"Crooked Piece Of Time: The Atlantic & Asylum Albums (1971-1980)" by JOHN PRINE - Including The Albums "John Prine" (October 1971 USA, February 1972 UK), "Diamonds In The Rough" (October 1972 USA), "Sweet Revenge" (October 1973 USA, May 1974 UK), "Common Sense" (April 1975 USA), "Bruised Orange" (July 1978 USA), "Pink Cadillac" (August 1979 USA) and "Storm Windows" (August 1980 USA) - Guests Include Steve Goodman, David Bromberg and Wayne Perkins on Guitars with Producers Arif Mardin, Steve Goodman, Steve Cropper and many more (October 2020 UK Rhino/Atlantic/Asylum 7CD Remasters in a Clamshell Box Set with Mini LP Repro Artwork Card Sleeves and Replica Inserts for Each Release - Dan Hersch, Dave Schultz and Bill Inglot Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

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TUMBLING DICE - 1972
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"...Reading Old Love Letters..."

What a trip – the memories! I'm playing the stripped-back bareknuckle acoustic guitar and voice of John Prine's "Sour Grapes" from his second album "Diamonds In The Rough" in 1972. Can it really be 50-years on. He was wise, articulate, funny as Robin Williams and such a great chronicler of life in all its weird screwed up cradle to the grave lunacy – it hurts. Laugh and stare, I don't care...Prine moans in "Sour Grapes" - his mannerisms and head so young and full of promise and songs - his uniquely touching music sailing out of my speakers in gorgeous clarity. "The Great Compromise" is the same, a track I reckon will slaughter many a nostalgic heart in its beautiful simplicity. "Angel Of Montgomery" from the debut LP too that so many have covered...

 

Having said all that, I'd be the first to admit that Prine and his world-weary whine is an acquired taste and albums like "Common Sense" and the awful mess that is "Pink Cadillac" drop a star straight away. And I also think (perhaps controversially) that like John Martyn, his albums from the 90s only saw him get better and better, defying the rep that his best work all came from the Seventies. I mean check out Prine's "The Missing Years" from 1991 and "Lost Dogs + Mixed Blessings" from 1995 on his own Oh Boy Records – each a quiet CD masterpiece few know about and should. But man Rhino has done right here by his starting legacy with this gorgeous sounding mini Box Set. Lots to cogitate...details... 

 

UK, EUROPE and USA released 23 October 2020 - "Crooked Pieces Of Time: The Atlantic & Asylum Albums (1971-1980)" by JOHN PRINE on Rhino/Atlantic/Asylum R2 643404 - 603497846504 (Barcode 603497846504) is a 7CD Remastered Clamshell Box Set with Seven Mini LP Repro Artwork Card Sleeves each with Fold-out Replica Lyric/Credits Inserts that plays out as follows:

CD1 "John Prine" (44:44 minutes):

1. Illegal Smile [Side 1]

2. Spanish Pipedream

3. Hello In There 

4. Sam Stone

5. Paradise 

6. Pretty Good 

7. Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven No More [Side 2]

8. Far From Me

9. Angel From Montgomery 

10. Quiet Man 

11. Donald And Lydia 

12. Six O'Clock News 

13. Flashback Blues 

Tracks 1 to 13 are his debut album "John Prine" - released October 1971 in the USA on Atlantic Records SD 8296 and February 1972 on Atlantic K 40357. Produced by ARIF MARDIN - guest musicians include members of Elvis Presley's house band - Reggie Young and Steve Goodman on Guitars, Bobby Emmons on Organ, Leo LeBlanc on Pedal Steel Guitar, Mike Leach and Gene Chrisman on Bass and Drums. 

CD2 "Diamonds in The Rough" (38:40 minutes):

1. Everybody [Side 1]

2. The Torch Singer 

3. Souvenirs 

4. The Late John Garfield Blues 

5. Sour Grapes 

6. Billy The Bum

7. The Frying Pan

8. Yes I Guess They Oughta Name A Drink After You [Side 2]

9. Take The Star Out Of The Window

10. The Great Compromise 

11. Clocks And Spoons 

12. Rocky Mountain Time 

13. Diamonds In The Rough

Tracks 1 to 13 are his second studio album "Diamonds In The Rough" - released October 1972 in the USA on Atlantic Records SD 7240 and November 1972 in the UK on Atlantic Records K 40427. Produced by ARIF MARDIN - guest musicians included Steve Goodman and David Bromberg on Guitars, Dobro and Other Instruments with Steve Burke of Jacob's Creek on Bass and Drums.

CD3 "Sweet Revenge" (39:01 minutes):

1. Sweet Revenge [Side 1]

2. Please Don't Bury Me 

3. Christmas in Prison 

4. Dear Abby 

5. Blue Umbrella 

6. Often Is A Word I Seldom Use

7. Onomatopoeia [Side 2]

8. Grandpa Was A Carpenter 

9. The Accident (Things Could Be Worse)

10. Mexican Home 

11. A Good Time 

12. Nine Pound Hammer

Tracks 1 to 12 are his third studio album "Sweet Revenge" - released October 1973 in the USA on Atlantic Records SD 7274 and May 1974 in the UK on Atlantic Records K 40524. Produced by ARIF MARDIN.

CD4 "Common Sense" (32:05 minutes):

1. Middle Man [Side 1]

2. Common Sense  

3. Come Back To Us Barbara Lewis Hare Krishna Beauregard

4. Wedding Day In Funeralville 

5. Way Down 

6. My Own Best Friend [Side 2]

7. Forbidden Jimmy 

8. Saddle In The Rain 

9. That Close To You

10. He Was In Heaven Before He Died

11. You Never Can Tell 

Tracks 1 to 11 are his fourth studio album "Common Sense" (last for Atlantic) - released April 1975 in the USA on Atlantic Records SD 18127 and July 1975 in the UK on Atlantic Records K 50137. Produced by STEVE CROPPER - guests include J.D. Souther, Glenn Frey of The Eagles, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and Wayne Perkins.

 

CD5 "Bruised Orange" (32:50 minutes):

1. Fish And Whistle [Side 1]

2. There She Goes 

3. If You Don't Want My Love 

4. That's The Way The World Goes Round 

5. Bruised Orange (Chain Of Sorrow)

6. Sabu Visits The Twin Cities Alone [Side 2]

7. Aw Heck

8. Crooked Piece Of Time 

9. Iron Ore Betty 

10. The Hobo Song

Tracks 1 to 10 are his fifth studio album (first for Asylum) "Bruised Orange" - released July 1978 in the USA on Asylum Records 6E-139 and August 1978 in the UK on Asylum Records K 53084. Produced by STEVE GOODMAN - guests include John Burns and Diane Holmes

 

CD6 "Pink Cadillac" (37:26 minutes): 

1. Chinatown [Side 1]

2. Automobile

3. Killing The Blues 

4. No Name Girl

5. Saigon

6. Cold War (This Cold War With you) [Side 2]

7. Baby Let's Play House 

8. Down By The Side Of The Road

9. How Lucky

10. Ubangi Stomp 

Tracks 1 to 10 are his sixth studio album (second for Asylum) "Pink Cadillac" - released August 1979 in the USA on Asylum 6E-222 and October 1979 in the UK on Asylum K 52164. Produced by KNOX and JERRY PHILLIPS -  

CD7 "Storm Windows" (32:55 minutes):

1. Shop Talk [Side 1] 

2. Living In The Future 

3. It's Happened To You 

4. Sleepy Eyed Boy 

5. All Night Blue 

6. Just Wanna Be With You [Side 2]

7. Storm Windows 

8. Baby Ruth 

9. One Red Rose 

10. I Had A Dream

Tracks 1 to 10 are his seventh studio album (final for Asylum) "Storm Windows" - released August 1980 in the USA on Asylum 6E-286 (no UK release). Produced by BARRY BECKETT. Wayne Perkins and Barry Beckett are guest musicians.

 

The Clamshell Box Set has a gorgeous painting by JOSHUA PETKER on its cover and a really clever inclusion is fold-out two-side paper replica pages for each album that offers punters those all-important lyrics. The Mini LP Repro Artwork Card sleeves are full versions front and rear - no borders like those 5CD capacity wallet versions in the "Original Classic Album" series. The 20-page booklet sports new liner notes from writer/fan DAVID FRICKE with tracks lists at the rear for each album (no credits or catalogue numbers). It's nicely done, but the big game hunter goes to the Audio provided by a team of three Sound Engineers - the deeply experienced duo of DAN HERSCH and BILL INGLOT (long-time associates with Rhino) and DAVID SCHULTZ. Take a track like "Storm Windows" (his last album for Asylum) - it rises and falls like "The Last Resort" by The Eagles and needed clarity in the quiet passages and muscle for the big crescendo chorus - and it gets both. To the tunes...

Many will reach for the doped-up classics of "Illegal Smile", "Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven No More" or the kicked-off Noah's Ark "Sweet Revenge" and the brill live name-check of "Dear Abby" for a bewildered giggle, but a box set like this allows you to soak up deep album cuts like the raw and lyrically astute "Pretty Good", the country-jaunt of the strangely sunny "Blue Umbrella" or the duo that end his superb stripped-back second LP - both "The Rocky Mountain Time" and his Acapella cover of the 1920's Gospel song "Diamonds In The Rough" impressing so much. You have to love a singer who tells you that Venus De Milo can have his arms when he goes even if his country-fied cover of Chuck Berry's "You Never Can Tell" stills feels like a mistake. 

The title track "Common Sense" offers us a fabulous threesome backing vocals crop of legend - J.D. Souther with Glenn Frey of The Eagles and Jackson Browne while the witty "Come Back To Us Barbara Lewis Hare Krishna Beauregard" has Bonnie Raitt doing the cool b-vox. Glenn Frey also plays Guitar on "My Own Best Friend" while Producer and pal Steve Goodman does guitar on "Forbidden Jimmy" alongside Booker T & The MG's bassist Donald "Duck" Dunne. Diane Holmes puts in some lovely support vocals on the pretty "That's The Way That The World Goes Round" from "Bruised Orange", Mike Utley on Organ with Corky Siegal on Piano add loads to the title track of that underrated album and "Sabu Visits..." has an almost Tom Waits world-weary sadness about its hard-done-by characters. 

The "Pink Cadillac" album from 1979 is largely awful to me, that distorted guitar on "Saigon" where Prine barely seems able to hold a note and that cod Rock 'n' Roll palsy-walsy shit with Sun Records legend Billy Lee Riley on "No Name Girl". At least stuff like the shuffling "Cold War" over on Side 2 has something in it, but again his Rockabilly stab at "Let's Play House" sounds like a drug-addict was given the microphone. Howard Levy and Leo Le Blanc both put in some lovely Organ and Pedal Steel playing on the pretty "Down By The Side Of The Road" and "How Lucky" feels like the acoustic sparseness of the debut and in a good way. A patchy album ends however on the echoed Harmonica "Ubangi Stomp" and Asylum Records must have been wondering why they signed up for this copycat rendition any fool could do.  

After the debacle of the second Asylum album and with not even one cheap assed cover version in sight, his last set of originals for the label "Storm Windows" does a lot to reestablish faith in his songwriting prowess. Tracks like the witty "Living In The Future" and the longing in "Sleepy Eyed Boy" show his lyrical and musical chops had only taken a sabbatical the year prior. "All Night Blue" is a straight-up Country Rock tune - his band of players in John Burns on Guitars and Leo LeBlanc on Pedal Steel once again doing the classy-players business. Rocker "Baby Ruth" gets a muscular makeover - cool.And on it goes...

 

John Prine was lost to us in April 2020 aged 73 to a battle with Covid-19 that left him ravaged in his final year - something he didn't hide (maybe in order to raise awareness). His Irish wife Fiona Whelan (as per his wishes) spread half his ashes in the Green River in Kentucky. 

 

Rhino have done warm reissue compilations before, but there feels like an earnest effort with this John Prine one to honour his great storytelling ability. Float away on this one...

"It Never Rains In Southern California/The Free Electric Band" by ALBERT HAMMOND - October 1972 US Debut Album (January 1973 UK) and August 1973 (US and UK) Second Album on Mum Records - featuring Keyboardist Michael Omartian, Guitarists Jay Lewis and Larry Carlton, Bassists Joe Osborn and Ray Puhlman, Drummers Jimmy Gordon and Hal Blaine and more (April 2004 UK Beat Goes On (BGO) Compilation - 2LPs onto 1CD - Andrew Thompson Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Orange Juice And Pills..."

When I worked at Reckless Records in both Islington's Upper Street and the Soho's Berwick Street (20 years penal servitude) - Albert Hammond albums were pretty much a no-no. They were the kind of Seventies platters that just didn't sell - or if they did - went for small beer. And a check on Auction Sites confirms that with £2 values, nothing's changed fifty-years down the line (1972 to 2022). 

 

But I know this multi-faceted British singer-songwriter has his Jimmy Webb-type admirers and they will absolutely want this tasty sounding BGO Remaster of his first two albums - both of which charted Stateside (albeit in the lower regions). The first contained his biggest hit single - the very Matthews Southern Comfort-sounding "It Never Rains In Southern California" (a winner they loved in America in late 1972) - whilst platter number two gave us the funkier "The Free Electric Band" (his only UK hit in 1973). Thinking about it now, I recall that 45-single freedom/happiness/vibe thing that oozed from "Free Electric Band" - blinding synth intro - a sort of pre-Punk precursor to John Mile's similarly themed "Music" a few years later on Decca. 

 

The first album even contains AH's claim to immortality in "The Air That I Breathe" - a song Albert Hammond wrote with long-time collaborator Michael Hazelwood - which The Hollies would of course take to Musical Valhalla in 1974 on Polydor Records. "The Air That I Breathe" is one of the most effecting love songs of that great decade and a tune that's been tapped in many movies ever since to elicit a wee heart tingle and lovy-dovey teardrop fall into your Cornflakes. To the legacy of the free electric man...

 

UK-released 7 April 2004 (3 August 2004 in the USA) - "It Never Rains In Southern California/The Free Electric Band" by ALBERT HAMMOND on Beat Goes On BGOCD611 (Barcode 5017261206114) offers 2LPs from 1972 and 1973 (originally on Mum Records) Remastered onto 1CD that plays out as follows (69:53 minutes):

 

1. Listen To The World [Side 1]  

2. If You Gotta Break Another Heart 

3. From Great Britain To L.A.

4. Brand New Day 

5. Anyone Here In The Audience 

6. It Never Rains In Southern California [Side 2]

7. Names, Tags, Numbers And Labels 

8. Down By The River 

9. The Road To Understanding

10. The Air That I Breathe

Tracks 1 to 10 are his debut album "It Never Rains In Southern California" - released late October 1972 in the USA on Mums Records KZ 31905 and late January 1973 in the UK on Mum Records S MUM 65320. It peaked Stateside in December 1972 and rose to a chart high of No. 77 (didn't chart UK). 

11. Smokey Factory Blues [Side 1]

12. The Peacemaker 

13. Woman Of The World 

14. Everything I Want To Do 

15. Who's The Lunch Today?

16. The Free Electric Band [Side 2]

17. Rebecca

18. The Day The British Army Lost The War

19. For The Peace Of All Mankind 

20. I Think I'll Go That Way 

Tracks 11 to 20 are his second studio album "The Free Electric Band" - released August 1973 in the USA on Mums Records KZ 32267 and August 1973 in the UK on Mums Records S MUM 65554. It peaked at No.193 on the US Billboard LP charts (didn't chart UK).  

The outer card slipcase lends these Beat Goes On reissues a look of class while the 16-page booklet with new JOHN TOBLER liner notes explores his songwriting history back to lucrative Pop schlock like "Gimme Dat Thing" and "Leapy Lee". There are the gatefold's artwork and lyrics and those guest musicians like Keyboardist Michael Omartian, Guitarists Jay Lewis and Larry Carlton with Drummers Jimmy Gordon and the legendary Hal Blaine. It's very nicely done. ANDREW THOMPSON has transferred the original tapes and the CD sounds great - especially that second album. Take the vocal singers and strings on "I Think I'll Go That Way" - the Side 2 ender of "The Free Electric Band" album - so clean and clear - giving that soundscape a real punch when it needs it as the music softens and lifts.

 

Such is its popularity and catchy hum-along chorus, "It Never Rains In Southern California" received four single issues - 1972, 1974, 1975 and 1978 (the last two outings with the track "A Job Is A Home To A Homeless Man" as its flipside. Released Stateside first in September 1972 just before the LP hit the shops, British Mums Records waiting until January 1973 for both the 45 and LP. It's a little surprising even now to see that something as radio-friendly as this signature song for him 'didn't' hit the Top 40 in the UK? Still, debut album deep cuts like "Brand New Day" and "Names, Tags, Numbers And Labels" show a natural ability towards melody - and you can so hear why people rate Hammond's "Anyone Here In The Audience" - the Side 1 finisher that turned up as a melodic lyrically astute flipside to "It Never Rains In Southern California". There's more than a touch of Colin Blunstone and Phillip Goodhand-Tate in "The Road To Understanding" even if there's just a tad too much Neil Diamond melodrama in its string arrangements. And it's downright disconcerting to hear his lighter-than-light acoustic guitar vs. a cello original of "The Air That I Breathe" where you would have to say that The Hollies took a delicacy and turned it into a full-on dessert you want to gorge on (he ruins it with an overly noisy ending). The Audio too is gorgeous.  

The second album ups the Production a notch and it shows as Side 1 kicks in. Early in the misty morning, our hero is heading for another thankless jam, the radio playing love songs with the factory gates looming in the distance. So he works to make a living in the funky "Smokey Factory Blues" - broke but still hoping for love and some cash in tow. His record label obviously figured "The Peacemaker" might make radio waves with its Cat Stevens acoustic strums, so they issued it as a 45-single in July 1974 with the searching-for-meaning "Who's For Lunch Today" as its B-side, but MUMS Records ZS7 6021 didn't click. Awful is the only word to describe the plodding "Woman Of The World", while the excellent synth funk of "The Free Electric Band" gave him his only UK 7" single hit - entering the charts in June 1973 thereafter rising to No.19. Weaker cuts include the weedy "For The Peace Of All Mankind" and some sort of guitar wig-out in "The Day The British Army Lost The War" that doesn't really suit. Still, it ends on that lovely-sounding "I Think I'll Go That Way". 

 

In truth these forgotten Seventies albums are three-star efforts musically and some collectors I know don't even rate them as that. But England's Beat Goes On Records has done Hammond's legacy proud with really great Audio and quality Presentation, the deep album cuts too reminding why his hit-making chops would be covered by so many Easy Listening artists across the decades that followed. 

 

Either way – another typically classy reissue from BGO...

"Keep An Eye On The Sky" by BIG STAR - A Box Set Containing A Selection of Tracks from their Three Seventies US Studio Albums "No. 1 Record" (April 1972), "Radio City" (January 1974) and "3rd" (March 1978) alongside 52 Previously Unissued Big Star Recordings, Solo Material by Alex Chilton and Chris Bell, Songs from Previous Incarnations of the Band as Icewater and Rock City, Live Material from 1973 and the only known Video of the group as a Bonus Track on Enhanced CD4 (September 2009 US and UK Rhino 4CD 96-Song Box Set with Andrew Sandoval and Dan Hersch Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

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"...Unbelievable Odds..." 

You would have to call a 4CD 96-song blow-out given over to the plant-a-tune-in-a-film-darlings BIG STAR - a winner. With a whopping 52 Previously Unreleased and their only known video footage - "Keep An Eye..." was always a shoe-in for unsightly stroking of male goatees in scholarly abandon. It's not all genius in my books, especially that droning "3rd" album that dominates CD3, but there's more than enough goodies in-between the output cracks to warrant five-stars. 

 

Also, September 2009's "Keep An Eye On The Sky" has had its detractors because if you want to actually hear the 24 songs that make up their utterly brilliant first two albums - you get only four from "No. 1 Record" and nine from "Radio City" - all other cuts represented by Alternate Versions, Demos, Single Mixes or Live Material. That has irritated some, but Rhino have countered by saying that reissuing what is widely available in top notch George Horn Remasters elsewhere anyway was not part of the game. So they've gone for the unissued splurge instead. Luckily we get the whole of "3rd" (called "The Third Album" in the UK) - their rare and difficult third LP of original material recorded in 1975 but unreleased at the time only to see light of day in late 1978 on both sides of the pond (PVC Records USA, Aura Records UK). 

 

But make no mistake - this Rhino compilation is a labor of love - you can feel it in the presentation, the audio, trying to dissemble the notorious lack of documentation at Ardent Recording Studios, finding that footage on enhanced CD4. So let's deal with what we do have...details maestro please...

UK-released 15 September 2009 - "Keep An Eye On The Sky" by BIG STAR on Rhino 8122-79858-7 (Barcode 081227985875) is a 4CD Remastered Box Set with 98-Songs (52 Previously Unreleased Audio Tracks Plus One Video on Enhanced CD4) and a 102-Page Booklet. The original US Edition on Rhino R2 519760 (Barcode 081227985875) was also issued 15 Sep 2009. Both versions were subsequently reissued 24 Nov 2014 in the USA (Rhino RF2 519760) and 12 February 2015 in the UK (Rhino 8122-79562-0) with the same packaging and tracks. "Keep An Eye On The Sky" plays out as follows:

 

CD1 (79:32 minutes):

1. Psychedelic Stuff (Original Mix, 1968) - CHRIS BELL

2. All I See Is You - ICEWATER

3. Every Day As We Grow Closer (Original Mix) - ALEX CHILTON 

4. Try Again (Early Version) - ROCK CITY  

5. Feel 

6. The Ballad Of El Goodo 

7. In The Street (Alternate Mix) 

8. Thirteen (Alternate Mix)

9. Don't Lie To Me 

10. The India Song (Alternate Mix) 

11. When My Baby's Beside Me (Alternate Mix)

12. My Life Is Right (Alternate Mix) 

13. Give Me Another Chance (Alternate Mix)

14. Try Again 

15. Gone With The Light 

16. Watch The Sunrise (Single Version)

17. St 100/6 (Alternate Mix)

18. The Preacher (Excerpt) - ROCK CITY 

19. In The Street (Alternate Single Mix)

20. Feel (Alternate Mix) 

21. The Ballad of El Goodo (Alternate Lyrics)

22. The India Song (Alternate Version) 

23. Country Morn 

24. I Got Kinda Lost (Demo) 

25. Back Of A Car Demo (Demo) 

26. Motel Blues (Demo)

NOTES: 

All tracks by BIG STAR except where noted

Tracks 1, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22 and 26 PREVIOUSLY UNISSUED

Tracks 2, 3, 19, 24 and 25 first issued on the 2008 UK CD compilation "Thank You Friends: The Ardent Records Story" on Ace/Big Beat CDWIK2 273 (Barcode 029667427326)

Tracks 5, 6, 9 and 14 are from their debut album "No. 1 Record" released April 1972 on Ardent Records ADS-2803 in the USA (no UK release). 

CD2 (79:42 minutes):

1. There Was A Light (Demo) 

2. Life Is White (Demo) 

3. What's Going Ahn (Demo)

4. O My Soul 

5. Life Is White 

6. Way Out West 

7. What's Going Ahn

8. You Get What You Deserve

9. Mod Lang (Alternate Mix)

10. Back Of A Car (Alternate Mix) 

11. Daisy Glaze 

12. She's A Mover 

13. September Gurls 

14. Morpha Too (Alternate Mix) 

15. I'm In Love With A Girl 

16. O My Soul (Alternate Version)

17. She's A Mover (Alternate Version)

18. Daisy Glaze (Rehearsal Version)

19. I Am The Cosmos - CHRIS BELL 

20. You And Your Sister - CHRIS BELL 

21. Blue Moon (Demo)

22. Femme Fatale (Demo)

23. Thank you Friends (Demo) 

24. Nightime (Demo) 

25. Take Care (Demo) 

26. You Get What You Deserve (Demo)

NOTES: 

Tracks 4 to 8, 11 to 13 and 15 are from their second studio album "Radio City" released January 1974 in the USA on Ardent Records ADS-1501  

Tracks 19 and 20 are the A&B-sides of a 1978 US 45-single by Chris Bell on Car Records CRR6

CD3 (72:03 minutes):

1. Lovely Day (Demo) 

2. Downs (Demo)

3. Jesus Christ Demo)

4. Holocaust (Demo)

5. Big Black Car (Alternative Demo)

6. Manana 

7. Jesus Christ 

8. Femme Fatale

9. O, Dana 

10. Kizza Me 

11. You Can't Have Me

12. Nightime 

13. Dream Lover 

14. Big Black Car

15. Blue Moon 

16. Holocaust 

17. Stroke It Noel 

18. For You 

19. Downs 

20. Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On 

21. Kanga Roo 

22. Thank you Friends

23. Take Care 

24. Lovely Day 

25. Till The End Of The Day (Alternative Mix) 

26. Nature Boy (Alternative Mix)  

NOTES: 

Tracks 7 to 12, 14 to 18 and 21 to 23 are their third studio album "3rd" due for release 1975, but belated issued March 1978 in the USA on PVC Records PVC 7903 as a 14-Track LP and August 1978 in the UK as "The Third Album" on Aura Records AUL 703 in different artwork and with a different rearranged track listing (only 12-songs).

 

The US 14-Track LP "3rd" can be sequenced using the following tracks from CD3:

Side 1: Tracks 17, 18, 10, 11, 12, 15 and 23

Side 2: Tracks 7, 8, 9, 14, 16, 21 and 22

The UK 12-Track LP "The Third Album" can be sequenced using the following from CD3:

Side 1: Tracks 10, 11, 7, 19, 20 and 22

Side 2:  Tracks 9, 8, 17, 16, 12 and 21

CD4 (69:53 minutes): 

Live at Lafayette's Music Room, Memphis, Tennessee, January 1973

1. When My Baby's Beside Me 

2. My Life Is Right 

3. She's A Mover 

4. Way Out West 

5. The Ballad Of El Goodo 

6. In The Street 

7. Back Of A Car 

8. Thirteen

9. The India Song 

10. Try Again 

11. Watch The Sunrise 

12. Don't Lie To Me 

13. Hot Burrito No. 2

14. I Got Kinda Lost 

15. Baby Strange 

16. Slut 

17. There Was A Light 

18. St 100/06 

19. Come On Now 

20. O My Soul 

 

ENHANCED CD Content:

1. Thirteen (Alternate Mix Video)  

 

 

Roughly the size of an oversized seven-inch single, the card box is admittedly way too flimsy for its own good. Inside is a foldout card slipcase with colour photos of the boys in the band on each flap (CDs inside slots) - ALEX CHILTON, CHRIS BELL, JODY STEPHENS and ANDY HUMMEL. But the meat is in a gorgeous 102-page booklet that goes for it - the grocery chain across the street from the studios called BIG STAR (complete with star neon) that they took their name from graces the cover. Inside are five distinctive parts - A Message From John Frey their Producer at Ardent (Page 3) - Big Star: The More You Learn, The Less you Know by Robert Gordon (Page 7) - The Great Crusade Birthing The Cult Of Big Star by Bob Mehr (Page 42) - A Certain Magic: Track Notes by Alex Palao (Page 67) and Credits (Page 96).

There are fantastic photos of heroes like Chilton by his Big Black Car in Tennessee's Shelby Forest in the summer of 1973, a promo photo as threesome in 1974 by Front Street - by the Mississippi River with the BIG STAR neon logo hanging from a tree, loads in the studio, outtakes from the Radio City cover photoshoot, Chris Bell's solo 45-single "I Am The Cosmos" and of course track-by-track annotation (where possible). But truthfully, the audio is what takes your breath away too when you clap ears on this ANDREW SANDOVAL and DAN HERSCH Remasters. Over on Disc 2, it opens with three demos - mostly acoustic - and they sound amazing. Or shuffle up to "What's Going Ahn" (Track 7, CD2) and the glorious production whomps your speakers with audio most bands would quietly kill a close relative to attain. They even have photos from the live stuff on Disc 4 at the Lafayette Room in 1973. It's a typically exemplary compilation from reissue champs Rhino of the USA doing their forgotten sons and their musical legacy proud. To the tunes...

 

While I will never want to hear the 1968 Chris Bell solo cack that is "Psychedelic Stuff" ever again - it's an indication of how good this release is that even a slight 'alternative mix' to "Try Again" on CD1 by the band is greeted by my soppy noggin with tears and chills. A version first showed on the July 2003 American CD compilation for Rock City as "Rock City" on Lucky Seven Records - a rare disc too. You can hear Chris Bell's serious melodic chops deep inside Icewater's rather good "All I See Is You" too. Then the count-in to an Alternate of the stunning "Thirteen" - it's acoustic picking clean and clear and gorgeous to behold. You can unfortunately hear why the Alternate of "My Life Is Right" didn't work, but then again you get a winner in the beautifully done "Give Me Another Chance" - a different mix that rivals the officially released version. 

 

You're then reminded of the first time you laid tired lugs on the strum of No.1's "Try Again" - wow! The audio on this sucker is astonishing - John Fry's production values shining like an Abbey Road Remaster. Fans will enjoy the 'Single Version' of "Watch The Sunrise" (issued February 1973 in the USA on Ardent 2904) - what a tune and why wasn't it a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young type crossover hit? And I wasn't prepared for good the No. 1 closer "St 100/6" would sound as an 'Alternate'. Fans will also notice that the Single Mix proper for "In The Street" is a Bonus Track on the 2009 CD reissue for "No 1. Record" only and is represented here in 'Alternate Single Mix' form.

Three Demos open CD2 of which "Life Is White" is gorgeous, but its the audio bringing out their musicality that gets you time and time again - "Radio City" track "You Get What You Deserve" being a primo example of all these elements colliding in one glorious racket (dig that so subtle guitar solo and the crystal clear drums) - 10cc mates with Todd Rundgren and The Byrds and its offspring is playing in your living room. There's a great gruff guitar nastiness to the Stonesy Alternate Mix of "Mod Lang" and a huge almost overwhelming jangle to the Alternate of "Back Of A Car". Deep LP cuts like the so-pretty yet so-sad "Daisy Glaze" sound anew while who can deny the sheer Power Pop glory that is "September Gurls". And is there a more beautiful song - "I'm in Love With A Girl" flooring all the pretenders in its acoustic path - finest girl in the world indeed. 

 

I must admit that I never know what to do with "I Am The Cosmos" - it's swirling production and stoned faraway Chris Bell vocals - half of me thinks its a glorious mess while the other half wants the song to get its act together. No complaints about the acoustic guitars in the B-side "You And Your Sister" - stunning audio and more than a touch of that old Big Star magic shuffling around its 1978 Beach Boys soundscape. Fans with lose it for Tracks 21 to 26 that tail-end CD2. Both the Demos of "Blue Moon" and their cover of The Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale" are thrilling stuff and again with shocking audio clarity. Each is just acoustic ditty essentially (no dates are given) but with intimacy abundant - emotion raw - stuff like "Nightime" as lovely as you could want a Demo to be. 

After the abject and hurtful commercial failure of "No. 1 Record" in 1972 and its follow-up "Radio City" in 1974 - it was hardly surprising (though no less gauling) that the band found themselves with record number three and no one wanting to release it. Recorded n 1975, Page 89 of the booklet devotes a whole page to the Ardent Recording Studios letter from John S. King to Martin Cerf at the Phonograph Recording Magazine telling him that test pressings for their latest offering are enclosed (probably done February 1975 with white labels and Stax matrixes) which they would 'peddle' in the L.A. area the second week in march. But the wildly unimaginatively titled "3rd" (or "The Third Album" as it was known in the UK) would have to wait until 1978 to see the light of day. I mention all of this because CD3 is dominated by its darker disjointed presence. 

 

Opening CD3 on a lighter note is another gorgeous acoustic demo - "Lovely Day" which first surfaced on the "Thank You Friends: The Ardent Records Story" CD set from 2008. The demo of "Downs" introduces the electric guitar - choppy strums and harsh lyrics. Twelve-string opens an unrecognisble "Jesus Christ" (a lighter song than its title suggests) while piano and melancholy vocals fill the deeply sad "Holocaust" - Chilton's voice a mixture of child/adult hurt. The Previously Unissued Alternate Demo to "Big Black Car" features both acoustic and light electric guitar with doubled vocals. Tracks 6 to 25 are essentially the duo of Alex Chilton and Jody Stephen accompanied by additional musicians. The shimmering cover of the Velvet's debut album classic "Femme Fatale" is nice, but stuff like "O, Dana" and "Kizza Me" feel like they don't fit in anywhere and it's not surprising to me that no-one wanted to release this. 

"You Can't Have Me" is inflicted with awkward horns flitting in and out - "Nightime" softening the scene with acoustics and echoed slide guitar notes that 'dance' like the eyes of the girl he's admiring. "Dream Lover" comes off the 1985 PVC CD for "3rd/Sister Lovers" - a druggy heavy love song with deft string-arrangements that grows on you every time you hear it. The general aimlessness of the album is summed up in the drippy "Big Black Car" while the almost unfinished demo sound of the piano in "Stroke It Noel" feel like a man far too close to death. The second of the "3rd/Sister Lovers" takes comes in the Tom Waits-sounding "Downs" - a depressing fall from the musical grace of before. Love the distorted electric guitars of "Kanga Roo" that then combine with acoustic strums and floating mellotron notes - the song almost like a drunk let loose in the studio. "Thank You Friends" at least does a stab at a hit - its Pop feel undermined by openly antagonistic lyrical jabs. 

 

"3rd" comes to a close with "Take Care" - but again Chilton sounds like Kevin Ayers too stoned to concentrate. A decidedly mixed bag - CD3 ends on two differently paced cover versions - a raucous very Big Star-sounding stab at The Kinks' 60ts anthem "Till The End Of The Day" - an Alternate Mix that is Previously Unreleased - while the 50ts standard "Nature Boy" gets a piano and voice-only jab. I'll admit straight up that "3rd" has always been a blot on their copybook legend for me - an album that just doesn't work because it feels like falling apart disgracefully. Which brings us to the uplifting live set...

 

The live set (recorded 1973) opens up with a 'Thank You' and they're off into "When My Baby's Beside Me". Although Chris Bell isn't in the line-up, Rhino offers up two explanations for its inclusion. This is the only known live recording apparently out there that features the band that made the first two albums - the second reason being its intact audio quality (not audiophile, but not bootleg either). BIG STAR was a support act to Atlantic's Soul artists Archie Bell & The Drells - so the audience's palatable silent disinterest to a Rock band they don't know is present as they count in tunes without any audience fanfare. You can hear punters talking throughout "The Ballad Of El Goodo" as Chilton slowly grabs their attention with its lovely musicality. There are claps after "Back Of A Car" and even though there's incessant talking throughout the gorgeous "Thirteen" - you can feel the crowd beginning to notice the quality of the songs and the playing. The big twelve-string and tambourine of "Watch The Sunrise" are a little too far back in the mix - which is a shame because the audience noise overwhelms this precious artifact. And on it goes...

 

Why did they fail? I think the naff artwork didn't help, the name of the group you couldn't quite work out from the first LP's front cover, the piss-poor distribution and the dissolution of Stax adding to it all. A sound that was not the Prog, Funk or Heavy Rock of 1972 - diminishing songs and a third LP that didn't capture the magic of the first two? Whatever you look at it and despite my niggling feelings that I'll never play CD3 or 4 very much at all - "Keep An Eye On The Sky" does more than enough on its other fabulous parts to warrant our adoration.

 

What could have been - I say buy into what is - and marvel at music that still amazes 50-years after it was laid down by a combo of geniuses in front of and behind the glass booth...