Monday, May 14, 2007

St. Louis Record Show Recap

Okay, it's been over a week since my trip to St. Louis to hit yet another record show. Sorry that I didn't get this posted sooner. I was busy cleaning up and listening to my new found treasures last week. Had a great time at the show, as usual. Brought home another huge pile of records. More on that in a bit.

A couple of things before I move on. First, there was a spike in activity on the blog last week. For a few days, we went from our usual 70 or so hits per day up to around 500. I'm not sure why that was. Maybe we got a special mention somewhere, people were finding us through Gabcast or maybe the same folks are coming and going more often as they check out the posted mp3's. Whatever the reason, thanks to all who've checked out the blog and I hope that everyone will want to come back and visit again. Incidentally, even with the increased traffic and posted sound files, the number of comments being left on the blog hasn't increased very much. Interesting.

Also, with mp3 capability now a reality, I wanted to go back and post sound files for some of the songs that have been blogged here over the past (nearly) two years. I toyed with the idea of reposting some of the previous entries and attaching mp3's to them but, for now, have settled on adding an mp3 player to the right hand side of the page, just under our links section. Right now, there are a handful of our previous entries there for the listening. Test out the mp3 player if you'd like and let me know how it works for you. If you like any of the songs, you'll find commentary on them in our archives.

Now, back to the matter at hand, my record show take. I mentioned here before that I live in a small town. It's a 100 mile drive, each way, to St. Louis. On top of that, I always spring for the early bird admission, meaning it's up at 6am on record show Sundays. Getting there early nets more good discs and, although it didn't seem to help much this time, gets me outta there and back home at a decent hour. I had a beautiful day this time around. Not too hot, which is a good thing, since I recently discovered that the air conditioning in my car went bye bye.

The following list isn't the sum total of what I brought home from the show but is a good representative sample and among the best stuff. The St. Louis shows are always great for finding cheap 45's. That held true this time, even though the number of dealers was down. The last table I went to was a guy who had about ten huge boxes of singles, all priced at three for five bucks. And he had all sorts of good stuff. Completely made up for the smaller dealer turnout.

Anyway, here's the list. You'll see a little bit of everything, including early rockers, r&b, soul, garage rock, instrumentals and a few other things.

Gene Anderson - The Devil Made Me Do It (Westbound)
Funkadelic - Funky Dollar Bill (Westbound)
The Spats - Go Go Yamaha (ABC-Paramount)
The Rotten Kids - Let's Stomp (Mercury)
Ox-Bow Incident - Harmonica Man (Smash)
The Ron-Dels - Lose Your Money (Smash)
The X-Cellents - Hey, Little Willie (Smash)
The Righteous Brothers - Justine (Moonglow)
John Roberts - Sockin' 1-2-3-4 (Duke)
Chuck Berry - Ramona, Say Yes (Chess)
Johnny Jay - Sugar Doll (Mercury)
Big Bopper - Little Red Riding Hood (Mercury)
The Ikettes - Don't Feel Sorry For Me (Modern)
The Titans - Don't You Just Know It (Specialty)
Little Willie John - Take My Love (King)
Little Willie John - Let's Rock While The Rockin's Good (King)
Syl Johnson - Different Strokes (Twilight)
Betty Lavette - What I Don't Know (Calla)
Mahalia Jackson - I'm On My Way (Grand Award)
The Princetons - Bony Maronie (Wand)
Hannibal - The Biggest Cry (Sue)
James Brown & the Famous Flames - Cross Firing (King)
James Brown & the Famous Flames - Just Plain Funk (King)
The Raindrops - Hanky Panky (Jubilee)
Little Brenda Lee - Bigelow 6-200 (Decca)
The Easybeats - Make You Feel Alright (Women) (Ascot)
Jan Davis - Boss Machine (A&M)
The Light Brigade - Lonnie's Song (E&M)
Carter Brothers - Stop Talking In Your Sleep (Jewel)
The Gants - I Want Your Lovin' (Liberty)
King Floyd - Baby Let Me Kiss You (Chimneyville)
Eddie Cochran - Sweetie Pie (Liberty)
The Piltdown Men - Goodnight Mrs. Flintstone (Capitol)
The Hollywood Persuaders - Drums A-Go-Go (Original Sound)
Freddy King - Texas Oil (Federal)
The Strikes - Rockin' (Imperial)
Bo Diddley - Back To School (Checker)
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Abba Zaba (Buddah)
The Bandits - Little Sally Walker (Jerden)
Thomas East & the Fabulous Playboys - I Get A Groove (Toddlin' Town)
Noble "Thin Man" Watts - Blast Off (Baton)

6 comments:

Stuart Shea said...

You got a Beefheart 45 for a handful of singles? Very impressive. How's the Piltdown men 45? I know a guy who used to see them in, I think, Detroit, back in the 60s. (Thanks, also, for teh correction on the location of the Reds' AAA team. My very dumb.)

Todd Lucas said...

Stuart, that Beefheart 45 was in the guys 3 for $5 stash. It's a bit beat but plays fine. It's the second Beefheart disc I've found this year. Earlier, I nabbed a copy of his "Diddy Wah Diddy" on A&M at Goodwill (also beat but playable).

The Piltdown Men 45 is solid rock & roll instro stuff. None of their discs seem to be spectacular but are worth tracking down for a buck or two.

The only reason I knew the Reds AAA thing is that I used to be an Indy native and had Indians season tickets for four years. They've bounced from the Expos to the Reds to the Brewers and now the Pirates over the last 15 years or so.

Anonymous said...

Hey I am glad that you enjoyed your Ox-Bow Incident record. I am a member of the group and we recorded 3 45's in the sixties. Glad to see that someone wanted the record after all these years. If you want to hear more you can log on to www.myspace.com/theoxbowincident

Thanks again and good luck!
George

Todd Lucas said...

Hey George, thanks for looking at the blog and the comment. "Harmonica Man" is a great tune! I'll check out your myspace page.

Todd

DJ Little Danny said...

Great haul, Todd. And thanks for listing these, too - it's always interesting what other diggers net from the 45 boxes (which is where I spend most of my time during the Austin Record Show).

"Back to School" is my favorite Bo Diddley 45.

Todd Lucas said...

Danny, you're quite welcome, glad that you enjoyed reading the list. That Bo Diddley disc has quickly become a favorite of mine too. In fact, I have it planned for a blog entry in the very near future.