Keep on Rockin' with the...

I mentioned in my last post one of the other records I picked up on my recent Charity shop dig in Bognor Regis, so here it is - the 'Toyota Jazz Parade - Rock' LP. I'm gonna be honest - there's nothing too exciting on this album musically, but the sleeve is amazing! The artwork is uncredited which is a shame because both front and reverse of this gatefold cover feature great illustration work which was the main reason I picked it up the record in the first place.

I love these type of promotional albums - manufactured specifically to advertise products. For a start, they weren't produced in huge quantities so if they do turn out to have anything decent on them you know they are that little bit rarer. As I already mentioned, this particular album isn't that exciting but it did put me onto a record I was unaware of that I now need in my collection.

Featured on here is a version of "The Theme From Shaft" performed by a band called The Generation Gap. Now I'm not really a great fan of this song and probably have over a dozen different covers of it on various albums, but I did like the 'sound' (the drums are hitting hard) produced by The Generation Gap - enough for me to google them to try and find out more. It turns out this track is from their 1972 RCA LP "Generation Gap play the Theme From Shaft and Other Hits". At the time of writing this post there is a copy listed on eBay which includes sound clips to their versions of "Rock Steady", "Family Affair" and "Hallelujah" all which feature very nice drum breaks. The asking price is $39.90 so well out of my range considering I very rarely spend much more than a couple of quid on anything other than Hip-Hop. Still, at least I know about it now and will hopefully come across a copy on my travels one day...

And for those of you who appreciate artwork just as much as music, check out this lovely screen print which arrived on my doorstep last week courtesy of the good chaps at ILoveDust.

Cheers Brucie...

(click image to enlarge)














The Generation Gap "Theme From Shaft" (1972 RCA LP track)