"Home Free/Souvenirs" by DAN FOGELBERG - 1972 and 1974 Debut and Second Studio Albums featuring Guests Joe Walsh, Eagles (Henley, Meisner and Frey), Graham Nash, Members of Stephen Stills' Manassas and more (May 2006 UK Beat Goes On (BGO) Compilation - 2LPs onto 2CDs - Andrew Thompson Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...When Faced With The Past...The Strongest Man Cries…"

Dan Fogelberg’s particular way with a melody has always tugged at my heart strings – and this genuinely classy Beat Goes On 2CD reissue of his first two albums from the early Seventies – only hammers home that great way he had with words about hurt and love – and all of it wrapped up in a fiendishly hooky Eagles-like Country Rock tune. Here are the hickory groves, changing horses and songs from half mountain…

UK released May 2006 - "Home Free/Souvenirs" by DAN FOGELBERG on Beat Goes On BGOCD 709 (Barcode 5017261207098) offers two albums from 1972 and 1974 (USA) remastered onto two CDs and breaks down as follows:

Disc 1 (46:58 minutes):

1. To The Morning

2. Stars

3. More Than Ever

4. Be On Your Way

5. Hickory Grove

6. Long Way Home ((Live In The Country) [Side 2]

7. Looking For A Lady

8. Anyway I Love You

9. Wysteria

10. The River

Tracks 1 to 9 are his debut album “Home Free” issued in the USA in October 1972 on Columbia KC 31751 and 1974 in the UK on Epic S EPC 31847 (re-issued in July 1976 on Epic 80697 in the UK).

[Note: earlier CD issues of this album have tended to use a ‘remixed’ version of the album that was done in the Eighties. This CD uses the original master tape - so is the album as heard on release].

Disc 2 (43:29 minutes):

1. Part Of The Plan

2. Illinois

3. Changing Horses

4. Better Change

5. Souvenirs

6. The Long Way

7. As The Raven Flies [Side 2]

8. Song From Half Mountain

9. Morning Sky

10. (Someone’s Been) Telling You Stories

11. There’s A Place In The World For A Gambler

Tracks 1 to 11 are his 2nd LP released December 1974 in the USA on Full Moon Records PC 35872 and March 1975 in the UK on Epic EPC 80623.

His debut is good rather than being great but already had his melody strengths on show - a sort of singer-songwriter lone Eagles persona. Tracks like the piano opener “To The Morning” and the largely acoustic “Be On Your Way” are melancholic but also beautiful in their way. It’s been years since I first heard these songs (now sounding crystal clear) and a full forty years plus - it’s impressive stuff (like a male Judee Sill). But things took a quantum leap with LP number two...

With guest appearances on illustrious albums like “So What” by Joe Walsh, “Late For The Sky” by Jackson Browne and “Peace On You” by Roger McGuinn of The Byrds – Dan Fogelberg was already moving in elevated circles when he went to make the gorgeous “Souvenirs” album. Packed with catchy tunes and even a chart hit or two - this hugely polished effort put the album into the Top 50 charts in late 1974. “Part Of The Plan” was even lifted as a 7” single and did reasonably well.

Produced by JOE WALSH - “Souvenirs” featuring most of the Eagles (Henley, Meisner, Frey), Graham Nash, Kenny Passarelli, Russ Kunkel, Joe Lala and Al Perkins - the musician credits reads like a whose who of what was hot at the time. In the USA it was issued as a gatefold sleeve but in the UK as a single sleeve with a lyric insert. This CD reproduces the inner American artwork (a painting of his) and the lyrics for both LPs. The John Tobler liner notes are excellent (features an interview with Joe Walsh).

But the big news for me is the sound. I had “Souvenirs” on a 2007 Japanese remaster and 5” card repro sleeve - and that was good - this remaster is light years better. ANDREW THOMPSON did the remaster at Sound Mastering in London (he handles large numbers of BGO’s reissues) and his transfer here has brought out Walsh’s accomplished original production values. You can hear the squeaking of strings, air around the instruments - even the normally muddied “Part Of The Plan” sounds more open. There are so many goodies on here - a plaintive “The Long Way” and the gorgeous title track “Souvenirs” (lyrics from it title this review). “Song From Half Mountain” where he plays all the instruments himself is so pretty and the chugging Eagles Rock of “Someone’s Been telling You Stories”. “Changing Horses” and “Better Change” still stand up as great melodies - only the countrified “Morning Sky” lets the side down. All in all - moving stuff.

I posted a note on Fogelberg’s website when he sadly succumbed to cancer in December 2007 - yet another teenage hero of mine gone to the great gig in the sky.

“There’s a song in the heart of a woman...that only the truest of loves can release. Set it free...” These lyrics from the album finisher “There’s A Place In The World For A Gambler” get me to this day - nearly 40 years after the event. My younger sister Cathy even described him once as ‘beautiful’.

Well - now Dan is free - and this beautiful-sounded 2CD does his memory proud...

"Seed Of Memory" by TERRY REID. A Review Of His 4th Album From 1976 Now Remastered Onto CD In 2004 (Reissued 2013) by Beat Goes On.

This review is part of my Series "SOUNDS GOOD: Exceptional CD Remasters 1970s Rock And Pop" Download Book available to buy on Amazon to either your PC or Mac (it will download the Kindle software to read the book for free to your toolbar). Click on the link below to go my Author's Page for this and other related publications:

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Originally released on CD in May 2004 - this September 2013 reissue (again on the excellent Beat Goes On label) gives me a damn good excuse to review this cool and overlooked nugget of an album.

The vinyl LP was originally released June 1976 in the UK on ABC Records ABCL 5162 (ABCD-935 in the USA) and was his 4th label outing. His 1968 US debut LP on Epic "Bang Bang You're Terry Reid" and the UK follow up on Columbia "Terry Reid" from 1969 marked his more rocking side - while the mellow and slinky "River" from 1973 on Atlantic is more akin to what you get here.

Living in the USA at the time - his buddy GRAHAM NASH produced and brought on board an array of West Coast top players for "Seed Of Memory". Names like DAVID LINDLEY, AL PERKINS and TIM WEISBERG give the proceedings a very Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young feel with a little Boz Scaggs "Silk Degrees" and Neil Young's "On The Beach" thrown in for good measure (if that makes sense).

Reid famously turned down the lead vocalist spot in both Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple - and why they wanted him is in evidence here - his raspy pipes in full-on Eddie Hinton/Frankie Miller mode. All tracks are self-penned and it's mellow one moment, sexy the next and so on. The languid acoustic strumming of "Brave Awakening" feels like a mid-Seventies CSYN or Graham Nash song while "The Way You Walk" is the lone rocker - feeling like Neil Young let loose in the studio (great stuff). And his ability to pen a moving and plaintive ballad goes all the way back to his first US 45 "Mayday" (off "Terry Reid") on Epic 10498 which is fabulous stuff - that skill reappears on one of the album's undoubted highlights "To Be Treated Rite". Silly spelling of 'right' notwithstanding - it feels huge even now - acoustics and strings swirling around with a lonesome Bob Dylan harmonica refrain too (lyrics from it title this review).

ABC tried a 7" single by issuing the wonderfully funky Rock/Soul/Reggae vibe of "Ooh Baby (Make Me Feel So Young)" backed with "Brave Awakening" on the B in August 1976 on ABC 4137 - but it tanked despite being such a good track and as commercial as anything around at the time. "The Frame" is slinky Steely Dan/Boz Scaggs territory with lovely brass fills. At first the 7:21 minutes of the album finisher "Fooling You" feels overly long and slightly schmoozy but it works it ways into you - especially the gorgeous harmony vocals with Nash and James Brown's main man Fred Wesley floating in on some lovely horn. So why don't you know about this record? ABC ran into financial difficulties soon after the album was released and "Seed" never received the due plug it deserved (the terrible cover artwork didn't help either). And its been kind of underground ever since..

It doesn't say who remastered this Beat Goes On CD on BGOCD619 (43:15 minutes) - but the sound is really great - so well done - full of power and never compressed. It was superbly produced in 1976 anyway - but the remaster has brought that out big time.

Reid made another album for Capitol in 1979 called "Rogue Waves" (also re-issued in 2004 by BGO) and then a WEA album in 1991 called "The Driver" (which features a storming cover of the old Sixties fave "Gimme Some Loving"). Since then its been occasional live appearances to adoring audiences.

A cracking good album that you will return to again and again and make you want to track down everything he's ever done.
This is a good place to start that journey...