Automat (1927) by Edward Hopper |
Later, on leaving the bank, I noticed that diagonally opposite
across the road was a charity shop that I hadn’t seen before called Mercy In Action so I had to have a look
in there. I didn’t find any books, but they had cd’s for £1.00 each. I bought
one called Live From Glastonbury. I
am listening to it now and it has some fabulous tracks on it and gives me a frisson of excitement that Glastonbury 2019 is now only 115 days away. I also
bought an album by James Hunter called
The Hard Way. I discovered James
Hunter through his association with Van Morrison and I actually saw him on The
Park Stage at Glastonbury several years ago. He and his band are brilliant
live. The third one I bought was a 2cd compilation called Anthology Of English Folk which has lots of my favourites on it
such as Richard Thompson, Anne Briggs,
Nic Jones, Bert Lloyd and many more.
After that, there was no stopping me. I went in every
charity shop in Trowbridge. Scope,
British Heart Foundation, Julian House, Blue Cross and Oxfam were all slim pickings. I didn’t find anything else till I
got to Dorothy House. I spotted a cd
called Blues And Politics. It looked
interesting and had a picture of Charles
Mingus on the front, so I assumed it was by him but when I got home I
realised it was by the Mingus Big Band recorded
in 1999. Charles Mingus died in 1979. The Big Band is managed by his widow Sue
Mingus. The album is ok but it is a bit too busy for me, I always think that
less is more. That’s why I think The Way
Young Lovers Do is my least favourite track on Astral Weeks because there is too much going on.
On my way to my last port of call I glanced in a café window
and saw a familiar face. It was the lady from the bus stop. She smiled
at me through the window. It was like a scene from an Edward Hopper painting. In the last
shop CLIC I found a book called Angry
Candy by Harlan Ellison, I have
heard of him but never read him. The book is a USA first edition from 1988 so I
hope it might be worth a few quid. After that there was nothing else to keep me
in Trowbridge. I caught the bus home
again and that’s what filled out my Friday afternoon. Some new music arrived in
the post today, but I will tell you about that tomorrow.