Category Archives: album

James Brown: Black Caesar Soundtrack LP for Sale

February 4, 2014editorial, For Sale, Soundtracks, Turntabling Records60s and 70s soundtracks, 70s cinema, Black Caesar, James Brown, Larry Cohen, Lyn Collins

Browsing the Trailers From Hell collection, I noticed this gem of a program with director Larry Cohen about his film, Black Caesar.

Larry Cohen is a Turntabling favorite. He is a unique screen writer and director. He is famous primarily for science fiction and terror titles (It’s Alive, The Stuff, God Told Me To, and Q). We were luck to even meet him once.

The soundtrack is by The Godfather of Soul, James Brown. If you’re a fan of Godfater Brown you probably have this in your collection. Isn’t it time for a new LP copy? If you don’t have it, you need to take a listen.

This soundtrack has some epic tunes, including this one that starts off the album, (after the commercial) Down and Out in New York City.

Another track that found recent love courtesy of The Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels soundtrack is The Boss. Try not singing this to yourself after you hear it once. I dare you. The clip has an advert that you can skip in 5 seconds.

Another great song on the soundtrack is performed by Lyn Collins. Here she is at her soulful best with Mamma Feelgood (after the advert that can be skipped).

Turntabling has a copy of the vinyl LP soundtrack reissue of Black Caesar for sale. It is first come, first served.

We love this one, we’re confident that you will too!

Jen Kilzer

How Tarantino Creates Soundtracks and Reservoir Dogs

January 30, 2014Compilations, editorial, Soundtracks70s compilations, 90s soundtracks, Quentin Tarantino, Reservoir Dogs

Here’s a clip of Quentin Tarantino discussing the type of ‘infected people’ in the film Planet Terror. At about 2:01 into the clip, he reveals how he likes to score his films and why he rarely employs a composer. He does, however, love the old film soundtracks and songs.

For Reservoir Dogs, he used some great minor hits from the ’70s. The radio is playing in several areas and the station tuned in is having a flash back weekend.

If you’ve seen the movie, one great song should make you cringe, forevermore, while another will always make you want to strut. I’m going to be a chicken and advertise the strut, in this article.

Here’s another version of Little Green bag that is about :45 longer than the version on the soundtrack. Tarantino did what he needed to fit the song into the film’s credits . I happen to like this clip with band, George Baker Selection.

Of course,the soundtrack also includes the Steven Wright intros to the songs, the Madonna Speech and Let’s Get a Taco, where Mr.White explains how to get information.

Turntabling has a vinyl LP copy of the Reservoir Dogs soundtrack for sale–first come, first served.

From time to time we get more Tarantino soundtracks, but they tend to sell out fast. Mr. Tarantino has a fine hand merging visuals and music, bringing new fans to some of the old masters.

Barney Bubbles Artist and Director – A Celebration

January 29, 2014album, editorial, Uncategorized, Vinyl Findsalbum artwork, album graphics, Barney Bubbles, Elvis Costello, Hawkwind, Ian Dury and The Blockheads, Nick Lowe, Squeeze, Stiff Records, The Damned

Today, I decided to show off some artwork that I didn’t know was by the same person. That person was a fantastic artist who went by the name (most of the time) of Barney Bubbles. We’ll keep our eyes out for his artwork from now on. In record hunting, sometimes the music is not the only reason to love the vinyl. Sometimes, it’s a visual pursuit, too.

This album, Armed Forces by Elvis Costello and The Attractions,is my earliest memory of Barney’s work. Thankfully, my relatives brought this great album home in early 1979. Little did I know, more artwork from this fellow would later turn up in my record collection as I looked for all the top British New Punk and some New Wave bands of the early ’80s.

He was the artist behind much of the album art for Stiff Records. For a time, he lived in the Stiff Records offices, designing all types of promotional material for the company, album sleeves, record logos and promotional posters.

There’s a lot of discovering left on my part. Unfortunately,though he was prolific, he tended not to identify all of his works with signatures. He was also a victim of mental illness which brought his life to an early end. Some say other artists had begun to steal his style, while others mentioned money problems and recent album cover rejections were the cause of the mood swing that led to his suicide.

Many of his famous album covers and posters are featured in the book Reasons To Be Cheerful: The Life and Work of Barney Bubbles for sale here. Also, you can hear more of the people who knew the man, including relatives in this BBC Radio 4 Documentary, In Search of Barney Bubbles.

Bubbles designed the poster above for the band Hawkwind. He built a strong relationship with the band during the ’70s as well as with Ian Dury and The Blockheads (Reasons to Be Cheerful is an Ian Dury and The Blockheads song). Bubbles designed their black and white ‘profile’ logo below.

He also was a director in the early ’80s video scene. One of his best known videos is Ghost Town by the Specials. I decided to include this nice one he directed for Squeeze.

With luck, now that I know that a lot of those bizarre album covers that represented the bands so well were by one man, I’ll see more examples of his work out there. Maybe, someday, I’ll have my own little collection to share with everybody in new blogs.
Jen Kilzer

Girl On A Motorcycle And Modesty Blaise

January 27, 2014album, editorial, For Sale, Soundtracks60s soundtracks, Girl on A Motorcycle, Modesty Blaise, vinyl soundtracks

Turntabling has a copy of the vinyl LP the soundtrack for Girl on a Motorcycle for sale. It is first come, first served.

This film is about a woman, a man, the countryside, and a leather suit with a unique zipper. The music is sultry and romantic at times and reflect the freedom of the road at other times. How could this movie do wrong?

Turntabling also has a copy of the vinyl LP of the soundtrack to Modesty Blaise for sale. The soundtrack globe hops like the main character and has some exciting melodies. It’s the clear vinyl remastered limited edition version that we have –first come, first served.

Both movies have dream casts, great directors (Jack Cardiff for Girl on a Motorcycle and Joseph Losey for Modesty Blaise) and stunning locations. Unfortunately for me, that wasn’t enough.

As full movies, I find them impossible to tolerate more that once (That first time-what a chore!). The characters in each were nice to look at (check out the casts in the trailers above , they’re all superstars of the ’60s), but the dialogue came across as stilted.

Maybe there was some behind the scenes problems for those in front of the camera. I’ve seen most of the actors do fine jobs in other films (Marianne Faithful, I’ve only seen as God on AbFab). For both films I’d rather turn the sound down and enjoy each with the soundtracks on the turntable.

What went wrong with these two films? Perhaps it was the pacing and the passage of time. Perhaps their story lines are dated to my internal story preferences. Thankfully, the soundtracks are fantastic and I heard those first.