Simon’s third solo album (including 1965’s The Paul Simon Songbook), found the singer-songwriter expanding upon the freedom he’d displayed on the previous year’s eponymous release. The branching out displayed with reggae, Latin and South American sounds was now expanded with bluesy doo-wop, New Orleans pop, gospel and Memphis soul. Simon deftly choreographed an impressive guest list that includes The Dixie Hummingbirds, The Roches, horns arranged by Alan Toussaint and strings arranged by Quincy Jones. His mastery weaves multiple studios, dates and backing bands (including the players of Muscle Shoals) into a surprisingly cohesive album.
Though not technically Paul Simon’s solo debut – that honor goes to the acoustic performances he recorded for 1965’s The Paul Simon Songbook – this first post-Simon & Garfunkel album does represent the true beginnings of Simon’s massive success as a solo artist. Released in 1972, it came two years after Simon & Garfunkel bowed out with the Grammy winning Bridge Over Troubled Water, and the same year as the duo’s greatest hits album topped the chart. Simon’s re-debut was a strong artistic statement that was both commercially successful and the seedbed for experimentation and growth that would mark his solo career. The album opens with the reggae-inspired hit single “Mother and Child Reunion,†and along with the Latin influences of “Me and Julio Down By the School Yard†and haunting Andean instrumental breaks in “Duncan,†the melting pot of styles predicted the wealth of world music Simon would fold into his music.
At 32, Simon had matured from the sharp, at times bitter, worldview of his twenties. The difficulty of Simon & Garfunkel’s end had given way to the freedom of a solo act, and there’s a sense of renewed discovery in his characters and lyrical forms. The wayward “Duncan†recounts the education of a small-town fisherman’s son into a clear-eyed world traveler, while the fragmentary allusions of “Mother and Child Reunion†are surprisingly open-ended and poetically opaque. Simon’s marriage with his wife was apparently following his professional partnership with Garfunkel into dissolution, providing grist for “Everything Put Together Falls Apart,†“Run That Body Down†and “Congratulations.†Simon’s voice never sounded better, he asserts his picking talent on “Armistice Day†and “Peace Like a River†and vamps happily behind violinist Stephane Grappelli on the swing instrumental “Hobo’s Blues.â€
Expanded reissue of legendary bubblegum compilation
Originally issued by Buddah in 1969, and reissued in expanded form by the UK Cherry Red label in 2010, this historic collection of bubblegum music is now available for domestic digital download through Sony’s Legacy imprint. The fourteen tracks of the original LP were pulled together from the biggest hits of Buddah’s Kasenetz-Katz production team, including the 1910 Fruitgum Company’s “Simon Says,†the Ohio Express’ “Yummy Yummy Yummy†and the Lemon Pipers’ “Green Tambourine.†Brilliant melodic hooks, crisp studio productions and child-like lyrics combined to produce songs that were instantly likeable (except, of course, to self-righteous rock fans who’d long-ago lost track of music’s simplest pleasures) and more importantly, memorable. Though aimed at the pre-teen crowd, the songs’ surface-level innocence often harbored erotic and psychedelic allusions that were sufficiently camouflaged to escape AM radio’s gatekeepers.
Career- and label-spanning summary of a second-generation legend
For an artist of her stature, Rosanne Cash has been the subject of surprisingly thin compilation releases. Several 10- and 12-track single disc collections have been issued, but only Raven’s imported 21-track Blue Moons and Broken Hearts and to a lesser extent Legacy’s earlier Very Best Of really dug beyond the hits. That list is now expanded with this two-disc, thirty-six track collection, featuring a song list picked and programmed by the artist herself. The set opens with “Can I Still Believe in You,†from her 1978 self-titled Germany-only debut, and closes over thirty years later with a trio of tracks drawn from 2009’s The List. The latter selections include a cover of Mickey Newbury’s “Sweet Memories†previously available only on the Borders Books version of The List.
Included are all eleven of Cash’s country chart-toppers, seventeen of her twenty country chart entries, and tracks drawn from all twelve studio albums she’s recorded for Ariola, Columbia and Capitol/EMI. There are augumented with bonuses drawn from earlier antholgies, and duets from albums by Vince Gill (“If It Weren’t For Himâ€) and Rodney Crowell (“Its Such a Small Worldâ€). The bulk of the collection is devoted to Cash’s tenure with Columbia, with the second half of disc two stepping through her more recent work for Capitol/EMI. These latter tracks find Cash reinventing herself from a country hit maker to a writer, album auteur and Grammy nominee. This plays out as a worthy soundtrack for Cash’s recent memoir, Composed, provides a terrific overview of her hits and a useful guide to the rich album tracks in her catalog.
Though Cash isn’t prone to complimenting her debut, the strength of her songwriter’s voice is evident from the start. It may be difficult at mid-life to fully reconnect with the yet-to-be-fulfilled longing one felt at twenty-three, but the early songs provide telling snapshots of a young writer who was already able to express her soul in words. A year later, on 1979’s Right or Wrong, Cash sounds more confident, singing as an equal with Bobby Bare on “No Memories Hangin’ Round,†and producer Rodney Crowell deftly blended roots with radio-friendly touches. Her follow-up, Seven Year Ache, broke her career wide open with an album and title track that each topped the country chart; the single also crossed over, stopping just shy of the pop top twenty.
Cash’s songs and vocals, and Crowell’s production fit easily across a variety of styles, including pop ballads, twangy roots, countrypolitan jazz, and horn-lined soul. Several of the hits, particularly those in the mid-80s, tended to crystalline guitars, big piano and booming drums, but Cash also topped the chart with the locomotive rhythm of “My Baby Thinks He’s a Train,†the Brill Building soul of John Hiatt’s “The Way We Make a Broken Heart,†and most endearingly, an acoustic shuffle of “Tennessee Flat Top Box†that recalled her dad’s early days at Sun.
The young Neil Diamond graduates from songwriter to performer
Before Neil Diamond became a singing superstar he was a songwriter, but even as a songwriter he wasn’t an instant success. He spent his teen years tramping from one publishing house to another, occasionally selling a song against royalties for hits that never came. It wasn’t until an unsuccessful year on the staff of Leiber & Stoller’s Trio Music and, ironically, a transition to recording, that Diamond found his voice as a songwriter. He first charted with Jay and the Americans’ “Sunday and Me,†and hit his commercial stride with the Monkees chart-toppers “I’m a Believer†and “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You.†Other songs in his catalog found favor among British Invasion acts that included Cliff Richard and Lulu.
Diamond’s earlier attempts at a performing career (with Dual in 1959 and Columbia in 1963) had gone nowhere, but his signing to Bang in 1966 unlocked his songwriting talent and paired him with producers Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich. It was during this initial run at Bang that Diamond proved himself a talented songwriter, unique vocalist and commanding hit maker. His first seven singles reached the chart, six making the top 20; for good measure he extended the chart run with “Red, Red Wine†and a soul-power cover of Gary U.S. Bonds’ “New Orleans.†Several of his B-sides, including “The Boat That I Row†and “Do It†were as good as the A’s, and cover versions of “Red Rubber Ball,†“Monday, Monday†and “La Bamba†were blessed by the Diamond touch.
A rock ‘n’ roll legend’s legendary mono singles + a vintage concert film
Roy Orbison’s five year blaze of musical glory on Monument Records is distilled here to the singles that rocketed up the chart over and over again. This 2-CD/1-DVD set collects all twenty singles released in the U.S. on the Monument label, dividing the A- and B-sides between the CDs. Disc one is an intense concentration of hits and valiant misses that digs deeper than the regularly anthologized chestnuts. All of the A’s, save “Lana†and “Paper Boy,†made the pop chart, offering up lesser known sides that include the pained “I’m Hurtin’,†despondent “The Crowd,†blue-collar “Working for the Man,†and a bluesy cover of “Let the Good Times Roll†that features harmonica from Charlie McCoy.
Nashville A-listers McCoy, Boots Randolph, Floyd Cramer, Buddy Harmon, Hank Garland and the Anita Kerr Singers were regulars on Orbison’s sessions in RCA’s legendary Studio B. These mono singles, remastered by Vic Anesini, are incredibly fine in both detail and cohesion – much like the great recordings of Blue Note. They’re a real testament to the work of session engineer Bill Porter, who often captured the big productions and Orbison’s incredible dynamic range live-to-tape on only two tracks. Disc two shows that Orbison and his production team didn’t just slap together the flipsides; the B’s were polished productions with full arrangements that often featured strings and backing chorus. Orbison charted three of his B-sides (“Candy Man,†“Mean Woman Blues†and “Leahâ€) and recorded some great material, including “Love Hurts†and Cindy Walker’s “Shahdaroba,†for the flips.
The set’s DVD features a 25-minute black-and-white film of a 1965 live date recorded for a Dutch television station. Orbison was in Holland to pick up an award for “Oh, Pretty Woman,†his last chart-topper, and nearly his last single on Monument before decamping for MGM. He didn’t know it, but he was entering a twenty-five year Top 10 drought that only ended when his mid-80s induction into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, the taping of A Black & White Night and the formation of the Traveling Wilburys resuscitated his recording career. But in 1965 he’d recently delivered “Oh, Pretty Woman†and “Goodnight,†both of which are featured in the live performance, and with a new contract in hand, things must have looked rosy.
The video is grainy, but the sound quality is surprisingly good. Orbison is backed by a six-piece band in sharp suits and Beatle boots, and “Pretty Woman†co-writer Bill Dees can be seen playing keyboards and singing background vocals. The performance is tightly contained, with Orbison moving little and hiding his eyes behind trademark sunglasses; it’s as if he’s channeling every bit of his emotion into his superb vocals. Without the instrumental grandeur of strings, a backing chorus or RCA’s Studio B, Orbison still wrings every ounce of emotion from the lyrics, and despite his lack of physical performance, he still grabs you with how good these songs could sound live. Whatever dialog there may have been with the audience has been clipped from this video, and though the crowd is surprisingly sedate, the band still cooks as they play “What’d I Say.â€
Disc one, which is available separately, turns out to be a nearly complete greatest hits anthology. Were you to substitute three B-sides for less successful A’s, you’d have all of Orbison’s key chart history at Monument. The track sequencing, on the other hand, is a mystery, as it doesn’t follow either the recording or chart dates, and three singles are inexplicably designated as bonus traks. Splitting the A- and B-sides onto separate discs seems to favor the marketing department’s ability to sell the A-sides separately over giving package buyers an opportunity to listen to the singles in order. The separately is a nit really, given that consumers can easily rearrange the track sequence to their liking.
As was heard on last year’s Red Velvet Car, Ann Wilson’s voice is still a power to be reckoned with, Nancy Wilson’s still got instrumental chops, and the duo fits together like, well, sisters. Though the band’s held a steady lineup (save bassist Ric Markmann, who’s been replaced by Kristian Attard) since the release of Jupiter’s Darling, the group can at times feel more like a backing combo for Ann and Nancy Wilson than a working concern. The guest appearance of Alison Krauss on three tracks is both a treat and a distraction. Her voice is uniquely beautiful as she sings “These Dreams,†but it takes the song out of the realm of Heart. The same is true for the group’s cover of Krauss & Plant’s “Your Long Journey.†It’s a beautiful song, wonderfully sung by Krauss and Ann Wilson, but feels out of place amongst Heart’s material.
The set list mostly sticks to the group’s hits, non-charting singles and a few album tracks. There are five tunes from Heart’s then-latest album, Red Velvet Car, and they blend seamlessly with material from the mid-70s and 80s. Ann Wilson still thrills with rock ballads, but doesn’t always hit the high, powerful notes with the same authority of her younger years. That said,  she’s a cannier vocalist than thirty years ago, navigating around the minor limitations of age to imbue her singing with new textures and more dynamic range. Nancy Wilson sings lead (and plays autoharp) on “Hey You,†Ann Wilson pulls out her flute for “Mistral Wind,†and the near prog-rock jamming on “Mistral Wind†is superb. The main set closes with a rousing version of “Crazy on You,†led off by some powerful, bluesy acoustic strumming.
Brilliant video additions to Simon & Garfunkel’s studio swan song
Simon and Garfunkel’s fifth and final studio album marked their commercial peak. Though many fans find the previous album, Bookends, to be the apex of the duo’s artistic creativity, it’s hard to think of another pop act that exited with a success comparable to this album and its title track. Despite Garfunkel’s initial reservation, “Bridge Over Troubled Water†made good on Simon’s feeling that it was the best song he’d ever written, topping the Hot 100 for six weeks and winning Grammy awards for song and record of the year. Though the recording is deeply tied to Garfunkel’s brilliant vocal performance, the composition spawned dozens of successful covers, including Aretha Franklin’s Grammy-winning R&B chart-topper and Buck Owens’ Top 10 single. In the 1970s it became a staple in Elvis Presley’s stage show, and cover versions continue to be recorded to this day, with a live version from the 2010 Grammys having charted, and the television show Glee having featured the song the same year.
But the title song is far from the album’s only jewel. With Garfunkel away for the better part of 1969 filming Catch 22, Simon was left to work alone, and apparently consider a post-Garfunkel career. “The Only Living Boy in New York City†and “Why Don’t You Write Me†are easily heard to be contemplations of Simon’s isolation, while “So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright†includes the telling lyric “so long Frank Lloyd Wright, all of the nights we harmonized ‘til dawn,†an allusion seemingly tied to Garfunkel’s study of architecture at Columbia. The seeds of Simon’s multicultural solo career can be heard in the Peruvian flute of “El Condor Pasa (If I Could),†broad rhythm instrumentation of “Cecilia,†and reggae styling of “Why Don’t You Write Me.†The album topped the chart, won Grammys for engineering, arranging and Album of Year, and spun off four hit singles.
This CD/DVD set marks the 40th anniversary of the album’s January 1970 release, and combines the original eleven tracks with two hours of video material. The DVD includes the duo’s rare 1969 CBS television special, Songs of America, and a new documentary, The Harmony Game: The Making of Bridge Over Troubled Water. The special, aired only once on November 30, 1969, has been bootlegged many times, but never before officially reissued. At the time of its airing its social and political viewpoints – particularly its explicit anti-Vietnam war messages – caused sponsor Bell Atlantic to pull out. But with backing from CBS (the same network that had fired the Smothers Brothers earlier in the year), the program found a new sponsor (Alberto Culver, the makers of Alberto VO5) and was aired uncut.
Both video features are extraordinary documents. The 1969 special, originally shot on film and pieced together from two different sources, is a post-Woodstock look at America in which Simon and Garfunkel seem to be trying to explain the younger generation to adult viewers. They surface the questions and doubts on the minds of many young people in 1969, starting with the incalculable loss of the decade’s heroes – JFK, MLK and RFK – and reflections on the brutality of poverty and the activism of the farm workers, UAW and Poor People’s March. First-time director (and future famous actor) Charles Grodin skillfully mixed compelling newsreel imagery with voiceovers and interviews, and interwove performance footage and behind-the-scenes shots of the duo at work. Simon and Garfunkel are spied working out arrangements of new songs, rehearsing their stage band and recording in the studio.
The making-of documentary repeats some moments from the ’69 special, but adds context with discussions of the program’s creation and controversies. There’s additional concert footage and contemporary interviews with Simon, Garfunkel, their manager, Mort Lewis, their engineer/producer, Roy Halee, and two of the studio players (drummer Hal Blaine and bassist Joe Osborn) featured on the album.. The conversation with Halee is particularly illuminating, as he describes how the duo’s studio sound was produced, and provides specifics of the album’s tracks. The song-by-song discussion reveals numerous details on personnel (Fred Carter Jr., for example, played guitar on “The Boxer,†Joe Osborn played an 8-string bass on “Only Living Boy in New York City,†and Larry Knechtel developed the gospel piano on “Bridge Over Troubled Waterâ€), recording locations, production techniques, and brightly highlights the creativity everyone concerned poured into the album.
‘50s and ‘60s rarities, demos and radio performances
Five years ago the archive of recordings left behind at the House of Cash was cracked open for the two-disc Personal File, which itself has been reissued as Bootleg Volume 1: Personal File in parallel with this second two-disc helping. Where the previous volume focused on Cash’s mid-70s home recordings, volume two reaches back further to explore Cash’s 1950s beginnings in Memphis and his transition to country superstardom in the 1960s. Along the way the set collects live performances, continuity and commercial pitches (for his employer Home Equipment Company) from Cash’s first radio appearance, on KWEM in 1955, mid-50s Sun demos and rarities, and a deep cache of 1960s studio recordings. Eleven of these tracks have never been officially released in the U.S., and fifteen, including eleven Sun-era demos, have never been officially released anywhere.
As on the earlier volume, Cash lays down his demos without the fire of master takes, but even when just feeling out his songs or recording them as a record of copyright, his authority and magnetism as a performer shines through. The mid-50s demos are sung to an acoustic guitar, lending them the intimate and unguarded feel of Cash singing more for himself than an imagined audience. Alongside early demos of Cash classics (“I Walk the Line,†“Get Rhythm,†“Belshazzarâ€) are the rare, proto-rockabilly “You’re My Baby†and the wonderfully primitive “Rock and Roll Ruby.†Seven Sun outtakes capture Cash’s classic tic-tac rhythm, as well as false starts and a rough guitar solo that finds the group seeking the groove of “Big River.†Cash’s commanding baritone is magnified by the terrific atmosphere of Sun’s production sound.
The 1960s recordings are more polished, waxed in Nashville for Columbia, with a band, backing chorus and at times in stereo. The tracks include non-album singles, B-sides and demos, including several proposed theme songs for television and film. Cash’s “Johnny Yuma Theme†fits with his many other Western-themed songs, but went unused for ABC’s The Rebel, as did a title theme for Cash’s 1961 film Five Minutes to Live, and most surprising of all (that is, for its existence, rather than it’s lack of use), a Western-tinged title song Cash proposed for the James Bond film Thunderball. Additional treats include a vibraphone led rendition of the nineteenth century “There’s a Mother Always Waiting,†a duet with Bonanza’s Lorne Greene on “Shifting, Whispering Sands,†and a solo cover of Dylan’s “One Too Many Mornings,†all previously unreleased in the U.S.
Simon expands his reach with third solo effort
