Category Archives: Reissue

Durocs: Durocs

Leave a reply

Clever late-70s studio rock finally rescued from obscurity

The Durocs 1979 debut (and, as it turns out, album swansong) was a singular combination of collaborators and the times in which they collaborated. The two principals, Ron Nagle and Scott Mathews, had already been working together for a few years when they signed a deal with Capitol in the late ‘70s. Nagle had co-founded San Francisco’s Mystery Trend in 1965, playing key venues and releasing a single on Verve. He went on to record a Jack Nitzsche-produced solo album, Bad Rice, in 1970, but garnered his primary renown as a ceramicist and university art professor. Mathews was a songwriter and producer whose multi-instrumental talents made him something of a child prodigy. The pair wrote songs for other artists and produced audio for film soundtracks, leading them, via their connection to Nitasche, to Capitol.

Nagle and Mathews produced the album with Elliot Mazur, in their own San Franciscostudio, overdubbing most of the instruments and vocals, and adding selected guests, such as sax player Steve Douglas. Their thick production sound brings to mind Todd Rundgren (both as an artist and producer), the Tubes (for whom Nagle co-wrote the signature “Don’t Touch Me There”), and Phil Spector’s later work on the Ramones’ 1981 End of the Century. Nagle explains in the liner notes, “restraint just wasn’t our forte at the time,” which explains both their over-the-top production and the enthusiasms of their lyrics. They’re equally unbridled confessing the shame of a cuckold as they are reveling in the connections of a successful relationship. They excoriate the excesses of ‘70s self-empowerment as easily as they offer reassurance to a partner in need.

The album gained fans inEuropeand on college radio, but failed commercially, despite two inventive promotional videos. The Durocs slipped through Capitol during a brief moment of major label adventurousness, and the band’s inventiveness is finally rewarded by this reissue, thirty-three years after the fact. Real Gone adds eight bonus tracks that fit stylistically with the original album, highlighted by a cross of Mitch Ryder, Mink DeVille and a modern rock guitar on “No Big Deal,” the baritone-guitar country twang “Drinkin’ One Day at a Time,” and Ernie K-Doe’s bizarre autobiographical monolog on “Nawgahide.” The two-panel slip-sleeve has a microscopic reproduction of the lyrics, and an eight-page booklet includes liner notes by Gene Sculatti. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Chris Barber: Memories of My Trip

Leave a reply

The rich musical life of a stellar trombonist

The list of name-famous trombonists pales in length to that of other instrumentalists. Aside from the recent renown of Trombone Shorty, one has to reach back to jazz players Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Kid Ory, Jack Teagarden, Kai Winding and J.J. Johnson to find names that truly rise above the title. But numerous trombonists, as both featured players and ensemble members, have provided key solos and accompaniment, and gained fame among those paying attention to the musicians They often become hugely important in the careers of those they backed and integral parts of musical movements.

British trombonist Chris Barber began playing in groups in the mid-50s, blowing ragtime, swing and blues, and it was here that he met vocalist Lonnie Donegan. It was with Donegan that Barber would ignite the skiffle craze with their cover of Leadbelly’s “Rock Island Line.” Barber continued to play trad jazz, even as he was bookingUKtours for American blues artists and providing them backing, as can be heard here in his featured spots with Brownie McGhee, Muddy Waters and James Cotton. Over the years, Barber also played with the cream of British blues musicians, including Eric Clapton and Rory Gallagher. The latter found Barber playing bass, rather than trombone, against Gallagher’s hard-twanging guitar and gruff vocal.

Proper’s 2-CD set collects tracks from 1959 dates with McGhee through more recent sessions with Mark Knopfler, Jeff Healey and Jools Holland, and knits them together with track note memories by Barber himself. Barber came of age as a musician at the center ofBritain’s musical revolution, and has stayed connected and vital for more than fifty years, making this a rich document of a journey that traveled from influenced to influencer. Barber was much more than a backing (or even solo) instrumentalist; as a band leader and promoter he served as a conduit for the blues, giving the British scene direct contact with their American counterparts and forbearers.

As a trombonist, Barber is adept both at providing sensitive backing riffs and mixing it up with vocalists, guitarists and other instrumentalists. The small combo take of “Weeping Willow” and an audience tape of “Kansas City” show how easily Barber moved from background to foreground, keeping pace with the guitar riffs of Eric Clapton and Muddy Waters. Among the sets greatest surprises is a hot organ-jazz tune recorded with Keith Emerson in 1966, with David Leighton and a tight rhythm section staying with Emerson’s Jimmy McGriff-styled organ and Barber’s trombone. Barber’s led a musical career that’s made him a historian by virtue of the history he’s lived, and this two-disc set (with 24-page booklet) provides a fine overview of his travels. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Chris Barber’s Home Page

The Ad Libs: The Complete Blue Cat Recordings

Leave a reply

Astonishing stereo re-masters and demos of Brill-era vocal group

Blue Cat was a subsidiary of the Red Bird label started in 1964 by legendary Brill Building songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The parent label cashed in on the girl group craze with the Dixie Cups and Shangri-Las, but Blue Cat also cracked the Top 10 with the label’s second single, “The Boy from New York City.” Written by saxophonist John T. Taylor, the song had a jazzy swing that gave the then-recently rechristened Ad Libs a distinct sound. The New Jersey quintet featured Mary Ann Thomas singing lead and a smooth male quartet providing backing vocals. A second single, “He Ain’t No Angel,” was penned by Red Bird’s house team of Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich (and previously waxed by the Lovejoys for Tiger), but label turmoil stalled the single on the bottom rungs of the Top 100. Two more singles, “On the Corner” and “I’m Just a Down Home Girl,” fared even worse and led to the group’s departure from Blue Cat.

Judging solely by the charts, the Ad Libs were a four-single, one-hit wonder; but as this twenty-three track collection shows, there was a lot more to their catalog than found broad public acclaim. In addition to the group’s four A’s and B’s, Real Gone’s gathered a clutch of unreleased tracks, alternate versions and a cappella demos that give full testimony to the group’s vocal talent and their production team’s ability to craft memorable melodic and instrumental hooks. The B-sides are anything but throwaways, with “Kicked Around” sporting an incredible jazz bass line, sly organ bed and maddeningly memorable triangle figure behind Thomas’ thirsty flower vocal. “Ask Anybody” is a dance tune touched by doo-wop, blues and gospel, and the male leads on “Oo-Wee Oh Me Oh My” and “Johnny My Boy” show the group had more than one vocalist capable of holding the spotlight.

The finished track “The Slime” went unreleased, and, sadly, was deprived of the opportunity to ignite a worldwide dance craze based on melting like butter down in the gutter. The set’s other unreleased master, “You’ll Always Be in Style,” adds a touch of Latin soul. The set’s most arresting find, however, are seven mono a cappella demos that starkly highlight the group’s melding of doo-wop and vocal jazz. In addition to demos of singles sides (including a take on “The Boy from New York City” that shows the hit single’s more relaxed tempo to have been the right choice), four additional titles are featured, including the holiday-themed “Santa’s on His Way.” The five alternate takes include a version of “The Boy from New York City” with a distractingly present trumpet riff, and the disc is filled out with seven tracking sessions that provide a rare peak inside the studio.

Reissue producer Ron Furmanek has re-mastered many of these tracks (1-4, 6-9, 18-30) in stereo from the original 3- and 4-track master session tapes. At times, particularly on the singles, the separation and clarity of the vocals and instruments is disconcerting to ears trained by original mono singles heard through AM radio. That said, even with handclaps and backing vocals panned hard left and right, the soundstage still hangs together reasonably well, even when individual elements (such as the honking saxophone on “He Ain’t No Angel”) stand a bit forward. The tracking sessions are interesting, but fresh re-masters of the original mono singles would have been a more long-lasting treat. Real Gone’s four-panel slipcase includes a 12-page booklet with lengthy liner notes and an introduction by the Manhattan Transfer’s Tim Hauser. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Sheb Wooley: White Lightnin’

Leave a reply

Boogie, swing and honky-tonk from 1945 to 1959

To those weaned on Wooley’s 1958 chart-topping rock ‘n’ roll novelty, “Purple People Eater,” his acting roles in High Noon, Giant and Rio Bravo, or his tenure in a featured slot on television’s Rawhide, the totality of his recording career may come as something of a surprise. Starting in the mid-40s on the Nashville-based Bullet label, moving on to the Fort Worth-based Blue Bonnet, and settling in with the coastal MGM label, Wooley recorded a wealth of country, boogie, swing and honky-tonk sides, both under his own name, and as a parodist, under the name of Ben Colder. He topped the charts a second time – the country chart, this time – with 1962’s “That’s My Pa,” and continued to score with singles throughout the rest of the decade.

Wooley’s acting career sustained him financially, but it was his move to Hollywood – ostensibly to break in to the movies as a singing cowboy – that shaped the sound of his records. Recording in California, he was backed by many of the same West Coast musicians (including Speedy West, Jimmy Bryant and Cliffie Stone) that played on Capitol sessions for Merle Travis, Tex Ritter and Tennessee Ernie Ford. But even before he got to California, Wooley was recording dance tunes like his steel-swing “Oklahoma Honky Tonk Girl” and the fiddle-led “Peepin’ Through the Keyhole (Watching Jole Blon).” He sang his upbeat tunes with a smile, stringing together clever wordplay on “Lazy Mazy” that echoes the hipster jazz sides of the late ‘30s. And even when he wasn’t writing parodies, he often wrote with humor, such as the troubled date of “Wha’ Hoppen to Me, Baby” and doghouse lodgings of “Rover Scoot Over.”

The two 1959 sides that close the set showcase different sides of Wooley. The driller-themed “Roughneck” has a rockabilly beat, while the hit single “That’s My Pa” is a talking blues novelty that anticipates “A Boy Named Sue.” The all-mono audio shows only minimal surface noise on some of the earliest sides, and noise reduction is so discreet as to be inaudible. The digipack is decorated with vibrant graphics, and the 31-page booklet includes photos, poster and label reproductions, a detailed discography (including label, recording dates and personnel) and liner notes by Todd Everett. This is a great look at Wooley’s boogie sides, and compliments Bear Family volumes that focus on western tunes and rockin’ sides, as well as their 4-CD box set. But for an introduction to Wooley’s country and honky-tonk sides, this is a great place to start. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Little Richard: Here’s Little Richard

Leave a reply

A founding text of rock ‘n’ roll

Fifty-five years after its initial release, Little Richard’s debut LP resounds with the primordial fire of rhythm ‘n’ blues’ jump to rock ‘n’ roll. Richard took everything up a notch – the tempos, the innuendo and above all, the volume and energy of his vocals. Recorded primarily at New Orleans’ legendary J&M studios, Richard was backed by the cream of the Crescent City’s musicians, including Lee Allen, Alvin Taylor, Frank Fields and Earl Palmer. Though the same crew could be heard on other artists’ records, with Richard in the lead, they heated up their New Orleans boogie-woogie as on few other sessions. There’s a level of fervor, abandon and outrageousness in both Richard’s singing and piano playing that none of his fellow founders could match.

The original dozen tracks clock in at just over 28 minutes, but it’s 28 minutes of killer rock ‘n’ roll, with zero filler. The first hits were “Tutti Frutti,” “Long Tall Sally,” “Slippin’ and Slidin’,” “Rip it Up,” “Ready Teddy” and “She’s Got It.” Three more – “Jenny Jenny,” “Miss Ann” and “True Fine Mama” – charted in ’57 and ’58. That leaves only three that didn’t chart – “Can’t Believe You Wanna Leave,” “Baby” and “Oh Why?” – each of which has the same incendiary spark of the better known singles. The CD reissue adds three audio tracks and two videos. The audio includes Richard’s two original audition tracks and a previously unreleased interview with Specialty Records founder Art Rupe. Rupe talks about the audition tape, Richard’s persistence at getting signed, the New Orleans sessions, the impact of “Tutti Frutti” and the on-again, off-again career it created.

The audition tracks – Little Richard originals “Baby” and “All Night Long” – are surprising for their lack of indication of what was to come. Richard sang straight blues, with the band subdued behind him, not even hinting at the rock ‘n’ roll mayhem he’d bring to his Specialty sessions. Rupe, looking for a B.B. King-type singer, heard something he liked, but had no idea what he was really getting. The videos are color screen tests (for The Girl Can’t Help It) of Richard lip-synching “Tutti Frutti” and “Long Tall Sally,” highlighted visually by his swanky suits, awesome pompadour, pencil-thin moustache and his uninhibited dancing in the instrumental breaks. The set’s 24-page booklet includes photos, the album’s original liner notes, new notes by Lee Hildebrand and a poster of the album cover. Rock ‘n’ roll stars simply didn’t shine any brighter than this. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Rick Springfield: Beginnings

Leave a reply

The early ‘70s singer-songwriter roots of Rick Springfield

By the time that Rick Springfield hit it big as a pop star, with 1981’s “Jessie’s Girl,” his fame as an actor all but obscured his very real roots as a musician. But a decade before topping the U.S. charts, Springfield was a working musician in the rock band Zoot (on whose heavy cover of “Eleanor Rigby” a young Springfield can be seen playing guitar) and a solo artist with a Top 10 hit in Australia. A reworked version of that hit single, “Speak to the Sky,” reached the Billboard Top 20, and took this debut album into the Top 40. The 1981 view of a dilettante actor dabbling in music is wiped away by this record of his earlier work, for which Springfield wrote ten original tunes, sang and played guitar, keyboards and banjo.

Springfield’s songs and the production sound are heavily indebted to late ‘60s and early ‘70s rock, particularly the bass, drums and piano sounds of the Beatles, Badfinger and Big Star. The album mixes deeper numbers with bubblegum, showing Springfield’s voice to work well in both heavy and light arrangements. “The Unhappy Ending” anticipates the histrionics of Queen (and presages the opening of “Killer Queen”), while the happy-go-lucky (but war-tinged) “Hooky Jo” sports hooks worthy of Kasnetz-Katz and Graham Gouldman. Springfield’s infatuation with Paul McCartney is evidenced by the album’s chugging beats, but there are notes of soul, country-rock and pop.

The publicity build-up Springfield received with the album’s success leaned to teen idoldom, and though a few of his songs offered the romance expected by readers of Tiger Beat, he also wrote of faith, regret, marital traps and suicide. The disconnect between his publicity and music, coupled with a disastrous rumor that Capitol was inflating sales numbers, doomed Springfield’s initial into the U.S. market. Three more albums failed to right those wrongs until 1981’s Working Class Dog, bolstered by his role on General Hospital, earned him pop stardom. In addition to being a lost gem of early ‘70s pop, this debut shows Springfield’s success as a musician was honest, hard-won, and only by lucky timing the by-product of his acting fame. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Rick Springfield’s Home Page

David Axelrod: David Axelrod’s Rock Interpretation of Handel’s Messiah

Leave a reply

1971 rock orchestrations of Handel’s Messiah

Producer/arranger David Axelrod’s rock interpretation of Handel’s Messiah has twin histories. Originally released in 1971, it was part of a stream of God rock that included Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell and popular hits like “Spirit in the Sky,” “One Toke Over the Line” and “Jesus is Just Alright.” But as part of Axelrod’s personal oeuvre, it also followed in the footsteps of his literary and social-themed works of the late ’60s and his 1968 albums with (or perhaps, “as”) the Electric Prunes, Mass in F Minor and Release of an Oath. Taken in the retrospective stride of his full career, the album now feels less tethered to its 1971 theatrical contemporaries than to Axelrod’s long-running exploration of concept albums, jazz, soul and rock orchestration.

All four of those influences are heard here, with string arrangements that are as much Chicago soul as philharmonic concert hall, and full-kit drumming and fuzz guitars that reach back to his earlier experiments with psychedelia. The album was recorded with key Los Angeles sessions players, such as Carol Kaye, and features a 38-piece orchestra conducted by jazz legend (and Axelrod collaborator) Cannonball Adderley. Axelrod astutely observed that by 1971, rock music had developed album-oriented fans whose attention span was longer than the two-minutes-forty of AM radio hits, and that FM radio had developed listeners whose tastes spanned beyond pop music.

In contrast to his earlier instrumental work, and in deference to the piece being an oratorio, Axelrod arranged this with vocals, though sung in shades of soul and gospel that befit the era and arrangements, rather than with classical choruses. Axelrod interlaces electrically-orchestrated pieces with more strictly symphonic arrangements, such as “Pastoral Symphony,” lending the finished work the imprimatur of both rock and classical music. The set’s uncredited stars are its recitative leads, whose lead vocals give soul power to “And the Glory of the Lord,” “Behold” and “And the Angel Said Unto Them.”

There are moments of EL&P-like prog-rock, but the album’s bombast is mostly contained to the keystone “Hallelujah,” on which the backing gospel chorus melds with the familiar melody into a stagey declaration.  The closing “Worthy is the Lamb” brings the tone back on course. Real Gone’s reissue includes the album’s original nine tracks and no bonuses, housed in a gatefold mini-LP sleeve and featuring a six-page booklet with notes by Ritchie Unterberger. This is likely to be of interest primarily to Axelrod’s fans, though those interested in the early ‘70s God Rock phenomenon (and those who’ve enjoyed Andy Belling’s 1972 New Messiah or the more recent Messiah Rocks) should also find time for this one. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Johnny Cash: Bootleg Vol. IV – The Soul of Truth

Leave a reply

A saved Johnny Cash proclaims faith and salvation

This is the fourth volume in a series of official bootleg releases that document lesser-known material and previously unreleased recordings from the House of Cash studio in Hendersonville, TN. The 51-tracks focuses on Cash’s songs of faith from the 1970s and 80s, and collect the rare 1979 double-LP A Believer Sings the Truth, the withdrawn 1983 album Johnny Cash–Gospel Singer, and an unnamed, previously unreleased gospel album. Additional tracks are culled from 1984’s I Believe and, most important to collectors, is the inclusion of five previously unreleased session outtakes (disc 1, track 25 and disc 2 tracks 23-26). Cash is joined variously by his wife June, sisters-in-law Anita and Helen, daughters Rosanne and Cindy, and son-in-law Rodney Crowell, and the sessions are typically light and upbeat as Cash works through traditional hymns, folk songs and a few contemporary tunes, such as a Dixieland-tinged arrangement of Billy Joe Shaver’s “I’m an Old Chunk of Coal.” Cash sounds at peace with his life in these sessions – a saved man, rather than a sinner wrestling with dark temptations – and the mood is reflected in a clean production sound. If you’re looking for a tormented soul wrestling with his demons, check the back catalog, but if you want to hear a saved man proclaiming the fruits of his faith, this is a fine collection of testimony. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Frankie Avalon: Muscle Beach Party – The United Artist Sessions

Leave a reply

Frankie Avalon’s mid-60s sides for United Artists

Along with Bobby Rydell and Fabian, Frankie Avalon was one of the “Golden Boys of Bandstand” – handsome, talented teen idols whose appearances on the original Philadelphia-based American Bandstand provided a ticket to pop crooning stardom. Avalon’s biggest hits (including two chart-toppers, “Venus” and “Why”) were recorded for the Chancellor label from 1958 through 1960, but in that latter year he began an acting career that led to starring roles in a string of beach party movies, including 1964’s Muscle Beach Party. The beach party films innovated on the surf-theme of the Gidget series by adding original music, including songs by Avalon, his co-star Annette Funicello and guest stars that included Donna Loren.

Unlike today’s consolidated marketing, in which soundtracks are developed in parallel with a film’s marketing plan, actual soundtracks to the beach party films weren’t typically issued at the time. The only full soundtrack was Wand’s issue of How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, and a few film tracks turned up on Annette Funicello’s solo albums. Instead, Avalon, Funicello and Loren re-recorded songs from the films for their respective labels (Avalon for United Artists, to which he’d signed after leaving Chancellor, Funicello for Disney’s Buena Vista and Loren for Capitol), often in very different arrangements. Most notably, several songs sung as duets in the films were re-sung as solos on the artists’ respective albums.

In the case of Avalon’s 1964 Muscle Beach Party (Funicello released an album under the same title that year), the first side was dedicated to remakes of songs from Beach Party and Muscle Beach Party, while side two featured six additional film-related titles. Avalon’s remakes of the beach party music weren’t typically as interesting as the film originals; having developed himself into a nightclub singer, he was miscast singing ‘60s pop-rock, and it’s even more evident without Funicello to sweeten the up-tempo numbers. The remakes often had minimal arrangements, such as these title themes, in which Avalon croons to raucous rock ‘n’ roll guitar offset by nagging yeah-yeah-yeah background singers. The best fit from the film sessions is the ballad “A Boy Needs a Girl,” which points to the success of the album’s second side.

The album’s flip gives Avalon a chance to show what he does best: croon orchestrated pop ballads. With the tempos slowed and the arrangements given a bit of sophistication, you can hear Avalon relax into his Perry Como-influenced balladeering, and his sensitivity as an interpreter and the deeper qualities of his voice both become evident. This may not have been what the films’ teen fans were looking for, but they remain the productions most worth hearing. Highlights include a tender reading of “Days of Wine and Roses,” an intimate, melancholy take on “Moon River” and a dreamy version of “Again.”

Real Gone’s CD reissue augments the album’s original dozen tracks with eight bonuses culled from additional United Artists releases. Avalon’s post-beach party singles failed to crack the charts but included some fine songs and performances, with the Brill Building-flavored “Don’t Make Fun of Me” chief among them. A shoulda-been-a-hit written by Neil Sedaka’s partner Howard Greenfield with his sometime collaborator Helen Miller, the song finds Avalon playing a wounded ex-boyfriend with a melody and arrangement that bring to mind dramatic hits by the Shangri-Las, Leslie Gore and Gary Lewis. Avalon’s four tracks from the soundtrack of I’ll Take Sweden, including the film’s title theme, are lightweight but charming, and the B-side “New-Fangled, Jingle-Jangle Swimming Suit from Paris” provides a cute take-off on “Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.”

All tracks are listed as stereo, though “Every Girl Should Get Married” is indistinguishable from mono. Many are mixed in a super-wide soundstage that has instruments or vocals panned hard-left and -right. The disc is delivered in a two-panel cardboard sleeve with an eight-page booklet that includes liner notes from Tom Pickles, a reproduction of the Muscle Beach Party back cover and the front cover from I’ll Take Sweden. Also reproduced is the Muscle Beach Party cover photo without the credit overlay. If you haven’t heard Avalon’s Chancellor hits, start with Varese’s 25 All Time Greatest Hits, but if you’re already a fan, this is a most welcome look at his post-Chancellor recordings for United Artists. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Frankie Avalon’s Home Page

Carole King: Pearls – Songs of Goffin and King

Leave a reply

Legendary singer-songwriter revisits her catalog

Originally released in 1980, the last of four long-players King recorded for Capitol, this album is a hit-and-miss affair touched in several places by the slick studio sound of its era. The idea of having King revisit pearls in her songwriting catalog was a good one, but unlike Tapestry’s emotional reclaiming of “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?,” few of these renditions vastly improve on the earlier, better-known hits or provide revelatory insight into Goffin & King’s intentions. The album’s greatest commercial distinction was its single, a cover of the Chiffons’ “One Fine Day,” which gave King her last Top 40 hit, but the earthy power of her voice is compromised in several spots by smooth keyboards, studio-tuned tom-toms and bar band blues arrangements. Still, King gives emotionally fulfilling performances of Freddie Scott’s “Hey Girl,” Maxine Brown’s “Oh No, Not My Baby” and Blood, Sweat & Tears’ “Hi-De-Ho,” and thrives in a version of “Snow Queen” that weds The City’s original jazz groove to the Association’s vocal thickness. The closing cover of the Byrds’ “Goin’ Back” is truly superb, and shows just how easily King could reclaim her songs, as she’d done in bits and pieces on earlier records (e.g., “I Wasn’t Born to Follow” from Now That Everything’s Been Said, “Up on the Roof” from Writer and “Some Kind of Wonderful” from Music). Her first attempt to do so at album length pays some dividends, but isn’t the artistic triumph one might have hoped for. Rockingale Records (the label King founded in 2006) has returned this album to print in 2012 sans bonus tracks, and added an eight-page booklet that includes song lyrics and album artwork. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Carole King’s Home Page