double LP for the first time from Rhino/Parlophone. The 1999 Party (Live 1974) is the band at their psychedelic peak, especially the awesome, epic, mindblowing “It’s So Easy”.

by Mark Lager