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RATING:
Material: ***
Audio: *** to ****
Presentation: **** to *****
"…Fly Away Home…"
The live double-album in the Seventies was always an event – a way for a band to take those great studio efforts before it and explode them on stage. Artists usually threw in a few tasty cover versions maybe, a new song or two perhaps to satiate loyal fans while individual musicianship had the room not just to spread out - but seriously impress. So it is with a heavy heart that I inform my beloved readers that after five studio sets with their natural home – A&M Records – The Ozark Mountain Daredevils' first live double from September 1978 (finishing their tenure with A&M) was a downer-ending to their Country Rock journey - and as I recall at the time for devotees like me - a major damp squid.
Complete with retro B-movie style artwork front and rear "It's Alive" was also rather dated and at just over sixty-minutes – not particularly generous either. While the self-titled studio debut from 1973 and its even better 1974 follow-up "It'll Shine When It Shines" felt fresh, melodic, and delivered serious fun (5 of the 16 come from those albums) – by the time you cut to four and five years later – a malaise had crept into their weaker songs and a harder musical landscape made The Ozarks sound lame even silly. Worse – I believe "It's Alive" was recorded on tour with Fleetwood Mac (April 1978) who were "Rumours" monstrous at the time so could only play stadiums. So, instead of intimacy which would have served their homegrown acoustic instruments and yee-haw sound well – you get that horrible huge crowd noise – an in the distance vibe - where the sound is smothered by miles of dead air and any lack of real punch.
The new Remaster here carried out by the experienced Audio Engineer ANDREW THOMPSON of England's Beat Goes On Records (aka BGO Records) tries its best with what is on offer – but only some songs feel fuller while others just sound slightly better and strangely (please forgive the pun) un-alive. I think it was the venues because although the singers try repartee with the audience – it feels like they are in another state. At least the 2024 presentation is top notch – card slipcase – 16-page booklet with new JOHN O'REGAN liner notes – the inner gatefold artwork reproduced etc. Let's get to the Chicken Trains…
UK released Friday, 23 February 2024 - "It's Alive" by THE OZARK MOUNTAIN DAREDEVILS on Beat Goes On Records (BGO) BGOCD1511 (Barcode 5017261215116) is a straightforward reissue and remaster of a Double Live Album from 1978 onto 1CD and plays out as follows (60:09 minutes):
1. Walkin' Down The Road [Side 1]
2. Black Sky
3. You Know Like I Know
4. River To The Sun
5. Satisfied Mind [Side 2]
6. Fly Away Home
7. Horse Trader
8. Followin' The Way That I Feel
9. Chicken Train [Side 3]
10. Ooh Boys (It's Hot)
11. Homemade Wine
12. Commercial Success
13. Jackie Blue [Side 4]
14. Noah
15. If You Wanna Get To Heaven
16. It's All Over Now
Tracks 1 to 16 are their sixth album (and first live) "It's Alive" – a Live Double-Album released September 1978 in the USA on A&M Records SP-6006 and September 1978 in the UK on A&M Records AMLM 66006. Produced by THE OZARK MOUNTAIN DAREDEVILS - it peaked at No.176 on the US Billboard album charts (didn't chart UK)
THE OZARK MOUNTAIN DAREDEVILS were:
LARRY LEE – Drums, Piano, Guitar
JOHN DILLON -Guitars, piano, Fiddle and Mouthbow
MIKE GRANDA – Bass and Guitar
STEVE CASH – Harmonica
RUNE WALLA – Guitar and Banjo
STEVE CANADAY – Guitar, Bass and Drums
RUELL CHAPPELL – Keyboards
JERRY MILLS - Mandolin
The outer card slipcase and glossy 16-page booklet lend the release a classy look and come resplendent with new liner notes from JOHN O'REGAN (dated December 2023). O'Regan is good at these releases and gives a detailed overview not just of the five studio efforts that preceded "It's Alive" - but the Live Double itself, their departure from A&M Records to Columbia Records in 1980 and beyond into the present day and failed/successful solo efforts and even personal loses. The inner gatefold artwork is reproduced in the centre page spread and the valiant Remaster is care of ANDREW THOMPSON which to my ears has improved most of it and even made a fist of that distance that deadend the original issue. To the music…
Of the sixteen-track set – five were new – three originals and two covers. The cover versions consisted of an almost Acapella go at "Satisfied Mind" – the 1963 Porter Wagoner song from his RCA Camden LP "A Satisfied Mind". Written by Guitarist Jack Rhodes and Fiddle Player Red Hayes – it has become something of a Country standard ever since first touched upon by Glen Campbell in 1968 on Capitol Records. While the other fifteen songs are Live – their cover version of "Satisfied Mind" was recorded at "…the men’s shower, McDonald Arena, Springfield, Missouri…" so it (funny enough) feels like a studio outtake and is a bit of a hoot and reminder of their collective vocal power. Far better is the 2LP finisher – the other cover version – a take on the Bobby Womack classic "It's All Over Now" (also made famous by The Rolling Stones) where the electric guitar side of the band gets to Rock out and have some long-needed fun. The three newbies are a Steve Canady song called "Horse Trader" alongside "Commercial Success" (Steve Cash) and "Ooh Boys (It's Hot)" by Mike Granda. They are good-ish but never rise to great - the not-so subtle jab at the record industry in "Commercial Success" addressing A&M constantly begging them for another "Jackie Blue" radio-friendly jangle hit and the band not reciprocating (their drunken performance on a TV show the month of the live double's release seen by a Company man led to their contract not being renewed).
The self-titled December 1973 debut is represented by three – the get in the Country Mood sway of "Black Sky" and the clucking and mouthbow-ing "Chicken Train" (both by Steve Cash) and the more melodic ballad "If You Wanna Get To Heaven" – a co-write between Cash and John Dillon. Platter number two "It'll Shine When It Shines" from December 1974 strangely only gets two – the big hit that truly put them and their Country Rock sound on the map "Jackie Blue" and the double-album's opener "Walkin' Down The Road". I would have liked 2nd LP nuggets like "E.E. Lawson", "You Make It Right" or even "Look Away". Their third studio set "The Car Over The Lake Album" from September 1975 is ignored entirely but the fourth "Men From Earth" from September 1976 is flush with four - "Fly Away Home" and "Noah" (John Dillon songs) with "You Know Like I Know" and "Homemade Wine" (Larry Lee songs). The final studio set "Don't Look Down" from October 1977 gets a couplet – the Larry Lee penned "Followin' The Way That I Feel" and the Dillon/Cash co-written "River To The Sun".
Ozark Mountain Daredevil fans will love the fact that "It's Alive" is at last out there on CD again and in proper style, but all others should go back to their sexier and more melodic studio basics – BGOCD648 that has the self-titled debut and "It'll Shine When It Shines" on 1CD - while BGOCD737 gives you three and four "The Car Over The Lake Album" and "Men From Earth" also on 1CD – both sets with great Audio.
Maybe in the future England's Beat Goes On Records (aka BGO Records) will reissue the lone catalogue hole from the A&M years - "Don't Look Down" with some of those rare B-sides from the early years or any other straggler goodies. We shall Fly Away Home then…
