"The Complete Vanguard Recordings" by BUDDY GUY – Including The Albums "A Man And The Blues" (1968), "This Is Buddy Guy!" (1968), and "Hold That Plane!" (1972, 1970 Recordings) and more (October 2000 UK Ace/Vanguard Masters 3CD Compilation with Bonuses – Jeff Zaraya Remasters)

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*****

"...Let Me Play My Axe...."

A truly wicked set of CD Remasters from 2000 gathering together his much-loved trio of albums for America's Vanguard Label in the late 60ts and early 70ts – two studio sets and one incendiary live show. Time to go uptown and get lowdown with a '57 Stratocaster strapped around a genius (who's still giving it the Blues at the age of 79)...

UK released 31 October 2000 (November 2000 in the USA) - "The Complete Vanguard Recordings" by BUDDY GUY on Ace/Vanguard Masters 3VCD 178 (Barcode 090204991761) is a 3CD Compilation containing three albums and Bonuses and breaks downs as follows:

Disc 1 (46:22 minutes):

1. A Man And The Blues

2. I Can't Quite The Blues

3. Money (That's What I Want)

4. One Room Country Shack

5. Mary Had A Little Lamb

6. Just Playing My Axe [Side 2]

7. Sweet Little Angel

8. Worry, Worry

9. Jam On A Monday Morning

Tracks 1 to 9 are the album "A Man And The Blues" – released 1968 in the USA on Vanguard VSD-79272 and in the UK on Vanguard SVRL 19002 (both in Stereo)

 

BONUS TRACKS:

10. Poison Ivy

11. You've Got A Hole In Your Soul

Disc 2 (58:40 minutes):

1. Watermelon Man [Live]

2. I Got My Eyes On You [Live]

3. The Things I Used To Do [Live]

4. (You Give Me) Fever [Live]

5. Slow Blues [Live]

6. Knock On Wood [Live]

7. Crazy 'Bout You [Live]

8. I Had A Dream Last Night [Live]

9. 24 Hours Of The Day [Live]

10. You Were Wrong [Live]

11. I'm Not The Best [Live]

Tracks 2, 3, 4 and 6 are Side 1 with tracks 8 to 11 being Side 2 of the 'live' album "This Is Buddy Guy!" – released 1968 in the USA on Vanguard VSD 79290 and in the UK on Vanguard SVRL 19008 (both in Stereo)

BONUS TRACKS:

Track 5 "Slow Blues" [Live] is a Bonus; Track 7 "Crazy 'Bout You" [Live] is Previously Unreleased and Track 1 "Watermelon Man" is a Previously Unreleased Live Version – all three are previously unreleased from the live concert recording for the album "This Is Buddy Guy!" recorded at New Orleans House, Berkley, California, USA. Ace Records of the UK have reissued the album on a straightforward 8-track CD remaster in 2005 on Ace/Vanguard Masters VMD-79290

Disc 3 (39:03 minutes):

1. Watermelon Man

2. Hold That Plane

3. I'm Ready

4. My Time After Awhile

5. You Don't Love Me

6. Come See About Me

7. Hello San Francisco

Tracks 1 to 7 are the album "Hold That Plane!" (Recorded in 1970) – released 1972 in the USA on Vanguard VSD.79323 and in the UK on Vanguard VNP 5315.

The 8-page inlay with new liner notes by BOB MERLIS of The Blues Foundation are good if not disappointingly slight. There's a history on the albums, some photos and very basic albums credits. You wish there was more. The Remasters from original master tapes have been carried out by JEFF ZARAYA using the Sonic Solutions system and sound great throughout - plenty of muscle and presence. TOM VICKERS produced the Reissue.

The opening album reunited Buddy with his Chess partner OTIS SPANN on Piano and the Chicago label's veteran drummer FRED BELOW. It's a superb Blues album and hardly surprising it gets reissued so much. "A Man And The Blues" and the misery-pace of "One Room Country Shack" are perfect examples of the superb Stereo palette – Buddy playing beautifully while Otis Spann compliments every lick with tasty piano fills. Guy even makes the downright silly "Mary Had A Little Lamb" work (a Stevie Ray Vaughan favourite). The slow lurching Blues of "Sweet Little Angel" has some of his tastiest playing and at 5:40 minutes is a perfect ten. The album ends on the Funky Stax/Volt feel of "Jam On A Monday Morning" – a cool bopping instrumental with brass puncuations that makes you feel like it's a backing track to a Wilson Pickett groover and once again you're reminded of where SRV got those Funky Blues moments from. His first great album on Vanguard leads to another...

He roars "Listen To Me!" several times to the audience at the beginning of his slinky cover of Little Willie John's "Fever" – a genius tune that seems impossible to do injustice to (surely in the top ten of truly great songs). He then launches into a balcony-rattling version of Eddie Floyd's "Knock On Wood" that has the crowd whooping like crazy. Side 2 opens with my fave on the album – his own "I Had A Dream Last Night" – a slow shuffling cymbal is tapped as he solos - soon to be joined by the boys on the horns – A.C. Reed and Bobby Fields on Tenor Saxophone, Leslie Crawford on Baritone Sax with Normal Spiller and George Alexander lending a hand on their Trumpets. By the time he gets half way through – Guy is letting rip with some truly inspired playing and equally impassioned vocals (the boys in the rhythm section picking up on the excitement and responding in kind). Buddy then gets Stax funky with "24 Hours Of The Day" which is followed with "You Were Wrong" where he "...gets back to the blues..." The raucous "I'm Not The Best" sounds like he's trying to be Otis Redding bringing the crowd and the gig to boiling point.

The second studio album on here "Hold That Plane!" was recorded in 1970 but had to wait until 1972 to see the light of day and it's a forgotten gem that effortlessly straddles pure Blues and Funk-Blues. The sessions included Jazz Pianist Junior Mance as well as the Alto Sax of Gary Bartz. Hardly surprising then that it opens with a 5:18 minute Funky Instrumental cover of Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man" which sounds more like Albert King at Stax than Buddy Guy at Vanguard. Having said that – it's an absolute Funky Blues barnstormer - and is surely going to turn up on some uber-cool Funk-Blues CD compilation (pointing out nuggets you missed) some time in the near Kent-Soul future. Back to Blues business with a superb "Hold That Plane" – Guy in blistering string bending form – vocals a-growling – complimented by sweet Junior Mance piano rolls. He revisits Willie Dixon (writer) and Muddy Waters with "I'm Ready" – but although all the players are great – to me it's the weakest track on an otherwise top album (there's just something slightly lacking in his delivery, even uncomfortable).

A million times better is a cover that actually suits his voice and the band’s supreme playing – "My Time After Awhile" by Texas Bluesman Robert Geddins. It's one of those "...my baby been out all night and she's just walked in..." tales of woe – where if things don't change I believe our Buddy gotta moves on down the line (no offense sweetheart). A cool bopping version of Bo Diddley's "You Don't Love Me" follows – the boys on the horns giving it a wicked dancefloor shuffle. Back to hard-hitting Blues with the lengthy slow instrumental "Come See About Me" penned by Buddy and his brother Phil Guy – a one-time sidekick in Koko Taylor's band (Phil plays Rhythm Guitar on tracks 1, 4, 5 and 7 on CD3). This is what Buddy Guy fans love – 8:41 minutes of attacking solo work – complimented by musicians who are all feel and no nonsense (ably assisted this time on Piano by Mark Jordan - his only appearance on the album).Another fab Robert Geddins tune finishes the album - "Hello San Francisco" – a minor local hit for Sugar Pie DeSanto on Jasman Records (also in 1972). In Buddy's take our hero ups and leaves Chicago in 1968 and heads for the beaches and whatever else the Sunshine State has to offer (though I'm not sure its a tan he's ultimately after)...

The Bonus material is something of a bonanza actually – most being better than they had any divine right to be. The two previously unissued cuts on the first album (Disc 1) were recorded at the original sessions in Universal Studios, Chicago – "Poison Ivy" is not a cover of the Coasters Atlantic Records hit but his own composition - while "You Got A Hole In Your Soul" is a workmanlike cover version of a Joe South tune originally on his "Games People Play" album in 1969 on Capitol as "Hole In Your Soul". The three live cuts are fabulous – especially "Slow Blues" where he lets rip for almost seven minutes – sloppy notes and all (the crowd dig it big time). His 5:20-minute live take on Herbie Hancock’s classic "Watermelon Man" was probably too brass-orientated for a live Blues album and was subsequently left off (still a great inclusion though) - while the heavy slow Blues of "Crazy 'Bout You" runs to a pleasing 6:33 minutes. All in all - very good indeed.

So there you have it – three genuinely wicked albums with varying Blues styles (all of which work) – a cluster of extras actually worth calling bonus tracks – and all of it in tippity-toppity sound quality.

Damn right Buddy Guy's got the Blues...and on this exemplary evidence...you need some in your Stereo too...

"Third World War" by THIRD WORLD WAR [featuring Terry Stamp and Jim Avery] (2015 Esoteric Recordings Expanded CD Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Tired Of Licking The Government's Ass..."

Every now and then you hear the first track of an album and you stare back at its entirely unrepresentative cover in disbelief. Who is this? And why haven’t I heard their ahead-of-its-time musical genius before?

The band name sucks for a start - and that negative-tinted photo of some snotty five-year old kid on some inner city estate somewhere screaming his downtrodden proletariat head off don’t help either. There’s a woman being caned in a cartoon on the rear – no doubt some snot-nose upper-class male chauvinist type giving a serving wench a damn good trashing because she put the soup spoons out in the wrong order. You then glance back at the band name again (Third World War for God's Sake) and imagine some dreadful Prog diatribe on 'the kids man' buggering off to Narnia before the Russians drop the bomb. But instead what you're getting is a razor-sharp Proto Punk album about 'real life in working class England issued in early 1971 on Fly Records (home of T. Rex and John Kongos) - all spitting and snarling when most people had never heard of the word 'punk'.

Third World War's self-titled debut album (sometimes known as "Ascension Day" after its opening track) is a brilliant album – a sort of hard-hitting musical hybrid between The Stooges, Television and even The MC5 (it's like 1976 and 1977 but five full years before the event). The lyrics paint no hippy dreams of where they live and what their future prospects are either – it’s all 'power to the workers' and echoes of Wormwood Scrubs and ripped up phonebooths (as another English poet would say some years later).

Then there's the voice of principal songwriter TERRY STAMP grinding out venom like "...Let's free the working class...we're tired of licking the Government's ass..." His larynx is not pretty either – course and gravely and yet amazingly right for the band's sound and politics – a sort of Captain Beefheart meets Eddie & The Hot Rods - growling at angry unemployed teenagers on the roofs of buildings where he urges them to "...pull your grenade pin and I'll pull mine..." (how thoughtful). There are delightful song titles like "Get Out Of Bed You Dirty Red" and "M.I.5's Alive" (any wonder the BBC wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole). Then there's Stamp's 'guitar' sound that he refers to in the liner notes of the LP as 'chopper guitar' because it zips along - sounding like a more 'choppy' version of Dr. Feelgood's Wilko Johnson circa "Down By The Jetty". There's also a hint of a snotty dangerous Bowie riff when he rocked it out in 1971 and 1972. Even American hardcore rocker Steve Albini from Big Black and Rapeman has name-checked the album as a seminal influence. Impressive eh? It bloody is and all...here are the poverty lines...

UK released August 2015 – "Third World War" by THIRD WORLD WAR on Esoteric Recordings ECLEC 2512 (Barcode 5013929461246) is a an Expanded CD Remaster with two bonus tracks and pans out as follows (48:13 minutes):

1. Ascension Day

2. M.I.5's Alive

3. Teddy Teeth Goes Sailing

4. Working Class Man

5. Shepherds Bush Cowboy [Side 2]

6. Stardom Road-Part I

7. Stardom Road-Part II

8. Get Out Of Bed You Dirty Red

9. Preaching Violence

Tracks 1 to 9 are the album "Third World War" – released February 1971 in the UK on Fly Records FLY 4

BONUS TRACKS:

10. Ascension Day (Single Version) – non-album version issued as the A-side to a UK 7" single in 1971 on Fly Records BUG 7 (B-side was the album cut "Teddy Teeth Go Sailing"). Rare copies came in a 'lyrics' picture sleeve.

11. A Little Bit Of Urban Rock – non-album version different to the one on the 1972 "Third World War II" LP. It has altered 'toned down' lyrics and is a different band to the LP cut. It was released October 1971 as a stand-alone UK 7" single on Fly Records BUG 11 with the album cut "Working Class Man" as its flipside.

It's a damn shame Esoteric didn't repro the rare UK 7" single picture sleeve for "Ascension Day" with its 'lyrics' cover - but they have reproduced all the words to the album which came on a rare insert with original vinyl LPs (and the non-album single). The 16-page booklet features illuminating liner notes by veteran writer MALCOLM DOME who has conducted frank interviews with Terry Stamp about the fate of the band, their European tours (they were big in Germany and Finland) and the album's influence that stretched all the way to the USA even though it wasn't released there.

All songs were Terry Stamp and Jim Avery compositions except "Stardom Road Part II" (Avery alone) and "Get Out of Bed You Dirty Red" (Stamp alone). Jim Avery came from the Sixties Mod act The Attack and later joined Thunderclap Newman - while Terry Stamp put out a solo LP after Third World War's demise in 1975 on A&M Records called "Fatsticks". The remasters from original analogue master tapes by ROB KEYLOCH and BEN WISEMAN (at Church Walk Studios and Audio Archiving respectively) are fantastically good – full of piss and vinegar – as suits the music. And with the album being a listed rarity at £60 or more (if you can find one) – this genuinely cool 2015 CD reissue by Cherry Red's Esoteric Recordings is a very tasty reminder of what was missed first time around.

The album opens with the incendiary "Ascension Day" where lyrics like "...load your magazine clip...I'll load mine..." thrilled open-minded radio programmers at the BBC (well maybe not). Immediately your struck by the gritty voice that predates Punk by six years (it was recorded between September and November 1970) and that treated 'choppy' guitar sound Stamp gets that lends the whole wallop a sort of New Wave feel. But it's the amazing "M.I.5's Alive" that really takes you by the scuff – 8:05 minutes of guitar-chugging harmonica-driven 60ts Garage meets Television doing "Marquee Moon". Even at that length it doesn't overstay itself and lyrics like "...bawling down the Royalty...is a breach of faith and national disloyalty..." reminds you of another angry band in 1977 who didn't spare the bollocks either. As TWW let the guitars rip and the harmonica gives the song a Them-on-speed vibe - it's hard not to throw embarrassing shapes in your living room (fabulous stuff). "And there's people out of work here...there could be a riot here..." Stamp warns on the weirdly jaunty "Teddy Teeth Goes Sailing" where it sounds like Kevin Ayers doing a vicious whimsical ditty. Back to the hard-hitting 'chopper' guitar of another winner "Working Class Man" which features Bobby Keys (of Rolling Stones fame) on Saxophone as the song freaks out towards the end.

Side 2 opens with "Shepherds Bush Cowboy" – a song about untoward propositions in a pub on your third pint of Guinness and a fight with a skinhead in a betting shop (delightful). The uncharacteristically gentle acoustics of "Stardom Road Part 1" comes as a genuine shock after all that thrashing - a sad and hurting song with lyrics about the music business's attitude towards gay men. It's "Part II" picks up the pace drastically - suddenly sounding like a band on a mission and at 3:47 minutes (and perhaps a different title) – could have been a revolutionary single from back in the day. Back to belching and burping whimsy with "Get Out Of Bed You Dirty Red" where "...the Communist Party shakes your hand...and you can play in our red band..." It ends on the heaviest Stooges moment of the album – huge distorted guitars introduce the anti-religion song "Preaching Violence" where the words take no prisoners – "...the bog-wall shines...anti-Government signs...go let your Molotov off...God Loves you..." Wow!

The singles are a weird one – "Ascension Day" is fabulous and sounds years ahead of its time - but the cod Pub Rock 'n' Roll of "A Little Bit Of Urban Rock" sounds derivative and terribly dated. Apparently it's a re-recorded 'clean' version for 45 – different to the more hard-hitting cut on their 2nd and last album "Third World War II" which appeared on Track Records in 1972. Fly hated the 2nd record and refused to release it - but Pete Townshend of The Who liked the band and got it released on Track. Terry Stamp went on to put out two further albums on CD - "Bootlace Johnny And The Ninety Nines" in 2004 and "Howling For The Highway Home" in 2007 on his own label, Burning Shed.

Interviewed for this release Terry Stamp admits that perhaps if the band had 'glammed' it up a bit then maybe more in the UK would have 'gotten it'. So I’ve Marc Bolan'd up this review because this is a band and an album that deserves rediscovery (even if it means putting a red in your bed)...

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