"The Arista Columbia Recordings 1980-1991" by WILLIE NILE - February 1980 and April 1981 US Debut and Second Albums on Arista Records Plus His Third Studio Album from March 1991 on Columbia Records - Guests Include Roger McGuinn, Richard Thompson and Loudon Wainwright III (June 2013 UK Floating World Records Compilation - 3LPs Remastered onto 2CDs) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

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This Review And Many More Like It 

Available In my Kindle e-Book (June 2022 Version)

 

LOOKING AFTER NO. 1 

Volume 2 of 2 - M to Z...

 

Your All-Genres Guide To

Exceptional CD Reissues and Remasters 
For Music from 1956 to 1986

Over 1,760 E-Pages of In-Depth Information
240 Reviews From The Discs Themselves

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"...Vagabond Moon..."

 

Forever sandwiched between being a poor man's John Cougar Mellencamp sans Bruce Springsteen wannabe - I (however) have always held a big fat aromatherapy candle for New York's singer-songwriter WILLIE NILE. I loved his stuff - especially at the outset of his career. 

 

I can vividly remember playing his self-titled debut "Willie Nile" and next-year follow-up LP "Golden Down" from 1980 and 1981 (both on Arista Records) till I wore them out - enthralled with his dual attack of Rock and Rollers sporting caustic city-living lyrics on the one hand, sided by romantic ballads of street urchins and doomed five-and-dime lovers on the other. 

 

Searing personals like "Across The River" and "I Like The Way" from those first two black-grooved platters are gorgeous songs that often made me blurb in lesser moments - the first would even be on my Baz-Is-Brown-Bread CD-R compilation to be played as legions of admirers from all corners of the earth descend on my passing ceremony, fighting in unbecoming manners to get tickets (it says here).

 

So for years, I have pined in my Irish stew loins for their love on CD, along with whatever else I could get my grubby paws on. And to the diddly-daddy delight of my liberally abused heartstrings, along comes England's Floating World Records to answer my geriatric Nile-ish needs. Let's get to the Champ Elysees Grenades, Bowery Vagabond Moons and Memphis Hammer Renegades (the music in other words)...

UK released June 2013 - "The Arista Columbia Recordings 1980-1991" by WILLIE NILE on Floating World Records FLOATM6192 (Barcode 0805772619227) is a Compilation of Remasters that offers 3LPs onto 2CDs and plays out as follows:

 

CD1 (58:09 minutes):

1. Vagabond Moon [Side 1]

2. Dear Lord 

3. It's All Over 

4. Across The River  

5. She's So Cold 

6. I'm Not Waiting [Side 2]

7. That's The Reason

8. They'll Build A Statue Of You 

9. Old Men Sleeping On The Bowery 

10. Behind The Cathedral 

11. Sing Me A Song 

Tracks 1 to 11 are his debut album "Willie Nile" - released February 1980 in the USA on Arista Records AB 4260 and May 1980 in the UK on Arista Records SPARTY 1126. Produced by ROY HALEE - it charted in April 1980 peaking at No. 145 on the US Billboard Rock LP charts (didn't chart UK)

 

12. Sing Me A Song [Side 1]

13. Shine Your Light 

14. Grenade 

15. I Can't Get You Off My Mind 

16. I Like The Way 

Tracks 12 to 16 are Side 1 of his second studio album "Golden Down" - released late March 1981 in the USA on Arista Records AB 4284 and April 1981 in the Uk on Arista Records SPARTY 1165. Produced by JIMMY IOVINE - it peaked at No. 158 on the US Billboard LP charts (didn't chart UK). For Side 2 see Tracks 1 to 4 on CD2

 

CD2 (68:27 minutes):

1. Golden Down [Side 2]

2. Hide Your Love 

3. Les Champs Elysees 

4. Shoulders
Tracks 1 to 4 are Side 2 of his second studio album "Golden Down" - released late March 1981 in the USA on Arista Records AB 4284 and April 1981 in the Uk on Arista Records SPARTY 1165. Produced by JIMMY IOVINE - it peaked at No. 158 on the US Billboard LP charts (didn't chart UK). For Side 1 see Tracks 12 to 16 on CD1

 

5. Places I Have Never Been [Side 1]

6. Rite Of Spring 

7. Heaven Help The Lonely

8. Cafe Memphis 

9. Yesterday's Dream 

10. Everybody Needs A Hammer 

11. Renegades 

12. Don't Die 

13. Breakdown 

14. Children Of Paradise 

15. That's Enough For Me

16. Places I Have Never Been (Reprise) 

Tracks 5 to 16 are his third studio album "Places I Have Never Been" - released March 1991 in the USA on Columbia Records CK 44434 (CD and MC only) and April 1991 in the UK on Columbia 467855 1 (LP), 4 (MC) and 2 (CD). 

Licensed from Sony, the audio on all of it is superb (there are no mastering credits) - the second album featuring huge Tom Petty-type production values may force you to lower the volume. All of it is in yer face, but for all the right reasons. The neat 12-page booklet features in-depth and decent liner notes on Niles by noted writer ALAN ROBINSON. It goes into his upbringing, living in a home steeped in music especially Rock 'n' Roll and his lucky start with Arista where he and his debut album benefited enormously from touring as the support act with The Who all across America (he remains friends with Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey to this day). All three albums are given full recording credits on the final pages, all three LPs pictured and even an Arista black and white promo photo. To the tunes... 

The debut opens with a Romantic Rock 'n' Roller winner in the shape of the very Bruce-on-a-roll "Vagabond Moon" - a song that turn up on compilations as a representation of US New Wave at the time. But his record company went with "It's All Over" as the lead-off 45-single for the album - Arista AS 0508 issued in April 1980 with "Old Men Sleeping On The Bowery" as its equally cool flip-side. The UK branch of Arista clearly figured the more Petty-type Rock 'n' Roll of "Vagabond Moon" would appeal to Blighty fans instead and so in June 1980 gave ARIST 352 a picture sleeve (same flip-side as the USA), but neither troubled charts. 

"Dear Lord" has witty lyrics about currency in New York being king and not love or redemption (make it twenty-dollar bills if you please) while the Bop Rock of "I'm Not Waiting" could easily have been 45 number two, but alas. There is a very Mark Knopfler Making Movies widescreen romance to "Behind The Cathedral" where a girl undoes her tunic button for a boy her heart is taken with. It's the kind of song Nile excels at, real, touching, heart-on-the-sleeve - even a little naive but never afraid to be so. While "Old Men Sleeping On The Bowery" shows his anger at citizens freezing on park benches while limousines pull up outside Studio 54. The debut album "Willie Nile" has always been a winner in my eyes - forgotten now - but one that I feel deserves your vagabond heart and ears. 

Jimmy Iovine went all "Long After Dark" (Tom Petty) loud on the second album's production giving it a stallion-kicking-in-the-stable-doors assault on your ears. But with only nine songs - it didn't capitalize on the debut's positive reception - limping in at No. 158 on the Top 200. They tried the not-very-good title track "Golden Down" as the only 45-single for the album - Arista AS 0599 hitting the shops in April 1981 (a few weeks after the LP's release in late March) with "Les Champ Elysees" on the B-side. In August 1981 they clumped the catchier "Shine A Light" with the rocker "Grenade" on the flipside - but Arista AS 0620 didn't set any charts alight either. My two craves are the blindingly great Bop-Rocker "Hide Your Love" and the LP's two big ballads each ending a side - "I Like The Way" and "Shoulders" over on Side 2. Both ooze with his knack of finding a simple groove (say on an acoustic guitar) and imbibing them with such pathos that they stay with you - make you want to replay. 

 

The relative failure of the two Arista outings meant a long wait until 1991's signing to Columbia Records for platter number three "Places I Have Never Been". It opens on the very Willie Nile guitar-strumming upbeat title track - our hero waxing on about streets in Rome, Chinese walls and a great big world out there for you and me. "Rite Of Spring" continues the positivity - a Byrds jangling likeable that reminds of driving in cars with the wind in your hair. "Heaven Help The Lonely" is another looking for adventure tune, aching hearts in the city by the ocean bopping through the pain. 

 

We get a bit of slide guitar and drum-kit tapping in "Cafe Memphis" - young men surviving on coffee and the gal dancing over by the jukebox breaking hearts in the process. Big romance comes shuffling in Huey Lewis & The News style with "Yesterday's Dream" - his voice rasping as the guitars and keys keep it on the up. Stunning audio for the count-in to "Everybody Needs A Hammer" - another bopper but with an Eddie Cochran lightness. "Renegades" is a piano-ballad - elevated dreams, choirs in the night, youth lost, replaced by secrets made out of snow. Beautifully produced - the album floats by with tunes like "Children Of Paradise" - prayers for the kids navigating the river of life. 

 

Even with stellar help like Roger McGuinn of The Byrds (Vocals on Track 5 with Guitar on Track 6), Fairport Convention's Richard Thompson (Guitars on Tracks 8, 14 and 15 - Vocals also on Track 8) and Loudon Wainwright III (Vocals on Track 15) - for sure, the third album has the audio polish and top musicianship expected, but there is a feeling that the chunes like "That's Enough For Me" are struggling and that initial magic has either moved on or is just plain missing. 

 

Presently selling for under nine-quid - 2013's "The Arista Columbia Recordings 1980-1991" by Willie Nile is a forgotten curio now in May 2022 - but I say give it a whirl - especially for those first flushes with their truly inspired feel...