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This Review and 364 More Like It
Are Available In My E-Book
GIMME SHELTER!
CLASSIC 1960s ROCK ON CD
And Other Genres Thereabouts
Your All-Genres Guide To
Exceptional Reissues and Remasters
All Reviews From The Discs
No Need To be Nervous!
(No Cut and Paste Crap)
"...Ready When You
Are..."
Be
still my beating heart and calm down you nincompoop of yesteryear.
When
I saw this compilation on the advance schedules of Ace Records, I knew I had to
own it. I've been a lifetime fan of Mr. Prendergast and his fantastic
Soundtrack/TV Music (John Barry to you) and this is the kind of CD and archival
release that gets me weak in my already knackered knees.
And
I am thrilled to say that "The More Things Change: Film, TV & Studio
Work 1968-1972" by JOHN BARRY has kept up its side of the lustful digital bargain –
great tracks, gorgeous sound and world-class annotation from BOB STANLEY –
friend to the common man and recently contacted by The Vatican to fill in a
Sainthood Application Form. To the sinful details...
UK
released Friday 25 March 2022 - "The More Things Change: Film, TV &
Studio Work 1968-1972" by JOHN BARRY on Ace Records CDTOP 1615 (Barcode 029667105323) is
a 22-Track CD Compilation of Remasters that plays out as follows (65:56
minutes):
Side
1:
1.
Midnight Cowboy [Side 1]
2.
We Have All The Time in The World
3.
Theme From 'Romance For Guitar And Orchestra' from "Deadfall"
4.
Who Will Buy My Yesterdays
5.
Fun City
6.
The Lion In Winter – Part 1
7.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
8.
Theme From "The Appointment"
9.
Try
10.
The More Things Change
11.
Afternoon
NOTES
on the LP:
Tracks
1 to 11 make up all but the last track of the February 1970 UK LP "Ready
When You Are, J.B. - John Barry Plays His Great Movie Hits" on CBS Records
63592 (Columbia CS 1003 in the USA). The missing last song on Side 2 was his re-recording
of "Born Free" from the 1967 CBS LP "John Barry Conducts His
Greatest Movie Hits", but Ace have excluded it as the song is readily
available elsewhere – overdone even.
Tracks 3, 4, 8, 10 and 11 were exclusive
to the "Ready When... " LP, the other cuts being previously
issued 45-single sides. Details as follows:
Track
1 is an August 1969 UK 45-single on CBS Records 4468, A-side, Instrumental –
see also Track 5 for the B-side
Track
2 is a November 1969 UK 45-single on CBS Records 4680, Instrumental B-side of "On
Her Majesty's Secret Service") – see also Track 7 for the A-side
Track
5 is an August 1969 UK 45-single on CBS Records 4468, Instrumental B-side of "Midnight
Cowboy") – for A-side see Track 1
Track
6 is January 1969 UK 45-single on CBS Records 3935, A-side
Track
7 a November 1969 UK 45-single on CBS Records 4680, Instrumental A-side – see also Track 2 for the B-side
Track
9 is from the November 1969 Original Soundtrack Recording LP to "On Her
Majesty's Secret Service" on United Artists UAS 29020 in Stereo
BONUSES:
12.
A Little Old-Fashioned Nostalgia
13.
Theme From "The Persuaders"
14.
Petulia
15.
Theme From "Walkabout"
16.
Follow Follow
17.
Diamonds Are Forever [1972 Instrumental Remake]
18.
Highway 101
19.
The Adventurer (Theme From The TV Series)
20.
This Way Mary
21.
The Children
22.
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland Suite
NOTES
Tracks
12, 14 and 18 are from the 1968 US LP "Petulia – Original Motion Picture
Soundtrack" on Warner Brothers/Seven Arts Records WS 1755 in Stereo (no UK
issue)
Track
13 is a September 1971 UK 45-single on CBS Records 7469, A-side – the B-side is
"The Girl With The Sun In Her Hair" (1971 Version) and is not on this
compilation
Tracks
15 and 21 recorded 1970, but the October 1971 film soundtrack to "Walkabout"
was never released on vinyl anywhere. Original mastertapes found and reissued
December 2016 in Australia onto CD by Roundtable Records on The Roundtable
PM001CD
Tracks
19 and 16 are the A&B-sides of a September 1972 UK 45-single on Polydor
2058-275 (note, 19 is the A-side, 16 the B)
Tracks
20 and 17 are the A&B-sides of a May 1972 UK 45-single on Polydor 2058-216
(note, 20 is the A-side, 17 the B)
Track
22 is a Suite of 7:05 minutes exclusive to the 1972 UK LP "The Concert
John Barry" on Polydor 2383 156
Ace
has smartly centred this CD around the brilliant and completely forgotten February
1970 compilation LP "Ready When You Are, J.B. - John Barry Plays His Great
Movie Hits" (pictured on the last page of the booklet). As explained above
in the NOTES, it had 12 tracks and all except "Born Free" are here.
When
I reviewed the October 2016 Sony/Legacy budget-priced 3CD compilation "The
Real…John Barry", I outlined in the review that it contains all of that
album barring one song "We Have All The Time In The World" – which
Ace has included here for the first time (a real highlight it is too, probably
the best on the entire disc). Not so smartly in my opinion – they have left off
the last song on Side 2 – the remake of "Born Free" which
frustratingly is on "The Real…John Barry" 3CD set.
But
back to the album - "Ready When You Are, J.B...." is a forgotten and
lost nugget from the decade's first year that rarely ever gets mentioned
outside of Soundtrack circles. But as a musical and evocative listen, it's
practically flawless and along with its new 1969 re-recordings of film themes,
it also offers other exclusive JB tracks like "The More Things
Change" and "Afternoon" that aren't on anything else. "Fun
City" and the organ-driven Part 1 of "Lion In Winter" will also
thrill smoking-jacket lounge-music lizards as they shimmy across the lush pile
to that air stewardess they met on the Rothmans advert shoot.
There
was a US-Only CD release of the album in 1998 on Columbia Special Products/Peg
Recordings PEG043 (Barcode 706404004322) but it's been deleted decades now and
was at times attracting prices in excess of $150. So Ace Records of the UK has done well here in March 2022. Tracks
like "Theme From Romance For Guitar And Orchestra" literally swoop
and preen across your living room with all that John Barry soundscape
gorgeousness - Remastered beautifully by Audio Engineer NICK ROBBINS - the chunes accompanied by truly superb liner notes (20-pages of them) from big-time fan BOB STANLEY. Loving
those foreign picture sleeves too for "Midnight
Cowboy" with Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman and "The Persuaders"
TV show with Roger Moore and Tony Curtis. Very cool.
Smart
choices go to the inclusion of the A&B-sides of two rare 45s from 1972 on
Polydor that are very hard-to-find and pricey JB rarities – the Mary Queen Of
Scots based "This Way Mary" with the re-recorded synth-punching
version of "Diamonds Are Forever" on the flipside. The other is the
ITC TV show theme "The Adventurer" with its exclusive "Follow
Follow" B-side. There are also three from the underrepresented "Petulia
– Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" and those two cuts from the uber-rare
"Walkabout" Soundtrack will be new to anyone who didn’t invest in The
Roundtable CD put out exclusively in Australia.
I
love this CD and if ever an artist deserved a pronto Volumes 2 and 3, then John
Barry Prendergast is that dapper chap. Fantastically good and one of my
Reissues of the Year 2022 – in with a bullet from an Ipcress File...
