"Teenage Licks/Ontinuous Performance" by STONE THE CROWS [feat Maggie Bell on Vocals, Lesley Harvey and Jimmy McCulloch on Guitars] (2015 Angel Air 2CD Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Keep On Rollin'..." 

England's Angel Air Label did a 2CD solid by the first two albums from Scotland's STONE THE CROWS back in September 2015 (see separate review). This October 2015 next-stage twofer gives us their 3rd and 4th platters on Polydor from 1971 and 1972 before the band imploded after the loss of their founder and inspiration Lesley Harvey (brother of Alex) from a freak electrocution accident on stage in May 1972.

Both their debut "Stone The Crows" and its follow-up "Ode To John Law” had been released in July 1970 and February 1971 to critical acclaim but few sales. Fronted by not one but two stunning Vocalists in Maggie Bell and James Dewar – Scotland's STONE THE CROWS also boasted the guitar talents of Leslie 'Les' Harvey (younger brother of Alex Harvey) and the songwriting genius of Keyboardist John McGinnis. Both Dewar and McGinnis had jumped ship by album number three "Teenage Licks" – replaced by Keyboard wizard Ronnie Leahy and then adding Jimmy McCulloch on Guitars for their final studio LP "Ontinuous Performance" (ex Thunderclap Newman and later with McCartney's Wings).

I've been after their wicked run of four albums on Polydor between 1970 and 1972 on affordable/decent CD remasters for years now – and at long last Angel Air of the UK (and in conjunction with the band) have acquired the tapes and remastered all four back into digital form and even found space to chuck on four bonus live tracks. Here are the pious birds of good omen...

UK released October 2015 – "Teenage Licks/Ontinuous Performance" by STONE THE CROWS on Angel Air SJPCD468 (Barcode 5055011704688) gives us their last two studio albums onto a 2CD set with four bonus tracks and plays out as follows:

Disc 1 (49:22 minutes):
1. Big Jim Salter
2. Faces
3. Mr. Wizard
4. Don't Think Twice
5. Keep On Rollin' [Side 2]
6. Ailen Mochree
7. One Five Eight
8. I May Be Right But I May Be Wrong
9. Seven Lakes
Tracks 1 to 9 are their third studio LP "Teenage Licks" – released September 1971 in the UK on Polydor Super 2425 071 and January 1972 in the USA on Polydor PD 5020. Produced by MARK LONDON – Engineered by EDDIE OFFORD, GEORGE CHIANTZ and MARTIN RUSHENT.

BONUS TRACKS:
10. Let It Down (Live)
11. Going Down (Live)
Tracks 10 and 11 are from the "Radio Sessions: 1969-72" – originally UK released May 2009 as a 2CD Stone The Crows set on Angel Air SJPCD272

For "Teenage Licks" STONE THE CROWS was:
MAGGIE BELL – Lead Vocals
LESLEY 'Les' HARVEY – Guitars, Recorders
RONNIE LEAHY – Keyboards
STEVE THOMPSON - Bass
COLIN ALLEN – Drums and Percussion

Guests:
Dundee Horns (pre Average White Band) featuring:
Roger Ball, Malcolm 'Molly' Duncan and Noel (?) who play brass on "Mr. Wizard"
Wee Marie (?) sings on "Faces" and "Don't Think Twice"

Disc 2 (48:05 minutes):
1. On The Highway
2. One More Chance
3. Penicillin Blues
4. King Tut [Side 2]
5. Good Time Girl
6. Niagara
7. Sunset Cowboy
Tracks 1 to 7 are their 4th and final studio album "Ontinuous Performance" – released October 1972 in the UK on Polydor Super 2391 043 and in the USA on Polydor PD 5037. Produced by MARK LONDON – Engineered by MARTIN RUSHENT and JOHN BROMLEY.

BONUS TRACKS:
8. Good Time Girl (Live)
9. Penicillin Blues (Live)
Tracks 8 and 9 are from the "Radio Sessions: 1969-72" – UK released May 2009 as a 2CD Stone The Crows set on Angel Air SJPCD272

For "Ontinuous Performance" STONE THE CROWS was:
MAGGIE BELL – Lead Vocals
LESLEY HARVEY – Guitars on Tracks 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6
JIMMY McCULLOCH – Guitars on Tracks 5 and 7
RONNIE LEAHY – Keyboards
STEVE THOMPSON - Bass
COLIN ALLEN – Drums and Percussion
Guests: Roger Ball and Malcolm Duncan of the Dundee Horns

Although the 8-page inlay has new liner notes from Malcolm Dome and includes interviews with Maggie Bell and Colin Allen as well as a few photos – it's a disappointingly slight affair that doesn’t even bother to provide catalogue numbers for the LPs or proper release dates. What you do get is a potted history of the Scottish band arising out of the ashes of The Power who were managed by Zeppelin's Peter Grant. Grant had them change their name because an American group had already nabbed it – and it was he who suggested the much cooler moniker of STONE THE CROWS. A nice touch is that each CD is a picture disc of the album front covers – and the inner gatefold artwork for the beautiful-looking "Teenage Licks" album (done by C.C.S.) is used as a backdrop to the text on most pages. But there are sloppy typo errors in the band names like Jimmie instead on Jimmy and Collen instead of Colin. The inside of the rear inlay advertises other Stone the Crow and Maggie Bell releases on Angel Air...

There is no mention of who remastered the albums but there is a credit that the material is licenced from Maggie Bell and Colin Allen. The audio is a mixed bag of brilliant clarity one moment followed by awful hiss the next (thankfully the later is more in ascendancy).

The moment you play the two opening tracks of "Teenage Licks" - the kick-ass boogie of "Big Jim Salter" and the Rod Stewart soulful saunter of "Faces" - you're aware of two things - the great Remaster and why Maggie Bell won 'Vocalist Of The Year' so many times in those early years. Her rasp is fabulous and combined with the huge organ sound achieved by Leahy - the effect is like The Faces meets The Stones in 1971 with a woman leading out front instead of Jagger or Rodders. I still don't know the identity of 'Wee Mary' credited on the back cover of the album who harmonises so perfectly with Maggie Bell on "Faces" - answers on a postcard please. We then get the Brian Auger funky "Mr. Wizard" - a chugger written by Allen, Bell and Harvey. It starts with Auger organ notes floating over a cool backbeat but is soon joined by what Maggie Bell nicknamed the 'Dundee Horns' - several members of the Average White on brass. And dig that Harvey guitar work as Maggie roars about incantations. It's a dreadful cliché to cover a Dylan song but Stone The Crows turn "Don't Think Twice" into something Rock-Soulful - a superb version with real power.

Side 2 opens with the rollicking "Keep On Rollin'" - a boozy piano/guitar boogie with Maggie letting rip on those 'carry our heavy load' images while Harvey riffs alongside some Leahy organ soloing. The Scottish Traditional "Ailen Mochree" is 25-seconds of Maggie doing an Acapella rendition before things get all guitar/organ trippy and weird on the McGinnis composition "One Five Eight". I love this track - just when you've pigeonholed Stone The Crows as purely a good-time band - they give you the slightly Proggy five-minutes plus of "One Five Eight". Surely one of everyone's fave raves is the brilliant Faces boogie of "I May Be Right But I May be Wrong" - the kind of early Seventies piano/guitar romp that I've stuck on countless 70ts Fest CD-Rs. The album then ends on the slow piano and acoustic guitars of "Seven Lakes" and you're left thinking - why didn't this corking LP create more of a stir?

After three good LPs failed to make an impression on the British album charts – inexplicably the public seemed to notice record number four and the weirdly titled "Ontinuous Performance" charted first week of October 1972. Spurred on by this – Polydor launched "Good Time Girl" backed with "On The Highway" as a British 45 in November 1972 (Polydor 2058 301) but it failed to make the desired impression. No other singles were tried. With the whole album dedicated to Harvey who had passed in May 1972 from a freak accident (killed on the stage) - many feel "Ontinuous Performance" is somehow a lesser album but I've always liked it. Leahy's "One More Chance" allows Maggie to be Soulful while the (admittedly hissy) slide of "Penicillin Blues" lets both Harvey and Bell give it some Delta like its in their very DNA. I love the slinky instrumental "King Tut" but I'd warn that it's incredibly hissy here. 

Things cheer up with the obvious British Rock 'n' Roll single of "Good Time Girl" - where Maggie assures us that she's not after the local talent (no matter what the people might say). The nine-minute Leahy composition "Niagara" rocks for a few minutes before slowing down into an ambling Blues for its centrepiece - Harvey proving why his guitar playing was such a loss to the band. The power-ballad of "Sunset Cowboy" ends Side 2 with a very Soulful feel as Maggie matches Leahy's echoed piano playing. Very tasty indeed...even if it is a tad hissy in places...

It's not all undiluted genius for sure but Scotland's Stone The Crows are remembered with huge affection – and on the strength of this cool British CD Reissue - it's easy to hear why...

"Runt: Deluxe Edition" by TODD RUNDGREN (September 2014 Edsel 'Deluxe Edition' 2CD Reissue/Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Post Hanging Days..."

Back in May 2014 - Edsel of the UK began celebrating TODD RUNDGREN albums with 'Deluxe Edition' packaging upgrades - hardback book editions of key albums in his extensive back catalogue. The first three were "Something/Anything?" (a double-album from 1972), "A Wizard A True Star" (a single album from 1973) and "Todd" (another double from 1974). 

So here's the next batch of three for September 2014 - "Initiation" and "Hermit Of Mink Hollow " from 1975 and 1978 (see reviews) - and this - the forgotten "Runt" album - his 1970 solo debut LP for Ampex Records in the States - now extended into a double-CD edition with a bonus. Here are the details...

UK released 9 September 2014 (23 September in the USA) - "Runt: Deluxe Edition" by TODD RUNDGREN on Edsel EDSK 7075 (Barcode 740155707538) is a 2CD reissue of their October 2011 double that combined "Runt" (both versions). For this 2014 issue you get "Runt" only in its original 10-track album form on Disc 1 - with a 12-track 'Alternate Runt' on Disc 2 that also boasts a further bonus track. Here are the finite details for both versions:

Disc 1 "Runt" - US-only LP released May 1970 on Ampex A 10105 (40:50 minutes):

1. Broke Down And Busted (4:32 minutes)

2. Believe In Me (2:01 minutes)

3. We Gotta Get You A Woman (3:06 minutes)

4. Who's That Man? (2:59 minutes)

5. Once Burned (2:06 minutes)

6. Devil's Bite (3:52 minutes)

7. I'm In The Clique (4:55 minutes)

8. There Are No Words (2:09 minutes)

9. Baby, Let's Swing / The Last Thing You Said / Don't Tie My Hands (5:25 minutes)

10. Birthday Carol (9:12 minutes)

Disc 2 "The Alternate Runt" - November 1970 Version (51:47 minutes):

1. Broke Down And Busted (Intro: There Are No Words) (4:56 minutes)

2. Believe In Me (Alternate Mix) (1:58 minutes)

3. We Gotta Get You A Woman (Alternate Mix) (3:04 minutes)

4. Who's That Man? (Same as on the original version)

5. Once Burned (Same as on the original version)

6. Hope I'm Around (Early Version - different to the one that's on "The Ballad Of Todd Rundgren" album

7. Devil's Bite (Alternate Mix with extended guitar solo)

8. I'm In The Clique (Same as on the original version)

9. There Are No Words (Same as on the original version)

10. Baby Let's swing (Full Length Song)

11. Say No More (Exclusive to this version)

12. Birthday Carol (With some alterations)

13.Broke Down And Busted (Live At Carnegie Hall, June 8, 1972) - a BONUS TRACK. Originally released on the "Something/Anything" 2CD set in 1998

The attached 12-page booklet within has liner notes by Paul Myers from his superb tome "A Wizard, A True Star - Todd Rundgren In The Studio" and is an excellent read. There are black and white photos of a young and shorthaired Rundgren in the studio as well the hand-written album credits. The lovely Bob Zoell cartoon artwork on the rear of the original Ampex Records album is reproduced on the back of the hardback book gatefold. There is no new remaster that I can hear - this is the Edsel February 2012 version - that in itself was a Peter Rynston UK master using the 1993 American Rhino remasters. Don't get me wrong - the sound is superb. The only upgrade here is the cool-looking book packaging - which is a rather lovely thing to behold...

As a debut after NAZZ - "Runt" showed great promise and tracks like the 3-part "Baby Let's Swing" song (about Laura Nyro) were amazingly complicated and accomplished at one and the same time - and yet the whole album to me always lacked some kind of cohesion. I say this because when you hear the `Alternate' version - it hangs together better. Right from the get go there's the beautiful and ethereal vocals of "There Are No Words" as an opening for about 30 seconds - then it goes into the "Broke Down And Busted" we all know and love. The released album version of the delicate and rather lovely "Believe In Me" is better than the remix which gets too busy with instrument flourishes that distract. I love the inclusion of "Hope I'm Around" - it gives the whole album a more mellow feel and somehow makes "Runt" more about feelings rather than studio trickery. And the extended "Devil's Bite" rocks more. The "Laura" song "Baby, Let's Swing" stretches out and is better for it and the brass-meets-rock of "Birthday Carol" amazes me even to this day. With its hooky melody - "We Gotta Get You A Woman" was an obvious single (lyrics from it title this review) and the gorgeous 2-minute spacey vocal piece that is "There Are No Words" is properly amazing.

So there you have it - remastered and remixed - this is a very cool little reissue really - and a timely reminder of his genius...

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"Dog Of Two Head" by STATUS QUO (2003 Sanctuary/Castle Music 'Expanded Edition' CD - Sean Magee Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Something's Going On..." 

If 1970's "Ma Kelly's Greasy Spoon" started the Status Quo Boogie Blitz of the Seventies rolling - November 1971's "Dog Of Two Head" is where 'From The Makers Of' began to win real legions of devoted fans.

Their last studio effort for Pye Records (the label would issue a cash-in 'Best Of' in 1973) - the quirkily named "Dog Of Two Head" album is a good old Rock record and a hair's breath away from the sheer head's down riffage of "Piledriver" in late 1972 (their first LP for England's Vertigo Records). In fact re-listening to it in 2016 and I'm brought back to zits, jeans and throwing embarrassing shapes with tennis racquets in the front room of my Dublin home as my poor parents looked on in their Black and White Minstrel Show amazement (and moral despair). I'd also forgotten how good it is (even the three "Nanana" extracts). Here are the Mean Girls, Gerdundula's and Railroads...

UK released February 2003 (reissued August 2013) - "Dog Of Two Head" by STATUS QUO on Sanctuary/Castle Music CMQCD 755 (Barcode 5050159175529) is an 'Expanded Edition' CD Remaster with five Bonus Tracks that plays out as follows (56:13 minutes):

1. Umleitung

2. Nanana (Extraction)

3. Something's Going On In My Mind

4. Mean Girl

5. Nanana (Extraction)

6. Gerdundula [Side 2]

7. Railroad

8. Someone's Learning

9. Nanana

Tracks 1 to 9 are their 4th studio album "Dog Of Two Head" - released 5 November 1971 in the UK on Pye Records NSPL 18371 and Pye Records PYE 3301 in the USA. It didn't chart in either country.

BONUS TRACKS:

10. Mean Girl (Early Rough/Alternate Mix)

11. Tune To The Music (7" Single) - 18 June 1971 UK 7" single on Pye Records 7N 45077, A - Non-album track

12. Good Thinking (7" single) - 18 June 1971 UK 7" single on Pye Records 7N 45077, B-side to "Tune To The Music" - Non-album track

BBC Session for the John Peel Show 3 March 1972

13. Mean Girl

14. Railroad

The 8-squares-per-side foldout inlay is a feast of fan memorabilia that is itself bolstered up by superlative and seriously detailed liner notes from DAVE OXLEY. Chief-mover and idea's man on the reissue was JOHN REED who has been behind so many great reissues and is a compiler fans trust and admire. SEAN MAGEE at Masterpiece did the superbly muscular Remasters and there's a special thanks to LIAM MOORE at the BBC for the Sessions. There are repro's of pictures sleeves for singles I've never seen - a Euro version of "Railroad" cut into a Part 1 and 2 - "Tune To The Music" with the boys at astride a car and a fab live shot of the boys 'heads down' on stage for "Mean Girl". In-between those are press adverts and uber-rare gig posters with them and Nazareth. It's beautifully done...

As with the "Ma Kelly's Greasy Spoon" LP in 1970 – the numbskulls at Pye didn't prep the new and far better November 1971 album with any singles that would tempt and despite initial good sales - "Dog Of Two Head" failed to chart on either side of the pond. But as with Kelly’s it did increase a growing legion of fans both in Blighty and in Europe (especially Germany).

It's amazing even now to think that an obvious winner like "Something's Going on In My Head" with its hugely catchy guitar chords wasn't considered as a 45 (it would take Pye until 1973 to release "Mean Girl" as a single and that was only to promote their sour-grapes LP 'The Best Of'). They tried the stand-alone Rock/Bopper "Tune To The Music" as a Pye single in June 1971 and backed it with the cool Bluesy instrumental "Good Thinking" (both non-album at the time) - but it tanked and has proved a 45 rarity ever since. Even an edit of the seven-minute Boogie fest that is the LP opener "Umleitung" (German for diversion) would surely have elicited interest in the album - but wicked LP artwork in a gatefold sleeve or no - the album failed to sell.

"Nanana" turns up three times on the LP across two sides - the first two stabs are short acoustic/piano 'Extractions' that last less than a minute - until the final version simply called "Nanana" ends the album on Side 2 as a 2:25 minute full song. In a strange way the snippets make for brilliant interludes between the rockers like the brilliant "Someone's Learning" - apparently a comment on the Northern Ireland war raging in the six counties at the time. The other huge tune for Quo nuts is "Railroad" - a five and half-minute rocker with a catchy-as-a-cold hook that just won't quit.

I can't quite make up my mind as to which take of "Gerdundula" I like the most - the original October 1970 more acoustic-based 7" single mix (a Bonus Track on the "Ma Kelly's Greasy Spoon" CD reissue that also came out in February 2003 also on Castle Music) or the re-recorded more filled-out album version presented here? July 1973 would see the 'Dog' version from 1971 belatedly released as a 45 on Pye 7N 45229 with "Lakky Lady" from 'Kelly's' on the B-side. Whichever take - the nonsensically-titled "Gerdundula" is a total winner - a clever and endlessly cool little Quo tune...

"Dog Of Two Head" is a great Seventies Rock album and this CD Reissue does it proud. The 'Quo' folks - would we have them any other way...

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"Pinball And Other Stories" by BRIAN PROTHEROE (May 2006 EMI Music CD Compilation Of Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Run Out Of Pale Ale..."

Long forgotten UK song troubadour BRIAN PROTHEROE released three albums on Chrysalis Records in the mid Seventies and they make up the bulk of this excellent and long overdue mini-retrospective (a sort of mini 'Best Of'). Here are the flees in the bedroom...

UK released May 2006 – "Pinball & Other Stories" by BRIAN PROTHEROE on EMI Music 360 7182 (Barcode 094636071824) is a CD compilation of Remasters that breaks down as follows (72:58 minutes):

1. Pinball

2. Goodbye Surprise

3. Money Love

4. Changing My Tune

5. Fly Now

6. The Monkey

Tracks 1 to 6 are from his album "Pinball" - released October 1974 in the UK on Chrysalis CHR 1065

7. Enjoy It

8. Oh, Weeping Will

9. Running Through The City

10. Soft Song

11. Pick-Up

Tracks 7 to 11 are from his 2nd album "Pick-Up" - released October 1975 in the UK on Chrysalis CHR 1090

12. I/You

13. Dancing On Black Ice

14. Never Join The Fire Brigade

15. Hotel

16. The Face And I

Tracks 12 to 16 are from his 3rd album "I/You" - released September 1976 in the UK on Chrysalis CHR 1108

17. Thick And Creamy

18. Cold Harbour

19. Holyoke Hotel

Tracks 17 and 18 are on a CD called "Unreleased" - only available in a rather expensive 4CD box set called "Brian's Big Box" on Basta from 1997. The box contains all 3 of the above albums plus a 4th disc of unreleased songs. Track 19 "Holyoke Hotel" is a new song from the "Citysong" CD of 2003.

Most of the tracks are similar (if not as good as) "Pinball" - a superb lone hit for him in the UK in September 1974 on Chrysalis CHS 2043 (sort of 10cc meets The Beach Boys pop). And as you play through the tracks after it - IAN SMITH's remastering hits you - clear, muscular, revealing - similar in fact to the superlative job EMI did on the 5 Labi Siffre albums they also re-issued in 2006 (his UK catalogue from 1970 to 1975 on both Pye and EMI).

There are traces of Seventies singer-songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan, Pete Wingfield, Phillip Goodhand-Tate and Al Stewart too. "Money Love" is very "Year Of The Cat" territory - clever acoustic guitars meets bass runs and a catchy 10cc pace. While "Changing My Tune" feels like Colin Blunstone circa "Say You Don't Mind". "Enjoy It" from 1975's "Pick-Up" is plucky with a little Salsa thrown in while "Running Through The City" is very Seventies Clifford T. Ward ("I ordered from the menu but I never paid the bill...") and its easy to see why Chrysalis tried it as a 7" single in September 1975 on CHS 2077 (it didn't chart). "Face And I" is a lovely melody (sort of Eric Carmen) while the growing up song "Never Join The Fire Brigade" is fun if not a little slight. And on it goes to the big production values of "Holyoke Hotel" which is lyrically brilliant and full of lush string arrangements.

It's not all genius by any means - but those nuggets are worth it - and the remaster sound is absolutely top notch...