"Caribou" by ELTON JOHN – June 1974 UK and US LP on DJM Records – featuring Dusty Springfield, Tower Of Tower, Carl Wilson and Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys, Toni Tennille of Captain & Tennille, Clydie King, Sherlie Matthews, Jessie Mae Smith (May 1995 UK This Record Co. Ltd/Mercury Expanded Edition CD Reissue – Part of The Classic Years CD Remasters Series – Gus Dudgeon Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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1974

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"...A Fragment Of Your Life..."

Super-hyped on EJ after the brilliance of "Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player" in February and the twofer splurge of "Yellow Brick Road" in October 1973 (a single and double-album in one year) - I recall seeing the cover art for 1974's much-anticipated follow-up "Caribou" for the first time. What! My heart sank. What a dire sleeve - laugh-out-loud bad - especially after the tri-gatefold painting and photos cool of Yellow Brick Road. And the rear cover snap of Elton and Bernie Taupin sat on chairs in some toilet backdrop looking bored out of their cocaine-addled skulls didn't lift the hopes up much either.

Luckily though, the clearly strung-together album (named after the Studio in which it was recorded - another Honky Chateau moment) contained enough decency alongside the obvious filler to warrant a phew. And in 2020, the shifty little brute is still available on this huge-sounding Expanded Edition 'Classic Years' CD Remaster for under a fiver. Sneering, tarty, bitchy and cheap - the way I like my EJ. Let's get to the place where you don't want the sun to ever go down...

UK released May 1995 - "Caribou" by ELTON JOHN on This Record Co Ltd/Mercury 528 158-2 (Barcode 731452815828) is an Expanded Edition (Four Bonus Tracks) in 'The Classic Years' Remastered CD Series and plays out as follows (64:12 minutes)

1. The Bitch Is Back [Side 1]

2. Pinky

3. Grimsby

4. Dixie Lily

5. Solar Prestige A Gammon

6. You're So Static

7. I've Seen The Saucers [Side 2]

8. Stinker

9. Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me

10. Ticking

Tracks 1 to 10 are his tenth album "Caribou" - released June 1974 in the UK on DJM Records DJLPH 439 and June 1974 in the USA on MCA Records MCA 2116. Produced by GUS DUDGEON - it peaked at No. 1 in both countries.

BONUS TRACKS:

11. Pinball Wizard

(Recorded in 1974 for the March 1975 UK 2LP set "Tommy: Music From The Soundtrack Of The Film by Ken Russell" on Polydor Records 2657 014. Elton played the character 'The Pinball Wizard' in the movie. The single was eventually issued as a 45 in March 1976 on DJM Records DJS 652 with "Harmony" from the 2LP set "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" on its B-side)

12. Sick City

(24 May 1974 UK 45 on DJM Records DJS 302, non-album B-side of "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me")

13. Cold Highway

(30 August 1974 UK 45 on DJM Records 322, non-album B-side of "The Bitch Is Back")

14. Step Into Christmas

(December 1973 UK 45 on DJM Records DJS 290, non-album track. Its non-album B-side "Ho Ho Ho (Who'd Be A Turkey At Christmas?)" and is one of the Bonus Tracks on the 40th Anniversary 2014 Box Set of "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road")

The 20-page booklet is a pleasingly chunky affair with the album's inner lyric sleeve reproduced across the pages along with the colour photos of Elt's band and new highly informative liner notes from JOHN TOBLER. Interviews with key players include Producer Gus Dudgeon and lyricist Bernie Taupin - both clearly proud of the roll all in EJ's stratosphere were on in those halcyon years. It's easy to forget now in 2020 that EJ was just huge in 1973, 1974 and 1975. "Caribou" hit the No. 1 spot in the USA and UK and many other countries around the world and he would replace that with his first "Greatest Hits" in November 1974 - again numero uno in both countries. The GUS DUDGEON appendage to the Tobler liner notes explains of how the master tapes were all carefully prepared for this CD Remaster Series - "...much closer to the reproduction we had originally intended." This is a great remaster and although there have been variants since (like Japan last year) - I didn't take too much to those 'flat transfers' - so for a fiver - I'll stick with this wee thing.

The album was recorded in the States at the Caribou Ranch in the mountains of Colorado (his first proper studio outing there) with his regular band members in tow - Davey Johnstone (Guitars), Dee Murray (Bass), Ray Cooper (Percussion) and Nigel Olsson (Drums). Sessions were augmented with Keyboardist David Hentschel and the five-strong Tower Of Power Horns and Trumpets including soloist Lenny Pickett ("The Bitch Is Back", "You're So Static" and "Stinker"). In between are an array of cool backing singers from session darlings Clydie King, Shirlie Matthews and Jessica Smith to special guests Dusty Springfield (all four are on "The Bitch Is Back" with Tower Of Power) - while Carl Wilson and Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys lent their arrangement superpowers to "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" (that song also features Billy Hinsche - associated with The Beach Boys - and Toni Tennille of Captain & Tennille). And unlike so many reissues I review, this one actually acknowledges the Four Bonus Tracks – and gives a good account of these non-album single-sides for the first time (the only downside is not reproducing the lyrics).

The album opens on a belter, the wicked guitar-groove sexiness of "The Bitch Is Back" - a tune so apt that Tina Turner opened sets with it and the audience ate it up (its said Elton returned the compliment by once turning up on an American stage dressed as the great lady). Pinky owes the world nothing (say the lyrics) - a typically lovely mid-tempo ballad from EJ - subtle ARP synth playing from guest David Hentschel while Davey Johnstone keeps it light with beautifully produced acoustic picking and clever backing vocals. I've always "Pinky" to be one of his lovelier moments. The grim trawler-boat English delights of "Grimsby" just about passes muster while the Country-Rock-fied twang-dangle of "Dixie Lily" gets a tasty Saxophone Solo from Tower Of Power's Lenny Pickett. The near three-minutes of "Solar Prestige A Gammon" has elicited as much ridicule as a cheesy Eurovision Song Contest entry and is the first time that the album is testing your patience.  "You're So Static" ends Side 1 with a neither here nor there franticness.

The Remaster for "I've Seen The Saucers" is superb - big and bold - even if the radar and something moving outside lyrics feel like both EJ and BT are reaching (the references to crazy wavelengths and other worldly alienation smacks of both men being lost in those heady days of drugs and touring). The low-down Seventies pimp-funk of "Stinker" is another one of the album's rare winners - a sexy crawling sleaze of a song aided hugely by Tower of Power's Chester Thompson on a Billy Preston-like Organ (so tasty). Then comes the biggy - 5:37 minutes of the ballad "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" now forever linked with George Michael's cover. "I can't light no more of your darkness...I just took out a fragment of your life..." - the lyrics etched into our memories like those harmonics Davey Johnstone hits as he introduces the guitar. Carl Wilson and Bruce Johnson from The Beach Boys add those gorgeous and distinctive California vocals to a song that contains so much pain and yet remains beautiful in some kind of epic way.

"Caribou" comes to an end with the near eight-minutes of "Ticking" - EJ's piano playing coming out of your speakers with such wonderful clarity. A child is taking interest in the subjects he's taught, and yet the squad comes come screaming. A man goes on a gun rampage in a bar called The Kicking Mule leaving a trail of bodies - a priest in St. Patricks rationalising all the violence with the image of pain as as 'ticking' bomb (don't ride on the Devil's knee). This track alone feels like the magnificence of "Love Lies Bleeding"on GYBR.

Rather than feeling like filler, his cover of The Who's "Pinball Wizard" is fantastic and the Remaster huge. It's rare that a Townshend tune suits someone else so perfectly, but on this occasion it did. "Sick City" was the non-album B-side of "Don't Let The Sun..." - a greasy, cute and mean funk number that should have replaced some of the lesser crap on Side 1 of the album IMO. In pretty much the same vein, "Cold Highway" feels too good to be relegated to a flipside. Your 64 minutes and 12 seconds ends with the fun of "Step Into Christmas" – yo ho ho Prancer and Donner and thanks for the good year...

"Caribou" used to turn up in secondhand record collections being sold into us at Reckless Records with alarming regularity - like the punter selling it figured he'd get "The Bitch Is Back" and "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" on "Greatest Hits" and that'd be enough. 

But while its never going to win an Unsung Masterpiece of 1974 gong in Mojo or Record Collector magazines - I'd genuinely forgotten the other goodies contained within. And this CD bolstered up with those four cracking bonuses, great audio and a price tag that's less than a cod 'n' chips in 2020 - and I'll find it in my heart to forgive that cover art (what a guy, a song for guy, oh stop it)...

"Hero And Heroine" by STRAWBS – February 1974 (USA) and April 1974 (UK) LP on A&M Records featuring Dave Cousins, Dave Lambert, John Hawken (ex Nashville Teens and Renaissance), Chas Cronk and Rod Coombes (ex Stealers Wheel) (August 1998 UK A&M ReMasterPieces CD Reissue with Two Previously Unreleased Bonus Tracks – Roger Wake Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Out Of The Cold..."

Band's catalogues can be funny - especially big groups of real longevity. After six whole albums with A&M Records since 1969, The Strawbs finally hit commercial paydirt with their brand of melodious Folk-Prog when the catchy "Part Of The Union" 45 and its parent album "Bursting At The Seams" both made No. 2 in the UK single and LP charts in early 1973. An impressive feat, and surely their next platter would follow the same success in Progressive Rock obsessed Blighty? Well, yes and no.

John Ford and Richard Hudson had left after "Bursting..." to an alternative career as HUDSON-FORD whilst Keyboardist Blue Weaver went to the big money of The Bee Gees ("Jive Talkin' ahoy) - leaving the core duo of Dave Cousins and Dave Lambert to recruit new band members. They called in John Hawken - an ex Nashville Teens Keyboardist whom they'd heard on recently accomplished Renaissance LPs and Chas Cronk and Rod Coombes - both ex the recently imploded Joe Egan and Gerry Rafferty's Stealers Wheel. The five gelled and fresh songwriting seemed to promise great new symphonic things.

But as I recall, "Hero And Heroine" arrived in shops with a whimper in Britannia whereas it 'made them' in the USA - something "Bursting At The Seams" had not done despite its huge success in England. In fact A&M Records released "Hero And Heroine" in America two months 'before' the UK long-player and The Strawbs toured the new LP there first. So the band now finds that even with a meagre No. 93 placing on the US Billboard Rock LP charts in the USA – being just inside the top 100 has guaranteed them hundreds of thousands of sales Stateside (steady sales too) with mega audiences of 17,000 and more lapping it up. But when they returned home, the new Strawbs line-up scraped a No. 35 LP chart placing in April 1974 (and for only 3 weeks) and got to play halls of 200 people in Leicester - much of the good work of 1973 evaporated and the group all but forgotten on their own turf.

So in some respects, their rather brilliant and musically accomplished "Hero And Heroine" album has been a wee bit of a lost gem in the UK for decades now and in post pandemic-lockdown 2020, seems to remain so. I say let's give its music a second go-round and get it 'out of the cold'. Here are the silver suns...

UK released August 1998 - "Hero And Heroine" by STRAWBS on A&M 540 935-2 (Barcode 731454093521) is part of their A&M ReMasterPieces CD Reissue Series. It offers the 1974 LP with Two Bonus Tracks (one Previously Unreleased) and plays out as follows (44:26 minutes):

1. Autumn [Side 1]

2. Sad Young Man

3. Just Love

4. Shine On Silver Sun

5. Hero & Heroine [Side 2]

6. Midnight Sun

7. Out In The Cold

8. Round And Round

9. Lay A Little Light On Me

10. Hero's Theme

Tracks 1 to 10 are their seventh album "Hero And Heroine" - released February 1974 in the USA on A&M Records SP-3607 and April 1974 in the UK on A&M Records AMLH 63607. Produced by DAVID COUSINS and TONY ALLOM - it peaked at No. 94 in the USA and No. 35 in the UK LP charts.

BONUS TRACKS (Previously Unreleased):

11. Still Small Voice

12. Lay A Little Light On Me (Early Version)

STRAWBS were:

DAVE COUSINS - Vocals, Acoustic and Electric Guitars

DAVE LAMBERT - Vocals, Acoustic and Electric Guitars

JOHN HAWKEN - Keyboards - Piano, Electric Piano, Organ, Mellotron and Synthesizer

CHAS. CRONK - Bass, Synthesizer and Vocals

ROD COOMBES - Drums, Percussion and Vocals

The 8-page booklet features JOHN TOBLER liner notes benefitting greatly from new interviews with principal songwriter Dave Cousins. He talks of rehearsals in Devon, Lambert's "Round And Round" being loosely based on "Substitute" by The Who and even weirder, the moody start of the eight and half minute three-part album opener "Autumn" being edited by A&M USA and circulated as a B-side 45 to "Round And Round", only to find the 'sexy Prog funk' of The Strawbs being featured on black radio stations and the band being applauded by African Americans as they debuted it at gigs. It's an informative and affectionate read but the real meat and potatoes lies in the new ROGER WAKE Remaster and two Previously Unreleased Bonus Tracks – one a sessions outtake "Still Small Voice" and the other an alternate version that a body can see why it was left in the can (doesn't work nearly as well as the released version). To the music...

"Autumn" nails its three-part epic Prog Rock credentials to the mast as "Heroine's Theme" ushers into your room with a surprisingly sinewy Bass followed by Mellotron - only to usher in a pretty duet battle between acoustic and electric guitars called "Deep Summer's Sleep". The last part "The Long Winter" gives us a jaunty hold-on-to-me chorus, as Cousins and the boys wax lyrical about soft falling snow. New boys Rod Coombes came up with the very Greenslade "Sad Young Man" - a sort of Rock meets Prog ballad with great playing and production. The band suddenly morphs into The Flamin Groovies meets the New York Dolls with the out-and-out Rock 'n' Rolling of "Just Love" - a Dave Lambert rocker. Things return to pastel with the lovely "Shine On Silver Sun" and an old song as far as the album was concerned. Trying to capitalise on "Part Of The Union" - A&M had issued "Shine On Silver Sun" in the UK as a stand-alone 45 as far back as August 1973 with "And Wherefore" on the flipside (A&M Records AMS 7082). Despite its strong melody and catchy chorus, it managed No. 34 on the UK charts and di naught when it was issued November 1973 in the States.

"Hero And Heroine" has never been a fave - too heavy-handed for me. But "Midnight Sun" is where the record really takes off - a song co-written with Cousins and Cronk and apparently inspired by graffiti on a loo wall. At three minutes eleven, "Out In The Cold" feels like a mash up of Cat Stevens meets The Ozark Mountain Daredevils with its rolling acoustic guitars, harmonica and sudden electric guitars. Now I know how it feels to be old, and out in the cold, Cousins songs. With its very Prog heavy synth opening and Aerosmith rock guitar verses, "Round And Round" was given a 45 in the USA with "Heroine's Theme" on the flipside. Empty creeds and themes to suit shysters - Cousins asks to "Lay A Little Light On Me". I'd admit its over ambitious nature might put some off, but I have to say that "Lay A Little Light On Me" and its very ELO Prog riffage as it segues into "Hero's Theme" (the LP's last track) is one of the reasons I love it. The two and half-minute Spanish guitar of "Still Small Voice" Cousins advises was an unfinished idea - its Prog second half trying to find a place to go but not quite finding it (a cool bonus actually). And although the alternate "Lay A Little Light On Me" has more guitars, it's not a good way, but too busy busy for its own good.

Despite having made a slew of great albums (I've also reviewed the Cousins solo set "Two Weeks Last Summer" from 1972 that is a fabulous find) - The Strawbs always seem to be the fourth bridesmaid of four at the big Prog Rock wedding. This is a cool album in so many ways, maybe not the masterpiece many think it is, but so worth your investigation. And platter seven is available for under an English sixer in most places. Enjoy peeps...

"Long John Silver/Thirty Seconds Over Winterland" by JEFFERSON AIRPLANE – July 1972 (Studio) and April 1973 (Live) LPs on Grunt Records (USA and UK) featuring Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, Jack Casady, Jorma Kaukonen, Papa John Creach and John Barbata with Guest Drummers Joey Covington and Sammy Piazza on the Studio Album and Guest Vocalist David Freiberg on the Live LP (27 March 2020 UK Esoteric Recordings Reissue – 2LPs onto 2CDs (No Bonuses) – Ben Wiseman Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Trial By Fire..."

Jefferson Airplane's seventh and final studio album (as JA) "Long John Silver" was US released in late July 1972 on their own Grunt Records with a 7-track live reminder of their August/September 1972 US 'Silver' tour captured on "Thirty Minutes Over Winterland" – released April 1973. Both albums (minus any bonus material) are gathered here by England's Esoteric Recordings with New Remasters from original Grunt Records tapes in another typically exemplary reissue.

"Silver" charted well at home - peaking at No. 20 but only made No. 30 in the UK LP charts at the beginning of September 1972 and for only one week. "Winterland" pushed it to No. 53 in America in April 1973 but failed to ignite any real interest in Blighty where the band was seen as something of a 60ts spent force. And that's where this reissue comes in.

Typically rated in music guides as 5 out of 10 type-material from the classic line-up pens of Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, Jack Casady, Papa John Creach and Jorma Kaukonen - Esoteric wants you to reconsider. Like most fans at the time, I liked the elaborate and clever packaging for both records but wasn't too fussed on the music in the actual grooves. And I didn't start listening again until I heard Craig Chaquico's incendiary lead guitar playing on December 1974's "Dragon Fly" LP when it was featured by Bob Harris on 'The Old Grey Whistle Test' - by which time the group was now the newly-named Jefferson Starship.

Maybe I missed something, Esoteric say. And having honestly not heard these platters in over 45 years and with these new remasters - the dapper English reissue lads may have something of a point (in places). Let's get to the cigar-box and the flying clock-toasters...

UK released 27 March 2020 - "Long John Silver/Thirty Seconds Over Winterland" by JEFFERSON AIRPLANE on Esoteric Recordings QECLEC22707 (Barcode 5013929480780) offers two albums from 1972 and 1973 newly Remastered onto 2CDs (no bonus tracks) that plays out as follows:

CD1 (42:19 minutes):

1. Long John Silver [Side 1]

2. Aerie (Gang Of Eagles)

3. Twilight Double Leader

4. Milk Train

5. The Son Of Jesus

6. Easter? [Side 2]

7. Trial By Fire

8. Alexander The Medium

9. Eat Starch Mom

Tracks 1 to 9 are their seventh studio album "Long John Silver" - released July 1972 in the USA on Grunt Records FTR-1007 and August 1972 in the UK on Grunt Records with the same catalogue number. Produced and Arranged by JEFFERSON AIRPLANE - it peaked at No. 20 in the USA and No. 30 in the UK.

CD2 (37:48 minutes):

1. Have You Seen The Saucers? [Side 1]

2. Feel So Good

3. Crown of Creation

4. When The Earth Moves Again [Side 2]

5. Milk Train

6. Trial By Fire

7. Twilight Double Leader

Tracks 1 to 7 are the live album "Thirty Seconds Over Winterland" - released April 1973 in the USA on Grunt Records BFL-1-0147 and April 1973 in the UK on Grunt Records FTR 0147. Produced by JEFFERSON AIRPLANE - it peaked at No. 53 in the USA (didn't chart UK) and the band featured David Freiberg on Vocals as well as the "Long John Silver" line-up of Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, Jack Casady, Jorma Kaukonen, Papa Jon Creach and John Barbata.

The three-flaps foldout card digipak feels substantial and it includes the artwork for both LPs spread across the digipak and 20-page booklet. You get '9 Fine Blends Of Fragrant Weed' artwork that came with original copies of the elaborately packaged 'Silver', the JA cigars inner and band photos, the lyrics to both sets, the fat man cartoon for the live Winterland set, period photos and the marijuana pictured on the original vinyl has even been repro'd beneath each see-through CD tray. It's nicely done and toped of with new liner notes from MIKE METTLER called "Oh, I Think That's Something You Might Have Missed!"

For sure JA fans may lament that the extended concert versions which appeared on the "Last Flight" 2CD reissue in 2007 would have complemented the live CD here and there was room to place some of the tracks too. But I think the New Remasters by BEN WISEMAN from original Grunt Records tapes more than makes up for any omissions. Both of these forgotten LPs feel alive and kicking anew - especially the studio set which is way better than I remember it. Let's get to the music...

The deliberately muddy production of "Long John Silver" combined with Slick's vocals feeling like they're in some adjacent hotel room lends the rollicking song about a man who's like a clock that needs no winding a sort of ramshackle magnificence. The same doomy vibe permeates Slick's "Aerie (Gang Of Eagles)" but this time the guitar work feels plodding. Creach and his violin come into the fore on "Twilight Double Leader" - the treated guitars now with more punch. "I just want to ride it some of the time..." Slick howls on "Milk Train" which feels like a rage at drugs taking much of her body and getting close to relieving her of most of her mind too. It's angry and one of the LP's better full-frontals.

The tirade continues with two attacks on organised religion - "The Son Of Jesus" and "Easter?" where JA speculate that Jesus may have had a daughter and Pope John should stop talking in a language no one understands or wants (Latin). The acoustic opening of "Trial By Fire" sounds great on this Remaster - Jorma Kaukonen making his vocal and songwriting presence seen for the first time. Love that sloppy guitar too and that final solo as he attacks some judgemental jerk with "...don't try to tell me just who I am when you don't know yourself..." Kantner sounds unconvincing on "Alexander The Medium" - another JA tune that threatens to be great but never quite gets there. It ends on the guitar riffage of "Eat Starch Mom" where Grace rants at men and their machines and their dumb statements.

The Live LP opens with a performance of "Have You Seen The Saucers?" from San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom taped in September 1972, the band sounding more coherent than they did on the studio album. They give it some Lou Reed Rock 'n' Roll Animal guitar groove in the eleven and half minutes of "Feel So Good" - Creach and crew stretching out in what feels like a really good Grateful Dead jam. The August 1972 Chicago Auditorium crowd roars their approval for "Crown of Creation”. They give it some Rock 'n' Roll on "Milk Train" - guitar and violin doing battle. Even better is "Trial By Fire" - five minutes of moving on out to the highway - Kaukonen adding some Allman Brothers cool to proceedings with his slinky groove. And it ends with a stretched out "Twilight Double Leader" - five and half minutes of guitars and combined vocals.

Both platters and their congested kind of Rock are of course period pieces now and you wouldn't say either album deserves more than five out of ten in 2020. But this reissue has done their forgotten grooves proud. Wings on clock toasters - well of course there are...

"The Ozark Mountain Daredevils/It'll Shine When It Shines" by THE OZARK MOUNTAIN DAREDEVILS – December 1973 and December 1974 US Debut and Second Studio Albums on A&M Records (April 1974 and January 1975 in the UK) – featuring John Dillon, Michael "Supe" Granda, Larry Lee, Buddy Brayfield, Steve Cash and Randle Chowning (January 2005 UK Beat Goes On Reissue – 2LPs Onto 2CDs (No Bonuses) – Andrew Thompson Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Light In The Lowlands..."

In 1974 I was fully committed. Not to Bedlam (as some had hoped) but to buying every album my lounge-boy Guinness and Gordon's bar-tips could afford. I bought "The Confessions Of Dr. Dream..." by Kevin Ayers on Island Records in a two-quid deal as well as Greenslade's third on Warner Brothers "Spyglass Guest", Todd Rundgren's Utopia and their self-titled monster debut on Bearsville, Dan Fogelberg's gorgeous "Souvenirs" on Full Moon/Epic - and so many more. Average White Band, Planet Waves, On The Border, Caribou, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Hergest Ridge, Relayer, Sheet Music, On The Beach, Court And Spark, The Payback, Rejuvenation, Perfect Angel, It's Too Late To Stop Now, Irish Tours '74, Sneakin' Sally Through The Alley, Second Helping, Roxy's Country Life, Phaedra, Joe Walsh's fab So What – 1974 was a good year for albums and diversity of genres.

Then I spotted the intriguing grandma and shack A&M Records sleeve for "It'll Shine When It Shines" by the quirkily named THE OZARK MOUNTAIN DAREDEVILS (again in a sale). I liked the inner foldout lyrics sheet that made the release feel substantial; I mostly dug Country Rock and Acoustic Country in all its guises and thought - what the hell - let's give this pretty mountain goat a whirl. I played that album to death and of course back-tracked to the debut from the previous year which I found was just as good - and some would say - even better. Hell, the debut even had Prog elements in songs like "Spaceship Orion" and "Colorado" - a genre I was equally obsessed with. And so, I've been a huge fan of the hoot and a holler Ozarks ever since. To the matter...

What you get here is their December 1973 US debut album (April 1974 in the UK) and their second platter from December 1974 USA (January 1975 in the UK) - both on A&M Records - remastered to perfection onto 2CDs in 2005 by England's Beat Goes On (BGO) and the pair of albums loaded down with fun, warmth and astonishingly good/calming and refreshing melodies that get their hooks into you and won't leave.

The Byrds in the late Sixties, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, America, John Prine and of course the mighty Eagles (among many) had all broken down the Country Rock door moving the largely US genre away from Hicksville into tunes you couldn't deny. The Ozark Mountain Daredevils embodied all of it and actually did feel like the crystal clear waters of a Missouri stream, light in the lowlands. Here are the boys hat made the mountains sing...

UK released 24 January 2005 - "The Ozark Mountain Daredevils/It'll Shine When It Shines" by THE OZARK MOUNTAIN DAREDEVILS on Beat Goes On BGOCD 648 (Barcode 5017261206480) offers their debut and second studio albums Remastered onto 2CDs that play out as follows:

CD1 (38:46 minutes):

1. Country Girl [Side 1]

2. Spaceship Orion

3. If You Wanna Get To Heaven

4. Chicken Train

5. Colorado Song

6. Standin' On The Rock [Side 2]

7. Road To Glory

8. Black Sky

9. Within Without

10. Beauty In The River

Tracks 1 to 10 are their debut album "The Ozark Mountain Daredevils" - released December 1973 in the USA on A&M Records SP-4411 and April 1974 in the UK on A&M Records AMLH 64411. Tracks 1 and 7 written by Randle Chowning, Tracks 2 and 9 by Larry Lee, Tracks 4 and 8 by Steve Cash, Tracks 6 and 10 by John Dillon and Tracks 3 and 5 by Steve Cash and John Dillon. Produced by GLYN JOHNS and DAVID ANDERLE - it entered the US LP charts in February 1974 and peaked at No. 26 (didn't chart UK)

CD2 (44:20 minutes):

1. You Made It Right [Side 1]

2. Look Away

3. Jackie Blue

4. Kansas You Fooler

5. It Couldn't Be Better

6. E.E. Lawson

7. Walkin' Down The Road [Side 2]

8. What's Happened Along In My Life

9. It Probably Always Will

10. Lowlands

11. Tidal wave

12. It'll Shine When It Shines

Tracks 1 to 12 are their second studio album "It'll Shine When It Shines" - released December 1974 in the USA on A&M Records SP-3654 and January 1975 in the UK on A&M Records AMLH 63654. Produced by GLYN JOHNS and DAVID ANDERLE - it entered the US LP charts in December 1974 and peaked at No. 19 (didn't chart UK). 

The outer card wrap is both classy and a trademark look for BGO CD reissues and I would imagine BGOCD648 has been a steady seller for them. The sixteen-page booklet reproduces both lyric inserts that came with the original vinyls and also sports new JOHN TOBLER liner notes. All six band members are profiled - John Dillon, Steve Cash, Randle Chowning, Larry Lee, Michael "Supe" Granda and Buddy Brayfield along with their British and American Producers - Glyn Johns and David Anderle - pals who in-between gigs for The Rolling Stones went to see the band in Kansas, liked them and produced both records with superb fidelity. The legendary Glyn Johns has lent his hand to "Joan Armatrading", "Who's Next", "Eagles" - engineered the first Zeppelin and so many more - and the Andrew Thompson Remaster here is just glorious - bringing out that polish Johns brought to the original sessions.

As you can see from the track lists and playing-times provided above, Beat Goes On has chosen to separate each album onto its own CD. And I mention this because the only real downside (given that there was room on both discs) is that they didn't include the non-album 45 flipside to the huge hit "Jackie Blue" which was called "Better Days" (January 1975 US on A&M Records 1654-S, February 1975 UK on A&M records AMS 7150). There was also the exclusive "Dreams" that only showed up on the British 45 to "You Made It Right" in April 1976 on A&M Records AMS 7223. To my knowledge neither of these period B-sides have ever made their way onto digital (maybe future BGO reissues would consider adding these two rarities on?). Outside of that, this is an audio and presentation winner. Let's get to the Country girls and Kansas foolers...

The jaunty strum of "Country Girl" sets the tone immediately - very Eagles "Take It Easy" with Randle Chowning on Lead Vocals, Lead Electric and Acoustic Guitars, National Steel and Harp too. His "Country Girl" is a sweetie and a dead-ringer for easy radio-programming, so hardly surprising that A&M chose it as the lead off 45 in October 1973 - two months before the album arrived in December. It was paired with the Side 2 album cut "Within Without" on A&M 1477-S (another pretty strummer) - but neither song caught on. Single number two did. With the album picking up momentum, A&M tried the equally catchy "If You Wanna Get To Heaven" b/w "Spaceship Orion" on A&M 1515-S - a very cool twofer of album gems released in April 1974. It took some months, but in the second week of June 1974, it finally made Billboard's singles chart and eventually rose to No.25 giving the Springfield, Missouri band their first (semi) hit.

Perhaps not wanting the band to be lumbering with the riotously funny hoot 'n' holler square-dancing "Chicken Train" - it seems odd now that this obvious crowd-pleaser (neck jerking ahoy) wasn't issued as a follow-up 45 in either the USA or UK - but alas. For those looking towards ballads, "Road To Glory" is a harmonica strummer about card games in courtyards whilst "Black Sky" starts out like "Stone Fox Chase" by Area Code 615 (the theme song to "The Old Grey Whistle Test") before it becomes something akin to something on Cooder's "Paradise And Lunch" - all sliding acoustics as the Harp warbles over the stove lyrics. The LP's finisher "Beauty In The River" is a tad too hick for my tastes, but both "Spaceship Orion" and the fabulous "Colorado Song" shock me still with their gorgeous and clever melodies (love that guitar solo, very Genesis even somehow and those crescendo harmonies). I'm going back to Colorado, rolling down the highway...take me with you boys.

The second studio album made good on the America-good melodies of the debut opening strongly with "You Made It Right" – a very McGuinness Flint jolly old rag mama strummer with "clear blue windswept sky" lyrics. It’s an infectious tune – simple and beautifully captured by Producer Johns. Geetar honky tonk follows with the equally slick "Look Away" – a chugger with piano rolls and oh lord look away gospel words. I remember liking "Jackie Blue" when I first heard it in 1974 but didn’t think much past that. The American listening public begged to differ – loving the tune to distraction where it became a huge radio tune pushing A&M 1654 all the way up to No. 3 in March 1975. While the cool "E.E. Lawson" finishes Side 1 in great slide guitar fashion (did those deep vocals), my heart returns more to the pretty love song "It Couldn't Be Better" – a John Dillon co-write with Elizabeth Anderson where I think she provides uncredited harmony vocals amidst those crickets. Side 2 is the better stew pot of ballad gems like "What's Happened Along In My Life" and in particular the gorgeous "Lowlands". There are more but best you discover them yourself.

Sticking with A&M Records, The Ozarks would make "The Car Over The Lake Album", "Men From Earth" and "Don't Look Back" in 1975, 1976 and 1977 only to end their tenure with the label on the double-live album "It's Alive" in 1978. BGO have paired 1975 and 1976 on another release. But many feel the Springfield sixers are best remembered here.

"...I heard a song that was taught to a lady and it made the mountains sing..." – the boys teach on the beautiful opening to "Lowlands". Investigate these river songs and enjoy...

"Like An Old Fashioned Waltz" by SANDY DENNY – October 1973 UK Third Studio LP on Island Records (May 1974 USA on Island) - featuring Ian Armit of John Baldry's Hoochie Coochie Men, Dave Pegg of Mr. Fox, Danny Thompson of Pentangle, Alan Skidmore of Centipede and Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood Of Breath, John "Rabbit" Bundrick of Free, Crawler and The Who, William "Diz" Disley with Jerry Donahue, Pat Donaldson, Trevor Lucas, Dave Mattacks and Richard Thompson of Fairport Convention and Fotheringay (May 2005 UK Island Masters Single-Disc Extended Edition CD Remaster with Four Bonus Tracks - Denis Blackham Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

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"…The Real Thing Comes Along…"

Sandy Denny's 1971 debut album "The North Star Grassman And The Ravens" was a patchy start (moments of brilliance with others that just didn't work). But her second outing simply called "Sandy" emblazoned her gorgeous brand of Folk and Folk-Rock into music-loving hearts like nothing before. A flowing river singer-songwriter masterpiece, that's been revered ever since.

Which brings us to this gorgeous sounding CD of solo album number three – "Like An Old Fashioned Waltz" from October 1973 (again on Island Records originally). Part of a whole 2005 'Fairport Convention and their Solo Acts' reissue campaign (Sandy Denny, Richard and Linda Thompson, Fairport Convention etc) – each of these single-disc CDs are on the Island Remasters Series.

And this bad boy features a stellar cast of UK Folk-Rock heroes as well as R&B and Jazz players that could compliment her vision f stretching out musically - Ian Armit of John Baldry's Hoochie Coochie Men, Dave Pegg of Mr. Fox, Danny Thompson of Pentangle, Alan Skidmore of Centipede and Chris McGregor's Brotherhood Of Breath, John "Rabbit" Bundrick of Free, Crawler and later The Who, William "Diz" Disley with Jerry Donahue, Pat Donaldson, Trevor Lucas, Dave Mattacks and Richard Thompson of Fairport Convention and Fotheringay.

And as the album title indicates, bedded alongside the seven original SD tunes, the ex Fairport Convention and Fotheringay singer even tackles the old Doris Fisher and Sammy Cohen standards "Whispering Grass" and "Until The Real Thing Comes Along" (famously associated with The Inkspots and Fats Waller) with such subtle loveliness that you wish there was a whole album of the same. Here are the friends of old...

UK released 2 May 2005 - "Like An Old Fashioned Waltz" by SANDY DENNY on Island Remasters IMCD 315 / 982 802-3 (Barcode 602498280232) is a Single-Disc Expanded Edition CD Remaster with Four Bonus Tracks that breaks down as follows (65:53 minutes):

1. Solo [Side 1]

2. Like An Old Fashioned Waltz

3. Whispering Grass

4. Friends

5. Carnival

6. Dark The Night [Side 2]

7. At The End Of The Day

8. Until The Real Thing Comes Along

9. No End

Tracks 1 to 9 are her 3rd solo album "Like An Old Fashioned Waltz" – released October 1973 in the UK on Island ILPS 9258 and May 1974 in the USA on Island Records SW-9340. Engineered and Produced by JOHN WOOD and TREVOR LUCAS (of Nick Drake fame) – it didn’t chart in either country in either year

BONUS TRACKS:

10. At The End Of The Day (Alternate Take Without Strings)

First issued 11 October 2004 in "A Boxful Of Treasures", 5CD Box Set on Fledg'ling Records NEST 5002

11. King & Queen Of England (Home Demo)

Recorded December 1974 by Trevor Lucas, first issued June 1988 in the vinyl-only 7LP Box Set "Island Life: 25 Years Of Island Records" on Island Records IBX 25

12. Like An Old Fashioned Waltz (Live with Fairport Convention)

Recorded by John Wood live at The Troubadour, Los Angeles, February 1974

PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

13. No End (Solo Piano Version)

Recorded by John Wood at the Walthamstow Assembly Halls, London, 3 December 1972. First issued January 1986 in the 4LP Sandy Denny UK Vinyl Box Set "Who Knows Where The Time Goes?" on Island SDSP 100. 

As do all four of the albums in this Sandy Denny Island Records output - it comes in a fetching outer card wrap (slipcase) and the 12-page booklet features original artwork, lyrics, photographs and January 2005 liner notes by expert and long-time devotee DAVID SUFF (of Fledgling Records). It's tastefully done and the DENIS BLACKHAM Remaster from original master tapes is truly gorgeous – warm, atmospheric and full of presence. The only blip is the CD label colouring that sports the black and orange eye Island Records logo from the late 60ts instead of the pink-rim palm-tree variant it was actually released on in 1973. Other than that, it reeks of class...

Broken hearts and the open wounds of love lost are never far from the surface when Sandy sings – and as the stunning crescendo of voices that make up the chorus of the Side One opener "Solo" touches you so deeply – its hard not to be tearful as she aches – I've just gone – Solo. The song also contains the lyric "I've Always Kept A Unicorn" that gave an Acoustic Sandy Denny 2CD set in April 2016 its title (see separate review). Fans are divided on the strings overload laid thick on "Like An Old Fashioned Waltz" – orchestral arrangements by Harry Robinson. I've learned to just roll with it, wallow in the old world romance. It's quickly followed by the Doris Fisher standard made famous by The Inkspots - "Whispering Grass" – brass arrangements by Bob Leaper. I love this song and Sandy feels so at home with the piano plinking and high-hat shuffles – whispering grass don't tell the trees because the trees don't need to know (dig that Danny Thompson double-bass long note).

But then comes one of the album's true masterpieces – the and-you-feel-all-right-now but for how long "Friends". And this is one song where the string arrangements feel complimentary and not intrusive – even if that guitar solo stills feels somehow lost in the mix. "Friends" is gorgeous even in its quiet please leave anger (time to leave and you know the way). She'll be just fine now – so long. Side 1 ends with another original, the acoustic lovely "Carnival" – as warm a melody as she ever penned and in my books one of her catalogue's hidden gems (good day to you sweet Autumn, so gently you appear).

After the lush romance/melancholy of Side 1 and its slow songs - "Dark The Night" opens Side 2 with an uneasy upbeat drumbeat. Quickly joined by strings and oboes and layered vocals – I've never really been convinced by its neither here nor there vibe (cool electric keyboard solo though). Far more convincing is the Jackson Browne-sounding piano love song "At The End Of The Day" – a "you're the one I'm thinking of" tune as I bring my love home to you. And again the strings work adding an epic feel to the centre passage of the long song accompanying a Mike Oldfield-sounding guitar solo. Cover number two comes in a fabulous shuffle – the Fats Waller famous "Until The Real Thing Comes Along". You might as well be on the set of Boardwalk Empire as gorgeous gals entertain the well-heeled gentlemen before they get too liquored-up to do any performing of their own (and if that isn't love, it'll have to do).

It comes to an end with 6:37 minutes of "No End" – another hugely moving epic. But what is astonishing is the Bonus Track "Solo" version of "No End" recorded in February 1974 at the Walthamstow Assembly Hall with just Sandy on piano – haunting and mesmerizing. The demo of "King & Queen Of England" is the same – a piano demo recorded by Trevor Lucas at her home in December 1974 with what you can only describe as audiophile skill (stunning remaster). It was tucked away on the scrappy-doo "Island Life" 7LP Box Set in 1988 and how good is it to see it finally a CD release. For many the idea of a Previously Unreleased track by Sandy with Fairport Convention is enough to make them lose what little hair they have left – but while "Like An Old Fashioned Waltz" is nice – its live and hissy – but still worth having.

We would lose her in 1978 aged only 31. I remember meeting John Walters when I was working at Reckless (he was John Peel's legendary producer and we bought his extensive record collection) and we were in a pub discussing gigs he'd seen that blew his mind. John was told by Bernie Andrews (another legendary BBC producer) to go see this young girl in a bar that he'd heard about who was causing a stir. It was Sandy Denny before she'd joined the ranks of Fairport Convention. The purity of her English Folk voice left him shaking and stunned. I can still see his smile to this day and the memory of it etched into his face.

It's nice to know that all their memories have been given a Folk Royalty nod by this fab little reissue from The Real Thing…

"Black Moses" by ISAAC HAYES – November 1971 US 2LP Set on Enterprise Records and February 1972 UK 2LP set on Stax Records – featuring backing bands The Isaac Hayes Movement and The Bar-Kays with Backing Vocals by Hot Buttered & Soul featuring Pat Lewis and Arrangements by Johnny Allen and Dale Warren (April 2009 UK Universal Music Group/Stax/Concord Music Group, Inc. Deluxe Edition Reissue With Repro Foldout Cross Card Sleeve – 2LPs onto 2CDs - Bob Fisher Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Ike's Rap..."

There was industry discussion in the October 1971 issue of Billboard Magazine as Stax/Enterprise prepped for the release of Isaac Hayes' second double-album "Black Moses" in the same year ("Shaft" had been issued in July 1971). Stax had locked down all promotion of his new November 1971 opus. This was because some DJ had reputedly been offered $300,000 for his Promo Copy with the aim of bootlegging it.

Why would someone offer an A&R employee such a huge amount of cash in 1971?  Because his previous effort "Shaft", as a Movie and 2LP Blaxploitation Soul Music Soundtrack, was massive – an absolute phenomenon and in a way that few had ever seen before. The handsome sex symbol lead actor Richard Roundtree, the bespectacled and impossibly cool musician Isaac Hayes with his beard and bling, the wah wah guitar theme he composed that just slaughtered all in its path worldwide - this bad mother was everywhere. Stax was even then claiming that such was the demand for Isaac’s fourth release, that nearly 40% of copies of "Shaft" in American circulation were bootlegs - gazillions of them.

Few now remember (or even know) that November 1971's "Black Moses" was going to be Isaac Hayes' fifth No. 1 US R&B LP in a row – a feat no one had ever achieved (he would nab another two R&B number one albums in 1974 with "Truck Turner" and the 1976 double "Live At The Sahara Tahoe"). Seven No. 1 R&B albums – wow!

Which brings us via a reissue circuitous route to this 2009 foldout love-in and Remaster for the slightly forgotten "Black Moses" splurge – and tis a wee bit sexy thing too if you ask me. Time to get down brothers and sisters with the man with the plan - Ike's Rap...

UK released 6 April 2009 (24 February 2009 in the USA) - "Black Moses" by ISAAC HAYES on Universal Music Group/Stax/Concord Music Group, Inc.  0888072312388 (Barcode 888072312388) is a Deluxe Edition offering the full 2LP Set Remastered onto 2CDs with repro foldout cross packaging (like the original vinyl double-album) and plays out as follows:

CD1 (50:06 minutes):

1. Never Can Say Goodbye [Side 1]

2. (They Long To Be) Close To You

3. Nothing Takes The Place Of You 

4. Man's Temptation

5. Part-Time Love [Side 4]

6. Medley: Ike's Rap IV/A Brand New Me

7. Going In Circles

CD2 (43:36 minutes):

1. Never Gonna Give You Up [Side 2]

2. Medley: Ike's Rap II/Help Me Love

3. Need To Belong To Someone

4. Good Love 6-9969

5. Ike's Rap III/Your Love Is So Doggone Good [Side 3]

6. For The Good Times

7. I'll Never Fall In Love Again

The studio double-album "Black Moses" was released 15 November 1971 in the USA on Enterprise ENS-5003 and February 1972 in the UK on Stax 2628 004. Produced by ISAAC HAYES and featuring THE BAR KAYS, THE ISAAC HAYES MOVEMENT and HOT BUTTERED & SOUL as backing bands – the double-album peaked at No. 1 on the US R&B charts (entered 18 December 1971), No. 10 on the Pop LP Charts (entered 11 December 1971) with a No. 38 placing on the UK LP charts in February 1972. CD1 contains Sides 1 and 4 while CD2 contains Sides 2 and 3, aping how the original American LPs were issued.

The first thing that hits you is the packaging – aping for the first time since its 1971 US release - the huge foldout cross with Isaac looking like a Bedouin preacher asking for rain in the desert. The story by Chester Higgins of Jet Magazine that was done in ye old Biblical style typeface across the inside of the cover is present and accounted for too, "...And so it came to pass that 28 years ago Isaac (Black Moses) Hayes was born in the town of Covington, Tenn., a snoozing little hamlet... " Yeah brother.

Once unfolded, three flaps at the end of the cross house the two CDs and 12-page booklet. I have to say though that once out of its shrinkwrap – the thing is a bit of a beast to handle or get back into a shape that doesn't easily crumple. The 12-page colour booklet is a pleasingly in-depth affair with November 2008 liner notes from ROB BOWMAN, author of the acclaimed label tome "Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story Of Stax Records". There are three black and white photos of our hero in full-on pimpmobile dude attire complete with fur coats, glasses and bling - while the final more humble shot shows Ike at an organ in a record store surrounded by admiring brothers. The snap of Ike outside Soulsville USA studios is so damn cool – stripped trousers and all. A good read then and despite its unwieldy nature, I love that packaging.

The ROB FISHER 24-Bit Remaster was done at Pacific Multimedia and really lifts the splurge of cover versions – all that Dolby Systems production full and punchy as Hell. While "Shaft" was famous for its legendary Funky theme song, like its predecessor, "Black Moses" is surprising mellow throughout – a seducer really.

The musical landscape of this sprawling double album is a veritable river of f cover versions with five bits of new material amidst its sixteen tracks. Hayes does contemporary songwriters like the Bacharach and David classic "(They Long To Be) Close To You" made a monster number one Billboard smash by The Carpenters and the Kris Kristofferson love song "For The Good Times" from his 1970 debut album on Monument made a Country No. 1 single in 1970 by Ray Price - to older R&B and Soul heroes like Toussaint McCall and his 1967 Ronn Records hit "Nothing Takes The Place Of You", the Curtis Mayfield B-side gifted to Gene Chandler in 1963 on Vee Jay Records "Man's Temptation" and another from 1963, the Clay Hammond song "Part-Time Love" recorded by Little Johnnie Taylor.

Soul legends Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff and Jerry Butler had written "Never Give You Up (Never Gonna Give You Up)" for Shirley & The Shirelles on Bell Records in 1969 – here Ike calls it simply "Never Gonna Give You Up". He preambles his own "Ike's Rap II" into a two-song medley attaching it to the Luther Ingram, Johnny Baylor, Tommy Tate and Mickey Gregory song "Help Me Love". Ingram would eventually do his own version of "Help Me Love" on his fabulous album "If Loving You Is Wrong I Don't Want To Be Right" issued October 1972. It was in turn coupled with "Always" (as the A-side) from the same LP and released as a KoKo Records 45 in February 1973.

The covers keep coming. After his own "Ike's Rap III" – Hayes tagged on a Whispers song called "Your Love Is So Doggone Good" – a tune that was a current May 1971 hit while the Movement was recording "Black Moses". Hayes then dipped backwards to "Going In Circles" – a No. 15 Billboard Pop hit for The Friends Of Distinction in October 1969 on RCA Victor Records. And for the final song, he slinked into a deadringer to his style of Soul-ifying easy listening pop songs – the Bacharach and David smash "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" made immortal by Dionne Warwick in 1970.

It's a lurve-thing baby. I guess you could say that in June 2020, this relic of Soul Music's flashier history is a bedroom swinger that's past its woke sell-by-date. But I love it and the Audio on this has only made me want to rant and rave about the deep-voiced one.

Chester Higgins finishes his "Black Moses" liner notes on the original double-album by saying, "...Black Moses of the famous "Memphis Sound" is indeed a soulful prophet of the Chosen People, a willing servant of the Lord, and one helluva entertaining genius, to boot..." Well, on the renewed evidence presented here – you have to say that da Higster had a point...