Category Archives: Reissue

Waylon Jennings: Love of the Common People / Hangin’ On

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Transitional mid-60s albums from Waylon Jennings

This pair of RCA albums, Love of the Common People from 1967 and Hangin’ On from 1968, finds Waylon Jennings in an artistic middle-ground between earlier work controlled by RCA staff producers and his later independence. Producer Chet Atkins still keeps the tempos and volume staid, the production clean and the backing choruses smooth, but Jennings pushes on the instrumentation and song choices, and often sings with a huskier, more emotive voice than previously heard. Though the approach has its successes, in many cases it’s neither fish nor fowl; neither the carefully manicured sound of Atkins, nor the free-style rock-energized country of Jennings’ outlaw period.

Love of the Common People didn’t launch any hit singles, though there were several tracks that could have been successful. The B-side title song has a rich history, having been recorded as pop, R&B, reggae and brought to its greatest prominence as synthpop by Paul Young in the 1980s. The lyric of poverty, family, hope and faith is lifted higher and higher by four key modulations and memorable horn stabs. Mel Tillis’ “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town” would be a worldwide for Kenny Rogers, but here it’s misproduced with a sprightly acoustic guitar and cooing female chorus that fail to convey the lyric’s heartbreaking desperation. There are many fine album sides, including Jim Glaser’s clear-eyed opener “Money Cannot Make the Man,” Jennings late-50s composition “Young Widow Brown,” and Ted Harris’ wounded folk-song, “The Road.” Jennings oversings the Beatles’ “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” and the saccharine pop chorus on “Don’t Waste Your Time” suggests why he had to get out of Chet Atkins’ grip.

Hangin’ On gave Jennings his biggest single to-date with Harlan Howard’s “The Chokin’ Kind,” setting up a string of five Top 10’s stretching through 1968. The version that was released to the public was actually a re-recording, waxed after Jennings expressed his displeasure with the Harlan Howard/Jerry Reed produced original. The original version was released decades later on Bear Family’s The Journey: Destiny’s Child. With each album Jennings’ artistic convictions were getting stronger, as the broad range of material recorded here indicates. Songs from Roy Orbison, Bobby Bare and Roger Miller are complemented by little-known originals. Orbison’s “The Crowd” retains its overwrought operatic drama and sounds more like an Orbison cover rather than a Jennings performance, but Jennings’ own “Julie” provides a subtle flipside to Porter Waggoner’s “Rubber Room” in its portrait of self-inflicted romantic destruction and madness.

Love of the Common People was reissued by Buddha in 1999, but has been available only for digital download the past few years. The original CD reissue’s bonus track “Walk on Out of My Mind” is dropped from this two-fer. Hangin’ On makes its domestic CD debut here. Collectors’ Choice’s two-fer includes an eight-page booklet with full-panel reproductions of both album covers – front and back – and new liner notes by Colin Escott. You can find this same material, and a whole lot more, on Bear Family’s The Journey: Destiny’s Child, but unless you’re planning to soak up Jennings’ entire catalog, this domestic two-fer is the best way to introduce yourself to Jennings’ pre-outlaw years. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Waylon Jennings: Folk Country / Waylon Sings Ol’ Harlan

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Superb early RCA Waylon Jennings two-fer

Much is made of Waylon Jennings’ declaration of artistic independence and the outlaw country movement that flowed from it, but his company-produced pre-outlaw albums for RCA hold many charms of their own. Recording with both his own band and Nashville studio pros, and often backed by a female chorus, the music hasn’t the earthier charms of his later work, but his voice held a youthful innocence yet to be tinged by rebellion, and his songs, from Nashville songwriters and his own pen, are often memorable. Collectors’ Choice’s two-fer pairs his 1966 RCA debut Folk Country with his fourth RCA album, 1967’s Waylon Sings Ol’ Harlan.

The first of the two includes the chart hits, “Stop the World (and Let Me Off)” and Jennings’ original “That’s the Chance I’ll Have to Take.” Harlan Howard and Don Bowman provide the bulk of the album’s non-originals, with Jennings crooning through a broken heart on the former’s “Another Bridge to Burn” and stridently demanding attention on the latter’s “I Don’t Mind.” Producer Atkins gives the country a folky edge with touches of 12-string, tambourine and harmonica. Jennings may have come to feel that Nashville’s studio productions were a straightjacket, but at this early point in his career he really digs in and makes the best of what’s offered to him.

The two-fer’s second album highlights Jennings’ affinity for the works of Harlan Howard with a dozen works from the legendary songwriter’s catalog. A few of these songs were already iconic hits for Ray Price, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles and Buck Owens, but Howard’s writing is sufficiently rich to warrant multiple interpretations. Jennings takes “Heartaches by the Number” upbeat with twangy guitars that provide a more bemused outlook than Price’s sorrowful 1959 single. His take on “Busted” is not as spare as Cash’s nor as jazzy as Charles’ versions, “Foolin’ Around” is fuller than Buck Owens’ 1962 version, and “Tiger by the Tail” crosses Owens’ original with the rhythm of Johnny Rivers’ cover of “Memphis.” Waylon Sings Ol’ Harlan didn’t launch any hits, though Charlie Rich would score with “She Called Me Baby” seven years later and other tunes were recorded by everyone from Wynn Stewart to the Kingston Trio.

Both albums feature enthusiastic vocals by Jennings and the high-fidelity recording of RCA’s Nashville studio. Folk Country was reissued in 1998 by Razor & Tie but has been out of print for several years. Waylon Sings Ol’ Harlan makes its domestic CD debut here. Collectors’ Choice’s two-fer includes an eight-page booklet with full-panel reproductions of both album covers – front and back – and new liner notes by Colin Escott. You can find this same material (and a whole lot more) on Bear Family’s The Journey: Destiny’s Child, but unless you’re planning to soak up Jennings’ entire catalog, this domestic two-fer is the best way to introduce yourself to Jennings’ pre-outlaw years. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Elvis Presley: Elvis 75

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Career spanning single CD skims the surface of Elvis’ greatness

This single CD, issued in celebration of Elvis Presley’s 75th birthday anniversary, includes twenty-five tracks selected from the more thorough 4-CD Elvis 75 Good Rockin’ Tonight. Much like the box set, this disc covers the length of Elvis’ career, including early sides for Sun, incendiary rock ‘n’ ‘roll for RCA, hits from the movies, post-Army comebacks, gospel, late-60s Memphis gems, live performances and later studio work from 1972. Unlike the box set, you’ll miss his pre-Sun acetate and his post-72 recordings. More importantly, each phase of Elvis’ career gets only one or a few cuts here, and the lesser known tracks that provide compelling context in the box set are dropped.

Obviously, a career as rich as Elvis Presley’s can’t be summed up in a single disc. Even his Top 10 hits won’t fit on a single CD, and there’s so much material beyond the charts that a fair hearing of the King’s catalog really takes multiple discs or sets. 30 #1 Hits painted a picture of Presley’s career through a recitation of his best-known hits; it’s a fair summary, as is the broader 2-1/2 CD Essential 3.0. But none of these short collections, this one included, provide enough depth on Elvis’ innovations, failures and resurgences to really essay the full arc of his career. A single disc such as this can serve as a map to an artist’s career, but it’s no substitute for a more thorough hearing.

What’s here is fantastic. From the early rave-up of Arthur “Big Boy” Cruddup’s “That’s All Right” through the deeply-felt “Always On My Mind,” Elvis is nothing less than brilliant. The disc is nicely programmed and plays well, but with so few tracks to provide context, you’ll have to figure out for yourself how Elvis got from “Viva Las Vegas” to “How Great Thou Art.” If you want to dig deeper, seek out the 4-CD box, or sets that survey his 50s, 60s and 70s masters, soundtracks, sessions at Sun and American Studios, his ’68 comeback special, and his numerous live recordings.

The disc is delivered in a two-section digipack featuring a pair of full-panel Presley photos. The 16-page booklet includes a short biographical essay by Billy Altman (seemingly excerpted from his much longer essay in the box set), additional photos, and recording and chart data. If you think you only need one disc of Elvis Presley’s music, this isn’t a bad place to get an earful, but be forewarned that it’s a gateway to a large catalog that you may find yourself unable to resist. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Los Bravos: Black is Black

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The debut album behind the ‘60s Spanish one-hit wonder

Los Bravos is one of the more unlikelier stories of the 1960s Top 40, breaking out of Spain with a German lead singer to achieve U.S. one-hit wonder status with the #4 “Black is Black” in 1966. The single, along with their debut album, features the Gene Pitney-like vocals of Michael Kogel and horn-heavy, soul-influenced pop that owes more to 1960s New York R&B than the British Invasion then winding down its sweep of the world’s stage. From their sound, you’d be hard-pressed to place this band as German and Spanish in origin. The group had a second hit in the UK with “I Don’t Care” (included here), and a follow-up album, Bring a Little Lovin’, whose Vanda & Young-penned title single (not included here) failed to crack the Top 40. The group never really regained their footing on the U.S. or international charts. Their debut has no other songs that compare with the catchiness and drive of the iconic hit, though Kogel’s vocals add punch to “Trapped” and “I Want a Name,” and “I Don’t Care,” suggest the operatic verve of Jay Black. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Dick Dale: King of the Surf Guitar

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Dale’s second album dilutes the guitar sting of his debut

Dick Dale’s second album was his first to be issued on the Capitol label, and though his guitar playing is solid (as is his saxophonist’s), the song selection isn’t as inspiring as his debut, Surfer’s Choice. The Blossoms, featuring Darlene Love, back Dale on the title track and the guitarist sings lead on “Kansas City,” “Dick Dale Stomp,” and several other tracks. The covers include R&B, Soul, Folk, Country and International tunes that aren’t always the best showcase for Dale’s immense instrumental talent. Or at least they’re not always arranged to leave space for his guitar. The second half of the album offers more charms, with staccato flat-picked shredding on “Hava Nagela” and “Riders in the Sky,” fancy picking on “Mexico” and a low twangy groove on “Break Time.” Sundazed’s CD reissue adds two bonus tracks, both instrumentals that offer up samplings of Dale’s six-string craft, but on balance there’s more singing and sax than belongs on an album titled “King of the Surf Guitar.” This album leaves you wanting more of Dale’s picking, which just might have been the idea at the time. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

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Various Artists: Radio Hits of the 60s

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Terrific collection of AM radio’s highly varied legacy

Rather than picking an artist or label or scene or sound, Legacy’s pulled together thirteen original hit recordings that show the range of music that AM radio brought to its listeners. Collected here is New Orleans R&B (“Ya Ya,” 1961 and “Working in the Coal Mine,” 1966), Dixieland Jazz (“Washington Square,” 1963), Easy Listening (“A Fool Never Learns,” 1964), Folk Pop and Rock (“We’ll Sing in the Sunshine,” 1964 and “In the Year 2525,” 1969), Garage Punk (“Little Girl,” 1966), Soul (“I’m Your Puppet,” 1966 and “Cherry Hill Park,” 1969), Bubblegum (“Simon Says,” 1968), Trad Jazz Vocal (“The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde,” 1968), and Vocal Pop (“Worst That Could Happen,” 1969).

Even within these individual songs you can often hear more than one genre exerting its influence, such as the steel guitar and horns that provide accents to the superb pop production of Merrilee Rush’s “Angel of the Morning.” In this day of highly balkanized music channels and individually programmed MP3 playlists, it’s hard to imagine such variety inhabiting a single mass-market playlist, but that was part of AM radio’s power to attract and keep a broad swath of listeners. Playing this collection will remind you how good record and radio people were at picking and making hits – the winnowing process disenfranchised many, but what got through the sieves, particularly what got to the top of the charts, was often highly memorable.

Legacy’s disc clocks in at a slim 35 minutes, but what’s here is a terrifically nostalgic spin whose songs stand up to repeated listening forty-plus years later. True, Andy Williams’ “A Fool Never Learns” might wear out its welcome before the other tracks, but it’s part and parcel of the ebb and flow of 1960s AM radio. This set isn’t meant to be an all-inclusive compilation of any one thing in particular, but a reminder of the breadth that once graced individual radio stations across the land. There was a unity to AM radio’s audience that’s been replace by the free choice of the empowered individual. That personalization carries with it many benefits, but the range of this set may remind you of what’s also been lost. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Various Artists: ’60s Indie Garage

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Rich collection of mostly original mid-60s garage-rock obscurities

You know you’re in for an interesting ride when a compilation begins with an obscure single, “Lady Greengrass” (and it’s flipside “Love of Mine”), by a pre-Tangerine Dream light-psych incarnation called The Ones, from a 7” single that sported the legend “Music for Hippies.” There are a few better known garage items, like the Litter’s “Action Woman,” and E-Types “Put the Clock Back on the Wall,” but most of these cuts are obscure to all but completist collectors of Nuggets, Pebbles and Boulders compilations or the original 45s from which they’re made. You’ll hear lots of fuzztone and reverbed guitars, whining Farfisa, badly recorded drums, tambourine, frat-rock dance beats, and vocals that range from snotty and bored to loud and confrontational. Tracks by the Shadows of Knight’s (“Gloria”) and the Mojo Men (“She’s My Baby”) aren’t the original single versions – though they may be period alternates, and Blue Cheer’s bombastic “Summertime Blues” doesn’t really belong here. Audio quality is good (though, of course, the original records weren’t always great to begin with) and the transcriptions seem to have been cleaned up as there’s virtually no surface noise, clicks or pops. What’s here is listenable, if not always from the best source; the E-Types “Put the Clock Back on the Wall,” for example is available in higher fidelity stereo on Introducing… The E-Types. Like many of Goldenlane’s compilations, the lack of provenance for these tracks keeps this set from achieving the collector’s nirvana of the Nuggets box sets [1 2 3] or Pebbles reissues [1 2 etc.], but 50 tracks for less than the price of a single CD is a great deal even without band bios or track notes. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

The Five Americans: Progressions

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Third and best album from Dallas-based ‘60s pop-rock vocal group

For their third album, following up their chart breakthrough with “Western Union,” the band thickened their arrangements, deepened their harmony singing, and scored an additional Top-40 hit with the pro-USPS, “Zip Code.” The group continued to write most of their own material, including eight of the album’s original ten tracks, and took over production from Dale Hawkins. The results are a great deal richer and more varied. The opening “Stop Light” lowers the organ from the high sound of earlier albums to bassier church notes. There is country, light psych, bubblegum and blue-eyed soul, and the Kinks-styled “Black is White” adds hot guitar leads to the melodic hook swiped from the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life.”

The band’s baroque pop, such as on “Sweet Bird of Youth,” fits nicely with songs from the Left Banke’s first two albums, and the folk-rock “EVOL-Not Love” sounds like the Vejtables and Beau Brummels. A cover of the Rascals’ “Come on Up” is played straight, but the Spencer Davis Group’s “Somebody Help Me” is given a group vocal arrangement. Like so many one- hit wonders (though, technically, the Five Americans were three hit wonders), there was more than met the Top-5 eye, and this album shows off their high-quality songwriting, singing and playing. As with their previous album, Western Union, the stereo fidelity here is excellent; these albums were better recorded, and the master tapes better preserved than one would expect. Casual listeners might start off with the group’s Best Of, but fans of ‘60s music will want to hear this full album reissue. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

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The Five Americans: Western Union/Sound of Love

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Second album from Dallas-based ‘60s pop-rock hitmakers

This Dallas-based quintet broke into the Top 40 with their bluesy garage rocker “I See the Light” in 1966 and followed the next year with their biggest hit, “Western Union.” Both songs were group originals, which was a trend that continued on this second album. The title track is a catchy pop-rocker with bouncy bass and drums, tight harmony singing and an unforgettable falsetto hook. The rest of their originals are organ and guitar-based with light arrangements, terrific vocals and the occasional country tinge. Highlights include the harmony-rich ballad “Now That It’s Over,” the folk-rock “Sound of Love,” the fuzz bass and beat heavy “Reality,” and the Ohio Express styled bubblegum bonus track, “Lovin’ is Livin’.” The album’s three covers are more interesting for their range of material than their actual performances. “I Put a Spell on You” (written by the album’s producer, Dale Hawkins) suggests the Animals, but isn’t as heavy, nor as sinister as the Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Worse, the vocal on Roger Miller’s “Husbands and Wives” sounds like a goof rather than a finished take. Sundazed has done a tremendous job re-mastering this into a surprisingly crisp CD. Casual listeners might be better off with the group’s Best Of, but fans will relish this full album reissue. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

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The Shangri-Las: The Complete Collection

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Nearly complete collection with some stereo bonuses

With so many cheap Shangri-Las compilations arriving on digital download lately, you have to wonder if someone forgot to renew the copyrights. This set is a nearly complete accounting of the Shangri-Las official releases, including the tracks from their two albums (Leader of the Pack and Shangri-Las ’65), their pre- and post-Red Bird singles for Spokane, Scepter, Smash and Mercury, the well circulated alternate take of “Give Him a Great Big Kiss,” two ads for Revlon, and Mary Weiss’ period “good taste tip” radio spots. All that’s missing is their cover of “Twist and Shout,” as it appeared on their first album and single B-side. Perhaps the second, lo-fi version of “It’s Easier to Cry” that’s included here was supposed to be the missing track.

These appear to be all original recordings, mono except for 1, 3, 5, 9, 11, 17 and 26. The stereo mixes exhibit some differences from the mono versions anthologized on RPM’s Myrmidons of Melodrama [1 2], particularly in the instrumental balance. “Remember (Walkin’ in the Sand)” is 2:41 rather than the mono version’s 2:15, with the backing vocals panned left the handclaps and finger snaps panned right, and an ending that stretches the bass riff and backing vocals past Mary Weiss lead vocal. After the motorcycle crash sound effect, “Leader of the Pack” includes two extra vamps that aren’t present on RPM’s mono master. Assuming these are original stereo performances, they’re great bonuses for Shangri-Las collectors, but it’s a shame Goldenlane doesn’t provide any explanation of where these came from.

Track ordering mostly front-loads the group’s Red Bird era singles, though not uniformly. This leaves their pre-Red Bird singles as bonus tracks at collection’s end. Track-to-track volume levels aren’t perfectly balanced, though most MP3 players will fix this for you in playback. The packaging, or complete lack thereof, keeps this from reaching the pinnacle of reissue heights, but it’s hard to argue with thirty-nine girl group classics for less than the cost of a typical 12-track CD. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

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