"Parallel Lines" by BLONDIE – September 1978 US and UK Third Studio Album on Chrysalis Records – Featuring Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, James Destri, Frank Infante, Nigel Harrison and Clement Burke (September 2001 UK Capitol/Chrysalis Expanded Edition CD Reissue and Remaster with Five Bonus Tracks – Kevin Bartley Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

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"...One Way Or Another..."

 

It's almost impossible to think of it in my geriatric rotund-waistline dotage, but in six years time – September 2028 to be exact – that hardy perennial of the bargain bin secondhand record shop "Parallel Lines" by Blondie will be an astonishing 50-years old. A half a bleeding century – what! And frankly Frank – on a re-listen in May 2022 – the wee little blighter rocks and then some.

 

Blondie knew they had up the game after the rapid fade out of the "Plastic Letters" album in February of that mercurial year – 1978. The three singles had done well in the British Top 20 - "Denis" to No. 2, "(I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear" to No. 10 and "Picture This" to No. 12. It was probably the huge popularity of front-lady Debbie Harry and the irresistible bop of "Denis" that saw their second studio platter "Plastic Letters" reach No. 10 on the UK LP charts – somewhat of an improvement over their 1977 debut that didn't chart at all.

 

But when the American band went into the studio in June and July of 1978 with strict disciplinarian Producer Mike Chapman (an Australian) of the famous Chinn/Chapman partnership (countless hits on RAK Records including wads of British chart toppers) - the precipice-ensemble knew that it was time for a world-beater – even if they could barely handle the egos doing overtime in the volatile six-piece line-up fronted by a former Playboy Bunny who was dating the Guitarist (Debbie and Chris).

 

And "Parallel Lines" delivered that - laden with more hit singles than you could shake a stick at - which duly propelling the sexy stripped beast to the top - their first album to reach No. 1 in England and an impressive No. 6 Stateside. "Parallel Lines" was so big for this great American crossover band that their self-titled debut "Blondie" finally charted in March 1979 on the back of its hard-won success, albeit at a more modest No. 79.

 

Indeed, re-listening to this fantastically good CD Remaster of door number three – it's a blast to hear that the former always-in-the-sales-bin album has clearly stood the test of time – chock to the gunnels with Seventies Pop, Rock, Punk, New Wave, Buddy Holly Rock and Roll and yes even Disco. To the details my peroxide parishioners...

 

UK released September 2001 - "Parallel Lines" by BLONDIE on EMI/Capitol/Chrysalis 5335992 (Barcode 724353359928) is an 'Expanded Edition' CD Reissue and Remaster with Four Bonus Tracks that plays out as follows (56:57 minutes):

 

1. Hanging On The Telephone [Side 1]

2. One Way Or Another

3. Picture This

4. Fade Away And Radiate

5. Pretty Baby

6. I Know But I Don't Know

7. 11:59 [Side 2]

8. Will Anything Happen?

9. Sunday Girl

10. Heart Of Glass [Extended Disco Mix of 5:50 minutes]

11. I'm Gonna Love You Too

12. Just Go Away

Tracks 1 to 12 are their third studio album "Parallel Lines" - released September 1978 in the UK on Chrysalis CDL 1192 and Chrysalis CHR 1192 in America. Produced by MIKE CHAPMAN – it peaked at No. 1 in the UK and No. 6 in the USA.

 

BONUS TRACKS:

13. Once I Had A Love (aka The Disco Song) – 3:16 minutes

Previously Unreleased 1978 Version – Recorded May 1978 at The Record Plant in NYC and Produced by Mike Chapman

14. Bang A Gong (Get It On) (Live) – 5:27 minutes

Cover Version of the Marc Bolan T.Rex hit from 1971 and given its US title – recorded live November 1978 at the Paradise in Boston

15. I Know But I Don't Know (Live) – 4:33 minutes

Recorded live November 1978 at the Walnut Theatre in Philadelphia

16. Hanging On The Telephone (Live) - 2:21 minutes

Recorded live 1980 in Dallas, Texas

 

BLONDIE was:

DEBORAH HARRY – Lead Vocals

CHRIS STEIN – Guitars, 12-String, E-Bow

FRANK INFANTE – Guitar

JAMES DESTRI – Keyboards

NIGEL HARRISON – Bass

CLEMENT BURKE – Drums

Guest:

Robert Fripp of King Crimson plays Guitar on "Fade Away And Radiate"

 

The 8-page inlay is a pretty if not fairly basic affair, not surprisingly containing a page of relevant 7" picture sleeves (Dutch and Japanese in particular as well as the different artwork in Holland to the album) and some photos of the band from the period. On top of that you get a lay of the land set of liner notes provided by original producer MIKE CHAPMAN (written May 2001) on how he whipped the casual Americans into rehearsal shape – a fair and entertaining read. There are a further two pages of recording/reissue credits and the 24-Bit Digital Remaster from original tapes has been done by KEVIN BARTLEY at Capitol Mastering. Given what I was used to before on LP, you have to say that the Audio so damn good - way punchier - the clarity on kick-ass tracks like "One Way Or Another" or the dense Fripp-o-tronic guitars of "Fade Away And Radiate" almost unnerving at times. To the lithesome tunes...

 

That opening pring-pring phone dial, then a wall of voices and guitars for "Hanging On The Telephone" come a-blasting out of your speakers. What a hit this "I can't control myself... " song was - hardly surprising it went to No. 3 in the singles chart. Seriously great Punk attitude in the brilliant "One Way Or Another", one of my fave-raves by them – Debbie singing like her life depends on it. More telephone imagery in "Picture This", the third gem in a row, and I had forgotten about that cool solo – all I want is 20/20 vision – the remaster gives it to you. We veer away from Hitsville and go out there into US New Wave weirdo-land for "Fade Away And Radiate" – silver pictures moving slow – hidden voices – Fripp conjuring up dreams on the screen with his distinctive guitar work. You will have to give this one some welly, but the power is there – especially when that solo kicks in at 2:44 minutes. "Pretty Baby" is US New Wave meets 60ts Girl Group – easily could have been another radio-friendly hit. And Side 1 ends with a return to a King Crimson riff/vibe for "I Know But I Don't Know" – a Frank Infante menace song with fantastic riffage where more than a few slashes are reminiscent of The Stooges stalking the stage.

 

Side 2 opens with the slightly awkward "11:59" – a song that doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be – those piano changes and that Elvis Costello organ though a bit better now through the Remaster. Better for me is "Will Anything Happen?" – surely one of the LP’s forgotten moments – a Jack Lee song – the man who would gift them "Hanging On The Telephone" and later on see his "Come Back And Stay" done by Paul Young. Chris Stein could write an annoying hit too – but who would have thought that something like his very-Cars "Sunday Girl" would go to No. 1. And yet it did.

 

And speaking of such - then comes the monster "Heart Of Glass" – a Stein/Harry winner that despite or because of its ooh-ooh-ah glitterball Disco beat became another chart topper for Blondie. You also notice that this is the Extended Disco Mix of 5:50 minutes over the LP's original 3:54 minutes without being announced as such (whether you like it or not). Capitol could have put the LP cut here (as it should be) and the Extended Version in the Bonuses? Some will see this near six-minute boogie as a Bonus while others may feel that the shorter/edited LP cut is what they were used to. 

 

We then get a cover of the 50ts Buddy Holly classic "I'm Gonna Love You Too" and I can never work out if its cack or genius (not a rave on for me really). The album ends on a slyly bitter Debbie moment with her "Just Go Away" – a boo-hoo go-away big mouth jaunt. To the Bonuses, which typically are both very good in some instances and only-O.K. in others...

 

The first extra is bizarre – a Previously Unreleased early attempt at the Disco of "Heart Of Glass" recorded in New York with Producer Mike Chapman in June 1978. Not a patch on the finished extended version on offer here – still – you can hear the winner is in there somewhere – they just need to chisel it out. Far better is the lowdown and dirty live Rock Riffage of the T.Rex classic "Get It On" where ending a gig, Blondie sound dangerous and cool – The Clash meets The Motels. For sure the live sound could be better – but the power is there and the band are playing like a beast – ripping into the Marc Bolan chug with guitar abandon. I love this. The other two live cuts also give you a real indication of what a tight unit Blondie was when they hit the stage – manic but always held together. Fans will love them, but casual listeners will go back to the LP every time. 

 

"...Thought it was the real thing, but I was so blind...love is so confusing..." Debbie sang all those years ago.

 

Well, I would not be confused in the slightest about buying this wickedly good CD Reissue and Remaster. Blondie were a great band – and "Parallel Lines" is their sexy-hot-pants of a moment - remember their Hearts of Glass this way...

"Ten Years After" by TEN YEARS AFTER - October 1967 UK Debut Album on Deram Records in MONO and STEREO featuring Alvin Lee on Lead Guitar and Lead Vocals, Chick Churchill on Keyboards, Leo Lyons on Bass and Ric Lee on Drums with Producer Mike Vernon of Blue Horizon Records and Audio Engineer Gus Dudgeon (June 2015 UK Universal/Deram 'Expanded Edition 2CD Reissue and Remaster' Offering Both Mono and Stereo Mixes of the Album on CD1 and Eleven Bonuses on CD2 with Andy Pearce Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

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"...Blues Guitar Of..." 

On page 7 of the tastefully annotated 16-page booklet that accompanies this cool digital twofer is an advert for the 1st of December 1967 for TEN YEARS AFTER at the Manor House Club in London '...featuring the wonderful Blues Guitar of Alvin Lee...'

 

Yeah baby! Hell, if you popped along on the following Friday, the 8th of December 1967, you could also see some brats called John Mayall's Blues Breakers who might be kinda fun too. The clear downside was the extortionate entrance fee of three schillings and six pence (capitalist swine). 

 

I loves me a release like this - a 2CD Newly Expanded Edition chock full of goodies and sounding fan-tab-a-dooblay courtesy of Audio Engineer ANDY PEARCE and his frankly under-insured knob-twiddling fingers. Much to discuss, so let's get to Ten Years After over 55 years ago and their Blues Rock Debut righteously reissued here in 2015 by Universal on their DERAM Records label imprint as was the original LP: 

 

UK released 22 June 2015 - "Ten Years After/1st Album" by TEN YEARS AFTER on Universal/Deram 472 643-8 (Barcode 0602547264381) is an Expanded Edition 2CD Reissue and Remaster offering both the MONO and STEREO Mixes of the album on CD1 with Eleven Bonus Tracks on CD 2 (Two in Mono and 9 in Stereo). It plays out as follows: 

 

CD1 "Ten Years After" Debut Album in MONO and STEREO (73:27 minutes):

1. I Want To Know [Side 1]

2. I Can't Keep From Cying, Sometimes 

3. Adventures Of A Young Organ 

4. Spoonful 

5. Losing The Dogs [Side 2]

6. Feel It For Me 

7. Love Until I Die 

8. Don't Want You Woman 

9. Help Me 

Tracks 1 to 9 is the MONO MIX 

Tracks 10 to 18 is the STEREO MIX (same tracks)

"Ten Years After" was released October 1967 in the UK on Deram DML 1015 in Mono and Deram SML 1015 in Stereo and London/Deram DE 16009 in Mono and London/Deram DES 16009 in Stereo. Produced by MIKE VERNON (Engineered by GUS DUDGEON) - it didn't chart in either country. 

CD2 Bonus Tracks - All STEREO except Tracks 2 and 4 (41:43 minutes): 

1. Portable People (2:12 minutes)

2. Portable People (2:15 minutes) (MONO)

3. The Sounds (4:10 minutes)

4. The Sounds (4:27 minutes) (MONO)

5. Rock Your Mama (2:58 minutes)

6. Spider In My Web (7:15 minutes)

7. Hold Me Tight (2:16 minutes)

8. (At The) Woodchopper's Ball (7:44 minutes)

9. Love Until I Die - Live At The BBC (2:20 minutes)

10. Don't Want You Woman - Live At The BBC (2:18 minutes)

11. The Sounds - Live At The BBC (3:24 minutes) 

 

NOTES CD2: 

Tracks 1, 3 and 7 first issued in March 1972 on the UK Stereo LP "Alvin Lee And Company" on Deram SML 109

 

Tracks 2 and 4 are the Non-LP A&B-sides of their debut UK 45-single released 16 February 1968 on Deram DM 176 and March 1968 in the USA on Deram 45-85027 in Mono (first CD issue 2002) 

 

Tracks 5 and 6 are the Non-LP A&B-sides of a May 1968 Export-Only Stereo 45-single on Deram DM 191 (first CD issue 2002) 

 

Track 8 recorded January 1968 and first released on the 2002 Deram Expanded Edition 1CD Reissue of "Ten Years After" on Deram 8828972 

 

Tracks 9 to 11 recorded live for the BBC "Top Gear" Radio Program in 1967 and are PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

 

TEN YEARS AFTER was:

ALVIN LEE - Lead Guitar and Vocals 

CHICK CHURCHILL - Keyboards 

LEON LYONS - Bass 

RIC LEE - Drums

 

The booklet has 16-pages with new liner notes from noted writer MALCOLM DOME. His text is accompanied with the usual plethora of 60ts memorabilia repro'd across the pages to great effect - the American 1968 advert for their debut 45 "Portable People" where the groovy ad tells us that the British band's LP in breaking everywhere and the debut 7" single has something for the underground in its flipside "The Sounds". There's suitable cool black and whites of our fearsome foursome and even a snap of Alvin Lee, Leo Lyons and Ric Lee as The Jaybirds - their incarnation before 1967. The colour shot of the harder-edged Blues Rock band that was Ten Years After on Page 14 is particularly striking - a fourpiece Cream in the making. And there's a suitably trippy shot of the band on the rear inlay much like the fuzzy album cover photo. 

 

But for me the big news is ANDY PEARCE Remasters from original tapes - clean, precise and full of room to breathe. Andy Pearce and his Audio Engineer partner Matt Wortham have been at many Universal projects of note - Budgie, Rory Gallagher, Free, Mott The Hoople, Wishbone Ash and many more - and I actively seek out his work. The Stereo version of the nine-minute cover version of Sonny Boy Williamson's "Help Me" that ends the debut is so good. For sure the separation is a tad too harsh on some other tracks - but the audio is beautifully clear - Mike Vernon letting the band stretch out but still keeping it produced.And that Al Kooper cover "I Can't Keep From crying, Sometimes" is little short of gorgeous.

 

It's kind of weird to hear "Portable People" in STEREO - seriously separated vocals in the left and right - but man what a Remaster - Churchill's organ and Lee's so delicate guitar picking clear as if he's in front of you. Actually, when you listen to "Portable People" and its underground flip-side "The Sounds" - you wonder if it might have been a smarter move to throw the wild guitar-playing of "The Sounds" over to the A and give it a DJ-whirl. "The Sounds" is so fuzzed and in my head out there - it might have taken with the arm-swaying faithful. A bit fuzzier but no less boogie-tastic is "Rock Your Mama" - a stay in bed all day guitar and organ bopper that is followed by the superb slow blues of "Spider In My Web" - Lee showing his feel for the genre. 

 

"Hold Me Tight" with its boogie-woogie barrelhouse piano is just such a blast - England's Canned Heat echoing those vocals - you half expect Jerry Lee Lewis to put out of the speakers any moment. TYA goes Late Night Lounge Jazz Bop with "Woodchopper's Ball" - a guitar workout that confuses and feels wildly out of place even if his playing is impressive. A real downside is the three unreleased BBC cuts which the notes say are 'historical' - which means of course they are hissy and virtually bootleg. But man are they playing like wild men - harmonica - guitar - piano - all of it. He goes Slide Acoustic for "Don't Want You Woman" and again Lee and his boys play up a blinder. What a shame this "Top Gear" session isn't in better shape.

 

In May 2022, their 1967 debut "Ten Years After" is dated for sure in places and forgotten too to the dusty murk of a long-ago past. But I urge you to get your lugs around their beginnings (five of the cuts are superb Alvin Lee originals), because in my house, it's the equal of the Beano "Blues Breakers" LP from 1966 and a reminder of days when Brilliant Blues roamed the land cheap and cheerful. 

 

Despite the niggles about the less-than-stellar BBC recordings (obviously unreleased until now for good reason), make no mistake - this is a top job done and I'm stilling feeling it...

"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...

 

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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...