Good Album Hunting, Wednesday, September 15, 2021: Friends of the Springfield-Greene County Library Book Sale

Gentle reader, the week was shaping up to be too busy for me to sneak off to the book sale this week on the north side of town. However, I rearranged some things on the sked so I could pop up for a brief visit on Wednesday afternoon.

I promised the boys I’d be in and out in an hour, and I really only focused on audio/visual materials. The number of records has dwindled from years past, now just a single table, but I managed to find something.

I got:

  • He’s Not Heavy, He’s My Tuba by the New York Brass Quintet.
  • Casino by Al Di Meola. I think Al Di Meola will be an excellent name for a cat.
  • Jackie Gleason presents Music To Remember Her. I think I already have it, but I spent a buck just in case not.
  • Zither South of the Border by Ruth Welcome. I am surprised combining the zither with the mariachi lite music of the 1960s did not end the universe as we know it.
  • Disguise by Chuck Mangione. You know, that guy from that one animated series. I’ve already forgotten which one he appeared in.
  • The Magic Flute of Herbie Mann. Hey, I might have made light of Super Mann when I got it, but I like Herbie Mann.
  • Carmina Buruna performed by the Bavarian Radio Orchestra and Chorus.
  • Love’s Lines, Angles and Rhymes by the Fifth Dimension.
  • No Other Love by Perry Como.
  • Dreamer’s Holiday by Perry Como.
  • Get Here by Brenda Russell.
  • Snowflakes Are Dancing by Tomita, apparently a Japanese composer and synth player, so this is likely to sound like some fusion jazz.
  • Pictures At An Exhibition by Tomita.
  • Firebird by Tomita. I bought all they had in case I like him.
  • Baroque Christmas Cantatas. To add more religious music to the mix come Christmastime.
  • Ballads of the Green Berets by SSgt. Barry Sadler. This was a big deal when it came out.
  • A Couple of Song & Dance Men by Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. Some show tunes that they made, but not anything from Holiday Inn.
  • High Fidelity by Lena Horne and Phil Moore and Orchestra. I only mention Phil Moore and Orchestra because they also back Crosby and Astaire on the previous record.
  • Virtuoso by Liona Boyd, whose Persona I already own. This is classical guitar music, so David Gilmour is unlikely to appear.
  • Champagne Jam by Atlanta Rhythm Section.
  • The 20th Century Bassoon because I need to update my bassoon music.
  • Three Bassoon Concerti: Works by Vivaldi, J.C. Bach, and Graupner. Which does not update my bassoon music.
  • Jean-Pierre Rampal Plays Johann Sebastian Bach. He’s no Herbie Mann, but he plays classical flute.
  • Born on a Friday by Cleo Laine.
  • Baroque Brass by the Eastern Brass Quartet.
  • Arabesque: Music from the Film Score by Henry Mancini. I saw this a couple years ago because it had Sophia Loren in it, and Gregory Peck, I guess.
  • Billy Holiday: The Original Authentic Recordings/”Piano Man” Bobby Tucker Tells The Lady Day Story. Purportedly collection of live Billie Holiday recordings. How did this one slip through last night? And the Lena Horne? Don’t kids know who these women are?
  • The Illinois Brass Quartet.
  • Poet’s Gold, a collection of poems read by Helen Hayes, Raymond Massey, and Thomas Mitchell. Produced by Raymond Massey. The guy who played Gail Wynand in The Fountainhead and John Brown in The Santa Fe Trail?
  • Cocktail Time with Frankie Carle. I might have this one, too, but it was only a buck, so why not take it to make sure?
  • Reaching for the World by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes.
  • The One and Only Jimmy Durante. a 1949 10″ LP.
  • Music for Horns by the Horn Club of Los Angeles.
  • Look To Your Heart by Perry Como.
  • Little Jazz Duets.
  • The Springfield Symphony Presents a collection of movements.
  • A Song For You by The Carpenters. Okay, I’m really, really not into the 70s folk sound, but Karen Carpenter’s voice has hooked me.
  • Antonio Soler: Six Concerti for Two Keyboards.
  • Your Guy Lombardo Medley Vol. 2.
  • A Very Merry Christmas Volume IV. I picked it up because it has a song by Aretha Franklin on it (she does “Winter Wonderland”).
  • The Hits of Benny Goldman.
  • At the Candlelight Cafe by the Three Suns. I have quite the collection of their work these days.
  • Jazz Meets The Folk Song by the Paul Winter Sextet. Again, as with the south of the border zither, this should have annihilated life as we know it. Scientists are still working to understand why it did not. Or did it?
  • A Portrait of Melba by Melba Moore. I think I passed over another one of her records for some reason. Probably because I did now know I picked this one up already in my berserker buying frenzy.
  • Seasons by Bing Crosby. As with the Crosby and Astaire album, it’s an older Bing Crosby. According to the back, this is the last Bing Crosby record.
  • Najee’s Theme by Najee.

All told, that’s 46 records. On Saturday, it would have only cost $23, but I’m busy Saturday.

My major scores, by my lights, are the Liona Boyd, Lena Horne, and Chuck Mangione albums. I hope I like the Tomita and some of the other things I took fliers on, including the unknown to me soul/R&B titles.

After picking through the records, I hit the videocassette collection. Videocassettes were fifty cents each. On Saturday, they would only be a quarter. I might be tempted to go up there on Sunday and throw what remains into a couple of bags.

But I got the following:

  • Three tapes/six episodes of Route 66. Considering how close I am to it, I should probably familiarize myself with the program, ainna?
  • Two Marx Brothers films, Duck Soup and Horse Feathers.
  • Bachelor Party. I have not seen this in forever.
  • Farewell, My Lovely with Robert Mitchum as Marlowe. I’ve got The Big Sleep with Mitchum, I’m think, but I am not sure I have seen this.
  • Casino Royale, the James Bond spoofish film from the 1960s. Did they have a copy of the Jimmy Bond Casino Royale? Yes!
  • Zulu with Michael Caine.
  • Gladiator with Russell Crowe. I saw that in the theaters when I was working my second technical writing position back in the 20th century. I don’t think I’ve seen it since.
  • Frantic, which was Harrison Ford doing Taken before Liam Neeson did.

I didn’t even look at the DVDs as my boys’ patience was running short, as was my promise to them to be in and out in an hour.

I did pick up a single audio book, Seven Bad Ideas: How Mainstream Economists Have Damaged America and the World by Jeff Madrick. It’s from 2014, and boy howdee I expect it to have predicted some things from 2021. Probably things I disagreed with when listening to On Thinking Like An Economist: A Guide To Rational Decision Making. I also picked up four bundles of chapbooks that I have yet to unbind to see what I’ve got.

So I was sad to not find any Barbara McNair; I thought surely I would trip over some now that I knew to look for it, but no. Also, no Fluegel Knights. All of the Herb Alpert I already own. No new-to-me Eydie Gorme (only one album, Don’t Go To Stranger, in the boxes).

Still, a good hunt, especially if two conditions are met: I like one of the new-to-me artists, and my beautiful wife is pleased with the brass selections.

Likelihood of my return on Sunday, bag day: 33%. Which is higher than it was a when I started the post.

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