A couple short announcements to kick off your Friday morning - one regarding a Ray Charles compilation we've been waiting to learn more about, the other regarding a reissue of a classic '70s rock album.
First, our gratitude to Vintage Vinyl News for lifting the curtain on Ray Charles' Rare Genius: The Undiscovered Masters, coming October 26 from Concord. This ten-track set includes entirely unreleased material from several phases of The Genius' career, from the '70s to the '90s. The first single will be a duet with another dearly departed musician, the Man in Black himself, Johnny Cash. Bill Dahl has penned the liner notes to this set, which looks to shed some light on where each track came from.
Then we turn to Classic Rock magazine for this neat tidbit: Demon Music Group is releasing an expanded edition of The Steve Miller Band's Fly Like an Eagle. Apparently, though, it looks like the content will be identical to the 30th anniversary edition released Stateside by Capitol in 2006 - three bonus demos and a DVD including a 5.1 surround mix and live material recorded at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in California the previous year. Still, if you've missed it, perhaps now's as good a time as any to pick it up.
Check the track lists for both after the jump.
Ray Charles, Rare Genius: The Undiscovered Masters (Concord, 2010)
- Love's Gonna Bite You Back
- It Hurts to Be in Love
- Wheel of Fortune
- I'm Gonna Keep on Singin'
- There'll Be Some Changes Made
- Isn't It Wonderful
- I Don't Want No One But You
- A Little Bitty Tear
- She's Gone
- Why Me, Lord? (feat. Johnny Cash)
All tracks previously unreleased
The Steve Miller Band, Fly Like an Eagle (Demon, 2010 - previously released as Capitol 09463 71116 2 8, 2006)
Disc 1: Original LP (Capitol ST-11497) and demos
- Space Intro - 1:15
- Fly Like an Eagle - 4:42
- Wild Mountain Honey - 4:51
- Serenade - 3:13
- Dance, Dance, Dance - 2:18
- Mercury Blues - 3:30
- Take the Money and Run - 2:50
- Rock'n Me - 3:05
- You Send Me - 2:42
- Blue Odyssey - 1:00
- Sweet Maree - 4:16
- The Window - 4:19
- Fly Like an Eagle (1973 Demo) - 4:33 *
- Take the Joker and Run (Demo) - 3:43 *
- Rock'n Me (1976 Slow Demo) - 4:22 *
Disc 2: DVD
- 5.1 Surround Mix of Album
- Thirty Years Rock'n (2006 Documentary)
- Live at the Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA - 9/17/2005
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I brought the 30th Anniversary of Fly Like An Eagle and was very disappointed with the 5.1 Mix.
To be honest it sounds like crap. Very little effort was made with the drums and vocals and it's very muddy and does not work as a surround mix, overall they stuffed it up big time.
If this DVD is the same mix I'll avoid it like the plague.