Category Archives: Reissue

Jefferson Airplane: Live at the Fillmore Auditorium 10/15/66 – Signe’s Farewell

Leave a reply

Jefferson Airplane takes its last flight with Signe Anderson

By October of 1966 the Jefferson Airplane had been together for a little over a year and had released their debut album, Takes Off. They had already become a finely-tuned live unit, and the key elements of their San Francisco Sound were almost all in place. What was yet to be added was the dynamic personality and vocals of Grace Slick, who would join the day after this live set bid farewell to the band’s original female vocalist, Signe Anderson. Anderson was officially a co-lead singer with Marty Balin, but as the band’s subsequent albums would show, she didn’t achieve the parity with Balin that Grace Slick would accomplish. It wasn’t for a lack of talent though, as her harmonizing with Balin and her lead vocal on “Chauffeur Blues” show just why she was invited to join the band in the first place.

This twelve-track set presents the late show from Bill Graham’s original Fillmore Auditorium, recorded on a night that many knew was Anderson’s last. Balin says farewell as he introduces Anderson for her signature song, and the album closes with Bill Graham and the crowd giving Anderson a last round of applause before she says goodbye. The group sent her out with a powerful set that mixes covers (“Tobacco Road,” “Fat Angel,” “Midnight Hour” and “High Flyin’ Bird”), originals from their debut (“Runnin’ ‘Round This World,” “Come Up the Years” and “And I Like It”), and originals that were yet to be recorded in the studio (“3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds” and “Go to Her”). The set shows how easily the band moved back and forth between the concise arrangements of their debut album and the lengthy jams that defined the San Francisco ballroom scene.

Opening with the 9-minute improvisational “Jam,” the live Airplane immediately proved themselves a different band than the one who’d dropped their debut album two months earlier. The folk roots of their first studio work were replaced on stage by harder electric psychedelia, evident in their conversion of “High Flyin’ Bird” from sultry folk-rock to an electric blues-rock wail. The addition of Grace Slick the following night (and the material she’d bring from the Great Society) would further change the band, but you can already hear the evolution in progress here, particularly in the freedom of Balin’s vocals and the instrumental explorations of Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady. Collectors’ Choice documents the band’s full transition with the following night’s set (Grace’s Debut) and a set recorded six weeks later (We Have Ignition), right after the band had waxed Surrealistic Pillow.

Airplane fans haven’t ever really been wanting for live material, with Bless Its Pointed Little Head and Thirty Seconds Over Winterland released during the years of the group’s ascension, and archival recordings Sweeping up the Spotlight Live at the Fillmore East, At Golden Gate Park, Last Flight released over the past few years, and numerous bootlegs circulating among collectors. But this first official issue of a pre-Grace Slick live recording is a welcome addition to the catalog, documenting the Airplane’s initial formation, showing Signe Anderson to be a terrific foil for Marty Balin (her background wails on “Tobacco Road” truly elevate the performance), and proving the band’s San Francisco sound – missing from their debut album – was firmly entrenched in their live performances early on. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Dave Brubeck: The Definitive Dave Brubeck on Fantasy, Concord Jazz and Telarc

Leave a reply

Highlights from Brubeck’s pre- and post-Columbia years

By collecting early ‘50s sides waxed for Fantasy and post-70s sides laid down for Concord and Telarc, this two-disc set tells the story of pianist Dave Brubeck before and after his more famous time at Columbia. The selections taste his earliest work with an octet, trio work with Cal Tjader and Ron Crotty, and his initial liaisons with saxophonist Paul Desmond. It skips the seminal quartet formed with Desmond, Joe Morello and Eugene Wright, and rejoins Brubeck in the early 80s in a group with his son Chris on electric bass and bass trombone. Though the original versions of Brubeck hits “Take Five” and “Blue Rondo Ala Turk,” aren’t here, the distinctive elements – Brubeck’s blocky chords (magnificently played with competing hands on “Look for the Silver Lining” and chasing one another up and down the keyboard on “This Can’t Be Love”), Desmond’s brilliant tone, and the exploration of percussive arrangements and unusual time signatures – are all heard early on.

The later sessions find Brubeck rejoined by clarinetist (and original octet member) Bill Smith, and later by alto sax player Bobby Miltello. It’s hard to call this set “definitive,” given that many of the full source albums are in print, but it’s a good introduction for those who know Brubeck’s iconic Columbia releases and have never delved into his earlier catalog. His response to Tjader’s vibes is particularly interesting, as they’re both playing percussive melody instruments – something absent from the more famous quartet. This set also provides an opportunity to hear the directions Brubeck took as an elder statesman with a literal next generation of players. A selection of live tracks show how Brubeck, Desmond and the other players lit up in front of an audience (this is even more evident on  the 50th anniversary reissue of Time Out). The twenty-page booklet includes discographical data, photos, cover and label reproductions, and extensive liner notes by Brubeck’s longtime manager/producer/conductor (and this set’s curator), Russell Gloyd. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Dave Brubeck’s Home Page

Billy Joel: The Hits

Leave a reply

19 hits and favorites from 23 years of music making

In prelude to a thorough reissue of his album catalog, Billy Joel is celebrated on this first-ever career-spanning domestic single disc anthology. Joel’s catalog has been excerpted more fully on the three-disc Greatest Hits series [1 2] and multidisc sets Essential and Complete Hits, but this is the first time his lengthy catalog has been condensed to a single U.S. CD. The nineteen tracks provide a compact tour through twenty-three years of music-making, selecting recordings from every Joel album from 1971’s Cold Spring Harbor through 1993’s River of Dreams. The selections mostly follow his hit-making, though the inclusion of the non-single “Everybody Loves You Now” and the non-charting “New York State of Mind” helps flesh out the hit-maker’s further identity as an album artist. This isn’t a complete recitation of even Joel’s biggest hits – “Just the Way You Are” and “Uptown Girl” are missing, the latter perhaps a victim of divorce – but it’s a musically satisfying 80-minute tour through a rich catalog of hit singles and multiplatinum albums. Radio and concert favorites like “Piano Man,” “Only the Good Die Young,” “Big Shot,” “You May Be Right,” “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” and “We Didn’t Start the Fire” will give Joel’s fans a charge and provide a great introduction to those who didn’t live through his hit-making years. Joel’s fascination with ‘60s doo-wop is heard in “The Longest Time” and his affection for Brill Building pop is lovingly evoked by the Ronettes-styled “Say Goodbye to Hollywood.” This is a good buy at a great price for those new to Joel’s catalog, especially if you’re not ready to pay for a multi-disc set. This collection fills a niche for newcomers; fans will have to wait for the album reissues to get their hands on rarities and previously unreleased tracks. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Billy Joel’s Home Page

The Cuff Links: Tracy

Leave a reply

The Archies’ Ron Dante sings sweet bubblegum pop as the Cuff Links

Vocalist Ron Dante is the American version of British studio singer Tony Burrows. Though he didn’t duplicate Burrows’ feat of charting hit singles as the lead singer of four different groups in a single year (Edison Lighthouse, White Plains, Pipkins, Brotherhood of Man, all in 1970), Dante’s singing was nearly as ubiquitous. His first brush with fame came with the novelty single “Leader of the Laundromat,” by the Detergents, and he was widely heard singing the famous “you deserve a break today” jingle for McDonald’s. But his biggest score was as the lead singer of the Archies, minting the single-of-the-year (and the national anthem of the bubblegum world), “Sugar, Sugar.” In parallel with the Archies’ ride on the charts, Dante re-teamed with Detergents’ songwriter-producers Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss and cooked up this album under the Cuff Links banner.

The Cuff Links were, like Tony Burrows’ “bands,” a studio concoction rather than a working group. Dante provided both lead and brilliantly arranged backing voices, and as on the Archies’ records, went uncredited. Though he recorded a solo album in 1970, his first real claim to named fame came a few years later as the producer of many Barry Manilow hit records, and later as an award-winning Broadway producer. His anonymous work with the Detergents, Archies and Cuff Links has been sporadically anthologized and reissued over the years, focusing mostly on the hit singles; this CD release reintroduces the Cuff Links first album back to the market, adding a handful of singles drawn from the group’s still-unissued second album, and several more bonuses.

The album is a by-product of the effervescent single “Tracy,” which became a hit just as the Archies’ “Sugar, Sugar” started to fade on the charts. The album was recorded quickly to capitalize on the single’s success, but with songs drawn from Vance and Pockriss’ catalog of co-writes, plus a pair of well selected covers, it’s a great deal more solid than the short time in the studio would suggest. Rupert Holmes (who would later hit with “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)”) was brought in to arrange the strings, and his simple lines perfectly complement Dante’s overlaid vocals. The bubbly tone of the title track is balanced by wistful tunes, including the moving antiwar sentiments of “All the Young Women,” the Left Banke-styled nostalgia of “I Remember,” and the autumnal lost-love B-side “Where Do You Go?”

The two cover songs are given nice twists, with a catchy organ riff and memorable call-and-response vocals on “Put a Little Love in Your Heart,” and an effective Burt Bacharach-styled treatment of Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.” The songs run deeper than comparable bubblegum tunes written expressly for the pre-teen crowd, but their melodies remain hummable, and the lyrics catchy. Like the music that came out of Don Kirshner’s world, the craft here is superb – just listen how the album’s second single, “When Julie Comes Around,” builds masterfully from a tense organ and drum opening into a perfect mix of electric and acoustic guitars and then builds into a joyous melody in parallel with the lyrics turn from loneliness to happiness; the transitions back and forth between desperation and elation are handled just as perfectly as the song finally plays itself out with a smile.

With the single a hit and the album edging onto the charts, the producers assembled a road band, but Dante declined to tour and vocalist Joe Cord took his place. For the self-titled follow-up album, Dante and Cord split the lead vocals. The album’s first three bonus tracks are drawn from the second album’s singles, “Run Sally Run” (in mono), “Robin’s World” and “Thank You Pretty Baby” (also in mono). The first of the three has a hurried tempo, the second is a terrifically relaxed piece of mid-tempo sunshine pop, and the latter a catchy staccato vocal pop production. Of the three remaining bonus tracks (all in mono), “The Kiss,” “All Because of You,” and “Wake Up Judy,” the middle one was the group’s last single on Decca. The other two are unexplained in John Purdue’s otherwise detailed liner notes. If you love sunshine and bubblegum pop, snap this one up before it goes out of print again! [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Ron Dante’s Home Page
The Cuff Links’ Home Page

The Cuff Links touring band:

Elvis Presley: Viva Elvis – The Album

Leave a reply

Modern reconstructions of Elvis to love or hate

No doubt some will take to these reconstructions of famous Elvis Presley songs, while others will feel they’re bastardizations on par with Ted Turner’s colorization of movies. The truth lies somewhere in between. Presley’s iconic vocals have been lifted and recontextualized in modern arrangements augmented with new instrumental performances. The results are a great deal more radical than George and Giles Martin’s mashups of the Beatles catalog for Love. At times the rhythms will remind you of the monotonous dance floor beats of the Stars on 45 medleys, and Brendan O’Brien’s overbearing remake of “That’s Alright” borrows its dominant riff from Katrina and the Wave’s “Walking on Sunshine.”

Unlike Love, this feels less like a celebration than a tortured attempt to make Elvis relevant to twenty-first century ears. The shame of it is that Elvis’ original recordings still hold the magic laid into them fifty years ago, and much of what makes them special is lost in these translations. The contrast of hillbilly guitars and burning vocals is buried under mounds of modern studio sounds that compete with rather than amplify Elvis’ preternatural ferocity. Casting “Heartbreak Hotel” into a delta blues might be an interesting trick if the producer (O’Brien again) trusted listeners to stay entertained without adding sizzling Vegas horns. But he can’t help himself, or perhaps he can’t escape the live show’s demands. Serban Ghenea’s hyperbolic reworking of “Blue Suede Shoes” suffers the same fate, overwhelming both Elvis and the listener with studio pyrotechnics that are distracting rather than energizing.

The acoustic arrangement given “Love Me Tender” momentarily drops the album’s bombast, but Dea Norberg’s duet vocal doesn’t stand up to Elvis’ original. It’s not impossible to overlay an inspiring duet on Elvis – Celine Dion did so in a video performance of “If I Can Dream,” for example – but this is the wrong song and the arrangement is too sedate. Shelly St.-Germain fares better on “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” though the arrangement’s percussion distracts with its busyness. If you’ve been asking yourself “what would Elvis sound like if he were recording with a modern chart act,” perhaps these reworkings will help you imagine the answer. But even those few tracks that retain some of the originals’ joyousness, such as “Bossa Nova Baby,” fall to the disc’s hyperkinetic overdrive.

What might interest Elvis fans are the odd bits of continuity – studio dialog, radio announcers, film clips – used as production edgings. But unlike the rearranged instrumental lines of Love, these tracks are too radically reconstructed to play “where’d that come from?” No doubt this works well as a soundtrack to the live show; enjoyed in the round and visualized by circus acts, the CD will make a nice souvenir. But as a standalone offering it begs the question: why listen to someone else’s subtle-as-a-flying-mallet reconstructions when the heart of rock ‘n’ roll is still beating in the easily obtainable originals? [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Albert King with Stevie Ray Vaughan: In Session

Leave a reply

Superb meeting of two blues guitar legends with added DVD

This 1983 live performance summit meeting between a legend and a soon-to-be legend has been reissued a few times on CD, including a hybrid SACD in 2003 and a remastered CD edition in July 2010. This latest version augments the original eleven audio tracks with video of seven performances, adding “Born Under a Bad Sign,” “Texas Flood” and “I’m Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town” to the song list. At the time this pair met in a Canadian TV studio, Vaughan was blazing a trail into the blues world with his debut album, Texas Flood. King was long since a legend, and though he apparently didn’t recognize the name “Vaughan,” he immediately recognized the young guitarist who’d sat in with him whenever he played in Austin.

The video dimension turns this session into a master class for both Vaughan and the viewer. Vaughan is seen soaking up lessons from King’s guitar playing, stage manner and the verbal notes he provides between songs. What was previously a musical conversation now becomes a visual one as well. King is often seen marveling – almost in surprise – at Vaughan’s playing, and Vaughan’s expressions capture the joy he feels in so clearly making the grade. Without a live audience, the two bluesmen play for each other and for the blues. The ease of King’s play, the naturalness with which the guitar forms an extension to his soul is awe inspiring. The snippets of dialogue between the CD’s tracks have always shown the personal bond that complemented the guitar slingers’ artistic connection, but the visuals shed new light on the deep affection they clearly have for one another.

King and Vaughan are backed by the former’s tack sharp road band, and run through a set drawn mostly from King’s catalog. You can hear what was on the horizon, though, as Vaughan rips into his own “Pride and Joy” with monster tone and a gutsy vocal. Throughout the session the players trade licks and prod each other with solos that quote all the great players from whom they learned. King’s influence is clear in Vaughan’s playing, but hearing them side-by-side gives listeners an opportunity to hear how the same fundamentals change as they filter through different fingers and hardware. As Samuel Charters points out in one of the three sets of liner notes, Albert King fans will particularly savor the rare opportunity to hear and see him play rhythm guitar. The audio does a nice job of keeping their guitars separated slightly left and right, and the video lets you see exactly who’s playing what.

As free as both guitarists play, the band, the catalog, and the deference Vaughan shows King all tipped in favor of the latter setting the tempos, leading with his guitar and providing lessons and advice between songs. In any other venue Vaughan would be the master, but here he plays the role of apprentice. How many chances do you get to play with someone who can introduce “Blues at Sunrise” with “This is that thing, uh, I recorded with Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin out there at the Fillmore West”? It was a good time to be the apprentice, and the addition of songs originally cut from the broadcast (to make room for commercials) notches this package up to five stars. Anyone who loves King, Vaughan or great blues guitar should catch this. [©2010hyperbolium dot com]

The Heats: Have an Idea

Leave a reply

Stellar power pop album, mediocre re-mastering

The Heats may be the best power pop band that most power pop fans have never heard. They peaked between the 1970s wave of AM radio pop and its 1980s underground echo, playing Seattle clubs and gaining regional college radio attention. Their lone LP, 1980’s Have an Idea, was produced by Heart’s Howard Leese and released on their managers’ Albatross label to local fanfare but no national attention. It sold 15,000 copies and failed to garner the band a major label deal. The thirteen original songs, including a remake of the catchy single “I Don’t Like Your Face,” are filled with the influences of the Beatles, Big Star, Tom Petty, and Dwight Twilley, and the singing of guitarists Steve Pearson and Don Short borrows some fine harmonies from the Everly Brothers.

This Japanese reissue of the original album was produced from sources that are inferior to the original vinyl pressing (and thus to the original master tapes). The high end is missing, shaving off the keening edges of the voices, guitars, drums, and cymbals, and sounding as if this was played through a radio. Much of this material was reissued in better fidelity on 1998’s Smoke, but this is the first CD to include the original album track “Questions Questions” and the correct album takes/edits of “Ordinary Girls,” “I Don’t Like Your Face” and “She Don’t Mind.” The four bonus songs, “Let’s All Smoke,” “Rivals,” “Count on Me,” and “In Your Town,” are great additions to the original album tracks.

Hats off to Air Mail for having the taste to reissue this album, for digging up superb bonus material (particularly the Flamin’ Groovies’-styled “Count on Me”), and for including the original front and back covers; it’s a shame they couldn’t come up with a better audio source. That said, it’s a mark of just how good this album is that even in lesser fidelity, the music’s chiming charms still shine. At import prices, most listeners will be better off with the near-complete Smoke, but fans will either need to track down an original vinyl copy, or make do with the listenable-but-less-than-ideal sound offered here. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Shoes: Tongue Twister

Leave a reply

Power pop band’s second album for Elektra

Having taught themselves to record in a home studio, Zion, Illinois’ Shoes produced three full albums on their own, including the “debut” Black Vinyl Shoes that led to their signing with Elektra. Their first outing for the major label, 1979’s Present Tense took them to the UK to co-produce with engineer Mike Stone. The results traded some of the band’s urgency and living room winsomeness for the polish and manicure a real studio allows. The singing, playing, melodies and lyrics, including a remake of “Tomorrow Night,” were terrific, but the fuller studio sound, which had been artfully compressed on their earlier 4-track recordings, gave away some of the band’s mystery.

For their second album with Elektra the band worked with Richard Dashut, who seemed to understand what differentiated Shoes from their peers. He kept the articulation of their previous outing, but dialed back the tendency to lay more studio sound into the final productions than a 4-track would have allowed; the guitars and drums are kept from being too big or stepping too far forward. The absence of keyboards (the buzzing solo of “The Things You Do” was actually played on a processed guitar), keeps this album from falling into the dated sound of the band’s peers’ contemporaneous efforts. The songs are just as hook-filled as those in the earlier catalog, and the vocals and harmonies are memorable.

Air Mail’s reissue augments the album’s original dozen cuts with four bonuses, “Jet Set,” “Laugh it Off,” “Imagination du Jour,” and “A Voice Inside Me.” The mini-LP cardboard jacket reproduces the original album covers, front and back, and the Japanese-language insert is supplemented by a mini-inner sleeve that includes a microscopic reproduction of the original lyric sheet. This is the sort of deluxe reissue that Shoes’ music deserves, making it a more precious collectors’ item than the original two-fer, though not offering up the demo dimension of 2007’s Double Exposure. Air Mail Records has also reissued mini-LP CD versions of Shoes’ two other Elektra releases, Present Tense and Boomerang, but with all three having become collectors’ items of their own, your pocket book is better off nabbing the albums in MP3 form [1 2]. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Roy Clark: The Last Word in Jesus is Us

Leave a reply

Reissue of Clark’s 1981 album of gospel and country faith

Roy Clark’s worn a number of hats during his career. He’s been an ace guitar and banjo picker, a national television star (both on Hee-Haw and as a guest host for Johnny Carson), a country and pop hit maker, a pioneer in the Branson theater scene, and a member of both the Grand Ole Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame. Lesser known is his work in singing gospel and songs of faith. His 1971 release The Magnificent Sanctuary Band cracked the Top 40, and though he dropped the occasional album track like “Life’s Railway to Heaven” and “Dear God,” it was ten more years before he released a second new album of praise, 1981’s The Last Word in Jesus is Us.

Varese new CD collects all ten tracks of the 1981 album and adds three from the 1971 release. The song list combines traditional hymns (“Just a Closer Walk with Thee,” “Onward Christian Soldiers” and a wonderfully blue reading of “Peace in the Valley”) with contemporary tunes by Nashville songwriters. The sentiments include traditional bible stories, testimonies of faith, and contemplations of Jesus’ place in contemporary society. Bobby Braddock’s “Would They Love Him Down in Shreveport” highlights the un-Christian nature of prejudice and Bobby Goldsboro’s “Come Back Home” anticipates the savior’s deliverance from hate.

The productions have the clean Nashville sound of the 1970s, with the ‘80s only peeking through in the guitar of “Heaven Bound.” The three selections from 1971 are earthier, with “Wait a Little Longer, Please Jesus” adding harmonica, Roy Nichols-styled guitar riffs, and a Western edge. The Jordanaires provide their typically fine backing vocals, augmented by the female voice of Wendy Suits. Eight of the ten album tracks (along with two of the bonuses from 1971) were included on Time-Life’s out-of-print Gospel Songs of the Strength, but this is the first reproduction of the full 1981 release, and a welcome addition to the Roy Clark digital catalog. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Roy Clark’s Home Page

Dave Brubeck: The Definitive Dave Brubeck on Fantasy, Concord Jazz and Telarc

Leave a reply

Highlights from Brubeck’s pre- and post-Columbia years

By collecting early ‘50s sides waxed for Fantasy and post-70s sides laid down for Concord and Telarc, this two-disc set tells the story of Brubeck before and after his time at Columbia. The selections taste his earliest work with an octet, trio work with Cal Tjader and Ron Crotty, and his initial liaisons with saxophonist Paul Desmond. It skips the seminal quartet formed with Joe Morello and Eugene Wright, and rejoins Brubeck in the early 80s in a group that included his son Chris on electric bass and bass trombone. Though the original versions of Brubeck hits “Take Five” and “Blue Rondo Ala Turk,” aren’t here, the distinctive elements – Brubeck’s blocky chords (magnificently played with competing hands on “Look for the Silver Lining” and chasing one another up and down the keyboard on “This Can’t Be Love”), Desmond’s brilliant tone, and the exploration of percussive arrangements and unusual time signatures – are all heard both early on.

The later sessions find Brubeck rejoined by clarinetist (and original octet member) Bill Smith, and later by alto sax player Bobby Miltello. It’s hard to call this set “definitive,” given that many of the full source albums are in print, but it’s a good introduction for those who know Brubeck’s iconic Columbia releases and have never delved into his earlier catalog. His response to Tjader’s vibes is particularly interesting, as they’re both playing percussive melody instruments – something absent from the more famous quartet. This set also provides an opportunity to hear the directions Brubeck took as an elder statesman with a literal next generation of players. A selection of live tracks show how Brubeck, Desmond and the other players lit up in front of an audience (this is even more evident on  the 50th anniversary reissue of Time Out). The twenty-page booklet includes discographical data, photos, cover and label reproductions, and extensive liner notes by Brubeck’s longtime manager/producer/conductor (and this set’s curator), Russell Gloyd. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Dave Brubeck’s Home Page