"Closing Time" by TOM WAITS (March 2018 Anti Records CD Reissue and Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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1960s and 1970s MUSIC ON CD - Volume 2 of 3 - Exceptional CD Remasters

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

Folk, Folk Rock, Country Rock, Reggae, Punk and New Wave

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"...Old Shoes And Picture Postcards..."

Virtually unnoticed in Blighty until Asylum reissued much of his Americana catalogue in the summer of 1976 (June to be exact) – Tom Waits' debut album "Closing Time" has had cover-version legs way beyond its humble Stateside beginnings in March of 1973. Marc Cohn did a gorgeous version of "I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You" as an exclusive track on the 2004 soundtrack to "The Prince & Me" - Juliet Turner and Brian Kennedy touched on the same song for her 2001 CD album "Burn The Black Suit" - Andrew Murray (vocalist with De Danaan) did "Old Shoes (And Picture Postcards)" for his fabulous "Hell Or High Water" Folk-Rock CD in 2005.

Even if the public didn't notice Waits and his battered-and-beautiful ballads at the time - other major artists did. Tim Buckley covered "Martha" on his 1973 Discreet Records set "Sefronia" - and a year after his debut was released - the Eagles did "Ol' '55" on their third album "On The Border" in March 1974 - the royalties from which probably kept TW in sausage and beer for a decade.

But when it comes to digital "Closing Time" has always been an album that has had occasional songs remastered onto well-meaning CD compilations and not the Full Monty. Here (at last) is the whole enchilada – even if the bare-bones nature of this 2018 reissue does let the side down a tad (no extras, two blank canvasses on the inside digipak, a functional booklet etc).

This new March 2018 variant now comes at us on Anti Records – home to his music since the much-praised "Mule Variations" album in 1999. You get a card digipak, a 16-page booklet that mimics the lyric-bag inner sleeve of the original 1973 American LP and best of all - a new upgraded Remaster (with artist involvement) done at Infrasonic Mastering in California by Peter Lyman that gives this under appreciated little nugget of an album a genuinely improved audio scrub-up.

There are seven titles in the reissue series covering his output on Asylum Records between 1973 and 1980 (see list below) – Anti releasing the debut "Closing Time" and his second "The Heart Of Saturday Night" on 9 March 2018 with the other five having followed 23 March 2018. All have CD and DL entries as of now with the 180-GRAM VINYL LP issues being spread out across the year. The bad news is that there’s nothing new – the booklets and digipaks are nice enough but offer no updated liner notes, no history, no photos and worse – no extras at all - when his catalogue from this period has been screaming out for Deluxe Editions for decades. But the audio is sensational. So let's deal with what we do have...

UK released Friday, 9 March 2018 - "Closing Time" by TOM WAITS on Anti 7565-2 (Barcode 8714092756524) is a straightforward CD Remaster of his 12-track 1973 Debut LP and plays out as follows (49:37 minutes):

1. Ol' '55 [Side 1]

2. I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You

3. Virginia Avenue

4. Old Shoes (& Picture Postcards)

5. Midnight Lullaby

6. Martha

7. Rosie [Side 2]

8. Lonely

9. Ice Cream Man

10. Little Trip To Heaven (On The Wings Of Your Love)

11. Grapefruit Moon

12. Closing Time

Tracks 1 to 12 are his debut album "Closing Time" - released March 1973 in the USA on Asylum Records SD-5061 and May 1973 in the UK on Asylum SYL 9007 (re-issued June 1976 on Asylum K 53030). Produced by JERRY YESTER (of The Lovin' Spoonful) - it didn't chart in either country.

TOM WAITS –Vocals (All Tracks), Piano (Tracks 1, 3 and 5 to 12), Guitar (Tracks 2 and 4), Harmonium (Track 2), Harpsichord (Track 6) and Celeste (Track 9)

PETER KLIMES – Guitar (Tracks 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 10), 6-String Guitar and Pedal Steel Guitar (Track 7)

SHEP COOKE – Guitar (Track 4) and 6-String Guitar (Track 2)

DELBERT BENNETT – Trumpet (Tracks 3, 5 and 10)

BILL PLUMMER – Bass (Tracks 1 to 5, 7, 9 and 10)

JOHN SEITER – Drums (Tracks 1, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 9)

JESSE EHRLICH – Cello (Track 12)

ARNI EGILSSON- Double Bass (Track 12)

TONY TERRAN – Trumpet (Track 12)

JERRY YESTER – String Arrangement (Track 11)

The 16-page booklet reproduces the lyrics from the single-sleeve LP – something many British fans never saw because they weren't in either of the UK issues on vinyl (the 1973 Asylum SYL 9007 pressing is incredibly rare because it sold absolute zip) and you also get musician credits and basic reissue details – but naught else.

TOM WAITS, KATHLEEN BRENNAN and KARL DERFLER supervised the new remaster with final mastering done by the award-winning PETER LYMAN at his Infrasonic Mastering Studios in California. In keeping with the simple and uncluttered production values Jerry Yester (of The Lovin' Spoonful) gave the album in the first place - this transfer sounds beautiful in every way. There's very little hiss but loads of presence and body and at times the intimacy is spine tingling - a gorgeous job done...

Asylum tried the opener "Ol' '55" as a lone US 7" single two months before the album's release - January 1973's Asylum AS-11014 having the LP's "Midnight Lullaby" as its flipside - but it tanked. Amazingly Waits would have to wait until April 1979 in the UK to see a 45-release - "Somewhere" b/w "Red Shoes From The Drugstore" from his masterpiece "Blue Valentine" album (Elektra K 12347) and even then word is that that release was withdrawn. What’s not in dispute here is the Audio - as he counts in one, two, three, four and the piano kicks in – the effect is fantastic. Riding with lady luck is right – lead the parade indeed. For me though his songwriting genius begins with the crowded bar song "I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You" – Tom lights his cigarette (hasn't the guts to bum one), orders another stout and tries to contain his tom-cat feelings for the girl on the next stool. The fantastic sleaze-bag poor-boy piano Blues of "Virginia Avenue" features end-of-the-night guitar licks from Peter Klimes and boozy Trumpet phrases from Delbert Bennett - both of which are now more pronounced.

I've never heard the Shep Cooke acoustic guitars of the truly beautiful TW ballad "Old Shoes (& Picture Postcards)" sound so good as TW revels in the spark, the girl with the sun in her eyes, but the call of the road is too strong - so it's tears, farewell and then - he's gone. Guy Davis does a wonderful cover of "Midnight Lullaby" on his 2007 CD set "Down At The Sea Hotel" - singing a song of sixpence with a pocket full of rye. Speaking of covers - "Martha" has been tapped by so many - Ireland's gravel-vocalist Freddie White in 1981 - Scotland's Hue & Cry in 1994 and Hell even Meatloaf had a go on his "Welcome To The Neighborhood" album in 1995. Here it’s Tom, his piano, harpsichord, a string section and unidentified vocals. Quiet evenings trembling close to you - the Remaster on "Martha" is so damn good – fans will indeed be a wee bit achy to this.

Side 2's "Rosie" is even better - a song I've never heard sound so sweet. There's a wonderful Eagles amble to the melody as Robert Klimes does some lovely understated pedal-steel guitar - Tom singing about loving Rosie of the Moon until the day he dies (if he can persuade here that is to return the compliment). The weary and eerie "Lonely" has acoustic piano notes lingering around your speakers as Tom's voice mumbles about Melanie Jane's eyes and face - both looking lonely in a lonely place. "Ice Cream Man" is the only song on the album where it sounds odd - like he's trying too hard - the fast pace and one-man-band lyrics all feel forced and unconvincing. Better is "Little Trip To Heaven (On The Wings Of Your Love)" where Tom doesn't have to go to outer space - all he has to do is gawk at her face - Delbert Bennett's trumpet playing mimicking his hoppity-skippity shoe-be-do heart. A fabulous debut closes with two winners - the no-star-shining "Grapefruit Moon" and the do-one-for-posterity instrumental "Closing Time" - both sounding utterly glorious - bigger than they've ever been. Wowser... 

Could these 2018 reissues have been Deluxe Editions with Bonus Tracks and Unreleased – of course! But given the immense Audio upgrade – I’d still say they’re worth the money and are absolute must-haves for fans.

I know I can't be rational about Tom Waits - I've always thought him God and re-listening to this forgotten nugget only hammers home that assertion with a mallet and a bullet with my name on it. Explore this man’s work – the payoff will be immense and expect to be at that shopping basket for the other six...

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)

"Blue Valentine" by TOM WAITS (March 2018 Anti Records CD Reissue - Waits/Brennan/Derfler/Lyman 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 2 of 3 

- Exceptional CD Remasters

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

Folk, Folk Rock, Country Rock, Reggae, Punk and New Wave

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)

"...Take A Rusty Nail And Scratch Your Initials On My Arms..."

Last reissued February 1993 by Elektra Records on CD in a jewel case with 20-page booklet and a lovely Zal Schreiber Remaster (done at Atlantic Studios in New York) – this new March 2018 variant now comes at us on Anti Records – home to his music since "Mule Variations" in 1999. You get a card digipak, a 24-page booklet and best of all - a new upgraded Remaster (with artist involvement) done at Infrasonic Mastering in California by Peter Lyman that gives this great album a genuinely improved audio scrub-up. And man - am I one excited little 2018 Easter Bunny!

In fact between 1973 and 1980 - Tom Waits put out a string of seven fabulous albums on Asylum Records - and I've long argued a case for owning the whole damn shooting match. But if I was dragged through a thorn bush packed with wasp nests in my delightful and beautifully proportioned altogether and unless I named a meisterwerk I'd be dragged back again but this time smeared in natural honey and crushed bits of Cadbury’s Crunchie - 1978's "Blue Valentine" would be my desert island disc.

Everything about this record is magical to me (the trio of "Small Change", "Foreign Affairs" and "Heartattack And Vine" gave it a good run for the money too) because this is where his Bukowski persona gelled in every way. The whimsical tunes - the jagged rhythms - the astonishing and knowing lyrics - even finding space to evoke beauty amidst the rubble, used needles and down-at-heel street types ("Kentucky Avenue"). I love this album and as the vinyl has become a known rarity since its release - this remastered CD, DL and Vinyl LP reissue gives me another excuse to extol its divinity-like healing properties. Here are the red shoes at the drugstore...

UK released Friday, 23 March 2018 - "Blue Valentine" by TOM WAITS on Anti 7570-2 (Barcode 8714092757026) is a straightforward CD Remaster of the 10-track 1978 LP and plays out as follows (49:37 minutes):

1. Somewhere (From "West Side Story") [Side 1]

2. Red Shoes By The Drugstore

3. Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis

4. Romeo Is Bleeding

5. $29.00

6. Wrong Side Of The Road [Side 2]

7. Whistlin' Past The Graveyard

8. Kentucky Avenue

9. A Sweet Little Bullet From A Pretty Blue Gun

10. Blue Valentines

Tracks 1 to 10 are his fifth studio album "Blue Valentine" (6th LP overall) - released November 1978 in the USA on Asylum Records 6E-162 and December 1978 in the UK on Asylum K 53088. Produced by BONES HOWE - it peaked at No. 181 in the USA but didn't chart in the UK (the lady slumped over the Thunderbird car on the rear sleeve is his then girlfriend Rickie Lee Jones).

TOM WAITS –Vocals (All Tracks), Acoustic Piano (Tracks 3 and 8), Electric Guitar (Tracks 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10)

GERGE DUKE as DA WILLIE GANGA – Yamaha Electric Piano (Track 2) and Yamaha Electric Grand Piano (Tracks 3 and 5)

ROLAND BAUTISTA – Electric Guitar (Tracks 2, 5)

“Shine” ROBINSON – Electric Guitar (Track 9)

RAY CRAWFORD – Electric Guitar (Tracks 4, 6 and Solo on Track 10)

CHARLES KYNARD – Organ (Tracks 4, 6)

HAROLD BATTISTE – Piano (Tracks 7 and 9

FRANK VICARI – Tenor Saxophone (Tracks 4, 6)

HERBERT HARDESTY – Tenor Saxophone (Tracks 7 and 9)

JIM HUGHART – Double Bass (Tracks 4, 6)

BYRON MILLER – Bass (Tracks 2, 5)

SCOTT EDWARDS – Bass (Tracks 7 and 9)

RICK LAWSON - Drums (Tracks 2, 5)

CHIP WHITE – Drums (Tracks 4, 6)

EARL PALMER – Drums (Tracks 7and 9)

BOBBYE HALL – Congas (Track 4)

BOB ALCIVAR – Conducted and Arranged Orchestra on Track 8

The 1993 CD reissue comes with an unusually classy 20-page booklet filled with those all-important and all-consuming lyrics but no photos unfortunately. Here we don’t really get much more (24 pages), except of course a slightly different re-issue credits page and the centre-page spread reflecting the photograph on the LP’s inner gatefold. But we do get is a new Remaster supervised by TOM WAITS, KATHLEEN BRENNAN and KARL DERFLER with mastering done by the award-winning PETER LYMAN at his Infrasonic Mastering Studios in California. In keeping with the lush production values Bones Howe gave the album in the first place - this transfer sounds beautiful in every way. There's very little hiss but loads of presence and body and at times the intimacy is spine tingling - a gorgeous job done...

It opens with Bernstein's "Somewhere" from West Side Story - strings and his gargled-gravel-for-breakfast vocals - a perfect start to this lounge lizard of an LP. "...There's a dark huddle at the bus stop...umbrellas arranged in a sad bouquet..." - the lyrics to "Red Shoes By The Drugstore" are typical of his observational brilliance - scenes are full of rain-washed sidewalks - dogs baying at the moon and Santa Claus drunk in the ski room. Even better is "Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis" which gives us a pregnant 'lady of the night' living on 9th street above a dirty book store who has quit drinking whiskey (while her old man works out down at the track) but has misplaced her Little Anthony and The Imperials album. Waits songs are like this - you laugh one moment - but the next you think about that someone with all their hopes and dreams and how his conduit music has chronicled their shot at happiness - not laughed at them - but told their story with heart and an admiration that isn't some politician condescending.

"…They all know they could be like Romeo…if they only had the guts…" - Waits croaks admiringly on a sleazy "Romeo Is Bleeding" – a tale about a street rat who puts out cigarettes in his hand but comes a cropper when he tackles the law. Bleeding now in his car – Romeo finally ends up on the balcony of a local movie house that has Jimmy Cagney doing his tough guy Mobster routine on an oldies re-run. Romeo watches in admiration and dies without a whimper. Side 1 ends on a long slow jazz-shuffle masterpiece – all caressed high-hats and rolling piano notes - the barroom slink of "$29.00". Waits sets-the-scene with lyrics like "...it's cold back in Chicago...but in Los Angeles it's worse...when all you got is $29.00 and an alligator purse..." And then rubs sand in the ointment when a shyster convinces the girl of the story that he knows a good hotel in West Hollywood – smiling like a good Samaritan as he plays Pharaoh Sanders on his 8-track thinking about his future financial reimbursements...

Songs like "Whistlin Past The Graveyard" and "A Sweet Little Bullet From A Pretty Blue Gun" gives us more of the same - but the tune that genuinely moves me to tears is "Kentucky Avenue". Our family has a son with Autism who is 25 now – each of us having clocked up a lifetime of hurt and pain that is part and parcel with this impenetrable condition. And somehow hooking into that - there's something about the lyrics to this cry for understanding "...I'll steal a hacksaw from my Dad...and cut the braces from your legs...and we'll bury them tonight in the cornfield..." that slaughters me every time. This is a song where someone take the spokes from a young boy’s wheelchair and then "... we'll hop a freight train in the hall...and we'll slide down the drain...all the way to New Orleans in the fall…" Beautiful and poetic – like TW’s soul.

A rare and precious talent - mad as a camel on LSD that spits twice as much - Tom Waits is all these things. But what gets me is that he does just that - all the greats do - they get to you - and his 1978 album "Blue Valentine" still does.

Could these 2018 reissues have been Deluxe Editions with Bonus Tracks and Unreleased – of course! But given the immense Audio upgrade – I’d still say they’re worth the money and are absolute must-haves for fans.

Explore this man’s work – the payoff will be immense and expect to be at that shopping basket for the other six...

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)

"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

Thousands of E-Pages - All Details and In-Depth Reviews From Discs
(No Cut and Paste Crap)

"...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...