The Second Disc

If you’ve found yourself wanting to hip yourself to British rockers Talk Talk, EMI is giving you a chance to do so this spring, when they will release straight reissues of most of the band’s output.

Known primarily as a trio consisting of singer Mark Hollis, bassist Paul Webb and drummer Lee Harris (though featuring keyboardist Simon Brenner from 1981 to 1983 and unofficial fourth member/keyboardist/producer/songwriter Tim Friese-Greene afterward), Talk Talk started as a band in the New Romantic vein, opening for Duran Duran and working with their first producer, Colin Thurston. During the mid-’80s, with an increasingly experimental batch of songs, the group actually had a solid brush with success in Europe and even the U.S., thanks primarily to the catchy single “It’s My Life,” the band’s only Top 40 hit in America and highest-charting single in England. (Younger fans might know it through a cover version recorded by No Doubt in 2003, which peaked within Billboard‘s Top 10.)

The group’s last two albums for Parlophone/EMI, 1986′s The Colour of Spring and 1988′s Spirit of Eden, were successful steps away from synthpop and toward more artier, straightforward rock and beyond. But a protracted legal battle to get out of their contract and a shift in personnel ultimately exhausted the group. Hollis and Friese-Greene recorded Laughing Stock for Polydor in 1991 under the Talk Talk name, and the group disbanded afterward. (Hollis would release a solo album in 1998 before retiring from the business altogether.)

On April 10, the band’s four EMI-controlled albums – 1982′s The Party’s Over, 1984′s It’s My Life and The Colour of Spring and The Spirit of Eden – are being reissued. There are no bonus tracks, and the discs will be struck from the same digital mastering of the catalogue as released in 1997. For vinyl lovers, there is a bit of excitement, though: Spring and Eden are getting reissued on double-vinyl as well (only the latter looks to be available on Amazon U.K. as of this writing). And, for what it’s worth, EMI is giving away a bundle of these as well.

Are you thinking you should take a chance on Ace Records’ supremely soulful duo of releases from The Apollas and Eddie Holland?  If so…you’re absolutely right!  For The Apollas’ Absolutely Right: The Complete Tiger, Loma and Warner Bros. Recordings (Kent CDKEND 365, 2012) and Holland’s It Moves Me: The Complete Recordings 1958-1964 (Ace CDTOP2 1331, 2012) both belong on the shelf of any serious fan of classic soul and R&B.

If you haven’t heard of The Apollas, you’re forgiven.  This Bay Area girl trio didn’t see much chart action, but the 25 mid-sixties tracks compiled here by Alec Palao (including five unreleased titles) prove that their output was first class.  Top tier talents like Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, Artie Butler, Barry White, Jimmy Wisner, Billy Vera, Dick Glasser and H.B. Barnum were behind these recordings.  With a pedigree like that, it’s hard to believe that these sides have languished for so long.  The music on Absolutely Right! sounds better than ever, and should raise more than a few eyebrows.

Like so many African-American artists of the era, and indeed, still today, the members of The Apollas began their vocal careers in church.  The Apollas then honed their sound working nightclub engagements and teen nights at Disneyland, and even added a soulful touch to the recordings of their early patron, Frankie “Jezebel” Laine!  The gospel background of lead singer Leola Jiles always shines through, adding an extra layer of passion to unlikely material like Don Everly’s “Who Would Want Me Now.”  Just as delicious is the Ellie Greenwich/Jeff Barry composition “He Ain’t No Angel” and the smoldering “You’ll Always Have Me” from the pen of Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson.  Nearly one-third of the collection’s cuts were written by that famed duo, sometimes with their frequent collaborator Josephine Armstead.  The songs of the trio were previously celebrated by Ace with The Real Thing: The Songs of Ashford, Simpson and Armstead (CDKEND 318) on which The Apollas’ “Mr. Creator” (“Won’t you hear my prayer?”) appears.  Every color of the Ashford and Simpson palette is employed, from the storming “You’re Absolutely Right” to the eminently danceable “I Just Can’t Get Enough of You.”  Hit the jump for more on The Apollas, plus Eddie Holland, too! Read the rest of this entry »

As the above image shows, it’s finally true: La-La Land Records is releasing an expanded edition of John Williams’ stirring score to Steven Spielberg’s 1991 adventure film Hook, a modern updating of the Peter Pan mythology, on March 27. In my excitement last night, I sent an e-mail to the LLL staff thanking them for putting this release together; Joe rather brilliantly suggested that the letter would find a good audience among our dear readers, who no doubt know the feeling of excitement when beloved music is released from the vaults. We’ll be posting full details of the set as they arrive, but today we share the simple joy of knowing that soon enough, Hook will be heard like never before.

To MV and the LLL staff,

By the time Eric, Rick, Wayne, Bob was released by Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders in 1965, the band was essentially a defunct unit.  Wayne Fontana (the former Glyn Geoffrey Ellis) had dreamed of solo stardom from the start, and he wasn’t shy about those aspirations.  Eric Stewart, later of Hotlegs and 10cc, recalled in 1994 that Fontana “just walked off stage [during an October 1965 show] one night.  I remember he said, ‘It’s all yours.’  And we actually carried on and did the regular show without him…He had been hinting that he wanted to go out on his own for some time.”  Stewart, Ric Rothwell and Bob Lang soldiered on without Fontana, both that night and as an ongoing recording concern.  They even eclipsed their early successes like “The Game of Love” with a Carole Bayer (pre-Sager)/Toni Wine composition by the name of “A Groovy Kind of Love.”  But Bear Family is now taking listeners back to those waning days of 1965 for an expanded reissue of the band’s second and final album with Fontana, Eric, Rick, Wayne, Bob.  Scheduled for release on March 12, the deluxe edition adds nine bonus tracks to the original album including rare single B-sides and the rare Walking on Air EP.

A product of the lively Manchester music scene, Fontana and the Mindbenders scored a minor British Top 50 hit with their very first single in 1963 (a cover of Fats Domino’s “My Girl Josephine,” retitled “Hello, Josephine”) but didn’t break stateside until 1965 with a cover of Clint Ballard’s “The Game of Love.”  The catchy ditty went all the way to the top in the U.S. and back home in England climbed to No. 2.  The band’s initial album had arrived in Britain in December 1964, with the U.S. edition on the Fontana label arriving just three months later with a typically altered line-up for American buyers. 

What’s on Bear Family’s expanded reissue?  Hit the jump for more on the story of Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders! Read the rest of this entry »

Seven James Bonds at Casino Royale/They came to save the world and win the gal at Casino Royale!  Six of them went to a heavenly spot, the seventh one is going to a place where it’s terribly hot…

Hal David’s lyric captures just a small fraction of the insanity of Charles K. Feldman’s 1967 Casino Royale, the big-budget comic extravaganza that was “too much…for one James Bond!”  And so, David Niven as James Bond was joined by 007s of all shapes and sizes (and genders!), and even by his nephew, Jimmy Bond, portrayed by Woody Allen.  But the iconoclastic score by Burt Bacharach was too much for one soundtrack album, too.  We’ve told the entire (sordid?) tale of the film here, so if you’re not caught up with this Bacharach bacchanal, do click, and join us later.  Back?  Good.  Following two CD reissues on the Varese Sarabande label, a DVD-A from Classic Records and a 2010 edition from Kritzerland that many listeners (including this writer) considered the last word on Casino Royale, Spain’s Quartet Records has thrown its hat into the ring.  Quartet has just announced a 45^th Anniversary edition of Bacharach’s seminal score, and it’s a doozy, a slipcased 2-CD set with two booklets, one of which is 64 pages in length.  Yes, Casino Royale is back yet again!  This follows Quartet’s remastered edition of Bacharach’s score to What’s New Pussycat?, the earlier Feldman-produced film also starring Peter Sellers and Woody Allen.

Quartet’s ambitious set not only commemorates the 45^th anniversary of this monument to Hollywood excess but also the 50^th anniversary of Ian Fleming’s James Bond franchise.  Though the film is hardly canon for the long-running series, its greatest asset is a score that can stand alongside the best of the official Bond scores composed by the legendary John Barry.  Dusty Springfield sang the Academy Award-nominated “The Look of Love” over a scene in which Peter Sellers and Ursula Andress are cavorting, as viewed through a giant fish tank; Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass contribute the instrumental title theme.

Kritzerland’s sold-out expanded edition of Casino Royale (Kritzerland KR 20017-6) offered the score in two presentations.  On the first half of the CD, Bacharach’s music was presented in film order, with material not on the original Colgems album including the climactic song performed by Mike Redway, “Have No Fear, Bond is Here.”  The original album master and the film’s DVD were both utilized for this presentation.   The second half of the disc was the original LP sequence, mastered from a mint vinyl copy, with no added EQ or processing; as good as that sounds (its best yet!), the new, complete presentation made this the definitive treatment of a classic score to date.  What is Quartet bringing to the table?  Hit the jump to find out! Read the rest of this entry »

Legendary prog-rock supergroup Emerson, Lake & Palmer have signed a new deal with Razor & Tie Records to distribute their catalogue, kicking things off with a new compilation.

One of the early supergroups in rock history, comprised of keyboardist Keith Emerson of The Nice, King Crimson bassist Greg Lake on guitar and vocals and drummer Greg Palmer of Atomic Rooster, ELP were a defining force in progressive rock music, melding traditional rock statements with jazz and classically-inspired arrangements, quoting composers from Bach and Copland to Prokofiev and Mussorgsky.

Though they were never major presences on the charts (save the U.K. No. 2 hit “Fanfare for the Common Man”), their works enjoy constant rotation on classic rock radio, notably “Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression (Part 2),” featuring the iconic opening line that gives this post (as well as a 1974 live album) its name. ELP broke up in 1979, after which Emerson and Lake toured with former Rainbow drummer Cozy Powell in the 1980s; the band reunited from 1991 to 1998 and played a one-off anniversary concert in 2010.

In addition to a new, 14-track compilation, The Best of Emerson, Lake & Palmer: Come and See the Show, which is available today, the label announced remastered, expanded releases of the band’s first six albums (studio albums Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1970), Tarkus (1971), Trilogy (1972) and Brain Salad Surgery (1973) and live albums Pictures at an Exhibition (1971) and Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends…Ladies and Gentlemen, Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1974)) as due this year.

It will not be the first reissue campaign for the band; Rhino remastered and expanded several of the band’s albums in the 1990s, as did Shout! Factory with different bonus material in the last five years.

Hit the jump to check out the new compilation (“currently unavailable” on Amazon) and keep it here for ELP reissue news as it’s reported!

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UPDATE (2/21): A representative from Legacy has confirmed that this title is currently “on hold.” Stay tuned for more information as it develops.

When the singer’s gone, let the song go on…

How lucky we are that Arthur Garfunkel is still very much with us. Jimmy Webb wrote those words for the unlikely rock star, a former architecture student endowed with a purity of tone and the ability to pierce the heart. Garfunkel, of course, was the yin to Paul Simon’s yang, the Tom to his Jerry. And so, he once again bookends his old friend with a new anthology coming from Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings. Art Garfunkel: The Singer serves as a welcome companion to the recently-released Paul Simon: Songwriter.

Set for release on April 10 from Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings, Art Garfunkel’s The Singer is the first ever 2-CD career-spanning anthology for Garfunkel. Its forty tracks have been personally selected by the artist, beginning with 1964’s Simon and Garfunkel debut Wednesday Morning, 3 AM and going right up to his most recent studio set, 2007’s Some Enchanted Evening. Twelve original studio tracks from the legendary duo have been chosen for inclusion, as well as three live tracks and two “reunion” cuts: the hit singles “My Little Town” and “What a Wonderful World,” on which Garfunkel was joined not only by Simon but by James Taylor. Like the Paul Simon collection, this isn’t a standard “greatest hits” but rather a chronicle of the artist’s personal journey in music.

The Forest Hills-born Garfunkel, who turned 70 on November 5, met his future partner Paul Simon in the halls of P.S. 164 in the sixth grade, with both young men cast in a school production of Alice in Wonderland. They soon bonded over a mutual love of music, with Garfunkel citing Nat “King” Cole as just one early influence. (Garfunkel would come full circle, recording an entire album of American standards in 2007.) Beginning in 1956, Simon and Garfunkel locally performed as “Tom and Jerry,” modeling themselves on the Everly Brothers, with whom they would later collaborate. Though he and Simon briefly split in the early 1960s, with Garfunkel pursuing his continuing education at New York’s Columbia University, they reunited for Wednesday Morning 3 AM, a low-key collection of folk songs, including a number of originals penned by the precociously talented Simon. It was lost in the shuffle of the British Invasion, however, and Simon retreated to England while Garfunkel resumed his studies. When Columbia Records decided to reissue Wednesday Morning’s “The Sound of Silence” with electric overdubs in September 1965, Simon and Garfunkel were presented with ample reason to reform: the song was climbing its way to No. 1, hitting that coveted spot on New Year’s Day, 1966. Their second album, Sounds of Silence, was recorded in December 1965 during that heady time when “Silence” was making waves in the music industry. The rest is history.

Hit the jump to explore The Singer, plus a pre-order link and full track listing with album discography!

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Add another name to the super-deluxe-box set pile in 2012: Motörhead. London’s biggest badasses, through Sanctuary Records in the U.K., are prepping a 16-disc collector’s set – one that’s heavy on artifice, if not necessarily revelatory in terms of content.

The Complete Early Years features CDs of all the band’s major releases from 1977 to 1984, from their iconic albums (Motörhead (1977), Overkill (1979), Bomber (1979), Ace of Spades (1980), the live No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith (1981), Iron Fist (1982) and Another Perfect Day (1983)) to a handful of non-LP singles and EPs and 1984′s No Remorse double-disc compilation. All reports have touted the set as a CD and vinyl box set, and while it’s unclear as to what will be featured on the latter format, the package photo shows what looks like a 7″ single amid the CDs (in wallet-style slipcases) and extra swag. The icing on the cake for fans is likely the package itself: a massive replica of the band’s iconic “War-Pig” logo.

Unfortunately, it seems the only audience the set exists for are new, extremely curious fans with deep pockets. All of these albums have been previously reissued with not only all the non-LP content contained herein but additional B-sides and live and studio vault material, making the set far from complete. And with a jaw-dropping price tag – $617.41 on Amazon, with no sign of the set on Amazon’s U.K. pages – one could argue you’d have to be as crazy as band frontman Lemmy Kilmister to snap up a copy.

Whatever your take, the box is to be released on February 21, and you can view its contents after the jump.

UPDATE: Much like Elvis Costello, Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister has spoken out against the price of the box. “Unfortunately greed once again rears its yapping head,” the singer said in a statement. “I would advise against it even for the most rabid completists!”

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Last year, one of the single most monumental box sets in town was The Grateful Dead’s Europe ’72: The Complete Recordings, more than 60 discs chronicling one of the band’s most notable tours in full. This spring, Shout! Factory will release their own ambitious box set that chronicles a good chunk of Dead history in video form.

All the Years Combine: The DVD Collection is a 14-disc set that collects more than a dozen vintage Grateful Dead films and concerts from 1977 to 1991, with loads of bonus content to boot. The Grateful Dead Movie, The Closing of Winterland, Dead Ahead, Ticket to New Year’s, Truckin’ Up to Buffalo, Downhill from Here and the four volumes of View from The Vault will all be packaged into this set, featuring all their original DVD bonus features (including bonus discs from The Grateful Dead Movie and Winterland).

For collectors, there are some great treats coming from the vaults, too: the box will feature the first-ever DVD release of So Far, an hour-long Dead documentary released on VHS and laserdisc in 1987 and largely unseen since, as well as a bonus disc featuring Backstage Pass, a 1992 documentary, bonus performances and a new interview with David Lemieux, the band’s archivist since 1999 (he of 2012′s new Dave’s Picks series).

All the Years Combine, available April 17, will keep you truckin’ for hours on end. Click the jump to order a copy and view a rundown of the discs.

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What do you do?  No one else can dance like you!  So what’s all the fuss?  There ain’t nobody that spies like us! 

It’s not often that we get the opportunity to write about Paul McCartney, forever fab, and Art of Noise, pioneering British synth-pop duo, in the same sentence.  But Salvo Records and ZTT are giving us just that chance with this week’s U.K. release of The Art of the 12-Inch, Volume Two.  Okay, it’s not that much of a stretch, as Art of Noise’s Anne Dudley contributed synthesizer to McCartney’s 1984 Give My Regards to Broad Street soundtrack album, and was later enlisted to write arrangements for his 1986 Press to Play.  And it was on that latter album where Dudley’s Art of Noise mates got involved.  McCartney wrote the title song to John Landis’ 1986 comedy Spies Like Us and planned to include it on Press to Play.  Macca’s interest in synthesizers, electronic sounds and avant-pop was nothing new; he would introduce many of those sounds into his McCartney II solo album and continue to explore that realm as late as 2008’s Electric Arguments, his third collaboration as “The Fireman” with the artist known as Youth (a.k.a. Martin Glover).

Ian Peel, curator of the new Salvo set, recalled, “McCartney called in the Art of Noise to remix the track [‘Spies Like Us’] in the summer of 1985.  It was a mad, cut-and-paste retake that turned the song – McCartney’s last U.S. Top Ten hit – into a left-field electronic collage.”  (Peel knows of what he speaks, as author of The Unknown Paul McCartney, a 2001 account of the musician’s more outré experiments.)  Paul and Linda McCartney joined Dudley, JJ Jeczalik and Gary Langan for what sounded like “a very experimental session,” in Peel’s recollection.  The 12-inch vinyl mix was released in November 1985 but has so far eluded any of McCartney’s archival projects.  McCartney gave his consent to the track to make its CD debut on the second volume of Salvo’s The Art of the 12-Inch, but then the plot thickened!

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