"The Best Years Of Our Lives" by STEVE HARLEY & COCKNEY REBEL – March 1975 UK Third Studio Album on EMI Records featuring Steve Harley, Jim Cregan, Stuart Elliott, Duncan Mackay and George Ford with Guest Vocalists Liza Strike, Linda Lewis, Tina Charles, Martin Jay and Yvonne Keeley (August 2018 UK 3CD-Only Reissue on Chrysalis Records in a Mini Clamshell Box Set (no DVD) with Andy Pearce Remasters – Originally A 2014 UK 4-Disc Box Set on Parlophone/EMI) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Mad Moonlight..."

What we have here is a reissue of a reissue – but one that still rocks as good as the first outing. 

29 May 2014 finally saw the UK end of Parlophone/EMI reissue their brilliant Alan Parsons-Produced 1975 third studio album "The Best Years Of Our Lives" as a 'Definitive Edition' remaster with mucho Bonus Material (the first credited to Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel rather than just the band). 

Parlophone/EMI EMCDX 3068 came with 3CDs and 1DVD (Barcode 825646343348) – Four Bonus Tracks added on to the album on Disc 1 with a largely unreleased Live Concert spread across Discs 2 and 3. The DVD sported visuals for seven of the fourteen live tracks from the April 1975 London Hammersmith Odeon gig, while an expanded 16-page booklet featured new liner notes from GEOFF BARTON with reminiscences on that manic time from principal songwriter and bandleader, Steve Harley. 

What you have here is a 2018 reissue of that Remastered Mini Box Set that keeps the 3CDs but loses the visuals of the DVD. Here are the man-it-was-mean details...

UK released 22 August 2018 - "The Best Years Of Our Lives" by STEVE HARLEY & COCKNEY REBEL on Chrysalis CRB 1072 (Barcode 5060516091232) is a 3CD Mini Clamshell Box Set Reissue of the May 2014 'Definitive Edition' (minus the DVD) that plays out as follows:

CD1 "The Best Years Of Our Lives" (55:37 minutes):

1. Introducing "The Best Years" - Side 1

2. The Mad, Mad Moonlight 

3. Mr. Raffles (Man, It Was Mean) 

4. It Wasn't Me 

5. Panorama 

6. Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) - Side 2

7. Back To The Farm 

8. 49th Parallel 

9. The Best Years Of Our Lives 

Tracks 1 to 9 are their third studio album "The Best Years Of Our Lives" - released March 1975 in the UK on EMI Records EMC 3068 and in the USA on EMI Records ST-11394. Produced by ALAN PARSONS and STEVE HARLEY - it peaked at No. 4 in the UK (didn't chart in the USA). 

BONBUS TRACKS: 

10. Another Journey - 31 January 1975 UK 45-single on EMI Records 2263, Non-Album B-side of "Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)" 

11. Mr. Raffles (Man, It Was Mean) (Single Version) - 16 May 1975 UK 45-single on EMI Records 2299, A-side

12. Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) (Rough Mix) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED 

13. The Best Years Of Our Lives (Acoustic Version) - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED 

CD2 "Live At Hammersmith Odeon, London, 14 April 1975 (Part 1)" (54:06 minutes):

1. The Mad, Mad Moonlight

2. Hideaway 

3. Panorama 

4. Medley: Bed In The Corner/Sweet Dreams/Psychomodo/Sling It!

5. Sebastian 

6. Mr. Raffles (Man, It Was Mean)

7. Back To The Farm 

Track 1 "The Mad, Mad Moonlight" was first issued 4 November 1975 as the Non-Album B-side to the UK 45-single for "Black Or White"

Tracks 5 "Sebastian" was first issued 16 May 1975 as the Non-Album B-side to the UK 45-single for "Mr. Raffles (Man, It Was Mean)"

Tracks 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7 are PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED 

CD3 "Live At Hammersmith (Part 2)" (45:40 minutes):

1. 49th Parallel 

2. Death Trip

3. Judy Teen 

4. Mr. Soft 

5. The Best Years Of Our Lives 

6. Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)

7. Tumbling Down  

Tracks 1 to 7 all PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED 

The 16-page booklet for this 'Definitive Edition' offers up eight foreign picture sleeves for the three 45s surrounding the LP - "Make Me Smile...", "Mr. Raffles" and the straggler "Black And White". Band chronicler GEOFF BARTON fills in the discography gaps for out Deptford hero (not quite the Cockney, but a Rebel nonetheless) with intermissions from Harley explaining how 1975 unfolded - an early No. 1 for "Make Me Smile..." months before the album arrived and a No. 14 slot for the follow-up tale of a con-man "Mr. Raffles (Man, It Was Mean)". There are other period photos, discussions of his journalistic run-in's with the British Press who seemed to love Cockney Rebel one minute and then loath them the next. Success soon shut them up. 

Mastering is by a name I actively seek out when it comes to Remasters - ANDY PEARCE. Along with his Engineering partner MATT WORTHAM - they've done the Budgie catalogue for Universal, Wishbone Ash, Rory Gallagher, Taste, Free, ELP and loads more. Pearce gets a natural 'feel' to the transfer that is just as well as this album has never really had an audiophile rep. But this version is without doubt the best I've ever heard it. The two discs of live stuff are shockingly good too - punchy and kicking - the band's sound sort of freed by being away from studio trickery. 

After a minute-long fade in, the "Introducing" opening melts into a rapid-paced flirt song called "The Mad, Mad Moonlight" where a 'big girl' asks him upstairs who may or may not be concerned with his/her gender. That synth comes over better and the snarled lyrics kick just as much as they did back in the day. One of the Seventies great slick-willy songs - "Mr. Raffles (Man, It Was Mean)" lulls you into a false sense of 'walk on the wild side' almost easy listening suave when it's actually a tune about a shifty git who doesn't care who he hurts. Once again that Pearce remaster really kicks in as the keyboards float across your speakers during "It Wasn't Me" - taxis in the early hours - whiffs of withered flowers - accusations from she who has her suspicions about Steve's whereabouts earlier in the evening. Side 1 ends with guest vocalists Liza Strike, Linda Lewis, Tina Charles, Martin Jay and Yvonne Keeley aiding Harley on "Panorama" - a five and half minute opus about the coldness of city life - and with an edit could easily have been another single. 

Side 2 opens with the magical "Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)" - a tune that feels so sophisticated even now - a genuine slice of Pop greatness and some 45 years after the event - probably played more times on oldies stations than any other Cockney Rebel song. It's rare that you'd call such an overtly pop beat 'beautiful' - but when that organ solo comes sailing in and the girls do their backing vocals magic once again - that was it's number one moment on the hit parade and has been so ever since. "Back To The Farm" gives us six-minutes of paranoia - people listening in - the girls echoed vocals giving the song a Sensational Alex Harvey Band menace (power in those guitars). Things get clavinet funky with "49th Parallel" - probably the best Production on the album - dig that warm and clear Bass underpin. A slow six-minute event-lurch ends the album - "The Best Years Of Our Lives" talking about no room for laughter - changes twisting perceptions - it's an epic tune and the Remaster has lent it real muscle. 

Fans are going to love "Another Journey" being on CD with great sound - a B-side that could easily have been on the album. I was dubious about a 'Rough Mix' of "Make Me Smile..." where his lead vocals seem too weak in the stew but that musical accompaniment is fantastic and the acoustic solo vs. keyboards crescendo still sounding awesome albeit a wee bit different (but not in a bad way). The five and half-minute 'Acoustic' cut of the title track will thrill true SH fans - bare and truthful lyrics you can now actually hear - Harley sounding not unlike Ray Davies of The Kinks giving it some. I like a release like this one where the four bonuses step up to the musical plate and feel like extras you actually want. Amongst the live stuff, Prog fans are going to dig the 14-minutes of "Death Trip" - a sort of Atomic Rooster rocker that meets with Gentle Giant. The crowd joins in for an eleven-minute "Tumbling Down" - the band clearly digging it. 

You could argue that more in the way of unreleased studio stuff would have bolstered an already great package, but even without that visual from the first issue - this is a winner. "Made us happy..." they sang on "Judy Teen". At it again boys...