"Good 'N' Cheap: The Eggs Over Easy Story" by EGGS OVER EASY [feat Link Wray] (2016 Yep Rock 2CD Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Gonna Have A Little Party..." 

No less than the influential Mojo Magazine has declared that 'British Pub Rock' is probably the fault of three long-haired American Country-Rock lads - Marin County's EGGS OVER EASY. And Yep Records of the USA are determined to get you to acknowledge this fact (and maybe buy their product too) – producing this beautifully handled but musically patchy 2CD reissue for these forgotten and largely unacknowledged trend makers.

You're getting their entire recorded output - two studio albums from 1972 and 1981 and a 1976 7" single (all released in the USA) and a new Disc of unreleased 1971 recordings made in the UK. But in order to get a fuller lay of the musical landscape – we need to get some serious detail out of the way first...

EGGS OVER EASY were:

Oakland’s JACK O'HARA (Guitar, Bass and Lead Vocals)

Philadelphia's AUSTIN de LONE (Keyboards, Guitars and Lead Vocals)

Greenwich Village’s BRIEN HOPKINS (Guitar, Bass, Keyboards and Lead Vocals)

These unlikely heroes came to Blighty in November 1970 at the behest of Hendrix's Producer and Manager Chas Chandler - and through incessant gigs, support slots and some recording sessions at Olympic Studios (a haunt beloved of both Hendrix and The Stones) - influenced a huge array of notable types including Elvis Costello and especially Nick Lowe's Brinsley Schwarz (who of course influenced loads more later on). Those unreleased sessions that were to form their 1971 debut album are now released on Disc 2 in tact for the first time.

Broke and without a label due to contractual crap and management decisions and still ensconced in the capitol city - they began gigging in London's 'Tally Ho' Jazz Club to buy - well Egg and Chips. And slowly from an audience of 8 to packing in hundreds - their rep began to grow. Soon they were meeting and playing for back-to-basic soon-to-be outfits like Brinsley Schwarz, Ducks Deluxe and Bees Make Honey and hanging out with influential people like the beloved and sympathetic British DJ John Peel. Which brings us to this reissue...

UK released Friday 24 June 2016 - "Good 'N' Cheap: The Eggs Over Easy Story" by EGGS OVER EASY on Yep Roc/Universal YEP-2402/B0022373-02 (Barcode 634457240223) is a 2CD Set of Remasters offering two albums, one 45 and a Previously Unreleased set of 1971 recordings on Disc 2. It plays out as follows:

Disc 1 (79:39 minutes):

1. Party Party

2. Arkansas

3. Henry Morgan

4. The Factory

5. Face Down In The Meadow

6. Home To You

7. Song is Born Of Riff And Tongue

8. Don't Let Nobody

9. Runnin' Down To Memphis

10. Pistol On A Shelf

11. Night Flight

Tracks 1 to 11 are their debut album "Good 'N' Cheap" - released September 1972 in the USA on A&M Records SP 4366 (no UK LP release until July 1986 on a reissue label - Edsel ED 199). Produced by LINK WRAY.

12. I'm Gonna Put A Bar In The Back Of My Car (& Drive Myself To Drink)

13. Horny Old Lady

Tracks 12 and 13 are a USA-Only 7" single released 1976 on Buffalo Records BR-0001

14. Fire

15. Scene Of The Crime

16. Forget About It

17. Louise

18. Lizard Love

19. You Lied

20. Driftin'

21. She Loves Me

22. Action

23. Mover's Lament

24. Noonie Nookie No

Tracks 14 to 24 are their second and last studio album "Fear Of Frying" - released 1981 in the USA on Squish Records NSFA-001

Disc 2 - London '71 (40:29 minutes)

1. Goin' to Canada

2. I Can Call You

3. Right On Roger

4. Country Waltz

5. Give Me What's Mine

6. Across From Me

7. Waiting For My Ship

8. January

9. Give And Take

10. Funky But Clean

11. I'm Still The Same

12. 111 Avenue C

The 24-page booklet features in-depth liner notes by GENE SCULATTI and contributions from surviving band members O’Hara and De Lone (Brien Hopkins passed in 2007) alongside A&M publicity photos, live shots, trade reviews and the usual reissue credits. The Audio is top class. PAUL STUBBLEBINE and FRED KERVORKIAN (of Kervorkian Mastering) did the Digital Transfers and Mastering and after years of dubious reissues - this is surely the best the Audio is ever going to be. Disc 2 admittedly has some hiss on some of the quieter passages - but never anything too much that would detract. The six-flap card-digipak has see-through trays with more photos while the flap has an array of press clippings. It's very tastefully done and feels substantial.

For their fondly remembered debut produced by Mister Guitar Rumble himself LINK WRAY (he plays ‘Kitchen Knife Lap Guitar’ too) - musically think The Band meets The Ozark Mountain Daredevils. Because Eggs Over Easy featured three distinctive voices - the songs alternate lead singers - so you get a light tone one moment - and a deeper the next. Despite the booklet's claim to undiscovered genius like Soul troubadour Rodriguez or Garage Band The Sonics (see my reviews) - the music is a very mixed bag. It works and doesn't work. When they're good - there's magic there - but when they're ordinary - you can hear why the public ignored it. "Song Of Riff And Tongue" is ruined by weedy vocals whereas the 'man shot in the head' horror of "Face Down In The Meadow" is given incredible power by its simple strumming melody and Hopkins' expressive voice. And as he sings "...just a few friends knew his name..." you can 'so' hear where Brinsley Schwarz and Help Yourself got some of their sound from (or were seriously influenced by this). "Home To You" is lovely and "Henry Morgan" could be straight off The Band's "Music From Big Pink" - his voice even sounding like Levon Helm in places. The kick-your-detractors-in-the-nuts song "Don't Let Nobody" is mild Funk Rock - the 'airplane' "Runnin' Down To Memphis" is pleasant enough too. "Pistol On The Shelf" has a sweet melody feeling like a really good Gene Clark number. It ends on the rocking "Night Flight" which has Punk in its veins - shades of Ducks Deluxe and even the New York Dolls years before the event.

You can hear the Nick Lowe wit in a song title like "I'm Gonna Put A Bar In The Back Of My Car (& Drive Myself To Drink)" - a lone American 45 in 1976 on Buffalo Records - a good time piano-rolling romp. But its 'come to my bedside' "Horny Old Lady" B-side thinks its hilarious and hip when its probably best forgotten. 

The 1981 second-album "Fear Of Frying" suffers from two influences within the band. It doesn't know what it wants to be - 'New Wave' one moment or 'Country Rock' the next. 
It opens with "Fire" - an updated more Funky version of the debut LP sound. Again it's good and awful - a victim of the time and naff productions. "Forget About It" sounds like it’s trying too hard to be angry and radical and all New Wave - but the Country Rock of "Louise" works - great vocals and a very pretty melody. We're back to sub Motels territory with "Lizard Love" while the Saxophone Bluesy-Rock of "You Lied" feels like the kind of song Gary US Bonds would sing when it was given to him by fan and friend - Bruce Springsteen. "She Loves Me" is good too but very 1981 "Action" just ends up sounding hammy.

Versions of the ‘Previously Unreleased’ tracks on Disc 2 turned up as Bonus cut on the February 2006 Hux Records CD Remaster of the debut album. Here we get the full session – even more paired back than the released LP. Excellent melodies like "Goin' To Canada", the lonesome and plaintive weariness of "January" and The Band sounding "Across From Me" rescue the bad taste that second LP left in the mouth. They rock out on "Funky But Clean" - a wickedly hooky little mother with some fuzzed-up guitar and 'I'm Funky' vocals. It ends on the Jazzy piano of "111 Avenue C" - a tune about a 'sweet thing' that lives on...

Despite the booklet’s hyped claims of genius - the audio evidence presented here hardly suggests that. But for Country-Rock and early Pub Rock aficionados there's also a 'whole lot to love' - especially that overlooked debut album "Good 'N' Cheap" and Disc 2's genuinely great discoveries.

Fans will absolutely have to own it and well done to all at Yep Roc for doing the band's legacy such a solid...

"For Your Pleasure" by ROXY MUSIC (Inside 2012's 'The Complete Studio Albums' 10CD Box Set Of Remasters On Virgin) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"…Swimming Pool Eyes…" 

What clobbers you most about re-listening to Roxy Music in this flash all-encompassing lump is the sheer 'quality' of what's on offer. They were good - I mean they were bloody good. I'd suspect that most music lovers have forgotten just how innovative, off-the-wall and downright sassy they were (and this is before we talk about a peerless run of top notch chart-singles that only got better as they progressed).

In amidst all 10 album-displays of glam, mascara and feather boas lurks CD2 - 1973's "For Your Pleasure" - rather grandly announced on the inner glossy gatefold of the original LP as 'the second Roxy Music Album'. Their June 1972 debut "Roxy Music" had stunning tracks like "If There Is Something" (used to such amazing effect in the Daniel Craig movie "Flashbacks Of A Fool") – but the follow-up raised that high bar even more. It's the kind of album that impresses all the way through - a Side-to-Side experience. But what's the best way to own it?

In 2016 there's many ways to get "For Your Pleasure" by ROXY MUSIC – the tasty stand-alone HDCD release from September 1999 on Virgin ROXYCD2 (use Barcode 724384744922 to locate that issue) with a John Anthony Remaster is a great buy (and cheap too). 

But I'd argue that this is a band worth a splash of your dodgy cash so splurge on the 2012 Remaster within ROXY MUSIC "The Complete Studio Recordings" 10CD Box Set on Virgin 5099944021726 (use Barcode 5099944021726 to locate it). Here are the details (42:25 minutes):

Side 1:

1. Do The Strand

2. Beauty Queen

3. Strictly Confidential

4. Editions Of You

5. In Every Dream Home A Heartache

Side 2:

6. The Bogus Man

7. Grey Lagoons

8. For Your Pleasure

Tracks 1 to 8 are the "For Your Pleasure – The Second Roxy Music Album" - released March 1973 in the UK on Island ILPS 9232 and in the USA on Warner Brothers BS 2696. Produced by Chris Thomas and Roxy Music - it peaked at No. 4 on the UK LP charts.

A little about presentation first... The 6” x 6” Box is hard and glossy as are each of the gorgeous gatefold sleeves contained within. Apart from basic credits on the rear - there's little else by way of info. Each of the over-sized repro gatefold sleeves within has a different coloured inner sleeve (with no info on either side) and each disc is a picture CD reflecting he album's front cover artwork. The "Singles, B-Sides And Alternate Mixes" 2CD set after the 8 albums is housed in a gold-coloured hard card gatefold sleeve (with gold inners) with the basic track lists on the inner gatefold and nothing else. No booklet.

To be clear about this - the box set says nothing anywhere about mastering or remastering - but it seems to be presumed that these are different from the 2000 HDCD remasters. They're supposedly 'flat transfers' and new 2012 versions. Whatever you look at it - they 'sound' amazing - clean, full of presence and possessed of beautiful warmth that feels close to the original analogue Island Records laminated gatefold sleeve marvels we all so loved so much back in the day. Roxy Music were notoriously 'audiophile' in their Productions from the get go so the sound quality on these CDs is pretty much reference.

"Do The Strand" is so Roxy Music - mad sounds that somehow seem like a coherent Rock song with Ferry's warbling vocals sailing above all and sundry. But true RM greatness turns up with the wonderful "Beauty Queen" where Ferry sings "...said you'll go far...maybe someday be a star..." You get this plinking keyboard sound from both Ferry and Brian Eno while John Porter's Bass anchors the song - but just as you think you know where its at - the tune goes fast and nuts halfway through only to return to the slow crawl (lyrics from it title this review). "Strictly Confidential" slinks in with a lone Obie from Andy Mackay and again builds with Phil Manzanera's guitar going bananas in some places. There can't be too many Roxy fans that don't chew up the bopper "Editions Of You" and I always wondered why Island Records 'UK' didn't try it as a 7" single (Warners USA put it on the B-side of "Do The Strand" in July 1973 on Warner Brothers 7119). Don't you just love that guitar and keyboard racket they make as the song rattles to its final note slide. Side 1 ends on the wickedly good and terminally cool "In Every Dream Home A Heartache" where Ferry comments on 'Smart Town Apartments' and 'Open Plan Living' - things he'd embrace himself quite soon.

Side 2 opens with the relentless beat of "The Bogus Man" - nine minutes of pumping proto rhythm – sinister and slightly icky. As Ferry’s treated double-vocals warble on about someone “...at your heels...clutching at your coat...” and the guitars flick and jerk - you're reminded of Talking Heads four years before their American sound took the US New Wave scene by storm. After the lengthy drone of the boogie man - "Grey Lagoons" immediately feels more lightweight - both Mackay and Ferry letting rip on Saxophone and Piano (I 'think' that's Eno's synth sounds treated to sound like a strangulated Harmonica). Island would use the album closer and title track "For Your Pleasure" as the B-side to the non-album "Both Ends Burning" single (Island WIP 6262) in December 1975. Again it's one of those Roxy moments you can't quite categorize as Ferry's 'ta ra' vocals skit in and out of the mix - floating above all those musical soundscapes...

Packed with hits and sleepers that deserve your dollar - "The Complete Studio Albums" 10CD Box Set sports gorgeous sound and albums that are better than you remember them. And as I read that Roxy's Make-up for the inner gatefold was done by Antony Price and their Hair was done by 'Smile' - I raise a smile myself - them was the days baby. Nobody made a sound like Roxy Music in 1973. Sure the Box Set is a pricey way to acquire "For Your Pleasure" and the cube has its flaws too (no booklet) - but like Brian Ferry's wardrobe - it still looks the part and is always going to pull the girls...

Do The Strand and Do The Glam Baby! And I wonder what happened to Amanda's tiger on the front cover - probably in rehab for big cats sipping an iced Marguerita. I like to think so...

"Bill Withers Live At Carnegie Hall" by BILL WITHERS (Inside 'The Complete Sussex And Columbia Albums' Columbia/Legacy 9CD Box Set) - A Review by Mark Barry...

This Review Along With 100s Of Others Is Available in my

SOUNDS GOOD E-Book on all Amazon sites

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SOUL, FUNK and JAZZ FUSION On CD - Exception Remasters  

Just Click Below To Purchase for £6.95

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"…Let Me In Your Life..." 

Columbia have many world-class box sets in their "Complete Album Series" – but you'd have to say that this BILL WITHERS winner is just a little bit more special than most. And with a thoroughly deserved Grammy win under the belt - it’s time to review the great Soul Man’s legacy - especially his brilliant but overlooked live double from 1973 – the fabulous "Bill Withers Live At Carnegie Hall".

You can buy the CD in two ways - a 1997 stand alone Remaster on Columbia/Legacy 488987 2 (Barcode 5099748898722) – a disc that gives you the full 14-track double-album onto 1CD (it was originally recorded 6 October 1972 at the famous venue in New York).

But I'd argue that Withers is too damn good to penny-pinch - so I'd advise you splash the cash and get the album within "The Complete Sussex And Columbia Albums" 9CD Box Set released November 2012 to much acclaim. Sony Music/Legacy 88697894672 (Barcode 886978946720) is a truly stunning 9-album set with a 40-page colour booklet that can often be procured for under a twenty-spot. Not only do you get the mighty "Carnegie Hall" double but you nail "Just As I Am" – his debut from 1971 – the wonderful "Still Bill" follow up LP from 1972 – 1974's unfairly forgotten "+ 'Justments" and so much more - "Making Music" (October 1975), "Naked & Warm" (October 1976), "Menagerie" (October 1977), "'Bout Love" (March 1979) and finally "Watching You Watching Me" (May 1985). But for this review we’ll concentrate on Disc 3 of 9 - "Bill Withers Live At Carnegie Hall" (77:09 minutes):

1. Use Me (Live)

2. Friend Of Mine (Live)

3. Ain’t No Sunshine (Live)

4. Grandma’s Hands (Live)

5. World Keeps Going Around (Live) - [Side 2]

6. Let Me In Your Life (Live)

7. Better Off Dead (Live)

8. For My Friend (Live)

9. I Can't Write Left Handed (Live) - [Side 3]

10. Lean On Me (Live)

11. Lonely Town Lonely Street (Live)

12. Hope She’ll Be Happier (Live)

13. Let Us Love (Live) – [Side 4]

14. Harlem/Cold Baloney (Live)

Tracks 1 to 13 are the live double album "Bill Withers Live At Carnegie Hall" – released April 1973 on Sussex SXBS 7025-2 in the USA and A&M/Sussex AMLD 3001 in the UK.

The attention to detail in the Box set is pleasing - the first 4 discs sport the Sussex label as per the original vinyl albums while the following five have the red Columbia labels. "Still Bill" has its 'opening doors' front sleeve while the double "Live At Carnegie Hall" also has its original gatefold reproduced. Each card sleeve is now bordered in white but it looks and feels classy (even if the print is tiny). The chunky 40-page booklet doesn’t scrimp on detail either - track-by-track annotation with photos of the albums, rare music press adverts, liner notes by Michael Eric Dyson and even a letter from the great man himself at the beginning about his long musical journey.

But the big news for fans is the stunning new remastered sound carried out by a trio of engineers - MARK WILDER for 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9 with 1, 2 and 7 handled by JOSEPH M. PALMACCIO and 3 (Carnegie Hall) done by TOM RUFF. Original analogue master tapes have been used in all transfers and what a job they’ve done... Right from the opening acoustic strum of “Harlem” on his fabulous debut album “Just As I Am” and onto the gutsy pump of “Lonely Town, Lonely Street” which opens the equally brill follow up LP “Still Bill” - the sound quality is truly glorious throughout. Beautiful feel - space around the instruments - clarity - warm bass - not to over-trebled - it’s a top notch job done and makes you re-hear all those wonderful songs anew. 

Like 1972's single "Donny Hathaway Live" LP - 1973's "...Carnegie Hall..." vinyl double has garnished a legendary reputation amongst Soul aficionados. Intimate with his audience despite the venue size - a band cooking - songs that sway and groove. Five of its mainly mellow fourteen are exclusive - the impassioned love songs "Friend Of Mine" and "Let Us Love", the acoustic old-man weariness of "World Keeps Going Around", the aching anti-war song "I Can't Write Left-Handed" and "Cold Baloney" which is worked into a 14 minute encore with "Harlem". "Carnegie Hall" is a whole heap of magic and you can literally feel the audience filing it into their memory banks. When he launches into some of the debut album's finest moments - "Ain't No Sunshine" or the lesser-heard funk of "Better Off Dead" - you can literally feel the crowd loving it - grooving - whopping - whistling.

There's Funk on here too - "Lonely Town, Lonely Street" from the 1972 "Still Bill" LP is neck-jerking excellence. That's immediately followed by the exact opposite - "Hope She'll Be Happier With Him". It's a post break-up love song - tender but also open like a wound as Withers sings "...maybe the lateness of the hour...makes me seem bluer than I am..." 

The cello builds as he belts out more hurting lyrics - "...over the darkness I have no power...hope she'll be happier with him..." His other huge hit "Lean On Me" elicits a whole-house handclap - a gorgeous Soul moment. This is a song that huge resonance and one that often moves me to tears and I’m sure a few were shed as this was played that October night way back 1972 New York.

Somehow like equal giants Bobby Womack, Minnie Riperton and Donny Hathaway - Bill Withers has always been the underdog of Soul - never spoken about in the same awe-struck tones that are routinely given to Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye and Otis Redding. In my book he’s always been right up there with the best of them - a world class Soul Brother - and this ludicrously good CD Remaster is a way in for us mere mortals to that musical greatness...

"...I loved that old lady..." - he says to the audience as he introduces "Grandma's Hands" on "Bill Withers Live At Carnegie Hall". Well - we feel the same about you mate. Beautiful and then some...

"Two Sides To Every Story" by GENE CLARK (2013 High Moon Records CD Remaster In A Hardback Limited Edition Numbered Pack with a Download Card for 21 More Songs) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Hear The Wind As She Cries..." 

The December 1974 debut solo LP "No Other" on Asylum Records of 'The Byrds' and 'Dillard and Clark' balladeer GENE CLARK is regularly cited by magazines and musical tomes as an 'overlooked slice of musical genius you must hear before you die' kind of record. And they'd be right. A Country Rock album with great tunes and emotional pathos that suffered from public indifference on release but has subsequently garnished adjectives and superlatives aplenty.

His second-platter "Two Sides To Every Story" on RSO Records from three years later suffered the same fate - and on rehearing it in 2016 - I can understand why. "Two Sides To Every Story" was an album out of time - its traditional 'hurly in the morning' Country Rock rhythms, violin swipes and banjo plucks widely out of step with the New Wave crash and clatter of 1977. But as others have pointed out - this pretty-looking but overly expensive and flawed 'High Moon Records' CD reissue of it also has its downsides - especially in the truly disappointing 'Download-Only' Bonus Tracks. There's a lot to get through so here are the two-sided details...

USA released 27 August 2013 - "Two Sides To Every Story" by GENE CLARK on High Moon Records HMRCD-002 (Barcode 641444103126) is a 'Deluxe Edition' CD Remaster - a Numbered Limited Edition of 5000 housed in a Hard Back Book pack (44:14 minutes).

1. Home Run King

2. Lonely Saturday

3. In The Pines

4. Kansas City Southern

5. Give My Love To Marie

6. Sister Moon [Side 2]

7. Marylou

8. Hear The Wind

9. Past Addresses

10. Silent Crusade

Tracks 1 to 10 are his 2nd studio album "Two Sides To Every Story" - released 14 June 1977 in the USA on RSO Records RS-1-3011 and March 1977 in the UK on RSO Records 2394 176. Produced by THOMAS JEFFERSON KAYE - it didn't chart Top 100 in either country.

It also offers 21 extra 'Download' tracks (20 music files, one interview) available via a 12-Digit Download card (inside the hard back sleeve) renewable from the High Moon Records website:

DOWNLOAD TRACKS (24-Bit WAV Files):

11. Life's Great Fool - Live

12. The True One - Live

13. The Radio Song - Live

14. No Other - Live

15. Silver Raven - Live

16. In The Pines - Live

17. Hear The Wind – Live

18. I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better - Live

19. I'll Be Back - Live

20. She Darked The Sun - Live

21. Kansas City Southern - Live

22. From A Silver Phial - Live

23. Home Run King - Live

24. Sister Moon - Live

25. Daylight Line – Live

26. What Is Meant Will Be - Live

27. Wheels Of Time - Live

28. Some Misunderstanding – Live

29. She Don't Care About Time – Live

30. I Saw A Dream Come True - Live

31. Gene Clark Interview (Taped 1974, Previously Unreleased)

It has to be said that the hardback book is a lovely thing to behold and read - gorgeous colour photos of Clark at his Mendochino house where all the songs were written - snaps of him with Emmylou Harris and Jim Dickson - original Manager and Producer of The Byrds - Biography Pages from the period - the CD apes the RSO Records label - and it's numbered in gold on the rear - a limited edition of 5000. But that's naught to the fabulous audio. JOHN STROTHER did the Tape Transfers and legendary Rhino Records Audio Engineer DAN HERSCH did the Remaster and the Audio is truly superb - all the songs sounding so much better than my battered US vinyl copy.

With Emmylou Harris and Steve Soles on Backing Vocals - the album opens strongly on the very Country-Rock "Home Run King" - a banjo-plucking Douglas Dillard drives a tale of local Babe Ruth types that comes on all Commander Cody meets The Ozark Mountain Daredevils (it's a catchy little tune). "Lonely Saturday" is far better - a gorgeous and impressive ballad with the Pedal Steel of Al Perkins to the fore (was part of Stephen Stills' 'Manassas' band) and both Daniel and Matthew Moore adding sweet Backing Vocals. Back to Eagles-bopping-Country with a very uptempo cover of a Traditional - "In The Pines" - Byron Berline's fiddle-playing dominating the 'ye ha' feel. Listen hard you can also hear the Backing Vocals of Douglas Dillard, Pepper Watkins and ace songwriter John Hartford who penned the lovely "Gentle On My Mind" made famous by Glen Campbell. I dig the Country-Rock guitar boogie of "Kansas City Southern" hugely enhanced by Steely Dan/Doobie Brothers ace axeman Jeff "Skunk" Baxter laying down wickedly good slide solos (Daniel and Matthew Moore on Backing Vocals also). Side 1 ends with six and half minutes of "Give My Love To Marie" - a James Talley ballad given the most beautifully tender version by Clark. This is surely an album highlight - a labourer's tale of longing - a miner seeing "...millions in the ground but not a penny for me..." and yet all he can think about is lighting a lantern in a window and giving his love to Marie.

Emmylou Harris and Sam Soles return to bolster up the beautiful "Sister Moon" (Side 2's opening number) with their fantastically expressive combo vocals - a five-minute ballad that screams out to be covered by Bonnie Raitt or Shawn Colvin or someone of that quality. Right from its keyboard-tinkling opening - "Sister Moon" feels like a classic and along with "Give My Love To Marie" is worth the price of admission. Sam Ling and Jessie Obie get their "Mary Lou" R&B song (originally sung by Young Jessie on Modern Records in 1955) get upgraded into a bopping cautionary tale. Buddy Knox, Ronnie Hawkins and even Bob Seger have had a go at covering it - usually in a rocking R&B way - but Clark slows it down and gives it back its original menace. There follows another album highlight - his own "Hear The Wind" - a Country ballad awash with Al Perkins on Pedal Steel and the Backing Vocals of Matthew and Daniel Moore. The pain dripping from the lyrics (used in the title of this review) feel like a man trying to get to the truth. With lyrics like "The first time I saw you...the heart became the ruler of my mind..." the love song "Past Addresses" is another beauty - while the sea sounds of "Silent Crusades" put me in mind of that other neglected-at-the-time post classic - "Pacific Ocean Blue" by Dennis Wilson. But while the album and remaster is a high - the Extras prove a frustrating and bitter disappointment...

The supposed 24-bit WAV Files from the Download prove to be a set of badly recorded audience recordings put down at the 'Mother’s Blues' Club sometime in 1975. The problem is they don't feel like bonuses - but a bit of a rip-off. It's a damn shame - because when he and his band launch into "Silver Raven" for instance - not only can you hear the gorgeousness of the song but also that the group are on top playing form. But the audio reeks of tape wobble and is the kind of crap bootleggers used to pull on fans all of the time. Throughout the excellent "In The Pines" and other tracks there's a woman talking incessantly - so that tune is screwed. His version of The Byrds classic "I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better" sticks to the original but he banjo's up The Beatles "I'll Be Back" and its on cool rearranged stuff like this that you wish the tapes were studio quality. “Kansas City Southern” sees the band cooking but again there’s poor sound and audience chatter despite the boogie. By the time you get to “Silver Moon” – the hiss levels are through the roof because it’s from another poor tape (I think). The previously unreleased 12-minute ‘B Mitchel-Reed Interview’ taped in Los Angeles in 1974 is better – professionally recorded with the famous American DJ – they touch on the dissolution of The Byrds – the band's youth and inability to handle fame and the egos. It also features clips of songs from The Byrds' catalogue and Clark's own two solo LPs to that point.

I'd honestly have to dock this release a star for those poor and frustrating Extras - which seems churlish in the face of the album's beauty - but a review should reflect the reissue and not the music contained within. Had those live tracks been properly recorded - this reissue would have been in the Neil Young 'Massey hall 1971' CD territory where 10-stars wouldn't be enough. But it's not...and that extortionate price irks too.

A gorgeous album then (overlooked and underpaid) coupled with a properly wonderful Remaster and very tasty booklet presentation - but all of it let down by those extras that promise so much but deliver so little. And from this reissue you can trace it back and 'so hear' why The Byrds made such stunning and melodic music - all that writing talent swirling around in the same band.

GENE CLARK passed in 1991 aged only 46 – but man what a legacy this original Byrd left behind...