"The Compleat Tom Paxton – Recorded Live" by TOM PAXTON – A Review Of His 1971 Double Album On Elektra Records – Now Reissued And Remastered Onto 2CDs By Beats Goes On of the UK In 2014...

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"…To Love You Again…" – The Compleat Tom Paxton – Recorded Live by TOM PAXTON

The original vinyl double album "The Compleat Tom Paxton - Recorded Live" was taped across two nights in New York's famous Folk and Rock Venue "The Bitter End" in June 1970 and released in March 1971 on Elektra 7E-2003 in the USA and Elektra EKD 2003 in the UK (later reissued November 1975 as Elektra K 62004 in the UK). This superb 2CD reissue is a straightforward remaster (without bonuses) of his final set for Elektra Records (he then signed to Reprise after that). Here are the Folk Troubadour details...

UK released June 2014 on Beat Goes On BGOCD 1148 (Barcode 5017261211484) - Disc 1 is the first LP  (13 tracks, 43:25 minutes) while Disc 2 is the 2nd (13 tracks, 43:05 minutes). [Note: there is a now deleted Rhino Handmade 2CD reissue from 2004 called "Even Compleater" which offers up more from the concerts - see separate entry and higher price].

As with all these Beat Goes On CD reissues nowadays - it comes in a tasty outer card slipcase and features a very detailed booklet (20 pages) with great liner notes by noted musicologist JOHN O'REGAN. But the big news as ever is the new 2014 gorgeous remaster by ANDREW THOMPSON - it's very clean and warm. There is hiss on some tracks but its neither dampened by noise reduction nor amplified to impress. The music is as it was - just better.

Already a near 10-year musical veteran by the time he made this recording - Tom Paxton was comfortable with his songs, his voice, his conscience and knew exactly how to perform to a literate audience. There's a fabulous intimacy about the gig - and his repartee with the enthralled crowd oozes out of every track (I'm reminded of Don McLean's gorgeous "Solo" double live set from 1976). A good example of this is the long spoken preamble to "Talking Vietnam Pot Luck Blues" called "Bayonet Rap" where its wordplay/political undercurrent is beautifully thought out. It's about pre-training in Kansas for young American men drafted into the US Army and features very funny and perceptive observations ("Crawl in the mud under barbed wire...stuff you can use..."). It also touches on the madness of the war once the naive college kids got there - scared G.I.s discovering 'grass' in Vietnam ("The whole platoon was flying high...chanting something about Hare Krishna..."). Disc 1 finishes on an aural double whammy-high - a stunning story song called "Jimmy Newman" and his popular Sixties hit "Outward Bound".

The ballads are especially pretty - "All Night Long" and the plaintive "Leaving London" - a tune about longing for a girl, returning to her and flying home (lyrics from it title this review). And both "Leaving London" and the lovely "Angie" benefit hugely from the beautifully complimentary piano playing of David Horowitz. Disc 2 continues with more of the same - "About The Children" and "The Last Thing On My Mind" mellow and impressive.

This is a quality reissue by BGO and a good reminder of the power of a man, a guitar and a sharp mind...

"Tim Buckley" by TIM BUCKLEY - October 1966 Debut Album on Elektra Records in Mono and Stereo with Previously Unreleased (January 2011 US Rhino-Handmade 2CD Reissue with Bruce Botnik Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Old Love...New Love..."

 

There are those who call Tim Buckley's music 'magical' whilst others dismiss his Jazz style arrangements and vocal gymnastics as 'grating' or even 'nonsense'. I'm firmly in the first category (he was a bona-fide genius and true innovator). And despite its reputation as a good 'beginning' or lesser work (even amongst rabid fans) - I'd argue that there's genuine beauty to be rediscovered on his 1966 self-titled debut album "Tim Buckley" - reissued here in grand style and with great respect by Rhino Handmade of the USA. Here are the aural highs and lows...

 

USA released 11 January 2011 - "Tim Buckley" by TIM BUCKLEY on Rhino Handmade/Elektra RHM2 526087 (Barcode 603497947874) is an Expanded Edition 2CD Deluxe Edition of his 1966 Debut Album on Elektra Records that plays out as follows:

 

Disc 1 (69:37 minutes):

1. I Can't See You [Side 1]

2. Wings

3. Song Of The Magician

4. Strange Street Affair Under Blue

5. Valentine Melody

6. Aren't You The Girl

7. Song Slowly Song [Side 2]

8. It Happens Every Time

9. Song For Jainie

10. Grief In My Soul

11. She Is

12. Understand Your Man

Tracks 1 to 12 are the STEREO version of his debut album "Tim Buckley" - released October 1966 in the USA on Elektra Records EKS-74040. Tracks 13 to 24 are the MONO Mix on Elektra Records EK-4040

 

Disc 2 is PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED (53:01 minutes):

1. Put You Down

2. It Happens Every Time

3. Let Me Love You

4. I've Played That Game Before

5. She Is

6. Here I Am

7. Don't Look Back

8. Call Me If You Do

9. You Today

10. No More

11. Won't You Please Be My Woman

12. Come On Over

Tracks 1 to 12 are by THE BOHEMIANS (his first group) and are Demos recorded 8 November 1965 in Anaheim, California. The line up was: TIM BUCKLEY - Vocal and Rhythm Guitar, JIM FELDER - Bass, LARRY BECKET - Drums and BRIAN HARTZLER - Guitar.

 

13. She Is

14. Aren't You The Girl

15. Found At The Scene Of A Rendezvous That Failed

16. Wings

17. My Love Is For You

18. Song Slowly Song

19. Song Introductions by Larry Beckett

20. I Can't See You

21. Birth Day

22. Long Tide

Tracks 13 to 22 are ACOUSTIC DEMOS recorded during the summer of 1966 in Anaheim, California with Buckley on Vocals and Guitar. LARRY BECKETT provides Lead Vocals on two songs - "Found At The Scene Of A Rendezvous That Failed" and "Birth Day" and the Intro to "Song Slowly Song" (all other vocals by Tim Buckley).

 

The presentation is lovely. An over-sized outer card wrap (rustic cardboard effect) is held in place by a ribbon on the rear. Opening the three-way fold out card sleeve gives you a 5" card repro of the album artwork on the left with a mock-up Elektra Records "Previously Unreleased' sleeve in the centre and on the left - a 20-page oversized booklet with superbly informational liner notes by American Writer THANE TIERNEY (with the overall project handled by Mason Williams). But the big news for fans is the gorgeous sound and the new extras.

 

Remastered from original tapes by original Engineer BRUCE BOTNICK - both mixes of the album reveal lovely detail. There's hiss for sure but it's natural - Botnick has allowed the recordings to breath and the feeling of intimacy is so pronounced as to make you double take (no compression nor loudness). I also couldn't believe how good the straight-out-of-your-speakers Mono mix sounds - so punchy and full of power. "Strange Street Affair Under Blue" sounds so Doors in Mono - while the ethereal and trippy "Song Of The Magician" and "Song Slowly Song" both 'feel' better in Stereo.

 

After cutting his chops on stage - Tim Buckley was only 18 when he was contracted to Elektra Records (allegedly the same day they signed The Doors). The Doors connection continued by having Paul Rothchild and Bruce Botnick as Producer and Engineer respectively. Tracks like the jaunty "Song For Jainie" and "I Can't See You" show a level of songwriting maturity that is spine tingling. The guitar phrases in "I Can't See You" even sound a little like Jeff Buckley's "Grace". But it's the pretty tunes like "Valentine Melody" and "Song Slowly Song" that move you - where his amazing octave range is given flight. The lovely "Wings" also benefits from the string-arrangements of JACK NITZSCHE while "Aren't You The Girl" has VAN DYKE PARKS on various keyboard instruments.

 

The liner notes explain that the Demos on CD2 are just that - crudely cut demos (courtesy of The Bohemians). There are wobbles, dips and instruments buried way back in the mix of the November 1965 session - but historically it's extraordinary stuff to be hearing after all these decades. "I've Played That Game Before" is new, but far prettier is "Here I Am". Thankfully the second batch of personal demos features a far warmer recording and therefore ups the intimacy. Over and over - his voice strikes you. "My Love Is For You" is ok - "Birth Day" is awful and "Long Time" is nice.

 

So there you have it - gorgeous remasters of the original album - with both mixes warranting inclusion - and some nice new songs on CD2.

 

He would go on to greatness with "Happy Sad" (March 1969 USA), the beautifully languid "Blue Afternoon" (November 1969) and "Lorca" (June 1970) and the beginning of the end for me with the mostly unlistenable Jazz Avant Garde "Starsailor" (November 1970) only to spend years in the Seventies trying to play unsuccessful catch up (Tim passed June 1975, very young). And on 17 Nov 1966 - Tim and his wife Mary would bring a son into the world called Jeffrey Scott Buckley, who would also go on to musical greatness - his stunning debut album "Grace" from August 1994 - and life sadness too, just like his mercurial father. But this is where the 'Buckley' legend begins.

 

My only wish is that Rhino Handmade makes good on the rumour that "Happy Sad" and "Blue Afternoon" will both follow in this lavish series. What a thought...

 

PS: check out my review for "The Complete Album Collection" by Elektra/Rhino from October 2017 that contains the fabulous "Works In Progress" CD compilation (Disc 8 of 8). Originally issued October 1999 by Rhino Handmade in the USA-only as a stand-alone limited edition CD - this peach has 16 superbly remastered Studio Outtakes dated from May 1967 through to July 1968 and highlights Buckley and his crew in the very best light...

"The Front Page" on BLU RAY – A Review Of The 1974 Billy Wilder Film – Now On A European BLU RAY (as "Extrablatt")…

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"…May The Wind At Your Back Never Be Your Own…" – The Front Page on BLU RAY

It's 6 June 1929 - and Walter Burns is pouring Bromide from one glass into another. Nice guy Editor of the not-so-quality broadsheet The Chicago Examiner - Walter's stomach isn't churning from the 95 cent special he eat that morning - nor the constant Lucky Strike cigarette hanging out of his expletive worn dentures - nor from hearing dire poetry written by a snooty opposition reporter from The Tribune about his 'silver-haired mother'. It's from the way his city is going to execute Earl Williams the following morning at seven a.m. (a naïve socialist whose been hysterically blown up in the media as a Commie threat because he supposedly murdered someone). Chicago has the barefaced gall to hang the be-speckled puny sap - and Walter knows you can't get a decent headline from a hanging. "Now if only it was the electric chair..." Walter enthuses. "EARL WIILIAMS - FRIES! EARL WILLIAMS - ROASTED ALIVE!"

As you can imagine "The Front Page" is old-fashioned funny. Based on the 1928 play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur (itself filmed with Cary Grant as "His Girl Friday" in 1940) - the adapted screenplay by the legendary duo of Director Billy Wilder and Writer I.A.L. Diamond ("Some Like It Hot", "The Apartment" and "Avanti!") offers what you'd expect - rapid-fire dialogue that can only be described as comedic genius. Throw two of Wilder's favourite leading men into this hardboiled hijinx - Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon - and magic will happen more often than not. But despite its commercial success - critics disliked this retro film - calling it wildly out of place in the harsh reality-filled movie landscape of 1974. But I've always loved it.

The story goes something like this. On the eve of the Earl Williams hanging - Walter Burns' best reporter Hildebrand 'Hildy' Johnson (Lemmon) waltzes into his office whistling a love song. He announces that he's quitting the 'racket' and is heading off to Philadelphia on the midnight train to marry his new fiancé Peggy Grant (an early role for Susan Sarandon) - a pianist who plays a sing-a-long version of "Take Good Care Of Yourself" on the organ at the Balaban and Katz Theatre. Her uncle is in advertising. Burns is unimpressed. "Jesus Hildy! You're a newspaperman! You're gonna write poetry about brassieres and laxatives!"

But then a stroke of luck sees Earl Williams (Austin Pendleton) escape during a bungled psychiatric examination (to see if he's sane enough to hang) with a loony Austrian shrink (Martin Gabel) and Sherriff "Honest Pete" Hartmann (a manic and entirely dishonest Vincent Gardenia). The luckless condemned man ends up in the Press Room of the Cook County Community Court House hiding out in a desk bureau with a bullet in his arm and innocence in his heart. A hooker (Carol Burnett) who befriended him and has a soft spot for the sap takes a dive into the courtyard to distract the press hacks ("Shady lady leaps for love!"). Walter comes over to the Court House to find Hildy hiding Williams there and the two plot a way to get him out of the building and pull off a major Chicago Examiner exclusive (remove Williams and the writing bureau by crane). There's even a reprieve from the Governor for Williams if only he can get it in time. And on it goes...

Much of the humour comes from a series of brilliant lowlife dialogue pieces - Walter calls the bungling Sheriff "Stooge of Stalin or Simply Stupid!" - when highbrow reporter Bensinger from The Tribune (an effeminate David Wayne) calls in to his re-write team - a gutter press hack whose playing poker for nickels nearby listens in on his conversation to nick his ideas (so you get the quality versus the gutter). Bensinger - "The city is preparing for a general uprising of radicals at this time. Sheriff Hartmann has placed extra guards around the jail, the municipal buildings and railroad stations..." Murphy's version - "The Sheriff has just put 200 more relatives on the payroll to protect the city from the Red Army who are leaving Moscow in a couple of minutes..." When Burns tries to fool Peggy Grant into believing Hildy is a sex pervert by turning up as Otto Fishbine his Parole Officer (he nicked a star from a film poster outside to pretend it's a official badge) - he says - "He's not really a criminal! He's just sick!"

Of course you have to single out the fabulous Walter Matthau - who is custom made for this kind of wiseass role. His Burns is devious, ruthless and gloriously tacky - "We need some last words Hildy...if necessary make them up yourself!"

I've had the US DVD of this film for years and the print was always only OK - and nothing better. Unfortunately this Universal BLU RAY released in Germany as "Extrablatt" (Barcode 4250124342807) clearly uses those same elements. There's lots of natural grain and only a bit of clarity improvement. The EXTRAS are few  - Biogs on the big three (Lemmon, Matthau and Wilder) with rare but interesting publicity cards from the German release - but nothing else about the movie. There's a German/English language choice on the opening menu and trailers to other old releases - but that's it. Cheap and cheerful I'm afraid - and a damn shame no restoration has been done.

Director Billy Wilder has gone on record as saying that he shouldn't have made a remake and thought "The Front Page" wasn't his best work. But even by his lofty standards - 50% of Billy Wilder is still funnier than 100% of what today's gross-out clowns pass off as 'hilarious'.

When Hildy Johnson drops in to have a final drink with his Press Room buddies - Murphy (Charles Durning) gives him a whiskey toast with the title to this review. "May the wind at your back never be your own..." Now that's funny.

"The Front Page" may not be genius in 2014 - but it's a tabloid I'll soil my backside with any day of the week...

PS: see also my reviews for other Billy Wilder classics - the BLU RAY of "The Apartment" and the DVD of "Avanti!"

"Air" by AIR (2008 DBK Works CD Remaster of their Rare 1970 LP on Embryo Records) - A Review by Mark Barry

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SOUL, FUNK and JAZZ FUSION - Exception CD Remasters  

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"…Mister Man…"

Part of Herbie Mann’s European touring band – Long Island’s AIR made only one album – their self-titled debut on Embryo Records SD-733 issued in the Summer of 1971.

This superb April 2008 DBK Works CD reissue of "Air" by AIR on DBK Works 543 (Barcode 646315054323) is a straightforward remaster of that rare and desirable American vinyl LP (42:48 minutes).

Not to be confused with the French Ambient/Electronica group of the same name – the American AIR was a four-piece Jazz-Rock-Fusion group that featured lead singer and principal songwriter GOOGIE. She was married at the time to the Group’s Keyboardist TOM COPPOLA (she later went under the name of Carolyn Brooks Gotlieb). JOHN SIEGLER provided Bass with MARK ROSENGARDEN on Drums and their mentor HERBIE MANN produced the album.

1. Realize

2. Mr. Man

3. Baby, I Don’t Know Where Love

4. Martin

5. In Our Time

6. Man is Free [Side 2]

7. Sister Bessie

8. Lipstick

9. Man’s Got Style

10. Jail Cell

11. I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free

Session brothers RANDY and MIKE BRECKER added Trombone and Saxophone to "Realize", "Mr. Man" and "Sister Bessie" while JAN HAMMER plays percussion of "Lipstick". Randy Brecker adds solo trumpet to "Man Is Free" and Mike Brecker plays Soprano Sax on "Lipstick". All 11 songs were written by Googie (she also played piano, organ and harpsichord) excepting two -"Sister Bessie" which was a Moogy Klingman original (later with Todd Rundgren’s Utopia) and the Nina Simone standard, "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free" (written by Billy Taylor and Dick Dallas) which was recorded live at Googie’s House in the Bronx.

The CD remaster by GARY HOBISH is superb – adding real clarity and muscle to the piano, congas and fusion type rhythms. The basic 8-page booklet provides some period photos and short liner notes by Googie and Bassist John Siegler as well as recording info.

Embryo Records was distributed by Atlantic in the States (hence the SD catalogue number) but for many - this obscure Vocal Fusion album passed them by. I picked up on it via Atlantic’s 2004 CD compilation "Right On! Volume 5". Begun in 1999 - that series (along with the "Natural High" compilations) reintroduced a young Rock/Soul audience to Rare Grooves and Breaks across the huge WEA catalogue. The monster track on this album for them is "Mr. Man" – a fabulous Soulful Jazzy groove that’s part Chicago, part Blood Sweat & Tears and part Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express. It’s a killer - and always brought customers to the counter whenever I played it in Reckless (Soho, London). Their sound is even reminiscent of Soft Machine, Linda Hoyle’s Affinity and the keyboard Prog of ELP meets Freeform Jazz.

Other highlights include "Man's Got Style" (very Mr. Man) and the lovely piano vocal of "Jail Cell" and the funky brass breaks in "Man Is Free". It's not all genius for sure - and after a while the vocal wailing can grate - but there's enough on here to see why it's so revered amongst aficionados. 

A very cool reissue of an expensive and desirable piece - kudos to all involved…

"The Full Monty" on BLU RAY – A Review Of The 1997 Film Now Reissued And Remastered Onto BLU RAY In 2013

“…Dare To Bare…” – The Full Monty On BLU RAY

It opens with battered-looking promo footage waffling on about England and the wealth and prosperity Steel has brought it. "Sheffield Is A City On The Move!" – the plumy-voiced commentator enthuses. "Millions flock here…browsing in its shops! The jewel in Yorkshire's Northern Crown!" But then the cheesy music and his 1970’s confidence fade away…

It's 25 years later - and Gary 'Gaz' Schofield and David 'Dave' Horsefall (Robert Carlyle and Mark Addy) are on their way home from an unsuccessful plunder run in the disused Steel Works Factory they were employed in ten years earlier (stealing £20 girders to pay maintenance money). They see a huge queue of local lasses excitedly waiting outside the Millthorpe Working Men’s Club to see a strip gig by a visiting male troupe – The Chippendales. These six-pack dancing lotharios will be there ‘For One Night Only’ – all buffed up, covered in Johnson’s baby oil and wearing tiny detachable red leather sarongs around their presumably mighty nether regions. "Waving his tackle at your missus!" Gaz ruminates to Dave - appalled and amazed at such a thought. But back at the Job Club (which never has any jobs) – Gaz and his mates calculate that at £10 per punter - times a thousand screaming girlies – that’s a lot of wonga that our unemployed Sex Gods don’t have stuffed down into their well manky Marks & Spencer Y-Fronts.

To make matters worse - Gaz's son Nathan (William Snape) is with his ex-wife Mandy (the lovely Emily Woof) who is shacking up with a 'decent' man - Alan. Alan has a job (Dave Hill), a home and can afford the £700 a month it costs to raise a child. Besides – although he loves him – young Nate is tired of Dad’s excuses, scams and getting by. Gaz now knows that he will need to pull out all the stops to keep his son – but he also twigs that in order to outdo the muscle-bound competition – he and his crew of Little and Large lookalikes (who call themselves HOT METAL) will have to pull out a bit more than a stop – they’ll need to get their entire kit off - and do The Full Monty. An idea is planted, secret striptease practice begins in living rooms and disused warehouses to Hot Chocolate's "You Sexy Thing" - and soon a lithesome pep is returned to their disco-dancing step…

When "The Full Monty" was released into British cinemas in 1997 – it took the country by storm. It was brutally funny, topically apt and down to earth. And despite its dark back-story about the sapping effect of unemployment – it was properly uplifting in a way that only ballsy English comedy can be. But most of all - it had what the British Government has never had - genuine heart.

So many scenes in this film are gigglesome funny  – the striptease to "Je T'Aime…Moi Non Plus" by a man about as sexy as an Orang-Utan picking his nose, discussing ways of effectively killing yourself after they’ve saved the ginger-haired wimp Lomper (Steve Hulson) from gassing himself in his clapped-out Cortina, their former Foreman and Boss Gerald (a stunning turn by Tom Wilkinson) worrying about getting a stiffy in front of 400 women like he did when he was a kid of 13 in a swimming pool full of teenage girls, the ageing black man Horse (Paul Barber) bemoaning the lack of results from a penis-pump in a red telephone box, Guy (Hugo Speer) dropping his pants and revealing his ample dangler ("The lunchbox has landed!"), the boys swaying their hips and behinds to Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff" as the dole queue shuffles forward…

But then it touches you too – cooking a curry on a hot engine head because they’re broke and hungry, the girls using the men’s toilets at the Chippendales gig when Dave’s wife Jean (Lesley Sharp) stops laughing and says of her husband "It's like he's given up…work…me…everything…" But especially when Lomper’s aging Mum dies and he plays the trumpet at her funeral accompanied by The British Steel Stockbridge Brass Band to a truly gorgeous version of "Abide With Me" (not a dry eye in the house).

Having watched the DVD before the BLU RAY – I’m thrilled to say that the picture quality is vastly improved. It’s beautiful – and that’s not something you’d say of a film like this (it was never meant to be a looker). There isn’t a scratch or a speck to be seen and the steadiness of the image and the extra oomph in the mix allows both the picture and music to punch way above its weight (a top transfer).

The Extras are pleasingly indepth – Two Commentaries – one by Director Peter Cattaneo and Actor Mark Addy- the other by Principal Producer Uberto Pasolini. There are 1998 interviews with actors Robert Carlyle, Mark Addy, Hugo Speer, Paul Barber, Steve Hulson and even a very young William Snape beside himself to have gotten the child gig.  There are Deleted Scenes, nearly 15 different trailers in various publicity campaigns, a function called "Music Machine" that allows you play one or all of the songs featured in the film, Derek Malcolm interviews with Producer Uberto Pasolini and Backer Lindsay Law (of Fox Searchlight), Director Peter Cattaneo, Writer Simon Beaufoy and actor Tom Wilkinson. There’s even stuff of the aftermath of the film and its success.

AUDIO is English 5.1 DTS-HD, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian 5.1 DTS, Castellano 5.1 DTS. SUBTITLES are English For The Deaf and Hard Of Hearing, Portuguese, Japanese, Castellano, Italian, Spanish and Japanese. Coding is ABC so all regions.

Mark Addy’s character is Dave – the plumpest of the bunch and the most embarrassed about his body shape. In front of his wife – he breaks down and admits his fears – "Well look at me! Janey – who wants to see 'this' dance?" She tenderly steps up to him, puts her hands on his face and says – "Me Dave. I do."

"The Full Monty" is a fabulous film – just as funny and as moving as you remember it. It received 4 Academy Nominations in 1998 including Best Film - and now in 2013 - it finally has the format to do it proud.

I take my hat off to it…