Record Store Day is for everyone. Well, everyone with a record player (you really should get one!). On April 20, cruise through your local music shop and look for exclusive releases running from blues to Brit pop to psychedelic swamp rock.
“Live in France: The 1966 Concert in Limoges”
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
By 1966, Motown had turned gospel to pop and British bands had sold the blues to white teenagers. But in 1966, Sister Rosetta Tharpe still wasn’t widely acknowledged as “The Godmother of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” As monumentally influential as Elvis, Aretha, or Jimi Hendrix, Tharpe fused the gospel and blues and practically invented rock a decade before Elvis. On this freshly uncovered set, Tharpe and her guitar howl to the heavens without the need of a backing band. She does hymns with swagger (“Down By the Riverside”), but the best bits feel sacred and profane — the hot jump blues of “Sit Down,” the Delta electrified “Traveling Shoes,” and her mighty hollering on “Go Ahead.”
“Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya: Singles 1968-1974”
Dr. John
The idea that Dr. John put out “I Walk On Gilded Splinters” as a single is absurd. The 1968 song from the good doctor’s debut LP is a spine-tingling gothic swamp dirge, more voodoo chant than actual song. But, in an era when absurdity was the norm, John’s singles out weirded the weird. This collection gathers all his A and B sides from his early U.S. and U.K. singles. Come for psychedelic-fried New Orleans R&B — “Mama Roux,” “Iko Iko,” “Right Place Wrong Time.” Stay for madness, like mixing a children’s choir singing “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” with rambling diatribe about the chaos of the ’60s on “The Patriotic Flag Waver” and setting down the template for the Muppet ‘s Dr. Teeth on the deeply stoned crawl of “Loop Garoo.”
“Wha’ppen?”
English Beat
As the ska revival exploded in England in the early ’80s, the Beat broke away from the pack. The band’s 1980 debut was pure second wave ska (and bloody brilliant). A year later, for “Wha’ppen?”, the Beat pulled in Creole, Haitian, Afrobeat, and Zimbabwean Chimurenga influences — and that’s in just one song alone, cover “French Toast (Soleil Trop Chaud).” Their progressive politics have all the fire of the first album (rippers “I’m Your Flag,” “Get-a-Job”) even as the sounds get cooler. “Drowning” is downbeat dub. “Doors of Your Heart” is lovers’ rock with soul horns. “Monkey Murders” is flavored with Flamenco flourishes.
“Parklife,”
Blur
As much as any LP, as much as “What’s Going On,” “Born in the USA” and “Lemonade,” “Parklife” captures a culture — mid-’90s Brits happily, sadly, unknowingly frittering away their time. But nobody listens to an album because it’s a document of an age. Celebrating its 30th anniversary with a picture disc pressing, “Parklife” lasts because it sounds wonderful, wonderful and weird. The band updates the British Invasion template with the best pop that came after. There are nods to psychedelia, punk, disco, new wave, no wave, and every bit of guitar rock that jangles and kicks.
