The vinyl resurgence may be cresting, at least as evidenced by what was under my tree this year. Or maybe no one can figure out what else to get me.

I believe some people like buying vinyl records but don’t have a record player, so they target those who do. Another factor in my case is that an outstanding local second-hand record store that’s been around for over forty years, Gold Million Records, is closing, and has been having a sort of never-ending sale. (Buyers alert: their entire collection is up on Ebay if you have a spare $25K.)

My yield was about a dozen records (not including ones I bought for myself). The one pictured above (“Wildwood Days”) is not a Bobby Rydell album (although a cover of his famous (in Philly/Jersey) hit performed by a David Bowie cover band (this was before they called them tribute bands) is included); but rather a compilation of cuts by various bar bands from the era, bracketed by promotional gabbling from Bob Pantano, a well-known (even now) Philly DJ.

This collector’s (?) item was released on the Motherlode Productions label, and has the distinction, prized among the true cognoscenti, of not being listed in Discogs (or anywhere else that I could find on the WW Interweb). There is no date anywhere on the physical product, but I would guess it was released in 1975-1976, based on its inclusion of renditions of “Born to Run” and “Philadelphia Freedom”.

We will mention only in passing the turgid recreation of the popular Springsteen hit (the original of which I didn’t like the first or millionth time I heard it) by Supa Heat, a “phenomenal band” whose “new quadraphonic show is a sight and sound sensation”.

More interesting are the Bowie covers by Ziggie (“Shapes of Things” a la Bowie’s Pinups) and Money (“Cracked Actor”). Philadelphia was then, and is still, a huge Bowie town (just this past week there was a week-long Bowie festival at venues throughout the city); so it perhaps is not surprising that bands were still doing songs from Aladdin Sane and Pinups several years after their release.

The “Shapes of Things” cover seems to trudge on forever; skips the chorus several times; and perhaps wisely never attempts the guitar feedback sounds and racing instrumental passage of the Yardbirds’ original version that was pretty exciting to hear on the radio back in 1966.

The version of “Cracked Actor” is not bad, a bit more Mott the Hoople-ish than Bowie’s version. Having spent some time in the Wildwood milieu, I find it somewhat comical to think of that largely straight crowd pounding down cheap drafts while being serenaded with this nasty ode to a gay hustler.

Now on to Philly bar-band veterans who made it to a higher level. Instrumental Stylings by Ben Vaughn was released in 1995 and was the resume that led Ben from a decade+ of leading his outstanding combo in Philly, solo work including Rambler 65 (recorded entirely by Ben inside the eponymous Rambler), production/collaboration with artists including Charlie Feathers, Arthur Alexander, Alan Vega and Alex Chilton, and film scoring for classics like Wild Girls Go-Go Rama, to a new career in Los Angeles creating music for TV, most notably Third Rock from the Sun and That 70’s Show.

It is a wonderful album, highlighting Ben’s creativity as a composer and instrumentalist (esp. on guitar). Allmusic‘s review says Ben “shies away from no genre: bone-crunching surf, spaghetti western, drag-strip stompers, country-blues boogie, Italian soundtrack, breezy bossa nova, Tex-Mex cowboy ballads, noir Indian music, and numerous mix-and-match hybrids thereof”. 

In an interview in Broadway World, Ben tells the story of how he came to record Instrumental Stylings, and how a phone call he received on-air during a promotional interview at KCRW in Santa Monica led to a same-day job offer to create music for Third Rock.

Those of us from Philly have known about Ben for years, and look forward to his regular annual return gigs. You can also check out his weekly radio show, The Many Moods of Ben Vaughn (broadcast on over twenty stations and also available as a podcast), which is also wonderful, a word that seems to cling to Ben’s efforts.

Ben mentions in the article above having recorded the album in the basement studio of Palmyra Delran. She is another Jersey/Philly music scene stalwart, who some may remember as the drummer/leader of The Friggs, whose sound has been described as “trash pop” and “an all-female version of the Standells”. Their song “Shake” was featured in the film Superbad.

She also was the drummer for Pink Slip Daddy, a band which featured Mick Cancer on vocals and Sal Mineo’s Only Son (aka Ben Vaughn) on guitar.

Their 1990 release on Apex/Skyclad, Antidisestablishmentarianism, also found its way into my collection (ok, I bought it for myself) this holiday season.

The track listing on the reverse tells you what you need to know:

But, wait, what you really need to know is contained in the warning label on the front (inspired, no doubt, by the PMRC):

We’ll leave you with a more mundane addition to the collection, the first 45 from Nazz, Todd Rundgren’s band. The b-side was Hello, It’s Me, which may have gotten even more airplay over the years.

Old-time Philly hands will remember Todd playing with Woody’s Truck Stop. Todd is a 1966 alum of Upper Darby High School, where my lovely wife Anne was librarian for many years (long after Todd, and for that matter, Tina Fey or Jim Croce, were in attendance).

Next up: R&B records, including the hardest working man in show business.