"Warren Zevon" by WARREN ZEVON – June 1976 US and UK Asylum Records Debut Album – Inside "Original Album Series" - featuring Jackson Browne (Production, Playing, Backing Vocals), Waddy Wachtel and David Lindley, John David Souther, Phil Everly, Ned Doheny, Bonnie Raitt and Rosemary Butler, Bobby Keys, Don Henley and Glenn Frey of Eagles, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac with The Sid Sharp Strings (March 2010 UK Asylum/Rhino 5CD Capacity Wallet with Mini LP Repro Artwork Card Sleeves) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

 

 

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This Review And Many More Like It 

Available In my Kindle e-Book (June 2022 Version)

 

LOOKING AFTER NO. 1 

Volume 2 of 2 - M to Z...

 

Your All-Genres Guide To

Exceptional CD Reissues and Remasters 
For Music from 1956 to 1986

Over 1,760 E-Pages of In-Depth Information
240 Reviews From The Discs Themselves

No Cut and Paste Crap...

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"... I'll Sleep When I'm Dead..."

 

I suspect like many collectors and music fans alike – I have a thing for lost albums. And frankly Frank, you could say that Warren William Zevon produced almost nothing but, despite his rightly lauded brilliance with a tune, wrapped up tight in witty and often ghoulish lyrics.

 

I've always had a thing for Zevon – a man who battled the demon drink and often lost to the detriment of his family and career – a desperado under the eaves who had surely stepped over too many junkies lying in seedy hotel doorways – shared stories with filthy winos and lived the wild mantra of his autobiographical song "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead".

 

Like Randy Newman, it's a testament to Warren Zevon's extraordinarily sharp and cutting songs that so many quality artists have covered him - Linda Ronstadt, Bob Dylan, Jimmy Buffett, Jackson Browne (his champion in life and death and the man who nabbed him a contract with Asylum Records when he was exiled in Spain singing in a bar called The Dubliner at the behest of another drunk who owned the joint), Counting Crows and even Ireland's Freddie White to name but a few. And while his "Excitable Boy" set from 1978 will probably be the most familiar album to people in this nifty Capacity Wallet - the stunning kick-ass live LP "Stand In The Fire" (recorded across five nights at The Roxy with a super tight band) is just one of the gems to discover in this cheap-as-a-politician’s-castle-moat-repair-bill 5CD mini box set.

 

But for now I want to talk about his real starter - "Warren Zevon" from 1976. I say real, because Imperial Records of the USA had issued "Wanted Dead Or Alive" in April 1970 as his official debut to a deafening thud from both the press and punters.  WZ despised it thereafter. In fact, he had been vocal about its shortcomings officially in interviews, especially when Pickwick Records reissued the unsanitary brute in 1978 on the back of his success with the "Excitable Boy" LP ("Werewolves Of London" put him on the map). So technically "Warren Zevon" isn't his debut proper I know, but it will always be so to me. An utterly brilliant and criminally forgotten album you need in your life. Frank and Jesse James – here we come a riding - time to look down the past...

 

UK released March 2010 (reissued September 2012) – "Original Album Series" by WARREN ZEVON on Asylum/Rhino 8122 79837 1 (Barcode 081227983710) is a 5CD Mini Box Set with 5" card repro sleeves and plays out as follows:

 

Disc 1 – "Warren Zevon" (38:28 minutes):

1. Frankie And Jessie James [Side 1]

2. Mama Couldn't Be Persuaded

3. Backs Turned Looking Down The Path

4. Hasten Down The Wind

5. Poor Poor Pitiful Me

6. The French Inhaler

7. Mohammed's Radio [Side 2]

8. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead

9. Carmelita

10. Join Me In L.A.

11. Desperados Under The Eaves

Tracks 1 to 11 are the debut album "Warren Zevon" – released June 1976 in the USA on Asylum 7E-1060 and in the UK on Asylum K 53039.

 

All of these "Original Album Series" sets are visually the same - a flimsy outer card slipcase houses 5 x 5" single card repro sleeves each aping the front and rear artwork of the original vinyl LPs. Each disc has generic Rhino colouring, song credits (including writers) and some basic recording info on the label – but that's it (no booklet). They look great it has to be said - space saving too for sure...

 

Audio-wise there's good news and bad news. In 2007 - Asylum/Rhino reissued "Excitable Boy" (1978), "Stand In The Fire" (1980) and "The Envoy" (1982) as first time CD Remasters with bonus tracks on each – but they have 'not' been used here (I own them and can immediately hear the difference). Having said that - the good news is that for the brilliantly recorded "Stand In The Fire" and "The Envoy" albums both of the non-remastered CDs don't represent such a dramatic dip in Audio quality (they sound pretty good and are more than acceptable). But "Excitable Boy" couldn't be more different. Like "Warren Zevon" and "Bad Lad Streak In Dancing School" - older non-remastered standard versions have been used in this box and subsequently the drop in Audio quality is very marked. When you hear the fantastic Dan Hersch and Bill Inglot 2007 Remaster of "Excitable Boy" (Asylum/Rhino 8122-79997-7 - Barcode 081227999773) – the Audio is awesome – all the power and muscle and clarity you would want from what is probably his best album.

 

But what you get here is a weedy audio effort and unfortunately "Warren Zevon" and "Bad Luck..." are the same. Don't get me wrong – they're acceptable (crank them) - and at roughly two quid per CD – bloody good value for money. But if Rhino had only used the three Remasters they already have and done two new ones for "Warren Zevon" and "Bad Luck..." – what an "Original Album Series" addition this would have been. It's a point worth pointing out. Now let's get to the other good news – the musical quality of what's actually on offer...

 

The debut album features an astonishing list of guest musicians. Check out the backing vocalists alone - Phil Everly of The Everly Brothers on "Frank And Jessie James" and "Hasten Down The Wind", Jackson Browne on "Mama Couldn't Be Persuaded" and "Desperados Under The Eaves" (also plays piano "Join Me In L.A."), Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac on "Mohammed's Radio" (Lindsey also sings on "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" and plays Guitar on "Backs Turned Looking Down The Path"), Bonnie Raitt and Rosemary Butler sing on "Join Me In L.A." while Glenn Frey and Don Henley of The Eagles sing on "The French Inhaler" (Frey also plays guitar and does Harmony Vocals on "Carmelita") and Carl Wilson of The Beach Boys is just one of the voices behind "Desperados Under The Eaves". Ace horn player Bobby Keys of Rolling Stones fame provides Saxophone on "Mohammed's Radio" and "Join Me In L.A." - while stalwarts of the Jackson Browne band Waddy Wachtel and David Lindley play guitars and fiddle.

 

Jackson Browne had gotten a contract with David Geffen and his Asylum Records – so produces as well as plays. Despite the lack of a balls-to-the-wall Remaster, if you crank the gorgeous "Hasten Down The Wind", you can clearly appreciate the Phil Everly vocal. And for some reason there is kick-ass audio on the fabulous "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" – hardly surprising that Linda Ronstadt did this dodgy-girlfriend-habits Rocker on her 1977 album "Simple Dreams" and even issued it as a 45-single. And check out his sleazy bedroom tale of "The French Inhaler" – drugs and wine and flowery lines – an actress ending up with someone different every night – all these people with no home to go to – Eagles Glenn Frey and Don Henley adding hugely to a wall of epic voices while Waddy Watchel rips into his Guitar. Another pretty face that looks so wasted – devastated – it’s such a brilliant depiction of hopes dashed and yet somehow it has hope in it.

 

Crank the mariachi sway of "Carmelita" – all strung out on heroin on the outskirts of town – and you will be rewarded with Glenn Frey of Eagles giving it accompanying guitar and the most subtle don’t get in the way harmony vocals. You can hear Bonnie Raitt and Rosemary Butler give it full moon rising backing vocals on "Join Me In L.A." – a sinister wake-up song about the lure of drugs with Ned Doheny on Guitar while Bobby Keys waxes on his Saxophone. "Desperados Under The Eaves" is epic-stuff – staring down into his empty coffee cup in the foyer of a California Motel that doesn’t care juts as long as he pays his bill (Carl Wilson of The Beach Boys part of the huge voices backing WZ up). It finishes what you know is a brilliant real debut.

 

You could argue that it's better to buy the 2007 Asylum/Rhino versions of "Excitable Boy", "Stand In The Fire" and "The Envoy" for the vastly improved audio and excellent bonus tracks (they're easily available and reasonably priced too). But you would miss out on the "Warren Zevon" and "Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School" albums - must-owns in their own mixed-up way.

 

"...Well I pawned my Smith Corona...and I went to meet my man...he hangs down on Elverado Street by the Pioneer Chicken Stand..." - Zevon sang on the strangely uplifting "Carmelita" – the kind of song few other artists could have pulled off so convincingly. Pathos, humanity, weakness of the spirit, saviors in the shadows - he empathized with the lot.

 

Despite his well-documented flaws and often dangerous relationship foibles - Zevon was a special kind of songwriter and I know why Jackson Browne championed him in life and afterwards (to this day JB apparently plays one of his songs in his live sets). 

 

Dig in and discover why...and I envy you the bruising...

"The Dream Of The Blue Turtles" by STING – July 1985 UK Debut Solo Album on A&M Records [ex The Police] featuring Guest Musicians Branford Marsalis, Omar Hakim, Darryl Jones, Kenny Kirkland, Eddy Grant and Frank Opolko (November 1998 UK A&M Sting Remasters Series with Bonus Video Content) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

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This Review And Many More Like It 

Available In my Kindle e-Book (June 2022 Version)

 

LOOKING AFTER NO. 1 

Volume 2 of 2 - M to Z...

 

Your All-Genres Guide To

Exceptional CD Reissues and Remasters 
For Music from 1956 to 1986

Over 1,760 E-Pages of In-Depth Information
240 Reviews From The Discs Themselves

No Cut and Paste Crap...

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"...Beast In A Gilded Cage..." 

 

In my twenties and along with most of my mates who had loved all of The Police albums (de do do, de da da or not) - Sting's debut solo was always going to be an event. And it was. With eleven tracks, July 1985's "The Dream Of The Blue Turtles" managed five singles stretching well into the Spring of the next year where it even got nominated in 1986 for Album of the Year. 

 

He had musically progressed and its Jazz-Rock sensibilities both appalled people and turned them on. Sting was intelligent, a great songwriter and applied brains to his ludicrously catchy rhythms. And when I listen in May 2022 to "Russians" and its dire warnings of 'a growing feeling of hysteria' and 'historical speeches' and 'bury you' threats - it has a staggering and worrying place in our present war-footing in the Ukraine. 'There's no such thing as a winnable war, it's a lie we don't believe any more...' 

 

The original 1985 LP was quickly followed by CDs in 1986, 1990 and so on - but The Sting Remasters Series finally saw his catalogue upgraded - hidden gem tracks like "Children's Crusade" suddenly got the uplift they had always need - all that quality original Production brought to the audio fore. Poppies for young men. To the details...

 

UK released November 1998 - "The Dream of The Blue Turtles" by STING on A&M Records 540 992-2 (Barcode 731454099226) is part of The Sting Remasters Series - The Album Digitally Remastered with One Enhanced CD Video added on as a Bonus Track. It plays out as follows (41:44 minutes):

 

1. If You Love Somebody Set Them Free [Side 1]

2. Love Is The Seventh Wave 

3. Russians 

4. Children's Crusade 

5. Shadows In The Rain 

6. We Work The Black Seam [Side 2]

7. Consider Me Gone 

8. The Dream Of The Blue Turtles 

9. Moon Over Bourbon Street 

10. Fortress Around Your Heart 

Tracks 1 to 10 are his debut solo LP "The Dream Of The Blue Turtles" - released June 1985 in the UK on A&M Records DREAM 1 and in the USA on A&M Records SP 3750. Produced by STING and PETE SMITH - it peaked at No. 3 in the UK and No. 2 in the USA on the Rock LP charts. 

 

ENHANCED CD VIDEO (Mac or PC):

11. If You Love Somebody Set Them Free  

 

The inner sleeve photos and lyrics of the original LP are all reproduced in the double-sided fold-out inlay - fourteen faces in total. Musician credits are there of course and instructions as to how to access the Video - but it's a shame that apart from the words Digitally Remastered running down the see-through spine of the jewel case - there is no history or context for interviews illuminating. 

 

DAVE COLLINS has done the Remasters at A&M's Mastering Studios in Hollywood - and the subtle muscle is so evident when you crank that shuffle in "Consider Me Gone" - clear but not overpowering - just how you'd want it. Shame A&M didn't include those tasty associated B-sides "Another Day" for "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free", the live version of "Consider Me Gone" on the flipside of "Fortress Around Your Heart" or "Gabriel's Message" on the back of "Russians". Can't help thinking fans would have wanted those on an Audio CD format rather than a CD-Video track they'll probably never access more than once.

 

Forgiving the short doodle and nonsense title track over on Side 2 - the whole LP is brimming with intelligence and clever hooks. The effect of history repeating itself in the words of the dark and doomy "We Work The Black Seam" alongside music that digs into your consciousness as you listen is still there - the Remaster only making you appreciate it more. I can probably go without hearing "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" ever again, but tracks like "Love Is The Seventh Wave" and "Consider Me Gone" feel like goodies aching to be rediscovered. The jazz of "Moon Over Bourbon Street" gives way into the Synchronicity-sounding "Fortress Around Your Heart" - a brilliant ending to a unique debut. 

 

Sting would go to even greater heights with October 1987's double-album "...Nothing Like The Sun" and March 1993's "Ten Summoner's Tales" where practically ever song could be considered as single potential and his subsequent Greatest Hits sets are filled with them. And yet he's been derided too - become un-hip - seen as a know-it-all and even pretentious - all of which I think is knob. 

 

Sting has always produced music of quality and with a rare intelligence in-tow - and this Enhanced CD Remaster of his stunning debut "The Dream Of The Blue Turtles" only hammers that point home on re-listen more than ever. 

 

"While the armies all are sleeping, beneath the tattered flag we'd made, I had to stop in my tracks, for fear of walking on the mines I've laid..." he sang on "Fortress Around Your Heart". Smarts and musicality - what a combo...

"The Complete Epic Recordings Collection" by STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN and DOUBLE TROUBLE - Featuring Five Officially Released Albums Between June 1983 and June 1989 (Four Studio Sets and One Live Double) Plus Five Posthumous Compilations Featuring Studio/Live Tracks From As Early As 1980 Issued Between November 1991 and July 2010 - Featuring Jimmy Vaughan, Tommy Shannon, Chris "Whipper" Layton, Reese Wynans, Joe Sublett with Guests Fran Christina, Stan Harrison, Dr. John, The Roomful Of Blues Horn section, Angela Strehli, Darrell Leonard and more (October 2014 UK Epic/Legacy/Sony Music 10-Title/12-CD Clamshell Box Set in Mini LP Repro Artwork Card Sleeves with Vic Anesini Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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This Review And Many More Like It 

Available In my Kindle e-Book (June 2022 Version)

 

LOOKING AFTER NO. 1 

Volume 2 of 2 - M to Z...

 

Your All-Genres Guide To

Exceptional CD Reissues and Remasters 
For Music from 1956 to 1986

Over 1,760 E-Pages of In-Depth Information
240 Reviews From The Discs Themselves

No Cut and Paste Crap...

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"...Pride And Joy..."

 

Sony Music and their Legacy Label imprint have coughed up some doozies in their nifty Clamshell Box Set Series of 'Complete Collections' over the decades - The Byrds, Nilsson, Paul Simon, Bill Withers, Electric Light Orchestra, Blue Oyster Cult, Earth Wind & Fire, Leonard Cohen - and I've reviewed most all of them in detail. 

 

But this kick-ass audio slice of Blues Rock gorgeousness celebrating the genius of guitarist STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN and his band of Rhythm 'n' Blues pirates DOUBLE TROUBLE makes me thrill and shed a tear into the bargain - especially that simple but so brilliant debut LP from June 1983 when the band was a three-piece. I only have to play the undeniably beauty in his instrumental "Lenny" that ends the LP and I'm tapping my cloth cap in awe. 

 

But then in August 1990 - just when the whole world was beginning to feel his stunning playing skills - SRV was gone. Much to discuss...to the details first...

UK released 28 October 2014 - "The Complete Epic Recordings Collection" by STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN and DOUBLE TROUBLE on Epic/Legacy/Sony Music 88843091422 (Barcode 888430914223) is a 10-Title/12-CD Clamshell Box Set of Remasters housed in Mini LP Repro Artwork Card Sleeves that plays out as follows:

Disc 1 "In The Beginning" - Recorded live 1 April 1980 in Austin, Texas

Released 6 October 1992 US on Epic EK 53168 - 40:06 minutes, 9 Tracks 

 

Disc 2 "Live At Montreux 1982 & 1985" - Recorded live 17 July 1982/15 July 1985

Released 20 November 2001 US on Epic/Legacy E2K 86151

CD1: 42:14 minutes, 8 Tracks - CD2: 76:13 minutes, 11 Tracks 

 

Disc 3 "Texas Flood" - Recorded 23/24 November 1982

Debut Studio Album issued 13 June 1983 US on Epic BFE 38734 

CD: 38:56 minutes, 10 tracks 

Disc 4 "A Legend In The Making: Live At The El Mocambo" 

Recorded Live 20 July 1983 n Toronto, Canada during the "Texas Flood" Tour

Tracks 1, 3 to 8 with 12 and 14 first released 1983 as a 9-Track Radio Broadcast Promo-Only LP in Canada on Epic CDN-115

Tracks 2, 9 to 11 and 13 first released on Video in 1991 on SMV Enterprises 19-V-49111

CD: 76:30 minutes, 14 Tracks 

Disc 5 "Couldn't Stand The Weather" - Recorded January 1984 in NYC 

Second Studio Album released 15 May 1984 US on Epic FE 39304 

All Outtakes and 'Legacy Edition' Live Tracks surround this release are on the "Archives" 2CD Set - see Disc 10

CD: 38:13 minutes, 8 Tracks

 

Disc 6 "Live at Carnegie Hall" - Recorded 4 October 1984, NYC 

Posthumous Compilation released 29 June 1997 US on Epic EK 68163

CD: 61:36 minutes, 14 Tracks 

 

Disc 7 "Soul To Soul" - Recorded 1985 in Austin, Texas 

Third Studio Album released 30 September 1985 US on Epic FE 40036

CD: 40:09 minutes, 10 Tracks 

 

Disc 8 "Live Alive" - Recorded 16 July 1985 at Montreux Jazz Festival, 17-18 July 1986 at Austin Opera House and 19 July 1986 at Dallas Starfest 

Fourth Album Released November 1986 US on Epic EZ 40511

CD: 79:39 minutes, 14 Tracks 

 

Disc 9 "In Step" - Recorded January to March 1989 

Fifth Album (Fourth and Final Studio LP) released 6 June 1989 on Epic OE 45024

CD: 41:08 minutes, 10 Tracks 

 

Disc 10 "Archives" 

CD1: 48:27 minutes - CD2: 46:03 minutes 

I'm sure it sounds like full-on collector's nerd mode, but half of me wishes that Sony wouldn't 'border' these Mini LP Repro Artwork Card Sleeves with that white rim they do because I think it detracts. At least these individual cards are large enough and flexible enough to allow the CDs to slip in and out without having to tear telephone books to remove them. It's pretty cool too to have the five posthumous compilations in Card Form. 

 

The 32-page booklet is jam-packed with reissue credits - each of the ten discs given pages of musician/writer credits, photos, occasional live shots etc. Online Managing Editor of Guitar World DAMIAN FANELLI gets to give SRV the opening homage - a fellow axe-wielder who saw Vaughan in his 1984 and 1986 heydays - and literally climbed a mountain to see and hear the New Jersey gig from a distance (lucky bugger). Nowadays - we gawk in wonder at YouTube footage where he breaks a string, un-clips his battered Strat with flippy-floppy wire, slaps on another guitar from the roadie handing it to him - and literally doesn't miss a beat.

 

VIC ANESINI - one of Sony's Top Audio Engineers - has handled the Remasters. His catalogue of artists is a ridiculous who's who - Elvis Presley, Santana, Mott The Hoople, Simon and Garfunkel and Paul Simon, the Byrds, Nilsson, Aerosmith, The Jayhawks, Spirit, Mountain and loads more. Needless to say that all those rockin' moments that needed uplifting get just that - uplifts. I immediately go to Track 2 of the debut album "Texas Flood" to hear his signature tune "Pride And Joy" - and bam - it's in my face for all the right reasons. The beautiful instrumental "Lenny" where you just don't expect that kind of musicality from a born rocker - yet there it is - class and technique combined. I would imagine that Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton would all have been afraid of SRV - and that's really saying something.  

The beauty of a Box Set like this is the mixture of studio tracks like his own "Honey Bee" (the way we kiss, just can't miss), the rocking cover of Hank Ballard's "Look At Little Sister" or the nine-minute 'Lenny' like beauty of the slow instrumental "Riviera Paradise" (used to play this in Reckless and punters would think it was a moochy Santana track). And of course, the explosive live stuff where he was frankly untouchable. Even if it's 1980 and he's ripping through "Shake For Me" on that "In The Beginning" set - or when he attacks Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile" - who could pull that off! Check out his gorgeous version of Jimi's ballad "Little Wing" which SRV does as one long instrumental flitting between slow and wild, the tremelo bar liberally employed to amazing effect - it was originally one of the extras on CD2 of the double-disc Legacy Edition of "Couldn't Stand The Weather". 

 

But for me, the now forgotten outtakes LP of November 1991 "The Sky Is Crying" is the absolute bomb. I can play this sucker all the way through. Check out his "Boot Hill" - could very well wake the dead - or his playing and growling on the Howlin' Wolf cover "May I Have A Talk With You" or that Elmore James title track "The Sky Is Crying" - wow. 

Will we ever see the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan again? Hard to say - but (no pun intended) what a Legacy our "Pride And Joy" left behind. Take this Box Set away from me and you could see this man get mean...

"...Very 'Eavy...Very 'Umble" in the UK and "Uriah Heep" in the USA by URIAH HEEP – June 1970 UK Debut Album on Vertigo Records (June 1970 USA on Mercury Records as "Uriah Heep" with Different Artwork and One Different Track) - featuring David Byron, Ken Hensley, Mick Box, Colin Wood and Paul Newton with Nigel Olsson and Alex Napier (September 2016 UK BMG/Sanctuary 2CD Deluxe Edition Reissue with Andy Pearce and Matt Wortham Remasters – The 12-Track CD2 Is An Alternate Version of the Whole 8-Track Album, The "Bird Of Prey" US-only LP Track and Three More Mixes with All Tracks Previously Unreleased) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

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This Review And Many More Like It 

Available In my Kindle e-Book (June 2022 Version)

 

LOOKING AFTER NO. 1 

Volume 2 of 2 - M to Z...

 

Your All-Genres Guide To

Exceptional CD Reissues and Remasters 
For Music from 1956 to 1986

Over 1,760 E-Pages of In-Depth Information
240 Reviews From The Discs Themselves

No Cut and Paste Crap...

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"...Real Turned On... "

 

Fans have been to this 1970 debut album for URIAH HEEP just one too many times (Hensley remembers that the band took their name from a character in the Dickens novel David Copperfield - more specifically from a TV program album-producer Gerry Bron had seen on the BBC who were celebrating the great author's 100th year in passing). Back to Joe Public in the 2020's - so they and their erstwhile but ravaged wallets may view yet another digital go round Of "...Very 'Eavy...Very 'Umble" as a wee-wee take too many. 

 

But this is the best version of old scary cobweb face ever and the one that they Olivia Newton-John want (oh oh oh). Time to get 'umble with the details men of rotund waistlines and sunken eye-sockets (we'll get to the guitars later)...

 

UK released 16 September 2016 - "...Very 'Eavy...Very 'Umble" by URIAH HEEP on BMG/Sanctuary BMGCAT2CD55 (Barcode 4050538187205) is a 2CD Deluxe Edition Reissue and Remaster that plays out as follows: 

 

CD1 The Original LP Re-Mastered (40:25 minutes): 

1. Gypsy (6:27 minutes) [Side 1]

2. Walking In Your Shadow (4:30 minutes)

3. Come Away Melinda (3:46 minutes)

4. Lucy Blues (5:10 minutes)

5. Dreammare (4:37 minutes) [Side 2]

6. Real Turned On (3:37 minutes)

7. I'll Keep On Trying (5:25 minutes)

8. Wake Up (Set Your Sights) (6:22 minutes)

Tracks 1 to 8 are their UK debut album "...Very 'Eavy...Very 'Umble" - released June 1970 in the UK on Vertigo 6360 006 (Reissued March 1971 in the UK on Bronze ILPS 9142). Produced by GERRY BRON - it didn't chart. 

Note: The August 1970 American LP (which peaked at No. 186 on the Billboard Rock charts) was called "Uriah Heep" on Mercury Records SR-61294 with entirely different artwork on the outer gate-fold (reproduced across two pages at the back of the 20-page booklet). The LP also replaced the song "Lucy Blues" on the end of Side 1 with the heavier "Bird Of Prey" in exactly the same place. "Bird Of Prey (U.S. Alternate Mix)" is available as Track 12 on CD2 and will allow fans to sequence the US variant of their debut. 

CD2 An Alternate ...Very 'Eavy...Very 'Umble (64:45 minutes):

1. Gypsy (Extended V3.4 Mix, 7:00 minutes)

2. Real Turned On (V3.5 Mix, 3:46 minutes)

3. Dreammare (V3.5 Mix, 5:12 minutes)

4. Come Away Melinda (V3.7 Mix, 4:01 minutes)

5. Born In A Trunk (V3.3 Mix, 4:55 minutes) *

6. Wake Up (Set Your Sights) (V3.4 Mix, 6:55 minutes)

7. I'll Keep On Trying (V3.4 Mix, 5:32 minutes)

8. Walking In Your Shadow (V3.5 Mix, 5:09 minutes)

9. Lucy Blues (V3.7 Mix, 5:20 minutes)

10. Born In A Trunk (Instrumental V3.6 Mix, 4:47 minutes) *

11. Magic Lantern (V3.3 Mix, 7:57 minutes) *

12. Bird Of Prey (U.S. Alternate Mix) (V3.1, 4:08 minutes)

NOTES: 

* = Recorded as SPICE mid 1969 - doesn't feature Ken Hensley

 V3, V5, V7 etc references reflect the Mix or Version done between 1989 and 2005 

URIAH HEEP was: 

DAVID BYRON - Lead Vocals 

KEN HENSLEY - Vocals, Slide Guitar and Keyboards 

MICK BOX - Vocals, Lead Guitar 

PAUL NEWTON - Bass

ALEX NAPIER - Drums (Tracks 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8 on CD1)

NIGEL OLSSON - Drums (Tracks 4 and 5 on CD1)

Uriah Heep's Classic Hard Rock 70ts catalogue (including their explosive 1970 debut LP) has been properly plundered for CD reissue more times than fans care to comfortably remember (Bronze in 1987, Mercury USA in 1989, Castle Classics in 1990, Essential in 1996, Castle Music in 2001 to name but a few). So what makes this 2016 double worth the purchase? 

First is the new ANDY PEARCE and MATT WORTHAM Remaster from original tapes and second is a CD2 that offers fans 12 Previously Unreleased Mixes from their 1969 and 1970 Hard Rock vs. Prog Rock beginnings actually worth hearing. 

 

As a 62-year who remembers Heep and a long-time reviewer of reissue CD packages - I actively seek out Pearce/Wortham Remasters because they are always the business - invariably better than everyone else's. They've had their names wrapped around some seriously illustrious Rock catalogues - Budgie, Rory Gallagher, ELP, Wishbone Ash, Mott The Hoople, Free and even Reggae titles for the superb Doctor Bird label (part of Cherry Red's list of labels - DB deals mostly with Trojan Records and its multitudinous label offshoots). In short - you haven't heard this Rock meets Prog debut until you've clapped ears on this BMG twofer.  

The three-way foldout card Digi-pak is aesthetically pretty enough touching on obvious fan-pleasing points like the different US artwork (apparently the UK sleeve was just too scary for them). While the 20-page booklet gives us rare Italian, French and Spanish 45-single picture sleeves, the British Vertigo LP's inner gatefold sleeve live shot, a Marquee Gig Poster for May 1970 (with Audience, Spirit Of John Morgan and Vertigo's Gracious), Klooks At The Lyceum in July 1970 (with Yes and Black Sabbath), Portsmouth Stadium in July 1970 with Keef Hartley, Gentle Giant and Affinity, East of Eden (and more), an 8-track cartridge and even a master-tape box. There are new interviews conducted by JOEL McIVER with principal band members Mick Box and Ken Hensley. 

 

ROBERT M. CORICH gives us a potted history on The Lansdowne Tapes and uber-fan and archivist Warren Eady who kept fans supplied with alternate mixes across multiple releases and the Time Of Revelation - 25 Years On 4CD Box Set from 1996. There are three from the later period Spice sessions prior to Hensley joining the fold while the rest were recorded late 1969 into early 1970 prior to the debut's release in June 1970 (Lansdowne refers to the Studio of the same name in London's Holland Park where Uriah Heep recorded). They've left off two Spice tracks - "In Love" and "What About The Music" - when there was room. But let's deal with and celebrate what we do have...

 

Riffage ahoy with the Box/Byron-penned "Gypsy" - a six and a half-minute rawk monster the band is still playing to this day - fantastic chugging guitars alongside Hensley's manic Jon Lord of Deep Purple-esque keyboard soloing. Although Vertigo UK oddly didn't pick up on its aaaah potential - the Rock-mad German market did - where "Gypsy" with the then Non-LP "Bird Of Prey" on the B-side of Vertigo 6059 020 did the business (the "Bird Of Prey" mix used here is radically different to one that eventually turned up on their second album "Salisbury" in January 1971). Up next comes riding on the golden wave of "Walking In Your Shadow" - a Newton/Byron rocker in the same vein as "Gypsy" (the Remaster picking out those guitars in each speaker). 

Things Mellotron slow down with "Come Away Melinda" - Colin Woods guesting on the notoriously difficult to control keyboard - come away and close the door. The Fred Hellerman and Fran Minkoff penned "Come Away Melinda" had already been done by a pre-Mamas and Papas The Big Three in the USA in 1963 on FM Records, while England's Wendy Huber and Barry St. John put in their cover versions oars on Philips and Columbia in November 1965. Cat's Eyes had a go too in 1970 on MCA. So by the time Heep had its turn - the song had been well traveled tune about Mom and Pops. But I must admit I skip it quickly for the far better slow Blues Rock of the Side 1 finisher "Lucy Blues" - a genuinely cool Box/Byron moment on an otherwise very heavy LP. 

 

Side 2 opens with the 'la-la-la' of another Rock barnstormer - the Newton-penned "Dreammare". Juicy Lucy type slide guitar dominates the excellent rocker "Real Turned On" - surely one of these deep LP cuts fans love. Maybe too much melodrama for me in the doubled-up voices of "I'll Keep On Trying" - but I know Heepsters love those riffing guitars. It ends on another Box/Byron stand up for your rights romper - the drums and guitars clean and clear in the Remaster.

For lifelong lovers of Heep's original guitar-battling-the-organ sound - CD2 is a wet dream of tunes they know remixed and remastered to offer alternate soundscapes. For sure the two Spice cuts of "Born In A Trunk" are not exactly Supertramp audiophile - but they offer a band ready to Rock - a palatable excitement as they play. "Magic Lantern" with its deliberately quiet-to-louder lead-in offers Acoustic-to-Rock Uriah Heep on perhaps too much of a Pop trip. But that's quickly whomped by the heavy "Bird Of Prey" US Alternate Mix and another version of my Slow Blues poison "Lucy Blues" is alright by me. 

 

For sure the uninitiated might listen to Uriah Heep in 2022 and think it too close to Spinal Tap with Byron's signature high note style. But I've a soft spot for their rude and crude debut. And I'm sure that fans should set their sights on the Audio and Unreleased Extras of this 2016 BMG 2CD version - best the album's ever sounded...