"Raindances: The Transatlantic Recordings 1973-1975" by GRYPHON – Including Four UK Albums - "Gryphon" (June 1973), "Midnight Mushrumps" and "Red Queen To Gryphon Three" (May and November 1974) with "Raindance" (September 1975) - featuring Richard Harvey, Brian Gulland, Graeme Taylor, Dave Oberle, Philip Nestor and Malcolm Bennett (August 2018 UK Esoteric Recordings Compilation – 4LPs onto 2CDs – Ben Wiseman Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Midnight Mushrumps..."

Described by one erudite music-press scribbler in the early Seventies as a "...13th Century Slade..." – England's hairy men of GRYPHON replaced bovver boots and mirror-ball top hats with ye olde powdered wigs, frilly velvet coats and chubby lutes sat on cushions surrounded by patchouli bowls and 16-track mixing consoles. 

Their often rhythmically complex instrumental passages crossed over into Amazing Blondel territory (an Island Records band in 1970 and 1971) and into Focus circa 1972 and 1973 on Polydor – a sort of five-piece Medieval Folk act with Prog Rock leanings and flourishes. Gryphon Music feels like Canada's Rush had a love child with England's Fairport Convention or Mr. Fox and didn't know what to do with the resulting squawler – a mishmash of soundscapes that even now defies description. 

But inside this undoubted virtuoso playing was beauty and even prettiness – and each of their four albums for Transatlantic Records came in those glorious stippled-effect artwork sleeves that made collectors like me a little unnecessary in the trouser area. Remastered from original tapes - the audio rocks (another Ben Wiseman winner), the presentation is sweet and I've seen this wee beauty online for under a tenner from some retailers. I love it. Here are the Midnight Mushrumps...

UK released Friday, 24 August 2018 - "Raindances: The Transatlantic Recordings 1973-1975" by GRYPHON on Esoteric Recordings ECLEC22639 (Barcode 5013929473942) offers 4LPs Remastered onto 2CDs and plays out as follows:

CD1 (74:05 minutes):
1. Kemp's Jig [Side 1]
2. Sir Gavin Grimbold 
3. Touch And Go
4. Three Jolly Butchers 
5. Pastime With Good Company 
6. The Unquiet Grave 
7. Estampie [Side 2]
8. Crossing The Stiles 
9. The Astrologer
10. Tea Wrecks 
11. Juniper Suite 
12. The Devil And The Farmer's Wife  
Tracks 1 to 12 are their debut album "Gryphon" - released June 1973 in the UK on Transatlantic Records TRA 262 (no USA release). Produced by LAURENCE ASTON and ADAM SKEAPING - it didn't chart.

13. Midnight Mushrumps [Side 1]
14. The Ploughboy's Dream [Side 2]
15. The Last Flash Of Gaberdine Tailor 
16. Gulland Rock 
17. Ethelion 
Tracks 13 to 17 are their second studio album "Midnight Mushrumps" - released May 1974 in the UK on Transatlantic Records TRA 282 (no US release). Produced by GRYPHON - it didn't chart. 

CD2 (79:54 minutes):
1. Opening Move (9:48 minutes) [Side 1]
2. Second Spasm (8:21 minutes)
3. Lament (10:50 minutes) [Side 2]
4. Checkmate (9:48 minutes)
Tracks 1 to 4 are their third studio album "Red Queen To Gryphon Three" - released November 1974 in the UK on Transatlantic Records TRA 287 and December 1974 in the USA on Bell Records BELL 1316. Produced by GRYPHON and DAVE GRINSTEAD - it didn't chart in either country.

5. Down The Dog [Side 1]
6. Raindance 
7. Mother Nature's Son
8. Le Cambrioleur Est Dans Le Mouchir 
9. Ormolu 
10. Fontiental Version 
11. Wallbanger [Side 2]
12. Don't Say Go 
13. (Ein Klein) Heidenleben 
Tracks 5 to 13 are their fourth album "Raindance" - released September 1975 in the UK on Transatlantic TRA 302 (no US release). Produced by GRYPHON - it didn't chart  

GRYPHON was:
RICHARD HARVEY - Keyboards, Recorders and Krumhorn
BRIAN GULLAND - Bassoon and Krumhorn
GRAEME TAYLOR - Guitars
PHILIP NESTOR - Bass
DAVID OBERLE - Drums, Percussion and Tympanies
MALCOLM BENNETT replaced Philip Nestor for "Raindance" - Bass, Flute and Lyrics 

The 24-page booklet is a pleasingly fat and pretty affair - all four albums covers given a page each and new liner notes from long-time writer MALCOLM DOME on the British band's very English peculiarities. Those who would worry that this is sort of silly Blackadder incidental music should not feel so - there is more Prog Folk or Folk Rock going on here than the mediaeval tag Gryphon is always whacked with. 

For sure as you peruse the song titles provided above - Jolly Butchers, Ploughman's Dreams and Raindances down in the Dog are very ye olde type music - but Gryphon infused the old with the new - and by the time they reached "Red Queen To Gryphon Three" - four lengthy pieces of music - they were very much in the Gentle Giant meets Trees meets Seventh Wave territories more than they were Steeleye Span for instance. The liner notes discuss the lovely Dan Pearce artwork that made their LP sleeves so distinctive and new interviews with Oberle and Gulland fill in how the band struggled and yet forged ahead (there are full LP credits on the final pages). 

But yet again the big news is BEN WISEMAN 24-Bit Digital Remasters from original Transatlantic Records tapes. These Gryphon albums have been issued before (even in Japan) but in my mind, they have never sounded this good - a timely and smart gathering together of their neglected brilliance. To the music...

Highlights include the very Rick Wakeman keyboard tale of forests, horses and dreaming of buxom wenches in "The Ploughman's Dream" on "Midnight Mushrumps" and the one true love acoustic prettiness of "The Unquiet Grave" on the self-titled debut. Speaking of the first album, it is undoubtedly the one most filled with ye olde dances on clavinets and oboes and the like ("Juniper Suite"). Those looking for Prog should go to the nineteen minutes of Side 1 for "Midnight Mushrumps" or the doomy organs of "Gulland Rock" or "Opening Moves" on "Red Queen To Gryphon Three". That beast harbours all their most admired work - long tracks filled with ye-olde rhythms mashed up with new Prog Rock Jazz Fusion flourishes on a Yamaha DX7 keyboard - all of it sounding like Elizabeth I has dropped acid and suddenly wants to expressive herself via the Clavinet, Bassoon, Recorder and Krumhorn (a bent Renaissance woodwind instrument). By the time we get to 1975 and "Raindance", there are even Focus guitar moments in "Down The Dog" and a gorgeous interpretation of that White Album gem "Mother Nature's Son" (The Beatles under another sun) - while "Wallbanger" has a Greenslade sway to its multiple keyboards funk. 

Gryphon would go on to release one further studio set - "Treason" in April 1977 on Harvest SHSP 4063. Neither number five nor the four albums that preceded it troubled any charts anywhere especially given Punk and New Wave's dominance of the mid to late Seventies scene. And always odd anyway – their music seemed even more wildly out of place on a musical map changed forever. 
Founder member Richard Harvey popped out a solo set called "Divisions On A Ground" in April 1975 (Transatlantic TRA 292) and would later pen music for TV and Cinema including Alan Bleasdale's much-loved "G.B.H." from 1991, along with "Animal Farm" and "Arabian Nights" in 1999 and 2000 respectively. 

Supporting Prog-Rock Supergroup YES on their US Tour of 1975 - Guitarist Steve Howe was so impressed with the band's instrumental dexterity that three Gryphonites - Graeme Taylor, David Oberle and Malcolm Bennett (he’d played on "Raindance") turned up on Howe’s debut solo LP "Beginnings" released November 1975 in the UK on Atlantic K 50151. The old band then returned to the fray with two retrospective CDs on Hux Records - "About As Curious As It Can Be" in March 2002 that featured BBC sessions from 1974 and 1975 and "Glastonbury Carol" in July 2003 that featured live recordings at the famous outdoor venue from 1971 to 1974. 

Gryphon were always an acquired taste (this music will definitely not be for everyone), but they were also one of those bands that have grown in stature since their demise – picked up on by Prog fanatics searching for a new fix that they might have missed first time around. 

Dancing in the rain with your frumpy Mushrumps – I'll have me some of that you saucy squire, thank you very much...

"Three Score & Ten: A Voice To The People – 70 Years Of The Oldest Independent Record Label In Great Britain – Topic Records" by VARIOUS ARTISTS – featuring Nic Jones, The Watersons, Eliza Carthy, Dave Swarbrick, Martin Carthy, Bob Pegg, Andrew Cronshaw, John Tams, Richard and Linda Thompson, Anne Briggs, June Tabor, Shirley Collins, William Clancy, The McPeake Family, Ewan MacColl, Seamus Ennis, The Boys Of The Lough, Dick Gaughan, Ron Kavana, John B. Spencer, Bob Davenport, Martin Simpson, Vin Garbutt, The Ian Campbell Folk Group, Kate Rusby (guesting) and many more (October 2009 UK Topic Records 7CD LP-Sized Book Set – Denis Blackham Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Down Behind The Gasworks..."

This might seem a bit incongruous on my part, but as a 62-year old lover of Acoustic Folk and Folk Rock for nigh on five decades (and token Irishman), I was expecting so much more from this 7CD Book Set. There is great music on here and discoveries old and new no doubt – I just wish I wanted to play it more. 

As an archival document, Topic Records' 70-year vaults trawl "Three Score & Ten..." is faultless; but as a listen, I found too much of it historically worthy but dreadfully dull and repetitive. I would go as far as saying to anyone considering a purchase to get an earful-in before you fork out lots of wonga on some bonny wee lass nostalgia trip. In the meantime, let's get to the saucy country gardens, tinker's old boots and wasps in the woodwork...

UK released 20 October 2009 - "Three Score & Ten: A Voice To The People" by VARIOUS ARTISTS on Topic Records TOPIC70 (Barcode 714822007085) is subtitled '70 Years Of The Oldest Independent Record Label In Great Britain - Topic Records'. 

The album-sized hardback book of 110-pages houses 7CDs (4 in the front leaf and three in the rear) and also comes with an LP-sized 4-Page separate insert - 'Topic Records Complete Catalogue 1939-2009' which lists all releases from the 78's of the Thirties up to the CDs of the 00's. Each CD is themed as follows:

CD1 "...A Selection Of Treasures From The Topic Catalogue" (68:41 minutes, 16 tracks)

CD2 "England Arise!" (67:18 minutes, 20 tracks)

CD3 "Ireland Boys, Hurrah!" (70:27 minutes, 24 tracks) 

CD4 "Scotia The Brave" (70:48 minutes, 22 tracks) 

CD5 "The Singer & The Song" (65:14 minutes, 17 tracks)

CD6 "The People's Flag" (67:40 minutes, 23 tracks)

CD7 "...Even More Treasures From The Topic Catalogue" (66:54 minutes, 22 tracks)

What I will say is that the David Suff/Tony Engle compiled book presentation is a truly beautiful thing to look at and handle (see photos) and the Transfers/Remasters by DENIS BLACKHAM at Skye Mastering are exemplary. Even when your dealing with Fifties and Sixties stuff that is little more than a field recording (I notice one was done in Coolock in Dublin, my old stomping ground) – Blackham somehow manages a clarity and warmth that should be the envy of other Audio Engineers. 

Blackham did the Island Folk Rock mini clamshell box set "Meet Me On The Ledge" in 2008 for Universal and his exceptional remastering of overly familiar material was one of the real reasons as to why that set was so strong. I've reviewed his work with Horslips and Mick Greenwood too. 

The list of old and contemporary artists on "Three Score & Ten..." is impressive – Nic Jones, The Watersons, Eliza Carthy, Kate Rusby (guesting on two tracks), Dave Swarbrick, Martin Carthy, Andrew Cronshaw, John Tams, Richard and Linda Thompson, Anne Briggs, June Tabor, Shirley Collins, William Clancy, The McPeake Family, Ewan MacColl, Seamus Ennis, The Boys Of The Lough, Dick Gaughan, Ron Kavana, John B. Spencer, Bob Davenport, Martin Simpson, Vin Garbutt, The Ian Campbell Folk Group and many, many more. There are a few American acts like Rambling Jack Elliott and Jesse Fuller and some European acts - but mostly its Irish, Scottish, Welsh and English Folk artists many of whom have been forgotten with the passing of time.  

There are interesting contemporary cover versions of Dylan's "Master Of War" by Martin Carthy while Ireland’s supergroup Patrick Street (Andy Irvine, Kevin Burke, Arty McGlynn, Bill Whelan et al) and their go at the Penguin Café Orchestra instrumental "Music For A Found Harmonium" while the obscure Traditional "Bitter Withy" is reinterpreted by John Tams into a magisterial build-up of Acoustic and Electric Guitar, Dobro and Banjo. There is also Dick Gaughan and his lovely 1981 album "Handful Of Earth" and that Anne Briggs track feels so special you can't even put your finger on it. Though it's a brave man indeed who will sit through nearly eleven minutes of Mike Waterson singing Acapella about "Tamlyn" on Disc 1 no matter how much of a Fairport fan you may be. 

"Three Score & Ten: A Voice To The People" is a mixed bag for me then, saved by those beautiful remasters and occasional disc re-discoveries. Folk of this kind is very much an acquired finger-in-the-ear taste – but you also can’t help thinking – thank God someone recorded all these voices and local singing traditions in all those dirty old towns, diesel engines and dawdle areas behind the gasworks...

"Outlaws/Lady In Waiting" by THE OUTLAWS – July 1975 US Debut Album and April 1976 US Second Album on Arista Records – featuring Billy Jones, Hughie Thomasson, Henry Paul, Frank O’Keefe and Monte Yoho with Guests John David Souther and Joe Lala (October 2008 Germany and January 2009 UK SPV/Yellow Label Reissue – 2LPs onto 2CDs – Roger Lomas Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Stick Around For Rock And Roll..."

As a Seventies teenager who loved Folk, Country, Blues and all things Rock and Roll (never mind Soul, Reggae and yes Prog Rock) – I was like most guys of my age - completely in the thrall of The Allman Brothers, The Ozark Mountain Daredevils and especially Lynyrd Skynyrd. So when Tampa's Outlaws hit the ground running with two absolute corker LPs in the Southern Country Rock vein (their 1975 debut and its 1976 follow-up) – I was loving those two wickedly good gatefold suckers with something of a passion. Full of tunes and impressive triple geetar-leads playing off each other like synchronised ping-pong players – there was a lot to like indeed. 

Rehearing them after all this time (late 2020), and yes, some of it is a bit 'too' Country (if you know what I mean), but like the Call Me The Breeze, Freebird and Sweet Home Alabama boys, much of this good time Bluesy Country Rock has stood the test of time - and rather well too. And how cool is it to get both albums in the same package and rockin' audio-wise. Let's breaker-breaker...

Released in Germany 31 October 2008 (January 2009 in the UK) – "Outlaws/Lady In Waiting" by THE OUTLAWS on SPV/Yellow Label SPV 305882 2CD (Barcode 693723058825) features their first and second studio albums from 1975 and 1976 Remastered onto 2CDs and plays out as follows: 

CD1 "Outlaws" (41:02 minutes):
1. There Goes Another Love Song [Side 1]
2. Song For You
3. Song In The Breeze
4. It Follows From Your Heart 
5. Cry No More [Side 2]
6. Waterhole
7. Stay With Me 
8. Keep Prayin'
9. Knoxville 
10. Green Grass And High Tides 
Tracks 1 to 10 are their debut album Outlaws – released July 1975 in the USA on Arista Records AL 4042 and August 1975 in the UK on Arista Records ARTY 115. Produced by PAUL A. ROTHCHILD – it peaked at No. 13 on the US LP charts (didn't chart UK).

CD2 "Lady In Waiting" (37:26 minutes): 
1. Breaker-Breaker [Side 1]
2. South Carolina 
3. Ain't So Bad 
4. Freeborn Man 
5. Girl from Ohio 
6. Lover Boy [Side 2]
7. Just For You 
8. Prisoner 
9. Stick Around For Rock And Roll
Tracks 1 to 9 are their second studio album "Lady In Waiting" – released April 1976 in the USA on Arista Records AL 4070 and April 1976 in the UK on Arista Records ARTY 126. Produced by PAUL A. ROTHCHILD - it peaked at No. 36 on the US LP charts (didn't chart UK). 

THE OUTLAWS were (both albums):
BILLY JONES – Lead Guitar and Lead Vocals on Tracks 4, 5 and 8 on CD1
HUGHIE THOMASSON – Lead Guitar and Lead Vocals on Tracks 1, 2 and 10 on CD1
HENRY PAUL – Lead Guitar, Acoustic Guitar and Lead Vocals on Tracks 3, 6, 7 and 8 on CD1 
FRANK O’KEEFE – Bass 
MONTE YOHO – Drums 

Guests:
John David Souther – Harmony Vocals on "It Follows From Your Heart" on CD1
Joe Lala (of Stephen Stills' Manassas) – Percussion on CD2

The three-way foldout card digipak places a CD on either side with a photo of the band in the centre (the front cover artwork for each LP is beneath each see-through CD tray). The 12-page booklet has 8-pages of text with new liner notes by JERRY EWING and 4-pages of product adverts for SPV's 'Yellow' label (ranging from Pete Townshend to Pacific, Gas & Electric). ROGER LOMAS did the Remasters at Ro-Lo Studios from original tapes and both CDs sound amazing – full of vim and vigour - as the music deserves. 

Drying tears from his eyes, Hughie Thomasson takes Lead Vocals on "There Goes Another Love Song" – a jaunty opener about chap-misery for their debut that immediately nails down their Southern Rock credentials – albeit with a wry smirk of line-dancing fun in there somewhere. "Song For You" gives it some great lead guitars and the harmony vocals impress as they sound like the Eagles fronted by Randy Meisner. Billy Paul provided "Song In The Breeze" - a singing through the trees tune where again they give it some Eagles bop. We slow things down for the Skynyrd-pensive "It Follows From Your Heart" - a don't let your problems get you trapped song. 

Billy Jones brings it back to rapido Country Rock for "Cry No More" - a man who doesn't want to wait too long.  Straight onto guitar-picking hoedown time with "Waterhole" - a kind of yee-haw instrumental that is actually not nearly as cool as it obviously thought it once was. Side 2 hits its stride with the funk of "Keep Prayin'", the go-down fiddly-dee of "Knoxville Girl" and the LP's big one - a near ten-minute fab boogie marathon in "Green Grass & High Tides".

If the debut was a great opening gambit, the follow-up 9-tracker felt like a step up to me. The three guitarists once again took lead vocals (the liner notes don’t advise who did what). Arista decided to use the Side 1 opener "Breaker-Breaker" as a lead-in for their second album "Lady In Waiting" – that US 45 issued May 1976 on Arista AS 0188 with the equally likeable "South Carolina" on the B-side. They would also try to cash in on the "Freebird" mania sweeping the USA and the World by taking the nearest the Outlaws had to it – an edit of "Green Grass & High Tides" from the first album paired with "Prisoner" from the second platter on Arista AS 0213 in November 1976. 

I liked the genuinely sunny disposition in "Ain't So Bad" - a lots of long days where you need to open your eyes piece of Southern Rock - nice harmony vocals too. He's got a lady in Cincinnati and a woman in San Antoine, but I don’t think they should wait up for our flirty wanderlust musician in "Freeborn Man" - a song that starts out all Country Rock but then changes into an almost Wishbone Ash rock element that is melodic and thrilling. "Girl From Ohio" ends Side 1 in a very Eagles shuffling melody - back in the heart of whispering winds and birds in homeward flight. Side 2 gives it some rawk with "Lover Boy" while the singing-songs of "Just For You" could be mid-Seventies Allman Brothers. It ends on the fabulous sway of "Prisoners" – a kiss my smile shuffle that segues into the out and out boogie that is "Stick Around For Rock And Roll". 

Some say that The Outlaws' 1975 debut and its 1976 follow-up matched Lynyrd Skynyrd and their 1973 "Pronounced..." debut followed by the mighty "Second Helping" in 1974? I can't help thinking this is reaching and stretching the truth by (forgive the pun) a Country mile. Those LS albums are way better, but man when they made that Country Rock kick, The Outlaws were a formidable five-piece Harmony making machine. And this wickedly good wee twofer from SPV/Yellow is the best place to start that exploration...

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"Starless And Bible Black" by KING CRIMSON – Seventh UK LP from March 1974 on Island Records (April 1974 on Atlantic Records in the USA) – featuring Robert Fripp. David Cross, John Wetton and Bill Bruford (October 2011 UK Discipline Global Mobile/Panegyric 40th Anniversary Series CD+DVD-A Reissue in A Card Slipcase – CD with Robert Fripp, Steve Wilson and Simon Heyworth Remixes, Remasters and Mastering) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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CADENCE / CASCADE 

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"...The Mincer..."

I have a love vs. hate relationship with King Crimson and their seventh UK platter only adds to that confusion. While inhabiting that thin line between genius and tuneless tosh – there is undeniable brilliance here - their sixth studio platter featuring a band of super-talented musicians that walked an unapologetic musical line – and still do. 

Like many fans I suspect, for me the 70ts line-up seemed to Rock and even when the music would whig-out completely - there was always something to hook you back. And this 40th Anniversary Series edition only enhances that feeling - albeit this time with a lot more on the DVD-A. Prog and Jazz Rock ahoy. Here are the great deceptive details...

UK released 3 October 2011 - "Starless And Bible Black" by KING CRIMSON on Discipline Global Mobile/Panegyric KCSP6 (Barcode 633367400628) is a 40th Anniversary Series CD + DVD-A Reissue that plays out as follows:

CD CONTENT (68:45 minutes):
2011 Stereo Mix 
1. The Great Deceiver [Side 1]
2. Lament 
3. We'll Let You Know 
4. The Night Watch 
5. Trio [Side 2]
6. The Mincer 
7. Starless And Bible Black 
8. Fracture 
Tracks 1 to 8 are their seventh album "Starless And Bible Black" [sixth studio LP] – released March 1974 in the UK on Island ILPS 9275 and April 1974 in the USA on Atlantic Records SD 7298. Produced by KING CRIMSON – it peaked at No. 28 in the UK and No 64 in the USA. 
Album Mixed and Remastered from original multi-track tapes by STEVE WILSON and ROBERT FRIPP – Mastered by SIMON HEYWORTH and ROBERT FRIPP at Super Audio Mastering in Devon (assisted by Andy Miles). 

BONUS TRACKS: 
9. The Law Of Maximum Distress: Part 1
10. Improv: The Mincer 
11. The Law Of Maximum Distress: Part 2
12. Dr. Diamond (Live, June 23rd, 1974, Palazzo Dello Sport, Udine, Italy) 
13. Guts On My Side (Live, March 19th, 1974, Palazzo Dello Sport, Udine, Italy)

DVD AUDIO CONTENT: 
Audio Content
Original Album (Tracks 1 to 8 as listed on the CD)
MLP Lossless 5.1 Surround 
DTS 5.1 Digital Surround 

Bonus Track: 
1. Easy Money (taken from the album "The Night Watch")
Mixed and Remastered from original tapes by SW and RF

2011 Stereo Mix (Tracks 1 to 8 as listed on the CD)
MPL Lossless Stereo (24/96)
PCM Stereo 2.0 (24/48)

30th Anniversary Remaster (Tracks 1 to 8 as listed on the CD)
PCM Stereo 2.0 (24/48)

Zurich, Volkshaus: November 15th, 1973 
1. Lament 
2. The Night Watch 
3. Fracture 
4. The Law Of Maximum Distress: Part 1
5. Improv: The Mincer 
6. The Law Of Maximum Distress: Part 2

Additional Tracks: 
1. We’ll Let You Know (unedited from The Great Deceiver)
2. Dr. Diamond (Live, June 23rd, 1973, Richards Club, Atlanta, Georgia, USA)
3. Guts On My Side (Live, March 19th, 1974, Palazzo Dello Sport, Udine, Italy)
4. The Night Watch (Single Edit, Stereo)
22 March 1974 UK 45 on Island WIP 6189, A-side. The album version is 4:37 minutes, this single edit runs to 3:15 minutes. The B-side was the album track The Great Deceiver at 4:02 minutes 
5. The Night Watch (US Radio Single Edit, Mono) 
1974 US 45 on Atlantic 45-3016, A-side of the Promo (also 3:15 minutes), Stereo on the flipside 
6. 30-Second Radio Advert 
7. 60-Second Radio Advert 

DVD VIDEO CONTENT
Central Park, New York, June 25th, 1973 
1. Easy Money
2. Fragged Dusty Wall Carpet 

I have to admit that visually and aesthetically; I find these glossy King Crimson reissues disappointingly ordinary. The inner card digipak offers the CD on the left with the DVD on the right clip - all with the same artwork (its even on the inner part of the card slipcase). The 16-page booklet is taken up with technical data, black and photos of the band (period shots from 1973 and 1974), the lyrics that came with the inner sleeve and some new diary-entries by Robert Fripp on the mastering and restoring processes with further liner notes from SID SMITH. It’s all very functional, at times informative but not very exciting. 

You have to say that for such frantic and dense music – the WILSON/FRIPP Remaster sounds amazingly clear – lifting up what could have been a clashing mess into coherence. I just wish it looked and 'felt' like more of a celebration – but that’s just me. The June 1973 film sequences shot in New York’s Central Park by Atlantic Records for promotional purposes (they shared the bill with Black Oak Arkansas) have been restored for the Video side of the DVD-A, although a performance of Larks Tongue In Aspic seems to be lost to the ether forever. It is also very cool to have those UK and US single rarities (stereo and mono edits). To the music...

Mixing live with studio recordings, Side 1 opens with "The Great Deceiver" - a tale of cigarettes, ice-cream, Cadillacs and figurine statues of the Virgin Mary in some health-food poser's crib. It's angry, angular, nasty even and when "The Great Deceiver" finishes its gnarly four-minutes-plus - you're in no doubt that this is a King Crimson album. And if you don't like that, you can bog off and buy Lena Zavaroni on Regal Zonophone where she assures her mother that someone is making eyes at her (probably Robert Fripp with a sniper rifle). 

People stomp on dirty floors in the sort of anti love-song bass thump that is "The Lament" - the remaster absolutely rocking it - Wetton and his strange vocals getting close to Greg Lake of old. Instrumental time comes with the jagged "We'll Let You Know" - Bass plucks trading fisticuffs with Guitar notes wrenched out of a clearly traumatised Fender. Island chopped the four and half minutes of "The Night Watch" down to a more (ahem) radio-friendly 3:15 minute edit and issued it as a UK 45 with the album cut of "The Great Deceiver" on the B-side. Cleverly, this reissue also includes the rare American Atlantic Records Promo-only 45 version of the Edit in Mono. 

Side 1 ends with the instrumental duo of "Trio" and a delightfully titled "The Mincer" – the first a (dare I say it) pretty song where a lone violin aches after a gorgeous Remaster (I don't remember my original LP ever being this clear) – while the final Side 1 piece elicits a very real menace as Fripp solos, undoubtedly channelling a Universal Pictures 1930s creature from the lagoon movie in his scary head. 

Side 2's bigger set pieces weigh in at nine and eleven minutes plus respectively - the title track "Starless And Bible Black" feeling like a nightmare dawn of digital crickets while "Fracture" is probably the most Prog Rock passage on a challenging album. 

March 1974's "Starless And Bible Black" would be followed by the equally revered "Red" in October of that busy year for King Crimson and come 2024 we will undoubtedly get a 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Blacker Than Black version. 

But in the meantime, if you want to go out and dance all night (lyrics in "Lament"), then look no further than this wee brute - presented to you here in stunning Audio...

"Buddah And The Chocolate Box" by CAT STEVENS – March 1974 UK Album on Island Records and April 1974 in the USA on A&M Records – featuring Alun Davies of Sweet Thursday, Mark Warner of Quantum Jump, Jean Roussel of Hanson, Gerry Conway of Fairport Convention, Jim Ryan, Bruce Lynch, Roland Harker and more with Arrangements by Jean Roussel and Del Newman (August 2000 UK Universal/Island 1CD Reissue – Cat Stevens Remasters Series – Ted Jensen Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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1974

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"...Oh Very Young..."

I've always loved March 1974's "Buddah And The Chocolate Box" (or least parts of it), though I can also recall that years later many cited it as the beginning of a Cat Stevens musical decline. 

That slide continued with the silly "Numbers" album in November 1975, "Izitso" in April 1977 and "Back To Earth" in December 1978 – three more adrift Seventies albums that no one really cared about then and it has remained that way ever since (he became Yusef Islam and retired in 1980).

Back to 1974 and definitely time for a reappraisal of the wee sweetie that is "Buddah And The Chocolate Box", especially given the gorgeous and revealing CD Remaster/Transfer. Done by Ted Jensen in New York for Island's 'Cat Stevens Remasters' series (11 titles pictured on the inlay spine, nine studio albums and two hits compilations) – this reissue is an Audio gem and one that is largely forgotten too. Time to unwrap the gold foils and get to the candy dandies underneath...

UK released August 2000 - "Buddah And The Chocolate Box" by CAT STEVENS on Universal/Island Remasters IMCD 273/546 888-2 (Barcode 731454688826) is a straightforward CD transfer and is part of the Cat Stevens Remasters Series that plays out as follows (32:25 minutes): 

1. Music [Side 1]
2. Oh Very Young 
3. Sun/C79 
4. Ghost Town 
5. Jesus 
6. Ready [Side 2]
7. King Of Trees 
8. A Bad Penny 
9. Home In The Sky 
Tracks 1 to 9 are his eighth studio album "Buddah And The Chocolate Box" – released late March 1974 in the UK on Island Records ILPS 9274 and early April 1974 in the USA on A&M Records SP 3623. Produced by PAUL SAMWELL-SMITH and CAT STEVENS – it peaked at No. 3 in the UK and No. 2 in the USA. Note: technically both the front cover and label of all original LPs credited the album title as "Cat Stevens’ Buddah And The Chocolate Box" – but over the years has simply become known as "Buddah And The Chocolate Box". 

Principal Band:
CAT STEVENS – Lead Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards and Synth 
ALUN DAVIES (of Sweet Thursday) – Acoustic Guitar, Backing Vocals 
JEAN ROUSSEL (of Hanson) – Keyboards 
BRUCE LYNCH – Bass 
GERRY CONWAY (of Fairport Convention) – Drums and backing Vocals 

Guests: 
Mark Warner (later of Quantum Jump) with Jim Ryan on Guitars 
Roland Harker on Banjo 
Various Backing Singers (14 first names only)
String Arrangements on "A Bad Penny" by Jean Roussel and "Music" by Del Newman

The 12-page booklet reproduces the original LP's artwork - lyrics, musician credits, the tray of chocolate Buddah figures is beneath the see-through CD tray and so on - but there are no new liner notes (more's the pity). Even if the dark-coloured rear makes reading anything on it virtually impossible, with its 'Cat Stevens Remasters' pictures of album-covers down the see-through spine, this reissue stills makes for a pretty CD jewel case to look at. 

But the real fireworks come in the Remaster - handled by a vastly experienced and long-time Audio Engineer TED JENSEN. By 1974, Cat had his band down tight and the analogue simplicity of say 1970's "Tea For A Tillerman" and 1971's "Teaser And The Firecat" had given way to the studio sophistication of "Foreigner" in 1973. "Buddah..." is a beautifully recorded album and this CD Remaster reflects those original production values. To the music...

You're immediately whomped with a funky piano - Cat being a lover of life amidst a sea of materialistic fools. The Production pours on strings, synths and backing vocals - its neck-jerking Rock strut assuring us that new music can enlighten and save us. Stevens is clearly at war with himself - fame, money and a lack of purpose in God's plan clearly eating him up (did that ending). What follows will surely be one of his fan's faves "Oh Very Young" - as sweet a song as he's ever written about children and growing up in jeans soon full of patches and other compromises. I think the female backing singers make the melody sing - though with only first names in the musician credits - we can't say who does the lead vocal. 

Another total album winner comes in the shape of the double-song "Sun/C79" - his synth playing and that "...sit you down..." break is genius. On the road again and she was in Seat C79 - a drug-habit woman that took his heart but he still couldn't remember what colour her eyes were. Again the clarity of that nightmarish opening to "Ghost Town" is impressive - that Gallagher and Lyle Drums, Bass and Harmonica opening whacking your speakers with real intent - followed up by piano and pedal steel (a far better song than I remember). Side 1 ends with the very personal "Jesus" where an icon is remembered. And in the dark evening when Cat is lost for inspiration - our hero still turns to the thought that his example and "...love will lead the blind..." 

Huge treated acoustic guitars open Side 2's "Ready" - Cat kept awake with her wide Lily smile - hope in her ways - and again the backing singers and Production values just Rock. "King Of Trees" starts quietly with piano soon to be joined by Band-like organ - a guardian of days in the forest - evergreens coming to take him back to peace. A Clavinet and his hurting vocal gives "A Bad Penny" a power but I think the strings are a tad overdone. It ends on "Home In The Sky" - a wall of Acapella voices giving way to organ and piano - a nice tune but again ever so slightly overdone. 

19 March 2001 would see all three of his final Seventies studio albums also join the Cat Stevens Remasters series in the UK - November 1975's "Numbers (A Pythagorean Theory Tale)" on Universal/Island IMCD 277 (Barcode 731454689021), April 1977's "Izitso" on IMCD 278 (Barcode 731454689120) and December 1978's "Back To Earth" on IMCD 279 (Barcode 731454689229). 

I've also reviewed "Mona Bone Jakon" (1970), "Catch Bull At Four" (1972) and "Foreigner" (1973) in the Cat Stevens Remasters series, as well as the two Deluxe Edition 2CD Reissues of "Tea For A Tillerman" (1970) and "Teaser And The Firecat" (1971) and the "On The Road To Find Out" 4CD Box Set career retrospective from October 2001 - reissued June 2008 as a Book Set (see separate reviews for all). 

"Buddah And The Chocolate Box" is a good Cat Stevens' album rather than a great one, but even in half-measures, I've always loved the positivity and beauty in the man's melodies. There is a lot to rediscover here and it's online for less than a fiver in certain places - now that is sweet...