"The United States Of America" by THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA – Debut Album from 1968 in Stereo (June 2014 Esoteric Recordings 'The Columbia Recordings' CD Reissue – Ben Wiseman Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry....

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"...The Price Of Admission Is Your Mind..."

Non-Traditional, Psychedelic Adventure, Inspired Hippy Idealism, Fay Nonsense – I happen to think The United States Of America's lone album released in the American spring of 1968 is all of these things – and more. Very much of its experimental time – in fact you doubt such an album could even get a mainstream label like Columbia Records to go anywhere near it with a multicultural bargepole nowadays.

And yet Mad Dogs and Englishmen working in Esoteric Recordings of the UK (part of Cherry Red) have bravely stepped up to the mushroomed gates of right-on college campus types and produced a worthy reminder of its string-laden melodies and political beauty. There is a lot to love on this unique and adventurous record that still stands up – a lot. Here are the metaphysical details (baby)...

UK released June 2014 – "The United States Of America: The Columbia Recordings" by THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is an Expanded 20-Track CD Reissue on Esoteric Recordings ECLEC 2449 (Barcode 5013929454941) and breaks down as follows (66:58 minutes):

1. The American Metaphysical Circus

2. Hard Coming Love

3. Cloud Song

4. The Garden Of Earthly Delights

5. I Won't Leave My Wooden Wife For You, Sugar

6. Where Is Yesterday [Side 2]

7. Coming Down

8. Love Song For The Dead Che

9. Stranded In Time

10. The American Way Of Love

[Part I] Metaphor For An Older Man

[Part II] California Good Time Music

[Part III] Love Is All

Tracks 1 to 10 are their debut "The United States Of America" - released March 1968 in the USA on Columbia CL 2814 (mono) and CS 9614 (Stereo) and July 1968 in the UK on CBS Records 63340 (Mono) and S 63340 (Stereo). The Stereo mix is used and DAVID RUBISON Produced. The USOA disbanded in July 1968 and never made another record.

BONUS TRACKS:

11. Osamu's Birthday (Recorded 15 Dec 1967)

12. No Love To Give (Recorded 13 Dec 1967)

13. I Won't Leave My Wooden Wife For You, Sugar (First Version, Recorded 11 Dec 1967)

14. You Can Never Come Down (Recorded 9 May 1968)

15. Perry Pier

16. Tailor Man

17. Do You Follow Me (Tracks 15 to 17 recorded 30 July 1968)

18. The American Metaphysical Circus (Alternate Version)

19. Mouse (The Garden Of Earthly Delights)

20. Heresy (Coming Down) (Tracks 19 and 20 recorded 1 Sep 1967)

NOTES: Tracks 11 and 12 first appeared on the 1992 Sony CD Remaster while Tracks 13 to 20 first appeared on the Sundazed Reissue/Remaster in 2004. This CD effectively apes the Sundazed 20-track Reissue.

ALBUM LINE-UP:

DOROTHY MOSKOWITZ - Lead Vocals on Tracks 1 to 4, 7 and 8 - shared with Joseph Byrd on Tracks 5 and 10 and shared with Gordon Marron (Lead) and Joseph Byrd on Track 6

JOSEPH BYRD - Electronic Music, Electric Harpsichord, Organ, Calliope, Piano, Lead Vocals on Tracks 5 and 10 (shared with Dorothy Moskowitz) and Shared Lead Vocals on Track 6 with Gordon Marron and Dorothy Moskowitz

GORDON MARRON - Electric Violin, Ring Modulator

ED BOGUS – Occasional Organ, Piano and Calliope

RAND FORBES – Electric Bass

CRAIG WOODSON – Electric Drums, Percussion

BONUS TRACKS LINE-UP:

DOROTHY MOSKOWITZ – Lead Vocals

JEFF MARSHALL – Lead Guitar

RICHARD GRAYSON – Keyboards

CARMIE SIMON – Bass

DENNIS WOOD – Drums

Above line-up for "Perry Pier", "Tailor Man" and "Do You Follow Me"

DOROTHY MOSKOWITZ – Lead Vocals

JOSEPH BYRD - Electronic Music, Electric Harpsichord, Organ, Calliope, Piano

MIKE AGNELLO – Organ

STU BROTMAN – Bass

CRAIG WOODSON – Electric Drums and Percussion

Above line-up for "The American Metaphysical Circus (Alternate Version)", "Mouse (The Garden Of Earthly Delights)" and "Heresy (Coming Down)"

Co-ordinated by Esoteric head-honchos Mark and Vicky Powell - the compilation and 16-page booklet is very tastefully put together. There are in-studio photos of the group amidst their array of keyboards including the DURRETT Electronic Music Synthesiser and Ring Modulator – an incisive and affectionate look at the album, band and their internal hassles by noted writer SID SMITH – as well as lyrics and period photos of Joseph Byrd at a UCLA rally in April 1967, Dorothy Moskowitz performing with Jazz pianist Dick Fregulia, the rare British 7" Single Demo for "The Garden Of Earthly Delights" and even a colour publicity shot of the original six in happier times. Licensed from Sony – long-standing Audio Engineer BEN WISEMAN carried out the 24-bit Digital Remasters and they sound fabulous – full of swirling keyboard soundscapes and those Beatlesque String passages.

The albums opens with a mash-up of different types of music that builds into a cacophony - until in a very Jefferson Airplane like way – Dorothy Moskowitz's lead vocal fades in and a dreamy keyboard/lyric soundscape takes over. It's so Sixties. The lyrics are yummy - "...At precisely eight o-five Doctor Frederick Von Meier will attempt his famous dive through a solid sheet of luminescent fire..." It gets even harder-hitting with the grungy guitars of "Hard Coming Love" where you're reminded of Blue Cheer and "Electric Music For The Mind And Body" by Country Joe & The Fish (see separate review). We then go full on flower-power hippy with "Cloud Song" which were reliably informed was inspired by Pooh (amongst other things in his fertile garden). Although Columbia oddly never even tried a 45 in the USA – CBS Records UK gave "The Garden Of Earthly Delights" a 7" single chance in July 1968 on CBS 3745 with "Love Song For The Dead Che" as its flipside. Both tracks are superb and although it's a listed rarity at a relatively paltry £20 – I’ve seen it go for three times that amount should it ever turn up for sale.

Many will affectionately remember the witty and acidic infidelity song "I Won't Leave My Wooden Wife For You, Sugar" because it turned up on the CBS Records LP Sampler "The Rock Machine Turns You On" in 1968. It's also the first track on the LP where Joseph Byrd takes over on Lead Vocals from Dorothy Moskowitz. Side 1 ends on one of the albums undoubted masterpieces – the almost monastic churchy vocals of "Where Is Yesterday". The layers hit you immediately as the three vocalists harmonize against eerie strings and keyboard flourishes (Gordon Marron on Lead). It's trippy-psychedelic and utterly brilliant in its clever vocal arrangements. Side 2 opens with another potential single "Coming Down" with Dorothy once again giving it some Julie Driscoll vocals while the drums and guitars remind you of a great Jefferson Airplane single. Despite its slightly suspect title "Love Song For The Dead Che" isn't aggressive at all nor preachy but incredibly tender – a third party observation where a lover aches for her man in the morning - but knows that his embrace will never be there again. We go "Sgt. Peppers" string quartet on the whimsical "Stranded In Time" – a very Zombies vocal by Gordon Marron running alongside great keyboard passages from Byrd. It ends on the seven-minutes of "The American Way Of Love" – a three-part ambitious chunk of Psychedelic ruminations on "...the secret sins of nymphomaniacs unveiled..." Lovely stuff...

The 10 bonus tracks (as you can imagine) are a mixed bunch - but they open strongly with "Osamu's Birthday" which sounds like some Japanese curio – like weird incidental music from John Barry's "You Only Live Twice" left off the 007 soundtrack because it was too Captain Beefheart for the masses – it’s striking and cool at the same time. Wilder by far is "No Love To Give" which is closer to "Hard Coming Love" than anything else (the audio is amazing). It's a genuine shock after all these years to hear Dorothy Moskowitz sing on the 'First Version' of "I Won't Leave My Wooden Wife For You, Sugar" – she's great - but you can so hear why they went for Joseph Byrd's sneering male vocal instead. "You Can Never Come Down" sounds like demo Jefferson Airplane – good but not quite convincing enough to make the album. For me the best on here is strange keyboard/jungle drums of "Mouse" – an early version of "The Garden Of Earthly Delights". The band is clearly working out how to arrange the tune – but it stills great even in this early incarnation. "Heresy" is another Psych gem alternate – a great take of Side 1's "Coming Down"...

So there you have it. "The United States Of America: The Columbia Recordings" is a superb reissue (with a nod to Sundazed for doing the groundwork) and one that deserves your ear in all its glorious and hopeful visions...

"The Joshua Tree: Super Deluxe Edition 2007 Version" by U2 – Fifth Album from March 1987 on Island Records (7 December 2007 Universal/Mercury Music Group/Island/Interscope Records 2CD/1DVD SUPER DELUXE EDITION Box Set of Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"...I Want To Reach Out And Touch The Flame..."

I remember it vividly. It was the summer of 1987, probably August, and I was standing in the HMV Megastore in Oxford Street in London browsing through their CD racks looking for something else to punish my long-suffering credit card with. Back then the 'video' was king. I mean the buggers were everywhere. MTV had them on rotation on our television sets at home all day and the more elaborate and expensive ones even made the news. 1987 was a year when a pop video was given as much credence as the release of the album it was promoting. And HMV was no different. The flagship shop had loads of black TV monitors hanging out of their Oxford Street ceiling covering every square inch of floor space in their huge new store. So I'm standing there in this busy Megastore browsing like everyone else. And then it happened.

On came the new U2 video for "Where The Streets Had No Name". It was filmed in California on top of a building with the band playing live without announcement while American street goers below simply stopped in their tracks and looked up in amazement. And so did we. We all stopped and we all looked up in amazement. It was the only time I've ever seen this. The entire music store stopped and looked up at the TV monitors - hooked instantly by this incredible song and this dog's bollox of a band. The tune creeps in - building, building, building - then it bursts out of the speakers with this stunning chiming trailblazing guitar work and Bono's impassioned growl and lyrics. It was mesmerizing. I remember looking around me and noticing - people's smiling faces. No one was browsing anymore. And I remember thinking - my God - they really have hit the Global zeitgeist with this. And it wasn't just that I was a Dubliner and therefore proud of 'our' band - this was different - in 1987 U2 really was dripping brilliance and 'everyone' knew it.

So what's this jaunt back down memory lane got to do with this re-issue? The answer is 'wonder'. The same thing I felt all those years ago in that megastore is 'back'. Because this reissue folks is truly one of the best I've ever heard or seen - a genuine 'wow' in every sense of the word. And one that fans will thrill too...

"The Joshua Tree" was released globally in March 1987 on Island Records and after 4 albums of escalating brilliance - U2 finally hit their penultimate moment (even the album's outtakes put out as B-sides on the singles were undeniably good). But the album on the relatively new format of compact disc was disappointingly dull and this magical record has remained in dullard sound-land ever since. There have been re-masters of some of the tracks on "Best Of 1980-1990" of course and the more recent "18 Singles" set, but this 20th Anniversary Edition Remaster issued globally on Monday 3 December 2007 is the first time in 20 years that the 'entire' album has received a total overhaul and the sound quality and presentation is beautifully realised. The sound especially is just GORGEOUS.

Here's the lay of the land - the December 2007 CD Remaster for "The Joshua Tree" by U2 comes in 3 variants:

The 1st is a standard CD in one of the new round-corner hard jewel cases and presents the 11 tracks of the original album in newly remastered form (a 20th Anniversary Edition). There are no bonus tracks but there is an upgraded booklet. Mercury Music Group/Island/Interscope Records 1744939 (Barcode 6 02517449398) sells for around £10.

The 2nd issue (loosely called a Deluxe Edition) is housed in a gatefold digipak where the 2nd bonus disc gathers up all of the B-sides from the Album's single releases (7 tracks) - track 8 is the single edit of "Where The Streets Have No Name" - track 9 is the Sun City Version of "Silver & Gold" which features Keith Richards and Ron Wood of The Rolling Stones - and last but not least - a juicy 5 new unreleased 'outtakes' from the album. Disc 2 has a total of 14 tracks in all. This 2CD version on Mercury Music Group/Island/Interscope Records 1750947 (Barcode 602517509474) sells for £20 or £22 or £18 online - depending where you buy it.

But the 3rd issue of "The Joshua Tree" by U2 (the one I've bought this morning on day of release) is a 2017 Super Deluxe Edition of 3 discs (2CDs and 1DVD) on Mercury Music Group/Island/Interscope Records 1750948 (Barcode 602517509481). It's the issue I would recommend. It costs £27 (I didn't see any price difference in any store - except that it's available online for £22 in some places with free p&p). And it really is gorgeous - pricey for sure - but a genuine peach for fans. The box itself is DVD sized housing 3 imbedded gatefold card sleeves - the album in one, the bonus audio CD of 14 tracks in another and a 3^rd is a bonus DVD. The DVD contains an 18-track July 1987 concert filmed in Paris, which is new, the "Outside Is America" documentary, an alternate video for "With Or Without You" and a rarely seen video of "Red Hill Mining Town". At over two and a half hours, it's a truly fantastic bonus.

I'm also tempted to buy the new vinyl version because it's been put onto 2LPs and not squashed onto one. The pressing run will be limited and will almost certainly become a collectable within months (Mercury/Island/Interscope 1750949 – Barcode 602517509498).

CD1 - THE ALBUM
1. Where The Streets Have No Name [Side 1]
2. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For 
3. Without Or Without You 
4. Bullet The Blue Sky
5. Running To Stand Still 
6. Red Hill Mining Town [Side 2]
7. In God's Country
8. Trip Through The Wires 
9. One Tree Hill
10. Exit 
11. Mothers Of The Disappeared 

CD2 - BONUS AUDIO
1. Luminous Times (Hold On To Love)
2. Walk To The Water
3. Spanish Eyes 
4. Deep In The Heart 
5. Silver And Gold 
6. Sweetest Thing 
7. Race Against Time 
8. Where The Streets Have No Name (Single Edit)
9. Silver And Gold (Sun City)
10. Beautiful Ghost/Introduction To Songs Of Experience 
11. Wave Of Sorrow (Birdland)
12. Desert Of Our Love
13. Rise Up
14. Drunk Chicken/America

DVD: 
U2 Live In Paris
Outside It's America Documentary 
(Video for) With Or Without You
(Video for) Red Hill Mining Town 

PACKINGING: All 3 CDs are in housed in gatefold card sleeves. The album has the same artwork of course, but the Bonus Audio CD and DVD discs feature Anton Corbijn's photo outtakes from The Joshua Tree sessions. It means that visually - all three are matching - a nice touch. The 5 DVD sized Photographic Prints from the same sessions are housed in an embossed "Joshua Tree' symbol envelope and are nice, but a bit superfluous. The hardback book of 56-pages, however, is just gorgeous. There are all the lyrics from the album with singles pictured alongside their release dates, essays from all the key people around the album, the boys themselves, Daniel Lanois, Anton Corbijn, Steve Averill, Brian Eno and others. There are unpublished photographs, detailed production/reissue credits and even Allen Ginsberg's "America" poem reproduced at the end (one of the outtakes uses it). The whole shebang is lifted out of its recesses by a black ribbon. Classy. Some people have complained that £27 is excessive - money for old rope so to speak but that kind of misses the point. The album has always deserved Rolls Royce treatment and now it finally gets it. The Super Deluxe Edition is without question the one to buy for lovers of the album.

SOUND: First up is the album itself. The Edge has supervised the tape transfers with remastering, production and engineering credits going to Arnie Acosta of Bernie Grundman Mastering and production by Cheryl Engels of Partial Productions. And a bang up job they've all done too. The difference in quality is astonishing. The original LP ran to just over 50 minutes, a lot for that format, and the last track on Side 1 always suffered for that. "Running To Stand Still" is now spectacular - worth the price of admission alone. I'm hearing new sounds both during and at the end of this beautiful and overlooked gem. Similarly, "Red Hill Mining Town", "In God's Country" and "One Tree Hill" leap out of the speakers instead of limping. And if this isn't good enough, the album's finisher, the haunting "Mothers Of The Disappeared" now has absolutely extraordinary power - Eno's swirling and crashing soundscapes matching Bono's touching and heartfelt lyrics - it's magnificent and immensely moving - even after two decades of familiarity. All of these U2 tracks have been screaming out for sonic upgrades for years and this muscular re-mastering of them does not disappoint.

I've had the B-sides on original 1987 UK CD singles for years, but they are ordinary sounding like the original CD album. They too have been beefed up - they're now warm, clear and full of life. Very enjoyable rehearing them. A small point worth making is this. The supposed 2nd CD single here in the UK "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" has eluded my grasp for 20 years - I'm still not sure it exists. It's always documented in the band's British discography and presumed it's out there - but I've NEVER ACTUALLY SEEN ONE?? So the inclusion of its 2 rare B-sides here is welcome. The five new out-takes as you can imagine are a mixed bag, some good, some iffy - and obvious in most cases why they were relegated to the vaults.  But as a rabid fan of the album, I'm grooving to them more and more. The lyrics to one of them, "Wave Of Sorrow (Birdland)", is even in the hardback book.

The DVD is not in 5.1 Surround, but it still sounds and looks amazing. Filmed at The Hippodrome de Vincennes in Paris on the 4th of July 1987, it shows the band in full flight - and they were just electrifying - on fire. Some mellow tracks like "October" and "MLK" also get rare outings here too - superb. The band then hits the crowd with an absolutely lethal triple whammy of "In God's Country", "Electric Co." and "Bad". The Edge's playing during "Electric Co." is simply hair-raising - and I swear - at moments during the song - they were simply the best band on the planet! Also towards the end of the song, a "huge" bare-chested male French fan is lifted up onto the stage; he in turn lifts Bono up into his arms and Bono then adds "Break On Through" by The Doors onto the end of the blistering "Electric Co". The crowd went wild...

To sum up: the album is remastered to spectacular effect, the bonus CD of B-sides and outtakes is never less than fantastic and the DVD simply the visual icing on top of an extraordinary cake. When you think that June 2007 has passed without a 40th Anniversary appreciation of "Sgt. Peppers" by The Beatles and November 2007 without a 35th Anniversary Edition of Zeppelin's "Four Symbols" - at least those at Universal and Island have had the brains not to miss this masterpiece's 20th Anniversary.

Whatever way you cut it, this is an exceptional re-issue of one of 'the' great albums of our times - and with the weeks bleeding into 2008, not a moment too soon. A thing of wonder indeed. U2 are of course millionaires now - way too big for their britches - way too mouthy - and spend way too much of their time pissing about with hotel properties - when they should be pissing 'in' hotel properties and generally vandalizing them like proper rock stars do. Still, back then, they had 'magic' coming out of their ears. Idealism, love, deserts, slappin' em down and The Edge's cool hat - it's all in there. "Get involved in the fight..." they told us in the liner notes to the album. Join Amnesty International and Greenpeace they urged - and swept away by the glorious positivity of it all - many of us did. What a band - what a landmark record.

"...I want to reach out...and touch the flame..." the frontman sang.

And now we can...

"Any Way You Like It" by THELMA HOUSTON – Album from December 1976 (USA) on Tamla and January 1977 (UK) on Tamla Motown (February 2015 SoulMusic 'Expanded Edition' CD Reissue and Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

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"…Come To Me…"

A timely and official CD reissue of a long-forgotten Tamla Disco LP from late 1976 including two chart hits – Thelma’s cover of the Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes 1975 classic “Don’t Leave Me Way” and “If It’s The Last Thing I Do” – and it sounds amazing too. Here are the glitter ball details...

UK released February 2015 - "Any Way You Want Me" by THELMA HOUSTON on SoulMusic Records SMCR 5126 (Barcode 5013929082632) an 'Expanded Edition' CD Reissue and Remaster with Six Bonus Tracks that break down as follows (53:38 minutes):

1. Any Way You Like It [Side 1]

2. Don't Leave Me This Way

3. Don't Know Why I Love You

4. Come To Me [Side 2]

5. Don't Make Me Pay (For Another Girl's Mistake)

6. Sharing Something Perfect Between Ourselves

7. If It's The Last Thing I Do

8. Differently

Tracks 1 to 8 are the album "Any Way You Like It" - released December 1976 in the USA on Tamla T6-345S1 and January 1977 in the UK on Tamla Motown STMP 12049

BONUS TRACKS:

9. Do You Know Where You're Going To (Previously Only Issued in New Zealand)

10. Together (Previously Only Issued in New Zealand)

11. Today Will Soon Be Yesterday – non-album B-side to "Don't Leave Me This Way" US 7" single on Tamla 54278

12. You've Been Doing Wrong For So Long – non-album A-side – USA 7" single on Tamla 1316

13. One Out Of Every Six (Censored Version) – non-album A-side – USA 7" single on Tamla 54275

14. Don't Leave Me This Way (US Tamla Single Edit) – non-album A-side version on USA 7" single Tamla 54278

Licensed from Universal - ALAN WILSON has done the remaster - and the audio is fantastic - full of power, presence and detail. The album is very much in the Disco/Light Soul vein with a mixture of steppers and smoochers Produced by people like Michael L. Smith who had worked with Jerry Butler, Jermaine Jackson and The Temptations. The 16-page booklet is pleasingly packed with details about her recording history courtesy of David Nathan’s affectionate liner notes while the rear pages picture US, UK and foreign 45s of note.

I'd be hard-pressed to say that "Any Way You Like It" is a masterpiece – it isn’t – but there are likeable ballads on here like "Come To Me" (Jermaine Jackson had a hand in the writing) and the huge hit "Don't Leave Me This Way". The album managed a respectable No. 5 placing on the American Billboard R&B charts. The Bonus Tracks smartly include two rare foreign sides making their CD debut here as well as four other non-album single sides.

A 3-star album given a 5-star reissue on a CD that’s pitched at mid-price - Disco lovers should dive in...