Sounds Good, Looks Good...

Welcome to Mark Barry's Review Blog - SOUNDS GOOD, LOOKS GOOD... It features in-depth reviews for Quality CD Reissues and Remasters - all with Discography Info (six times Amazon 'Hall of Fame' Reviewer). With over 2,700 posts - genres covered include Rock, Pop, Soul, Funk, Jazz Fusion, Blues, Rhythm 'n' Blues, Doo Wop, Vocal Groups, 1960s and 1970s, Prog, Psych, Folk, Blues-Rock, Goth, Punk, New Wave, 1980s, Reggae and more. I also review FILMS, TV Shows, BLU RAYS and BOOKS. Enjoy the reads...

Sunday, 28 August 2016

"Machine Gun Etiquette" by THE DAMNED (2007 Ace/Chiswick 'Hip Pocket' CD Remaster in Card Repro Artwork) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Just For You...Here's A Love Song..."

Two albums in ("Damned Damned Damned" in February 1977 and "Music For Pleasure" in November 1977) - and with enough personnel chopping and changing and displaying of frazzled dangly bits to embarrass a British Royal Family orgy - THE DAMNED dropped LP number three in November 1979 on the little but mighty independent Chiswick Records (a UK-only release).

But not many seemed to notice let alone be thrilled by its sheer bleached bravura - peaking at a modest No. 31 in the UK and not charting at all Stateside (an import there) when The Clash were tearing up all and sundry on the 2nd British Invasion - championed by a getting clued-up musical press.

Still snotty and insubordinate and preceded by two storming great 7" singles in "Love Song" and "Smash It Up" - "Machine Gun Etiquette" should have done better in New Wave Britain - never mind a worried and dubious America who barely saw any imports. But the album was and is a tad overlooked - a forgotten gob in the mouth of a grateful nation. Time to rectify the public's myopia and sorry lack of good taste. Here are the noisy bullets...

UK released October 2007 - "Machine Gun Etiquette" by THE DAMNED on Ace Records/Chiswick CDHP 027 (Barcode 029667028523) is a straightforward CD Remaster of the 11-track LP and is part of Ace's 'Hip Pocket' Series of CD Reissues sporting 6" Card Repro Artwork (including the album's original inner sleeve) and plays out as follows (36:50 minutes):

1. Love Song

2. Machine Gun Etiquette

3. I Just Can't Be Happy Today

4. Melody Lee

5. Anti-Pope

6. These Hands

7. Plan 9 Channel [Side 2]

8. Noise, Noise, Noise

9. Looking At You

10. Liar

11. Smash It Up Part 1

12. Smash It Up (Part 2)

Tracks 1 to 11 are their 3rd studio album "Machine Gun Etiquette" - released 2 November 1979 in the UK only on Chiswick Records CWK 3009. Produced by ROGER ARMSTRONG and THE DAMNED - the LP peaked at No. 31 on the UK album charts.

THE DAMNED were:

DAVE VANIAN [David Lett] - Vocals

CAPTAIN SENSIBLE [Raymond Burns] - Guitar

ALGY WARD [Alasdair Ward] - Bass

RAT SCABIES [Christopher Millar] - Drums

The 'Hip Pocket' card repro artwork reproduces the original British LP sleeve as was with its 'cartoon' inner sleeve (the CD has all the writing credits). The Remaster was carried out by ADAM SKEAPING at Sound Mastering and like the LP itself - ROCKS like a monster.

"Ladies and Gentleman. How do!" After the dialogue and snarling jeers from the boys - the sheer sonic assault of "Love Song" (2:21 minutes) is followed by the equally short and quarrelsome album title track "Machine Gun Etiquette" where the band sounds not unlike a boozed-up Motorhead wanting to have words in your shelllike. After the pasting the "Music For Pleasure" album received - the sheer power of the reformed band on the two openers literally screams 'we're back!'. And just when you were getting used to another nosebleed - you then get something more sophisticated but just as good - the Stranglers-tight "I Just Can't Be Happy Now" which Chiswick smartly released as a 7" single in the UK on Chiswick CHIS 120 and were rewarded with a No. 46 chart placing. "Melody Lee" is another brilliant album track as is the rhythm-rattling shakedown of "Anti-Pope" Side 1 ends with "These Hands" - a swirling laughing fairground organ song about 'turning blue' - complete with its high-heels on the pavement ending.

Side 2 opens with the riffing and strangely melodic "Plan 9 Channel 7" which at 5:09 minutes feels like Prog Rock after what went before. Chiswick put out "Noise, Noise, Noise" as the B-side to "Love Song" as far back as April 1979 on Chiswick CHIS 112 on red vinyl - a great stomper with echoed vocals about 'noises for heroes' and massive guitar from Sensible. You'd have to argue that their cover of MC5's "Looking At You" (from their 1970 "Back In The USA" LP) is one of those cover versions that rivals and at times exceeds the original and that guitar-playing throughout its 5:08 minutes is absolutely astonishing. The LP then sucker punches the listener with two fantastic Punk groovers - the 'never tell the truth' of "Liar" and the two parts of "Smash It Up". Chiswick used the faster part of "Smash It Up" as an A-side on another red vinyl 45 just before the album arrived - Chiswick CHIS 116 in October 1979 - and were rewarded with a No. 35 chart placing. A great ending to a great album.

I should mention that other issue. The November 2004 '25th Anniversary Edition' Enhanced CD Reissue and Remaster of "Machine Gun Etiquette" on Ace/Chiswick CDWIKD 250 has 9 bonus tracks - the six non-album 7" single B-sides, three new Previously Unreleased Audio Versions of key album tracks and a Previously Unseen Video of "Plan 9, Channel 7" (use Barcode 029667425025 in Amazon's search bar if you want that issue). And of course with those extra goodies - it therefore offers better value for money (still available relatively cheaply too). But I'm a sucker for that repro artwork and the album presented 'as is'. It's true this 'Hip Pocket' CD would have been stronger with killer B-sides like "Burglar" from "Smash It Up" and their rattling cover of The Sweet's "Ballroom Blitz" tucked away on the flip-side of "I Just Can't Be Happy Today" - itself one of their strongest efforts. But you pays your money...and...

Besides you gotta love any band with people named 'Captain Sensible' and Rat Scabies'. You know Prince Phillip would approve...

Titles in Ace Records Mid-Price 'Hip Pocket' CD Series of Card Repro Reissues are:

1. DONALD AUSTIN – Crazy Legs (Ace/Westbound CDHP 016, Dec 2006)

2. THE BISHOPS – Cross Cuts (Ace/Chiswick CDWIKM 256, June 2005)

3. HADDA BROOKS – Femme Fatale (Ace CDCHM 1129, Nov 2006)

4. THE CHAMPS – Go, Champs, Go! (Ace CDCHM 1126, Sep 2006)

5. THE DAMNED – Machine Gun Etiquette (Ace/Chiswick CDHP 027, July 2007)

6. THE ESCALATORS [ex Meteors] – Moving Staircases (Ace CDHP 017, Dec 2006)

7. THE EVERLY BROTHERS – The Everly Brothers (Ace CDCHM 1127, Sep 2006)

8. FUNKADELIC – Maggot Brain (Ace/Westbound CDHP 030, Aug 2007)

9. CHUCK HIGGINS – Pachucko Hop (Ace CDHP 024, April 2007)

10. B. B. KING – The Jungle (Ace/Kent CDHP 031, Nov 2007)

11. JOHNNY MOPED – Cycledelic (Ace/Chiswick CDHP 029, Oct 2007)

12. JACKIE LEE – The Duck (Ace/Kent CDHP 032, Dec 2010)

13. LONNIE MACK – The Wham Of That Memphis Man! (Ace CDCHM 1134, Nov 2006)

14. MOTORHEAD – Motorhead [1977 Debut LP] (Ace/Chiswick CDHP 021, Oct 2007)

15. THE OLYMPICS – Something Old, Something New (Ace/Kent CDHP 018, Dec 2006)

16. THE RADIO STARS – Songs For Swinging Lovers (Ace/Chiswick CDWIKM 5, June 2006)

17. THE SONICS – Here Are The Sonics! (Ace/Big Beat CDHP 022, Feb 2007)

18. THE SONICS – The Sonics Boom (Ace/Big Beat CDHP 023, April 2007)

19. ROOSEVELT SYKES [aka 'The Honeydripper'] – Sings The Blues (Ace CDCHM 1132, Nov 2006)

20. VARIOUS – For Dancers Only [Kent's 1st Reissue LP compilation] (Ace/Kent CDHP 019, Feb 2007)

21. VARIOUS – For Dancers Also [Kent's 2nd Reissue LP compilation] (Ace/Kent CDHP 020, April 2007)

22. VARIOUS – Hollywood Rock 'n' Roll [80ts Rockabilly compilation] (Ace CDHP 026, July 2007)

23. VARIOUS – Fool's Gold [70ts Punk compilation] (Ace/Chiswick CDHP 028, August 2007)

24. LINK WRAY – Early Recordings (Ace/Chiswick CDCHM 6, June 2006

25. THE ZOMBIES – Odyssey And Oracle (Ace/Big Beat CDHP 025, June 2007)

Saturday, 27 August 2016

"Suite For Susan Moore And Damion - We Are - One, One, All In One/Bird On A Wire" by TIM HARDIN (1999/2009 Beat Goes On 2LPs onto 1CD Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Will We Ever Run Free Of Those Worldly Wantings?"

This is a moving and at times frustrating release for an artist who engendered both emotions - Oregon's TIM HARDIN.

It's also a tale of two cities - an experimental navel-gazing heart-on-your-emotional-sleeve concept album from 1969 that some have praised as a second "Astral Weeks" while others have labelled "Suite For Susan Moore..." as utter knob and self-indulgent drivel - sat alongside a far more accessible and commercial album from 1971 called "Bird On A Wire" (after a Leonard Cohen cover version) - itself a sort of Soulful singer-songwriter return to form. I'm down with both opinions. Whatever you say about Tim Hardin - he and his music was never anything less than interesting. Here are the satisfied minds...

UK released November 1999 (reissued October 2009) - "Suite For Susan Moore And Damion - We Are - One, One, All In One/Bird On A Wire" by TIM HARDIN on Beat Goes On BGOCD 470 (Barcode 5017251204707) offers 2LPs Remastered onto 1CD and plays out as follows (78:53 minutes):

Implication I: [Side 1]

1. First Love Song

2. Everything Good Become More True

Implication II:

3. Question Of Birth

4. Once-Touched By Flame

5. Last Sweet Moments

Implication III: [Side 2]

6. Magician

7. Loneliness She Knows

End Of Implication:

8. The Country I'm Living In

9. One, One, The Perfect Sum

10. Susan

Tracks 1 to 10 are his 5th album "Suite For Susan Moore And Damion - We Are - One, One, All In One" - released April 1969 in the USA on Columbia CS 9787 (Stereo) and May 1969 in the UK on CBS Records S 63571 (Stereo).

11. Bird On The Wire [Side 1]

12. Moonshine

13. Southern Butterfly

14. A Satisfied Mind

15. Soft Summer Breeze

16. Hoboin' [Side 2]

17. Georgia On My Mind

18. Andre Johray

19. If I Knew

20. Love Hymn

Tracks 11 to 20 are his 6th album "Bird On A Wire" - released June 1971 in the USA on Columbia C 30551 and August 1971 in the UK on CBS Records S 64335

The 8-page booklet features a short but very informative essay on the mad troubadour by COLIN IRWIN as well as the inner artwork to "Suite" and the huge session-musician list for "Bird". That 'crazy man' photo of Hardin and an Eagle that graced the rear of "Suite" is used as the inlay beneath the see-through CD tray and the statuesque picture of Susan Moore graces the last page. It doesn't say who remastered what or where - but the sound is gorgeous - especially for the notoriously quiet passages of "Suite". A track like the acoustic Folk of “The Country I’m Living In” and the simple plinking of an electric piano on “Everything Good Become More True” have tiny amounts of natural hiss - but are never too intrusive or overbearing. A nice job done...

The silly title gives you an indication - a stream of consciousness - contemplation on the 'implications' of relationships - or that Tim loves Susan so much he might just have to marry the broad. I have a love/hate relationship with this album - at times the spoken tracks like "Question Of Birth", "Loneliness She Knows" and "Susan" with lyrics like "...we cannot choose to come or not to come..." or "...if understood the meaning has no meaning..." don't offer explanations on life or love - but instead give you a stream of what feels like therapy psychobabble that doesn't stand up to any real scrutiny. But then there are moments too like the straight-up passion of "First Love Song", "Last Sweet Memory" and "Once-Touched By Flame" where this album dips into the realms of magical - simple and moving. It's an album of both hues...

1971's more polished and accomplished "Bird On A Wire" LP opens with the first of four cover versions sat alongside six new Tim Hardin originals. The 28 session players make it seem like a roll call for a Soul or Jazz Fusion album - included names like Joe Zawinul and Miroslav Vitous of Weather Report, Bassists Tony Levin and “Pops” Popwell of The Crusaders, Guitar virtuosos like Ralph Towner alongside Keyboard people like Warren Bernhardt and Paul Hornsby. But the music is more Rock with a Soulful tinge as evidenced the moment you play his almost Gospel take on Leonard Cohen's "Bird On The Wire" (originally on his 1969 LP "Songs From A Room"). His voice is more noticeably ragged - like a man on his last legs - his drug dependency showing. "Moonshiner" is a Traditional but again his voice and the sweet keyboards make it feel like a broken down Tim Hardin song. "Southern Butterfly" is oddly hissy (the first of his original songs) but lifted out of the ordinary by beautiful string and horn arrangements from Ed Freeman. Written by noted Fiddle player Joe Hayes and his pal Jack Rhodes - "A Satisfied Mind" features the Pedal Steel Guitar of Bill Keith and The Canby Singers giving it some choir-like backing vocals. We get Funky with "Soft Summer Breeze" - a very cool groove which acted as the flipside to the album's only American 45 on Columbia 45426 in August 1971 (the LP's title track was on the A - it didn't chart).

Side 2 opens with the almost Crusaders/Meters funky groove of "Hoboin'" where Tim tells us that he 'took a freight train to be my only friend' and 'I took it everywhere...' We return to covers with Hoagy Carmichael's "Georgia On My Mind" - the famous song Jazzed up by Joe Zawinul's classy keyboard touches - what a sweet vibe this version is. "Andrey Johray" starts out with "Suite For Susan Moore..." dialogue about good and evil and lost highway children whove become famous - it's a 'know thyself' parable from Tim - a supercool gentle song that hankers back to that 1969 experiment. "...Will we ever run free of those worldly wantings..." he pleads - when deep at the heart of the song is a plea to himself and his friend to do something about their respective self-destructive addictions. Things mellow down with the lovely "If I Knew" - a song I play a lot - gorgeous tune. "Love Hymn' ends a classy but overlooked album on a 'so beautiful' up-note. Nice...

While I would never cite "Suite For Susan Moore..." as some undiscovered masterpiece the great unwashed need alongside their eggs and chips - there are times when I find it magical like a Fred Neil album or a Roy Harper LP. And just sometimes when I'm grooving to the simply Folk Rock beauty of say "Last Sweet Moments" as those vibes ping and that Harmonica soothes - this is the kind of album you 'need' to hear every now and then - an enchanting record that could never get made in 2016 (more's the pity).

Trippy, heartfelt, honest, soulful and as mad as a Psychotherapist at a Donald Trump drug-tasting convention - this pairing of Tim Hardin's 1969 and 1971 albums offers us music lovers two overlooked pieces - both brilliant in their own flawed and haggard ways. A sort of stormy sadness...recommended...

Friday, 26 August 2016

"Setting Sons: Deluxe Edition 2CD Version" by THE JAM (2014 Universal/Polydor 2CD Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...No Match For Their Untamed Wit..."

How do you follow something as beloved as 1978's "All Mod Cons"? You do it with 1979's "Setting Sons" that along with The Clash's "London Calling" probably represent Britain's Punk and New Wave period at its snotty full-throated working-class best. And as a nice boy from a nice part of Dublin - I'm down with that Mister Smithers-Jones (The Jam were huge in Ireland)...

Unfortunately like others who bought and loved the glorious embossed original vinyl LP (Polydor POLD 5028) back in the heady end-of-a-decade days of November 1979 - this December 2014 Universal/Polydor 2CD 'Deluxe Edition' feels like a hamburger instead of a steak. I think a lot of it has to do with the presentation of these newer 'Deluxe Editions' that are minus the plastic slipcases that came with the older variants (gave them a bit of class and the easy-to-crumple digipak within some much-needed protection). But like the "Some Girls" Deluxe Edition from The Rolling Stones which completely wrecked fabulous original artwork (with an equally crappy and costly Uber DE edition to fleece fans) – this one screws up the artwork too and the flimsy exposed card digipak doesn't do this 4th 'DE' for The Jam any favours either.

Having said all that and whinged like a big girl's blouse - there's good here too. The new 2014 remasters are superb, Pat Gilbert's new liner notes explain the LP's impact really well and the pictured fan memorabilia is impressively in-depth. And on the bonus front you forget just how good those stand-alone 45s were (both sides) and The Jam live is a quite awesome thing to behold (even it this BBC stuff as been released before). Time for some embossed details of our own methinks – let's get to the missing bulldogs and added deckchairs...

UK released December 2014 - "Setting Sons: Deluxe Edition 2CD Version" by THE JAM on Universal/Polydor 0602537946952 (Barcode 602537946952) is a 2-Disc Reissue/Remaster and plays out as follows:

Disc 1 (58:00 minutes):

1. Girl On The Phone

2. Thick As Thieves

3. Private Hell

4. Little Boy Soldiers

5. Wasteland

6. Burning Sky

7. Smithers-Jones

8. Saturday's Kids

9. The Eton Rifles

10. Heat Wave

Tracks 1 to 10 are their 4th studio album "Setting Sons" - released November 1979 in the UK on Polydor POLD 5028 and in the USA on Polydor SD 6249 - Produced by Vic Coppersmith-Heaven - it peaked at No. 4 on the UK LP charts (didn't chart in the USA).

BONUS TRACKS - The Singles & B-Sides:

11. Strange Town

12. The Butterfly Collector

Tracks 11 and 12 are the non-album A&B-sides of their 6th UK 7" single released 9 March 1979 on Polydor POSP 34 (peaked at No. 15)

13. When You're Young

14. Smithers-Jones (Single Version)

Tracks 13 and 14 are the non-album A&B-sides of their 7th UK 7" single released 7 August 1979 on Polydor POSP 69 (peaked at No. 17)

15. The Eton Rifles (Single Version)

16. See-Saw

Tracks 15 and 16 are the non-album A&B-sides of their 8th UK 7" single released 26 October 1979 on Polydor POSP 83 (peaked at No. 3)

17. Going Underground

18. Dreams Of Children

Tracks 17 and 18 are the non-album A&B-sides of their 9th UK 7" single released 14 March 1980 on Polydor POSP 113 (peaked at No. 1)

Disc 2 - Live At The Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park, London, December 1979 (59:08 minutes):

1. Girl On The Phone

2. To Be Someone

3. It's Too Bad

4. Burning Sky

5. Away With The Numbers

6. Smithers-Jones

7. The Modern World

8. Mr. Clean

9. The Butterfly Collector

10. Private Hell

11. Thick As Thieves

12. When You're Young

13. Strange Town

14. The Eton Rifles

15. Down At The Tube Station At Midnight

16. Saturday's Kids

17. All Mod Cons

18. David Watts

THE JAM was:

PAUL WELLER - Lead Vocals, Guitar and Principal Songwriter

BRUCE FOXTON - Bass (wrote "Smithers-Jones", all others by Weller)

RICK BUCKLER - Drums

MICK TALBOT - Future Style Council partner for Paul Weller is credited as "Merton Mick" and plays Piano on “Heat Wave”

RUDI - Saxophone on “Heat Wave”

The 24-page booklet tries hard to impress - a centre 2-page spread of concert tickets from the Oakland Auditorium in San Francisco in late April 1979 to the unbridled luxury of the Bridlington Spa in November of that Jam-momentous year. There are trade adverts, NME repros, WORDS magazine covers and other depicted memorabilia alongside some live photos. But every one of the flaps is covered in blurred concert photos that have been colour-tinted and look awful and the Red and Blue CDs themselves with a 'Bulldog' face don't impress much nor resemble the LP - and the Bulldog/Deckchair is missing from the back sleeve. The Inner sleeve that came with original British LPs is bizarrely AWOL and it doesn't seem to occur to anyone to provide basic catalogue numbers for anything like I've done above (and don't get me started on the cost of the desirable but extortionate Uber Deluxe Edition). Still - Pat Gilbert's new liner notes give insights into the sheer pressure Weller was under to top "All Mod Cons" and cement their huge and growing popularity and he gets behind the sheer Britishness of the band and the LP's music - how these angry young working-class men were angry at everything - especially the heartless Establishment of the day - and thereby put a single as physically violent as "The Eton Rifles" up to No. 3. And it does sound better...

I've had the "Direction" box set from 1997 and to my ears there's an improvement with these new KEIRON McGARRY Remasters - and those Bonus Single Sides tagged onto Disc 1 pretty much make it essential in any man's books. I don't have the BBC Sessions stuff so the Live Concert on Disc 2 is new to me. I like it - especially lesser-heard tracks like "The Butterfly Collector" and a storming rant through "Mr. Clean" (from "All Mod Cons"). But you'd have to say immediately - what is there here that would tempt a true fan who has purchased all of this before (docked a star for that)?

There's amazing punch in both "Girl On The Phone" and the stunning "Thick As Thieves" - both walloping your speakers as Paul Weller spits out "...says she knows everything about me..." and "...times are so tough...but not as tough as they are now..." (lets not mention the size of Paul's appendage as he does on the "Girl On The Phone" track). The sheer sonic wallop of "Private Hell" is thrilling - as thrashing as I remember it - and the words just as harrowing and locked into the reality of city living in an unemployed England town - singing about an unrecognisable junkie girl lost in their "Private Hell". When the in-yo-face "Eton Rifles" climbed to No 3 on the back of a Top Of The Pops appearance - the album arrived a fortnight later and didn't disappoint with tracks like the unemployed boys and girls holding hands in "Wasteland" and the equally disarming "Little Boy Soldiers" where Weller rages about picking up a gun to shoot a stranger for Queen and Country because you're a "...blessed son of the British Empire..."

Side 2 opens with a "...taxman shouting because he wants his dough..." in the attacking "Burning Sky" that's followed by Foxton's lone contribution and genuine moment of glory - "Smithers-Jones". The single version we're so used to hearing dropped the strings of the album mix - upped the Bass and plucked guitar notes - but I'm a fan of both versions. "Saturday's Kids" drinks lots of beer and work (if they can) down at Woolworths and Tesco's - dreaming of the Mod weekend and the dancehall (and probably seeing The Jam). I've always thought that their storming cover of the Martha and The Vandellas Motown hit "Heat Wave" is the most fantastic version and somehow bookends an angry LP with a moment of upbeat hope (Rudi on Saxophone).

The Bonus Singles throw Disc 1 into superstar territory. I'm fond of "Strange Town" but I'm always drawn to its brilliant flipside "The Butterfly Collector". I can vividly remember playing this side of the Polydor 45 much more than the A. Both the Single Version of "Smithers-Jones" and the Single Edit of "The Eton Rifles" are friggin' genius - but again your heart goes out to the fab B-side "See Saw" which Weller gave to the Glasgow Mod Band THE JOLT who put it onto Side 2 of their 4-Track "Maybe Tonight" EP on Polydor 2229 215 in June 1979 (a huge collectable piece ever since). As if that's not enough - Disc 1 ends on the undeniable brilliance of "Going Underground" backed with the equally cool "The Dreams Of Children". Both rightly took the No. 1 spot in March 1980 - the first of four number ones for this most British of bands.

True fans will probably feel peeved as their computer's access the Gracenote Name database only to be told that Disc 2 of this supposedly new 2014 Deluxe Edition is called 'At The BBC - At The Rainbow' - Disc 3 of the June 2002 3CD set "The Jam At The BBC" - in other words material that's already been released. Well at least its newly remastered making killer tracks like "To Be Someone" feel 'huge' and less muddied than before. People who invested money in 'that film' get a ribbing in the acidic "Mr. Clean" - the crowd secretly loving it when Weller says I'll 'nice' up your life. The gig is not audiophile for sure but it captures the raw power of the band in front of a devoted crowd and has you nodding at the quality of song after song.

I suppose there are two ways of looking at this 2014 DE - for fans it's a pain and apart from the improved Audio - something of a pointless exercise. But I'd say get past the naff packaging and concentrate on the music - The Jam in all their working-man's glory. Weller would go onto The Style Council and Solo glory and has pretty much remained at the top of his musical game every since - each release still awaited with an excitement this band engendered almost 40 years ago.

"...Saturday kids play one-armed bandits...they never win...but that's not the point is it..." - Paul Weller sang on "Saturday's Kids" way back in 1979. It seems that in 2016 - not a lot has changed when it comes to reissues for fans. We're still at the grubby hands of fruit machine vendors...

"Sings The Blues" by ROOSEVELT SYKES (2006 Ace Hip-Pocket CD Remaster In Repro Card Artwork) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Out On A Limb..."

"Sings The Blues" is part of Ace Records 'HIP POCKET' series - 5" Card Repro sleeves of rare and iconic albums from across many genres (see list below).

This November 2006 CD reissue of "Sings The Blues" by ROOSEVELT SYKES on Ace CDCHM 1132 (Barcode 029667022521) replicates that ultra-rare US-only 1962 album on Crown Records CLP 5287.

1. Slave For Your Love

2. Gone With The Wind

3. Wild Side

4. Out On A Limb

5. Honey Child

6. Never Loved Like This Before [Side 2]

7. Last Chance

8. Casual Friend

9. Your Will Is Mine

10. Hup Dupe Do

It's a proper remaster (doesn't say who remastered it - probably NICK ROBBINS at Sound Mastering) from the original analogue tapes (25: 45 minutes) and the Audio is SUPERB - loud and clear - a typically brill job done by one of Britain's truly great re-issue labels.

The band for the album consisted of:

ROOSEVELT "The Honeydripper" SYKES on Piano

OETT "Sax" MALLARD on Saxophone

WILLIE DIXON on Upright Bass

ARMAND "Jump" JACKSON on Drums

Playing the Chicago Blues on his Piano since 1929 - Roosevelt Sykes wasn't exactly a spring chicken in the summer of 1962 - but his age imbibed the renditions with a genuine 'real deal' feel. The music is slow piano-based blues with a slight New Orleans twist on some of the tracks - a sort of harder version of Fat Domino.

"Slave For Love" (1), "Out On A Limb" (4) and "Honey Child" (5) are Roosevelt "The Honeydripper" Sykes originals – while "Gone With The Wind" (2), "Wild Side" (3), "Never Loved Like This Before" (6), "Last Chance" (7), "Casual Friend" (8), "Your Will Is Mine" (9) and "Hupe Dupe Do" (10) are co-written with JOE JOSEA.

It doesn't say who played the excellent guitar work on "Gone With The Wind", "Out On A Limb" and especially "Casual Friend" - but it's all ‘so’ good. And I love that atmospheric 'Beale Street' artwork with its original JOE TAUBLING liner notes on the rear (June 1962).

I picked up my copy from the wonderful independent record shop SISTER RAY on Berwick Street in London for a fiver. A very cool reissue in its skinny-minnie 6" repro card sleeve.

"Sings The Blues" is great Chicago Piano Blues you will want in your hipster's pocket...

Titles in Ace Records Mid-Price 'Hip Pocket' CD Series are: