"Chess SOUL SISTERS: 20 Tracks Hand-Picked by MOJO" by VARIOUS (August 2005 Universal/Chess/Mojo CD Compilation – Gary Moore Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"…Joyful Stuff…"

  

The respected and much-loved MOJO Magazine of the UK decided in 2005 to use their knowledge and compile a series of rather cool (and cheap) Chess Records CD compilations.

Four appeared using generic card digipak artwork with the '20 Tracks Hand-Picked By MOJO' logo in the bottom left corner - "Chess ORIGINALS" (actually has 25 tracks, total playing time of 70:08 minutes), "Chess NORTHERN SOUL" (58:48 minutes), "Chess TEARJERKERS" (58:50 minutes) and this girly love fest at 56:09 minutes - "Chess SOUL SISTERS".

There was also a 15-track CD sampler of sorts that preceding the four themed comps called "Chess CLASSICS" which was given away with copies of the MOJO August 2005 magazine when it went on sale in July of that year. It came in a jewel case (no catalogue number nor barcode) and actually had several tracks not featured in the four comps but that are on other Chess CD Remaster compilations (acts like Chuck Berry, Do Diddley and so on).

When it comes to three CDs on classic Soul Music - of course Ace Records of the UK and their Kent-Soul label imprint have had this sort of comp down pat for nearly three decades and have been thrilling fans like me with further trawls in the digital age almost on a monthly basis. But I feel that the "Chess SOUL SISTERS" entry is one of those fabulous little CD compilations that slipped through the cracks in a crowded reissue onslaught. Time to grab the Johnson's talcum powder out, don your dancing pom-poms and rectify that unforgivable anomaly by your woefully out-of-touch wallet. Here come the grooviest go-go gals...

UK released August 2005 - "Chess SOUL SISTERS: 20 Tracks Hand-Picked by MOJO" by VARIOUS ARTISTS on Universal/Chess/Mojo 9830155 (Barcode 602498301555) plays out as follows (56:09 minutes):

1. Seven Day Fool - ETTA JAMES (1961 USA 7" single on Argo 5402, B-side to "It's Too Soon To Know")

2. Yes, It's Good For You - KOKO TAYLOR (from the 1969 US LP "Koko Taylor" on Chess 1532)

3. Liberation Conversation - MARLENA SHAW (from the 1969 album "The Spice Of Life" on Cadet LPS-833)

4. Git Out - MITTY COLLIER (1967 USA 7' single on Chess 2035, A)

5. Dirty Man - LAURA LEE (1967 USA 7" single on Chess 2013, A)

6. Take Me For A Little While - JACKIE ROSS (1965 USA 7" single on Chess 1938, A)

7. Don't Knock Love - BARBARA CARR (1967 USA 7" single on Chess 1985, B-side of "Shake Your Head")

8. In Orbit - JOY LOVEJOY (1967 USA 7" single on Checker 1188, A)

9. Cheater Man - IRMA THOMAS (1967 USA 7" single on Chess 2010, A)

10. Don't Mess With The Messer - KOKO TAYLOR (1965 USA 7" single on Checker 1106, A)

11. Fire - ETTA JAMES (1968 USA 7" single on Cadet 5620, A)

12. I Don't Wanna Fuss - SUGAR PIE De SANTO (1964 USA 7" single on Checker 1093, A)

13. I Surrender - FONTELLA BASS (1966 USA 7" single on Checker 1137, A)

14. We Got Something Good - IRMA THOMAS (1968 USA 7" single on Chess 2036, B-side to "Good To Me")

15. It's How You Make It Good - LAURA LEE (1968 USA 7" single on Chess 2062, B-side to "Hang It Up")

16. My Babe - MITTY COLLIER (from the 1965 album "Shades Of A Genius" on Chess LPS-1492)

17. Tease Your Man - MITTY COLLIER (from the 1972 album "Basic Soul" on Chess CH 50018)

18. Rescue Me - FONTELLA BASS (1965 USA 7" single on Checker 1120, A)

19. Sally, Go 'Round The Roses - THE JAYNETTS (1963 USA 7" single on Tuff 369, A)

20. California Soul - MARLENA SHAW (1969 USA 7" single on Cadet 5638, A)

GARY MOORE at Universal carried out the excellent remasters that can dip and jump because of the time frame. For instance the relatively low-fi Northern Soul monster "In Orbit" by Joy Lovejoy isn't an audiophile recording by any means and is followed by the superb production values of "Cheater Man" by Irma Thomas - but the contrast of audio quality is blown out of the water by the sheer joy of the music - recorded well or not. And that's what I love so much about Chess compilations in general - even when someone is being done 'bad' by someone who should know better - the music transcends everything - it's irrepressibly joyful stuff. The 16-page oversized booklet has full-page plates of Etta James, Sugar Pie De Santo, Marlena Shaw and Laura Lee and even pictures the rare "New Look" Chess album by Fontella Bass on Page 7 in colour. Very tastefully done...

Clever song choices abound here - snappy B-sides instead of overplayed A's - combined with crowd pleasers like "Rescue Me" and "Dirty Man" - all sided by rare album cuts and obscure groups. "Soul Sisters" also prides itself in featuring the unsung heroes of Chess, Cadet and Checker like Laura Lee, Marlena Shaw, Koko Taylor and Mitty Collier to name but a few. Check out Marlena Shaw’s cover of the Ashford & Simpson classic "California Soul" – a B-side to "Looking Through The Eyes Of Love" on Cadet 5656. Both are winners from the fantastical Cadet records "The Spice Of Life" album – an LP I’ve featured in an e-Book I’ve done on Obscure Albums that deserve martyrdom. Any compilation that brings you to that artist and that wicked US LP in particular is already exuding class in my locker room.

The vibe is mostly uptempo - cracking dancers like "It's How You Make It Good" and "Git It" - storming Etta James giving it some shimmy on "Seven Day Fool". Lyrically these sassy ladies also have to deal with cheaters, backstabbers and men of a generally Don Draper shag-around lowlife disposition. Equally - when they're not chastising them - they've forgiving them their trespasses or singing their praises. It's all blindingly good fun as you can imagine - song after song just walloping you with quality and emotion - and so much of it from that unbelievable year - 1967. Even the obscurities are excellent - The Jaynetts (an early New York girl group) who got a lilting Soulful sound on their Tuff Records 1963 rarity "Sally, Go 'Round The Roses" (probably more by accident than design) - such a great tune.

A superb introduction to the Soulful side of a Blues/Rhythm 'n' Blues label - "Soul Sisters" should be the first of the four Chess Mojo titles you get. And it's online for peanuts too...nice...

The Four Compilation Titles in the 20 August 2005 (UK)

UNIVERSAL/CHESS/MOJO CD Series are:

1. Chess ORIGINALS: 20 Tracks Hand-Picked By MOJO

(Universal/Chess/Mojo 9830156 – Barcode 602498301562)

2. Chess NORTHERN SOUL: 20 Tracks Hand-Picked By MOJO

(Universal/Chess/Mojo 9830153 – Barcode 602498301531)

3. Chess SOUL SISTERS: 20 Tracks Hand-Picked By MOJO

(Universal/Chess/Mojo 9830155 – Barcode 602498301555)

4. Chess TEARJERKERS: 20 Tracks Hand-Picked By MOJO

(Universal/Chess/Mojo 9830154 –Barcode 602498301548)

"Chess TEARJERKERS: 20 Tracks Hand-Picked by MOJO" by VARIOUS (August 2005 Universal/Chess/MOJO CD Compilation) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"…Losers Weepers…"

The respected and much-loved MOJO Magazine of the UK decided in 2005 to use their knowledge and compile a series of rather cool (and cheap) Chess Records CD compilations.

Four appeared using generic card digipak artwork with the '20 Tracks Hand-Picked By MOJO' logo in the bottom left corner - "Chess Originals", "Chess Soul Sisters", "Chess Northern Soul" and this emotional little sniffler - "Chess Tearjerkers". There was also a 15-track CD sampler of sorts that preceding the four themed comps called "Chess Classics" which was given away with copies of MOJO August 2005 when it went on sale in July (that actually had several tracks not featured in the four but on other Chess CD Remasters).

The MOJO magazine's respected Soul authority and uber-fan LOIS WILSON did the smart-choice compiling and I've always dug them as short but oh so sweet listens. And even now in September 2019, most are still available at a frankly laughable pre Brexit outlay (get them before the panic sets in and they shut down the emotional borders on us all). Here are the aorta-wrenching details for the Tearjerkers set...

UK released 29 August 2005 - "Chess Tearjerkers" by VARIOUS ARTISTS is on Universal/Chess/Mojo 9830154 (Barcode 602498301548) and breaks down as follows (58:50 minutes):

1. Losers Weepers – ETTA JAMES (September 1970 USA 7" single on Cadet 5676, A)

2. He Will Break Your Heart – LAURA LEE (July 1968 USA 7" single on Cadet 2052, B-side of "Need To Belong")

3. You Left The Water Running – MAURICE and MAC (March 1968 USA 7" single on Cadet 1197, A)

4. Since I Fell For You – FONTELLA BASS (from the March 1966 US LP "The 'New' Look" on Checker Records LPS-2997 in Stereo)

5. Can't Make It Without You – FRED HUGHES (February 1968 USA 7" single on Cadet 5579, B-side of "Come Home Little Darlin")

6. Somewhere Crying - IRMA THOMAS (July 1967 USA 7" single on Chess 2010, B-side of "Cheater Man")

7. Only Time Will Tell - ETTA JAMES (January 1966 USA 7" single on Cadet 5526, A)

8. Temptation 'Bout To Get Me - THE KNIGHT BROTHERS (May 1965 USA 7" single on Checker 1107, A)

9. I Had A Talk With My Man - MITTY COLLIER (August 1964 USA 7" single on Chess 1907, A)

10. Nothing But Tears - MARLENA SHAW (from the 1967 US LP "Out Of Different Bags" on Cadet LPS 803 in Stereo)

11. Need To Belong – LAURA LEE (July 1968 USA 7" single on Chess 2052, A)

12. Without A Woman - KIP ANDERSON (August 1966 USA 7" single on Checker 1145, A)

13. You'll Never Know aka You'll Never Ever Know - FONTELLA BASS (August 1966 USA 7" USA single on Checker 1147, B-side of "Safe And Sound")

14. After The Laughter - GENE CHANDLER (April 1967 USA 7" single on Checker 1165, B-side of "To Be A Lover")

15. It's Mighty Hard - LAURA LEE (July 1967 USA 7" single on Chess 2013, B-side of "Dirty Man")

16. I'd Rather Go Blind - ETTA JAMES (October 1967 USA 7" single on Cadet 5578, B-side of "Tell Mama")

17. Have Pity On Me - BILLY YOUNG (May 1966 USA 7" single on Chess 1961, B-side of "You Left The Water Running")

18. Drown In My Own Tears - MITTY COLLIER (a Ray Charles cover from her 1965 US LP "Shades Of A Genius" on Chess LPS-1492 in Stereo)

19. Yours Until Tomorrow - IRMA THOMAS (Previously Unreleased July 1967 session at Fame Studios - first issued Japan 1984 on the LP "Down At Muscle Shoals" on Chess/P-Vine PLP 6013 - then August 1990 on the US CD compilation "Something Good/The Muscle Shoals Sessions" on Chess CHD 93004 - Barcode 076741300426 as one of two bonus tracks)

20. I Fooled You This Time - GENE CHANDLER (October 1966 USA 7" single on Checker 1155, A)

Compiled and annotated by LOIS WILSON - the oversized 16-page booklet (inside a gatefold card digipak) is a lovely thing to behold - insightful paragraphs on each of the songs - 7" single labels reproduced (Laura Lee and Etta James on Chess and Cadet), black and white and colour publicity shots of Gene Chandler, Fontella Bass and gorgeous colour shots of the Mitty Collier album "Shade Of A Genius" and Fontella's 1967 Cadet Records gem "Out Of Different Bags". Very nicely done...

Same as the other compilations in this series - long-time Audio Engineer GARY MOORE at Universal carried out the excellent remasters. The audio varies from source-to-source - incredible one moment and more than acceptable the next. But as with the "Soul Sisters" entry in this series - all of that gets blown out of the water by the sheer joy of the music (recorded well or not). And once again very clever song choices abound here 'hand-picked' by those canny bods at England's fabulicious MOJO magazine. You get deep LP cuts from Marlena Shaw and Fontella Bass, a Fame Studios unreleased cut by Irma Thomas that first surfaced in Japan in 1984, Curtis Mayfield songs like Laura Lee's take on "Need To Belong", overlooked B-sides instead of overplayed A's and all of it combined with talcum-powder crowd pleasers like Maurice & Mac's "You Left The Water Running" and the Etta James classic "I'd Rather Go Blind" that would become a future pluck-your-eyes-out cover version for England's Chicken Shack. Sung by Christine Perfect prior to her marrying John McVie and later becoming an integral part of Fleetwood Mac - Etta's "I'd Rather Go Blind" was in fact the 1967 flipside of the dancefloor killer "Tell Mama" – talk about a shifting moods double-whammy...

The compilation begins with a duo of heavy-hitter torch-song ladies giving it some serious bemoaning of their between-the-sheets misery – Etta walloping out Part 1 of "Losers Weepers" from 1970 and Laura Lee covering the fabulous Jerry Butler, Curtis Mayfield and Clarence Carter tune "He Will Break Your Heart" from two years earlier in 1968 (both were Cadet Records 45s in the States – the Lee track tucked away as a B-side). From that tasty starter – we get Maurice McAlister and Green McLauren ordinarily known as Maurice And Mac for the US R&B charts. Both formerly vocalists in The Radiants, their sexy shuffling 1968 variant of "You Left The Water Running" (a hit Barbara Lynn had had on Atlantic Records two years earlier) was a huge Northern Soul club-spin in Seventies Blighty and has subsequently become a mucho-placed entry on American LP and CD compilations (the Rhino "Soul Shots" LP series comes to mind as does their fabulous 6CD 1995 Single-Shaped Box Set "Beg, Scream & Shout! The Big ‘Ol Box Of 60s Soul")

Other hidden gems include the impassioned Fontella Bass version of "You'll Never Know" (the Oliver Sain song is actually credited as "You'll Never Ever Know" on the original American 45) - another 'standing in the shadows with tears streaming down my face' flip-side on the Chess Records subsidiary Checker or the identikit Otis Redding voice of Billy Young on the Tommy Roe song "Have Pity On Me" - an on-your-knees pleader to his gal for an emotional stay of execution (oddly enough I think our Billy did her wrong again).

Gospel man (Rev) James Cleveland scribed "It's Mighty Hard" and along with Cadet Concept leading light Charles Stepney (future Arranger for Terry Callier, Rotary Connection and The Dells) - they gifted Laura Lee a fantastic vehicle for her voice, even it was relegated to the B-side of the more catchy and controversial "Dirty Man" on the Plug Side. There's a genuinely eerie feel to "Without A Woman" - Kip Anderson prior to drug addiction, jail and rehabilitation - and as a counter to that - Gene Chandler possessing such a great expression as he pours on the heartbreak in the Billy Butler written "After The Laughter". And there's plenty more where that came from...

So there you have it - so many great tunes you don't know and need to. "Chess Tearjerkers" is the kind of Soul CD compilation that has gotten lost in an overcrowded marketplace but deserves rediscovery. My advice - shopping basket some Talcum Powder and a box of Kleenex and check this cool little misery guts out...

The Four Compilation Titles in the 20 August 2005 (UK)

UNIVERSAL/CHESS/MOJO CD Series are:

1. Chess ORIGINALS: 20 Tracks Hand-Picked By MOJO

(Universal/Chess/Mojo 9830156 – Barcode 602498301562)

2. Chess NORTHERN SOUL: 20 Tracks Hand-Picked By MOJO

(Universal/Chess/Mojo 9830153 – Barcode 602498301531)

3. Chess SOUL SISTERS: 20 Tracks Hand-Picked By MOJO

(Universal/Chess/Mojo 9830155 – Barcode 602498301555)

4. Chess TEARJERKERS: 20 Tracks Hand-Picked By MOJO

(Universal/Chess/Mojo 9830154 –Barcode 602498301548)

"Liege & Lief" by FAIRPORT CONVENTION (May 2002 Universal/Island Remasters 1CD Reissue - Gary Moore Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

This Review Along With 300+ Others Is Available In My

SOUNDS GOOD E-Book on all Amazon sites

1960s and 1970s MUSIC ON CD - Volume 2 of 3 - Exceptional CD Remasters  
As well as 1960s and 1970s Rock and Pop - It Also Focuses On
Folk, Folk Rock, Country Rock, Reggae, Punk and New Wave

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)

"…Come All Ye Rolling Minstrels…"

Voted in 2006 as the 'most influential Folk album ever' by those lovely peopleoids at the BBC - "Liege & Lief" finished out an astounding year for FAIRPORT CONVENTION - 1969. They gingerly popped out "What We Did On Our Holidays" in January, "Unhalfbricking" (with "Who Knows Where The Time Goes") in July and the mighty "Liege & Lief" in December of that momentous year. 

Other bands who put out three great studio albums in one year are The Rolling Stones in 1965 (USA), The Lovin' Spoonful in 1967 (USA), Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1969 (USA) and with a slight Fairport tie-in - Matthews Southern Comfort in 1970 in the UK. 

But with their three 1969 albums (all on Island Records) - England's Fairport Convention practically introduced Folk-Rock to the world as well the gigantic singer-songwriter talents of vocalist Sandy Denny and guitarist Richard Thompson. "Liege & Lief" was some achievement really. Here are the Rakish Paddies, Crazy Man Michaels and Farmers Tossing Feathers...

Released May 2002 - the single CD version of "Liege & Lief" by FAIRPORT CONVENTION on Universal/Island Remasters IMCD 291 (Barcode 731458692928) breaks down as follows (55:21 minutes);

1. Come All Ye [Sandy Denny and Ashley Hutchings song]

2. Reynardine [Traditional Air Arranged By Fairport Convention]

3. Matty Groves [Traditional Air Arranged By Fairport Convention]

4. Farewell, Farewell [Richard Thompson song]

5. The Deserter [Traditional Air Arranged By Fairport Convention] - Side 2

6. Medley: The Lark In The Morning, Rakish Paddy, Foxhunter's Jig, Toss The Feathers [Traditional Air Arranged By Fairport Convention]

7. Tam Lin [Traditional Air Arranged By Dave Swarbrick]

8. Crazy Man Michael [Dave Swarbrick/Richard Thompson song]

Tracks 1 to 8 are their 4th album "Liege & Lief" - released December 1969 in the UK on Island Records ILPS 9115 and May 1970 in the USA on A&M Records SP 4257.

9. Sir Patrick Spens (Sandy Denny Vocal Version) [Traditional Air Arranged By Fairport Convention]

10. Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood (Take 1) [Traditional Air Arranged By Sandy Denny, Words by Richard Farina]

Both 9 and 10 are PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED (Take 4 of "Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood" was released on the 1986 retrospective box "Who Knows Where The Time Goes" - not Take 1)

The 16-page booklet on this single-disc remaster is a pretty affair - colour montages of the band, historic references and plates on subjects that inspired the songs, liner notes by original Producer JOE BOYD and band member ASHLEY HUTCHINGS remembering the making of. GARY MOORE carried out the gorgeous and warm remaster with both Joe Boyd and Ashley Hutchings in attendance. Moore's name has graced Thin Lizzy, Elton John and T.Rex remasters for Universal and his much-praised work is of the same calibre here - warm, detailed and full of life.

Recorded across 4 sessions (16, 22, 29 October and 1 November) - the band was Sandy Denny (Vocals), Richard Thompson and Simon Nicols (Lead Guitars), Dave Swarbrick (Violin and Viola), Ashley Hutchings (Bass) and Dave Mattacks (Drums). Retreating to a large country house called 'Farley Chamberlayne' in Hampshire to recover from a horrific car crash that took the life of Drummer Martin Lamble and Richard Thompson's girlfriend Jeannie Taylor - the circumstances surrounding the recordings couldn't have been worse (on the verge of breaking up). Yet somehow digging down deep into English Roots for material and the warmth of the area and place seemed to heal and galvanize the proceedings. And although "Liege & Lief" is categorized as 'Folk' (the jigs of "Toss the Feathers" are purely that) - I've never heard the album in that straightjacket way and many Rock buyers thought so too. For us Folk-Rock had arrived.

Side One opens with an absolute belter "Come All Ye" - a Denny/Hutchings song that sounds like its been in someone's repertoire for 300 years or so - and just now dusted off for the modern world. The first Traditional "Reynardine" is a ballad where 'old music is played on new instruments' - floating like its haze on a country river in the morning. The eight-minute "Matty Groves" is likely to send many an English schoolteacher into a Morris Dance - Dave Swarbrick's Violin and Richard Thompson's guitar licks trading off a gorgeous Sandy Denny vocal. In fact we must talk about Sandy. When Australian Trevor Lucas joined with her in Fotheringay - the two shared lead vocals - and while he has a fabulous voice - Sandy Denny had a tone that felt like vocal honey. Her English charm and sincerity seemed unforced, real and effortless. When she begins the gorgeous Side One finisher "Farewell, Farewell" - there's a faint croak in her notes - yet it works precisely because it's so fragile (a little like herself). Ghosts of Sandy Denny fill every Kate Rusby album.

"The Deserter" is a soldier's lament given a Swarbrick/Thompson background of floating Violin and plucked Guitars. The three-part "Medley" leads us into proper Folk Music with the added backbeat of drums. You can just hear a whole pub chucking aside their wooden stools as they prance about to the jigs and reels like - well drunken sailors. "Tam Lin" and the pretty "Crazy Man Michael" bring proceedings to the close with history and melody. Of the two extras - there's a barnstormer. The ten-minute "Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood" (based on "She Moves Through The Fair") is a trippy Acid Folk workout where a lone bongo is accompanied by a violin and what sounds like a fuzzed-up Jews harp - all of it wrapped around sublime Sandy vocals. It's a properly fabulous extra.

Groundbreaking, first past the post and now a timeless classic - "Liege & Lief" has stood the test of musical time. And this cheap-as-chips deep-in-the-purse CD remaster does that legend proud and cries out for a place in your straw bed and homemade ale casket...

"A Beard Of Stars" by TYRANNOSAURUS REX [feat Marc Bolan, Mickey Finn and Steve Took] (2004 Universal/A&M/Straight Ahead Productions Ltd. 'Expanded Edition' CD Reissue - Gary Moore Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Woodland Bop..." 

The final TYRANNOSAURUS REX LP "A Beard Of Stars" was released March 1970 and achieved an impressive No. 13 placing on the British LP charts. But it marked an end a new beginning. The four-album hippy-dip Folk-Rock duo of Marc Bolan and Steve Took would be soon trounced and forgotten for Bolanmania when Marc and Mickey Finn (who'd come on board September 1969 for "Beard" after Took was dropped) went into the Glam Rock monster that would become T. REX. 

The wind cheetahs, dragon's ears and mighty dawn dart warbling of "A Beard Of Stars" must have seemed eons away and so far ago when the seriously hooky Pop-Rock of "Ride A White Swan" was released only months later in October 1970 on Fly Records BUG 1 – a No. 2 smash for the newly anointed T. REX. moniker. Soon pretty painter and bongo-wielding MICKEY FINN and the equally photogenic always-cultish MARC BOLAN would be making male and female hearts pulse a tad faster up and down the land and for the next few years to come. 

This fourth and last Tyrannosaurus Rex album on England’s Regal Zonophone Records is where that superb transition to 'Electric Warrior' truly began and you’d have to say that this generous and superb-sounding Gary Moore CD Remaster has done that forgotten LP a solid. Here are the starry details...

UK released October 2004 (reissued August 2011) - "A Beard Of Stars" by TYRANNOSAURUS REX on Universal/A&M/Straight Ahead Productions Ltd. 982 251-2 (Barcode 602498225127) is an 'Expanded Edition' CD Remaster with 16 Bonus Tracks and plays out as follows (75:47 minutes): 

1. Prelude 

2. A Daye Laye 

3. Woodland Bop 

4. Fist Heart Mighty Dawn Dart 

5. Pavilions Of Sun 

6. Organ Blues 

7. By The Light of The Magical Moon

8. Wind Cheetah 

9. A Beard Of Stars [Side 2] 

10. Great Horse 

11. Dragon's Ear 

12.  Lofty Skies

13. Dove

14. Elemental Child 

Tracks 1 to 14 are their fourth and final studio album "A Beard Of Stars" - released March 1970 in the UK on Regal Zonophone SLRZ 1013. The 1st US version was released June 1970 on Blue Thumb BTS 18 as the same 14-track LP - but in December 1970 - it was re-issued again on Blue Thumb BTS 18 - but this time came with a bonus single - the British hit "Ride A White Swan" b/w "Is It Love" (Blue Thumb SP-6115). The American 'Bonus' 45 was credited to Tyrannosaurus Rex and had only two tracks - the British 45 was credited to T. REX and had a second B-side - a cover version of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues". 

BONUS TRACKS: 

15. III Starred Man (Take 1)

16. Demon Queen (Take 1)

17. Once Upon The Seas Of Abyssinia (Take 1)

18. Blessed Wild Apple Girl (Take 1)

19. Find A Little Wood (Take 1)

20. A Daye Laye (Take 1)

21. Fist Heart Mighty Dawn Dart (Take 2)

22. Organ Blues (Take 2)

23. Wind Cheetah (Take 4)

24. A Beard Of Stars (Take 1) 

25. Great Horse (Take 1) 

26. Dragons Ear (Take 1 & Take 2)

27. Dove (Take 5)

28. Elemental Child Parts 1 & 2 (Take 1)

29. By The Light Of The Magical Moon (Take 3)

30. Prelude (Take 1)

MARC BOLAN - Lead Vocals, Guitar, Organ and Bass

MICKEY FINN - Backing Vocals, Moroccan Clay Drums, Tabla, Bass and Finger Cymbals

The rare lyric insert that came with Regal Zonophone SLRZ 1013 is reproduced on Page 4 of the 16-page booklet along with loads of black and white photos of the photogenic duo and memorabilia including the Melody Maker advert where Bolan went looking for 'a gentle young guy who can play percussion'. Renowned Bolan and T. Rex expert MARK PAYTRESS has provided the superb liner notes explaining how some of the outtakes are Steve Took songs Bolan chopped once Mickey Finn came on board. But the big news here is a stunning GARY MOORE Remaster - an Audio Engineer I've name-checked many times for his huge amounts of work across a large number of Universal's labels. Primarily Acoustic - the strings rattle - the bongos bong and Bolan's expressive and unique voice floats over proceedings like an elf on helium gas. 

With only Bolan's face on the front cover of the original LP (Mickey Finn's handsome visage graces the rear) - you might think "A Beard Of Stars" is a 'solo' album and with all tunes written by Bolan - at times it feels like that - his voice and presence dominating everything. Highlights include "Woodland Bop"  which he would use as one of the B-sides to "Hot Love" in February 1971 whilst the trio of "Woodland Bop", "Fist Heart Mighty Dawn Dart" and the uber-rare Tyrannosaurus Rex UK 7" single "By The Light Of The Magical Moon" would all turn up on the June 1971 compilation LP "Bolan Boogie" - a UK No.1. 

Backwards guitars fill out the short but sweet "A Day Laye" while he urges you to 'come into my garden lady love' on "Pavilions Of Sun" (did that wicked electric guitar break). "Organ Blues" tells us there's 'gold in the mountains and people living in the sea' (know what you mean mate) while you can so hear why Regal Zonophone thought "By The Light Of The Magical Moon" would be a good single for the LP (the acoustic and electric guitar licks are wonderfully clear). "Wind Cheetah" is probably the most hippy tune on here - a sort of Incredible String Band whine on an organ with layered voices. "Great Horse" sees his lyrical muse go wild as a 'strange beastie from the legend lair' seems to be master with his 'skull powdered cord'. I love the wild and grungy electric guitar finisher "Elemental Child" - a hooky little rocker that pointed the way to "T. Rex" in December 1970 and "Electric Warrior" in September 1971. I wish there was more of this on the album. Amidst the Bonus Tracks are the Steve Took Psychedelic contributions of "Once Upon The Sea Of Abyssinia" and "Find A Little Wood". 

"A Beard Of Stars" is probably the most accomplished and 'together' of the Tyrannosaurus Rex foursome of LPs - and this excellent 2004 CD Remaster of it makes that long forgotten music from 1970 ripe for rediscovery in my books.

Rock on you Wizard in the Lofty Skies - we the Children of Rarn salute you...