This Review and 304 More Like It Can Be Found
In My AMAZON e-Book
US AND THEM - 1973
Your All-Genres Guide To Exceptional
CD Reissues and Remasters
Classic Albums, Compilations, 45's...
All Reviews From The Discs Themselves - Over 2,300 E-Pages
(No Cut And Paste Crap)
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"...Heaven's
Door..."
Includes 2022 Update on CD Reissues Available
Strong silent types who let the pistolas do the jabbering as they
gob beef jerky at lame horses and a trembling sheriff, while Claudine (a tired
corporate hospitality employee) stands in the doorway of the saloon scratching
her less than immaculate garter wondering if business is going to be slow
tonight after the boys let off some Prairie steam, Yellowstone style.
Dylan's first soundtrack for a Western came as something of a
happy accident – something to do between gigs in 1973. Director Sam Peckinpah
was holed up in Mexico with his talented and gruffly photogenic MGM cast - Kris
Kristofferson as Billy The Kid, James Coburn as Pat Garrett, Jason Robards as
Governor Wallace, Richard Jaeckel as Sheriff Kip McKinney and Katy Jurado as
Mrs. Baker. Established acting hands, future film stars and cool musical types
also peppered the smaller roles – Dr. Strangelove's Slim Pickens as Sheriff
Baker, "Paris, Texas" and "Repo Man" uber-dude Harry Dean
Stanton as Luke and complimenting those are singer Rita Coolidge and her
Keyboardist Donnie Fritts as Maria and Beaver. And of course perhaps coolest of
them all – the old moocher himself Bob Dylan as the appropriately obscure
character 'Alias' – looking like he fits right in with all the sputum, blood
and brucellosis.
Sent to him by writer Rudolph Wurlitzer - Dylan had read the
script and liked it and was even inspired. Sessions took place on location in
CBS's Mexico City Studios and then back in Los Angeles with Warner Brothers
producing a string of quietly majestic instrumentals that countered the bloody
mayhem on screen. Even the front cover artwork seemed lean and uncluttered in
keeping with the mean and moody themes - a bare black and white title
complimented on the rear by sparse musician credits and a startling picture of
Kris Kristofferson kneeling in the dirt – hand-cuffed - a show-me-some-mercy
grimace on his face as Sheriff Richard Jaeckel points his shotgun down into his
chest and cocks the trigger.
CD COST ISSUES:
But what of the CD you say... a little explanation is needed.
The UK 'public domain' CD Master for Dylan's 1973 soundtrack to
Sam Peckinpah's film "Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid" was issued as
far back as February 1991 (even earlier in the USA, 1989) and has essentially
remained that way for over 30-years. However, don't let that put you off; Pat
Garrett is one of only a handful of first vanguard CD reissues that I listen to
often and need no more. It sounds lovely.
But with that old original untouched by Sony in three decades as a
stand-alone purchase – reissue companies have spotted a cult-album slot and a
veritable slew of pricey audiophile alternatives have emerged to meet that
need. In January 2022 (as I write this), there are actually three options, but
unfortunately they will make your wallet feel queasy.
Japan did a Repro Artwork Paper Sleeve Mini-LP CD Reissue and
Remaster in April 2014 on their BLU-SPEC 2 format (Sony International
SICP-30487 - Barcode 4547366215977) that has received unanimous rave reviews.
It can be played on standard CD players too and is available from various
online sites for anything between £22 and £35 (use Barcode number above to
locate).
Desirable too is the US-Only Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab SACD
Version issued March 2019 as one of their Ultradisc UHR reissues, again in a
card sleeve, and again playable on all machines. A limited edition of 2,500
copies worldwide, Mobile Fidelity DSACD 2202 (Barcode 821797220262) sells for
anything between £40 and £55 all in - another pricey soon-to-be-a deletion.
There is also a Remaster in November 2013's 43-CD Box Set
"The Complete Album Collection Vol.1" on Sony/Legacy 88691924312
(Barcode 886919243123). "Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid: Original
Soundtrack Recording" was one of the 14 Newly Remastered Titles for that
fabulous Box Set - but again – sellers now know it is deleted and rare and
therefore 'tis well over two-hundred spackaroonies to find one. So let's get
back to single-disc reissue basics...and deal with what we can get easily and
without costing a limb...
1. Main Title Theme (Billy) – Side 1
2. Cantina Theme (Workin’ For The Law)
3. Billy 1
4. Bunkhouse Theme
5. River Theme
6. Turkey Chase – Side 2
7. Knockin' On Heaven's Door
8. Final Theme
9. Billy 4
10. Billy 7
Tracks 1 to 10 are his twelfth studio album "Pat Garrett
& Billy The Kid: Original Soundtrack Recording" (First Soundtrack) –
released July 1973 in the USA on Columbia KC 32460 and November 1973 in the UK
on CBS Records S 69042. Produced by GORDON CARROLL – it peaked at No. 16 in the
USA and No. 29 in the UK.
UK-issued February 1991, Columbia CD 32098 (Barcode 5099703209822)
sports a puny gatefold-slip of paper as an inlay with ne'er a mastering credit
in sight anywhere (35:25 minutes). And yet when you slap on "Main Title
Theme (Billy)" - adopted by the public as a walk-in theme song to many a
bride arriving for her wedding day - the audio clarity is gobsmacking. This CD
may be old and dull to look at (like the original LP with its simplistic
artwork and frankly bugger all info front or back) - but it delivers on the
audio front with a simple hiss-less beauty that sends this mainly-instrumentals
album rattling around your room with impressive power.
The album opens with the beautiful and moving instrumental
"Main Title Theme (Billy)" – Russ Kunkel shaking a Tambourine (like a
backdrop of crickets at night) against one of the true heroes of the album –
Guitarist Bruce Langhorne. Langhorne had met Dylan back in 1961 as a young pup
hustling his song wares and had a large drum kit that sounded like a tambourine
– hence he became the inspiration for "Mr. Tambourine Man". The sheer
musicality of his playing here is magical, a subtle Bass line from Booker T. of
the MG’s giving a bottom end to the six minute linger. After another
instrumental called "Cantina Theme (Workin' For The Law)" that's
decidedly less impressive than what went before it, we get Dylan's first vocal
on "Billy 1" - our gunslingin' hero playing cards while guns across
the river threaten in the distance.
At only 2:13 minutes "Bunkhouse Theme" has only Carol
Hunter and Bob Dyan dueling on Acoustic Guitars (although they make it sound
like there are two more) and again, a gorgeous audio. "River Theme"
has a wall of three humming voices 'la-la-la-ing' their way into your heart
(Byron Berline, Priscilla Jones and Donna Weiss) - whilst Booker T. Jones
(Priscilla is his wife) holds the Bass and the acoustics of Bruce Langhorne and
Bob set the slightly doomy mood for this faraway-getting-too-near chant.
Side 2 opens with Byron Berline on fiddle while Roger McGuinn
posing as Jolly Roger plucks a banjo on "Turkey Chase". It's never
been a fave instrumental on the album for me, but it is followed by a
barnstormer - "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" smooching into your air
with a brilliantly placed Harmonium (played by Carl Fortina). Roger McGuinn of
The Byrds doubles with Bruce Langhorne on guitars for "Knockin'..." -
the ooh-ooh-ing ladies including Carol Hunter, Priscilla Jones, Donna Weiss and
Brenda Patterson. Terry Paul plucks his Bass, Jim Keltner taps his Drums while
Dylan sings of the darkness getting too thick to see. Even now, it's a stunner.
I can't be the only listener who thinks Dylan could have called
Billy 4 "So Far Away From Home" and Billy 7 "Might Be
Thunder" instead of the lazy numbers system he applied. And speaking of
re-arrangements, surely the magisterial flute and instrument-building
instrumental "Final Theme" should indeed have been the finale song? I
often program the CD to run Tracks 9, 10 and then 8 – just sounds more coherent
that way.
Dylan would do two on Asylum of a frankly ho-hum nature in 1974 –
"Planet Waves" in January and the live double "Before The
Flood" in June – both in collusion with his old muckers The Band (the less
said about the contractual 1973 "Dylan" album, the better). But it
wouldn't really be until the monumental "Blood On The Tracks" album
in January 1975 that he would regain the awe he was held with in the 60ts – a
musical and lyrical milestone ever since.
The Original Soundtrack to "Pat Garrett & Billy The
Kid" could be construed in a Dylan Multi-Verse as a chucked-together
quickie with one huge hit on it whilst the rest of it is just a bunch of
lumbering guitar, vocal and fiddle noodling. But I suspect that for many fans
of the enigma that is the Bobster and his sparing 'Mr. Tambourine Man'
guitarist partner-in-crime Bruce Langhorne – this a regular port of call when
many others have lain on their bulging CD shelves, untouched for years.
"Billy, they don't like you to be so free..." Well my
crazy faces, bullet holes and four more aces - feel free to investigate this
forgotten corner of the Zim's incredible Seventies legacy - because it's never
too dark to see new light in old windows like these (and it's cheap too)...
