“Guy Clark/The South Coast Of Texas/Better Days” by GUY CLARK (2015 Beat Goes On 2CD Set – Andrew Thompson Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

“...Lone Star Hotel...”

With his first two favourably-received albums under his belt at RCA Records – “Old No.1” in August 1975 and “Texas Cookin’” in October 1976 – Singer-songwriter GUY CLARK signed a new deal with Warner Brothers and slowly sneaked out this trio of affectionately-remembered Country LPs across the next five years (1978, 1981 and 1983). Quickly acquiring a reputation as a Texas-Born Troubadour down with the drunks, the broken marriages and the outlaw fringes of society – Guy Clark saw his biggest chart success in the early Eighties. But more than that - his albums (like those of say John Hiatt, Chris Smither and John Prine) were also greeted with huge affection by other artists and became a wellspring – a provider of catchy tunes for the likes of Johnny Cash, Vince Gill, Waylon Jennings, Nicolette Larson, Emmylou Harris and Ricky Scaggs (to name but a few). Fellow Texan and lifelong friend Rodney Crowell produced both the 80’s LPs – co-writing “The Partner Nobody Chose” and the US Country No.1 “She’s Crazy For Leavin’” on “The South Coast Of Texas” album.

England’s Beat Goes On Label has licensed these three long-deleted albums from WEA and presents them here in their usual classy way – a card slipcase, quality remastered sound and decent liner notes. There’s a lot on offer – so let’s get to the jailhouse now...

UK released June 2015 (July 2015 in the USA) – “Guy Clark/The South Coast Of Texas/Better Days” by GUY CLARK on Beat Goes On BGOCD 1190 (Barcode 5017261211903) provides 3LPs onto 2CDs and breaks down as follows:

Disc 1 (69:29 minutes):

1. Fool On The Roof

2. Fools For Each Other

3. Shade Of All Greens

4. Voila, An American Dream

5. One Paper Kid

6. In The Jailhouse Now [Side 2]

7. Comfort And Crazy

8. Don’t You Take It Too Bad

9. The Houston Kid

10. Fool On The Roof Blues

Tracks 1 to 10 are his 3^rd studio album “Guy Clark” – released May 1978 in the USA on Warner Brothers BSK 3241 and in the UK on Warner Brothers K 56565

11. Who Do You Think You Are

12. Crystelle

13. New Cut Road

14. Rita Ballou

15. South Coast Of Texas

16. Heartbroke [Side 2]

17. The Partner Nobody Chose

18. She’s Crazy For Leavin’

19. Calf-Rope

20. Lone Star Hotel

Tracks 11 to 20 are his 4^th studio album “The South Coast Of Texas” – released February 1981 in the USA on Warner Brothers BSK 3381 and in the UK on Warner Brothers K 56902.  

Disc 2 (31:30 minutes):

1. Blowin’ Like A Bandit

2. Better Days

3. Homegrown Tomatoes

4. Supply & Demand

5. The Randall Knife

6. The Carpenter [Side 2]

7. Uncertain Texas

8. No Deal

9. Tears

10. Fool In The Mirror

Tracks 1 to 10 are his 5^th studio album “Better Days” – released 1983 in the USA and Europe on Warner Brothers 9 23880-1.

The card slipcase that is now standard with all BGO releases lends the whole thing a classy feel and look while the pleasingly chunky 24-page booklet features the original album credits, inner sleeve artwork spread across the text and the lyrics to all three records at the rear. Inbetween is a typically superb and detailed analysis of his whole career by noted-writer and long-time BGO-collaborator JOHN O’REGAN. The “Better Days” album sleeve is used as the back inlay on the inside. The remasters are by ANDREW THOMPSON and sound gorgeous – the production values of NEIL WILBURN (“Guy Clark”) and RODNEY CROWELL (the other two) shining through – not to mention the long line of quality players including names like Buddy Emmons, Albert Lee, Don Everly and KT Oslin.

The self-titled Warner Brothers debut has six Clark originals with the other four being covers of old and new songs – “In The Jailhouse Now” (Jimmie Rogers), “Voila, An American Dream” (Rodney Crowell), “One Paper Kid” (Walter Cowart) and “Don’t You Take It Too Bad” (Townes Van Zandt). Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell and Irishman Phillip Donnelly provide the acoustic and electric guitars for most tunes but England’s Albert Lee puts in lead (once with Heads, Hands & Feet and later The Crickets). And along with Dave Briggs and the legendary Buddy Emmons on Pedal Steel Guitars and Mickey Raphael on Harmonica – the sound was slicker and dare-we-say-it more radio-friendly Country than that of the first two records. There are a lot of broken-hearted lovers in these tunes and people who are just plain out of luck – the accusations fly in slyly lovely “Fools For Each Other” as Clark croons with a side-order of blasé “...who took off when their heart got broke...” while an innocent local dreamer is taken out by a drunk-driver in “One Paper Kid” and now sings in a place where “...it’s legal to dream...” The prettiness of “Shade Of All Greens” is about as languid as Country Rock gets with Buddy Emmons adding so much to the song as he slides up and own those pedal steel strings in the background. For me one of the album highlights is the sad yet hopeful “One Paper Kid” which Emmylou Harris would cover that year on her “Quarter Moon In A Ten Cent Town”. Side Two opens with Jimmie Rogers’s fun as he camps up the pace with “In The Jailhouse Now” which the Coens would have Tim Blake Nelson sing in their 2000 movie “O, Brother Where Art Thou?” (as “The Soggy Bottom Boys”). Soft and gentle comes at you twice on Side 2 – his own “Comfort And Crazy” and his delicious cover of Townes Van Zandt’s “Don’t You Take It Too Bad” with both Don Brooks on Harmonica and Kay T. Oslin on Duet Vocals making the song.

His 4^th album “The South Coast Of Texas” from 1981 saw some high-profile (soon to be stars) contributions – Ricky Scaggs plays Fiddle and sings on “Heartbroke”, Roseanne Cash sings on “Crystelle” and Vince Gills puts in Vocals too. Emmylou Harris’ Hot Band made up the backing musicians – Hank DeVito on Guitars, Ricky Scaggs on Fiddle, Emory Gordy and Glen Hardin on Keyboards. “The South Coast Of Texas” has pleasing tunes on it like the chipper “New Cut Road” and the line-dancing shuffle of “Rita Ballou” – but on the underage song “Crystelle” and the title track – there feels like some of the magic of the “Guy Clark” album is somehow lost. The almost poppy “Heartbroke” is a clear aim at commercial Country but again it feels ordinary – while I find it inexplicable as to why “She’s Crazy For Leavin’” made it to Number One. Perhaps his love for his wife Susanna Clark (his lifetime partner) imbibed the Warners debut with something special that the follow up three years later didn’t have.

The “Better Days” album opens with a winning melody “Blowin’ Like A Bandit” where taking a boat out to sea will guarantee all occupants become shark-bait in the morning (Reggie Young on Lead Guitar). Once again Vince Gill and Hank DeVito bring their guitars to the backing group and the remaster is gorgeous on the “Better Days” title track. Paul Kennerley (who worked a lot with The Judds) provides Bass Vocals on the ever-so-slightly hick “Homegrown Tomatoes” but better is the side finisher “The Randall Knife” where Clark sounds and sings like John Prine’s younger brother (a great storytelling song about his father). Crowell sings on “Uncertain Texas” where again he sounds like John Prine circa 1991’s “The Missing Years”. It ends on the funky guitar chug of “Fool In The Mirror” where he bemoans that he’s putting on a little bit of weight because his “baby’s gone”.

So there you have it – three good albums sounding real sweet on one 2CD quality remaster/reissue. In 2014 Guy Clark’s album “My Favorite Picture Of You” pulled the Grammy for ‘Best Folk Album Of The Year’.

20-albums into a 40-year career and still a class act...

“Think About The Times: The Chrysalis Years 1969 to 1972” by TEN YEARS AFTER [featuring Alvin Lee] (2010 EMI 3CD Remasters) - A Review By Mark Barry...

"…Only Thing I Understand Is Living…”

Released 26 July 2010 as a 3CD set - "Think About The Times: The Chrysalis Years 1969 to 1972" by TEN YEARS AFTER on Chrysalis/EMI 5099964214726 takes its title from a track on their great 1970 album "Watt". Here are 50,000 miles of boogie details…

Disc 1 (76:53 minutes):

1. Bad Scene

2. Two Time Mama

3. Stoned Woman

4. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl

5. If You Should Love Me

6. I Don’t Know That You Don’t Know My Name

7. The Stomp

8. I Woke Up This Morning

Tracks 1 to 8 are the album "Ssssh" – released August 1969 in the UK on Deram SML 1052 and in the USA on Deram/London DES 18029

Track 9 is "If You Should Love Me" – the non-album 7" single B-side to the 'American' release of "Love Like A Man" issued in 1970 on Deram DEM 7529

10. Sugar The Road

11. Working On The Road

12. 50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain

13. Year 3000 Blues

14. Me And My Baby

15. Love Like A Man

16. Circles

17. As The Sun Still Burns

Tracks 10 to 17 are the album "Cricklewood Green" – released April 1970 in the UK on Deram SML 1065 and in the USA on Deram DES 18038

Disc 2 (79:17 minutes):

Track 1 is "Love Like A Man (Single Edit)" – a non-album version [A-side] issued May 1970 in the UK on Deram DM 299

2. I’m Coming On

3. My Baby Left Me

4. Thing About The Times

5. I Say Yeah

6. The Band With No Name

7. Gonna Run

8. She Lies In The Morning

Tracks 2 to 9 are the album "Watt" – released December 1970 in the UK on Deram SML 1078 and Deram XDES 18050

10. One Of These Days

11. Here They Come

12. I’d Love To Change The World

13. Over The Hill

14. Baby Won’t You Let Me Rock n Roll You

15. Once There Was A Time

16. Let The Sky Fall

17. Hard Monkeys

18. I’ve Been There Too

19. Uncle jam

Tracks 10 to 19 are the album "A Space In Time" – released August 1971 in the UK on Chrysalis CHR 1001 and in the USA on Columbia KC 30801

Disc 3 (60:16 minutes):

Track 1 is "I'd Love To Change The World (Single Edit)" – a non-album 7” single version [A-side] issued September 1971 in the USA on Columbia 4-45457

2. You Gave Me Loving

3. Convention Prevention

4. Turned Off TV Blues

5. Standing At The Station

6. You Can’t Win Them All

7. Religion

8. Choo Choo Mama

9. Tomorrow I’ll Be Out Of Town

10. Rock & Roll Music To The World

Tracks 2 to 10 are the album "Rock & Roll Music To The World" – released October 1972 in the UK on Chrysalis CHR 1009 and in the USA on Columbia KC 31779

Track 11 is "Choo Choo Mama (Single Edit)" – a non-album 7” single version [A-side] issued November 1972 in the USA on Columbia 4-45736

Track 12 is "Love Like A Man (Recorded Live At Bill Graham's Fillmore East)" – a non-album 7” single version [B-side to “Love Like A Man”] issued May 1970 in the UK on Deram DM 299

Housed in a double jewel-case with a fairly skimpy (but informative) 8-page booklet - EMI have released many multiple CD sets in this 'retro' series with the same generic packaging - Robin Trower, Frankie Miller, Barclay James Harvest, The Groundhogs, UFO and The Edgar Broughton Band among them. All are remastered and pitched at mid-price.

In this case (as is with most of the others) – the superb remastered sound comes courtesy of PETER MEW at Abbey Road. It should also be noted that "Ssssh", "Cricklewood Green" and "Watt" are different remasters to the 2002 versions done by PASCHAL BYRNE at Alchemy Audio in London. The other big draw here for TYA fans is the difficult to find and hugely popular albums "A Space In Time" and "Rock & Roll Music To The World" from 1971 and 1972 respectively – available remastered - and reasonably priced at last.

Musically – as one reviewer rightly says – some tracks are plodding and none are 'live' and therefore not really representative of the band at their best. But dealing with what we do have - there is so much on here to savour. "Working On The Road", "I'm Coming On" and "Choo Choo Mama" are great boogie tunes. I also love the acoustic vibe of "Circles", the Prog Rock keyboards of "Standing At The Station" and the string arrangements of "Over The Hill". There are even wise deliberations on beliefs on the trippy treated vocals of "Religion" (lyrics above). It isn't all genius - of course not. But there are 5 studio albums & five rare 7” single sides on here – and that's an awful lot of Classic Rock music for not a huge amount of wonga.

Niggles - packaging wise its workmanlike at best. I would have much preferred it if this entire series has gone down the road of Columbia's "Original Classic Albums" mini box sets – albums in repro card sleeves with the full session info available via download from Sony’s website. But alas…

Too often overlooked - TEN YEARS AFTER still hold huge swathes of fans in serious affection – and on re-hearing these remasters and Alvin Lee's terrific axework – it’s easy to know why. Rock & Roll Music To Us...

"Living In The Past" by JETHRO TULL (1997 US-Only Mobile Fidelity Ultradisc-2 Original Mastering Recording 2CD Remasters With Both US and UK LP Track Lists) - A Review By Mark Barry...

This Review Along With 310 Others Is Available In My

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"…And Above You…There's No Other…"

In 2015 fans of the 2LP compilation set “Living In The Past” find themselves sandwiched between a Ford Anglia and a Rolls Royce (no offence to Anglia owners). This double is still the one hole in Jethro Tull's catalogue from those classic years as yet untouched by the magical knob-twiddling genius of Steve Wilson. You can buy it in only two versions - a horrible truncated single-disc from way back in 1990 with yuck sound - or this - the uber-expensive but uber-desirable Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab 2CD remaster (now deleted and very costly). Some history is needed to explain…

The 2LP set "Living In The Past" was first issued in July 1972 in the UK on Chrysalis CJT 1 and October 1972 in the USA on Chrysalis 2CH 1035 - both originals sporting hardback book sleeves with 12 pages of colour shots inside. The set's title reflected what was within - a ragbag of previously released album tracks bolstered up with new live and studio songs, rare single sides and their non-album flips. This 2CD version pans out as follows...

Released Stateside in September 1997 on Mobile Fidelity UDCD 2708 (Barcode 015775470828) — this 'full' 2CD version is an audiophile issue - an ORIGINAL MASTER RECORDING housed in a card wrap with two gold ULTRADISC-2 CDs in two separate lift-lock CD cases inside. The detached oversized booklet slotted in beside the CDs replicates entirely the packaging and liner notes of the original double vinyl album - right down to the book texture feel of the front and rear sleeve. Nice touches it has to be said and the oversized nature of the booklet makes it a far better read that standard CD jewel case fare. However, the liner notes get some details wrong which need clarifying...

  

Disc 1 (42:55 minutes):

1. Song For Jeffrey [Side 1]

2. Love Story 

3. Christmas Song

4. Living In The Past 

5. Driving Song 

6. Bouree

7. Sweet Dream [Side 2]

8. Sing All Day 

9. Teacher 

10. Witch's Promise 

11. Inside 

12. Alive And Well And Living In 

13. Just Trying To Be 

Although the original double vinyl album had twelve songs on both sides of the pond - you will notice that Disc 1 has 13 tracks and not 12. The reason for the extra song is that, "Inside" (from the "Benefit" LP) appeared as track 5 on Side 2 of the original UK issue - but the US variant replaced that track with "Alive And Well And Living In" (another "Benefit" track in the UK and the B-side to the UK 7" single of "Inside"). Both have been included on this 2CD set for completeness. Tracks 1 to 11 and 13 make up the 12 tracks of Side 1 and 2 of the original UK double album using strict sequencing - the US variant is sequenced using Tracks 1 to 10 with 12 and 13.

Disc 2 (45:35 minutes):

1. By Kind Permission Of [Side 3 - Both 1 and 2 Are Live]

2. Dharma For One 

3. Wond'ring Aloud [Side 4]

4. Hymn 43

5. Locomotive Breath 

6. Life Is A Long Song 

7. Up The Pool 

8. Dr. Bogenbroom 

9. From Later 

10. Nursie 

Like Disc 1 - Disc 2 also has an extra track. Track 5 is "Locomotive Breath" from the "Aqualung" LP - it appeared as Track 2 on Side 4 of the original UK issue. However, the US variant replaced this with another cut from "Aqualung" - "Hymn 43" - again both tracks are included on the Mobile Fidelity issue for completeness. Tracks 1 to 3 and 5 to 10 make up the 9 tracks of Side 3 and 4 of the original UK double album using strict sequencing - Tracks 1 to 4 and 6 to 10 for the US variant.

To confuse matters further - the ok-sounding official 1990 EMI release of "Living In The Past" on CD is a truncated single disc...so this US-only Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab issue is the only way to get the full double in one place - and more importantly - with great sound.

Speaking of which - when I compare "Locomotive Breath" and "Hymn 43" on the 1996 "Aqualung" remaster to these MF versions - the difference couldn't be more marked. As every Tull fan knows the early "Aqualung" remaster was one of the worst and dullest of issues - these MF versions leap out of the speakers - although I’d have to say that Wilson's 2011 remaster now has the edge. As the recordings vary from 1968 to 1971, the sound does so too, but the Mobile issue still excels on them all - especially the beautiful acoustic turns "Just Trying To Be” and "Up The 'Pool". In fact - excepting the excessive two live tracks, which took up all of Side 3, it's amazing how well the whole set holds together - even to this day. I've always loved the way this double-album plays - it works. Lyrics from "Love Story" title this review…

If you're not bothered about owning the two Live cuts "By Kind Permission Of" and "Dharma For One" - then eagle-eyed fans will know that with the quality reissues of "Stand Up", "Benefit" and "Aqualung" - you can sequence Steve Wilson remasters of all the key studio tracks. But the bottom line is that if you want really great sound ‘and’ the full compliment - then this now deleted Mobile Fidelity 2CD set is the only place to get it. It’s just such a damn shame that in 2015 - it costs so bloody much. Time for a Super Deluxe Edition of "Living In The Past" methinks - and what a mouth-watering (and wallet-depleting) thought that is…

PS: see also my reviews for JETHRO TULL's "This Was: Collector's Edition" and "The 50th Anniversary Edition", "Benefit" and "Aqualung: 40th Anniversary Edition" in Original and Reissue Forms...