"Atlantic Rock & Roll Series" by VARIOUS ARTISTS featuring 1950s albums by Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters, Ruth Brown, Big Joe Turner, Ray Charles, LaVern Baker and Ivory Joe Hunter (July 2017 UK/EU Atlantic/Stateside 6CD Mini Box Set of Remasters with Mini LP Repro Artwork) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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BLUES, VOCAL GROUPS, DOO WOP, ROOTS

RHYTHM 'n' BLUES and ROCK 'n' ROLL ON CD 

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"...The Sun Comes Shining Through..."

A little explanation is due on this one. Issuing original Jazz, Blues and especially Rhythm 'n' Blues music - Atlantic Records had been around a decade when they launched this series of six themed albums in July 1957 (all six albums in the same month - this July 2017 6CD reissue is a 60th Anniversary celebration of that). Trying of course to cash in on the rave-craze that had been sweeping the USA and the world since Bill Haley's "Rock Around The Clock" LP on Decca Records in December 1955 – the generic series title Rock 'n' Roll was however a bit of a porky pie.

In truth Atlantic Records had very little to do with Rock & Roll as we now know it (Atlantic was one of the premium race music labels of the day). But that hasn't stopped this legendary series of six LPs from being treasures – all of which are listed between two hundred and four hundred dollars as collectable vintage vinyl. By the time October 1957 had come round - Atlantic were offering these long-playing platters to US dealers at knocked-down rates and thus many of these affordable gems made there way to Blighty as imports where hungry white kids were gagging for the real deal - black singers and bands playing the originals - Rhythm 'n' Blues with a bop and a driving beat and not saccharine covers of Little Richard songs by the likes of Pat Boone.

This UK/EU-issued '60th Anniversary' "Atlantic Rock & Roll Series" 6CD 84-Track Mini Box Set Reissue from July 2017 on Atlantic/Stateside 0081227934354 (Barcode 0081227934354) offers you the six 14-track themed albums in the 'Rock & Roll' Series (straightforward reissues, no extras) as exact repros in 5" card sleeves of the July 1957 US LPs with the original artwork front and rear (see photos below). It's accompanied by a fairly functionary 12-page booklet with new liner notes from Florence Joelle Halfon - most of which is taken up with more detailed tracks lists of the LPs and a picture of the album's front artwork at the top of the page. Each Mono album was comprised of 7" hit singles and their flipsides - some stretching back as far as 1953 and 1954 - along with a couple of new stragglers thrown in to entice buyers of the day. A nice touch too is that the CD labels actually reflect (in a way) the Black & Silver coloring of the those sought-after 50ts originals.

You get  "Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters" on Atlantic 8003 (37:22 minutes), "Ruth Brown" on Atlantic 8004 (38:05 minutes), "Joe Turner" on Atlantic 8005 (39:05 minutes), "Ray Charles" on Atlantic 8006 (41:38 minutes), "La Vern Baker" on Atlantic 8007 (38:21 minutes) and "Ivory Joe Hunter" on Atlantic 8008 (38:06 minutes). In the case of Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters, Ray Charles and Ruth Brown - these long-plays were their debuts on the album's market. For Ivory Joe Hunter and LaVern Baker, "Rock & Roll" was their second album, whilst the older Big Joe Turner (even as early as 1957) saw "Rock & Roll" as album number three. 

As you can see from the total playing times provided above - as original albums they must have been a total blast - but as present day CD compilations they come up a tad short in terms of chock full of goodies. But don't let this put you off. Each unbreakable long player acts as a sort of mini 'Best Of' and the Remastered Mono Audio is spiffing. You also have to take the 'Rock & Roll' Series title with a pinch of musical salt. The music offered here is mostly Rhythm 'n' Blues - and even as you play the opening Clyde McPhatter & The Drifters tracks - Crooner tunes and Vocal Group slowies will come at you too.

The outer box is pretty - as are the card sleeves within and the 'Atlantic Records' label bag pictured on Page 2 of the booklet - but as you can't read the actual liner notes on the rear of each album (penned by Guy Remark). It might have been smarter to reproduce those in the booklet instead of track lists that are already on the rear of the box. The AUDIO is superb however - Remastered versions - all very clean and full of life a full 60 to 65 years after the event. I got my copy secondhand for eight quid - which with post cost me about a tenner - way better than the rather greedy eighteen pounds price tag for one as new.

And musically what these albums lack in hair-gelling Gene Vincent, Elvis Presley excitement - they more than make up for in boppin' R 'n' B and dancefloor Blues shufflers. The La Vern Baker, Ray Charles, Ruth Brown and Big Joe Turner records especially are fantastic fun and properly great listens. And for nostalgia nuts like me (lads of a certain age) - I can't resist that iconic artwork - LPs I've admired and loved for most of my life.

"Flip, Flop & Fly" as the might Joe Turner sang. As a lifetime fan of this stunning record label and a huge lover of Fifties Blues, Rhythm 'n' Blues and Vocal Groups - you could say that the lack of extras here is a tad disappointing and as a voracious collector of the label there's not a lot I don't already have. But as a newcomer - I absolutely envy you the journey...

"Mirage" by CAMEL - March 1974 UK Second Album on Decca/Gama Records featuring Andy Latimer, Peter Bardens, Doug Ferguson and Andy Ward (June 2002 UK Universal/Decca 'Expanded Edition' CD Reissue and Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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CADENCE /CASCADE 

PROG ROCK, PSYCH, AVANT GARDE...
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Exceptional CD Remasters

Covering 1967 to 1977 - It Also Focuses On

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"...Lady Fantasy..." 

Camel's self-titled debut album from February 1973 had clocked up modest sales of 5000 within its first year of UK release (MCA Records MUPS 473) and launched the band into a Prog Rock landscape dominated by giants like Yes, ELP and Genesis. But it was their third LP "(Music Inspired By) The Snow Goose" - an instrumental concept album with 'music inspired by' Paul Gallico's 1941 short story and presented in a classy laminate sleeve (with insert) that turned them into genuine Prog Rock stars and saw Camel finally make a chart presence in the UK (albeit at a modest No. 22).

The success of album number three also made fans and newcomers alike look back to their equally good second platter - "Mirage" from March 1974 on Decca/Gama SML 1107 with its striking artwork and lengthy Progtastic tracks. Sales wise "Mirage" did considerably better than the debut in the UK even if it hadn’t exactly stormed the citadel when it came to chart placing (it didn't register). Now considered by fans as a bit of a classic (even if the public didn't see it at the time) - "Mirage" did however dent the Top 200 in the USA at No. 149 in November of 1974 prompting a US tour and enough momentum for them to get to "The Snow Goose" where real success lay. Speaking of stepping stones and stepping on toes - the artwork used on the British LP for "Mirage" had to be hastily withdrawn in America after the Camel Cigarette Company complained about unauthorised use of their famous brand logo - so the Janus Records LP was released in the USA in different artwork - pictured on Page 6 of the booklet.

Always somehow in the shadow of its more famous follow ups "Music Inspired By The Snow Goose" in 1975 and "Moonmadness" in 1976 - "Mirage" is ripe for rediscovery. So let's get Shimmering in the Nimrodel (if you know what I mean)...

UK released June 2002 - "Mirage" by CAMEL on Universal/Decca 8829292 (Barcode 042288292920) is an 'Expanded Edition' CD Reissue and Remaster of the 1974 album with Four Bonus Tracks that plays out as follows (68:08 minutes):

1. Freefall [Side 1]

2. Supertwister

3. Nimrodel/The Procession/The White Rider

4. Earthrise [Side 2]

5. Lady Fantasy: Encounter/Smiles For You/Lady Fantasy

Tracks 1 to 5 are their second studio album "Mirage" - released March 1974 in the UK on Decca/Gama Records SML 1107 and November 1974 in the USA on Janus JXS 7009 in different artwork. It was reissued 1977 on Passport Records PB 9855 in the original UK artwork (the original US artwork is pictured on Page 6 of the booklet). Produced by DAVID HITCHCOCK - the album peaked at No. 149 in the USA (didn't chart UK)

BONUS TRACKS (Previously Unreleased):

6. Supertwister (Recorded Live at The Marquee Club, London, 30 Oct 1974)

7. Mystic Queen (Recorded Live at The Marquee Club, London, 30 Oct 1974)

8. Arubaluba (Recorded Live at The Marquee Club, London, 30 Oct 1974)

9. Lady Fantasy: Encounter/Smile For You/Lady Fantasy (Original Basing Street Studios Mix)

CAMEL was:

ANDREW LATIMER - Guitars, Flute and Vocals

PETER BARDENS - Organ, Piano, Mini Moog Synthesiser and Vocals

DOUG FERGUSON - Bass

ANDY WARD - Drums and Percussion

PASCHAL BYRNE - an Audio Engineer of serious experience - has done the tape transfer honours here and like the others in this 2002 series it's a sweetly warm and musical job done. The 8-page booklet has liner notes from MARK POWELL (later of Esoteric Recordings) that features the usual period photos of the boys in various long-haired serious-muso poses as well as the cartoon artwork for the US LP that seemed to depict a Gryphon type flying dragon perched for action on some moon landscape. The CD re-release is dedicated to Keyboardist Peter Bardens who had only just passed away in late January 2002 as the reissue was going to press. It's nicely done and the Bonus Tracks are just that - genuine Extras for Camel fans - the three live tracks from a 1974 Marquee gig and an alternate version of the 13-minute "Lady Fantasy" centrepiece on Side 2. Let's get to the music...

A swirling bank of keyboard drones introduces a pounding Bass line as the Side 1 opener "Freefall" unfolds whereupon a very Crimson-like guitar jab soon morphs into men with beards getting Prog Rock about snowflakes falling helplessly to the ground (Andy Latimer’s fretwork shines throughout). Things become very Focus with the three-minute instrumental "Supertwister" - Latimer giving it some flute flourishes as Bardens underpins his note warbles with smoochy keyboards - what you might call 'pretty' Prog. One of the album's centrepieces end's Side 1 - nine-minutes and sixteen seconds of "Nimrodel". It's first part "Procession" does exactly what it says on the tin - a marching rhythm - but that segues into a gorgeous combo of Mellotron and Guitar - Bardens warbling about a 'land beyond the night' (the lane at the back of The Clissold Arms in Finchley mate) only to hurtle towards its otherworldly finish with a heavy synth line and an echoed guitar solo.

Side 2 commences with the near seven-minute "Earthrise" - an instrumental that for me represents excess rather than success - soloing for the sake of it. Which brings us to the LPs big moment - all 12:43 minutes of "Lady Fantasy" - a band composition broken into three parts - its famous opening keyboard repeats and Crimson guitars virtually defining Prog in one minute flat. The monster soon settles into some bippity-boppity keyboards and a tune about a lady he can never hold (reminds me of you). The part I like most is the mellow guitar break at 5:17 - beautifully played and recorded. The 'Original Basing Street Studios Mix' Bonus Track has subtle differences and the live tracks are amazingly well recorded and played. 

"Mirage" isn't a masterpiece - but it's a quality album given an even better lease of life on this exceptional CD Reissue and Remaster - and it's only four squid into the bargain. Seeing double indeed...

"The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society" - A Review of the 2018 Film by Mark Barry...

"The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society"

A Review of the 2018 Film

https://youtu.be/HTDNGv61-Dk

"...This One May Work Its Magic On You..."

I can understand how someone could find "The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society" twee and even a tad schmaltzy. But the audience I saw it with loved the movie and wiped away a few tears as the credits rolled.

Defying her extraordinary beauty so it doesn't work against her like she did in "Darkest Hour" - once again actress Lily James shows what she can do when given a leading role. She is properly great as author Juliet Ashton – a young female novelist in London post WWII doing a small book tour she doesn’t believe in to pay the bills. Using the pseudonym Izzy Bickerstaff – she is a dreamer that longs for real connection. Her literary agent offers a lifeline when she is suddenly commissioned to do a story for the Times Newspaper. Ashton will travel to Guernsey to investigate a group of like-minded word-lovers who used a book club to survive the slow drain of all freedoms as the Nazis occupied the Chanel Island in 1941. What she doesn’t expect is friendship, life-changing stories that will inspire a book and the unconditional love of those who had to endure years in servitude whilst now struggling with the consequences, the strange aftermath they find themselves lumbered with.

It helps that the clever story and cast are perfectly matched - Matthew Goode as her literary agent Sidney Stark whose more than a little in love with his own client - Glen Powell as her well-to-do American soldier Mark Reynolds who has put a huge sparkler on his beau's index finger (although she proclaims her love for him she seems unwilling to wear it once she gets to the English Chanel island and meets a local farmer she's been corresponding with) - and Dutchman Michael Huisman as the handsome and goodhearted islander pig-farmer Dawsey Adams who feels a kindred spirit with the English lass from London – a gal with a hankering for Jane Austen and Charles Lamb and can quote whole passages to prove it.

Other notables are Jessica Brown Findlay as the feisty Elizabeth McKenna whose heart and compassion have her taken away by the Germans leaving behind a trail of secrets and wounded hearts - Ireland's Bronagh Gallagher as the embittered religious zealot landlady who seeks to poison Juliet Ashton's enquiries into what really happened to Elizabeth - and especially Penelope Wilton as the frail hurt-to-her-core Amelia Maugery - a woman who has lost too much to the enemy and is unwilling to retell their island stories of occupation for fear of more of the same. Throw in great parts for Katherine Parkinson as the naive and yet magical Isola Pribby and Tom Courtenay as the big softy postmaster Eben Ramsey - and you're firmly in the silver-haired arena of movies. Special mention should also go to little Florence Keen who almost steals the show as the child Kit who looks up to handsome farmer Dawsey and calls him 'dad'. The flashbacks to WW II and then forward to a post-war island one year after work well and are at times amazingly informative - giving insights into a side of that very British War that is rarely discussed.

For sure there are those who will cringe at ah-shucks humour, poo-poo the good-looking leads as unrealistic representations of ordinary folk despite Huisman and James’ fabulous onscreen chemistry, find factual continuity errors and wonder at the sheer size of Lily James' costume wardrobe when she packed one case with some typing pages, an ink fountain pen, wool hats and a possible pair of lacy knickers. But that rather distantly cold assessment does this lovely little movie a massive disservice. Using a team of three screenplay writers - Director Mike Newell has taken a beloved book and done it proud - even if the fishing harbour and town scenes framed by Zac Nicholson's cinematography come over at times like a Downton Abbey Reunion or that Ridley Scott Hovis Advert cranked up to two hours instead of two minutes. And anyone who loves books and the connections they make will quietly quiver inside with page-turning delight as the scenes unfold and favourite booky discussions take centre stage – by the end probably succumbing to an urgent need to crack open a classic right quick.

The accusations of triteness, nostalgia stroked and throwbacks to a simple-life world that no longer exists probably have a real-world point - but bugger them all and knob to their cynicism. There's heart in this film, pathos, sadness, bravery, romance, gentle wit and ultimately a satisfying redemption of sorts. And the audience I was with 'felt it all'.

2018's "The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society" is a gorgeous big-screen watch - an uplifting story - and another win for seriously good writing, direction and ensemble casting. I urge you to seek out this audience-warming gem of a movie...

"Nighthawks At The Diner" by TOM WAITS - 1975 2LP Live Set of New Material on Asylum Records (March 2018 Anti Records CD Reissue - Waits/Brennan/Lyman Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Precipitation Is Expected..."

Tom Waits had opened his musical account on America’s Asylum Records with two fabulous singer songwriter albums in the shape of 1973's "Closing Time" followed fast by another equally understated masterpiece - "The Heart Of Saturday Night" from 1974. Dripping with Americana – his louche barstool growl conjured up Bukowski stumbling out of some seedy 43rd Street watering hole into the harsh inner city morning glare – an emotionally-battered bum with a bottle of bourbon in one hand, a packet of Lucky Strikes in the other and some hookers initials carved into his arm with the rusty lid of an Campbell's Tomato Soup tin.

TW's next move was a clever one – an entire double-album of new material recorded live across two days in late July 1975 at NYC's Record Plant in front of an invited audience. Waits sets the scene during the Intro pretending its Raphael's Silver Cloud Lounge as the crowd is treated to the scoop Betty Boop and a Los Angelinos 'emotional weather forecast'. This live setting allowed the music a fabulous looseness – a jazzy sleaze hovering over great new songs – all crammed with his pawnshop suit persona and Gatling Gun wit shining ("...I'm so horny the crack of dawn better be careful round me..."). Although the lounge lizard slumped over a piano amidst plumbs of smoke from a well-filled ashtray routine wasn't exactly new - you can literally feel the enrapt audience both loving and discovering someone special in front of them – perhaps even hearing something and someone unique.

The album has had a limited compact disc history. To my knowledge "Nighthawks At The Diner" was reissued onto CD as far back as 1989 in the USA, Europe and the UK (WEA 960 612-2) along with the rest of his Asylum Records catalogue. Mostly non-remasters – it has remained there ever since. The 1998 version on Asylum 7559-60620-2 is essentially another reissue of that original lacklustre version. Only one track - "Eggs And Sausage (In A Cadillac With Susan Michelson)" - has ever been remastered from the 2LP set – featuring on the November 2001 CD compilation "Used Songs" (see review). This is the first time the whole enchilada has received a digital dust-off – and what a revelation it is.

March 2018 now sees Anti Records of the USA reissue his entire Asylum Records seven-album catalogue from 1973 to 1980 on Remastered CDs, DLs and 180-Gram LPs – Anti being his musical home since his "Mule Variations" set won awards galore in 1999. But even though these Remastered 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 disappointingly bare bones.

Each CD is housed in a faded card digipak, has a picture disc 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). Although the disc is a picture CD (at the microphone with his hat on for Nighthawks)  – when you open the digipak 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. At least the 20-page booklet allows you to slaver over page after page of lyrics that even 40-years after the event seem amazing. The 2LP set will also to be released on 180-GRAM VINYL in May 2018 with a download code built in (see list below).

So what do you get from your CD...what have the Naugahyde booths been whispering to the Stolly brunettes and Vermouth blondes...

UK and EUROPE released Friday, 23 March 2018 - "Nighthawks At The Diner" by TOM WAITS on Anti 7567-2 (Barcode 8714092756722) is a straightforward CD Reissue and Remaster of the 18-Track 1975 double-album originally on Asylum Records and plays out as follows (73:40 minutes):

1. (Opening Intro) [Side 1]

2. Emotional Weather Report

3. (Intro)

4. On A Foggy Night

5. (Intro)

6. Eggs And Sausage (In A Cadillac With Susan Michelson)

7. (Intro) [Side 2]

8. Better Off Without A Wife

9. Nighthawk Postcards (From Easy Street)

10. (Intro) [Side 3]

11. Warm Beer And Cold Women

12. (Intro)

13. Putnam County

14. Spares Parts 1 (A Nocturnal Emission)

15. Nobody [Side 4]

16. (Intro)

17. Big Joe And Phantom 309

18. Spare Parts II And Closing

Tracks 1 to 18 are his third album "Nighthawks At The Diner" (a 2LP set) - released October 1975 in the USA on Asylum Records 7E-2008 and December 1975 in the UK on Asylum SYSP 903 (reissued June 1976 on Asylum K 63002). Produced by BONES HOWE with all songs written by Tom Waits except "Big Joe And Phantom 309" by Tommy Faile and "Spare Parts 1 (A Nocturnal Emission)" by Chuck E. Weiss - it peaked at No. 164 on the US LP charts (didn't chart in the UK).

TOM WAITS - Vocals on all Tracks, Piano on Tracks 6, 8, 11, 13 and 15, Guitar on Tracks 4 and 17

MIKE MELVOIN - Piano on Tracks 2, 4, 9, 14 and 18, Electric Piano on Tracks 6, 8, 11 and 13

PETE CHRISTLIEB - Tenor Saxophone

JIM HUGHART - Upright Bass

BILL GOODWIN – Drums

The digipaks each come with a generic 'Newly Remastered with Waits/Brennan' sticker (Kathleen Brennan is his wife). But when you open this one only to be confronted by blank spaces on both sides and naught new - 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...

Like all the others in the 2018 series - 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 1975 when the double-album was recorded in front of an invited audience. Every song feels new and up for grabs – the atmosphere tingling as he schmoozes from littered streets to boozy bars.

Waits shuffles into his seat, huffs, then the witty rapport begins and immediately the crowd are in his grasp. In "Emotional Weather Report" we're told of tornado watches issued early Saturday morning in case his heart explodes, precarious fronts coming at the northern portion of his mental health and a pressure ridge extending from his baby's cheeks down to the vice grips on his loins. The crowd whoops and hollers as "On A Foggy Night" leaves our hero stranded in nowheresville with no sign of a gas station for miles. The fantastic "Eggs And Sausage (In A Cadillac With Susan Michelson)" paints those nighthawks at the diner – Formica table, slice of toast, hash browns and refilled coffee as the singer tells us "...I'm a refugee from a disconcerted affair as the lead pipe morning falls and the waitress calls..."

The Hopper Painting personalities that fill his stories continue with "Better Off Without A Wife" where bachelors and bowery bums howl at the moon and curse trumpet players who have a way with the ladies. There are so many lyrics to the eleven and half minutes of "Nighthawk Postcards (From Easy Street)" - they take up nearly four and half pages in the booklet - more tales of hustlers over at Chubb's Pool & Snooker Hall - Tom quickly eyeballing the scene with his lips around a bottle neck and his foot on the throttle. The band has taken a break - so something by Tammy Wynette is on the joint’s jukebox in "Warm Beer And Cold Women" where the moon rises and men with tattoos drink deep as they eye the girls giggling over by the fluorescent tubing. Two-lane asphalt roads bristle with Stratocaster Guitars slung over the shoulders of small town Machiavelli types in the brilliant "Putnam County" while his cover of the countryish "Big Joe And Phantom 309" shows his love of storytelling and America's underdogs. I love it to bits...

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' third "Nighthawks At The Diner" has always been the runt of his mighty litter somehow - a forgotten artefact – the kind of Seventies artistic splurge they really don't make anymore. But like so much of his fantastic output this twofer-onto-1CD is something that needs to be celebrated. Much like the great man himself. Yet another to buy and enjoy...

TOM WAITS - 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 released Friday, 23 March 2018

1. "Closing Time" (1973) – CD on Anti 7565-2 (Barcode 8714092756524)

LP released 9 March 2018 on Anti 7565-1 (Barcode 8714092756517)

2. "The Heart Of Saturday Night" (1974) – CD is on Anti 7566-2 (Barcode 8714092756623)

LP due 18 May 2018 on Anti 7566-1

3. "Nighthawks At The Diner" (1975 Live Double Album onto 1CD) - Anti 7567-2 (Barcode 8714092756722)

2LP Set due 18 May 2018 on Anti 7567-1

4. "Small Change" (1976) - Anti 7568-2 (Barcode 8714092756821)

LP due 8 June 2018 on Anti 7568-1

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)

"Shook, Shimmy And Shake: The Complete Recordings 1966-1970" by WYNDER K. FROG [Michael Weaver] - December 1966 UK Debut LP "Sunshine Super Frog" through to April 1970's Third and Last Studio Album "Into The Fire" (February 2018 RPM Records 3CD Box Set of Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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CLASSIC 1960s ROCK ON CD 

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"...Dancing Frog..."

Lincolnshire lad Michael Weaver hailed out of Bolton and his weirdly named band WYNDER K. FROG (with one 'g' mind you and never two) had a couple of albums of instrumental keyboard-driven groovers in 1966 and 1968 on Island Records in the UK and one belatedly on United Artists in the USA in 1970.

They also managed some straggler tracks in movies, stand-alone singles beloved of Mods and Club-Going Dancers alike and an ultra-rare unreleased second album (recorded 1968) that makes its way into the public domain for the first time ever via a Dub from a surviving-acetate (tracks 9 to 17 on Disc 3). For fans of his groovy 60ts Hammond-Organ sound (the lad is still with us and provides new liner notes for this release) - "Shook, Shimmy And Shake..." from RPM Records has gathered together the whole caboodle and presented the shimmering lot to us in this rather spiffing little 3CD Box Set.

At times sounding not unlike a glorified Booker T & The MG's covers band from South Ealing giving it some sugar-shaker on a Woolworths LP sporting a scantily-clad nubile to pull in male shoppers on a Saturday afternoon - it’s not all undiluted hippy-hippy-shake genius for sure. But the good stuff is great fun, Island Records 7" singles fans will love those catalogue-hole-filling tracks (great talcum powder shuffling B-sides like "Zooming", "Dancing Frog", "Shook, Shimmy And Shake" and "Baldy") and you have to say that the overall presentation here is top notch (as it is with all RPM stuff). And who doesn't love a cool Hammond Organ groove-tastic neck-jerker. Out of the fire and into the frying pan – time to Boogaloo folks and do the Harpsichord Shuffle...

UK released Friday, 23 February 2018 (2 March 2018 in the USA) - "Shook, Shimmy And Shake: The Complete Recordings 1966-1970" by WYNDER K. FROG on RPM Records RPMBX 540 (Barcode 5013929554009) is a 3CD Box Set containing three period albums (1966, 1968 and 1970) along with other Bonus Material and plays out as follows:

Disc 1 "Sunshine Super Frog" (46:50 minutes):

1. Sunshine Superman [Side 1]

2. I Feel So Bad

3. Oh Mary

4. Blues For A Frog

5. Somebody Help Me

6. Mercy

7. Hold On, I'm Coming [Side 2]

8. Shook, Shimmy And Shake

9. Incense

10. Walking Into New Orleans

11. (Don't Fight It) Feel It

12. Dancin' Pain (alias Dancing Frog)

Tracks 1 to 12 are the debut album "Sunshine Super Frog" - released December 1966 in the UK on Island Records ILP-944 in Mono only (no US release).

BONUS TRACKS:

13. Turn On Your Lovelight

14. Zooming - Tracks 13 and 14 are the A&B-sides of a non-album UK 7" single released July 1966 on Island WI-280

15. Green Door (Mono Version) - non-album A-side of a UK 7" single released February 1967 on Island WIP 6006 (Track 12 on the LP is the B-side)

16. I'm A Man - non-album A-side of a UK 7" single released June 1967 on Island WIP 6014 (Track 8 on the LP is the B-side)

17. Henry's Panter - originally released 1966 on a UK 7" Flexidisc on Lyntone LYN 1109 (credited to Wynder K. Frogg (And Henry) and has an Ed Stewart ‘Dog’s Life’ spoken intro)

18. Wade In The Water (BBC Radio Version) - originally broadcast 15 October 1966 on the BBC's "Saturday Club"

Disc 2 "Out Of The Frying Pan" (56:19 minutes):

1. Jumping Jack Flash [Side 1]

2. Gasoline Alley

3. Willie And The Hand Jive

4. Harpsichord Shuffle

5. Baby I Love You

6. This Here

7. Green Door [Side 2]

8. Bad Eye

9. Alexander's Ragtime Band

10. Tequila

11. The House That Jack Built

12. Hymn To Freedom

13. Hi-Heel Sneakers

Tracks 1 to 13 are their second studio album "Out Of The Frying Pan" - released December 1968 in the UK on Island Records ILPS 9082 in Stereo and April 1969 in the USA on United Artists UAS 6695.

BONUS TRACKS:

14. Jumping Jack Flash (Mono Version)

15. Baldy - Tracks 14 and 15 are the non-album A&B-sides of an August 1968 UK 7" single released on Island WIP-6044

16. Dancing Frog (Stereo Version)

17. Blues For A Frog (Stereo Version) - Tracks 16 and 17 remixed from Mono into Stereo and released February 1969 on the UK Soundtrack LP to "The Touchables" on Stateside SSL 10271 (Stereo only)

Disc 3 "Into The Fire" (70:37 minutes):

1. Into The Fire [Side 1]

2. Howl In Wolf's Clothing

3. F In Blues

4. Cool Hand Stanley

5. Eddie's Tune

6. Why Am I Treated So Bad

7. Hot Salt Beef

8. Warm And Tender Love  

Tracks 1 to 8 are their third and last album "Into The Fire" - released April 1970 in the USA on United Artists UAS 6740 in Stereo. The album was to be called "Accrington Mushroom" and due for UK release November 1969 on Island ILP 9109 but was withdrawn (no test pressings have ever surfaced).

BONUS TRACKS:

9. Happy Jack

10. We Can Work It Out

11. Funky Broadway

12. Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever

13. A Memory Of Bruce

14. The House That Jack Built

15. I'll Go Crazy

16. Tequila

17. Baldy

Tracks 9 to 17 are PREVIOUSLY UNISSUED - an unreleased second album recorded in 1968 and dubbed here from surviving acetate

To my knowledge and outside of a long deleted CD reissue by Edsel in 1995 for the second LP "Out Of The Frying Pan" – none of these Frog albums have made it officially onto CD before - so well done to compiler and true son of the Modfather JOHN REED for his bang up job at compiling what fans have been after for decades. Each singular card sleeve repro’s the three rare album covers and a tasty attention to detail had CD1 with the Red and White colour scheme of the Island Records label from late 1966, CD2 is the Pink variant of 1968 and the third has the United Artists Orange and Pink colours of 1970.

The 28-page chunky booklet has wonderfully detailed liner notes courtesy of NICK ROSSI that include valuable and first hand accounts by MICK WEAVER in new interviews. These are complimented by the usual plethora of trade adverts, that rare promo-photo of the six-piece band where Island misspell the name with two ‘g’s’ instead of one, repros of the those fab UK Island 7” singles, a Belgium single on Philips and a cool French EP sleeve where Weaver is flogged as a teen-idol singing Donavan’s "Sunshine Superman" alongside three other hits from the first album. The band also featured on two desirable Island Records label sampler LPs – "Green Door" on the 1967 compilation "British Blue-Eyed Soul" (ILPS 9066) and "Gasoline Alley" on the wonderful "You Can All Join In" from 1969 (IWPS 2 was yours for only 14/6d) – so they're both pictured. Traffic fans will love the Jimi Hendrix London Tour Date Poster on Page 23 where on the 18th of February 1969 you can see The Soft Machine and 'Mason, Capaldi, Wood & Frog' supporting the great man at The Royal Albert Hall (2/6d for a ticket!). This ill-fated four-piece moniker for Traffic (featuring Mick Weaver as the Frog and once muted to called Wooden Frog) didn't last of course past this public appearance. There are also photos of "The Touchables" soundtrack on Stateside and a US 45 promo on UA of WKF doing the Stones hit "Jumpin' Jack Flash". It is indeed a gas, gas, gas...

The Audio comes courtesy of SIMON MURPHY over at Another Planet and these notoriously crude recordings are full of beans even if the first album's Mono has all the subtlety of an overworked transistor radio. They're not audiophile but they are punchy and absolutely full of that 60ts shoutin' 'n' roarin' party-hard shing-a-ling. Being an Acetate I’m amazed at how good that unreleased LP sounds and the Stereo of the second LP is wonderful too. For sure his one-dimensional instrumental-after-instrumental set up on the LPs may grate some after a while – but I'm honestly loving how damn good much of this stuff is - music I honestly haven't listened to in decades and now feel I've been missing out on something fab and period-groovy.

Apart from Syd Dale's "Blues For A Frog" (itself a derivative of a James Brown groove), the Mick Weaver/Jimmy Miller penned "Dancing Frog" and the Fallon/Miller track "Incense" - the other nine are R&B covers and contemporary pop hits of the day - Donovan's "Sunshine Superman", a variant of Jackie Edward's "Somebody Help Me" (a hit for The Spencer Davis Group with Stevie Winwood), Owen Gray's fantastic "Shook, Shimmy And Shake", Fats Domino's "Walking To New Orleans", the Sam & Dave hit "Hold On, I'm Coming" penned by Isaac Hayes and David Porter and so on. The six Bonus Tracks on Disc 1 are actually that – the first four being killer Mod sides – Mono and Marvellous as they mumble through Jim Lowe’s "Green Door" (a number 1 hit for Shakin’ Stevens in 1981) – while the BBC’s Ed Stewart tries to sound cool as he sells some kind of dog product on "Henry's Panter".

Album number two does the same - the Stones "Jumpin' Jack Flash", Johnny Otis' "Willie And The Hand Jive", Tommy Tucker's "Hi-Heel Sneakers", The Champs "Tequila" and so on. But there are very cool self-penned tunes like Weaver's own "Gasoline Alley" where both he on the organ and Dick Heckstall-Smith of The Graham Bond Organisation on Saxophone play up a storm. It's funny also to hear "Willie And The Hand Jive" sound like The Benny Hill Show Theme song - but that's what happens track after track - groovy organ and a driving rhythm section making you want to strut your ancient stuff across some dancefloor somewhere making an unholy tit of yourself. Weaver's own "Harpsichord Shuffle" is pretty much a Ray Charles keyboard riff turned up a notch while Chris Mercer of The Keef Hartley Band gives it some cool Sax and Kokomo's Neil Hubbard gets Ike Turner funky on his guitar (what a belter). For sure "Alexander's Ragtime Band" is a Hammond groove too far but that’s immediately followed by a kick-ass take on "Tequila" that’s liable to make your mother shimmy those voluminous hips as she vacuums Dad’s cigarette ashes off the living room carpet.

But the real surprise here is the American-only album that died a death on its initial release. Weaver stumped up most of the instrumentals for the April 1970 LP "Into The Fire" which has a decidedly Funkier feel than the first two albums - like his band just discovered Sly & The Family Stone and Clarence Carter. Choppy guitars, sexy sax work and a backbeat that just won't quit infest the songs. Favourites include the Bluesy Harmonica of "Howl In Wolf's Clothing" - another fab workout - while "F In Blues" is a rare excursion into actual Blues - a slow late-night lounge-lizard lurch on the organ punctuated by great Sax blowing. I also dig his cover of The Staple Singers stunning "Why Am I Treated So Bad" - a tune that still has power even if there are no words to ram home the message of equality - his new Hammond Organ sounding loud and clear. For sure there is an audible drop in the sonic attack as we’re treated to The Who's "Happy Jack" and The Beatles' "We Can Work It Out" from the Acetate of the unreleased album - but it's not as bad as you would imagine. "Funky Broadway" feels more of an inspired choice than the obvious Who and Fabs choices.

For sure the band Wynder K. Frog and its main-man Mick Weaver are a footnote in Pop's history and few in 2018 will probably know their names or even care. But if you've any penchant for 60ts Groovers and that driving Hammond Organ Sound - then the little 3CD Box Set "Shook, Shimmy And Shake" is the fried hot potato that needs to be on your shopping list. Well done to RPM and all involved...