Here is a link to AMAZON UK to buy this CD at the best price:
"…To Love You Again…" – The Compleat Tom Paxton –
Recorded Live by TOM PAXTON
The original vinyl double album "The Compleat Tom
Paxton - Recorded Live" was taped across two nights in New York's famous
Folk and Rock Venue "The Bitter End" in June 1970 and released in
March 1971 on Elektra 7E-2003 in the USA and Elektra EKD 2003 in the UK (later
reissued November 1975 as Elektra K 62004 in the UK). This superb 2CD reissue
is a straightforward remaster (without bonuses) of his final set for Elektra
Records (he then signed to Reprise after that). Here are the Folk Troubadour
details...
UK released June 2014 on Beat Goes On BGOCD 1148 (Barcode
5017261211484) - Disc 1 is the first LP
(13 tracks, 43:25 minutes) while Disc 2 is the 2nd (13 tracks, 43:05
minutes). [Note: there is a now deleted Rhino Handmade 2CD reissue from 2004
called "Even Compleater" which offers up more from the concerts - see
separate entry and higher price].
As with all these Beat Goes On CD reissues nowadays - it
comes in a tasty outer card slipcase and features a very detailed booklet (20
pages) with great liner notes by noted musicologist JOHN O'REGAN. But the big
news as ever is the new 2014 gorgeous remaster by ANDREW THOMPSON - it's very
clean and warm. There is hiss on some tracks but its neither dampened by noise
reduction nor amplified to impress. The music is as it was - just better.
Already a near 10-year musical veteran by the time he made
this recording - Tom Paxton was comfortable with his songs, his voice, his
conscience and knew exactly how to perform to a literate audience. There's a
fabulous intimacy about the gig - and his repartee with the enthralled crowd
oozes out of every track (I'm reminded of Don McLean's gorgeous
"Solo" double live set from 1976). A good example of this is the long
spoken preamble to "Talking Vietnam Pot Luck Blues" called
"Bayonet Rap" where its wordplay/political undercurrent is
beautifully thought out. It's about pre-training in Kansas for young American
men drafted into the US Army and features very funny and perceptive
observations ("Crawl in the mud under barbed wire...stuff you can
use..."). It also touches on the madness of the war once the naive college
kids got there - scared G.I.s discovering 'grass' in Vietnam ("The whole
platoon was flying high...chanting something about Hare Krishna..."). Disc
1 finishes on an aural double whammy-high - a stunning story song called
"Jimmy Newman" and his popular Sixties hit "Outward Bound".
The ballads are especially pretty - "All Night
Long" and the plaintive "Leaving London" - a tune about longing
for a girl, returning to her and flying home (lyrics from it title this
review). And both "Leaving London" and the lovely "Angie"
benefit hugely from the beautifully complimentary piano playing of David
Horowitz. Disc 2 continues with more of the same - "About The Children"
and "The Last Thing On My Mind" mellow and impressive.
This is a quality reissue by BGO and a good reminder of the
power of a man, a guitar and a sharp mind...
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