"East Side Story" by SQUEEZE - May 1981 UK Fourth Album on A&M Records featuring Glenn Tilbrook, Chris Difford, Paul Carrack [ex Ace] with John Bentley and Gilson Lavis with Production by Elvis Costello, Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe (January 1998 UK A&M CD Reissue and Remaster with Two Previously Unreleased Bonus Tracks - Part of the A&M Re Master Pieces Series and also in the November 1997 "Six In One..." 6CD Box Set) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

"...Left My Ring By The Soap..."

 

 

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When Keyboardist and humourist Jools Holland left Squeeze after three albums to pursue his own Rhythm & Blues and Big Band dreams, they needed a seriously good replacement. And for their fourth album of May 1981 (again released on A&M Records) – Squeeze pulled in the stunning Vocals of Paul Carrack who had been with Ace for three albums and after Squeeze would join the ranks of Mike & The Mechanics for No. 1 chart fame (shame that his vocal prowess was not used more - sings on only one track).

 

"East Side Story" went to No. 44 in the USA in May 1981 – a better showing than its predecessor "Argybargy" from April 1980 that had managed a No. 71 slot – their first album to register on the Stateside Billboard Rock LP charts. Squeeze would thereafter enjoy a long and fruitful nine-album chart run Stateside that stretched well into the Nineties and beyond.

 

But the path of "East Side Story" onto digital has been (like a lot of their stuff) a wee bit piecemeal to say the least. Initially launched in and part of the November 1997 "Six Of One..." 6CD Box Set on A&M Records 540 801-2 (Barcode 731454080125) - "East Side Story" was then put out as an A&M Re Master Pieces single CD re-release in January 1998 (February 1998 USA) with its Two Bonus Tracks intact (both are pictured above). But the single-CD got quickly deleted (like the Box Set) and has remained so ever since. To the hearty details we do have...

 

UK released 19 January 1998 (4 February 1998 in the USA) - "East Side Story" by SQUEEZE on A&M 540 805-2 (Barcode 731454080521) is an A&M Re Master Pieces CD Reissue and Remaster with Two Previously Unreleased Bonus Tracks that plays out as follows (56:05 minutes):

 

1. In Quintessence [Side 1]

2. Someone Else's Heart

3. Tempted

4. Piccadilly

5. There's No Tomorrow

6. Heaven

7. Woman's World

8. Is That Love? [Side 2]

9. F-Hole

10. Labelled With Love

11. Someone Else's Bell

12. Mumbo Jumbo

13. Vanity Fair

14. Messed Around

Tracks 1 to 14 are their fourth studio album "East Side Story" - released May 1981 in the UK on A&M Records AMLH 64854 and in the USA on A&M Records SP-4854. Produced by ROGER BECHIRIAN and ELVIS COSTELLO - it peaked at No. 19 in the UK and No. 44 in the USA.

 

BONUS TRACKS (Both Previously Unreleased):

15. The Axe Has Now Fallen

16. Looking For A Love

 

SQUEEZE was:

GLENN TILBROOK – Lead Guitar, Vocals

CHRIS DIFFORD – Rhythm Guitar, Vocals

PAUL CARRACK [ex Ace] – Keyboards and Vocals (Track 3, Duet Vocals Track 16)

JOHN BENTLEY – Bass

GILSON LAVIS – Drums

Guests:

ELVIS COSTELLO – Production for the whole album except Track 1

DAVE EDMUNDS and NEIL KING – Production for "In Quintessence"

ELVIS COSTELLO – Sang Backing Vocals on "Tempted" and "Piccadilly"

NICK LOWE – Produced the Bonus Track "Looking For A Love"

 

Annotation - without the accompanying 52-page long book that came with that Box Set (a fabulous looking thing with huge swathes of memorabilia pictured), the skimpy gatefold slip of paper with barely any info that acts as an inlay for this CD is wildly inadequate. Pages 13 and 14 of the Box Set's 52-page booklet carried track-by-track comments for the third album from the band, and that could easily have been re-printed for here. A&M took the lazy way out and simply reissued the CDs as is from the box set. 

 

Bonuses/Missing - with a total playing time of 56:05 minutes, yes it's nice to have two new outtakes, but where's all the peripheral singles and their non-LP B-sides - a format this band was not only famous for but one that fans revelled in? When there was ample room, it's disappointing for sure. To the good stuff - Digitally Remastered by band founder GLENN TILBROOK and A&M's go-to Audio Engineer for the A&M Re Master Pieces Series ROGER WAKE - the original tapes certainly pack a lethal punch. But for such a huge step forward in songwriting and especially the brilliant words in each and every song, the absence too of the lyrics is kind of unforgivable. To the music...

 

The album opens with the too-clever-by-far "In Quintessence" - a lyrical step too far. He got nosy, done read her letters and diary in "Someone Else's Heart" - Elvis Costello adding backing vocals to this tune that was rejected for the preceding album "Argybargy". Unfortunately it still feels weedy with a tagged-on unconvincing lead vocal. Paul Carrack at last steps up to the microphone for the popular 45-single "Tempted" (went to No. 40) and immediately you feel it was a mistake that Tilbrook and Difford didn't give him more microphone duties (the "Tempted" Non-LP B-side "Yap Yap Yap" isn't here either, when it could have been). 

Their famous whimsy returns in the Costello-Produced "Piccadilly" - another wordy tale of hopes and clothes and expectant shop assistants. There's a slightly sinister vibe to "There's No Tomorrow" - the treated vocals and overall echoed keyboard song-sound bearing an uncanny resemblance to 10cc circa "The Original Soundtrack" and "How Dare You" in 1975 and 1976. Pumping Bass lines punctuate your room with "Heaven" - a tale of Cypriots and tobacco and beer mats and stained tea cloths (knackered barmaids). I can't in all honesty make out if the words to "Woman's World" are praising lady-kind or taking the Michael out of their lot (or both). It's definitely one of the album's more sophisticated tunes - appliances and science. 

Side 2 opens with what is undoubtedly the album's best cut - "Is That Love?" A&M UK issued it as the lead-off 45-single in April 1981 on AMS 8129 (a month before the LP) with the Non-LP "Trust" on the flip-side. Rewarded with a No. 35 chart peak - it set up the LP nicely. Teasing, beating him with her letters, walk-out notes - the poor chap is unhappy but still the sucker stays - her assets rising while his droop. Another strange vibe for "F-Hole" - 4:44 minutes of face-filler and painted palaces - those ghostly strings now upfront in the Remaster. Better for me is the other LP gem - "Labelled With Love" - a September 1981 UK 45-single on A&M AMS 8166 that rose all the way to No. 4. The past is bottled - an American pilot drags his gal to his Prairie home where he promptly drinks himself into the dirt while she carries a bump around a kitchen that's just too big. The country-lilt of "Labelled With Love" allows you to concentrate on the clever story-telling - eventually making it home being the goal in this cautionary tale of wartime passion.

 

"Someone Else's Bell" is another little-town tale of other people's beds - the Garden of Eden once again not being as relationship-fruitful as Eve had hoped. We go Flamin Groovies Rock and Roll with "Mumbo Jumbo" - an attacking song about being saddled with lonely flats and their even lonelier inhabitants. Baroque strings open the lovely and touching "Vanity Fair" - Squeeze goes "Eleanor Rigby" - a lady in a butcher's shop looking out past the blood and severed animal parts. The album ends with the Eddie Cochran echo of "Messed Around" - Squeeze going Stray Cats with a slapped double-bass vengeance. Fantastic Remastered sound too.

 

The Two Bonus Tracks kick too - "The Axe Has Now Fallen" (3:51 minutes) is a beautifully recorded tough-rocker that feels like it should have been an album track - replacing the lesser "Someone Else's Heart" perhaps. One of my heroes Nick Lowe produced "Looking For A Love" - a storming cover of a Bobby Womack 1973 classic originally on United Artists that surprisingly (an unannounced)  turns out to be a Duet with Paul Carrack. Why in God's name was this not a B-side on a British 45-single? In any case, once again, the two bonuses on this CD (like all the others) has proved more than worthy of the moniker Bonus. 

 

In a strange way, I prefer "Argybargy" more (the album that preceded it). But on a Re-master re-hear and with its cool tippity-toppity bonuses, I'm indeed labelled with love once again. 

 

Squeeze was a great little band and this largely forgotten early Eighties LP of theirs is one of the reasons why. Tempted, give it a Mumbo Jumbo...

 

SQUEEZE A&M Re Master Pieces CD Reissue Series

Released January 1998 UK, February 1998 USA

Each Single CD Remaster Contained Two Previously Unreleased Bonuses

 

1. "Squeeze" 

Original UK LP March 1978 on A&M Records AMLH 68465

UK CD Reissue January 1998 on A&M 540 806-2 (Barcode 731454080620) 

Bonus Tracks "Deep Cuts" and "Heartbreak"

 

2. "Cool For Cats" 

UK LP April 1979 on A&M Records AMLH 68503 

UK CD January 1998 on A&M Records 540 804-2 (Barcode

Bonus Tracks "I Must Go" and "Ain't it Sad" 

 

3. "Argybargy" 

UK LP February 1980 on A&M Records AMLH 64802

UK CD January 1998 on A&M 540 803-2 (Barcode 731454080323) 

Bonus Tracks "Funny How It Goes" and "Go" 

 

4. "East Side Story..." 

UK LP May 1981 on A&M Records AMLH 64854

UK CD January 1998 on A&M 540 805-2 (Barcode 731454080521) 

Bonus Tracks "The Axe Now Fallen" and "Looking For A Love"

 

5. "Sweets From A Stranger"

UK LP May 1982 on A&M Records AMLH 64899

UK CD January 1998 on A&M 540 807-2 (Barcode 731454080729) 

Bonus Tracks "I Can't Get Up Anymore" and "When Love Goes To Sleep"

 

6. "Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti" 

UK LP August 1985 on A&M Records AMA 5805 

UK CD January 1998 on A&M 540 802-2 (Barcode 731454080224) 

Bonus Tracks "Love's A Four Letter Word" and "The Fortnight Saga"