"Earth Wind And Fire/The Need Of Love" by EARTH, WIND AND FIRE (October 2018 Beat Goes On Reissue - 2LPs Remastered Onto 1CD) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Fan The Fire..."

Most folks know Maurice White's mighty Soul and Funk machine EARTH, WIND & FIRE through their Columbia Records output which almost immediately made huge inroads into the US R&B charts - "Last Days And Time" and "Head To The Sky" hit No. 15 and No 3 in 1973 whilst their 1974 platter "Open Our Eyes" went all the way to number one. Later in 1975, 1977 and 1979 they hit those top slots again and again – massive sales, global hits. You could safely say then that EWF were huge right from the get go...

But spare a thought for their other big label beginnings because that's what you're getting here - their first two American albums on Warners Brothers issued in the spring and winter of 1971 (no UK variants of either). And what utter musical blasts they are – righteous Soul and Funk and Fusion before the big hair, the big offices and the big limos. All this and a killer cover of a Donny Hathaway classic - you could say I'm a convert. Let's get to the 'everything is everything' details...

UK released Friday, 12 October 2018 (19 October 2018 in the USA) - "Earth, Wind And Fire/The Need For Love" by EARTH, WIND AND FIRE on Beat Goes On BGOCD 1358 (Barcode 5017261213587) offers 2LPs Remastered onto 1CD that plays out as follows (61:56 minutes):

1. Help Somebody [Side 1]

2. Moment Of Truth

3. Love Is Life

4. Fan The Fire

5. C'mon Children [Side 2]

6. This World Today

7. Bad Tune

Tracks 1 to 7 are their self-titled debut album in full "Earth, Wind And Fire" - released March 1971 in the USA on Warner Brothers WS 1905 (no UK issue). It peaked on the US R&B LP chart at No. 24 (17 week stay).

8. Energy [Side 1]

9. Beauty

10. I Can Feel It In My Bones [Side 2]

11. I Think About Lovin' You

12. Everything Is Everything

Tracks 8 to 12 are their second studio album "The Need Of Love" - released November 1971 in the USA on Warner Brothers WS 1958 (no UK issue). It peaked at No. 35 in the USA.

You get the usual classy card slipcase (jewel case within), a 20-page booklet that repros all the original artwork and has typically in-depth new liner notes from Mojo Magazine's main Soul and Jazz contributor - CHARLES WARING. The nine-ten piece ensemble are pictured and you get platter-by-platter analysis of their extraordinary career - right up to the sad passing of their Memphis founder Maurice White in 2016 aged 74. But of course the big news for fans is the availability of both albums and presented here in High Def with new Remasters from BGO’s long-standing Audio Engineer ANDREW THOMPSON. This CD sounds fantastic as befits the original Joe Wissert Productions. Let’s get to the flames...

The moment the funky opener "Help Somebody" hits the speakers, I can hear the uplight from the mid Nineties euro CD - the ten-piece bopping and jabbing with real power. "Moments Of Truth" feels like Kool & The Gang giving it some y'all with a James Brown backing beat. Smooch-city comes at ya with "Love Is Life", a tune that feels a tad forced despite its positivity message. "Fan The Flame" features some Isley Brothers wild guitar soloing while "C'mon Children" is full-on Sly & The Family Stone 1971 Funk. "Bad Tune" ends a good opening album gambit well, but there's still a feeling that the group hasn't hit on that winning hook just yet.

Album number two opens with nine-minutes of "Energy" - a very Jazz Fusion number with Oscar Brashear providing the wild Miles Davis trumpeting. For sure it's going to be an acquired taste as a girly voice tells us "...as we float through time as energy, seeking no place, filling all space..." - you may want to light that Joss Stick and slap that Prana slipmat on your Garrard. "Beauty" feels far better - a pretty little blossom of Soul-Funky optimism - nice vocal breaks throughout as the 'open up your heart' choruses build. Harmonica opens "I Can Feel It In My Bones" - the kind of fuzzed-up guitar Funk that shows up on those "Funk Drops" CD compilations where someone smarter than you or I reminds us that we missed a 'What It Is' moment on Earth, Wind & Fire's second album. While the six minutes of "I Think About Lovin' You" benefits from Sherry Scott's lovely vocal turn, the tune feels a little too dangerously close to pastiche and the album is saved by a spirited cover version of that fabulous Donny Hathaway song "Voices Inside (Everything Is Everything)" - here shortened to "Everything Is Everything".

You wouldn't call these two albums masterpieces by any stretch of the imagination - EWF feeling for a direction more than finding one. But there's good to savour on here, and presented in such a classy way and with such top Audio, is going to make fans very happy indeed...

"Five Albums On Three Discs" by MIKE COOPER (22 March 2019 UK Beat Goes On Compilation - 5LPs Remastered onto 3CDs Plus Bonuses) - A Review by Mark Barry...

This Review And 212 Others Is Available In My AMAZON E-Book 

 

BOTH SIDES NOW

FOLK & COUNTRY MUSIC

And Rock Genres Thereabouts

Your Guide To Exceptional CD Reissues and Remasters

For the 1960s and 1970s

All Reviews In-Depth and from the Discs Themselves

(No Cut And Paste Crap)

<iframe style="width:120px;height:240px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" src="//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=mabasreofcdbl-21&language=en_GB&marketplace=amazon&region=GB&placement=B08FFVZKH7&asins=B08FFVZKH7&linkId=eb23bbcba447d1fd50617da642401b60&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true"></iframe>

 

"...Looking Back..."

How here's a treat, and a lot of it too. Hailing out of Reading in Berkshire, our Guitar-playing Harmonica-ingesting British hero MIKE COOPER sees his first five platters between 1969 and 1973 be given the BGO treatment - New Remasters, Digipak presentation and even three bonus tracks – rare stand alone single sides from 1970 and 1972 on Dawn Records.

His musical styles and influences progressed from Roots Blues, Folk and Americana in 1969 (on Pye) through to 1971’s Folk and Country Rock aided and abetted by guest players taken a hiatus from their day jobs as Jazzers in groups like Mike Westbrook’s Quintet, Nucleus and The John Dummer Band. The very Neil Young "Places I Know" set from 1971 is a collaboration album with Michael Gibbs and his next ensemble group 'The Machine Gun Co.' Playing superb 12-string guitar on one of Cooper's 'you never see them' British singles "Your Lovely Ways (Part 1 & 2)" is none other than Chris Spedding (it's the first of three bonus tracks tail-ending on Disc 3). There's a wad of open tunings to wade through, so let’s get at it...

UK released Friday, 22 March 2019 (29 March 2019 in the USA) - "Oh Really?!/Do I Know You?/Trout Steel/Places I Know/The Machine Gun Co. with Mike Cooper/Bonus Tracks" by MIKE COOPER on Beat Goes On BGOCD 1371 (Barcode 5017261213716) offers 'Five Albums On Three Discs' plus Three Bonus Single Sides and plays out as follows:

Disc 1 (73:30 minutes):

1. Death Letter [Side 1]

2. Bad Luck Blues

3. Maggie Campbell

4. Leadhearted Blues

5. Four Ways

6. Poor Little Annie

7. Tadpole Blues [Side 2]

8. Divinity Blues

9. You're Gonna Be Sorry

10. Electric Chair

11. Crow Jane

12. Pepper Rag

13. Saturday Blues

Tracks 1 to 13 are his debut album "Oh Really?!" - released February 1969 in the UK on Pye Records NSPL 18281 in Stereo and in the USA on Janus JLS-3004. Mike Cooper on Vocals and Guitar with Derek Hall on Second Guitar.

14. The Link [Side 1]

15. Journey To The East

16. First Song

17. Theme In C

18. Thinking Back

19. Thinks She Knows Me Now [Side 2]

20. Too Late Now

21. Wish She Was With Me

22. Do I Know You?

23. Start Of A Journey

24. Looking Back

Tracks 14 to 24 are his second studio album "Do I Know You?" - released March 1970 in the UK on Dawn Records DNLS 3005 and 1970 in the USA on Janus JLS-3021. Mike Cooper on Guitar, Vocals and Slide with Harry Miller of The Mike Westbrook Quartet on Double Bass

Disc 2 (70:40 minutes):

1. That's How [Side 1]

2. Sitting Here Watching

3. Goodtimes

4. I've Got Mine

5. A Half Sunday Homage To A Whole Leonardo Da Vinci (Without Words By Richard Brautigan)

6. Don't Talk Too Fast [Side 2]

7. Trout Steel

8. In The Mourning

9. Hope You See

10. Pharaoh's March

11. Weeping Rose

Tracks 1 to 11 are his third album "Trout Steel" - released November 1970 in the UK on Dawn Records DNLS 3011 (no USA issue)

12. Country Water [Side 1]

13. Three-Forty Eight

14. Night Journey

15. Time To Time

Tracks 12 to 15 are Side 1 of his fourth album "Places I Know" credited to Mike Cooper with The Machine Gun Co. and Michael Gibbs - released November 1971 in the UK on Dawn Records DNLS 3026 (no USA issue)

Disc 3 (75:35 minutes):

1. Paper And Smoke [Side 2]

2. Broken Bridges

3. Now I Know

4. Goodbye Blues, Goodbye

5. Places I Know

Tracks 1 to 5 are Side 2 of his fourth album "Places I Know" credited to Mike Cooper with The Machine Gun Co. and Michael Gibbs - released November 1971 in the UK on Dawn Records DNLS 3026 (no USA issue). "Night Journey" and "Paper And Smoke" feature The Machine Gun Company [Co.] - Alan Cook on Piano, Bill Boazman, Geoff Hawkins on Saxophone and Pipes, Jeff Clyne of Nucleus, John Van Derrick, Laurie Alan, Les Calvert on Bass and Tim Richardson on Percussion with Chorus Vocals by Gerald Moore of Reggae Guitars, Jean Oddie and Jazz Vocalist Norma Winstone

6. Song For Abigail [Side 1]

7. The Singing Tree

8. Midnight Words

9. So Glad (That I Found You) [Side 2]

10. Lady Anne

Tracks 6 to 10 are his fifth studio album "The Machine Gun Co. with Mike Cooper" - released November 1972 in the UK on Dawn DNLS 3031 (no USA issue).

BONUS TRACKS:

11. Your Lovely Ways (Part 1 & 2) - UK 1970 7" Maxi EP single on Dawn Records DNX 2501, A-side, Non-Album

12. Time In Hand - UK 1972 7" single on Dawn Records DNS 1022, A-side, Non-Album

13. Schaabisch Hall - UK 1972 7" single on Dawn Records DNS 1022, B-side, Non-Album Instrumental

Tracks 11, 12 and 13 featuring Chris Spedding on 12-String Guitar

As far as I know this is only the second time BGO has used fold-out digipaks (Sonny & Cher was the other in 2018) and I must say I miss the classiness of the outer card slipcase because the four-panel digipak is a bit weedy and although every see-through tray has original artwork beneath it – this is one of those cases where you wish they’d done a Grapefruit Records reissue and stuck three card sleeves in a clamshell box with a bigger booklet. At 24-pages you get all the original artwork and new liner notes from noted writer JOHN O’REAGAN – but I think it ‘feels’ like one of those crappy Universal Deluxe Editions without the plastic titled slipcase.

And in 2006 when Japan reissued his most popular album "Trout Steel" on a SHM-CD with original repro artwork – they included both seven-minute sides of his 1970 Dawn Records single as two Bonus Tracks - "Your Lovely Ways (Part 1 & 2)" with its B-side "Watching you Fall (Part 1 & 2)". I mention this because "Watching you Fall (Part 1 & 2)" is not here – a damn shame because as you can from the total playing time for Disc 2, there was room for one more important inclusion. But these are minor complaints because the real spoils lie in new 2019 ANDREW THOMPSON Remasters that lift up the primarily acoustic-based music beautifully. This threesome sounds gorgeous and the music deserves it too.

The first album is pure Folk Blues – Acoustic one-man renditions by way of Scunthorpe – all songs originals except for the two openers – a cover of the Son House doomy classic "Death Letter" and a Blind Boy Fuller song called (not surprisingly) "Hard Luck Blues". The debut is a beginning and you can hear it – the whole album quietly good, but more functional than inspiring. But when Cooper hit the second platter "Do I Know You?" – it’s like he suddenly found his voice – the songs more distinctively him than copyist styling of some Americana dream. The most immediate comparison is Michael Chapman over on Harvest Records (the playing and voice) – the opening instrumental "The Link" getting a huge acoustic sound (like a 12-string). That promising entrée is followed by an impressive Roy Harper-ish duo of tunes "Journey To The East" and "First Song". Birdies and Froggies chirp and croak for the intro of "Them In C", a Bluesy Slide Acoustic with treated vocals that sound like Ray Dorset discovering the Delta as it segues into "Thinking Back". Other winners include the pretty but painful "Too Late Now", the panned Gallagher & Lyle acoustic guitars of "Wish She Was With Me" and the tidal wash of "Start Of A Journey".

Everything has changed Cooper sings on "That’s How" – another familiar acoustic strummer that opens album number three "Trout Steel". Stefan Grossman and Bill Boazman guest on guitars as do Mike Osbourne, Alan Skidmore and Geoff Hawkins on varying Horns. Very cool acoustic soloing on "Sitting Here Watching" while the run-together title "Goodtimes" feels like jolly Gallagher & Lyle or Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance rehearsing some slide acoustic melodies. The eleven-minutes-plus of "I’ve Got Mine" feels like experimental John Martyn, a bedroom of acoustic picking jabbed by Jazz musicians who know how to feel out something special – probably the album’s best moment – and something even Prog Folk lovers will crave.

After the acoustic-based Blues and Folk variations of the first three albums, the overtly Country-Rock of "Places I Know" feels like you’ve stumbled on Plainsong making their debut album - only a year earlier. At times "Three-Forty Three" even feels like Neil Young circa 1970 or Lindisfarne contemplating the Fog On The Tyne. While the Bluesy groove of "Night Journey" is uncomfortably close to Dylan and his Blonde On Blonde gem "Pledging My Time" – even the way the sliding guitar strings build. But Roy Harper type greatness comes in the epic 8:30 minutes of the Side 1 finisher "Time To Time" – all strummed acoustics and Alan Cook giving us aching piano echoing in the background only to be joined by gorgeous Norma Winstone and Chorus ooh and aahs as the strum builds – you don’t know, the way she can be from...

The strangely deflated mellow of "Song For Abigail" opens "The Machine Gun Co. with Mike Cooper" album – the whole LP apparently supposed to have been the second half of the double-album "Places I Know". The fourteen-minute John Martyn Guitar and Rock Fusion noodle that is "So Glad (That I Found You)" is either going to test you or thrill you. But as much as I try to like the tunes, few move me and I can’t help thinking this half of the double was canned for a reason. Way prettier and a reminder of his fresh-faced genius is the ultra-rare 1970 single Mike Cooper "Your Lovely Ways (Part 1 & 2)" with Chris Spedding elevating its seven minutes to gorgeousness by way of his 12-string guitar playing – Michael Gibbs directing the cello. Given a picture sleeve (repro’d on Page 16) – it was a Maxi single that played at LP speed and along with "Time In Hand" and its piano-ballad B-side "Schaabisch Hall" end Disc 3 on a high.

For sure not everything here is undiluted Mike Cooper genius (Michael Chapman or Roy Harper would thrash him song-wise any day of the week). But there is also a great deal to love and it’s been decades since I heard it all sound so well. Maybe next time though BGO – go for that clamshell box and some tasty card sleeves...

"Lighthouse/Suite Feeling/Peacing It All Together" by LIGHTHOUSE (May 2017 Beat Goes On 2CD Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

This Review Along With 300+ Others Is Available In My

SOUNDS GOOD E-Book on all Amazon sites

CLASSIC ROCK & POP 1970 to 1974 - Exceptional CD Remasters  

Just Click Below To Purchase for £3.95

Thousands of E-Pages - All Details and In-Depth Reviews From Discs 
(No Cut and Paste Crap)

"...Peace And Love..."

Canada's LIGHTHOUSE are the very definition of a bargain-bin band - at least the first part of their career on RCA Records is.

When I worked for Reckless Records in London's Islington and Soho's Berwick Street (20 years of buying and selling rarities) - UK copies of their second and third platters - 1969's "Suite Feeling" and 1970's "Peacing It All Together" was strictly a no-no. I used to see copies of the 1969 debut "Lighthouse" too with its silver-foil cover in charity shops - but it elicited little interest (the debut was American and Canadian only). Toronto's finest pushed out two further LPs on Vertigo in the UK (Evolution in the USA) - "One Fine Morning" in October 1971 on Vertigo 6342 010 and "Thoughts Of Movin' On" in April 1972 on Vertigo 6342 011 - but in my opinion they're only sought after because 'everything' on that most Prog of spiral labels is.

A 13-piece ensemble that started out on a brassy Rock tip with some Psych and Fusion flourishes thrown in - but then went all Association and Harper's Bizarre drippy Pop - the Lighthouse sound was both hard to nail down and market. In their initial Jazz-Rock phase - to help them along their Fusion way none other than an aged but still dapper Duke Ellington introduced the group in May 1969 at Toronto's Rock Pile Club to a rapturous response. But even his legendary presence and the support of Woodstock Folk-Soul hero Richie Havens failed to ignite sales and they struggled to feed those thirteen right-on mouths and hungry wattage. And unfortunately given some of the musical evidence presented here (even though the new remasters sound fab) – it's not too difficult to hear why the public weren't really bothered.

Well here comes England's Beat Goes On Records and the determined Kaftan-wearing Aztec-spaceship moustaches within their British ranks want us to reconsider Lighthouse's musical legacy - that amidst the poor man's Blood, Sweat & Tears and Jefferson Airplane soundscapes is some great fusion Rock and the occasional hooky groove. And there is actually - but I'm afraid the direness of the 3rd album kind of takes the discovery thrill out of the first two. Here are the enlightening details...

UK released 12 May 2017 - "Lighthouse/Suite Feeling/Peacing It All Together" by LIGHTHOUSE on Beat Goes On BGOCD 1281 (Barcode 5017261212818) offers 3LPs newly-remastered onto 2CDs (two from 1969 and one from 1970). It plays out as follows...

Disc 1 (66:29 minutes):

1. Mountain Man [Side 1]

2. If There Ever Was A Time

3. No Opportunity Necessary

4. Never Say Goodbye

5. Follow The Stars

6. Whatever Forever [Side 2]

7. Eight Miles High

8. Marsha, Marsha

9. Ah I Can Feel It

10. Life Can Be So Simple

Tracks 1 to 10 are their debut album "Lighthouse" - released USA and Canada June 1969 on RCA Victor LSP-4173. Produced by SKIP PROKOP and PAUL HOFFERT - it didn't chart.

11. Chest Fever [Side 1]

12. Feel So Good

13. Places On Faces Four Blue Carpet Traces

14. Could You Be Concerned

Tracks 11 to 14 are Side 1 of their second studio album "Suite Feeling" - released November 1969 in the USA and Canada on RCA Victor LSP-4241 and in the UK on RCA Victor SF 8103. Produced by SKIP PROKOP and PAUL HOFFERT - it didn't chart.

Disc 2 (59:11 minutes):

1. Presents Of Presence [Side 2]

2. Talking A Walk

3. Eight Loaves Of Bread

4. What Sense

5. A Day In The Life

Tracks 1 to 5 are Side 2 of their second studio album "Suite Feeling" - released November 1969 in the USA and Canada on RCA Victor LSP-4241 and in the UK on RCA Victor SF 8103. Produced by SKIP PROKOP and PAUL HOFFERT - it didn't chart.

6. Nam Myoho Renge' Kyo/Let The Happiness Begin [Side 1]

7. Every Day I Am Reminded

8. The Country Song

9. Sausalito

10. The Fiction Of Twenty-Six Million

11. The Chant (Nam Myoho Renge' Kyo)

12. Mr. Candleman [Side 2]

13. On My Way To L.A.

14. Daughters And Sons

15. Just A Little More Time

16. Little People/Nam Myoho Renge' Kyo

Tracks 6 to 16 are their third studio album "Peacing It All Together" - released May 1970 in the USA and Canada on RCA Victor LSP-4325 and in the UK on RCA Victor SF 8121. Produced by MIKE LIPSKIN, SKIP PROKOP and PAUL HOFFERT - it peaked at No. 133 on the US LP charts (didn't chart UK).

LIGHTHOUSE was:

SKIP PROKOP - Drums and Vocals

PAUL HOFFERT - Musical Director. Keyboards and Vibes

RALPH COLE - Guitar and Vocals

GRANT FULLERTON - Bass and Vocals

PINKY DAUVIN – Percussion and Vocals

IAN GUENTHER – Violin

DON DiNOVO – Violin and Viola

DON WHITTON and LESLIE SCHNEIDER – Cello

FREDDY STONE and ARNIE CHYCOSKI – Trumpet and Flugel

HOWARD SHORE – Alto Sax

RUSS LITTLE TROMBONE

There's the usual classy card-slipcase - the 16-page booklet repro's the artwork for the three LPs and has new liner notes from Mojo's Jazz columnist CHARLES WARING who presents both sides of the argument - good and bad. BGO's resident Audio Engineer ANDREW THOMPSON has newly remastered all three LPs and they sound great - punchy and full of life.

The two leading lights in the ensemble were Drummer/Singer Ron 'Skip' Prokop and Keyboardist/Vibes player Paul Hoffert who wrote most of the tunes and co-produced all three records. Side 1 highlights of the debut "Lighthouse" are the pretty but slightly overdone "If There Ever Was A Time" with its soothing warbling guitar and nice lurve-song melody. Better than the frantic "No Opportunity Necessary" and the pastoral ELO cellos of the sappy "Never Say Goodbye" is the Side 1 finisher "Follow The Stars" which suddenly feels like something magical is happening. There is an epic Byrds-vibe to the song – all brass lines, clever cellos and flanged vocals – very cool and interesting. Side 2 gets neck jerking groovy with the Brass and Organ dancer that is "Whatever Forever" which in turn is quickly followed by a very complimentary fuzzed-guitar cover of the Byrds Psych classic "Eight Miles High". RCA UK tried it as an only-45 off the album in October 1969 – tucked away as the B-side to the more commercial "If There Ever Was A Time" on RCA 1884 - but it did no business. Guitarist Ralph Cole suddenly discovers his inner Cream and Hendrix with the excellent "Marsha, Marsha" – a "Born Under A Bad Sign" Rock-Blues tune with added clever moments of brass melody and vocal harmonies that take you by total surprise and make you think we may have missed something Psych-brill here. There is a very Neil Young simplicity to "Ah I Can Feel It" as a lone-guitar strums before brass, strings and voices take the song into ‘Lighthouse’ and ‘Stonehouse’ ensemble territory. And they sound like B, S & T and The Association have had a Woodstock love child on the Side 2 finisher "Life Can Be So Simple" – an accomplished Pop song that half way through unleashes a properly wild Garage guitar-solo worthy of any Nuggets Box Set.

Despite some good fuzz guitar in "Chest Fever" - the opener for "Suite Feeling" is pretty awful and the everyone's smiling peaceful vibrations of "Feel So Good" comes over as the kind of song that hippy teenagers would have played their uptight parents in 1969/1970 (get with it Mom and Pop). Better is the funky and adventurous "Places On Faces Four Blue Carpet Traces" - a near eleven-minute Brass and Drums instrumental that is similar to in structure to the longer stretches on Chicago's "Chicago Transit Authority" debut in 1969. Trumpets compete for your attention with an organ - then about five-minutes in you get a clever Vibes solo that feels like some Avant Garde Atlantic Jazz album as it builds and builds with strings and more brass and ends on a huge fuzz-guitar solo (easily their technically most accomplished piece of writing so far). "Could You Be Concerned" taps into that "Hair Musical" message - as does the very Jefferson Airplane "Presents Of Presence". We get the sermon on the mount with the cheesy "Eight Loaves Of Bread" while the coy and poppy flute and piano bop of "What Sense" is likely to elicit laughter nowadays and not for the right reasons. They end a patchy album with a six-minute cover of The Beatles "Sgt. Peppers" classic "A Day In The Life" but it feels like a frantic brass and strings butchery rather than a compliment.

The third LP is probably the worst - a record that hasn't weathered well at all. A refrain precedes "Let The Happiness Begin" - a full on Association meets The Mama's and The Papa's happy-wappy jaunt that is cringing rather than touching. Even the honest words of "Every Day I Am Reminded" can't save it from a wall of voices that make it sound like the kind of pastiche a TV program would use to slag off the excesses of the Sixties. The fiddling "Country Song" is awful and the 'come with me to the sea' pap of "Sausalito" is 1967 and not 1970. And on it goes to the busy and frankly annoying "On My Way To L.A." and the clinging "Daughters And Sons".

To sum up - the first LP is very good and the second is an improvement in places especially the stunning eleven-minute Fusion-Rock instrumental "Places On Faces Four Blue Carpet Traces" - but that third platter goes direct for the "Hair" audience and feels laboured instead of inspired.

Still - fans of the band and that big brassy Rock Sound should dive in and be thankful that BGO have reissued Lighthouse's legacy with such style...

"Homeless Brother" by DON McLEAN (1994 and 2008 Beat Goes On CD Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

This Review Along With 500 Others Is Available In My

SOUNDS GOOD E-Book on all Amazon sites

CLASSIC 1970s ROCK On CD - Exception Remasters  

Just Click Below To Purchase for £3.95

Thousands of E-Pages - All Details and In-Depth Reviews From Discs 
(No Cut and Paste Crap)

"…I'm Too Young To Feel This Old…" 

Don McLean albums are often hit and miss affairs ("Homeless Brother" is no different). But possessed of a way with melody that few artists have – when New York State Don hits that sweet spot - the results are gorgeous and often impossibly moving.

Back in 1994 Britain’s Beat Goes On remastered much of his United Artists album catalogue from the Seventies - and this 1974 offering is one of those hidden nuggets. Here are the details…

Originally released November 1994 (reissued in December 2008) – "Homeless Brother" by DON McLEAN on Beat Goes On BGOCD 247 (Barcode 5017261202475) is a straightforward transfer of his 5th album released November 1974 in the USA on United Artists UA-LA315-G and also November 1974 in the UK on United Artists UAG 29646 (38:26 minutes):

1. Winter Has Me In Its Grip

2. La La Love You

3. Homeless Brother

4. Sunshine Life For Me (Sail Away Raymond)

5. The Legend Of Andrew McCrew

6. Wonderful Baby

7. You Have Lived

8. Great Big Man

9. Tangled (Like A Spider In Her Hair)

10. Crying In The Chapel

11. Did You Know

The 12-page booklet has typically excellent liner notes by JOHN TOBLER (dated 1994) followed by song lyrics and musician credits. The remaster was done at Sound Mastering (then in Cambridge) and is beautifully clean with only minor hiss issues on the very quietest of songs (doesn’t say who did what). It’s a top-notch transfer.

McLean is a fantastic lyricist - painting images that are so vivid. In "Lonesome Brother" we get "...it was just a drunken hobo...dancin' circles in the night...pourin’ whisky on the headstones in the blue moonlight…" and in "You Have Lived" he admires a social outcast "...confined by fashion and peer…I love you for your courage in this frighten atmosphere…" Inspired by Fred Astaire and dedicated to him – McLean’s "Wonderful Baby" would eventually be recorded by the master dancer himself in 1976 on Astaire's "Attitude Dancing" album (United Artists UK put McLean's song out as a 45 in January 1975 on UP 35764 with "Homeless Brother" on the flip). The upbeat and decidedly fruity "La La Love You" has Don pleading with his lady to "...just let me ride your box car…and I'll hobo with you…" - naughty boy.

One of the huge songs on the album even made the news in the USA and changed a forgotten soul’s final fate. “The Legend Of Andrew McGrew” tells the story of a tramp’s body sat prostate in a straw chair – his mummified remains peddled for decades as a travelling-show exhibit. Highlighting McGrew’s horrible treatment - the song finally saw the lost man be given a decent burial. The lovely ballad “Tangled (Like A Spider In her Hair)” sees him sing and play acoustic guitar with only the faintest of percussion from Ralph McDonald. He then shares an Acapella rendition of The Orioles 1953 Vocal Group hit on Jubilee “Crying In The Chapel” with The Persuasions – the lack of instruments give it a Fifties feel and make it all the more striking (the song was also covered memorably by Elvis in 1965 on RCA).

One of my favourites is the gentle opener “ Winter Has Me In Its Grip” – a typically simple song that slays you. Yusef Lateef provides Flute as McLean does a truly gorgeous backing vocal duet with Kenny Vance (lyrics from it title this review). The album ends on one of the album’s prettier songs “Did You Know” – again just McLean and acoustic guitar with a Willis Jackson Tenor Saxophone towards the end.

It's not "American Pie" (1971) or "Playing Favourites" (1973) - but those "Homeless Brother" moments are right up there. A lovely reissue…

"Bang/Miami" by JAMES GANG [featuring TOMMY BOLIN] (2014 Beat Goes On CD Reissue – 2LPs Remastered onto 1CD) - A Review by Mark Barry...

This Review Along With 100s Of Others Is Available in my

SOUNDS GOOD E-Book on all Amazon sites

CLASSIC 1970s ROCK On CD - Exception Remasters  

Just Click Below To Purchase for £3.95

Thousands of E-Pages - All Details and In-Depth Reviews From Discs 
(No Cut and Paste Crap)

"…Like No Other…"

I've had the superb Repertoire 1998 "Best Of" 2CD retrospective of THE JAMES GANG for years now in order to have tracks from the 3 guitar players with the band - Joe Walsh, Dominic Troiano and TOMMY BOLIN - but that set only provided the bare bones when it came to TB's illustrious stay. Well at last - this very cool reissue gives fans both of the TOMMY BOLIN albums - and is presented in the usual classy BGO way (card slipcase, great remasters). Here are the wild horses, babes in the stables and pelicans in the pool...

UK released October 2014 – "Bang/Miami" by JAMES GANG on Beat Goes On BGOCD 1172 (Barcode 5017261211729) offers 2LPs Remastered onto 1CD and breaks down as follows (71:09 minutes):

1. Standing In The Rain

2. The Devil is Singing Our Song

3. Must Be Love

4. Alexis

5. Ride The Wind

6. Got No Time For Trouble

7. Rather Be Alone With You (A.K.A. Song For Dale)

8. From Another Time

9. Mystery

Tracks 1 to 9 are the album "Bang" - released September 1973 in the USA on Atlantic SD 7037 and January 1974 in the UK on Atlantic K 50028

TOMMY BOLIN - Guitar & Synth - Backing Vocals on "Standing In The Rain"

ROY KENNER - Lead Vocals, Percussion and Back-Up Vocals - Except on "Alexis" - which has Tommy Bolin on Lead Vocals

DALE PETERS - Bass, Fuzz Bass, Percussion and Piano and backing Vocals on "Standing In The Rain"

JIM FOX - Drums, Percussion and Piano on "Mystery"

10. Cruisin'

11. Do It

12. Wildfire

13. Sleepwalker

14. Miami Two-Step

15. Praylude/Red Skies

16. Spanish Lover

17. Summer Breezes

18. Head Above The Water

Tracks 10 to 18 are the album "Miami" - released July 1974 in the USA on Atlantic SD 36-102 and August 1974 in the UK on Atlantic K 50068

TOMMY BOLIN - All Guitars & Lead Vocals on "Spanish Lover"

ROY KENNER - Lead & Backing Vocals

DALE PETERS - Bass, Fuzz Bass, Percussion and Piano and backing Vocals

JIM FOX - Drums, Percussion, Keyboards and Backing Vocals

ALBHY GALUTEN - Synthesizer on "Head Above The Water"

The 12-page booklet has liner notes by NEIL DANIELS - album credits, some photos and a brief history of the band - but the real news is a new 2014 remaster by ANDREW THOMPSON from tapes licenced from WEA. The short but simple way of putting it is that this CD rocks - muscle and clarity - it's all there (you could almost forgive the awful Atlantic artwork for both LPs).

"Bang" is dominated by the arrival of a huge talent - guitarist TOMMY BOLIN - aged only 22 at the time and personally recommended to the band by JOE WALSH. Iowa-born Bolin had cut his teeth with small American bands like Patch Of Blue, Zephyr (on Probe Records) and Energy before joining JAMES GANG (he would famously leave them too and move on to a short but brilliant stay with England's DEEP PURPLE).

It opens with the almost Montrose like "Standing in The Rain" and immediately the guitar leaps out at you. His fantastic slide playing comes Kossoff-like again on the slinky and menacing "The Devil Is Sing Our Song". "Must Be Love" brings up the boogie pace firmly into Foghat territory while Bolin takes lead vocals on "Alexis" - a number that starts out all acoustic pretty about a young girl in New Orleans but then towards the end launches into an electric guitar workout that is just stunning (reminds me of Craig Chaquico's blistering axework on "Ride The Tiger" - the opening track on Jefferson Starship's 1974 album "Dragonfly").

There was clearly a venture into top shelf Gregg Allman territory on the "Miami" opener "Cruisin' Down The Highway". It goes into chugging boogie with "Do It" and "Wildfire" where the band sounds not unlike an American version of Bad Company. I've always loved the beautiful keyboard "Praylude" lead in to "Red Skies" - reminds me of Joe Walsh on "Smoker" at his ambitious song-structure best (Bolin's delicate flicking up and down the strings as triangles tingle in the background is gorgeous). "Spanish Breeze" is an extraordinarily tender acoustic ballad ("her words were almost frightening...") - it has a loveliness and songwriting grace about it (co-written with Jeff Cook - lyrics above). "Summer Breezes" could have been a single and it ends on the plaintive "Head Above The Water".

"Maybe you'll get back on your feet again..." - Kenner sings on "Head Above The Water". Thomas Robert Bolin would be lost to us only two years after these albums were put out - he died aged only 26 in December 1976. At least this fantastic remaster celebrates his amazing sonic legacy with real style. Well done to all involved...