Ray Charles was not only an iconic singer, songwriter and pianist, he was also a superb band leader and entertainer. And nowhere did these talents so fully magnify one another, and nowhere did the Genius so fully indulge the breadth of his musical mastery, than on stage. This 1964 date, recorded at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles was originally released as a 12-track LP in 1965 (and shouldn’t be confused with the 1973 LP Ray Charles Live, which anthologized late-50s performances). This CD reissue augments the original album with seven previously unreleased tracks, 24-bit remastering (by Bob Fisher at Pacific Multimedia), band credits (notably missing from the original release), full-panel black-and-white photos, and extensive liner notes from Bill Dahl.
Wally Heider’s original live recording is crisp and balanced, capturing the powerful attack and fine details of Charles, his band and the soloists. The show opens with the anticipatory instrumental “Swing a Little Taste,†stoked by MC Joe Adams, solos from Charles and David “Fathead†Newman, and crackling accents and flourished rolls by drummer Wilbert Hogan. Charles plays his organ cool while the band swings a deep Latin groove on “One Mint Julep,†and switches to piano to tease the audience with a few stylized bars of Beethoven’s “Fur Elise†before singing a blue, moaning introduction to kick off “I Got a Woman.†A two-part single of the latter track became a low-charting hit in 1965.
After stirring little U.S. chart interest with three albums with A& this Texas-bred duo discovered the song “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight†and ignited a run of hits on the Big Tree label. This, their first album for Big Tree, was their best and most commercially successful. The album’s title track just missed the pop chart’s top slot, but did hit #1 adult contemporary. The song’s writer, Parker McGee, also provided the album’s title track (and the duo’s second hit single). The remaining titles were written by the duo, alone, together and with a few select collaborators. Dan Seals’ later reinvention as a country artist is presaged here in the pedal steel and harmonies of “Westward Wind,†“Showboat Gambler,†and “Lady.â€
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.
With the success of the Jailbreak album earlier in the year, Thin Lizzy was poised for major stardom. Both the album and its key single, “The Boys Are Back in Town,†were commercial successes, and numerous album tracks had become turntable hits on FM and college radio. The band climbed the ranks from opener to headliner and was slated to go out in support of Richie Blackmore’s Rainbow, but just as they were to ascend to the major leagues of U.S. rock stardom, songwriter, lead vocalist and bassist Phil Lynott was bedridden with hepatitis. He continued to write as he recovered, but by the time the band recorded this follow-up album and commenced to touring, the steam heat of their commercial breakthrough had cooled.
The band had recorded Jailbreak under label and management pressure, but for the follow-up they recorded under the pressure of fame slipping through their fingers. Though the band plays well, and guitarists Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson further refined their twin-guitar sound, opinions are split as to whether the album was recorded too hurriedly. Gorham feels the sessions were rushed and that the songs weren’t all fully fleshed out by their final takes, while the band’s manager notes that the tour-record-tour-record treadmill was simply how it was done in the mid-70s. Sessions began at Munich’s Musicland Studio, as much for its tax advantages as its sound, but quickly relocated back to the same Ramport Studio where, together with producer John Alcock, the band had recorded Jailbreak.
Lynott doesn’t write directly of his illness and recuperation, but it’s clear that the months off the road led to deep introspection. “Fool’s Gold†casts the pursuit of illusory rewards in multiple settings, not least of which was the wild night life that landed Lynott in the hospital. A contemplation of the daily misery essayed in the news, and Lynott’s appraisal of his religious background led to “Massacre,†in which he questions, “if God is in the heavens / how can this happen here?†The album’s lyrics are often allusive, rather than direct, and the band’s sinewy bass punch is supplemented by heavy guitar solos. The album’s single, “Don’t Believe a Word†scored in the UK, but stiffed in the U.S., and though the album went gold, it failed to spark the excitement of Jailbreak. The resulting U.K. album tour was a success, but the U.S. leg was canceled after Brian Robertson was injured in a London bar fight.
As with Jailbreak, the quality of the recordings and the final mixes nagged Scott Gorham. On the second disc of this reissue, Gorham and Def Leppard’s Joe Elliot have reworked three of the album tracks, broadening the stereo image, clarifying the instrumental mix, pulling a few things into tune (notably, the horns on “Johnny the Fox Meets Jimmy the Weedâ€), and in one case (“Don’t Believe a Wordâ€), augmenting the guitars. Their intent was to “enhance them to the point where they sound like they were done in 2011,†which many will find a strange goal for an album that’s cherished for its representation of the mid-70s. Still, it’s clear that Gorham and Elliot feel there was something more to be had from the original session tapes, and the original mixes are safe and sound on disc one.
The Irish hard rock quartet Thin Lizzy hit their commercial peak with this 1976 release, capitalizing on the twin guitars of Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson, kicking off a string of four gold albums, and launching themselves onto the U.S. singles chart with Phil Lynott’s “The Boys Are Back in Town.†The album’s impact was far greater than its single’s success, with numerous tracks turned into turntable hits by FM radio, reiterated to this day on classic rock stations. Lynott was a triple threat as a soulful vocalist, powerful bass player and poetic song writer. His lyrics were both intricate in their imagery and memorable in their verbal hooks, and his melodies were rooted in ‘60s pop but hearty enough to stand up to the power of ‘70s guitar rock.
By 1976 it had been three years since Thin Lizzy had struck with “Whiskey in the Jar,†and in the album rock era, their previous five albums, though showing artistic growth, had made little impact on the market. 1975’s Fighting launched the power chords and heavy riffing that powered Jailbreak, but critical praise hadn’t turned into radio play or unit sales. Given one more chance by their label, they were assigned John Alcock as their nominal producer; Alcock showed the band how to record in a more disciplined and focused manner, and provided them the connection to the Who’s Ramport Studio in which Jailbreak was recorded. The result was the most popular album of the band’s career, but as detailed in the 20-page booklet, this wasn’t achieved without a certain amount of disagreement. Neither of the band’s guitarists liked the sound of the album, and Robertson felt “Running Back†was too pop and boycotted its sessions.
Gorham’s distaste for Alcock’s sound led him, along with Def Leppard’s Joe Elliot, to remix, remaster and in spots re-record album tracks for the bonus disc. Some will blanch at the liberties taken, including new rhythm guitar parts, rearranged backing vocals and redubbed sirens on the title track, but the new mixes do seem more powerful than the originals, and according to Elliot, better reflect what the band did with these songs on tour. The deluxe 20-page booklet includes new interviews with Gorham, detailing his deep disdain for the album’s original sound, and providing motivation for the remixes. The new mixes themselves generally thicken, refine and clarify what was on the tapes, but those weaned on the originals may find the larger alterations disconcerting.
Fresh transfer and remaster of Darlene Love’s best
With the Philles catalog now in the licensing hands of Sony Legacy and EMI, the fiftieth anniversary of the label’s 1961 founding is being celebrated with a new round of reissues. First out of the gate are remastered best-of collections for the Ronettes, Crystals, Darlene Love and Phil Spector. This 17-track Darlene Love collection proves that while Ronnie Spector (nee Veronica Bennett) may have been Spector’s greatest heartthrob, Darlene Love was his vocal MVP. As the lead vocalist on key singles by Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, the Blossoms (both under their own name, and as the West Coast version of the Crystals), and solo singles, not to mention her work with the Blossoms as go-to backing vocalists, Love’s voice was as important an element of the Wall of Sound as the Wrecking Crew’s drums, guitars, pianos and basses.
Fresh mono transfer and remaster of the Crystals’ best
The Crystals formed in 1961 with Barbara Alston as their lead singer. Quickly signed by Phil Spector for his brand new Philles label, they were the subject of the label’s very first single, first hit and first Top 20, “(There’s No Other) Like My Baby.†They struck gold again the following year with the Mann & Weil’s brilliant “Uptown†and reached #1 with Gene Pitney’s “He’s a Rebel.†Oddly, the latter single, the group’s only chart topper, was recorded by a completely different set of Crystals – Darlene Love and the Blossoms – than the one who’d first broken on the charts. The story has the original Crystals touring the East Coast at the moment the demanding Spector was ready to record in Los Angeles, and Love’s group was on hand.
The Love/Blossoms Crystals hit one more time, in 1963 with “He’s Sure the Boy I Love,†before the original group regained their name with “Da Doo Ron Ron,†“Then He Kissed Me,†and “I Wonder.†Well, sort of. “Da Doo Ron Ron†had been recorded by Darlene Love and the Blossoms, but Spector replaced her lead vocal with one by Lala Brooks, to whom Alston had ceded the lead vocal role in the Crystals’ stage show. The latter two singles also feature Brooks with Love and the Blossoms providing the backing vocals. The East Coast group split with Spector and Philles shortly thereafter, and amid additional personnel changes recorded a few more non-charting singles that failed to capture the thrills and grandeur of their hits.
Expanded reissue of snappy 1964 live date
