"Marjory Razor Blade" by KEVIN COYNE – UK Double-Album from September 1973 on Virgin Records (Single-LP in the USA) featuring Gordon Smith (of Blue Horizon fame), Dave Clague (of Siren). Jean Roussel (of Hanson), Tony Cousins (future Mastering Engineer for Genesis and Metropolis Studios), Chili Charles and Guest Steve Verroca, Mel Collins and Tony Williams (January 2010 UK Virgin 2CD 'Expanded Edition' Reissue with 17 Bonus Tracks – Paschal Byrne and Ben Wiseman Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...House On The Hill..."

In truth, Derby's Kevin Coyne with his distinctive in-the-distance nasal-warble voice and disheveled Joe-Cocker-on-the-lash hair and his tramp/plumber way of dressing - was not for everyone.

In fact when Virgin Records released VD 2501 in September 1973, they tempted record buyers with a price-tag sticker of £2.73 for a 20-Track Double-Album and then backed that up with a full-page (day of release) trade advert pointing out that such a cheap price represented only a cost of eleven-pence per song. Not that it seemed anyone noticed.

But "Marjory Razor Blade" has always been a cult release, a sort of acquired taste. Musically this splurge of songs mixed his Slim Chance barrelhouse way of singing/recording with elements of Acoustic-Blues and Folk-Soul on top of hurting lyrics. He surrounded himself with fabulous musician back-up from people like Gordon Smith on Guitars (of Blue Horizon fame) and the Keyboardist Jean Roussel (of Hanson) with Tony Cousins on Bass (he of Metropolis Studios fame, later remastered the Genesis Gabriel years catalogue to spectacular effect in 2007) and Chili Charles on Drums. Dave Clague of Siren also plays guitar on some tracks. 

The US 11-Track album was a truncated single LP and as far as the artist and players were concerned, a butchered affair best not thought of. Like I say, "Marjory Razor Blade" is not a well-known release. I remember when I worked at Reckless Records in our crazy busy Soho shop – the UK stickered double would turn up only sporadically – and when it did, us of the older moody git persuasion would look at it with affection and even a wee bit of wonder.

Well, fast-forward to January 2010 and Virgin are at it again, festooning this 'Expanded Edition' 2CD Remastered set with a Bonus Cut on Disc 1 and a whopping 16 more on Disc 2. And the words 'forgotten gem' running alongside 'seriously great value for money' start to jump to mind. Let's get slashed...

UK released 11 January 2010 - "Marjory Razor Blade" by KEVIN COYNE on Virgin VDR 2501 (Barcode 5099950372126) is a 2CD 'Expanded Edition' Reissue with One Bonus Track on CD1 and a Further 16 Bonus Tracks on CD2 that plays out as follows:

CD1 "Marjory Razor Blade" The Original Album (79:04 minutes):

1. Marjory Razor Blade [Side 1]

2. Marlene

3. Talking To No One

4. Eastbourne Ladies

5. Old Soldier

6. I Want My Crown [Side 2]

7. Nasty

8. Lonesome Valley

9. House On The Hill

10. Cheat Me

11. Jackie And Edna [Side 3]

12. Everybody Says

13. Mummy

14. Heaven In My View

15. Karate King

16. Dog Latin [Side 4]

17. This Is Spain

18. Chairman's Ball

19. Good Boy

20. Chicken Wing

BONUS TRACK

21. Eastbourne Ladies (US 7" Single Edit)

CD2 Bonus Tracks (69:28 minutes):

1. Lovesick Fool

2. Sea Of Love

Tracks 1 and 2 are the A&B-sides of a November 1973 UK 7" single on Virgin VS 104

3. Breathe In Deep

4. Jackie And Edna (Take One)

5. Pretty Park

Tracks 3 to 5 recorded at Manor Studios in July 1973, outtakes, PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

6. I Want My Crown

Track 6 recorded for BBC TV's "The Old Grey Whistle Test" transmitted 30 October 1973, PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

7. Eastbourne Ladies

8. House On The Hill

9. Chicken Wing

Tracks 7 to 9 recorded for Bob Harris' BBC Radio 1 Show, recorded 24 Oct 1973, transmitted 12 Nov 1973

Produced by JEFF GRIFFIN - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

10. Poor Swine

11. Need Somebody

12. Araby

13. Do Not Shout At Me Father

Tracks 10 to 13 recorded for John Peel's BBC Radio 1 Show

Recorded 24 January 1974, Transmitted 31 January 1974

14. Marjory Razorblade Suite

Originally released on the Virgin Records 2LP Label Sampler "V" in July 1975 on VD 2502

PREVIOUSLY UNAVAILABLE on CD

15. House On The Hill

16. Boogie Chillun [John Lee Hooker cover]

Tracks 15 and 16 live at The 100 Club in London, 1974 - PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

Although its only an 8-page booklet, with interviews culled from Bassist and Mastering Engineer Tony Cousins, Blues Guitarist Gordon Smith and Coyne’s own recollections - the liner notes are an informative affair. But it’s the PASHAL BYRNE and BEN WISEMAN Remasters that are thrilling. I remember the original vinyl was good but never quite great. Well here it feels released – the band’s Americana Acoustic Blues alchemy making it feel we all missed a trick when it comes to this double. A properly great job done.

After an Acapella bitter diatribe about "Marjory Razor Blade", other Side 1 winners includes the poppy "Marlene", the sad beauty of "Old Soldier" and the done-the-best-I-can acoustic-Bluesy "I Want My Crown". The song that was chosen for a US 45 was "Eastbourne Ladies" (Virgin 13-106) – reduced from its LP timings of 5:57 minutes to 4:35 minutes – is featured here as the Bonus Track tail-ending CD1. Never thought it was good choice, surely the more Blues-Boogie feel to "I Want My Crown" that opens Side 2 would have worked better – a sound that was sort of akin to Bryn Haworth and the Slide Guitar stuff he did on his fab 1974 LP "Let The Days Go By" on Island Records. 

Gordon Smith plays lovely slide acoustic on the acidic "Nasty" while Coyne gets almost childishly scathing as he sings. "Lonesome Valley" is a Carter Family cover and comes on like a Countrified Slim Chance washboard and kazoo folk boogie session - all rattling guitar strings and doubled vocals - fantastic stuff where the whole band make a fab ruckus. That's followed by one of the album's loveliest songs "House On The Hill" and again Gordon Smith's electric slide alongside Roussel on piano both add hugely, Cone even sounding a little like early David Gray. Side 2 ends on a slide-guitar boogie romp called "Cheat Me" where Gordon Smith and band really get to stretch out as they give it a bit of The Allman Brothers.

Side 3 opens with the 'why can't we go on like we did before' song "Jackie And Edna" - a lonely acoustic tune with his voice and lyrics almost too much on the open sleeve for comfort. Gorgeous flicking harmonics guitar work on "Everybody Says" - a song that feels like Roy Harper at his curmudgeonly best. Both "Mummy" and the dancing "Heaven In My View" gives us more rambunctious Slim Chance doing Americana, huge Kettle Drums keeping a beat as Acoustic and Mandolin guitars slip and slide across the speakers – Coyne’s vocals echoed like a circus tent compare while Mama plays the upright Joanna. Chopping kids down like trees, going chop-chop, down in the gymnasium – Coyne sings with his lone acoustic guitar on "Karate Kid" – snarling out the lyrics like he’s angling for a barroom brawl with an egotist in his sights.

Side 4 kicks in with "Dog Latin" and the muscle-bound storybook that is "This Is Spain" back in a time when a holiday in the sun must have felt like handling the crown jewels. We then go slightly Mungo Jerry with the mandolin poppy "Chairman’s Ball" – get your ticket and go. Far better is the drumming-it-into-their-dim-minds "Good Boy" where Coyne sounds like an Establishment teacher rapping his student on the knuckles with ‘well done’ and ‘good boy’ repeats as he strums down aggressive. We boogie with the band for the final splash – how do you do that thing – bought a "Chicken Wing".

CD2 opens with the rare stand-alone single of "Lovesick Fool" on Virgin VS 104 (from November 1973) which was paired on the flipside with a cover of "Sea Of Love"- the 1959 Vocal Group smoocher made famous by Phil Phillips and The Twilights on Mercury Records. Many will recall the song from the sideways Led Zeppelin project that Jimmy Page and Robert Plant put together as The Honeydrippers in 1984. Both tracks are winners and genuine bonuses – in fact you can’t help think that Coyne doing an entire album of R&B and Vocal Group tunes would have been something extraordinary.

Other goodies are the two and half minutes of the previously unreleased "Breathe In Deep" where some conversation in the studio about Dr. Who and The Daleks precedes another washboard sliding acoustic ditty. Same goes for "Pretty Park" – probably dropped from the final double because it sounded too much like other Americana-ish tracks on the album (but what a thrill to hear both of these quality outtakes all these years later). The Old Grey Whistle Test recordings are in fantastic shape - "I Want My Crown" amped up with a Tabla rhythm section. Keyboards slink in for "House On The Hill" where the band sounds like a languid Pink Floyd circa 1971 with a strangulated vocalist at the microphone. More washboard stomping with "Poor Swine" – a genuinely cool find - and eight-minutes of the "Marjory Razorblade Suite" recorded live at Hyde Park in June 1974 and only available on the Virgin "V" double-album sampler - is the kind of tune I'd forgotten about for over three decades. It all comes to an end with six minutes of John Lee Hooker and his classic "Boogie Chillun" done live at the 100 Club with Gordon Smith on Guitar, Rick Dodd on Saxophone, Terry Slade on Bass and Tony Williams on Drums – great audio too as the band builds the stomp and Coyne gives the crowd some 'Derby City' name-checking Rock and Roll.

The double-album is something of a lost classic and the plethora of Bonus Tracks is not just worth owning – but makes the whole shebang feel like a dip-in and discover treasure trove all the way from start to finish.

The sort of British-Washboard-Acoustic-Blues-Americana that is "Marjory Razor Blade" is a footnote in Rock's history now and I suspect despite glowing reviews - it won't be for everyone either. But for me - this fantastic 2CD Remaster has turned it into a Bobby Dazzler. And the brilliant underdog Kevin Coyne (Derby's finest) and his complementing musical buddies deserved no less…

"The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" by GENESIS – Double-Album from November 1974 on Charisma Records (UK) and Atco Records (USA) – featuring Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins with Guest Brian Eno (November 2014 Japan-Only 2 x SHM-CD Reissue with HR Cutting and Mini LP Repro Artwork 'Standard Edition' – Using The 2007 Remaster by Tony Cousins) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...It's Only Knock And Knowall, But I Like It!"

I've told this story a few times. I was in a Dublin bar with a mate of mine in the early Eighties and we were getting legless. For some reason lost to time, alien abduction and cosmic wormhole reasoning - we decided to start singing "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" and about an hour later and a few bevvies in - we'd done all four sides including the two instrumentals! And like some spoilt celebrity salaciously stroking his Sage Oracle Coffee making machine in my landing strip of a kitchen (who's Daddy's favourite eh) - I'm so proud of that! 

So as I was prepping for this review in my 62-year-old dotage, I tried it again and with a hearty pat on my greying but still suspiciously intact hairline, I remembered about half of the lyrics without having to refer to the repro'd lyric inserts provided in this gorgeous Japanese reissue. That's how it is when you truly love an album. I would imagine it's the same for Soul Boys when it comes to Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" or once rowdy young men when it comes to The Pistols and "Never Mind The Bollocks..." In fact, we need only see the artwork of our fave-rave and a quickening of the pulse occurs, rushing blood in the trouser area makes a valiant effort and a wee tear of nostalgic joy appears in our cataract-addled eyeballs. Could have been the Guinness mind...

I love double-albums and after the creative highs of 1972's "Foxtrot" and 1973's even better "Selling England By The Pound" - the Peter Gabriel led period of Genesis finished on a total humdinger - a 1974 2LP groovy Hipgnosis artwork splurge that had many fans reaching for such highbrow phrases as 'the last great concept album' or 'bugger my NYC Apple Pies but that's brill boys'. But what issue of this Progtastic Lilywhite Lilith double-dip do you buy?

After years of false digital starts, the fantastic Tony Cousins Remasters that first appeared in the 2007 Box Set 1970-1974 were issued as stand-alone SACDs in 2008 and then standard 2CD sets in 2009. That 2009 variant on Barcode 5099926570228 is widely available to this day for about a tenner or maybe a tad more. But such is my love for this extraordinary double, I want the best - and choosing between the Platinum SHM-CD from 2014 (over £50 on some sites) or this standard edition for about £25 which is still on catalogue in 2020 - I've settled on this. And I love everything about it. But to the Colony of Slippermen first...

Released 26 November 2014 in Japan-Only - "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" by GENESIS on Universal/Virgin UICY-76719/20 (Barcode 4988005858214) is a 2-Disc SHM-CD Format Reissue of the 1974 Charisma Records Double-Album in Mini LP Repro Artwork with a Gatefold Card Sleeve, Inner Sleeves, Foldout Booklet, Obi Strip and an Outer Plastic Protective. This 2014 Reissue uses the 2007 Remaster but also features HR CUTTING for the SHM-CD discs to get optimum sound retrieval. It plays out as follows...

CD1 (45:36 minutes):

1. The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway [Side 1]

2. Fly On The Windshield

3. Broadway Melody Of 1974

4. Cuckoo Cocoon

5. In The Cage

6. The Grand Parade Of Lifeless Packaging

7. Back In N.Y.C. [Side 2] 

8. Hairless Heart

9. Counting Out Time

10. The Carpet Crawlers

11. The Chamber of 32 Doors

CD2 (48:49 minutes):

1. Lilywhite Lilith [Side 3]

2. The Waiting Room

3. Anyway

4. Here Comes The Supernatural Anaesthetist

5. The Lamia

6. Silent Sorrow In Empty Boats 

7. The Colony Of Slippermen [Side 4]

(a) The Arrival (b) A Visit To The Doktor (c) Raven

8. Ravine

9. The Light Lies Down On Broadway

10. Riding The Scree

11. It

Released November 1974 in the UK on Charisma CGS 101 and November 1974 in the USA on Atco SD 2-401. Produced by Genesis and John Burns – it peaked at No. 10 in the UK and No. 41 in the USA.

The packaging is beautiful on these Japanese reissues, the fold out booklet with its Japanese and English lyrics. You get the story of Rael - a spunky Puerto Rican kid living in New York - runs the gamut of weird and wonderful experiences, a lot of which feels like drugged-out trips into colonies of Slippermen and dark drafty Chambers with 32 Doors and water-rafting on the scree to some ‘it’ ending. And that Hipgnosis artwork was mesmerizing too with Rael jumping through glass and bodies with snakes draped over them and Gabriel’s "…Keep your fingers out of my eye…" story on the inside and the sheer volume of lyrics on the two inner sleeves (only "The Waiting Room" and "Silent Sorrow In Empty Boats" are instrumentals). It was a lot to digest at the time and still is - and there were many who weren’t too convinced. But time has shown this staggering artistic outpouring as a properly brilliant thing. I never saw the legendary tours with those boil-in-a-bag outfits but I’ve seen the photos and read the Phil Collins recollections of masterful slide shows which featuring the whole double whether the crowd wanted it or not. Hardly surprising that PG was gone by 1975 - solo stardom beckoning in 1977 with "Solsbury Hill" (again on Charisma Records).

The Tony Cousins audio is fantastic and again that noticeable oomph given by the better-format disc. When Gabriel sings "Early morning Manhattan..." as the opening title track kicks in, the punch is palpable. But like most longtime fans, I went straight for deep album tracks like "Anyway" (beautiful piano playing from Banks), those shimmering Hackett guitars 'wrapped up in some powdered wool' in "Cuckoo Cocoon", crucial dilation of the pupils in the witty sexual awakening song "Counting Out Time" and the track that was always hard to hear on the original LP - the almost imperceptible "Silent Sorrow In Empty Boats" – now a gorgeous instrumental. I remember Hackett's wife did beautiful 'Wind And Wuthering' type paintings depicting those tracks in a book that came out in the 80s (can’t remember its name). Everywhere you turn, the audio thrills. That wonderful chorus with the harmonizing vocals in "Lilywhite Lilith", the wind synths and acoustic guitars actually depicting in sound a "Ravine" and of course that final run of three "Riding The Screen" (stunning Banks synth solo) segueing into the strangely peaceful acoustics of "In The Rapids" and that synth burst with Collins giving it some superb drumming on "It" with the "...it's only knock and knowall, but I like it..." lyrics.

Niggles - It's known that the 'Evil Jam' version of "The Waiting Room" on the B-side of the April 1975 British 7" single for "The Carpet Crawlers" (Charisma CB 251) is a different mix to the LP cut and I suppose could have been included here on Disc 2 as a Bonus Track - but it's hardly a huge loss. What you do get is fabulous just as it is (Audio and Presentation).

Prog Rock used to be such a maligned genre, but as the years have gone by and with so much blandness masquerading as music coming off the airwaves - new listeners are discovering what we loved first time around – its complexity and inventiveness and wild out there nature – and damn it – on occasion – its tearful beauty.

"...We hold together and shoot the rapids fast…" - Peter Gabriel sang all those decades ago as the band made a successful dash for the finish on Side Four. 

Well, if you want to get down to this 1974 Broadway fantasy, then this gorgeous 2014 Japanese SHM-CD2 reissue is the 2020 Times Square audio buddy you need…

"Hooker N' Heat" by CANNED HEAT and JOHN LEE HOOKER – Double-Album from January 1971 (USA) and March 1971 (UK) on Liberty Records (19 July 2017 JAPAN Universal/Liberty Records SHM-CD x 2 Reissue In Gatefold Hard-Card Mini LP Repro Artwork with a Booklet And Obi Strip and One Bonus Track – part of their 'Deluxe Double Series' - Akihito Watanbe Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Boogie Chillen No. 2..."

In March 2020 - "Hooker 'N Heat" is an obscurity you rarely see on either vinyl or CD. Yet for such a long distant memory (50 years in 2021), it's had its fair share of reissues.

England's See For Miles got to the digital first in 1989 followed quickly by an EMI/Liberty 2CD Remaster in 1991 widely issued in the UK and USA. Then Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab give it the ultimate audiophile accolade in 1996 by putting the Boogie Chillen double on one of their pricey and limited 'Ultradisc II' Gold 2CD sets (a fiercely expensive item these days).

Following that a company in France called Magic Records had it remastered by Beat Goes On's resident audio engineer Andrew Thompson in July 2002. That 19-track issue was more than interesting to fans as it contained a song mentioned by Hook in the studio dialogue to the band at the beginning of "Send Me Your Pillow" called "It's All Right" – a tune he was to record the following night but frustratingly never showed on the released double. Magic Records included both "It's All Right" and the US 7" single edit of "Whiskey And Wimmen" (2:25 minutes as opposed to the LP cut of 4:33 minutes) as Bonus Tracks on Disc 2.

And while BGO issued the Andrew Thompson high-definition 24-bit remastered double as a 2CD set in 2005, it was the bare 17-Track 2LP set only. This new July 2017 Japanese double SHM-CD reissue in gorgeous Mini LP Artwork includes the "It's All Right" outtake as a single song bonus - even if the packaging is a tad vague about it to English-language eyes. And to top its cool looks and grinding boogie bonus track, this new version does have something else worth raving about - truly fabulous and clean audio - care of a new Remaster by Universal’s Akihito Watanbe from original tapes done in Japan. Let's get to the boogie - children...

Released19 July 2017 in Japan-Only - "Hooker N' Heat” by CANNED HEAT and JOHN LEE HOOKER on Universal/Liberty Records UICY-78388-9 (Barcode 4988031229569) is a 2-Disc Set Reissue of the 1971 Double-Album on the SHM-CD Format In Gatefold Hard-Card Mini LP Repro Artwork with Booklet, Obi Strip and One Outtake from the Sessions as a Bonus Track. It plays out as follows:

CD1 (41:06 minutes):

1. Messin With The Hook [Side 1]

2. The Feelin' Is Gone

3. Send Me Your Pillow

4. Sittin' Here Thinkin'

5. Meet Me In The Bottom

6. Alimonia Blues [Side 2]

7. Drifter

8. You Talk Too Much

9. Burning Hell

10. Bottle Up And Go

CD2 (50:58 minutes):

1. The World Today [Side 3]

2. I Got My Eyes On You

3. Whiskey And Wimmen

4. Just You And Me

5. Let's Make It [Side 4]

6. Peavine

7. Boogie Chillen No. 2

The double-album "Hooker N' Heat" was released January 1971 in the USA on Liberty Records LST-35002 and March 1971 in the UK on Liberty Records LSP 103/4.

BONUS TRACK

8. It's All Right - Previously Unreleased Session Outtake first issued on CD in July 2002 by Magic Records (Barcode 3700139302323) 

The hard-card gatefold sleeve is an exact repro of the American original double-album, the fold-out white inlay has the lyrics in English and Japanese and it comes with an Obi strip and SHM-CD stickered outer plastic protective. The Remastering Engineer for Universal Japan is AKIHITO WATANBE and the 2017 Audio is gorgeous - so damn impressive as the band lay into the five minute boogie that is "Peavine" and the eleven and half minutes of "Boogie Chillen No. 2" - an updating of his Forties and Fifties chugging classic (Wilson keeping up on the heavy-heavy Harmonica).

Produced by SKIP TAYLOR and BOB HITE Jr. with all tunes by JLH - the double was split into two phases – the first LP with just him and his electric guitar plugged in and turned up loud while the band only briefly joins him on some songs on Side 2. I mention this because if you're expected rocket-fuelled Rock-Blues, then taper those expectations. LP1 is very sparse but eerily effective as he taps his foot and flicks those Hooker licks – the second LP featuring the band lifts up proceedings a little more - especially with Al Wilson blowing some fantastic Paul Butterfield-type Harmonica. And what blows you away too is the new audio here that has made the echoed vibe all the more intense and powerful. 

Surely one of the great lost 45s of the Seventies is the double's only outing - an edit of "Whiskey And Wimmen" issued Stateside in April 1971 on United Artists 50779 with the equally fab "Let's Make It" on the flipside (no British equivalent but there are other territories like France and Australia). The LP cut for "Whiskey And Wimmen" is 4:33 minutes while the single edited it down to a spoken title intro of nine seconds and the song at 2:25 minutes. "Let's Make It" saw its album version of 4:05 minutes only shortened a little to 3:50 minutes. Damn shame its not on here too, but the Magic Records double-disc that does have the A-side is deleted and therefore hiking it with a huge price tag.

The Hook plays fantastic guitar on "Boogie Chillen No. 2" as he shouts "I Feel Good!" enjoying the band cooking up a bass and drums driving chug. He mixes and matches lyrics from so many Blues references into "It's All Right" – a genuinely superb addition. You can so hear the band just digging being in the same room as the great Blues legend. Cool and then some...

I got my copy on a well-known auction site for under £20 though I've seen this Japanese beauty go for about £25 or a little above that. "I heard that whistle blow...comin' down the railroad track...hey hey..."

Let that child boogie-woogie, mama used to say - you gotta let it out! Well he did in the company of admirers and cohorts and weren’t we the better for it. Go Johnny Go...

"Labour Of Lust" by NICK LOWE – Second Studio Album from June 1979 featuring Dave Edmunds, Billy Bremner and Terry Williams (all of Rockpile) with Guests Elvis Costello, Pete Thomas (of The Attractions), Huey Lewis (of Clover and later The News) and songs by Mickey Jupp and Ian Gomm (March 2011 UK Proper 'Expanded Edition' CD Reissue – Vic Anesini Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...In The Right Measure..."

Following on from his New Wave groovy debut album "Jesus Of Cool" in 1978 (called "Pure Pop For Now People" in the USA on Columbia Records) - the former Brinsley Schwarz Bassist and front man Nick Lowe and his band of Rock 'n' Roll reprobates (Rockpile) needed a follow-up - and preferably one with a big fat hit like "I Like The Sound Of Breaking Glass".

Back from a US tour where the support act foursome of Nick Lowe (Bass and Vocals), Dave Edmunds and Billy Bremner (Guitars and Vocals) and Terry Williams (Drums) regularly slaughtered the crowd for mainliners - Lowe and his ageless 32-year-old all-singing all-dancing rockers spent the next two months on the graveyard recording-shift alongside Dave Edmunds who was simultaneously putting down Swan Song's "Repeat When Necessary" LP in the same place (Eden Studio in Chiswick, West London).

An arm-twisted Nick was then directed back by Columbia's A&R executive Gregg Geller to an old 1974 Brinsley Schwarz tune called "You've Gotta Be Cruel To Be Kind". The song was recorded after the final "New Favourites..." LP sessions as the group was winding down (it first appeared on a 1988 compilation LP in Britain) and Geller felt Cruel and its incessantly catchy chorus had the chops to be a radio-friendly winner in the USA. With Rockpile in tow, Lowe recorded the shifty little brute with a yawn only to find that Geller’s A&R instinct was very much on the dollar when the song launched the "Labour Of Lust" LP – especially Stateside. 

His second studio LP came in June 1979, the Columbia 3-11018 single following in July, and helped by a quirky promo video featuring Nick and Carlene Carter’s wedding and its superb UK-LP-only B-side "Endless Grey Ribbon" enticing American collectors, the "Cruel To Be Kind" single and video combined to push sales on the chipper album - eventually seeing it climb to a very healthy No. 12 LP spot in America (no mean feat in those days). Released in his native Blighty in September 1979, the Radar ADA 43 single did the same, ramming the well-received Radar LP up the charts – also to a No. 12 high.

As Geller's liner notes wittily imply on Page 9 of the booklet - Nick's been singing Cruel To Be Kind (in the right measure) ever since. Which brings us to this hugely likeable reissue – details first…

UK released 15 March 2011 - "Labour Of Lust" by NICK LOWE on Proper Records PRPCD077 (Barcode 805520030779) is an ‘Expanded Edition’ CD Reissue and Remaster with One Bonus Track. It will allow fans to sequence both the UK and US LP configurations and plays out as follows (39:03 minutes):

1. Cruel To Be Kind

2. Cracking Up

3. Big Kick, Plain Scrap

4. American Squirm

5. Born Fighter

6. You Make Me

7. Skin Deep

8. Switchboard Susan

9. Endless Grey Ribbon

10. Without Love

11. Dose Of You

12. Love So Fine

BONUS TRACK:

13. Basing Street

Released June 1979 in the UK on Radar Records RAD 21 and also June 1979 in the USA on Columbia Records JC 36087 - the UK and US LPs both had eleven tracks each but with different configurations. The British variant had "Endless Grey Ribbon" as an exclusive (Track 2 on Side 2) whilst the US LP had that song replaced with "American Squirm" as their exclusive cut (Track 4, Side 1). All songs written by Nick Lowe, except "Cruel To Be Kind" which was a co-write with Ian Gomm, "Switchboard Susan" by Mickey Jupp (credited as "Switch Board Susan" in the USA) and "Love So Fine" which is credited to the four in Rockpile – Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Billy Bremner and Terry Williams.

To sequence the UK LP from this CD use the following tracks:

Side 1: Tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7

Side 2: Tracks 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

To sequence the US LP use:

Side 1: Tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7

Side 2: Tracks 8, 11, 10, 5 and 12

The three SINGLES around the album were:

UK - "American Squirm" b/w "What's So Funny 'bout (Peace, Love And Understanding)"

October 1978 on Radar Records ADA 26

The B-side is an Elvis Costello song credited to Nick Lowe and His Sound, but it's actually Elvis Costello and The Attractions and is unfortunately not on this CD. "American Squirm" wasn't released as a 45 in the USA - is on the US LP only.

UK - "Cracking Up" b/w "Basing Street"

June 1979 on Radar Records ADA 34 - B-side was non-album and is the 'bonus track' on this CD

US - "Switch Board Susan" b/w "Basing Street"

October 1979 on Columbia 1-11131 - "Switchboard Susan" was the A-side in the USA instead of "Cracking Up"

UK - "Cruel To Be Kind" b/w "Endless Grey Ribbon"

September 1979 on Radar Records ADA 43

June 1979 USA on Columbia 3-11018 with same songs

US fans would not have had the B-side as it only appeared on the UK LP

You get a gatefold card-sleeve; the Barney Bubbles cover artwork on a picture CD, a 12-Page booklet with new liner notes from Canvey Island/Pub Rock aficionado WILL BIRCH with added notes from Columbia's then A&R guy GREGG GELLER. In-between are repro photos of very cool period memorabilia like the 'I Made An AMERICAN SQUIRM' button, the Survival Kit promo pack, Radar Records track promo trinkets, the "Cruel To Be Kind" UK 7" picture sleeve, a billboard add for the album, US tour shots, unreleased proof artwork for Barney Bubbles sleeves and loads more. The read is witty, informative and more than tinged with the huge affection Lowe, Rockpile and the album are remembered with. Tasty.

But best of all is a Remaster by Columbia Records Audio Engineer supremo VIC ANESINI - a man who has twiddled the knobs on The Byrds, Nilsson, Santana, Elvis Presley, The Jayhawks, Stevie Ray Vaughan and oodles more. I mention this because the album was always a low-fi audio affair to me and in truth it generally remains that way. But Anesini has done a clean transfer and the oomph the tracks so desperately needed is in evidence - even if it isn't as much as you would have hoped for (Anesini also did the "Jesus Of Cool" album reissue for Proper Records).

Co-written with fellow Pub Rocker Ian Gomm, the album opens on the knock me back down winner that is "Cruel To Be Kind" and Terry Williams' drum kit is suddenly Everly Brothers clear as the band kicks in. When asked to contribute to a tune to the "Labour Of Love: The Music Of Nick Lowe" 2001 CD compilation, none other than the sorely missed Tom Petty and his Heartbreakers did "Cracking Up" – and from the I don’t think its funny anymore lyrics – you can so hear why. I love the Dave Edmunds doubled-vocals on the chorus. And again the Bass and Drums of the drugs song "Big Kick, Plain Scrap" is indeed kicking and not monkeying around (great remaster, even on the flanged vocals). Edmunds again adds so much to "Born Fighter" on the vocal and guitar front, as does Huey Lewis (of The News) on loan from Clover giving it some mean Harmonica.

The US album had "American Squirm" slotted in on Side 1 and it must have felt weird (or thrilling) to have a Brit say "I made an American squirm and it felt so right…” The song also featured Elvis Costello on Vocals and Pete Thomas of The Attractions on Drums. A sort of dry run for "Basing Street", the almost hurting quiet in "You Make Me" features Nick strumming a barely perceptible acoustic – love making our hero weak and confused (a good excuse really). Things go back to beat city with the catchy-as-a-cold "Skin Deep" where Nick is belly to belly but unfortunately not eye to eye (love that guitar work from Edmunds, subtle and effective). Other cool ones come in the shape of the Rockabilly swinging "Without Love" (all by himself in the heartbreak sea) and the final slice of Rockpile chugging in "Love So Fine" – a track I always felt would have been a far better single than "American Squirm". And I must rant and rave about the B-side "Basing Street" – a bare bones acoustic tale of ugly inner London misery that used to slay me every time I flipped the single. I played this sucker to death, the half spoken lyrics, the sort of Johnny Cash unplugged feel, the tale of a cut homeless 17 year old, something about its eerie loneliness used to affect me and to hear it now so clean and clear is frankly even a little jarring.

"Each time I see her, I can't wait to see her again…" – Nick Lowe sang on the lyrically clever "Love So Fine". I suspect so many of us have felt the same about his first two albums and this Remaster only hammers home our initial faith. A gentleman and a scholar and that's just the left leg. Fab stuff and then some…