Category Archives: Reissue

OST: Gonks Go Beat / I’ve Gotta Horse

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ost_gonkshorseGems sparkle on obscure mid-60s UK film soundtracks

Gonks Go Beat and I’ve Gotta Horse were low budget British musical films released in 1965, with soundtrack albums even more obscure than the celluloid from which they sprang. A DVD of Gonks Go Beat turned up in 2007, and the film’s soundtrack now appears on this two-fer CD. For better or worse, an official DVD of the companion I’ve Gotta Horse is still to be produced. Both films were intended as cheapy cash-ins, with Gonks the more successful in corralling artists such as Lulu, Graham Bond and the Nashville Teens to provide some mid-60s relevancy.

I’ve Gotta Horse, on the other hand, was a vehicle for pop star Billy Fury, and the purpose-written songs are in league with Elvis’ lesser film works (“Do the Clam,” anyone?). As the liner notes explain, this was the “alternative to change in 1965.” In addition to thematic songs expressing Fury’s love of animals, there are string-laden ballads, offensively inoffensive harmonies from The Bachelors, and stagey show tunes “Do the Old Soft Shoe,” “Dressed Up For a Man” and “Problems.” This may be fun for the whole family, perhaps even passable filler at a variety show, but it’s hardly the sound of ’65. The album’s one rock ‘n’ roll tune is the Gamblers’ garage-blues “I Cried All Night,” which sounds remarkably out of place amidst the rest of the soundtrack.

In contrast, Gonks Go Beat splits its time between rock and ballads, much as the film’s story line pits the inhabitants of Beat Land against those of Ballad Isle, with a Romeo and Juliet subplot that weaves in elements of The Wizard of Oz and It’s a Wonderful Life. The soft pop of Ballad Isle is mostly forgettable, but even the softies manage the excellent country-tinged folk of Elaine and Derek’s “Broken Pieces.” Better are the soundtrack’s opening salvo of Lulu’s go-go “Choc Ice” and Graham Bond’s blues-drenched “Harmonica.” The Titan Studio Orchestra offers up a galloping guitar-and-sax instrumental, and a quartet of skinsmen compete in the epic “Drum Battle.” Lulu returns for the soulful “The Only One” and the Nashville Teens show they had more than “Tobacco Road” with the rave up “Poor Boy.”

The film’s ballads play better on film (where the colorful sets and pretty faces provide distraction), but the pop, rock and blues cuts from Gonks are simply terrific on CD. Kieron Tyler’s liner notes provide a short history of British pop cinema, suggesting these films were sadly within the tradition and that A Hard Days Night was the artistic aberration. Gonks Go Beat is not as unwatchable as reviews suggest, and the opportunity to see Lulu, Graham Bond and The Nashville Teens (and their vintage instruments and amplifiers) is worth a rental. This soundtrack two-fer (mono for Gonks, stereo for Horse) is a must-buy for the handful of superb tunes from Gonks and the charmingly banal tunes by Billy Fury. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

RPM Records’ Home Page

Willie Nelson: Naked Willie

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willienelson_nakedwillieWillie’s Nashville-era work stripped to the studs

Nelson’s longtime harmonica player Mickey Raphael “unproduced” these seventeen tracks from the original RCA multitrack masters, drawing material from 1967’s The Party’s Over and Other Great Willie Nelson Songs, 1969’s My Own Peculiar Way, 1970’s Laying My Burdens Down, 1971’s Willie Nelson & Family, and a few rarities, including the 1968 single “Bring Me Sunshine,” and the archive tracks “Jimmy’s Road” from 1968 and “If You Could See What’s Going Through My Mind” from 1970. The new mixes are stripped of strings and backing vocals, leaving Nelson’s voice up front of rudimentary arrangements of guitar, bass, piano and drums, and occasional flourishes of vibraphone, steel and organ.

Unfortunately, the notion that these de-sweetened versions get to the roots of the songwriter’s original vision is only half true, as Nelson and Raphael could only work with what was on the tapes, which includes unswinging Nashville-styled performances from studio A-listers. The basic tracks were purposely arranged as scaffolding upon which decoration was to be layered, distracting decoration perhaps, but decoration that was part of the original architecture. What’s left sounds unfinished, rather than the original root of something that was embellished. Even without the orchestration and backing chorus, Nelson’s vocals remain at odds with the backing players, confined by Nashville’s straight time, and unable to launch his idiosyncratic stylings.

This would be less evident had Nelson not bucked Nashville’s constrictions and satisfied his muse across dozens of celebrated albums for Atlantic and Columbia. These de-produced versions are neither the intricately assembled, finished products of Nelson’s producers, nor the fleshed out visions of a singer-songwriter chafing against Nashville’s conventions. The Nashville studio players only hint at the emotional work that would back Nelson’s breakthrough efforts. Fans will enjoy hearing Nelson’s voice out front of these terrific songs, but there isn’t true gold lurking beneath the orchestrations and backing vocalists, only a clearer picture of just how desperately Nelson needed to break free of Nashville’s way of doing things. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Skeeter Davis: The Essential Skeeter Davis

skeeterdavis_essentialSolid single-disc overview of Davis’ country and pop hits

Skeeter Davis was one of Nashville’s early female crossover stars, producing twangy country sides, Brill Building pop productions, and several hits that straddled both worlds. Her recording career opened on the country charts as half of The Davis Sisters with the sad duet “I Forgot More Than You’ll Ever Know.” Though sung in forlorn harmony with a strong pedal steel, the 1953 country chart topper also found its way into the pop Top-20. Sadly, Davis’ partner (though not actually her sister), Betty Jack Davis, was killed in a car crash, leaving Skeeter Davis to partner with Betty Jack’s sister for a couple more years.

When the reformulated Davis Sisters failed to click, Skeeter Davis moved on as a solo, signing with RCA and coming under the care of guitarist/producer Chet Atkins. Atkins’ doubling of her voice on country hits “Set Him Free,” “Am I That Easy to Forget,” “My Last Date (With You)” and “Where I Ought to Be” suggested the harmonies of the Davis Sisters, with Skeeter stepping out solo on selected verses. Davis returned to the pop charts as a solo artist with 1960’s “(I Can’t Help You) I’m Falling Too,” this time employing a countrypolitan sound shorn of steel and fiddle. Her original lyrical version of Floyd Cramer’s “Last Date” (retitled “My Last Date (With You)”) continued the dual country/pop success, and in 1963 she scored her biggest crossover hit with “The End of the World.”

The violin chart and heartbroken lyric of “The End of the World” suggested superb pop productions on the horizon. She reached the pop Top 10 with Goffin & King’s “I Can’t Stay Mad at You,” featuring Neil Sedaka-styled “shoobee doobee” backing vocals, a full Brill Buildling production, and a chipper girl-group lead. She also picked up “Let Me Get Close to You” from the Goffin & King catalog, doubling her vocal with pop harmonies that suggest Carole King’s early sides. Davis sang Brenda Lee styled ballads, pop confections, and continued to mint hits throughout the 1960s, including the lovely pizzicato “What Does It Take (To Keep a Man Like You Satisfied)” in 1967, and a ’50s styled cover of Dolly Parton’s “Fuel to the Flame.” This collection closes with Davis’ last two major hits, 1970’s Loretta Lynn flavored “I’m a Lover (Not a Fighter),” and 1971’s autobiographical “Bus Fare to Kentucky.”

Davis had too many hits to collect on a single disc, but the Essential set does an excellent job of balancing important tracks from both the country and pop sides of her career. Several lower charting country hits, including her Grammy® nominated cover of the Original Caste’s (and later Coven’s) “One Tin Soldier,” are omitted due to space constraints. Still, this is the most comprehensive single-disc collection issued so far, and makes a perfect starting point for enjoying Davis’ twenty year career as a hit maker. Those looking for a deeper helping of her country sides should check out the Country Legends collection, those craving more from the pop side should find the Pop Hits Collection (Vol. 1, Vol. 2). [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Jackie DeShannon: Don’t Turn Your Back on Me / This is Jackie DeShannon

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jackiedeshannon_dontturnthisisHit songwriter’s first two UK albums as a performer

Though Kentucky-born Jackie DeShannon had two major chart hits, a chart-topping 1965 version of Bacharach and David’s “What the World Needs Now is Love” and the 1969 original “Put a Little Love in Your Heart,” her work as a songwriter has commercially overshadowed her performing. The author of “Dum Dum,” “When You Walk in the Room,” “Come and Stay,” “Breakaway,” and “Bette Davis Eyes” has been represented on the charts for four decades, turning up on countless artist’s albums and greatest hits collections, but her own catalog of performances has had a difficult time gaining CD reissue.

A number of single-disc anthologies, including the Definitive Collection, Ultimate Jackie DeShannon, Come and Get Me and High Coinage have offered good overviews, but only in the past few years have her original albums found their way into the digital domain. This two-fer from BGO combines DeShannon’s first pair of British LPs, opening with the sensational rock sounds of 1964’s Don’t Turn Your Back On Me, and continuing with the more centrist orchestrations of 1965’s This is Jackie DeShannon. The jump from the debut’s pop, rock and folk-rock works to the industry productions of the sophomore release is stark, to say the least, and though the former is the more satisfying spin, the latter holds several charming works.

Don’t Turn Your Back On Me relies on Brill Building styled arrangements (courtesy of Phil Spector’s main man, Jack Nitzsche), with light violins adorning tracks powered by full-kit drumming, deep tympani, driving 12-string guitars and vocals that are both R&B rough and girl-group sweet. DeShannon’s original take of Nitzsche and Sonny Bono’s “Needles and Pins” is sung downbeat, making the vocal more tearfully bitter than the Searchers’ spitefully anxious hit cover. The mood recovers by song’s end, however, with DeShannon singing sassily across the beat and flinging away her pain.

Additional tunes from Jack Nitzsche (the girl-group “Should I Cry”) and Randy Newman (the stagey ballad “She Don’t Understand Him Like I Do,” the Lesley Gore styled “Hold Your Head High,” and the girl-group “Did He Call Today, Mama”), are complemented by DeShannon’s original version of her own “When You Walk in the Room.” The latter, taken again at a slower tempo than the Searchers’ hit cover, has an edgier vocal and wields the lyrical beat like a hammer. DeShannon’s voice turns to a Brenda Lee styled growl on “The Prince,” the 1950s R&B tune “It’s Love Baby (24 Hours a Day)” provides a fine 1960s rave-up, and her cover of “Oh Boy” charts the transition from Buddy Holly’s reign to the Beatles then-current dominance.

The two-fer arrangement of this CD finds the last track of Don’t Turn Your Back On Me, a rousing cover of Allen Toussaint’s “Over You” segueing into the muted brass introduction of “What the World Needs Now is Love,” which opens This is Jackie DeShannon. It’s a segue that was really meant to be heard with a year’s gap in between. With the rock drums and guitars stripped away and the arrangements turned to sweeping orchestrations, DeShannon still shines on covers of Gershwin’s “Summertime” and Bacharach and David’s “A Lifetime of Loneliness,” but mostly without the electricity of her earlier sides. The originals “Am I Making It Hard on You,” “Hellos and Goodbyes” and “I Remember the Boy” sound as if they were recorded during the sessions of the previous album.

“What the World Needs Now is Love” fit DeShannon like a glove, but the attempts to replicate its orchestrated formula weren’t as successful. In contrast, the album cuts on Don’t Turn Your Back On Me are enjoyable, if not hit single quality, as are the rock performances grafted on to This is Jackie DeShannon. This is a fine two-fer, though more for the debut than the follow-up, though even the latter has a number of cuts that will find space in your regular rotation. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Jackie DeShannon’s Home Page
Jackie DeShannon Appreciation Society

Jackie DeShannon: What the World Needs Now Is… Jackie DeShannon- The Definitive Collection

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jackiedeshannon_definitiveFamous songwriter, underappreciated performer

American songwriter Jackie DeShannon had two monumental top-10 hits as a performer, her own “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” and an indelible cover of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “What the World Needs Now.” But even with major chart success, she’s been more commercially successful writing songs others brought to fame, including The Searchers’ “When You Walk in the Room,” Marianne Faithfull’s “Come and Stay With Me,” and Tracey Ullman’s “Breakaway.” Many of he compositions are perennial cover bait, returning to the charts in new versions by artists ranging from Dolly Parton to Al Green to Tom Petty to Pam Tillis.

As her own albums and hits collections show, however, her immense talent as a songwriter was matched by her work as a singer. Her original versions of “When You Walk in the Room” and “Breakaway” aren’t merely songwriter demos – they’re templates of the angst and joy that would mark every subsequent version. Her early version of “Needles and Pins,” written by Sonny Bono and Jack Nitzsche, has all the hooks that made the Searchers’ subsequent cover a hit, and her original take of “Till You Say You’ll Be Mine” showed a young Olivia Newton John just how the song should sound (the Searchers’ string-lined cover pales in comparison to both the ladies’ versions).

This 28-track collection spans 1958 to 1980, but focuses most heavily on DeShannon’s output for Liberty between 1959 and 1970. Both of her hit singles are here, along with singles the flopped and originals of songs that became hits for others. DeShannon proves herself to be much more than a songwriter trying to cut their own tunes, she’s a talented vocalist equally comfortable with chirpy rockabilly, pop, soul, girl group harmony, and especially chiming folk-rock. DeShannon’s later ballads (those recorded after the success of “What the World Needs Now is Love”) often suffered from mundane orchestrations, but this collection keeps such tracks to a minimum.

This 1994 set was nominally replaced in the EMI catalog by the cover-laden and less satisfying Ultimate Jackie DeShannon. Better is Raven’s Come and Get Me and its recent companion, High Coinage. Of the four, What the World Needs Now still provides the most balanced portrait of DeShannon’s key years and the best starting point into DeShannon’s catalog. All four collections feature tracks not on the other three, so you might pick up more than one, or use any of the four as a map to the recent original album reissues. Finally, the Ace volume Break-A-Way: The Songs of Jackie DeShannon provides a good helping of others’ covers of her writing. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Jackie DeShannon’s Home Page
Jackie DeShannon Appreciation Society

Chris Darrow: Chris Darrow / Under My Own Disguise

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chrisdarrow_undermyowndisguiseCalifornia country-rock pioneer’s mid-70s solo LPs

Given Darrow’s musical pedigree, it’s a wonder his name and these two early-70s solo albums aren’t better known. In the 1960s he put together the California bluegrass group, Dry City Scat Band, was a founding member of the eclectic psychedelic band Kaleidoscope, spent a few years in the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, toured behind Linda Ronstadt and did studio work for James Taylor, John Fahey, Leonard Cohen and others. In the early ‘70s he signed with United Artists and recorded this pair of albums, the self-titled Chris Darrow in 1973 and Under My Own Disguise the following year. The latter was previously reissued on CD on the Taxim label, and the pair was previously issued as a two-fer by BGO. This deluxe reissue is remastered from scratch, offering each album on individual CDs and on individual 180-gram vinyl LPs, all housed in gatefold covers and sporting a 48-page 12” x 12” photo and liner note book.

Chris Darrow models itself after the breadth of Kaleidoscope, but without the overt psychedelia. Darrow’s songs cover rambling Allman Brothers styled country-rock, reggae rhythms crossed with New Orleans’ fiddles, a hot-picked double mandolin instrumental, piano-based ballads, old-timey country, Celtic fiddles, close harmony and Stonesy blues. He mixes originals with traditional tunes (“Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down”) and selected covers (Hoagy Carmichael’s “Hong Kong Blues” and Cy Coben’s country bluegrass “A Good Woman’s Love”). The original “Faded Love” is sung to a mandolin and flute arrangement that’s distinctly Japanese, and the closing “That’s What It’s Like to Be Alone” is given a chamber pop arrangement replete with harpsichord. Darrow’s “We’re Living on $15 a week,” with its upbeat depression-era optimism is sadly applicable amid the ruins of today’s world economy.

Under My Own Disguise follows a similarly varied course, but more tightly bunched around country sounds, including fiddle-led Zydeco, steel guitar ballads, Allman-styled rock, dusty gospel soul, acoustic rags, blues, and the sort of pop-country-rock hybrid that Gram Parsons termed “cosmic American music.” The album’s featured cover is a Hot Club styled country-jazz take on the Ink Spots’ “Java Jive.” Darrow has an appealingly unfinished voice – tuneful, but unpolished. He’s mixed especially low into the instrumentation on Under My Own Disguise, giving the impression of an introvert more comfortable as a sideman than a leader. No matter, as his melodies and musical textures carry a great deal of emotion. Thirty-five years on, these tracks sound fresh and contemporary, and offer up hidden nuggets of California country. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Take Good Care of Yourself
Chris Darrow’s MySpace Page

chrisdarrow_boxset

Isaac Hayes: Juicy Fruit (Disco Freak)

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isaachayes_juicyfruitUninspired disco improved by a few soul ballads

With Stax records failing in the mid-70s, Isaac Hayes created his own Hot Buttered Soul label with distribution through ABC. Across four albums he traded in his languorous soul sound for a funkier disco vibe and often focused more on instrumental dance grooves than his considerable talent as an interpretive vocalist. Fortunately, this 1976 release finds Hayes mixing up the disco jams with soul ballads and mid-tempo numbers that feature sharp arrangements. Unfortunately, Hayes earlier reconstructions of pop and soul hits supported their length with top-flight songwriting, and the originals he offers here simply aren’t as memorable. Worse, the disco flourishes have aged poorly. The crooning “Lady of the Night,” verges on overwrought, but still provides the album’s highlight; but even that wasn’t enough to garner chart interest. Those new to Hayes’ catalog should start with his Stax albums (especially Hot Buttered Soul), fans should check this one out for the ballads. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Isaac Hayes: Black Moses

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isaachayes_blackmosesA double helping of hot buttered soul

By the time Isaac Hayes released this double-LP in 1971, he’d already parlayed a pivotal career as house songwriter, musician and producer at Stax into a starring role as a recording artist. For Black Moses, Hayes stuck to the formula that had made him famous, extending pop and soul tunes, adding spoken passages and layering on smooth orchestration. His power as a vocal interpreter was at its height, not only on the album’s best known tracks (“Never Can Say Goodbye” and “Never Gonna Give You Up”), but also on a pair of Curtis Mayfield tunes (“Man’s Temptation” and “Need to Belong to Someone”), a pair by Bacharach/David ( “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” and the formerly white bread “Close to You”), the Friends of Distinctions’ “Going in Circles,” and Kris Kristofferson’s “For the Good Times.”

The few originals include a couple of lengthy raps paired with ballads, and the funky “Good Love.” This double-CD reissue reproduces the album’s original fourteen tracks without bonuses, and stores the discs in a labyrinthine digipack that unfolds into a six-panel image of Hayes in his Black Moses garb. The album’s superb original liner notes, written by Chester Higgins, and reproduced within the folds. Many fans mark this as their favorite album in Hayes’ catalog, but it’s neither as fresh as previous go-rounds like 1969’s Hot Buttered Soul, nor as original as the same year’s soundtrack to Shaft. This is as solid as anything Hayes recorded, it’s just not, five albums into his recording career, as innovative. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Isaac Hayes’ Home Page
Stax Museum of American Soul Music

The Runaways: Live in Japan

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runaways_liveinjapanLive album shows just how this 1970s all-girl band could rock

After two albums for Mercury that produced mixed artistic results and few commercial gains, this Los Angeles quintet took their act to Japan and found itself welcomed as stars. Though the tour was reported to be very rough on all five members (and bassist Jackie Fox quit the band before the tour’s final show), this live recording shows just what they were capable of. Freed from the daily abuse of Kim Fowley’s svengali-like machinations and pumped up by adoring Japanese fans, the quintet unleashed their full rock ‘n’ roll spirit. Signature originals, “Queens of Noise,” “California Paradise,” “Neon Angels on the Road to Ruin” and “American Nights” finally became the teen anthems they were written to be, and covers of The Troggs’ “Wild Thing” and Lou Reed’s “Rock ‘n’ Roll” rock harder than their studio counterparts. Originally released in Japan, and subsequently in Canada, this was a collector’s item for nearly thirty years before seeing CD reissue.

As on their studio albums, Sandy West proved herself the motor of the band’s muscular rock. In contrast to their studio recordings, the bass and rhythm guitars push the band with plenty of bottom end, and Lita Ford’s lead guitar is more powerful for its restraint. Cherie Currie and Joan Jett are both in fine voice throughout, with Currie really acquitting herself as a true rock singer – albeit still a theatrical one. Those who saw the original Runaways quintet live know just how they were shortchanged by Fowley’s jailbait marketing and the anemic, sludgy sound of their studio albums. Playing live, even as Currie strutted the stage in her corset and fishnets the group never failed to rock. There are a few bum notes and miscues here and there, but this live album is proof that the Runaways were a lot more rock band than Kim Fowley initially envisioned or ever really wanted to admit. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

The Runaways’ Home Page

The Runaways: Queens of Noise

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runaways_queensofnoiseRockin’ sophomore release from legendary all-girl ‘70s group

The Runaways second album is a more solid rock album than their self-titled debut, but it also has a more rushed and thrown-together feeling. The Runaways’ erstwhile lead singer, Cherie Currie, was already sharing microphone time with the group’s musical leader, Joan Jett. The album’s title track went to Jett, and with her songwriting adding muscle to the song list, her fingerprints were all over the album. Currie was a compelling vocalist, able to sing both ballads and up-tempo numbers, but she was more theater than rock, and placing tunes like “I Like Playin’ With Fire” and “California Paradise” back-to-back made the band sound schizophrenic. Currie would exit the band after a tour of Japan, and the seeds of her solo career can be heard in the highly produced vocal pop of “Midnight Music.” It’s a good track, but at odds with its segue from Joan Jett’s “Take It or Leave It.”

Earle Mankey’s produced the album at Brothers’ Studio, but any delicacy the Beach Boys achieved within those walls was quickly discarded. The CD transfer retains the original album’s muddiness, which is how it sounded on vinyl in 1978. This is a sledgehammer recording, with Jett and Ford’s guitars growling alongside the meaty, propulsive drumming of Sandy West. Though Jett later proved herself best suited for pop stardom, West’s time-keeping (which lead guitarist Lita Ford occasionally seemed unable to keep pace with) has always been overlooked as the band’s rock-steady core. The title track continued to capture the milieu of the mid-70s Los Angeles, but “Hollywood” seems forced and only a year into the band’s tenure, their teenage spark was clearly being doused by the poor treatment from the band’s minders.

The album’s only real misstep is the 7-minute blues guitar showcase, “Johnny Guitar,” which was filler then, and remains filler today. Cherry Red’s CD reissue rounds up the original ten tracks without bonuses. The insert unfolds into a poster that includes a fan essay, liner notes by Michael Heatley, a note from label founder Iain McNay, photos and song lyrics. It took Cherry Red many years to gain license to reissue these albums, and they’re just the sort of thing to drop from print without notice, only to turn up on eBay for $50. So if you think you want them, get them while you can! [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]