"The Bus Driver's Prayer And Other Stories" by IAN DURY and THE BLOCKHEADS (March 2015 Edsel 'Deluxe Edition Hardback Casebound Book' Packaging) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...Poo-Poo In The Prawn..."

Edsel of the UK have reissued six of Ian Dury’s albums in these 2015 Deluxe Edition Hardback Casebound sets – and natty looking things they are too. Here are the reasons to be cheerful...

UK released 2 March 2015 – "The Bus Driver's Prayer & Other Stories" by IAN DURY and THE BLOCKHEADS on Edsel EDSK 7083 (Barcode 740155708337) is a Limited Edition 2CD 'Deluxe Edition Hardback Casebound Book' packaging and pans out as follows:

Disc 1 (47:04 minutes):

1. That’s Enough Of That

2. Bill Haley’s Last Words

3. Poor Joey

4. Quick Quick Slow

5. Fly In The Ointment

6. O’Donegal

7. Poo-Poo In The Prawn

8. London Talking

9. Have A Word

10. D’Orine The Cow

11. Your Horoscope

12. No Such Thing As Love

13. Two Old Dogs Without A Name

14. The Bus Driver’s Prayer

Tracks 1 to 14 are the CD album “The Bus Driver’s Prayer & Other Stories” – released November 1992 in the UK on Demon Records FIEND CD 702

Disc 2 (36:21 minutes)

OUTTAKES / DEMOS

1. Amerlind

2. I Believe

3. Cowboys

4. One Love

5. Grape And Grain

6. The Writer

7. Whale

8. Itinerant Child

The 26-page booklet inside the hardback casebound cover features full annotation by known expert WILL BIRCH (done in 2004), lyrics to all the songs (including the outtakes/demos), unpublished photos, repros of his handwritten ‘5 poems’, original artwork and so on. These are the 2004 Edsel remasters done at Alchemy Mastering and they sound amazing while all of Disc 2 was Previously Unreleased at the time.

The glory days of Number 1 singles (“Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick” in 1978) and Number 2 LPs (“Do It Yourself” in 1979) were long past for IAN DURY by the time 1992’s reunion with Mickey Gallagher, Chaz Jankel, Davey Payne and John Turnball (The Blockheads) took place. Not that the public seemed to notice nor care. The original Demon album didn’t even crack the top 50 and it would be 1998 with “Mr. Love Pants” before Dury would see chart action again. But as expert/fan Will Birch argues (he wrote the liners notes) – “The Bus Driver’s Prayer & Other Stories” is a bit of an overlooked gem in a catalogue of witty winners.

While both openers “That’s Enough Of That” and “Bill Haley’s Last Words” gamely struggle to capture that “New Boots And Panties!!” magic – it’s not until “Poor Joey” comes along (a song about the most typical caged bird in the world – the budgie) that we get Dury’s genius for brilliant words fronting a happy-go-lucky tune. “Old mother nature’s left me right in the lurch...” he drones in that deadpan way of his as one of The Blockheads punctuates the tune with his best strangled Budgerigar voice - “Hello!” My other crave is the fabulously titled “Poo-Poo In The Prawn” – where “if you go swimming in the shite-us...you’ll get worse than dermatitis...” where he waxes lyrical about all manner of turds coming at you through the plumbing and the briny. The lure of Ireland’s beautiful Donegal County floats rather prettily throughout  “O’Donegal” where you will feel a need to holiday in Ireland right quick. Back to home ground and the “rent book/laundry” reality of “London Talking” where paying bills occupies your mind and a Chelsea Bun seems like a good way to soften the depression. It ends on the one-minute “Bus Driver’s Prayer” where he takes the Lord’s Prayer and substitutes every famous line to fit bus destinations like Kingston, Wimbledon and Ealing (short but so damn clever).

But what’s genuinely shocking is the quality of the eight cuts that didn’t make the album – fully finished songs (beautifully produced). To my ears both “Amerlind” and “I Believe” are better than some tracks that made the album. Maybe stuff like “Cowboys” and “The Writer” with their distinctive keyboard sounds was deemed to be too lightweight – but I listen to them more than the CD cuts – and the sheer melody/lyrical power of the quietly-moving and hopeful “Itinerant Child” is just plain brilliant (play this beauty a lot).

“I think my eyes were blurred with tears...” - our Ian sang on “Itinerant Child”. And many of us felt the same way when he sadly passed away in 2000. Take a chance on his genius with this wicked looking casebound reissue...there’s joy in them there hardbacks...

PS: the IAN DURY March 2015 Deluxe Edition Hardback Casebound CD Reissues on Edsel are:

1. New Boots And Panties!! (Edsel EDSK 7080, 2CDs – Barcode 740155708030)

2. Do It Yourself (Edsel EDSK 7081, 2CDs – Barcode 740155708139)

3. Laughter (Edsel EDSK 7082, 2CDs – Barcode 740155708238)

4. The Bus Driver's Prayer (Edsel EDSK 7083, 2CDs – Barcode 740155708337)

5. Mr. Love Pants (Edsel EDSA 5034, 1CD, Barcode 740155503437)

6. Warts 'N' Audience [Live] (Edsel 5035, 1CD, Barcode 74015550536)

PPS: Amazon lump all the 2004 and 2015 reviews together in the one place (a nasty habit of theirs) – so if you want the Hardback Book Edition I’ve just reviewed from 2015 – make sure to use the Barcode I’ve provided above to get the right issue...

"Genesis 1970-1975" by GENESIS (November 2008 Virgin/Charisma 'Hybrid CD, SACD, DVD' Box Set - Tony Cousins and Nick Davis Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

This Review Along With Almost 300 Others Is Available In My

SOUNDS GOOD E-Book on all Amazon sites

1960s and 1970s MUSIC ON CD - Volume 3 of 3

- Exceptional CD Remasters

As well as 1960s and 1970s Rock and Pop - It Also Focuses On

Blues Rock, Prog Rock, Psych, Avant Garde, Underground

Folk-Rock, Singer-Songwriter, Country Rock and more

Just Click Below To Purchase for £3.95

Thousands of E-Pages - All Details and In-Depth Reviews From Discs

(No Cut and Paste Crap)

"...It's Been A Long Time...Hasn't It...."

Here are details for the six saintly shrouded men…

UK and Europe released November 2008 - "Genesis 1970-1975" by GENESIS on Virgin CDBOX 14 (Barcode 5099951968328) is the 3rd box set in an extensive reissue campaign. Each of the original five vinyl albums from the Peter Gabriel period are pumped up here into double 2CD issues - whilst the 1974 2LP-set "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" now becomes a 3-Disc CD set. "The Lamb Lies Down Broadway" is presented in a beautiful Book Pack while the other albums are in 2CD jewel cases.

Disc 1 of each issue is the SACD and CD Remaster of the album with both mixes encoded onto the disc, while Disc 2 is a DVD with 5.1 Surround Sound with extras tagged on at the end of each. The sixth and final double is called "Extra Tracks 1970-1975" and features singles, demos and BBC Sessions - again both in Audio and DVD. "Extras' is housed in a 48-page hardback book with an essay, band contributions, photos and celebrity reviews. Here's a detailed breakdown of the sets:

1. Looking For Someone [Side 1]

2. White Mountain

3. Visions of Mountains

4. Stagnation [Side 2]

5. Dusk

6. The Knife

Disc 1 (42:33 minutes) is their 2nd album "Trespass", originally released on LP in November 1970 on Charisma CAS 1020 in the UK and Impulse 9295 in the USA (the original UK issue had the 'Pink Scroll' label design and the CD reflects that). The DVD Audio version also has a 'reissues interview from 2007'.

1. The Musical Box [Side 1]

2. For Absent Friends

3. The Return Of The Giant Hogweed

4. Seven Stones

5. Harold The Barrel [Side 2]

6. Harlequin

7. The Fountain Of Salmacis

Disc 2 (39:36 minutes) is their 3rd album "Nursery Cryme", originally released on LP in November 1971 on Charisma CAS 1052 in the UK and Charisma 7208 552 in the USA (Pink Scroll Label also). The DVD audio version also has the 'reissues interview from 2007'.

1. Watcher Of The Skies [Side 1]

2. Time Table

3. Get 'Em Out By Friday

4. Can-Utility And The Coastliners

5. Horizons [Side 2]

6. Supper’s Ready

Disc 3 (51:20 minutes) is their 4th album "Foxtrot", originally released on LP in October 1972 on Charisma CAS 1058 in the UK and Charisma 7208 553 in the USA (changes now to the `Mad Hatter' label design for 3, 4 and 5 reflecting the original vinyl). The DVD Audio disc has 3 extras - reissues interview 2007, Brussels, Belgium Rock Of The 70's 1972 clip and Rome, Italy, Piper Club 1972 clip.

1. Selling England By The Pound [Side 1]

2. I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)

3. Firth Of Fifth

4. More Fool Me

5. The Battle Of Epping Forest [Side 2]

6. After The Ordeal

7. The Cinema Show

8. Aisle Of Plenty

Disc 4 (53:39 minutes) is their 6th album "Selling England By The Pound", originally released in October 1973 on Charisma CAS 1074 in the UK and Charisma 7208 554 in the USA. (Their 5th album, "Genesis Live", was released in July 1973 on Charisma CLASS 1 in the UK; it was an official release and no explanation is given for its no show in this box set).  The DVD Audio version has 3 extras, reissues Interview 2007, Shepperton Studios, Italian TV, 1973 clip and Batacain, France, 1973 clip.

1. The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway [Side 1]

2. Fly On A Windshield

3. Broadway Melody Of 1974

4. Cuckoo Cocoon

5. In The Cage

6. The Grand Parade Of Lifeless Packaging

7. Back In N.Y.C. [Side 2]

8. Hairless Heart

9. Counting Out Time

10. The Carpet Crawlers

1. Lilywhite Lilith [Side 3]

2. The Waiting Room

3. Anyway

4. Here Comes The Supernatural Anesthetist

5. The Lamia

6. Silent Sorrow In Empty Boats

7. The Colony Of Slippermen [Side 4]

8. Ravine

9. Riding The Scree

10. In The Rapids

11. It

Disc 5 (45:38/48:51 minutes) is their 7th album "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway", originally released in November 1974 as a 2LP set on Charisma CGS 101 in the UK and on Atco 7599 122 in the USA. The DVD has all of the slide show that accompanied the stage shows offering both Surround and standard stereo versions.

Disc 6 "Extra Tracks" (46:44 minutes):

Track 1 is "Happy The Man", a non-album 7" single issued in the UK on May 1972 on Charisma CB 181 ("Seven Stones" is its B-side - a track off "Nursery Cryme")

Track 2 is "Twilight Alehouse", the non-album B-side to "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" issued on 7" single in May 1974 on Charisma CB 224

Track 3 is "Sheppard (BBC Nightride 1970)"

Track 4 is "Pacidy (BBC Nightride 1970)"

Track 5 is "Let Us Now Make Love (BBC Nightride 1970)"

Track 6 is "Going Out To Get You (Demo 1969)"

Tracks 7 to 10 are called Genesis Plays Jackson.  Michael Jackson was a painter who put music to a silent film of "Metropolis" and invited Genesis in to score it. Some tracks were done, but the full project was abandoned. These tapes have only recently come to light and the four tracks are; "Provocation", "Frustration", "Manipulation" and Resignation" - "Frustration" would later turn up as "Anyway" on "Lamb" and "Manipulation" became "The Musical Box" on "Nursery Cryme".

NICK DAVIS prepped the 5.1 Surround Mixes and Stereo CD mixes with the remastering carried out by TONY COUSINS at Metropolis Mastering. Both of these guys handled the preceding box sets to both applause and derision in equal measure. While I admittedly don't have a Surround capability at home, I find the sound quality on the Stereo CD mixes to be GORGEOUS - a revelation. "Trespass" & "Nursery Cryme" are hissy in places, but still so much better sounding than the crap 1994 Virgin remasters we've been lumbered with all these years (which in turn were supposed to replace the dire 80's issues). But the great news is "Foxtrot", "Selling" and "Lamb", each of which now has GORGEOUS SOUND. At 8:15 minutes into "Supper's Ready" on Foxtrot when the acoustic guitars kick in, I was in floods, huge sound filling my room... We've been waiting 35 years to finally hear these great works in DECENT AUDIO.

While the DVD and Audio elements are fantastic and the extras fascinating - I find the packaging naff (typical of all things Virgin). The box lid won't close no matter what you do, the individual booklets are simply the original artwork restored, but again they're too small to read and massively underwhelming compared to the beautiful event feel of the original vinyl gatefold sleeves (especially "Lamb"). And with no new essay, no new photos, nor nothing of their history - when they're released as stand-alone CDs, fans are going to feel mightily short-changed – again. And why no "Live" set - nor the 1975 single edit of "Carpet Crawlers" - or its unique B-side, the live in the USA (Evil Jam) version of "The Waiting Room"? Nor is it cheapest of things either…so with the boys now individually credited as Limited Companies on the rear sleeve - the whole thing is beginning to smack a little too much of corporate greed instead of musical celebration.

The Music is truly incredible and still stands up with "Foxtrot", "Selling England By The Pound" and that amazing 1974 double "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" still eliciting gasps – and I’d have to say that the Audio is gorgeous and revealing throughout. "Trespass" and "Nursery Cryme" have their moments for sure – but it’s the final three in the Charisma period that are Proggy Heaven.

Wonderful in some respects and yet strangely disappointing in others - this eagerly awaited box is 4-stars really when it should have been six. And yet I love it and them in all their mad, imaginative and sprawling brilliance. Fans will know what I mean when I say - "...something tells me I’d better activate my prayer capsule…"

"A Trick Of The Tail" by GENESIS (April 2008 Virgin/Charisma 'Standard Version' CD Reissue - 2007 Tony Cousins Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

This Review Along With Almost 300 Others Is Available In My

SOUNDS GOOD E-Book on all Amazon sites

1960s and 1970s MUSIC ON CD - Volume 3 of 3

- Exceptional CD Remasters

As well as 1960s and 1970s Rock and Pop - It Also Focuses On

Blues Rock, Prog Rock, Psych, Avant Garde, Underground

Folk-Rock, Singer-Songwriter, Country Rock and more

Just Click Below To Purchase for £3.95

Thousands of E-Pages - All Details and In-Depth Reviews From Discs

(No Cut and Paste Crap)

"...Madrigal Music Is Playing..."

After the high of 1974's concept double-album "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" and the subsequent departure of Peter Gabriel (such an integral part of a unique band and their charismatic frontman for five years) – common consensus held was that Genesis would implode or worse – carry on with a heart-hearted crew pumping out half-assed material.

The first album post PG-apocalypse featuring Phil Collins as the band's Lead Vocalist was February 1976's "A Trick Of The Tail" and it proved the naysayers wrong. In fact many would say that the following year's "Wind And Wuthering" in January 1977 followed in October of that year by the triumphant live double "Seconds Out" hammered shut the cakehole of that gobby and argumentative git. Genesis had never been so popular or so commercially successful and did so in the two years where Punk and New Wave Music seemed to be wiping away all that was perceived as old fart.

So when it comes to CD reissues of "A Trick Of The Tail" the only real argument here is about the AUDIO. Is it any good? Or to be exact (after the crap we’ve had for years) - is it any better? Hell YES is the answer here...

Having been inflicted with what was called a 'Definitive Edition Remaster' in 1994 (themselves replacements for earlier shambolic issues in the Eighties) – fans held their collective hairpieces when the April 2007 Remasters were released in SACD form – Remastered by Tape Engineer Supremo TONY COUSINS. But one listen to this amazing-sounding standard single CD edition (reissued April 2008) and all those reports and raves about revelatory sound were true. Just taking in "Entangled" or "Ripples" on this CD is enough to elicit a little proggy tear from my ageing and weary googly-ganglers.

This is a gorgeous and amazingly well handled transfer of dense and rich music. And as the SACD 2-Disc variant from April 2007 (Barcode 094638596424) is now garnishing extortionate sums since deletion (forty quid and more) – at least this April 2008 single-disc stripped-down standard-variant reissue with just the album on it - is available for less than the price of a kebab whilst still retaining that great TC Remaster. Let’s get to the Squonk and dreams of Mad Man Moon (that's Genesis-speak for details)...

UK released April 2008 – "A Trick Of The Tail" by GENESIS on Virgin/Charisma GENYCD 6 (Barcode 0094639164226) is a straightforward CD 'Standard Edition' transfer of their 1976 album (SACD and Stereo Mixes used here first issued April 2007) and plays out as follows (51:15 minutes):

1. Dance On A Volcano [Side 1]

2. Entangled

3. Squonk

4. Mad Man Moon

5. Robbery, Assault And Battery [Side 2]

6. Ripples

7. A Trick Of The Tail

8. Los Endos

Tracks 1 to 8 are their seventh studio album (eighth overall) "A Trick Of The Tail" – released February 1976 in the UK on Charisma CDS 4001 and in the USA on Atco SD 36-129. Produced by DAVID HENTSCHEL and GENESIS – it peaked at No. 3 and No. 31 in the UK and USA LP charts.

GENESIS was:

PHIL COLLINS – Lead and Backing Vocals, Drums and Percussion

STEVE HACKETT – Electric and Acoustic Guitars

TONY BANKS – Piano, Synths, Organ, Mellotron, 12-String Acoustic Guitar and Backing Vocals

MIKE RUTHERFORD – Bass and 12-String Guitar

The booklet reproduces the lyrics first aired on the inner gatefold of the 1976 vinyl LP along with Colin Elgie's design and those cartoons that followed each song. But the big news is the TONY COUSINS Remaster.

When those beep-beep notes and drums open the band-written "Dance On A Volcano" and it finally gets into its Prog swing - the power is huge. But it's not until you get to the gorgeous six and half-minutes of Hackett and Banks' "Entangled" that you 'feel' the audio change - those acoustic guitars so clear - Collins and the others singing Lead and Backing Vocals - children dreaming - the rush and swirl as the melody swoops and soars. Rutherford and Banks provided "Squonk" - probably the nearest the album gets to Rock - a swaggering Prog tune with Drums and Cymbals crashing around your room as the Remaster brings the rhythm section to the fore.  Side 1 ends with seven and half minutes of "Mad Man Moon" - a piano based ballad provided by Tony Banks. Collins sings about pain with conviction 'oh how I loved you...quite some time ago...I was the one who decided to go...' and then about a thousand mirages later Banks brings the Mellotron up with those wall of voices - very Lamb Lies Down On Broadway meets Selling England By The Pound. The later piano passages and fast lyric rolls to the end make for a sophisticated but moving listen.

Side 2 opens with "Robbery, Assault and Battery" - a 1975 Collins and Banks song that lyrically seemed to point the way to his 'Buster' film role more than a decade later during the height of Collins' solo career. But for me the album's masterpiece is the beautiful "Ripples" - eight-minutes of sail-away Genesis gorgeousness. Hell PC even sounds like PG in some verses while Steve Hackett's delicate twelve-string guitar picking harks back to the glory of "Horizons" and "Supper’s Ready" on "Foxtrot". It's a gorgeous melody and the slow to fast Rutherford/Banks song construction gives it an epic feel - 0whilst still feeling like an intimate ballad (memories of 'The Grove' in Clontarf when this song was played during a 'slow set').  The jaunt of the title track (a Tony Banks song) offers a clever change of pace and mood - magical creatures in the city of gold somewhere up there in the distance. The album comes to a close with the manic dash of "Los Endos" - a motorcar-fast Proggy instrumental that always seems to represent the album on those endless 'Best Of' and 'Anthology' CD sets.

Personally I think this rather plain looking CD reissue in its dull jewel case loses some of the original LPs visual impact (time to get one of those Japanese SHM-CD Mini LP Repros) - but the Audio more than makes up for that. Sail away indeed, but even after 40+ years those Ripples keep carrying me back...