“Grin, even when you’re at your lowest, grin,” implores Mackey Feary on the opening track of his 1978 solo album Mackey Feary Band. “You’re Young” is all sun and breeze, making it near-impossible to suppress the requested grin. It’s languid yet funky, with shimmering guitars, wending saxophone, and sweet female background voices adding to the luster. As a founding member of Kalapana, Feary had been at the vanguard of Hawaiian pop in the 1970s; alongside such artists as Cecilio and Kapono and Keola and Kapono Beamer, Kalapana delivered a rich, smooth style…
Love in the Key of C: Demon Reissues Belinda Carlisle’s “A Woman and a Man” for 25th Anniversary
In December, The Go-Go’s will launch a mini-tour of California and Nevada hot on the heels of their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. Demon Music Group has recently been revisiting the catalogue of the band’s breakout star Belinda Carlisle on vinyl. Following such releases as 2017’s Heaven on Earth (reissued for its 30th anniversary), 2019’s Runaway Horses (also a 30th anniversary), and Belinda earlier this year (marking its 35th), the label has delivered a Deluxe 25th Anniversary 3LP Box Set for 1996’s A Woman and a Man. As Belinda explains…
Review: The Beach Boys, “Feel Flows: The Sunflower and Surf’s Up Sessions 1969-1971”
Like a Companion for Your Lonely Soul Those placing the needle on The Beach Boys’ Sunflower upon its release in 1970 might have been taken aback by the sheer drive of its opening track. The lusty “Slip on Through” – co-written, produced, and primarily sung by Dennis Wilson – rocked harder than just about anything else in the band’s discography to that point. The song announced that Sunflower was not just The Beach Boys’ first album on a new label but the beginning of a new chapter altogether. That chapter is explored…
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Review: Aretha Franklin, “Aretha”
R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Otis Redding may have written the song, but Aretha Franklin owned it. The singer was only in her mid-20s when she left Columbia Records after five years and seven albums but she wasted no time in making music history when she signed with Atlantic Records in December 1966. By the middle of 1967, she’d had long-sought-after hits with “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)” and “Respect” and was proclaimed The Queen of Soul by a Chicago disk jockey. Some reports indicate the “crowning” as having happened in…
Happy To Be Here: Ellen Foley Returns with “Fighting Words”
Ellen Foley is back with a vengeance. The singer-actress who shared the microphone with Meat Loaf on Bat Out of Hell‘s immortal “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” has one of the smallest yet choicest discographies in rock: just three albums between 1979 and 1983 on which she was joined by such collaborators as Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson, Vini Poncia, and The Clash’s Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Topper Headon, and Joe Strummer; and a 2013 “comeback” LP. But Foley was hardly ever away. She flourished on stage and screen, starring on Broadway in…
Review: Joni Mitchell, “The Reprise Albums (1968-1971)”
Joni Mitchell fiercely announced her independence with “I Had a King,” the haunting soliloquy which opens her 1968 debut album, Song to a Seagull. “I can’t go back there anymore,” she proclaimed. “You know my keys won’t fit the door/You know my thoughts don’t fit the man. They never can…they never can…” The song is bold, wise, and flecked with a graceful equanimity as the singer declares her freedom both from a husband who “lives in another time” and the societal constraints of the day. That freedom would be forcefully expressed on…
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Straight to the Top: Southside Johnny Reissues Tom Waits Tribute “Grapefruit Moon”
At first glance, Southside Johnny Lyon and Tom Waits might seem at disparate ends of the musical spectrum. New Jersey native Lyon is a progenitor of the Jersey Shore sound with its brassy, party-time fusion of rock & roll and rhythm & blues. California’s Waits came into prominence during that state’s singer-songwriter boom, touching on folk before settling into a piano-based, jazz-influenced sound that he would ultimately jettison in favor of a more experimental and avant-garde direction. Yet Lyon and Waits (born just a year and three days apart on opposite coasts)…
To Groove You: Cherry Red’s Robinsongs Boxes Kleeer’s Atlantic Albums
Richard Lee (guitar), Norman Durham (bass), Paul Crutchfield (percussion/keyboards) and Woody Cunningham (lead vocals/drums) united in 1972 as The Choice 4 before evolving into The Jam Band, Pipeline and, under the aegis of Patrick Adams and Greg Carmichael, The Universal Robot Band. After flirting with R&B, funk, disco and even straight-ahead rock, the quartet settled as Kleeer and signed to Atlantic Records. Between 1979 and 1985, Kleeer released seven albums on Atlantic, proving worthy of a spot on the venerable label’s impressive R&B roster. All of those LPs are collected on The…
This Is Niecy: Cherry Red, SoulMusic Box Deniece Williams’ Complete Columbia Albums on “Free”
Let’s hear it for Deniece Williams. Since making her first big splash 45 years ago with debut album This is Niecy, the daughter of Gary, Indiana has scored 27 Billboard R&B hits and 14 Pop successes including two crossover Number Ones, won four Grammy Awards (and amassed another nine nominations), and recorded over fifteen albums blurring the lines between soul, pop, and gospel. Between 1976 and 1988, Williams made Columbia Records her home, both with Maurice White’s ARC imprint and with the label proper. Working with such top-drawer producers as White, Charles…
Bohemian Rhapsodies: A Closer Look at Vinyl Me Please’s Reissues of Queen’s “A Night at the Opera” and Al Green’s “Call Me”
In April, record club Vinyl Me Please announced that it would be restoring some previously out-of-print titles to the catalogue to celebrate 100 releases in the club’s Essentials series. (See the list of all ten titles here.) We’ve given a spin to the re-presses of Queen’s A Night at the Opera and Al Green’s Call Me. For Queen, too much was never enough. That attitude is perhaps best embodied by the band’s fourth album, 1975’s A Night at the Opera. While the title was derived from the Marx Brothers’ film of forty…
Oh What a Night for Love: Mint Audio Continues Peter Skellern Anthology Series with “The Complete Island and Mercury Recordings”
When Mint Audio Records left Peter Skellern on The Complete Decca Recordings, the British singer-songwriter-pianist had completed his 1972-1975 tenure at Decca Records after three studio albums and one odds-and-ends collection. Now, Mint has continued the Skellern story with the release of a new 3-CD set, The Complete Island and Mercury Recordings, covering 1975-1982 via six full albums and a handful of bonus tracks. This beautiful anthology chronicles his path from singer-songwriter to interpretive singer. It’s every bit as compelling as its predecessor, shedding light on the too-underrated artist best known for…
Rhythm of the New-Born Day: Cherry Red Revisits, Expands Al Stewart’s “Year of the Cat”
Surely one of the most unlikely hits of 1976-77 was Al Stewart’s “Year of the Cat.” An atmospheric tale of romance in a faraway place with Casablanca name-checks of Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre, the song propelled the British singer-songwriter to the top of the pops: No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 (and even higher, No. 4, in Cash Box) and No. 8 AC as well as No. 31 in the U.K., his only chart appearance there. Following its expanded reissue late last year of Stewart’s 24 Carrots, Cherry Red’s Esoteric…
Review: Fleetwood Mac, “Live” [Deluxe Edition]
When Fleetwood Mac’s Live reached store shelves in time for Christmas 1980, the deluxe 2-LP set was following another mammoth affair: Tusk, released just fourteen months earlier. While Tusk was a success by any measure – it reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and yielded two U.S. top ten singles – it fell off the album chart within nine months as opposed to its predecessor, Rumours, which spent a record-breaking nine consecutive weeks at No. 1 in 1977-1978 on its way to becoming one of the biggest sellers of all time. …
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Wake Up You Sleepy Head: “Oh! You Pretty Things” Collects 66 Glam Rock Nuggets
Oh! You Pretty Things: David Bowie’s 1971 song became an anthem for the glam era: “Don’t you know you’re driving your mothers and fathers insane? Let me make it plain, you gotta make way for the homo superior…” Bowie’s alien persona – androgynous, dangerous, sexy, and flamboyant – connected with youth and caused a stir among their parents. The song’s title has now been adopted by a new 3-CD box set from Cherry Red’s Grapefruit imprint. Alas, “Oh! You Pretty Things” doesn’t appear anywhere on the collection. If Bowie’s recording couldn’t be…
A Song for You: Recent Ace Collections Spotlight Songs of Leon Russell, Kris Kristofferson
Ace Records’ two most recent entries in its Songwriter Series of collections both spotlight artists who bucked tradition to forge their own paths at the end of the 1960s and the dawn of the 1970s: Leon Russell and Kris Kristofferson. As we wrote upon his passing in 2016 at the age of 74, Leon Russell was an extraordinary talent unlike any other: A true renaissance man and an extraordinary talent as composer, musician, arranger, producer, and artist, The Master of Space and Time led many lives. With each one, his music touched a new…
Review: Neil Young, “Young Shakespeare”
When Neil Young announced the release of Young Shakespeare as Disc 3.5 of the Neil Young Archives Performance Series, many wondered, “Why another solo acoustic show?” Since the archival series began in 2006, Young has released six solo acoustic concert albums, three of which chronicled performances from 1970-1971; Young Shakespeare was recorded in that time frame, on January 22, 1971, at Stratford, Connecticut’s Shakespeare Theatre. While the venue sadly burned to the ground in January 2019, the concert recorded there 48 years earlier has survived to see release. Young took the stage in…
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Flight of the Moorglade: Cherry Red, Esoteric Reissue Jon Anderson’s “Olias of Sunhillow”
Jon Anderson’s 1976 solo debut Olias of Sunhillow was a lockdown album decades before those were in vogue. Recorded in his home’s garage with Anderson on every instrument, the singer-songwriter recalled three months of 10-hour days to bring the ambitious sci-fi/fantasy concept album to life. While its success was modest – it peaked at No. 47 in the U.S. and a stronger No. 8 at home in the U.K. – Olias musically anticipated Anderson’s collaborations with Vangelis and is today fondly looked upon as one of the finest, if not the finest,…
Feelin’ Groovy: Cherry Red, El Collect Harpers Bizarre’s “Complete Warner Bros. Recordings”
When Harpers Bizarre made their debut on Warner Bros. Records in spring 1967, they joined an eclectic roster of pop stars (Petula Clark, The Association), folksingers (Chad Mitchell, Peter Paul and Mary), comedy titans (Bob Newhart, Allan Sherman), MOR artists (The Anita Kerr Singers, Rod McKuen), and one forward-thinking psychedelic rock band (Grateful Dead). The group defied easy categorization, and over the course of four albums merged pop, MOR, rock, and even dashes of folk and comic whimsy into a sunny blend of harmony, nostalgia, and light psychedelia. Harpers’ four Warner albums…
Bad Side of the Moon: Cherry Red, Esoteric Reissue Toe Fat’s Complete Rare Earth/EMI Recordings
Motown’s Rare Earth imprint intended to bring the sound of rock to the home of The Supremes, The Miracles, Martha and The Vandellas, The Temptations, and Four Tops. The imprint was named after a white rock band from Detroit and its artists were both home-grown and licensed from other parties. In the latter category was Toe Fat, a U.K. psych-rock band built around the talents of Cliff Bennett, formerly of the beat group Cliff Bennett and The Rebel Rousers. Both of Toe Fat’s albums – issued on Rare Earth in the U.S….
Wild Thing: Cherry Red Collects Complete Recordings of ’70s Glam-Pop Band Fancy
The story of the band Fancy began with Chip Taylor’s “Wild Thing.” Captivated with Jimi Hendrix’s fiery take on the classic popularized by The Troggs, producer Mike Hurst (The Springfields, Cat Stevens, Shakin’ Stevens, Showaddywaddy) began to imagine the song as sung by a woman. He dialed up both the sex and the funk for a slower, breathier, and more salacious version of the pop-rock staple. Guitarist Ray Fenwick, bassist Mo Foster, drummer Henry Spinetti, keyboardist Alan Hawkshaw, and Hurst on background vocals supported lead singer Helen Caunt, a former “Penthouse Pet”…
Review: Elvis Costello and The Attractions, “Armed Forces: Super Deluxe Edition”
“Hey Clockface, keep those fingers on the dial,” Elvis Costello implored on the jaunty, jazz-flavored title track of his 2020 album. “You said you’d be a friend to me, but time is just my enemy and it is hurting me so…” Despite his pleas, time has been rather good to Costello’s artistry. Though initially branded an “angry young man” – and indeed, he channeled the punk zeitgeist early on with his fast and furious compositions – Costello has been able to travel wherever his muse takes him. That spirit has led him…
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High Time: Cherry Red, Grapefruit Collects U.K. Band Byzantium on “Halfway Dreaming: Anthology 1969-75”
Byzantium was only active for a brief period at the tail end of the late 1960s and the first half of the 1970s, but the band is still well-remembered within the British underground rock scene. Now, the group’s officially issued works (and more!) have been collected by Cherry Red’s Grapefruit imprint on the new 5-CD set Halfway Dreaming: Anthology 1969-75. Byzantium emerged from the ashes of the band Ora, formed by students Robin Sylvester, Julian Diggle, and Jamie Rubinstein at University College School in Hampstead. After releasing one album with which Rubinstein…
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Heavy: Cherry Red, Esoteric Collect Iron Butterfly’s “Unconscious Power” on New Box Set
Truth in advertising: Iron Butterfly’s first album was titled Heavy. The 1968 Atco Records release introduced the band’s dense sound fusing hard rock and psychedelia with a set of original songs plus a reimagining of Allen Toussaint’s “Get Out of My Life Woman.” While three-fifths of the band left after that debut, Heavy nonetheless began Iron Butterfly on a journey encompassing four studio LPs, one-off tracks, and live sets through 1971. Now, that journey has been lavishly chronicled on a recent box set from Cherry Red’s Esoteric Recordings imprint. The 7-CD Unconscious…
Point of Rising: Jeff Larson, Jeddrah Team Up for Collaborative Album “New Moon”
Who says that classy adult pop is a thing of the past? The California pop-rock sound is in gorgeous full bloom on Jeff Larson and Jeddrah’s New Moon, available everywhere today on digital/streaming services as well as physical CD from Japan’s Vivid Sound label. The first (but hopefully not the last) full-length collaborative album between the two artists, New Moon is collaborative in every sense. Larson, a mainstay of the West Coast scene who’s worked extensively with America and recently recorded a joint LP with The Beach Boys’ Jeffrey Foskett, is primary…
Short Takes: Cherry Red Spotlight on Tasmin Archer and Kevin Rowland
Today’s Short Takes looks at some nice things we’ve missed over the past few months from Cherry Red! Yorkshire-born singer-songwriter Tasmin Archer has only released three full-length studio albums in nearly thirty years, but there’s no doubt that she has practiced “quality over quantity.” The title of her first LP, 1992’s Great Expectations, might have been tongue-in-cheek as Archer exceeded all expectations. The opening track and first single, the rhythmic ballad “Sleeping Satellite,” went to No. 1 on the U.K. Singles Chart and reached the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100. …
