"Seven Bridges Road: The Complete Recordings" by STEVE YOUNG (May 2017 Ace Records CD Reissue - Duncan Cowell Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Stars In The Southern Sky..."

'Outlaw Country' - 'Country Rock' - these things were still being invented in 1972 when Reprise Records sneaked out MS 2018 in July of that year. Subsequently the misunderstood 'new' Country sound of "Seven Bridges Road" by Georgia's Steve Young received scant promotion or airplay and promptly whispered into the wind like a smoke trace from his Southern cigarette.

The tune itself wasn't new. Young had first recorded "Seven Bridges Road" as "7 Bridges Road" on his debut album "Rock Salt & Nails" released back in March 1969 on A&M Records SP 4177. Yet despite indifference shown by radio and public alike - other artists began to notice the warmth of the melody in the title song and soon a slew of covers followed. Joan Baez put it on her 1969 platter "One Day At A Time" - Rita Coolidge slotted "Seven Bridges Road" onto the flip-side of her "Ain't That Peculiar" single in 1971 - and then the big one nearly ten years later - the Eagles featured "Seven Bridges Road" as one of the exclusive tracks on their huge "Eagles Live" double-set in 1981 thereby allowing Steve Young to live off its royalties for decades after (other artists like Atlanta, Alan Jackson, Iain Matthews, Dolly Parton and more have also covered the plaintive tune).

His legendary second album "Seven Bridges Road" was in fact issued three times – and its complicated history needs some explanation. Released from his contract with an indifferent Reprise and picked up by a small enthusiastic independent - the second LP pressing came in July 1975 on Blue Canyon Records in the USA – that issue featuring two different songs on Side 1. But the rejiggered album again sold as little as its predecessor. Finally an almost complete overhaul arrived in August 1981 when Young re-recorded five of the songs for Rounder Records in the USA – but commercially – again no joy.

On top of that there was also a lone seven-inch single recorded before the album sessions with Ry Cooder co-producing. Promo-only – and rare as a conscience in Donald Trump's White House - it's also included here too. So bringing it all back to its Country home (so to speak) - that's where this excellent CD compilation from reissue champs Ace Records comes swaggering in. Here are the boozy, broody details...

UK released 26 May 2017 - "Seven Bridges Road: The Complete Recordings" by STEVE YOUNG on Ace Records CDCHD 1496 (Barcode 029667078825) is a 21-track CD compilation of Remasters that plays out as follows (68:01 minutes):

1. Seven Bridges Road [Side 1]

2. My Oklahoma

3. The White Trash Song

4. I Begin To See Design

5. One Car Funeral Procession

6. Long Way To Hollywood

7. Many Rivers [Side 2]

8. Lonesome Or'ry And Mean

9. Come Sit By Me

10. True Note

11. Ragtime Blue Guitar

12. Montgomery In The Rain

Tracks 1 to 12 are his second studio album "Seven Bridges Road" - released July 1972 in the USA on Reprise Records MS 2081 (no UK issue). Produced by PAUL TANNEN - it didn't chart.

BONUS TRACKS:

13. The White Trash Song (1975 Re-Recording)

14. I Can't Hold Myself In Line (1972 Session Outtake, cover of a Merle Haggard song)

Tracks 13 and 14 were issued on the July 1975 USA LP reissue of "Seven Bridges Road" on Blue Canyon Records BCS 505. That LP was also issued in the UK October 1976 on Sonet Records SNTF 705. Removing tracks 3 and 4 on Side 1 of the 1972 version and replacing them with Tracks 13 and 14 will allow you to sequence that 1975 version. CHARLIE DANIELS is also listed as one of the 'pickers' on this version of the LP. 

15. Seven Bridges Road [1981 Re-record]

16. Down In The Flood [Bob Dylan cover]

17. Ballad Of William Sycamore [Steve Young song]

18. Wild Goose [Terry Gilkyson cover]

19. Days Of '49 [Bob Dylan song]

Tracks 15 to 19 are featured on the third pressing of "Seven Bridges Road" - released August 1981 in the USA on Rounder Records 3058. That 10-track variant of the LP can be sequenced as follows:

Side 1: 15, 12, 11, 6 and 16

Side 2: 17, 2, 18, 19 and 8

20. Down In The Flood (released as "Crash On The Levee")

21. The White Trash Song (released as "Sea Rock City (There's A High Tide A Risin')"

Tracks 20 and 21 released as a Promo-Only US 7" single on Reprise 0946 in 1972 – both sides recorded before the album and co-produced by ANDREW WICKMAN and RY COODER (Cooder on Bottleneck Guitar). No known stock copies exist.

The 16-page booklet with new liner notes by GARTH CARTWRIGHT make a good fist of explaining the complicated release history of the 1972 album as well as showing the artwork for all three releases (there's even a signed copy of the original repro'd on Page 3). DUNCAN COWELL has done the mastering and while the album sounds great with lovely clarity on those acoustic strums - the remixed 1981 Rounder material has a weird feel - like it was dubbed off the record. Bizarrely the 7" single (tracks 20 and 21) actually come out better and I'd swear that's Cooder's trademark Bottleneck style on "The White Trash Song" changed by some Reprise Records executive to read "Crash On The Levee" without the artists permission let alone knowledge (first time Young knew of it was when he saw a promo copy of the single - a 45 that was never apparently taken to stock copy issue). To the music...

The problem with albums of legend is that there are times when they actually have to live up that mythical reputation. I think Cartwright's assertion that Steve Young should be bandied about in the same breath as Gram Parsons or even Bob Dylan and Nick Drake is frankly stretching belief to the limit. Is this a masterpiece - I don't think so. But there are moments and songs on here when you can 'so' hear why that rep has built up across the years - the 'thinking about the muddy roads' and 'broken down cars in my yard' racing honky-tonkin' guitars of "The White Trash Song" - the lonesome Harmonica wail of "I Begin To See Design" where he never misses the night life now that marriage has made him a different man - and a fave of mine - the hard-hitting one-horse town anti-redneck sentiment of the brilliant "Long Way To Hollywood" (there ain't no banjo on Steve's knee but there's a burning song on his back).

But it's the ballads that cloy at your heart - "Lonesome Or'ry And Mean" where he's going to Shreveport on a Greyhound Bus but despite the freedom of the road is weary at the constant rootlessness - and the gorgeous Gram Parsons magic that's dripping off the simple but affecting "True Note" - a song where there are dues to pay in the real world even as the piano player echoes your pain every night in some neon'd bar. Most fans will love the Merle Haggard outtake "I Can't Hold Myself In Line" (an artist Young adored) that turned up on the Blue Canyon pressing in 1975 - full speed down the wrong road of life. I have to say that the 1981 tracks just feel wrong sound-wise despite a wonderful deep timbre having entered his voice - polished but missing that first flush of magic. And you wish the Alamo Tale of "Ballad Of William Sycamore" had actually been on the 1972 original...

You have to say that Ace has done it again - keeping alive a flame that should not have gone out. Steve Young died March 2016 in Nashville aged 73 - and despite the drinking, the broken marriages and legendarily erratic behaviour remains a mystery still and a genuine spirited hero for some.

The original "Seven Bridges Road" LP will only have you reach for "Rock Salt & Nails" (1969) and his other platters on RCA in the mid Seventies - and isn't that the best compliment you can give any reissue...

"Safe As Milk" by CAPTAIN BEEFHEART and THE MAGIC BAND (1999 BMG/RCA/Buddah Expanded CD Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Came Upon A Tornado..."

Few artists can genuinely have the mantle of genius festooned around their mad foreheads in a garland of Californian daisies – but Captain Beefheart is one of them. His 1967 debut is still a bit of a beast to digest in 2015 – but my admiration for it and him only grow as the years pass. Nothing about this album is "safe" let alone a comforting and warm glass of milk come those night-time tremors - which is of course what makes it so good and groundbreaking. Here goes with the Abba Zaba and the Dropout Boogie...

US released June 1999 (September 1999 in the UK) – "Safe As Milk" by CAPTAIN BEEFHEART and THE MAGIC BAND on BMG/RCA/Buddha Records 74321 69175 2 (Barcode 743216917525) is an 'Expanded Edition' CD Remaster with Seven Bonus Tracks and breaks down as follows (71:13 minutes):

1. Sho 'Nuff 'N Yes I Do

2. Zig Zag Wanderer

3. Call On Me

4. Dropout Boogie

5. I'm Glad

6. Electricity

7. Yellow Brick Road [Side 2]

8. Abba Zaba

9. Plastic Factory

10. Where There's Woman

11. Grown So Ugly

12. Autumn's Child

Tracks 1 to 12 are his debut album "Safe As Milk" – released September 1967 in the USA on Buddah BDM 1001 (Mono) and Buddah BDS 5001 (Stereo) and February 1968 in the UK on Pye International NPL 28110 (initially in Mono only). A Stereo version finally showed in 1970 in the UK on Buddah 623 171 – this CD Remaster uses the STEREO mix.

BONUS TRACKS:

13. Safe As Milk (Take 5)

14. On Tomorrow

15. Big Black Baby Shoes

16. Flower Pot

17. Dirty Blue Gene

18. Trust Us (Take 9)

19. Korn Ring Finger

Tracks 13 to 19 are all Previously Unreleased, Recorded Oct to Nov 1967 with Alex St. Clair Snouffer and Jeff Cotton on Guitars instead of Ry Cooder. Captain Beefheart, Jeff Handley and John French as per the LP line-up.

The 12-page booklet (in a rather dull black and white) has a history of the album and the genre-bending talents of Don Van Vliet of Glendale, California (alias Captain Beefheart) written by JOHN PLATT with help from Mike Barnes and Gary Marker. There are reissue credits and a repro of the 'Baby Jesus' bumper sticker. On the rear of the booklet there’s a gorgeous colour photo of the band as a four-piece – Alex St. Clair Snouffer (Guitar), John French (Drums), Captain Beefheart (Vocals, Harmonica and Bass Marimba) and Jerry Handley (Bass). There are also long notes on the CD Bonus Tracks ("Mirror Sessions" outtakes etc).

The remasters are by ELLIOTT FEDERMAN and come with a warning that "sonic imperfections exist due to the condition of the master tapes". He’s unfortunately proven right about this. Some tracks are fantastic – others very hissy and even corrupted in the top end. There’s also a very definite audio chasm between the album and the bonus tracks – the LP has its rough moments but the Bonus tracks (later 1967 recordings for the second album done just a month after the release of "Safe As Milk") are fantastic sounding - and in truth would probably have sat better as "Trout Mask Replica" outakes. It’s a case of taking the rough with the smooth – but luckily because there isn't that much rough - I'd say they’ve done a superb job with what they had...

It opens with the Howlin’ Wolf/Johnny Winter guitar blues of "Sure 'Nuff 'N Yes I Do" - a genius hybrid track with ex Rising Sons guitar wizard RY COODER providing lead guitar. We then get into real Beefheart songscapes with the decidedly rough recording of "Zig Zag Wanderer" – a jagged irksome little monster like the "adaptor...adaptor" distorted guitar chug of "Dropout Boogie" (both tracks benefitting from the percussive drums of Milt Holland). Unfortunately there are heavy hiss levels on "I'm Glad" where Don comes on like some Street Corner vocal group pleading "so sad baby". But as always with the Captain - he can blindside you with how pretty a song he can write when he stops pushing the musical boundaries with the rest of the album. The Byrds-ish "Call My Name" could have been a single too with its "free love" coda ideal for the time.

But if one track practically defines the jagged songwriting strangled-vocals genius of Captain Beefheart it would be the stunning "Electricity". Described as a variant of 'Blues' by some more scholarly than I – it comes at you like a sonic beast from another world and could only be a product of the hyper-inventive super-productive and mad-as-a-dingbat-on-acid 60ts counter-culture. Throughout its jerk-rhythms and weird-sounding guitars - Sam Hoffman plays a thing called a 'Theremin' - an early variant of an electronic Moog instrument that had been used to create those scary outer-space noises in films like "The Day The Earth Stood Still". Combined with Beefheart giving it his best strangling-a-cat voice – its astonishing stuff even now. Pye actually reissued "Electricity" in June 1978 as a British 7” single on Buddah BDS 466 - the audio bosom-buddy B-side to "Sho 'Nuff 'N Yes I Do". Not sure if either was entirely Thursday night 'Top Of The Pops' material but I’d pay good money to see Pans People do an interpretive dance routine for either (yum yum). 

Speaking of singles - Pye UK tried the jaunty Side 2 opener "Yellow Brick Road" b/w "Abba Zaba" on Pye International 7N 25443 in January 1968 but not surprisingly it tanked and is now a £50-plus rarity (Taj Mahal plays percussion on "Yellow Brick Road"). His fantastic Bluesy Harmonica gives the brilliant "Plastic Factory" a real Paul Butterfield edge. "Where There's Woman" and "Grown So Ugly" are suitably touching and poisonous at the same time but the album finishes on a total winner. Russ Titelman plays guitar while Sam Hoffman twiddles his Theremin on the brilliant Side 2 finisher "Autumn's Child" – a song where you actually feel like you're listening to a new kind of music being created as you listen.

The BONUS TRACKS are part of the "Mirror Sessions" which were essentially going to be a double-album follow-up for Buddah Records (their 2nd album). Parts of it turned up on the "Mirror Man" LP issued by Buddah in May 1971. "Trout Mask Replica" fans will love the near seven-minute guitar instrumental rampage that is "On Tomorrow". Even better is "Big Black Baby Shoes" – another five-minute sliding guitar instrumental which is discordantly musical in that way only Captain Beefheart can be. "Flower Pot" is brilliant too and my fave bonus amongst the seven – the band boogieing in that jagged "Trout" way through four minutes of Beefheart Funk.

The equally good/strange "Strictly Personal" would follow in 1968 and the epoch-making game-changing double "Trout Mask Replica" in late 1969 – but this is where all that discordant yet melodious jerky-motion started. 

An animal-sculpting child prodigy TV star at the age of 10 – Don Van Vliet was always a bit special and a just bit bonkers in the temporal lobe area. Captain Beefheart famously walked off stage once and collapsed into the grass face first – later claiming he stopped the band mid-song (fixed his tie first before he left stage) because he saw a woman in the audience turn into a 'goldfish'. Now that’s my kind of visionary...

"Taj Mahal" by TAJ MAHAL (September 2000 UK Columbia/Legacy CD Reissue with Bob Irwin and Vic Anesini Remasters – Part of the 'Columbia High Fidelity "360 Sound" Series' of CD Reissues) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Wake Up Mama...Turn Your Lamp Down Low..."

I've always had a soft spot for the Blues of Henry Fredericks from New York’s Harlem (Taj Mahal to you and I) - and his stunning 1968 self-titled "Taj Mahal" debut album still ranks in my books as one of the all-time-greats. Like "Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac" (1968), John Mayall's "Blues From Lauren Canyon" (1968), Johnny Winter's "Second Winter" (1969) or Shuggie Otis' 1970 debut album "Here Comes Shuggie Otis" - "Taj Mahal" is the kind of good-time hair-shaking bum-waddling Blues-Rock that I adore. And to me it still sounds as fresh as a daisy - with maybe less hair and a wee bit of a middle-aged droop around the tum tum (not mine you understand). Here are the 'Leaving Trunk' and 'E Z Rider' details…

UK released September 2000 - "Taj Mahal" by TAJ MAHAL on Sony/Columbia/Legacy COL 498173 2 (Barcode 5099749817326) is a straightforward CD transfer of his debut LP from 1968 and plays out as follows (33:00 minutes):

1. Leaving Trunk [Side 1]

2. Statesboro Blues

3. Checkin' Up On My Baby

4. Everybody's Got To Change Sometime

5. E Z Rider [Side 2]

6. Dust My Broom

7. Diving Duck Blues

8. The Celebrated Walkin' Blues

Tracks 1 to 8 are his debut album "Taj Mahal" - released February 1968 in the USA on Columbia CL 2779 (Mono) and CS 9579 (Stereo) and in the UK on Direction 8-63279 (Mono) and S 8-63279 (Stereo). The Stereo mix is used in this 2000 remaster and there are no bonus tracks.

The 12-page booklet is a nicely substantial affair reproducing the album’s original rear artwork and liner notes by Tom Nolan on the inner pages. There is then a short essay on Taj Mahal by Stanley Crouch, album and reissue credits – all peppered with a bunch of outtake photos from the recording sessions.

Remastered for CD by the dynamic duo of BOB IRWIN and VIC ANESINI in 2000 and put out as part of the “Columbia High Fidelity “360 Sound” Series” - these are Audio Engineer names I actively seek out. Anesini alone has handled hugely prestigious catalogues like Elvis Presley, Simon and Garfunkel, Carole King, Janis Joplin, Hall & Oates, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Jayhawks, Mott The Hoople, Santana and many more. This CD reissue is part of Sony's "Columbia High Fidelity "360 Sound" Series" – a logo along the spine of the under inlay. When Columbia started issuing their 'Stereo' LPs in the USA in the 60ts they used the "360 Sound" logo on the album's artwork and label as a part of their selling point – best sound – all around - etc. I'm not sure anyone has noticed this CD logo down the spine inlay - but everyone knows that the 'Legacy' moniker on a CD is a mark of their remastering quality. Whatever way you look at it – this CD rocks like a mother and in the very best way.

Taj Mahal’s debut album is the stuff of Blues-Rock legend - an absolute gem. Recorded in August 1967 (released early 1968) and Produced by Dave Rubinson - the band consists of guitarists Ry Cooder (credited as Ryland P Cooder) and Jesse Edwin Davis with veterans James Thomas on Bass and Charles Blackwell on Drums. Taj sang all the tunes and mainly stuck to harp playing except on the brilliant 8-minutes of "The Celebrated Walkin' Blues" where he puts in some great slide-guitar work. Other guests included Bill Boatman on Rhythm Guitar and Sanford Konikoff on Drums.

It opens with a blaster – a cover of a Sleep John Estes classic called "Leaving Trunk" where our hero had better leave before his lady's husband gets home. Immediately you're in the presence of a huge warbling Harmonica and those chucky flicking guitars – it's a fantastic updating of old world Blues – sort of like what Paul Butterfield's band did on Elektra Records a few years earlier (see my review of his "Original Album Classics" 5CD Mini Box Set). Blind Willie McTell provides us with the Boogie of "Statesboro Blues" where Taj wants his woman to "...wake up mama...turn your lamp down low..." Continuing in that wicked rollicking vein – we get another shuffling winner in the shape of "Checkin' Up On My Baby" written by another great Harmonica warbler Taj deeply admired - Chess Records' Sonny Boy Williamson. The perfection of Side 1 ends with another nugget from the pen of Sleepy John Estes - "Everybody's Got To Change Sometime". Once again the audio is magnificent – loud and ballsy but not too trebled to ruin it. Direction Records tried it as a UK 45 on Direction 58-3547 with "Statesboro Blues" as the flipside – but despite the strength of both sides – no one seemed to notice in early 1968.

Side 2 opens with the only Taj Mahal original on the album "E Z Rider" which Direction tried as a 2nd UK 7" single with "You Don't Miss Your Water" as its flipside (Direction 58-4044) but again it failed to raise a ripple. The band counts in that slide-guitar barroom slasher from Elmore James "Dust My Broom" which oddly enough is good only – more workmanlike than great. Things pick up with "Diving Duck Blues" again from the fertile pen of Sleepy John Estes where an inebriated Estes tells us that "...if a river was whiskey...I'd dive to the bottom and never come up..." (thirsty and dangerous work). But it ends on a tour-de-force – the near nine-minute Slow Blues of "The Celebrated Walkin' Blues". It's a Traditional arranged by Taj and it captures everything that was great about his house band – that chugging Cooder Guitar – sweetly complimentary Mandolin plucking while he warbles on the Harp inbetween pleading lyrics. It's brilliant - and by the time the tune hits that Rhythm Section entry about 2:20 mnutes – you’re won over. Great stuff...

Niggles - the original album was also issued in MONO - and as you can see from the playing time provided above - it could easily have been fit on here as a first - but alas. There was a non-album single in 1967 on Columbia 4-44051 with "I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate" b/w "Let The Good Times Roll" – again both AWOL when there was loads of room. I would also love to one day see a LEGACY DOUBLE DELUXE of this fantastic debut - there must be some outakes in storage somewhere - and live sets with that stellar band...

Selling for less than four quid in most places – a Blues Rock barnstormer you need on your shelf and in your Stereo...all '360' degrees of it...

“The Complete Reprise Recordings 1971-’73” by CRAZY HORSE featuring Nils Lofgren, Danny Whitten and Jack Nitzsche (2006 Warner Brothers/Rhino 2CD Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"…I Can Tell From Your Eyes That You've Probably Been Crying Forever…"

UK released May 2006 - “The Complete Reprise Recordings 1971-’73” by CRAZY HORSE on Warner Brothers/Rhino 8122-70144-2 (Barcode 081227014421) contains the 1st two albums of Neil Young's backing band CRAZY HORSE along with some excellent session outtakes (it was originally released as "Scratchy" in the USA). Here's a detailed breakdown...

Disc 1 (79:52 minutes):

1. Gone Dead Train [Side 1]

2. Dance, Dance, Dance

3. Look At The Things

4. Beggars Day

5. I Don’t Want To Talk About It

6. Downtown [Side 2]

7. Carolay

8. Dirty, Dirty

9. Nobody

10. I’ll Get By

11. Crow Jane Lady

Tracks 1 to 11 are their debut album "Crazy Horse" issued on Reprise Records RS 6438 in the USA in February 1971 and Reprise RSLP 6438 in the UK in early 1972.

Six album tracks were issued as 7" singles:

1. "Downtown" b/w "Crow Jane Lady" on Reprise 1007 in the USA in March 1971

2. "Dance, Dance, Dance" b/w "Look At All The Things" on Reprise RS 23503 in the UK and Reprise 1025 in the USA in July 1971

3. "Dirty, Dirty" b/w " "Beggars Day" on Reprise 1046 in the USA in October 1971 

The Band for "Crazy Horse" was:

DANNY WHITTEN - Guitar, Lead & Backing Vocals

NILS LOFGREN - Lead Guitar, Background Vocals, Lead on "Beggars Day"

JACK NITZSCHE - Piano, Backing Vocals, Lead on "Crow Jane Lady"

BILLY TALBOT - Bass, Backing Vocals

RALPH MOLINA - Drums, Backing Vocals, Lead on "Dance, Dance, Dance"

RY COODER plays slide guitar on "Dirty, Dirty", "Crow Jane Lady" and "I Don't Want To Talk About It"

GIL GILBEAU plays Fiddle on "Dance, Dance, Dance"

12. Hit And Run

13. Try

14. One Thing I Love

15. Move

16. All Alone Now

17. All The Little Things

18. Fair Weather Friend [Side 2]

19. You Won’t Miss Me

20. Going Home

21. I Don’t Believe It

22. Kind Of Woman

23. One Sided Love

24. And She Won’t Even Blow Smoke In My Direction

Tracks 12 to 24 are their 2nd album "Loose" issued on Reprise MS 2059 in the USA in January 1972 and Reprise K 44171 in the UK. "All Alone Now" b/w "One Thing I Love" was issued as a lone 7" single on Warner Brothers K 14159 in the UK and 1075 in the USA in February 1972.

The Band for "Loose" was:

GEORGE WHITSELL - Vocals, Guitars & Conga

GREG LEROY - Vocals, Guitars

JOHN BLANTON - Vocals, Keyboards, Cello, Harmonica

BILLY TALBOT - Bass & Vocals

RALPH MOLINA - Drums & Percussion, Vocals, Acoustic Guitar

Disc 2 (40:15 minutes):

1. Dirty Dirty (Alternate Version)

2. Scratchy (Takes 1 to 3)

3. Dear Song Singer

4. Downtown(Unedited Long version)

5. Susie’s Song (Takes 1 to 5)

6. When You Dance You Can Really Love

7. Radio Spot

The above 7 tracks include 5 outtakes from the 1st album, a previously unreleased 1973 version of Neil Young's "When You Dance You Can Really Love" (off his 1970 "After The Gold Rush" album) and a 1971 Promo-Only Radio Spot advertising their debut LP.

The reason I've listed both band line-ups is because it goes a long way to explaining why the first album was so good and the follow up so mediocre. On their debut Crazy Horse had three mercurial song-writing talents in Whitten, Nitzsche and Lofgren and even gleaned exclusive song contributions from Neil Young on "Dance, Dance, Dance" and a co-write on "Downtown". The album was rock one minute, folk the next, soulful also in places - in fact you felt that anything could happen with the different styles and talent - a little like the first 2 CSNY albums - mixed up styles yet somehow all slotting together as one cohesive whole. Rod Stewart famously covered the beautiful "I Don't Want To Talk About It" in 1977 and made it a Number 1 (lyrics above), while Dan McCafferty's raspy vocals delivered a stunning rocking cover of Jack Nitzsche's "Gone Dead Train" for Nazareth in 1978. But with the departure of the three powerhouse players and writers, the 2nd LP had seven of its 14 songs written by newcomer Whitsell and came across as very ordinary country rock LP with little or none of its predecessor's flourish.

The compilation was produced by ANDY SAX, the 28-page booklet has great band photos by JOEL BERNSTEIN, a superlative essay by BARRY ALFONSO which features contributions from co-producer BRUCE BOTNICK and band members for both albums, Molina and Talbot. The remastering has been handled by long-time Rhino tape engineer DAN HERSCH and is typically great - warm and clear - better than the Warner Archives CD of the first album put out in 1994.

But the big surprise is the quality of the outtakes - "Dirty, Dirty" is an excellent alternate version, while "Scratchy" features Takes 1 to 3 and lasts nearly 12 minutes - and although the vocals are lost in the mix for a couple of takes, it's still a great listen. "Dear Song Singer" features Whitten on Lead vocals at first with Nils following - it's very pretty.  But the big one is the near eleven-minute unedited long version of "Downtown" which feels like a Neil Yong guitar workout - fabulous stuff. "Susie's Song" is Nils Lofgren at the piano unaccompanied and it's a peach too - like eavesdropping on the formation of a lovely melody. You could probably live without the one minute Radio Spot though...

So there you have it - a rather excellent reissue really and even if it is a bit pricey and that 2^nd album a tad patchy - it's highly recommended... 

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