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ALL THINGS MUST PASS
1970
1970
Your All-Genres Guide To
Exceptional CD Reissues and Remasters
Classic Albums, 45-Singles, Compilations
ALL GENRES
Over 2,350 E-Pages of Reviews from the discs themselves
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"...The Squirreling Must Go On..."
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Jethro Tull's first album
"This Was" was released on the now legendary Island label in October
of 1968 with Mick Abrahams on lead guitar. Dissatisfied with the result,
Abrahams left and was replaced by the brilliant Martin Barrie. Abrahams then
roped in Jack Lancaster on Sax, Flute & Violin, Andy Pyle on Bass and Ron
Berg on Drums and formed the delightfully named and much revered BLODWYN PIG
(Abrahams himself handling lead guitar, vocals and all the principal song
writing).
In the middle of 1969, they
popped into Morden Studios in Willesden in London and with Producer Andy Johns
(brother of the famous Glyn Johns) promptly produced their much-loved debut
"Ahead Rings Out", released late July 1969 on Island Records
(December 1969 on A&M Records in the USA with a different Track List on
Side 2 and a slightly altered cover). The "Blods" or The "Pig"
as they're affectionately known over here in Blighty, made only two albums
before Abrahams finally went solo - the second being on the then emerging
Chrysalis Records - "Getting To This".
Which brings by a circuitous
route to this fantastic 2CD firecracker of a compilation from July 2018 that
lumps both their album releases together and throws in 8 Bonus Tracks – 4 to
each CD with 1 track on each disc being Previously Unreleased. There is much
Blodness to squirrel away at, so once more my porky friends to The Pig sporting
a pair of Headphones and The Girl with a Bra made of eyes...
UK released, Friday 27 July
2018 - "Ahead Rings Out/Getting To This: Deluxe Edition" by BLODWYN PIG on Chrysalis
CRCX 1087 (Barcode 5060516091423) is a 2CD Expanded Edition Compilation of
their first two albums from 1969 ("Ahead Rings Out") and 1970 )"Getting To This") that plays out as follows:
CD1 "Ahead Rings
Out" (58:21 minutes):
1. It's Only Love [Side 1]
2. Dear Jill
3. Sing Me A Song That I
Know
4. The Modern Alchemist
5. Up And Coming [Side 2]
6. Leave It With Me
7. Change Song
8. Backwash
9. Ain't Ya Comin' Home,
Babe?
Tracks 1 to 9 are their
debut album "Ahead Rings Out" – released late July 1969 in the UK on
Island Records ILPS 9101 (Stereo Only). Produced by ANDY JOHNS – peaked at No.
9 in the UK and No. 149 in the USA.
The equivalent American
album went out in December 1969 on A&M SP-4210 on their famous Tan label,
but with a different track line up on Side 2. It dropped two of the British LP
tracks in favour of two others. To sequence the US debut LP for "Ahead
Rings Out" from this CD, use the following tracks:
Side 1: It's Only Love (1),
Dear Jill (2), Sing Me A Song That I Know (3), The Modern Alchemist (4)
Side 2: See My Way (3 on
CD2), Summer Day (12), Change Song (7), Backwash (8), Ain't Ya Comin' Home,
Babe? (9)
Note: "See My Way"
was first released in the UK on their 2nd album "Getting To This" in
April 1970 (see CD2)
BONUS TRACKS:
10. Sweet Caroline (16 May
1969 UK 45-single on Island WIP 6059, Non-LP B-side of "Dear Jill" –
also their first recording)
11. Walk On The Water
12. Summer Day (Tracks 12
and 11 are the Non-LP A&B-sides of a UK 45-single released September 1969
on Island WIP 6069 – Note running order)
13. McGregor Muckabout
(PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED Outtake)
CD2 "Getting To
This" (54:17 minutes):
1. Drive Me [Side 1]
2. Variations On Nainos
3. See My Way
4. Long Bomb Blues
5. The Squirreling Must Go
On
6. San Francisco Sketches
[Side 2]
(a) Beach Scape
(b) Fisherman's Wharf
(c) Telegraph Hill
(d) Close The Door, I'm
Falling Out Of The Room
7. Worry
8. Toys
9. To Rassman
10. Send Your Son To Die
Tracks 1 to 10 are their
second and last studio album "Getting To This" –released April 1970
in the UK on Chrysalis ILPS 9122 and June 1970 in the USA on A&M SP-4243
(same tracks). Produced by ANDY JOHNS – it peaked at No. 96 on the US Billboard
Rock LP charts.
BONUS TRACKS:
11. Same Old Story
12. Slow Down
Tracks 11 and 12 are the
A&B-sides of a Non-LP 45-single released 30 January 1970 in the UK on
Chrysalis WIP 6078
13. Meanie Mornay (outtake,
first issued June 2006 by EMI on their Remaster of "Ahead Rings Out"-
EMI 357 6852 (Barcode 094635768527))
14. One Thing Leads To
Another ("Getting To This" LP Outtake, PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED)
PACKAGING: Inside a card wrap with a
four-way fold-out digipak interior, the 2006 booklet of old has been replaced
with a double-sided foldout sheet sporting new 2018 ruminations by Mick
Abrahams – ever witty, humble and very informative (oddly he deals only with
the debut and not the second LP). The UK artwork of the original two albums is
faithfully reproduced across the inner flaps, colour pictures of the band from
the same featured beneath each respective see-through CD tray, track lists on
the flaps etc. But those tasty European picture sleeves of rare 7" singles
in the 2006 issue are gone and there is no mention of the US album with its
different Track list on Side 2 and slightly altered artwork. Each CD has cool
BP logos too – the smoking pig for Ahead and a Draw By Numbers Pig for Getting
- a nice touch. My issue of the 2CD set is a corrected version (some original
copies had track errors). To the reissue and the music...
The 2006 remaster by Peter
Mew was glorious (done at Abbey Road) and it doesn't ever say who Remastered
this version, but again, it has huge sound and clarity without ever being
overbearing - just in your face and rocking like a madman.
If I were to categorize how
they sound, it would be early Tull but with a jazzier feel provided by
Lancaster's superb sax playing. As a gangly teenager in Dublin, I was suckered into
buying the album by the bluesy feel of their initial single "Dear
Jill", but that song doesn't actually reflect what most of the album
sounds like - rocking Tull with a jazz tint. I was a bit disappointed at first,
but on replays their unique sound grew on me - to a point where I wore the
record out - and would replace it sporadically through the years with VG copies
- just to have a copy to play. Further Slow Blues Rock comes in the shape of
"Up And Coming", but mostly the album is defined by Flute, Saxophone
and Guitar – the punchy instrumental "Leave It To Me" sounding so
Tull, while "The Modern Alchemist" goes very Prog in its wild soloing
passages.
The hilarious "Change Song" gives us dialogue in mock
Cockney as our hero dedicates his tune to all his mates in Wormwood Scrubs and
his sister in prison too for nicking handbags – but not to worry cause he's a
millionaire now from singing the Blues (the Remaster is clear as a bell). Same
stunning clarity opens the Flute, Acoustic Guitar and Water sounds of the
52-second "Backwash" before the Blods launch into a seriously heavy
piece of Tull-type riffage with "Ain't Ya Comin' Home, Babe?" A great
Rock album and number two is a corker too...
Album two "Getting To
This" opens with "Drive Me" – a Rock and Brass rollicking tune
with a push that gas and put your foot down demand from Abrahams. The audio is
fabulous for this blinding little bit of fun and for those of us who have had
the ancient BGOCD 81 from 1990 as a go-to CD – the full-bodied power of the
Remaster is going to shock. With track 2 "Variations Of Nainos", it's
like we're listening to a different band as we go back to the very Jethro Tull
Flute and Rock rhythm – bloody good though and that slinky Abrahams guitar solo
still thrills and those treated dribbling vocals.
Surely one of the fan faves
has to be "See My Way" which could so easily have been on Tull's
"Stand Up" or the Blods debut "Ahead Rings Out" (both 1969)
– Guitar and Flute giving it some welly and the Remaster lending that guitar
and rapid drums break a real kickass power. I have always longed for "Long
Bomb Blues" to be longer than one minute and eight seconds – this fabulous
acoustic Blues telling a witty tale of cops and beers and a missus giving him a
bunch of fives for being a naughty boy. Side 1 ends with a proper 4:22 minute
Rock whigout instrumental - "The Squirreling Must Go On" roaring out
of your speakers with multiple guitars soloing without apology – fantastic
stuff (even those fading in and out guitar parts towards the end sound more
meaty).
Side 2 of "Getting To
This" opens with a four-parter called "San Francisco Sketches"
penned by Jack Lancaster regaling the band's adventures Stateside. The ocean
washing up on shore with a Flute and Acoustic guitar ushers in "Beach
Scape" (a) only to go into a Bass and Guitar driving rhythm for
"Fisherman's Wharf" (b) – very Tull, very Blodwyn Pig. Adam Pyle
gives us the excellent rocker "Worry" – a stop-your-moaning plea. My
other favourite cut is "Toys" – a co-write between Mick Abrahams and
Andy Pyle – an acoustic hymn to beloved childhood things. The Remaster is
beautiful on this – those slide acoustic pings rattling around your speakers
like a memory you’re fond of. The LP then falls off a rock big time with the
terrible Reggae Rasta pastiche "To Rassman" by Ron Berg – must have
seemed like fun at the time but now sounds decidedly clunky and even mildly
offensive. But all is retrieved with the 4:26 minutes of "Send Your Son To
Die" – the band's conscience disgusted by that war over there far away
that made sense to no-one.
BONUSES: They made three 45s
in the UK leading off with the Bluesy "Dear Jill" and five of their
Non-LP sides are all here (as listed above). I have always thought they were as
good as the album tracks if not better. Abrahams talks of rehearsing
"Summer Day" backstage at the Isle Of Wight Festival and because it
went down a storm on stage, it was recorded for their 2nd album, but ended up
being a 7" single B-side. "Slow Down" is a Saxophone Rock Out of
a Larry Williams cover version (not unlike John Lennon and his "Rock N'
Roll" album in 1975, the Blods having fun. "Meanie Mornay" - a
fantastic inclusion – first showed as a Bonus Track on the single CD Remaster
for "Ahead Rings Out" in June 2006 (a Peter Mew Remaster). And on top
of that, we get two new outtakes for 2018 – the very silly and dismissible
heavy bonds "McGregor Muckabout" and the far better "One Thing
Leads To Another".
At a patience-testing 10:31
minutes, "McGregor Muckabout" appears to be the oldest outtake for
the band and one Abrahams jokingly dismisses. One long ramble of voice madness,
think the Goons and Hamish McMad and The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band let loose in a
studio with a late 60ts Rock Band as backup (actually its very funny in places)
and there is no explanation in the new notes accompanying the second. But after
the nonsense of McGregor, "One Thing Leads To Another" is a good one
– a 3:39 minute see all your problems, don't look for trouble tune with clever
guitar mood-changes throughout. I know it isn’t quite there and you can feel
why it was left in the can, but to me, it's shockingly good as well as showing
how inventive the band was in their song constructions. With regard to the
EXTRAS - bluntly (or Blodly as Mick might imbibe), I'd have to say that the
bulk of the bonus tracks are just that - genuine bonuses - and for collectors,
a thrill to hear after all these years languishing in obscurity.
Abrahams made 3 solo albums
immediately after Blodwyn Pig folded - first up was "A Musical Evening
With Mick Abrahams" on Chrysalis Records ILPS 9147, UK released 7 May 1971
(it is often just referred to as "Mick Abrahams" because of the label
while "An Evening With Mick Abrahams" is on the front sleeve). He
followed that solo debut with "At Last" by The Mick Abrahams Band in
1972 on Chrysalis CHR 1005 and finally "Have Fun Learning" The Guitar
With Mick Abrahams" on the privately pressed SRT Productions SRT 73313 in
the spring of 1975 (February/March). "Evening" and "At
Last" are available on CD as are subsequent releases through the years. Of
note to this re-issue is the excellent 2CD mini box set in 2004 which is called
"All Said & Done" where he re-visits several tracks on
"Ahead" with superb rocking results, including the great "Dear
Jill".
Like Taste's "On The
Boards" (1970), Free's "Fire And Water" (1970) and Fleetwood
Mac's "Then Play On" (1969) - "Ahead Rings Out" is a
classically great Rock album of the period with tints of blues and jazz thrown
in for good measure. I only have to see the cover and I get mushy.
Coupled with the equally
cool "Getting To This" from 1970 and those tasty Bonus Cuts covering
both albums – this is a fab compilation for a band that are remembered with
great affection for a reason...
