Are you ready for another trip through Gilbertville? The fine folks at Salvo and Union Square Music have just released the latest title in their acclaimed Gilbert O’Sullivan reissue series, and though the album is called I’m a Writer, Not a Fighter, it might as well have been named Another Side of Gilbert O’Sullivan. On this 1973 set, the singer/songwriter placed less emphasis on the acoustic piano, his usual instrument of choice, and more on keyboards. These electronic textures musically
Information Society: In Praise of Passions Just Like Mine and Other Uber-Fan Sites
Today bought a major dark cloud over the days of Morrissey and The Smiths fans everywhere, even more so than the reissue of Viva Hate. Passions Just Like Mine, the long-running discography/videography/gigography for Manchester's favorite singer/songwriter, has closed up shop. In a statement, the site's founder, Stephane, announced a desire to pursue "a few other personal projects in mind (unrelated to Morrissey)" but was still taking suggestions as to "what to do with the body." (The body of
I Second That Emotion: Thelma Jones' Columbia Debut Reissued On Big Break Label
Trivia time: name the singer who recorded the original version of “The House That Jack Built.” If you guessed Thelma Jones, you go to the head of the soul music class! While at the small Barry Records label, it was Jones who introduced the song later made famous by Aretha Franklin, but for reasons lost to time, the singer was never able to turn her solid-gold pipes into chart success. Her discography isn’t very deep, but a career highlight of the North Carolina native can now be reappraised
Nothing But Everything But the Girl: U.K. Pop Duo Expands First Four Albums
Fans of U.K. sophisti-pop duo Everything But the Girl are justified in saying they miss them. They're even justified in saying they miss Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt, who haven't performed under the EBTG moniker since 2000, the same way the deserts miss the rain. But all is not lost, thanks to the tireless efforts of Demon/Edsel (arguably the hardest-working U.K. reissue label in the game right now), who are working with Thorn and Watt in expanding the band's first four albums (originally released
Get It On: Marc Bolan Goes Super Deluxe with T. Rex "Electric Warrior," 2-CD, 1-CD Versions Also Available [UPDATED]
Before David Bowie was Ziggy Stardust, Marc Bolan was the Electric Warrior. A major turning point in the glam-rock revolution of the U.K., the Electric Warrior album (1971) effectively buried the psychedelic folk rock of Tyrannosaurus Rex and immortalized the trashy hard rock of T. Rex. True, one successful single (“Ride a White Swan”) and eponymous album had already introduced the T. Rex name in 1970, and the single “Hot Love” first boasted the expanded band line-up of Bolan, Mickey Finn, Steve
Still Willin': Edsel Reissues A Pair From Little Feat
Though the band formed in 1970 and found a home on Burbank’s famed Warner Bros. label with a debut album produced by L.A. stalwart Russ Titelman, Little Feat always stood apart from its California rock brethren. Still, the blues/rock/funk outfit attracted the attention of some important members of the Laurel Canyon crowd. “Willin’,” written by Feat’s de facto leader and chief songwriter Lowell George, found a home on Linda Ronstadt’s Heart Like a Wheel album. The song was reportedly despised
Love So Fine: Nick DeCaro's "Works" Features James Taylor, B.J. Thomas, Andy Williams, More
Though the A&M stands for (Herb) Alpert and (Jerry) Moss, A&M Records has meant a great many things to a great many people since its founding in 1962. Those who came of age in the 1980s may think of the famous logo adorning records by Sting, Janet Jackson or Bryan Adams. In the 1970s, the label was home to The Carpenters, Cat Stevens and Joe Cocker. In the 1960s, A&M was not only a label but a “sound.” That sound was a certain, beguiling style of sophisticated adult soft-pop
Release Round-Up: Week of April 10
Howard Jones, One to One / Cross That Line / In the Running: Remastered Edition (Dtox) HoJo's last set of remasters is a five disc set featuring his last three Warner-era albums from 1986 to 1992, plus two generous discs of B-sides and remixes. Parts of this era are really underrated, and if this box is as loving as the last one was, it may well earn your everlasting love. Various Artists, Philadelphia International Classics: The Tom Moulton Mixes (Harmless) This gorgeous four-disc set,
Put Your Hands Together: Massive 10-CD Philadelphia International Box Due [UPDATED]
Philadelphia International Records has turned 40, and you're invited to the party! Sony's Legacy Recordings thrilled fans earlier this year with the archival release of Golden Gate Groove, a Don Cornelius-hosted concert that brought together many of the label's biggest and brightest stars, from the O'Jays to Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes featuring Teddy Pendergrass. The folks across the pond at the Harmless label have already dropped Philadelphia International: The Re-Edits, with 21 tracks
Philadelphia Freedom: Dexter Wansel Is "Captured" By Robinsongs
Welcome to our second feature today spotlighting artists of the Philadelphia International label! First we looked at The O'Jays' pre-PIR period! Now it's time to look at a lost post-PIR album from Dexter Wansel! Philadelphia-born Dexter Wansel made quite an impression in the City of Brotherly Love, becoming one of the leading lights of the Gamble and Huff organization's "second golden age" of 1976-1983 and playing a key role in shaping the latter-day Sound of Philadelphia. A keyboard
Albert King Will "Play the Blues for You," with Vault Material
Here's a title for Stax fans to mark on their calendars: a reissue of Albert King's I'll Play the Blues for You (1972), expanded with four bonus tracks in anticipation of the album's 40th anniversary. King was already revered for his work with Stax Records, which he had been signed to since 1966. It was a boom period for the Memphis label, with Otis Redding earning high marks for his crossover performance at the Monterey International Pop Festival and Sam & Dave entering the pop charts with
First Stop on the Love Train: The O'Jays' "Imperial Years" Collected On Shout Label
The music business has always had a funny way of turning artists into overnight sensations. But although The O’Jays achieved widespread fame on the Philadelphia International label with 1972’s one-two punch of “Back Stabbers” and “Love Train,” the group hardly broke through overnight. As the Mascots, the Ohio natives recorded their first single in 1960. As the O’Jays (named after their manager, Cleveland DJ Eddie O’Jay), they recorded for the Daco, Apollo and Little Star labels. It was
Bellamy Brothers Release Box Set Through Reader's Digest
Country-pop crossovers The Bellamy Brothers are releasing a box set through Reader's Digest, collating four discs' worth of hits with rare and new tracks. Howard and David Bellamy, self-taught brothers from Florida who enjoyed mixing traditional country sounds with rock/pop influences, first enjoyed success behind the scenes of the music industry. David wrote Top 5 country hit "Spiders and Snakes" for Jim Stafford, while Howard became his road manager. (Trivia alert: Stafford's previous manager
Trans-New York Express: Kraftwerk Box Makes Appearance at MoMA Exhibit
If you're one of the lucky few attending Kraftwerk's sold-out week of concerts at New York's Museum of Modern Art beginning this Tuesday, keep an eye out for a reissue of the band's much-coveted The Catalogue box set to be sold at the gigs. The influential German electronic band's exhibit, Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, will feature, over eight nights, the group performing one album in full each night (from 1974's Autobahn to 2003's Tour de France Soundtracks), augmented with additional
Just The Tracks, Ma'am: Ace Collects "Criminal Records" On New Compilation
Long before CSI, there was Dragnet. The granddaddy of the television procedural drama, Dragnet actually began on radio in 1949, moving to television in 1951, where it has remained a staple ever since in both repeats and revivals. So it’s appropriate that the ominous theme to Dragnet both opens and closes Ace’s rip-roaring new compilation, Criminal Records, subtitled “Law, Disorder and the Pursuit of Vinyl Justice.” Between Ray Anthony’s treatment of that famous theme and Stan Freberg’s
California Feelin': The Beach Boys' Al Jardine Reissues and Expands "Postcard From California"
Dennis Wilson did it in 1977. Carl Wilson did it in 1981. So did Mike Love. Brian Wilson waited until 1988. But it wasn't until 2010 that Al Jardine released his first solo studio album. Entitled A Postcard from California, Jardine had to content himself with a limited release via Amazon's MOD (Made on Demand) system. Now, with the surviving Beach Boys reuniting for a hotly-anticipated 50th anniversary tour beginning later this month and gearing up for the band's first studio album since
Something Special, Something Pure: Howard Jones Announces Final Warner Remasters Box Set
Howard Jones brings his Warner remaster series to a close with a massive five-disc box set to be released next week. Jones' Dtox label, in agreement with Rhino Records, has licensed and remastered Jones One to One (1986), Cross That Line (1989) and In the Running (1992) to be released as one box set with two bonus discs of bonus material. After a whirlwind few years that saw him ascend to the top of the British pop scene and perform with luminaries at Live Aid and the Grammy Awards, Howard Jones
"Star Trek" Surprise Beams Out of Nowhere
Fans of the soundtracks to Star Trek have had a great few years. Some of our favorite film score reissue labels, including Film Score Monthly, Intrada, La-La Land and Varese Sarabande, have expanded no less than six Trek film soundtracks in the past two years, including The Wrath of Khan (1982), The Search for Spock (1984), The Voyage Home (1986), The Final Frontier (1989), The Undiscovered Country (1991) and the 2009 reboot film, not to mention two box sets of music from Star Trek: The Next
Essentially Repackaged: Legacy Reissues Double-Disc Compilations Under New Names
There's something familiar about many of Legacy's new entries in their ongoing The Essential series hitting stores in April and May. Of the four double-disc compilations - one for prog-rock masters Blue Öyster Cult, one apiece for country stars Alan Jackson and Brooks & Dunn and one for pop chanteuse Mariah Carey - three have already been reissued under different names. The country ones are repackages of each performer's latest hits set (Jackson's 2010 contract-closing 34 Number One Hits
Rolling Stones Flash Back To 1975 With New Archive Release "LA Friday"
Since inaugurating the digital-only Stones Archive in late 2011 with the release of 1973’s The Brussels Affair, The Rolling Stones have made good on their promise to rescue never-before-available concerts and make them available to the public in higher quality than previous bootleg editions. The new LA Friday follows the late January release of Hampton Coliseum: Live 1981, which preserved a show from Hampton, Virginia. LA Friday was recorded on July 13, 1975 at the venue known as The Forum.
Satchmo's Final Recordings to Be Released by Smithsonian
More than 40 years after his passing, one of the final recordings of jazz legend Louis Armstrong is coming to CD from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Satchmo at the National Press Club: Red Beans and Rice-ly Yours presents Armstrong's five-song set given before members of the National Press Club at a black-tie gala honoring the inauguration of club president Vernon Louviere, who, like Armstrong, was a native of Louisiana. The biggest surprise to the audience was Pops' bringing his trusty horn
EMI Releases Second Budget Box by UFO
UFO are getting their second budget box set from EMI in the U.K., covering the band's work in the '80s on Chrysalis Records. A follow-up to last year's budget set from the label, The Chrysalis Years Volume 2 follows the hard-rocking band through several periods of transition. In 1978, virtuosic guitarist Michael Schenker, formerly of Scorpions, left the band, to be replaced by Paul "Tonka" Chapman, the band's guitarist from 1974 to 1975. (This was far from the only lineup change through the
First Name Basis: Ozzy, Willie, Janis, Iggy Among Legacy's Offerings For Record Store Day
Here at Second Disc HQ, we're eagerly anticipating April 21, or Record Store Day, the industry-wide celebration of all things vinyl (and a few CDs, too!). Record Store Day, now in its fifth year, gives shoppers the chance to interact with big crowds of fellow music enthusiasts in the brick-and-mortar retail environment cherished by so many of us. Legacy Recordings has announced its impressive line-up of limited edition releases that will line the shelves of your favorite independent music
Review: Johnny Cash, "Bootleg IV: The Soul of Truth"
“John, let’s do a shot for the warden,” photographer Jim Marshall reportedly implored Johnny Cash during the singer’s 1969 performance at San Quentin Prison. Cash’s snarling response, with his middle finger in air, made for one of the most famous music photographs of all time. Cropping up on T-shirts, posters and the like, Marshall captured the outlaw side of Johnny Cash like no photographer before or since. Though it might have, indeed, been worth a thousand words, the image still only
Happy Birthday, Doris Day! Screen Legend Celebrated With "Ultimate Collection" and TCM "Smile and a Song"
Doris Day made quite a splash in 2011 when My Heart, her first album of primarily original material in some seventeen years, entered the British album charts with a Top 10 placement. The singer, actress and animal rights activist turns 88 today, April 3. Day remains greatly beloved around the world, and our coverage of My Heart quickly became one of The Second Disc’s most-visited articles since our inception in January 2010. Now, two new releases are looking back on her rich musical legacy.
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