"Heavy Horses: New Shoes Edition" by JETHRO TULL (March 2018 Chrysalis 3CD/2DVD Book Set Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

This Review Along With 300+ Others Is Available In My

SOUNDS GOOD E-Book on all Amazon sites

1960s and 1970s MUSIC ON CD - Volume 1 of 3 - Exceptional CD Remasters

As well as 1960s and 1970s Rock and Pop - It Also Focuses On

Blues Rock, Prog Rock, Psych, Avant Garde and Underground 

Just Click Below To Purchase for £3.95

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"...Hoeing And Husbandry..."

I was a kid of the early Seventies ("Aqualung", "Thick As A Brick", the "Living In The Past" double-album) - so by the time Jethro Tull's 11th album "Heavy Horses" arrived in April 1978 with the double "Live: Bursting Out" following quickly later that same year in September - I can recall being disinterested in JT entirely and thinking - who the hell is buying either of these?

And yet Tull have always been a cult band personified - so despite or perhaps even because of the utterly changed musical landscape they found themselves in – defiantly "Heavy Horses" bucked the 'Rock Is Dead - Long Live Punk and New Wave' ethos of the NME et al and charted well on both sides of the pond - No. 20 in the UK and even better at No. 19 in the States ("Live: Bursting Out" did the same - No. 17 in the UK and No. 20 in the USA). Now I'm re-listening afresh to what is presently referred to as Part 2 of their Folk-Rock album trilogy - 1978's "Heavy Horses" - the one between "Songs From The Woods" in 1977 and "Stormwatch" in 1979.

And once again fans and newcomers alike will slaver and drool over this 5-Disc Book Set - yet another in Tull's extraordinary reissue campaign that has been putting most major label reissues of huge bands to utter shame for a few years now. There's a cartload of detail to plough through (forgive the puns) - so once more my hirsute horsy friends unto the Mad Nags and Englishmen (and that one-legged geezer with the hat and the flute)...

UK and USA released 2 March 2018 - "Heavy Horses: New Shoes Edition" by JETHRO TULL on Parlophone/Chrysalis 0190295757915 (Barcode 0190295757915) is a 3CD + 2DVD Reissue containing both "Heavy Horses" the album and the live double-set that followed "Live: Bursting Out" – all housed in a Hardback 'Book Set' with an attached 96-page booklet. The team of Steve Wilson, Jakko Jakszyk, Don Needham and Ray Shulman (long associated with Tull reissues) have carried out the Audio and DVD Remasters and Authoring and "Heavy Horses: New Shoes Edition" plays out as follows:

CD1 "Heavy Horses" (76:23 minutes):

1.  ....And The Mouse Police Never Sleeps [Side 1]

2. Acres Wild

3. No Lullaby

4. Moths

5. Journeymen

6. Rover [Side 2]

7. One Brown Mouse

8. Heavy Horses

9. Weathercock

Tracks 1 to 9 are their 11th album "Heavy Horses" - released 10 April 1978 in the USA on Chrysalis CHR 1175 and 21 April 1978 in the UK also on Chrysalis CHR 1175. Produced by IAN ANDERSON and JETHRO TULL - it peaked at No. 20 on the UK LP charts and No.19 in the USA.

ADDITIONAL RECORDINGS

10. Living In These Hard Times [Version 2] - Planned to be on the withdrawn "Moths" EP - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

11. Everything In Our Lives [Studio Outtake] - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

12. Jack-A-Lynn [Early Version, Studio Demo] - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

13. Quatrain [Studio Version, it featured on "Live: Bursting Out" as a new song in live form] - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

14. Horse-Hoeing Husbandry [Studio Outtake] - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

15. Beltane [Withdrawn from the "Moths" EP - eventually surfaced on "20 Years Of Jethro Tull" Box Set in June 1988]

16. Botanic Man [Recorded live for the Thames TV Series 'Botanic Man' with David Bellamy but not used] - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

17. Living In These Hard Times [Version 1] - Studio Outtake eventually surfaced on "20 Years Of Jethro Tull" Box Set in June 1988

18. Botanic Man Theme [Recorded for the Thames TV Series 'Botanic Man' with David Bellamy but not used] - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

CD2 "Live In Berne 1978 (Part 1)" (50:16 minutes):

1. Opening Music (Quartet)

2. Introduction by Claude Nobs

3. No Lullaby

4. Sweet Dream

5. Skating Away On The Thin Ice Of The New Day

6. Jack-In-The-Green

7. One Brown Mouse

8. Heavy Horses

9. A New Day Yesterday

10. Flute Solo Improvisation/God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/Bouree

11. Living in The Past (Instrumental)/A New Day Yesterday (Reprise)

12. Songs From The Wood

CD3 "Live In Berne 1978 (Part 2)" (59:33 minutes):

1. Thick As A Brick

2. Hunting Girl

3. Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young To Die

4. Conundrum

5. Minstrel In The Gallery

6. Cross-Eyed Mary

First Encore

7. Quatrain

8. Aqualung

Second Encore

9. Locomotive Breath

10. The Dambusters March/Aqualung (Reprise)

NOTE: the 22-tracks of CDs 2 and 3 represent the complete concert upon which the 17-track double-album "Live: Bursting Out" was based. Released 22 September 1978 in the UK on Chrysalis CJT 4 and 25 September 1978 in the USA on Chrysalis CH2 1201 (peaked at No. 17 and No. 21 respectively) – its four original sides can be sequenced from these two CDs using the following tracks:

Side 1: Tracks 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 from CD2

Side 2: Tracks 9, 10 and 12 from CD2 and Track 1 from CD3

Side 3: Tracks 2, 3, 4 and 5 from CD3

Side 4: Tracks 6, 7, 9 and 10 from CD3

DVD 1 (Audio) - NTSC, Region 0 (All Regions), 16.9 Aspect, Exempt from Classification

Contains all 9-Tracks of the "Heavy Horses" album

Plus "Living In These Hard Times (Versions 1 & 2), "Everything In Our Lives", "Jack-A-Lynn", "Horse-Hoeing Husbandry", "Beltane", "Botanic Man" and "Botanic Man Theme" remixed to 5.1 DTS, AC3 Dolby Digital Surround and 96/24 LPCM Stereo by STEVE WILSON

Also has original Stereo mixes of "Heavy Horses" album, "Rover (No Strings version)", "Living in These Hard Times (Version 2)", "Beltane" and "Quatrain (SW Mix)" as 96/24 LPCM Stereo

DVD 2 (Audio/Video) - NTSC, Region 0 (All Regions), 16.9 Aspect (Videos 3:4), Exempt from Classification

Jethro Tull recorded live to 2-track at The Festhalle, Berne, Switzerland by The Maison Rouge Mobile

Remixed to 5.1 DTS, AC3 Dolby Digital Surround and 96/24 LPCM Stereo by JAKKO JAKSZYK

Promotional Video Footage of the tracks "Heavy Horses" and "Moths" Plus 2 TV Adverts for "Bursting Out"

JETHRO TULL was:

IAN ANDERSON - Vocals, Flute, Whistles, Mandolin, Acoustic and Electric Guitars

MARTIN BARRE - Lead Electric Guitar

JOHN EVAN - Piano and Organ

DAVID PALMER - Keyboards and Orchestral Arrangements

JOHN GLASCOCK - Bass

BARRIEMORE BARLOW - Drums and Percussion

On Page 18 of the incredible 96-page booklet is a picture of a 'Jethro Tull - Heavy Horses' Promotional Bottle of Ale complete with its ridged flip cap - on Page 52 is a repro of the rare front page folio for the book "Horfe-Hoeing Husbandry" by Jethro Tull published in London by A. Millar in 1731 (the character the band based their name on) - on Page 74 (to Page 81) that begins the January 1977 to November 1978 day-by-day 'Chronology' of all things JT is a night-time photo of the ill-fated Maison Rouge Studios in Fulham, South West London that the band bought and kitted out to record "Heavy Horses" (now a car-park or some such). It all gives you an indication of the kind of depth we're talking about here. The info and memorabilia come at you fast and furious and it’s a dull boy indeed who would not be impressed with the sheer effort and scope of this reissue.

And did I mention that the record itself sounds utterly amazing - once again the Wills-meister STEVE WILSON and footage genius JAKKO JAKSZYK have pulled off yet more upgrades on both fronts (somebody needs to put these men on the New Year’s Honours List for services to Prog lurches everywhere). So what about the Music and the Visuals...

As the front cover artwork suggests - Ian Anderson leading Barley and Sir Jim towards us (both gorgeous animals courtesy of the Courage Shire Horse Centre in Maidenhead, Berkshire) - this is a deeply English Countryside Album. "Heavy Horses" is a down-on-the-farm, doing-loads-of-rural-stuff set of Folk-Rock songs and the Acoustic Guitars and Flute of "...And The Mouse Police Never Sleeps" opens proceedings rather nicely. There is real punch in the rhythm section - drums and bass - and that battle between the keyboards and layered vocals later on sounds cool too. Tull tap the Mandolin for "Acres Wild" - a great mixture of their “Stand Up” sound meeting Fairport Convention's "Liege & Lief" Folk-Rock - with one foot in both camps (and I love those breaks that sound like Horslips enjoying themselves). It's easy to hear why Tull opened the live "Bursting Out" double with the clever Rock Guitar of "No Lullaby" - its everything they were at the time - English Folk meets Prog Rock. But that's trashed by the album's mini masterpiece - "Moths". Chrysalis thought so too - releasing it 7 April 1978 on 7" single ahead of the album in the UK (Chrysalis CHS 2214 had "Life Is A Long Song" as its UK B-side while the American variant was to carry "Beltane" on its flipside but the release was withdrawn). Palmer's string arrangement dances like the 'candle flames' in the lyrics. 

Martin Barre gives it some wicked guitar work on "Journeyman" - tripping the light fantastic. Anderson chases every footstep and follows every limb in "Rover" - his lady and that lovelorn pot-of-gold just out of reach (beautiful production values on this). "One Brown Mouse" also sounds like it could have been a single - take some tea with me awhile he sings as the acoustic strums race with the drums. The nine-minute title track is the most Prog of all and its arrangements are brilliant - soft acoustics bolstered by lovely string arrangements (you also get to concentrate on the articulate lyrics). It ends on the Mandolin Folk of "Weathercock" (there's one pictured on Page 50) where Anderson's good-morning melody sounds warm and summery (sing to me softly) as Barre brings the song and the album to a satisfactory finish with brilliant guitar flourishes.

I hadn't expected much from the extras - but again I'm shocked at how good "Living In These Hard Times" is - here in two takes - Version 2 done in July with Version 1 dating from February 1977. I'd also argue that "Everything In Our Lives" is equal to anything on the album or at least would have made a killer B-side. And while the David Bellamy theme songs to his "Botanic Man" are interesting if not a bit too heavy-handed - the lovely early version of "Jack-A-Lynn" is surely the unreleased prize here. Sounding like something that could have come straight out of the "Wandering Aloud" sessions from "Aqualung" – both it and "Quatrain" are fabulous outtakes – the second with Anderson's frustration and mistakes left on the tape. The Live Double is cool icing on the cake with barnstorming versions of "Skating Away On The Thin Ice Of The New Day", "Sweet Dream" and "Cross-Eyed Mary". And the DVD promo videos are a hoot if not a tiny bit cringeworthy now.

I full appreciate that "Heavy Horses" and Jethro Tull in general will not be everyone's idea of 1978 - but man you have to give credit where credit's due. This is an amazing reissue and well done to all involved...

"Suburbicon" - The 2017 George Clooney Movie - A Review

"Suburbicon" Is A Sickathon...A One-Star Turkey And

A Staggeringly Cruel Film From A Man Who's Just Been Gifted Fatherhood...

Maybe it's my age (I'm approaching 60) or maybe it's because we have a son with special needs that makes me wretch to my core at the sight of cruelty to children – especially scared and vulnerable ones. But penned by the normally reliable Cohen Brothers - "Suburbicon" is a nauseating and incredibly indulgent film with sickening cruelty towards the child in the lead role.

Directed by George Clooney - who at his late age has been gifted with two gorgeous kids - it's difficult to square that peg as you watch the child's reaction when his family and loved ones are either wiped out for money or turn out to be worse monsters than the white racist killers. It’s genuinely disturbing to think that Mister carefully-cultivated Nice Guy Image Directed this ludicrous and incredibly nasty movie.

Then there is the unbelievable side story of a young black family recently moved into a fictitious Pleasantville kind of American Town called "Suburbicon" who are then systematically tormented by a whole gaggle of stereotypical rednecks – a plotline that is never given a satisfying conclusion – or worse – seems to take glee in the premise.

But it’s the cruelty that lies behind almost every scene - cruelty to women – to children – to race. Is this the same George Clooney everyone admires? I don't know what he was thinking when he made this odious little dog - but I hope his kids don’t have to sit through Daddy's embarrassing steaming pile one day and explain to their multi-racial friends what darling Papa was on about.

We genuinely need to stop appeasing actors and celebrities and ask why no one has questioned GC on the point of this film? Why has no one in the UK or US media questioned the Hollywood A-lister on its content? Or why talk-show hosts across Europe and the World don't question Tom Cruise on the Cult of Scientology that they know destroys young people's minds for monetary gain? How no one at the BBC knew what lovely Jimmy Saville was doing to innocents for over three decades? No one in ‘Media’ on either side of the pond wants to rock the boat with their lucrative careers or put a kibosh on their junkie-need for fame. That’s why. That's how crap like this got made – no one said enough – said no – nor wants to confront the wrong after it’s been unleashed into the public domain.

In some respects and being truthful here – I can't articulate why I'm so revolted by this film (can't abide cruelty as a badge of cool?). But I can say that after "Suburbicon" - I won't look at a George Clooney film in the same way ever again...

"H To He Who Am The Only One" by VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR (May 2005 UK Virgin/Charisma 'Expanded Edition' CD - Peter Hammill and Kathy Bryan Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

This Review Along With Over 310 Others Is Available In My

SOUNDS GOOD E-Book on all Amazon sites
CADENCE /CASCADE 

PROG ROCK, PSYCH, AVANT GARDE...
And Others Genres Thereabouts
Exceptional CD Remasters

Covering 1967 to 1977 - It Also Focuses On

Fusion Rock, Acid Folk, Art Rock and Underground 

Just Click Below To Purchase

Thousands of E-Pages - All Details and In-Depth Reviews From Discs

(No Cut and Paste Crap)

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"...The Emperor In His War-Room..."

Named after the American Engineer Robert Van De Graaff's surname and his particle accelerator device for creating static electricity - Van Der Graaf Generator's second studio album for 1970 came hot on the heels of their January debut - "The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other". Released December 1970 by the newly formed Charisma Records - home of Audience, Rare Bird, Everyone, Merrill Moore, Atomic Rooster, (Keith Emerson's) The Nice and that other huge British Progressive Rock band Genesis – VDGG’s second platter expanded the experimental musical horizons laid down by their acclaimed debut.

Equal to its predecessor's quirky moniker - "H To He Who Am The Only One" is reckoned by Prog Rockers and VDGG fans alike to be up there as one of the Manchester boys wildest and best outings – a boundary pusher resplendent with mad Paul Whitehead artwork (a fave of the Genesis lads too). And this rather brill little 2005 CD Remaster (complete with two lengthy bonus cuts) bears that out. Here are the Houses with No Doors...

UK released 30 May 2005 - "H To He Who Am The Only One" by VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR on Virgin/Charisma CASCDR 1027 (Barcode 724347488825) is an 'Expanded Edition' CD Reissue and Remaster with Two Bonus Tracks that plays out as follows (71:29 minutes):

1. Killer [Side 1]

2. House With No Door

3. The Emperor In His War-Room Part 1. The Emperor Part 2. The Room

4. Lost Part 1. The Dance In Sand And Sea Part 2. The Dance In Frost [Side 2]

5. Pioneers Over C

Tracks 1 to 5 are their second studio album "H To He Who Am The Only One" - released January 1970 in the UK on Charisma Records CAS 1027 and March 1971 in the USA on Dunhill/ABC Records DS 50097.  Produced by JOHN ANTHONY - Track 1 was written by Peter Hammill, Hugh Banton and Stratton Smith, Tracks 2, 3 and 4 written by Peter Hammill with Track 5 written by Peter Hammill and David Jackson.

BONUS TRACKS:

6. Squid 1/Squid 2/Octopus [15:24 minutes]

7. The Emperor In His War-Room (First Version) [8:50 minutes]

VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR was:

PETER HAMMILL - Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar and Piano on "House With No Door"

HUGH BANTON - Vocals, Hammond and Farfisa Organs, Piano, Oscillator and Bass on "House With No Door" and "Killer"

DAVID JACKSON - Vocals, Alto, Tenor and Baritone Saxophones and Flute

GUY EVANS - Drums, Tympani and Percussion

Guests:

NIC POTTER (of The Misunderstood) - Bass on "Killer", "The Emperor In His War Room” and "Lost"

ROBERT FRIPP (of King Crimson) - Guitar on "The Emperor In His War-Room"

The 20-page booklet is a pleasingly thorough affair with new liner notes from MARK POWELL - soon to be head honcho at Esoteric Recordings over at Cherry Red UK - home to all things Avant Garde, Left Of Field and Proggy. There are period photos of the four-piece hairy men live, loitering in parks and outside French cafes, lyrics, the inner gatefold of the original release repro'd on the centre pages, trade adverts and their 9-album strong catalogue of Virgin/Charisma Remasters listed on the last page next to the extensive re-issue credits. It's all very tastefully done.

All four members of the band had a hand in Remastering consultation (including principal songwriter PETER HAMMILL) with the tape transfers done by KATHY BRYAN at Abbey Road Studios. I had this album on one of those early 'Pink Scroll' Label Charisma pressings with Audio that was always good but never great. Here the instruments have real power and even the two Bonus Cuts sound like they could have made the grade. Let's dance in the Static Sea...to the music...

We're informed by the opener "Killer" that someone who lives at the bottom of the sea is lonely – a solitary predator made manifest by earnest men with saxophones and doom-laden churchy organs. The 8-minutes of Side 1's "Killer" is in fact more Atomic Rooster than VDGG in my books. Things become very melodic on "House With No Door". That hissy beginning is still there, but there's warmth and clarity in the bass now and the piano feels less muddled than it did on the LP. It's a dark song actually - a home with no roof that lets in the rain and cold at night - Hammill's hurting vocals at times sounding like a melancholic David Bowie circa "The Man Who Sold The World".

Things get deathly heavy with "The Emperor In His War-Room" - a tin-pot dictator cradling his gun in his chamber of ghosts (dig those cascading flutes and chunky organ stabs) - Robert Fripp's very King Crimson guitar notes sailing into "The Room" just when the piece needs some Prog uplift. Speaking of KC - the 11-minutes of "Lost" is probably the most Crimson-sounding piece on the album - ideas and had-all-my-chances lyrics falling over each other as instrument piles on instrument. Album No. 2 ends with nearly fourteen minutes of "Pioneers Over C" - VDGG stretching out everywhere and thinking intergalactic travel will be commonplace in 1983 and they have the Bass Lines. Sexy Saxophones and Fiery Keyboard sounds to prove it.

In truth VDGG were never nearly as commercial or frankly as good as Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett and Co over in Genesis – but there is a lot to like in this adventurous and challenging album.

"...One last brief whisper in our loved one's ears..." – Hammill sang on tone of the lovelier passages in "Pioneers Over C" - David Jackson's saxophone slipping in soft at first and then going solo mad after that. Mad after that – a bit like VDGG and their music really...

"Small Change" by TOM WAITS (March 2018 Anti Records CD Reissue - Waits/Brennan/Derfler/Lyman Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

This Review Along With Almost 300 Others Is Available In My

SOUNDS GOOD E-Book on all Amazon sites

1960s and 1970s MUSIC ON CD - Volume 3 of 3

- Exceptional CD Remasters

As well as 1960s and 1970s Rock and Pop - It Also Focuses On

Blues Rock, Prog Rock, Psych, Avant Garde, Underground

Folk-Rock, Singer-Songwriter, Country Rock and more

Just Click Below To Purchase for £3.95

Thousands of E-Pages - All Details and In-Depth Reviews From Discs

(No Cut and Paste Crap)

"...Drive It Away Today...Step Right Up!..."

As I said in my review of the 2018 CD reissue for "The Heart Of Saturday Night" - DAMN and DOUBLE DRAT! What you get here folks is fantastic audio (really, really great) for the albums but bare bones anything else – and all of it housed in very lacklustre even (in some cases) sloppy packaging.

Like so many lifetime fans I've been waiting just that for decent affordable Remasters of Tom Waits stunning Asylum Years catalogue stretching from 1973 to 1980. And here they are in March 2018 on Anti Records CDs, DLs and LPs – his musical home since "Mule Variations" won awards galore in 1999. But even though the CDs are priced at just under a tenner in the UK (and the corresponding dollar rate in the USA) – knowing what Anti could have been given us and outside of the sound – they’re hugely disappointing on almost every other front.

Each reissue is housed in a faded card digipak, has a picture CD of sorts, a booklet and new Tom Waits/Kathleen Brennan/Karl Derfler supervised tape transfers – mastered in turn by Peter Lyman at his Infrasonic Mastering Studios in California (a renowned studio with Grammy award-winners on their resume). The 20-page booklet provides lyrics and album credits but bugger all else. In a booklet with only lyrics on offer - instead of actually giving you the myriad words to the witty "Step Right Up" – we get the original album credit that asks you to send off an SAE and get the lyrics by return from a Young Tom Waits! You open the digipak to "Small Change" and you're confronted with nothing - no photo on the left and nothing beneath the tray on the right. As with the booklet for "The Heart Of Saturday Night" – there are no new liner notes, no history (not even a catalogue number for the original release) and worse not a single extra track when these reissues have been screaming out for deluxe editions for years. It's hugely disappointing. But at least the first four Remastered titles are also to be released on 180-GRAM VINYL with a download code built in (see list below). So what do you get from your CD...what has the piano been drinking (and not me)...

UK and EUROPE released Friday, 9 March 2018 - "Small Change" by TOM WAITS on Anti 7566-2 (Barcode 8714092756821) is a straightforward CD Reissue and Remaster of the 11-Track 1976 album originally on Asylum Records USA (1977 UK release) and plays out as follows (49:57 minutes):

1. Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets To The Wind In Copenhagen) [Side 1]

2. Step Right Up

3. Jitterbug Boy (Sharing a Curbstone with Chuck E. Weiss, Robert Marchese, Paul Body and the Mug and Artie)

4. I Wish I Was In New Orleans (In The Ninth Ward)

5. The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)

6. Invitation To The Blues [Side 2]

7. Pasties And A G-String (At The Two O'Clock Club)

8. Bad Liver And A Broken Heart (In Lowell)

9. The One That Got Away

10. Small Change (Got Rained On With His Own .38)

11. I Can't Wait To Get Off Work (And See My Baby On Montgomery Avenue)

Tracks 1 to 11 are his fourth album "Small Change" - released October 1976 in the USA on Asylum Records 7E-1078 and May 1977 (belatedly) in the UK on Asylum K 53050. Produced by BONES HOWE with all songs written by Tom Waits - it peaked at No. 89 on the US LP charts (didn't chart in the UK).

TOM WAITS - Vocals and Piano on all Tracks

LEW TABACKIN - Tenor Saxophone

JIM HUGHART - Upright Bass

SHELLY MANNE – Drums

JERRY YESTER - String Section Arrangements and Conducting of Violins, Violas and Cellos

The digipaks are pretty - each coming with a generic 'Newly Remastered with Waits/Brennan' sticker (Kathleen Brennan is his wife). But when you open this digipak to be confronted by a smoking-cigarette picture disc with nothing else on the flap or beneath the see-through tray - it all feels staggeringly lazy. Worse - instead of being a celebration of this American songwriter's magnificent catalogue – it comes across the same way the Neil Young reissues did – what could be gotten away with instead of giving fans something to get their teeth into. The inevitable ‘unreleased stuff’ Box Set will follow on Anti no doubt - thereby costing fans more dosh and yet another purchase. But let's concentrate on what is awesome - the amazing Audio...

Weighing in at just under 50-minutes, "Small Change" was always a sonically compromised beast on original vinyl – no such problem here. This CD is incredible sounding – Mastering Engineer PETER LYMAN having brought out every nuance of the original quality Production job done by Bones Howe back in July 1976 when the album was recorded at Wally Heider Studios in California. Every song feels new and up for grabs.

The two points of CD Remaster reference for this 1976 material are Lee Herschberg and his work on the 1986 truncated CD reissue of the 1984 double-album "Asylum Years" - and then later by Elektra/Rhino's Dan Hersch and Bill Inglot on the fabulous "Used Songs 1973-1980" CD compilation from 2001 (see separate review for that release). But here the audio is so much more – amazing clarity and not uber-trebled for the sake of it. Even more prominent than the fretwork he showed on 1974’s "The Heart Of Saturday Night" - the sliding upright double-bass notes of James Hughart leap off almost every song like a dancing dervish. When you then take the near 15-piece mini-orchestra Waits used on emotional ballads like the Waltzing Mathilda song "Tom Traubert’s Blues", the whiskey-drinking pool-playing friends singing When The Saints Go Marching In during "I Wish I Was In New Orleans..." or the World War II jitterbug rhythms and sales patter in the mighty "Step Right Up" – the effect is powerful to say the least. One minute he’s ripping your broken-soldier heart out – the next making you howl with laughter at that slipper at large behind the chase lounge for months.

But what gets me about "Small Change" the album is that not only is his cigarette-ash crumpled-suit Bukowski-persona in full throttle and with devastating wit and pathos taboot – the whole record is good – Waits’ ability to move both your head and heart is on fire - like a Bursen Burner aimed at your vital areas and it ain’t gonna miss. Songs like "Jitterbug Boy" feature him growling on a piano as he sings about Mulligans, Rocky Marciano and Minnesota Fats, Fast Women and even Faster Horses and Unreliable Sources – but amidst all this gigglesome mirth is a low-life, a bum just hoping for a break and somehow Waits make you empathise with him and his huge dreams. Again in "The Piano Has Been Drinking" he manages to make his plinking notes seem Jack Daniels legless – with the balcony on the make and the carpet needs a haircut and the tuner’s got a hearing aid and the owner is a mental midget with the IQ of a fencepost...

Other mini operas include the greasy spoon images of "Invitation To The Blues" where the waitress stands by the register with an apron and a spatula and used dockets from bachelors who battle with the booze. Waits scats "Pasties & A G-String" as he eulogises Chesty Morgan and Watermelon Rose in their fishnet-stockings and spiked high-heels hustling the early-bird suckers at the burlesque show. It isn’t long before he’s melancholy again – a gargles-gravel-for-breakfast voice tells us he hasn’t got a drinking problem unless he can’t get a drink in "Bad Liver And A Broken Heart" – sat precariously on a barstool looking for quarters to call his baby – but is unable to get away from the bottom of a bottle of bargain scotch. He goes full-on easy-street sleaze with the brilliant "The One That Got Away" where shroud tailors and tired ambulance drivers and stage door johnnies and whiskey spilling Andre are singing songs and talking about the...you guessed it! The lyrics in "Small Change (Got Rained On With His Own .38)" may one day end up in textbooks as far as I’m concerned - topics include fire hydrants that plead the Fifth Amendment, furniture bargains, drugstore prophylactics and a lunatic Newsboy with questionable stains on his pants – all while a lonesome saxophone accompanies Tom and his Lucky Strike warbling. Busting your chops baby...

So – storming great audio and musically the album is a stone five-star singer-songwriter winner - but naught a lot else. Fans will have to own them for sure given the sonic upgrade – but it’s just such a shame that Anti Records haven’t risen to his now legendary status and provided us with something actually worth getting giddy about - especially when it comes to an artist that so many of us have adored for so long.

Tom Waits' "Small Change" is a forgotten masterpiece for me – the kind of Seventies album they really don’t make anymore and something that needs and should be celebrated. Much like the great man himself. Buy and enjoy...

TOM WAITS - March 2018 

Reissue Series of CDs, LPs and Downloads on Anti Records

All CDs are in Card Digipaks, come with Booklets and Pic CDs but No Extras

"Closing Time" and "The Heart Of Saturday Night" released Friday, 9 March 2018 
The others all released Friday, 23 March 2018

1. "Closing Time" (1973) - Anti 7565-2 (Barcode 8714092756524) - CD/LP is Anti 7565-1 (Barcode 8714092756517)

2. "The Heart Of Saturday Night" (1974) - Anti 7566-2 (Barcode 8714092756623)/LP due May 2018

3. "Nighthawks At The Diner" (1975 Live Double onto 1CD) - Anti 7567-2 (Barcode 8714092756722)/LP due May 2018

4. "Small Change" (1976) - Anti 7568-2 (Barcode 8714092756821)/LP due May 2018

5. "Foreign Affairs" (1977) - Anti 7569-2 (Barcode 8714092756920)

6. "Blue Valentine" (1978) - Anti 7570-2 (Barcode 8714092757026)

7. "Heartattack And Vine"(1980) - Anti 7571-2 (Barcode 8714092757125)