Going for the one

When it comes to specialty mastered cds there are two names that are heads above most others, Mobile Fidelity Labs  and Audio Fidelity, the company formed from the ashes of the former DCC label.  

Recently Audio Fidelity issued the second disc in a re-issue program by the Prog Rock group Yes following an agreement with the bands management and Wea who hold the rights to much of their catalogue.

This was one album I have strong memories of 1977 coinciding with the period I learned a lot about rock music from being in my early teens from shows such as Alan Freeman's Saturday afternoon show when he'd play an incredibly wide range of music including new releases which this album was one of.

Originally it was released on lp, cassette and 8 track cartridge which is one of the versions I had at the time and has had three previous cd issues of which the last one I bought was the 1994 remaster by Ted Jensen.

Musically it has 4 shorter tracks of which one, Wonderous Stories, was a 45 and a good showcase of Jon Anderson's voice and the much long piece Awaken that features Rick Wakeman's organ playing which was recorded separately in Switzerland.

The original recording and mix  is one dimensional and a bit shrill in high level high notes something that even the UK original lp didn't cure.

This re-master by Steve Hoffman is surprisingly effective for he managed to find the deep bass previously hidden to bring out the organ and to carefully reduce the shrillness without it sounding as if he'd removed all the high notes losing detail.

We are given to believe Yes band members are impressed with how this turned out.

As with most recordings he remasters, it has a wide dynamic range as unlike a number of remasters on mainstream labels he doesn't severely reduce it in the mistaken belief it brings out more in the mix by bring it forward.

I also acquired the earlier Close To The Edge issue Audio Fidelity put out which is a significant improvement on the 1994 and 2003 reissues.

Technically, it is a super audio cd giving higher resolution on sacd comfortable players such as many blu ray players or sacd audio players but also has a layer that plays on regular  players.

More Foreigner on sacd and the ZZ Top box set

Well the term "Head Games" sometimes covers the kind of games some folk play  it has been and may  even apply given just how long from announcement to issuing these discs have been.

You might recall the first two albums had been re-issued by the specialty label Mobile Fidelity in the form of super audio cds that also play on regular players from the 'original master tapes'.

Originally issued in 1979 on lp, cassette and 8 track (still have mine!) it was Foreigner's reaction to the criticism of their rock being too smooth and commercial and an answer to the English new wave being somewhat more edgier something hinted at in the cover that remains at least with me just a little disturbing

The album features the singles Head Games, Dirty White Boy which did produce some allegations of racism (misguided imho) and Love On The Telephone. 

One criticism of it is the sound where producer Roy Thomas Baker had a sound that involved getting a dirty feel featuring distorted drums so while this version is less harsh in part because digital mastering has improved over the years, it remains rough round the edges.

After a lineup change, in 1981 the band issued 4 which is a play on the fact it was their fourth album and it was one of several top selling hard rock albums of 1981/2 sitting aside Reo Speedwagon's Hi Infidelity, Journey's Escape and AC/DC's For Those About To Rock

It also sold extremely well in the UK aided by the popularity of  the 45 "Waiting For  A Girl Like You" although Juke Box Hero also was a big worldwide seller.

1981 also was a format transition year so while it was issued on lp and cassette it was briefly issued on 8 track and also in Europe the original cassette was re-issued with a higher quality Chrome dioxide issue as people started to buy more tapes for car and walkman usage.

It also was one of the first cds I bought in 1986 with a period green 'target' crosshair pattern on the top layer.

This new super audio cd is a bit better sounding although a friend of mine informed me the High Resolution files from HDTracks recently put out sound better.
Both discs come in a gatefold mini lp style presentation with full insert featuring lyrics with the disc held in a lint free pouch.

Changing format but compatible with both sacd and regular cd players we move to a box set recently issued.

The biggest boogie band on planet earth? Probably these Texan rockers I'd say.

Just arriving through the door will be this box set  recently issued by Rhino/Warner's that has the first ten albums (Self titled to Recycler) by the band seeing them through classic blues boogie to their synthesizer reborn era of the mid 80's.

What makes this set particularly appealing  even though the discs are held in just card replica sleeves in a card outer box is that for the first time every album from Z Z Tops first album through Tejas will be issued in their original mixes on cd for the very first time.

In the early cd era (1987) Warner Bros. and Bill Ham, ZZ Tops producer, decided to issue  6 early albums in a 3 cd set called the ZZ Top Six pack back to back and the replaced the original drumming with a machine and edited a number of the songs.

In the opinion of many fans making 70's songs sound mid 80's in this way was beyond a travesty and even when separate cd issues were done these mixes remained in print although in 2006 Fandango! and Tres Hombres were remastered from the original recordings with bonus tracks but Rhino didn't follow though until now.

For years fans made do with their original London and later Warner Bros. re-issue vinyl with some even digitizing them and making available as unlicensed downloads

This is how they look in the box. Note how they look like small scale vinyl lps with Tres Hombres and Tejas being gatefolds.

For this set the mastering from 2008 of Eliminator and 2006's Fandango are used, slightly altered clones are used of the original Deguello and El Loco masterings and straight re-issues of Afterburner and Recycler with the remainder freshly mastered.

As you can see on the rear of the box is a list of the albums with song information and a thumbnail of each album.

For the modest £22 including mailing  it simply has to be the best news in eons for digital fans of this band.

Jessops and HMV closures

I guess it had to happen really and was more question of when rather than if but the UK photography chain Jessops went into receivership as of January 9th brought about by an inability in the part of directors, creditors and suppliers to extend credit to this long established but ailing concern that goes back many decades.

It's my understanding some suppliers had during last year offered credit to them to enable their products to be sold as it was the #1 high street outlet for their goods.

Jessops was the first chain in the UK I established a relationship with as a consumer, a place where at the time you could get all manner of advice connected with photography, the virtues of different lenses, filters, film etc over the sales counter. 

My local branch would root out stuff for me to try instore without obligation. They also run a photography residential school with industry experts providing tuition.

Two things probably did for this type of retailing, the first being digital photography has  less repeat custom after buying a camera and maybe a spare memory card and for Dslr users an additional lens or two. You sure wouldn't be buying a new memory card each week in the way you bought film and although they'd invested in instore printing, a lot of casual users either print at home or don't even print their images so you wouldn't be getting much of an income stream from that!

 
As a traditional film slr user I saw reductions traditional products in stock to the point while on vacation I couldn't get medium speed print film and ended up visiting a well known drugstore that had better stocks off the shelf!

Also many users use smartphones as cameras leading to a drop in demand for digital compacts that come on contracts while professionals users would use online stores that held larger 'to go' supplies with rapid delivery 

Last week, he said trying desperately not to come over all smug, it's finally happened, music retailing has moved from the high street.  Poor ol' Nipper.

Well okay, I know that's Birmingham Bull Ring, not Broad Street, but you know what I mean -our town and city centres - with the shock announcement late last night (January 14th) the national music and video retailer HMV was planning on going into administration following poor Christmas sales.

Sounds familiar, eh? And rather like with Jessops they also were being bankrolled by the suppliers who provided much of the January 25% off "Blue Cross" sales stock as did two state owned banks who to put things with my usually matter of factness, want their money back.

Some other similarities include high rents, failure to capitalize on online sales, poor in store stocks (I mean just seven studio albums by the Stones in the branch in a large city branch near me???), uncompetitive online store pricing (Amazon often cheaper).

HMV potentially could of gotten into downloading but after a brief messy store attempt, partnered up with 7Digital who run that for them which would be fine except 7Digital are a big brand in their own right so most would of gone straight to them.

As much as I feel for for all the staff I'm expecting nearly all the branches to go simply because it seems to me you can't run a big chain anymore because of the overheads and also your immediate best sellers, new albums, are stocked by both supermarkets such as ASDA and Tesco cheaply and the likes of Amazon for those who want cds but many more  prefer to download and these can obtained cheaply from the big three Amazon, iTunes and 7Digital.

You can do niche cd selling from a small side street location with an internet presence backed by a warehouse.

Hmv failed also to capitalize on the "Vinyl revival" by stocking few new and re-issue titles that many who like a physical album buy which was the tipping point for me becoming fed  up of having to order run of the mill cd titles only to return later at my expense to collect, getting an account at Amazon  ordering from them. I guess I wasn't alone in that!

I get the nostalgia many are feeling, remembering the first time I visited HMV Oxford Street London and the Manchester store still having those records and the many BritPop vinyl  titles on 7" and 12" lp I bought new that are most collectible.

I just feel by years end the high street will be that much the poorer.

Billy Joel, the Piano Man Pt.2

This is the slightly over due part two of our music specials on Billy Joel whose music I loved growing up.

Following a bit of a gap the program resumed with 1978's fantastic 52nd Street jazz influence album with it's hit singles My Life and FM album favourites like Zanzibar which like all of  Mobile Fidelity's  issues in this series isn't just a finely mastered cd besting regular Columbia/Sony issues but also a even better sounding super audio cd that can be played on a dedicated sacd player or many Blu-Ray players that have playback built into them.

These releases use a mini lp style of presentation complete with lyric inserts which I much prefer over plastic jewel cases.

 On July 31st 2012, the specialty reissue company Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs as part of it's program of Billy Joel reissues put out a new version of Billy Joel's 'new wave' Glass Houses album from 1980, the one with 'It's Still Rock and Roll To Me' on it.

If you like Billy Joel as I do then you're no doubt familiar with numbers like 'All for Leyna' but what makes this so enjoyable is it hasn't had any extra narrowing of the quiet and loud passages applied to it so when those drums kick in you can tell! 

Plus it sounds really clear in the presence area great for Billy's voice and the percussion.

The last edition of I bought was the 1998 Sony re-master which I have on Minidisc.

This 1982 album saw Billy emulating the feel of the 60's with many a nod to Paul McCartney and featured hits such as Allentown that caught the despondency of the early 80's Reagan era America as the smokestack industries faced decline.

This new version on regular cd is the best I've ever heard this album which although recorded digitally was actually mixed to analogue tape.

It is to be hoped the 50's pastiche that is An Innocent Man gets this treatment soon.

The Byrds and Roxy Music box sets

Anyone who knows anything at all about me knows I've always loved the Byrds one of the most important American rock groups of the 60's and beyond not just for the individual talents within  the group in its differing lineups but the fact they got to what was new and hip before anyone else did, pioneering whole new musical genres such as Country-Rock that lead us to The Eagles and Poco.

 
I grew up on the UK import History of the Byrds double compilation lp which for its time give a well rounded assessment of their abilities and not a few hard to find vital 45's such as Lady Friend although in time I bought a number of studio albums plus the good if slightly flawed Original singles masters lps issued in the UK in 1980 and 1982 respectively supply all the singles with matching b sides.

People remarked on the music I played at high school during that period as it was so different than anything they were familiar with.

Anyway in 1990 I was based in Surrey, just outside of London, when the news broke that a new box set of their work freshly remastered and even remixed in parts was coming out October 19th on CBS over here (the US edition was on Columbia)  which appealed not least because some of the  early Byrds cds although having the original mixes didn't sound so hot in this new format.

The set also content 6 new recordings made that year showcasing their talent even now.

I remember saving up for it, intending to buy it in a store in Kingston Upon Thames only to find some so and so had stolen all my money so as I was short on funds for meeting my other obligations, I never got around to getting it.

 
I bought all the remastered individual cds from 1996 and 1997 that were issued  featuring many bonus tracks but still hankered for this attractively packaged set

Each disc is titled with its own cover art and there remains a good number of alternate mixes and material not carried over to the "There Is a Season" box set of a few years ago.

 
Fortunately I was able to track down an as new US copy used for a cheap price from a Amazon vendor which should be here in a minute.
I'm really looking forward to finally getting it.
Tracklist:

We Have Ignition 1. Mr Tambourine Man 2. I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better 3. Chimes Of Freedom 4. She Has A Way 5. All I Really Want To Do 6. Spanish Harlem Incident 7. The Bells Of Rhymney 8. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue 9. She Don't Care About Time 10. Turn Turn Turn 11. It Won't Be Wrong 12. Lay Down Your Weary Tune 13. He Was A Friend Of Mine 14. The World Turns All Around Her 15. The Day Walk (Never Before) 16. The Times They Are A-Changin' 17. 5D (Fifth Dimension) 18. I Know My Rider 19. Eight Miles High 20. Why 21. Psychodrama city 22. I See You 23. Hey Joe Cruising Altitude 24. Mr Spaceman 25. John Riley 26. Roll Over Beethoven 27. So You Want To Be A Rock 'N' Roll Star 28. Have You Seen Her Face 29. My Back Pages 30 Tim Between 31. It Happens Each Day 32. Renaissance Fair 33. Everybody's Been Burned 34. The Girl With No Name 35. Triad 36. Lady Friend 37. Old John Robertson 38. Goin' Back 39. Draft Morning 40. Wasn't Born To Follow 41. Dolphin's Smile 42. Reputation 43. You Ain't Going Nowhere 44. The Christian Life 45. I Am A Pilgrim 46. Pretty Boy Floyd 47. You Don't Miss Your Water Full Throttle: 48. Hickory Wind 49. Nothing Was Delivered 50. One Hundred Years From Now 51. Pretty Polly 52. Lazy Days 53. This Wheels On Fire 54. Nashville West 55. Old Blue 56. Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man 57. Bad Night At The Whiskey 58. Lay Lady Lay 59. Mae Jean Goes To Hollywood 60. Ballad Of Easy Rider 61. Oil In My Lamp 62. Jesus Is Just Alright 63. Way Beyond The Sun 64. Tulsa County 65. Deportee 66. Lover Of The Bayou 67. Willin' 68. Black Mountain Rag 69. Positively 4th Street Final Approach: 70. Chestnut Mare 71. Just A Season 72. Kathleen's Song 73. Truck Stop Girl 74. Just Like A Woman 75. Stanley's Song 76. Glory Glory 77. I Trust 78. I Wanna Grow Up To Be A Politician 79. Green Apple Quick Step 80. Tiffany Queen 81. Bugler 82. Lazy Waters 83. Farther Along 84. White's Lightning From The 1990 Roy Orbison Tribute: 85. Turn Turn Turn 86. Mr Tambourine Man The Nashville Session: New 1990 Recordings: 87. He Was A Friend Of Mine 88. Paths Of Victory 89. From A Distance 90. Love That Never Dies

Back in 1972, a year I remember well with moving there were a number of  acts that later on you realized were about to break big one of which was David Bowie who released the seminal Ziggy Stardust album that year and there was Roxy Music.

Roxy Music are an English art rock group formed in November 1970 by Bryan Ferry, who became the group's lead vocalist and chief songwriter, and bassist Graham Simpson. The other members are Phil Manzanera (guitar), Andy Mackay (saxophone and oboe) and Paul Thompson (drums and percussion). Former members include Brian Eno (synthesizer and "treatments"), and Eddie Jobson (synthesizer and violin). 

They disbanded in 1983 they reunited early this century releasing live albums but nothing new in the studio.

Roxy Music were one of the first English bands I got into buying their records over the years band one first artists to have their catalogues fully released on cd back in the mid 80's before the Stones or even Beatles and they have been reissued three times with the last set suffering from a very loud screechy sound that lead me toward buying my favourite albums by them on original vinyl.

On Monday August 4th this 10 cd box set came out called The Complete Studio Recordings and I sprung for it although it's different than originally intended probably for cost reasons so here's a few thoughts  on it.

The first thing anyone getting this set has to get over this is it's not the ultimate set with High Resolution audio on dvds and a coffee table book throw in it's more basic than that but by way of compensation is a lot cheaper around the £50 mark. That's not much per cd now is it?

Also unfortunately a background capsule booklet wasn't included which is a shame because it would of helped to set the context of each album (and the singles) release for the casual fan but the packaging is otherwise of a high standard with thick card sleeves and a paper inner to protect the disc.

The card looks durable so shouldn't suffer damage in regular use with a bit of care. The box is sturdy and functional allowing you to slide out the core to retrieve an album for playing when it is on your shelf something I appreciate.

For this set Roxy Music (self titled) loses Virginia Plain which was never part of the original lp and 1979's Manifesto gains for the first time on cd the album versions of Angel Eyes and Dance Away rather than the disco inspired remakes issued originally for the 45's and all are present in the  2cds covering non album singles, b sides and odd mixes.

The mastering for this set is different than the 1999 HDCD discs which remain available new, preserving far the better the difference between the quieter and louder passages so when you listen to a track like Street Life, it doesn't tire your ear and you can tell the difference between tracks with more softer passages and those that don't .

It seems they redid the transfers from original analogue tape which coupled with newer analogue to digital converters results in much smoother sound compared to previous cds.

I've had quite a blast this week playing all these albums back comparing with other versions finding this set to the best sounding yet.

To sum up, it may not be the ultimate set when it comes to features but is a extremely good sounding set, well presented being available at a modest price suitable for either a casual fan as a one stop purchase or for those looking for upgraded sound.

Rod Stewart

If you were around in the 70's you could not of escaped Rod Stewart, the UK singer-songwriter responsible for many of decades top selling records but where do you start if you're not a rabid fan of his given many compilations have been issued in the passing decades most of which had cd re-issues?

At the risk of sounding like boring, I feel his best solo material was recorded for Mercury between 1969 and 1974 taking in such gems as You Wear it Well, Gasoline Alley, Reason To Believe and unforgettably, Maggie Mae.

While some of these albums have been re-issued by specialty labels such as Audio Fidelity and Mobile Fidelity, these discs will be dear to track down regardless of sonic merit  so I'd suggest most would be better of getting new a 3 cd set called "Reason To Believe -The complete Mercury studio recordings" having all the albums and some bonus tracks in a single inexpensive set.

For an overview of his career from the mid 60's to 1990 I feel there's one which is a complete no-brainer  and that's "Storyteller" as it does just that telling the story of Rod's music career over 4 cds that originally came out in 1990 costing a small fortune.

It was recently repackaged but keeping the notes and can be got from Amazon UK for £7.99 shipped. Although a few tracks from the mid 60's were sourced from records, most of this set sounds really good.

I would put this now above "The Story So Far - the best of" a 2 cd set issued by Warner Broa. in the UK in 2003 as Storyteller has more 'classic' Rod while all The Story So Far adds is some remakes and less essential tracks he did with Helicopter Girl even though I bought "Story So Far" on release.

Finally, Rod was an essential part of the Faces who emerged from the Small Faces and you simply have to have a selection of their rootsy bar music that included tracks like Stay With Me and Cindy Incidentally. Although there's a new double cd set due out in October which I hope to get, One that can be got cheaply and is very good is The Best of the Faces (Good boys ...while they're asleep).

Currently available on Rhino and priced at £2.99 on Amazon UK you really cannot go wrong with this single cd retrospective..

David Bowie: Ziggy Stardust

A few weeks and forty odd years ago an album was issued that became in many respects bigger than the artists own profile dominating the popular music scene for 1972/3.

It's an album almost  every student of any generation feels they have to heard never mind own regardless of what format may be prevalent at the time and it was a major musical and social influence either on me at that time.

Ziggy Stardust is a character - a singer in a rock band - and through him we see his raise to fame and tellingly his burn out that mirrors all too sadly what actually happens in real life. 

Everybody wants a piece of his pie from the management team, record label  even ultimately, the fans themselves and the artist struggles to "Hang on to yourself" to quote the title of one of the songs featured.

If the Monkees were a made for TV fabrication of a rock group based upon the Beatles, here was in many ways a more credible fabrication for the modern era -  a complete fabrication from individuals persona onward.

Any person going down down Heddon Street, London would see the buildings in the cover shot although the trash can and K West sign are long gone.

The first single off the album was Starman and I recall the first time I heard that on the radio well being aware from the billboards and older friends of this Bowie character. 

What got to me about was -and still is - is the sense of detachment, alienation even of the lead character in the lyrics and the unamerican style of singing.

I first had the album on RCA 8 track tape although my brother had the lp and have been through cassette and cd versions.

This album has been re-issued numerous times and unfortunately like most of David Bowie's back catalogue their is no such thing as a really good cd version although on the advice of a friend of mine, I got the original RCA cds from the mid 1980's which were more listenable than either the thin sounding EMI (US: Ryko) titles from 1990/91 with bonus tracks or Peter Mew's bloated and highly compressed versions from 1999 on EMI (US: Virgin).

In 1990 a boxed edition was issued by EMI with a  72 page booklet with the regular cd
recognizing it's iconic status and this June  two new editions came out.

The cd version is just a straight re-issue of the 11 track album in a card digpack cover which I can't say I really like as packaging preferring Mini Lp style i we're having paper based.

While there is a little compression on it compared to the 1984 RCA, the tonality is spot on and let's be honest here the analogue to digital conversion technology has come an awful lot in 28 years (I can hear the convertors' sound on many older cds) so for the first time ever there is a pretty acceptable in print cd even though I won't be tossing out the RCA.

Secondly and even better news is that there was a new lp lovingly mastered by Ray Staff who used to work at Porky's mastering that many of us feel surpasses the original UK orange RCA lp when it comes to sound quality and dead quiet surfaces. 

It comes with a audio dvd that will play on a computer or Blue-ray player capable of 96khz/24Bit resolution (most do) offering  both stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes with bonus tracks which will sound smoother than the regular cd.

Recommended.

P.I.R. 40th Anniversary & The Whispers

This week  I had the pleasure of a BIG 10 cd box arrive Tuesday that had been preordered  a while back - more or less the minute I heard about it - as it seemed unbelievable.
It's taken four whole days to listen to it all!

Produced very much with the blessing of Messers Gamble and Huff themselves under Ian Dewhirst and programmed by Ralph Tee who in 1986 made the legendary 14 lp retrospective, this set gives us over 170 songs a good number previously unavailable on cd from the very beginning of their record label into the 90's and one previously unissued track. 

Some have unique 12" mixes and 45 edits.

You see  40 years ago the label was established and this is THE anniversary set.
Tracks in the soul, funk and 'disco' genres are covered with for instance disc seven for instance is mainly jazz influenced  with Dexter Wansel featuring.

Everything has freshly mastered for this set from the original masters to sound as good as it can.

If that wasn't enough there's a 60 page booklet giving track by track narration and a US label discography something that's very handy.

For people like me who love this stuff it's a dream come true - such much timeless soul -  and what is more this little gem only costs £41.37 from Amazon which is very little to pay for such a set.

I did however spend some money on some extra separate cds on Edsel of albums by MFSB who were the backing musicians of many of the labels hits and also of Teddy Pendergrass and Archie Bell & the Drells.

Edsel do most of the post 1976 albums from that label sounding really good.

Today's second feature is The Whispers.

In 2002 apart from the Shalamar reissues I once talked about Sanctuary who own the UK rights to the SOLAR back catalogue decided to start a complete Whispers reissue campaign which got me interested as someone who did like this soul groups music having bought both the 1994 30th Anniversary set and 1999's And The Beat Goes On 2 cd compilation albums.

For reasons that I honestly can't remember, this 8 cd series laid incomplete in my collection as I think I'd started at the end(!) probably because my original cd of 1987's Just Gets Better In Time had gone all sticky in the way many cds made by Nimbus in the UK during that period were prone to and I was thinking more about getting a  replacement.

In time I did get "The Whispers" famed for the smash hit And The Beat Goes On as well as My Girl coupled with 1987's seasonal album Happy Holidays and Imagination from 1981 with its smash It's A Love Thing coupled with This Kind Of Loving from the same year that suffered from the same fate as other albums on SOLAR at this period little promotion as the distribution deal was changing. 

A few years later I found the second disc in the series Bingo-The Janus Years which as the name suggests covered all the material recorded for Janus Records  a division of Chess featuring the Bingo album and a favourite song  by them of mine Mother For My Children from 1974 but that was it.

Recently I've finally get around to completing it aided by something I didn't have back then - Amazon - although quite a number of these discs are discontinued with single cds versions still available new from Unidisc of Canada.

The Whispers story on album begins around 1969/70 and the Soul clock label so I picked up 'Planets Of Life the Soul Clock recordings' because apart from that album you do get the other non album 45's which set the scene for the moved to Janus from 1972 through 1974. 

A word of warning the Canadian cd doesn't have the title track and the German is poorly copied from a lp with lots of filtering to hide crackles etc.

From Janus they moved in 1975 to Soul Train a label created by the people behind the legendary Soul Train black music tv show releasing One For The Money (also a 45) and Open Up Your Love from 1975 and 1976 respectively.

1979 saw the release of the acclaimed Headlights album a favourite of mine a with its singles (Olivia) Lost and Turned Out and the 'quiet storm' Lets Go All The Way which in this series is coupled Whisper In Your Ear featuring the single Can't Do Without Your Love. 

These were the first albums they issued on the SOLAR imprint.

Finally we get to 1981's Love Is where You Find It featuring In The Raw as well as Emergency, one of the first albums to have a uptempo dancing and slow romancing side configurations which for this series is coupled with 1983's Love Is Love released during a period of very rapid change in R&B  music as electro and rap was making its way into the mainstream.

Crosby, Stills And Nash on Audio Fidelity

The late 1960's and early 70's is a period where I do remember rather more than many of my contemparies do and I guess for me it involves numerous automotive journeys with the clunking of dads in-car 8 track player and the sometimes downright screwed up track orders of the albums we played and given that is even know how they 'play' in my head, perhaps our generation ought to be compensated by Lear Jet for it!

Crosby Stills and Nash fit that era to a tee and recently Audio Fidelity a small Californian reissue outfit re-issued their first album freshly re-mastered by Steve Hoffman.

Songs like Wooden Ships, Marrekesh Express and Suite: Judy Blue Eyes were always on tape player plus the FM radio and what they've tried to do on this cd is to bring out a more natural bass quality and improve the clarity of the individual instruments on what has to be said is a so-so original recording. 

It works well even if ultimately this album is one you enjoy for the performances and songs some of which like the Graham Nash ones were originally intended for his 'old' group the Hollies during that period when he wanted to write songs with more meaning while the groups record company (EMI) just wanted simplistic pop songs to sell hit 45's instead. 

In Crosby's case he famously fell out with the Byrds as they didn't wish to issue his songs and so Graham Steven Stills and himself formed this 'supergroup'.

Shortly afterwards Neil Young a now celebrated Canadian singer-songwriter joined them for the Deja Vu album which was a good a distillation of the ethos of those 'Woodstock' days as any I can think of from the cover of the Joni Mitchell song of the same name to Almost Cut My Hair, Nash's Our House and my favourite Neil's Country Girl a seemless suite of three songs.

I owned this originally on 8 track and later the casette version during the 'Walkman era'.

Sometime in the mid 1990's ('94 I think) Joe Gastwirt remastered this and pretty much all the C,S,N &Y output for compact disc and these can be got cheaply with decent sound from the likes of Amazon. They are only just a little louder than a specialist remaster and I like his version of this a lot.

In the fall of 2013 Steve Hoffman tackled this, the 1977 album (aka "The Boat") for Audio Fidelity catalogue number AFZ 144, the home of Cathedral and several other fine compositions. Having heard a number on the 2013 reissued box set CSN, my interest was piqued so I bought it. 

The sound is really good on this issue maintaining its analogue warmth and can be recommended 

*Updated 2013 by Tammy*

Billy Joel, Piano Man

This week we're back to music and looking at Billy Joel who I followed certainly around the time I was in high school  and I've been collecting recordings by him ever since.

He was born William Martin Joel in 1949 in Long Island, New York formed a band called the Echoes in 1964 the year of the 'British Invasion and later on formed a hard rock band in late 1960's called The Hassles from which a duo with their drummer Jon Small.

In 1973 on the strength of shows in the Northeastern United States he signed a recording contract with Columbia Records  which led to his debut album album Cold Spring Harbour being issued. 

The first two cds by Billy I bought were An Innocent Man and The Bridge in their European issues following up with the Japanese cd made for Europe of Nylon Curtain, The US versions of Storm Front plus River Of Dreams and a minidisc (RIP) of Streetlight Serenade together with Greatest Hits III in 1998.

Recently I have acquired a couple of specialty label cds from Mobile fidelity (Mofi) of Chicago, Ill. by him and it's these I wish to talk about.

In so far as most Britons are concerned he came to notice during Elton John's unavailability late 77, Early '78 but actually Billy went back much further than that but simply they'd not heard that early material.

 
Piano Man which remains one of the finest albums by a contemporary rock artist taking his observations on NJ life including the controversial Captain Jack that tackles drug abuse . 

As well it is worth noting this album is clearly influenced by Elton's Tumbleweed Connection as well as having a Western theme running thru it.

Piano Man is a fictionalized account of his own story working the bars, trying earn a dollar.

Turnstiles was the next one up and was the second just issued by Mofi which features New York state of Mind in it's original mix rather than the remix used for all previous cd versions as well as Miami 2017 and the epic Say Goodbye To Hollywood.

All these discs are Super Audio cds with a higher resolution layer for suitably equipped layers and  a regular layer for my own cd player.
 
I was fortunate to borrow  the the Audio Fidelity 52nd Street which I didn't like  finding it too muddy so elected to elected to stay with my 1994 Sony Mastersounds gold disc.

The Second Time Around

And it is in more ways than one!

The soul music group Shalamar formed in 1976 from three dancers who appeared on the US black music show Soul Train were a passion of mine in the late 70's, early 80's being one of the acts that were the link between the seventies Soul (think Ojays' and solo Smokey Robinson) and the Funk that became prevailed as the main genre of black music in the 80's.

Sufficient I feel to say I bought the 45's usually as imports cos they were cheaper and many of their albums that were very satisfying in themselves having ballads as well as uptempo stompers you can dance to.

Of the albums of these that held and still hold great interest for me they are Big Fun issued fall 1979, Three For Love issued January 1981, Friends Early summer '82 and The Look issued May of 1983 and the last album by the classic original line of Jody Watley, Howard Hewitt and Jeffrey Daniels.

Jeffery pioneered the 'Moonwalk' first shown on BBC UK tv's Top Of The Pops in 1982 and was begged by Michael Jackson no less for the secret of them moves!

The records remain in my collection but like many acts it took a while before anything outside of a compilation got issued in the cd era.

That takes us back to the title of this post because in so far as the UK was concerned for a brief point Friends and The Look were issued around 1983/4 when the label was being handled by Warner (WEA) as straight cd issues - no bonus tracks - but had been out of print for a long while. These issues commend a very high price on the collectors market.

In 1996 Sequel Records part of the big re-issue group Castle Copyrights issued all four of these albums on cd, with Big Fun and Three For Love being issued for the very first time with bonus tracks.

It wasn't long however before this set of re-issues themselves were deleted and following the formation of Sanctuary Records from Castle Copyrights and the issuing of new compilations including the nice various artists Soul Classic Soul and Solar Classic Disco two cd sets in late 1999, attention again was placed on revitalizing the Shalamar catalogue.

In 2002 the entire Shalamar album catalogue was re-issued from 1977's Uptown Festival to 1990's Wake Up with new liner notes featuring interviews with Jeffery and Howard and lots of chart related facts.

It was and is a great idea but this set of issues have some flaws for the serious fan.
The first thing is like many contemporary albums an attempt was made to make everything sound loud so the quiet ballad You Can Count On Me has the same average level as a track like Dead Giveaway on the 2002 The Look cd which it never did on vinyl.

They also seem to attempted to remove any hiss and pops from the original tapes - I'm not sure these tapes are the actual 'master tapes' so much as copies of - and this has left the high notes sounding brittle and liking any sense of space around instruments or vocals.

You can hear a filter on the high notes on the intro of You Can Count On Me being lifted electronically on the louder passages which is distracting.

On the 2 albums on one cd issue of Big Fun and Three for Love I was taken aback to see they had shortened several tracks for 12 seconds or sometimes longer compared with the 1996 cd and original vinyl albums and used much shorter edits of Right In The Socket and Full Of Fire with the first song losing over two minutes!

To give you an idea how this impacts on it if you took the two albums minus any bonus tracks, the 1996 issues would run for 80:56 minutes and the 2002 a mere 74:50.

Nowhere in the notes of the 2002 cd does it mention this just proudly informing you of the bonus of The Second Time Around (edit) which was the 45 version (the lp version runs for 7:06) which how they got it all onto one cd!!! In so far as the first two albums go there are more bonus tracks - the edited singles versions - on the 1996 versions too.


Now my original 1996 Three For Love cd got lost in a move several years back and so I ordered up a complete set of the four 1996 cds used and was taken aback by the differences.
Now for The Second Time Around, I'm reunited with the cds that sound really like the vinyl albums I love.
Deja vu!

Winter sports

I've always loved the Winter as cold as it often gets  not just for natural beauty but also for the many things you can do both inside and out on a Winters day.

One of my favourite sports to watch is Winter Skiing which is shown on the BBC as well as British Eurosport and it is sport many girls do take up although it is an expensive hobby to get into.

Off on the snow you really can move fast but it also requires good co-ordination too.

Here they are enjoying themselves in lovely girlish coloured attire, Who said girls can't ski or it's not feminine?

And why shouldn't sissy gurls like me go skiing in girlish winter sports attire?

Ultimate Girl bands

Why is it all female bands get a a rep as just eye candy?

Take the Bangles for example, fine practitioners of classic 60’s based pop rock dismissed because of hairdos. All three full albums, All Over The Place, Different Light and Everything are of excellent quality.

Not a few hit singles either.

Factor in a good debut mini-album on Miles Copeland’s I.R.S. records and surely they, not Bananarama, were the best all girl band of the 80’s.

Do visit here for more http://www.thebangles.com/

As far female contributions to a mixed gender band the Wilson sister’s contributions to Heart add a vital dimension to that longstanding groups sound.
If you don't own anything by Heart, I would strongly recommend a two CD set - 'The Essential Heart' - on Epic/Sony Music as it covers all their music from the first album 'Dreamboat Annie' to 1995's acoustic set 'The Road Home. The mastering quality of this compilation is excellent - better on the tracks from 'Heart' and 'Bad Animals' than the original 80's Capitol Records CD's.
The European catalog number is 510519 2.
Visit the following links for more on Heart and the Wilson sisters:-
www.annandnancy.com
www.capitolrecords.com/heart
www.legacyrecordings.com/heart